The Problem with Healer Feedback, and requested changes

[Shurrikhan]

AST is currently disliked for a number of reasons. What is very likely the biggest reason is the amount of single targeting you have to do to play cards. I have very little doubt that whatever we get in 7.0 is going to kill playing cards on individual players because it's driving away the common player.

I just want to see if there's any sort of universal design solution that could be helpful here.

In a few other MMOs (mostly recently added on WoW, but GW2 and --though a bit differently-- TERA are probably the most common examples), targeted skills may use soft targeting or preferential targeting rather than necessarily hard targeting. (Preferential targeting is essentially soft-targeting, except in that it can snap to or prefer your hard target when applicable -- i.e., the right type [party|friendly|hostile] and in range when the skill is queued or actuated.)

That soft-targeting is handy because if you have a skill that can, say, only attack enemies, you can just keep your current allied target and the skill will simply target will simply follow your cone-center targeting (admittedly, not super polished in XIV, but workable for all but small AoEs) at the time you give the command.

Most relevantly to most AST concerns, one wouldn't have to worry about tabbing back to the given enemy after selecting an allied Card target, and can generally just use Target of Target to handle the current tank while otherwise leaving one's target among the dps, where they'd only have to tab up or down the party list twice at most per draw in order to appropriately place a Card. (Granted, if we go back to more than a single Card effect, it'd still have some troubles.)

There are a few other other features, too, though, that may typically be bundled with this (at least when one includes addon features):

1. action-specific cone starting points and widths (ally-buffing actions may start further back and/or use a wider cone, as to still be able to tab through or be aimed through allies behind or well to the sides of you),
2. a game might set actions to set their target on button release, while indicating the target while that button is still held down,
3. variable indicator opacity and appearance (e.g., when there are more relevant targets in the cone of detection, the indicator may),
4. automatic deployment at end up uptime period (as not to be potentially punished for releasing the button, and therefore setting the soft-targeting, too late),
5. optionally longer queuing periods (if one wishes to almost all their targeting in this way but wants to be sure also that they've enough time to get their targeting in correctly),
6. skill-specific target interception (an ally-targeting skill cannot be intercepted by enemies), and
7. action-specific target snapping (a no-falloff AoE will prefer targets nearer to the center of the enemy/ally pack, while a skill that increases %damage may snap to the nearest DPS and skill that increases %eHP would snap to whomever highest eHP).

Put those together and even controller-based AST players wouldn't likely struggle with the job regardless of oGCD single-target Cards. And the whole game benefits.

[Shurrikhan]

I think the relationship healers have between healing and damage is not a bad one, but just having a wealth of OGCD heals has not boded well for the experience of healing. While I do want wider DPS libraries, I like feeling like there's a decision I must make between my attacks and my heals. I liked playing as a SCH in ARR, HW, and SB, and feeling like Adlo and Succor were a regular part of my gameplay, not just a last ditch effort for survival. It's true, though, that there could've been a lot more interactivity between my actions that SCH could've received as time went on.

It's hard for me to say exactly where that relationship goes from merely watered down (or, suffering from an excess of bird droppings, etc.) to outright 'bad', but I agree that the excess of oGCD healing (not necessarily even the button count, but just their power relative to healing requirements) seems like the biggest thing disrupting the balance between attacks and heals necessary to make it feel like there's decisions to be made between the two.

Some people like the business of AST weaving, some people think it's gone too far. I don't know if GCD cards is the solution, but maybe half-GCD like DNC steps or NIN mudras would retain some of the business, while still being a bit more lenient (you don't have to doubleweave like a madman, and can just go like, card, malefic, card, malefic, card, to give breathing room to see who to throw the card on)

A NIN GCD would actually be just as busy as (and likely feel busier than) an oGCD in most situations.

You presently have only a 1.5s cast time on Malefic, which leaves 1s in which to weave the card and your next cast. If you replace the Card oGCD with a Card-ra, you have the 1.5s cast time, but then a .5s period where you can't usefully hit anything, and only then the .5s queuing period for the Card-ra GCD, which in turn gives only .5s to set your target again for Malefic.

So instead of just going smoothly from one action into the two at any time over the following second, you go... then stop, action A only, and then action B only at 0.5s each.

Gonna relink a potential more... 'universal design' solution concerning managing single-target healer buffs despite/around optimizing (especially, offensive) uptime.

<Ideas on improving the control scheme such that oGCD single-target buffing would be a non-issue anyways, even for controller players, while making the game smoother as a whole>