Healers need an overhaul

[LestatXero]

I have a great respect for FFXIV and the devs that create it but I feel like the design of healers in this game is kind of ridiculous. Why is it that healers are the only role that get an extremely lackluster DPS rotation yet are still required to contribute significant amounts of DPS to clear difficult content? Like, in what world is a 1-button spammed DPS rotation okay for ANY JOB in PVE content? Well, after playing this game for 8 years now and weathering all the various changes to the jobs I honestly think we've hit the point where healers seriously need to be redesigned.

I believe that by redesigning healers to have simple DPS rotations not unlike tanks that more people will be attracted to the role which will boost the overall health of the game. This can be done in two steps: consolidate useless healing actions and add simple rotations that easily tie back into healing. Consolidating actions is very simple to begin with: there's no need for a cure 1/2 or a medica 1/2 when these abilities should simply evolve into higher forms. All the healers have redundancy in their healing kits that could be streamlined to make room for a few DPS buttons which could even add some of these abilities back in some way, shape, or form.

After this, each healer could have a simple DPS rotation that ties back into their healing in some way like increasing their healing potency or granting them a free heal, etc, in the reverse way to how using lilies grants a bloody lily at the end to restore lost DPS. And in the spirit of EW, they could even make it so that using your healing abilities don't break these combos so there's no reason NOT to heal when you really need it but also a reason to optimize your DPS to increase healing. But most importantly, it doesn't have to be overly complicated; just more than the one attack and one dot we've had for a while now. My mind is exploding with countless ideas about how this could be done inside of the current game's framework but I'd love the opinions of others on the matter.

[QooEr]

before the tired trite "if you want to dps play a dps"
healers have barely anything to heal. moreover, even if they DID add more things to heal, they will inevitably end in the same spot when they get accustommed to a duty. you only learn a fight once, but youre expected to farm/re do things a lot.


the game is also moving more towards a solo experience. unless the npcs are programmed to fail mechanics every 2 seconds, anyone trying to heal in this environment is going to fall asleep. doing the msq and solo duties as a healer is already extremely dull.

edit: exhibit case A

Here I present you the new healer tutorial in FFXIV :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlc-...4M_18NhpPR3ojs

[Allegor]

before the tired trite "if you want to dps play a dps"
healers have barely anything to heal. moreover, even if they DID add more things to heal, they will inevitably end in the same spot when they get accustommed to a duty. you only learn a fight once, but youre expected to farm/re do things a lot.


the game is also moving more towards a solo experience. unless the npcs are programmed to fail mechanics every 2 seconds, anyone trying to heal in this environment is going to fall asleep. doing the msq and solo duties as a healer is already extremely dull.

Little new player me: omg, healers actually deal damage in this game! and I don't hit like a wet noodle! awesome! now I can feel like I'm actually contributing to defeating a boss!

Current me: ...... 11111111111111111 ...... at least the music's good

Honestly though, I do not need an entire 8 button rotation and deal as much damage as a RDM or SMN, just give me back Aero III, and maybe an rng instant cast dps button that proccs off Stone/Glare and I'll be happy.

[Eelanos]

* SCH - bring back Miasma/Bane, maybe have a regen associated with it.

Puh-leeeeeeeease... this is is the one change that made me hate current SCH's guts. It really doesn't feel as fun as back when I could poison spread.

Having said that, I'd kill for a slightly more complex rotation. I don't need a super complex big brain rotation, but some sort of 1-2-3 that you can pause if you need to heal. I mean, they already made a bunch of skills to not break combos, so I don't see how this would be any different.
Bonus points if completing a 1-2-3 a few times gave you some resource to use in a big boom spell. Like, imagine if SGE's Pneuma was a big finisher (with proper tuning of course). I think it could be pretty cool.

I must clarify this, though. I'm fairly sure Yoshida-san already said he doesn't want to give more damage to healers, but in truth what we're asking for isn't really more damage but something more akin to spreading the same damage throughout a longer rotation to keep roughly the same DPS. It's really more about the feel of the class than raw numbers.

[BingleNingle]

Puh-leeeeeeeease... this is is the one change that made me hate current SCH's guts. It really doesn't feel as fun as back when I could poison spread.

Well SMN can't do that either now so at least you're not alone there.

[Wanzzo]

I agree with Lestat.

I remember when it was necessary to reposition the fairy to prevent her from dying in combat.

Now, not even the AST cards make as much sense as before, just now knowing the color around the card to know what each card does...

I miss this kind of complexity as it was before, but I understand the reason for the changes. The game has become more friendly to newbies and casual gamers.

However, there is a side effect of this decision on other players like us.

I feel like they pushed the changes to something too simplistic. There must be a balance between the opposites and they need to understand what that point is for healers. Or else, they should expand the scope of construction possibilities of each healer job (perhaps non-linear variations beyond lv90?).

[Burmecia]

Again? Well, good luck.

[Mapleine]

Healing in XIV is pretty much a fake role that could be nigh effortlessly replaced with a handful of role actions and buffing personals.

In doing so, the game would likely become more accessible and have more depth, so not only is the healing role phony the mere presence of it is possibly a detriment.

This is the only MMO I've ever played that I don't main healer in. It is the single worst part of this game and it borders on the incredulous how the developers are OK with slop design like this.

I wouldn't be shocked if a segment of the community turned on the game a bit if 7.0 doesn't at least try to move a few mountains. I love the thing but at some point the sweeping of huge and obvious problems gets tiring.

[Corvus_V]

edit: exhibit case A

guy shouldve made a luigi cosplay