General Healer Discussion [The Echo Chamber]

[ty_taurus]

I think lately, the healer threads have been getting derailed over and over as threads end up devolving into back and forths on the issues with healing, perspectives on it, and the like. I myself am guilty of this, and I don't think it's something that's going to go away.

So I'm creating this thread for the purposes of those discussions. Let's please try and keep those threads on topic and any further discussion about general thoughts on healer design, healer issues, healer gameplay and playstyles, and all that over here.

It's no secret to anyone frequenting the forums that I'm not a huge fan of the current healer design. I have my own ideas of what I'd like to do with the healers, and I like to do general theorycrafting on potential designs for them. I'll put links to these in the spoiler window below for anyone interested in that sort of thing:

EDIT 2: (10/15/2022)
- Added SCH's page. This is now a complete take on how I'd rework each healer if given the power.

- Made a small adjustment to WHM to make the timing of using Lustrous Shield and/or Planet's Protection. Sun Lilies are just for Tempest, and you can combo into either Soul Drain, Holy III, Lustrous Shield, or Planet's Protection at any point before your next Tempest.
- Added in Diurnal and Nocturnal Sect details on AST.

Overview Lite:
WHM - A still forgiving Healer with inspiration taken from FF7R's Aerith where you now have a special field you try to stand in to cast a special spell called Tempest that combos into Utility buttons. Also has more lily support.
SCH - An offensively oriented healer with a more complete DPS rotation centered around DoTs. Your choice in faerie now more directly impacts your gameplay giving you more recovery with Eos or more utility with Selene.
AST - A buff oriented healer that spends most of their GCDs setting up effects to be activated all at once as party buffs that generate passive damage that you pass on to other players to use for you. Can spend that yourself though for solo play.
SGE - An aggressive healer that gains secondary healing and small utility effects through DPSing with a modest, yet fast-paced DPS rotation. Highest DPS potential amongst the healers, but lacks overall utility.

WHM - Total Buttons: 29

SCH - Total Buttons: 29 (Not including Pet Actions)

AST - Total Buttons: 32 (Diurnal Sect and Nocturnal Sect Added)

SGE - Total Buttons: 30

[Supersnow845]

Pls return aero 3

That is all

[ty_taurus]

Pls return aero 3

That is all

Somewhere I talked a little about wanting WHM's DPS spells to upgrade into something that combines light with the original element. I was looking up possible names and came up with Sepulcher for light and earth, Ruach for light and wind, and Ablation for light and water, which there's a glint of in the WHM sheet.

[Zolvolt]

honestly aero3 should return...

on Geomancer I mean

[IDontPetLalas]

So how do threads discussing healer issues "derail" forum threads when you just created a thread to discuss healer issues ?

The whole healer forum already exists to discuss and promote "healer design, healer issues, healer gameplay and playstyles". I mean, create a thread whenever you want, just pointing that out.

[ty_taurus]

So how do threads discussing healer issues "derail" forum threads when you just created a thread to discuss healer issues ?

The whole healer forum already exists to discuss and promote "healer design, healer issues, healer gameplay and playstyles". I mean, create a thread whenever you want, just pointing that out.

My point was just basically to say if you start getting into a derailed argument, take it here and let the rest of that thread carry on. I mean maybe it's not necessary, but I just felt bad getting into long discussions that broke away from the original thread's purpose.

[IDontPetLalas]

My point was just basically to say if you start getting into a derailed argument, take it here and let the rest of that thread carry on. I mean maybe it's not necessary, but I just felt bad getting into long discussions that broke away from the original thread's purpose.

Ah, I see your point, thanks. That could be quite useful sometimes.

[Azuri]

My point was just basically to say if you start getting into a derailed argument, take it here and let the rest of that thread carry on. I mean maybe it's not necessary, but I just felt bad getting into long discussions that broke away from the original thread's purpose.

That sounds like a very convoluted way of creating a "Renathras graphomania containment" post and not calling it such.

[Elizasylen]

Pls return aero 3

That is all

Only if i get shadowflare back

[Semirhage]

The Absolute State of WHM, hidden for blogposting.

