The Problem with Healer Feedback, and requested changes

[Archwizard]

Sure, but... not all skills interrupt combos anyways. I don't want to see combos for healers

To be clear, I mean "combo" in the classical sense of "any combination of attacks or effects", not specifically combo actions as is common to melee, tanks, RDM, etc.

For instance, the order and pacing in which Black Mage performs its spells is quite particular, despite not being limited by combo actions, and any interruption to its rotation is... jarring... as a result of that careful timing. BLM not being alone in this by a long shot, of course, due to the number of time-management gauges or uninterruptible burst phases available to almost all DPS.
Basically, the simplicity of existing healer rotations is to prevent you from digging yourself so deep into your attack groove that you lose a significant amount of momentum while attacking.

Which to be clear, "not losing momentum by stopping to heal" is an ideal approach to healers, with the majority of the issue being taken towards their current simplicity to the point of homogeneity. Even something as simple as use of procs or more active/engaging DoT management would be able to tackle this without creating a burden of "sorry I couldn't do my job because it was a significant, personal DPS loss."

I suppose you could theoretically play around with, say, setting conditionals for certain healing effects that turn them into a personal DPS gain, however... things like spending Lilies when your target is below a certain health threshold for a bonus, for instance? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nor would all combos need to path only into other offensive skills. Glare->Cure II, for instance, could also apply increased Defense, extended max HP, or... further sap Accuracy from enemies in an area around the heal's recipient, etc. Biolysis -> Adloquiem could cause enemies striking the target to be afflicted with a tick at a time of Bio (stacking up to the original duration), until the Adloquiem is consumed/expires. Etc., etc.

Hell, for WHM and SGE you could play around with having Freecure proc from Holy/Glare or have a chance to force a Lily pop, or having Dosis/Dyskrasia proc to force your next healing GCD to crit.

Having a healer that is based on keeping up buffs on people would be good though IMO, just to satisfy the 'I don't want to do damage!' healers. They don't have to damage, they can just keep rotating Bravery and Faith on people for their rotation instead of Glare on the enemy. Or would 'buffing ally's damage' be too close to 'deals damage' too?

Isn't that... literally the point of AST?

[IDontPetLalas]

To be clear, I mean "combo" in the classical sense of "any combination of attacks or effects", not specifically combo actions as is common to melee, tanks, RDM, etc.

For instance, the order and pacing in which Black Mage performs its spells is quite particular, despite not being limited by combo actions, and any interruption to its rotation is... jarring... as a result of that careful timing. BLM not being alone in this by a long shot, of course, due to the number of time-management gauges or uninterruptible burst phases available to almost all DPS.
Basically, the simplicity of existing healer rotations is to prevent you from digging yourself so deep into your attack groove that you lose a significant amount of momentum while attacking.

Which to be clear, "not losing momentum by stopping to heal" is an ideal approach to healers, with the majority of the issue being taken towards their current simplicity to the point of homogeneity. Even something as simple as use of procs or more active/engaging DoT management would be able to tackle this without creating a burden of "sorry I couldn't do my job because it was a significant, personal DPS loss."

I suppose you could theoretically play around with, say, setting conditionals for certain healing effects that turn them into a personal DPS gain, however... things like spending Lilies when your target is below a certain health threshold for a bonus, for instance? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯



Hell, for WHM and SGE you could play around with having Freecure proc from Holy/Glare or have a chance to force a Lily pop, or having Dosis/Dyskrasia proc to force your next healing GCD to crit.



Isn't that... literally the point of AST?

No, it isn't. Where is being a buffbot mentioned in the AST job description? AST is interesting (or used to be more interesting) because it allowed for healing, buffing and doing damage- not for being someone's pocket buffer. Even in another game , where that job's primary task was buffing - I was expected to heal and do damage, in varying degrees- or I was considered to be leeching. -

[Archwizard]

No, it isn't. Where is being a buffbot mentioned in the AST job description? AST is interesting (or used to be more interesting) because it allowed for healing, buffing and doing damage- not for being someone's pocket buffer. Even in another game , where that job's primary task was buffing - I was expected to heal and do damage, in varying degrees- or I was considered to be leeching. -

This really feels like a matter of splitting hairs, especially when referring to the post I was replying to that includes giving WHM an arsenal based on spreading Bravery and Faith. Which are basically "damage buff for DoW jobs" and "damage buff for DoM jobs", almost exactly like the existing AST cards (but with Phys Ranged flipped).

Part of the division of existing healers is that you have two who provide raid buffs weighed against their personal damage – cards, Divination, Chain Strategem – and two who instead (ostensibly) have higher personal damage output. White Mage falls into the latter category with AST as its counterpart in the former.

So on the one hand, within this existing division, not only would WHM have to be extensively reworked to become a buff mage but AST would probably need to be reworked as well to dip away from buffing (which to be fair, I wouldn't be against if it meant more offensive Time Magic like DoT manipulation), which is highly unlikely given that its cards are tied to its lore and the identity it has held since its inception as "the healer who buffs"; I know it's not literally in the job description, but that's its identity.
This would also have to account for the fact that healer damage contributions are exceedingly low while buffs are highly valued, to the point where buffing healers are already valued over damage dealers, so having one healer who exclusively buffs because it has no damage contribution of its own would be nigh impossible to balance against healers who deal damage, and likely be a requirement for most raids.

And on the other, you could have your cake and eat it too but only if you can justify overthrowing the existing paradigm to remove this division and reworking every healer to fit the new one, in a manner that satisfies why WHM would be more fitting as a choice for a buff mage than AST who already has (limited) systems in place akin to what you're asking for.
Which is also just begging for homogeny, since AST itself is a case study in how many different variations of damage buff will survive if given a choice between them in this game.