Quote Originally Posted by Renathras View Post
Yeah, kind of agree with all of that overall.
I DO disagree that it makes it "accessible for casual players". One of the biggest healer "mistakes" of casual players is their DoTs fall off. All the time. And since a good chunk of their damage is from their DoTs, when the DoTs fall off, that's a pretty big hit. It seems that, in practice, DoT upkeep is actually an advanced skill that casual players aren't good at. So if anything, they're bad, not good, for casual players. The only way to fix that would be to reduce their part of damage contribution, but if their potencies were too low relative to the nuke spells, then there'd be no reason to use them. So it's kind of a Catch 22 there. But at the least, I think it's safe to say DoTs are inaccessible for casual players. DoT uptime and snapshoting is something that experienced and high skilled players excel at, not lower skilled and casual ones.
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In Stormblood, healing requirements were higher in all tiers of content and MP economy was a more important factor due to the cost of some spells. Obviously, in an environment where healers are expected to heal with GCDs more it makes sense that less experienced players would prefer to play safe and occasionally lose dot uptime in ensuring the party's survival. Experienced players which understood when specific instances of damage would occur and when they would be expected to heal would work around this so there would be a clear differentiation between "bad" players and "good" players. This environment no longer exists due to the plethora of oGCD heals now available, the removal of meaningful MP economy, and the reduction in healing requirements. There is no real way to "improve" as a healer if at all levels you will be doing the same thing (spamming nuke spell, and reapplying a 30s dot), with the exception of optimising your healing tools (which matters much less due to how many we have, and the aforementioned reduction in healing requirements).

It is not a satisfactory gameplay experience to be forced to spam 1 nuke, 1 dot, and rarely use your healing tools meaningfully. It gets boring incredibly quickly, which is why I don't really think such a design is sustainable (let along for another 2+ expansions), especially if all healers play more or less the same. What's the point in trying a different healer if they usually only have one or two unique gimmicks, and play roughly the same? The MSQ can only do so much to keep players subscribed, and there needs to be a fulfilling gameplay experience with enough depth for players to remain engaged and subscribed.