Fixing Every Healer Job

[SirShady]

Who am I?
Hey, guys! I'm SirShady/Ryodin Wake. I'm technically an ARR veteran but I left the game before Heavensward was released and came back about a year before Endwalker. I'm a MMO fan, a game designer, and a savage raider who has cleared all current raids. I've played every battle class job in this game to some extent, and about half to max level. I play every role but tend to gravitate toward healers/supports in MMO's. I have every healer job at 90 and have played Sage/Astro in current savage raids. Nice to meet you!

Why do the current healers need fixes?
The current state of healers is, quite frankly, sad. It is some of the most boring healing I think I've experienced in the plethora of MMO's I've played. The better you are at healing, the less interesting your gameplay experience is. The jobs all boil down to spamming your 1 damage button and hitting ogcd's at scripted parts of the fight. Any deviation from this gameplay only comes from specific job skills like Astro's cards and White Mage's lilies, or teammates being bad to the point that you no longer have ogcds to spend and have to actually focusing on healing... As a healer. These moments, while nice, make up a miniscule part of your job, which is to spam your 1 button rotation. This playstyle alienates many players, such as myself, who are drawn to more rewarding, skill-expressive gameplay and find fun in optimizing our performance in fights, whether that is how we heal, deal damage, or support our team in any way.

What is my philosophy with these changes?
Obviously, we still want the healer job to be approachable to people. Some folks love the easy rotation and enjoy having a chill time refilling HP bars without caring for their own personal DPS. There is nothing inherently wrong with this playstyle, and it should remain in the game and be viable for all normal content. The point of these changes is to create diversity and complexity within the role for those who want it, especially those who feel they have lost much of their nuance in their kit over the past couple expansions.

The numbers are entirely subject to change and should not factor into the overall vision. I believe the general output of the jobs should be preserved but I am not here to discuss number balance. Obviously the base values of our 1-button rotations would have to be tinkered with if we want to keep similar output. Someone who is better at math can calculate values based on current class design/balance. My goal is simply to offer solutions to the lack of identity, complexity, and "fun factor" in each job. Alright! Let's begin!