In ARR, the two healers were...alright. Little bare, but that was to be expected. They were serviceable for the expansion they occupied. Scholar was far more interactive than WHM was; Aetherflow made them more flexible, but their lack of beefy GCD options meant that things fell through if they spent their resources foolishly. WHM had the two dots and Fluid Aura plus Stone spam. Not engaging in a vacuum and would definitely grow stale given enough time, but with some Cure 2s and Medica 2s thrown in it worked for an Intro to MMO experience. Scholar's avenue of interactivity wasn't my jam, but I saw the potential.

Heavensward: Cool. They added some spice. Wasn't all sunshine, but it appears Square at least built on their foundation. Assize was neat- choose strong healing or damage with your Cleric Stance toggle. The healing was rarely necessary, but the attempt at a choice was made. Upgraded Stone had a cool animation, but I'd have liked something...interactive with it. Aero 3 was great. Another noninteractive dot, but it at least had great utility in AOE scenarios too. Tetra filled in the gap for that ridiculously long Benediction cooldown. WHM's biggest issues in Heavensward were a crappy mana economy (boy does history ever repeat itself) and the fact that its competition was...well, some say "well-designed", I say "cartoonishly overtuned", but those aren't mutually exclusive things. Scholar could be both fun to play -and- doing comparable damage to a ninja. In that vein, WHM's glaring weakness that compounded this: its competition could fluidly damage and heal at the same time with the fairy, oGCDs, cards, all the weaving, etc. WHM had to stop and swap between them, and the amount of output it had for that weakness was nowhere near enough to make up for it.

But the design itself outside balancing it against its cohealers? It was okay. Serviceable. There was potential just like ARR. Whatever Yoshi-P said in interviews, there were several abilities to use in downtime that went with the healing abilities. Was it terribly interactive? No. Were the spells mostly boring push bars rightward/leftward spells, unrelated to one another with respect to decision making? Yeah. It'd get stale eventually. But baby steps, the MMO was in its first expansion after recovering from disaster. Seeing two Prey targets and a tankbuster coming up and using Cure 2 -> Regen -> Tetra was an alright flow if you don't spend too long staring at it. There's a little decision making, but it's mostly situational and depends on timing rather than kit considerations.

And then there was Stormblood: "What? What the f***? What is this crap? I thought you were headed someplace good last expansion? Are you rewarding thoughtless cure spamming? Ahhhhh!" This is where WHM went from promising honor student rough around the edges to sliding downhill into skeletal crack addict. Where Square could have leaned into decision-making and interactivity, they instead leaned into spending more and more time spamming while whittling away at downtime activities. Fluid Aura, once a decent damage/utility spell with a quick cooldown that could have seen interactivity added to it, was instead stripped down to a POTD soloing spell to be pruned entirely later on. No, no. Interactivity BAD! Spam Cure and Medica more! Good White Mages spam Cure!

Everything about the kit design after that has leaned more and more into "Good healers spam Cure 2 and Medica! Use it whenever it's off cooldown if you like! Spam it more! Afflatus Misery is your reward for spamming Cure 2 and Medica as often as possible! Who cares if you line it up with party damage or not, just use it. Once you're done with that, spend more time refreshing one dot and spamming Glare. No Cleric Stance toggle. Making decisions makes WHM brains go hurty. No skill ceiling for you! If you get good at streamlining your healing, you get rewarded with more Glare spamming!"

I've been bewildered ever since at the sheer number of people in this community who think this is a good direction. Interactivity bad. More spamming. Spamming good. Glare Glare Glare Glare Glare. Finally, WHM is in a good spot. Now that WHM is designed with a glut of free healing tools that don't reward thoughtful use and an anemic downtime activity that involves sleeping on your 1 key, it's the best. Iteration. Ever.

I wanted my elemental healing sorceress to journey onward to a fun, flowy kit with at least the interactivity of say, the RDM kit. Instead we've got....this. This spammy, brainless class. The "real healers" can lavish as much praise on this horrible class as they like; it's unrecognizable from the potential it used to have.