Why I stopped Healing (A casual perspective)

[Alpheus]

Definitely a valuable perspective. Healers are incredibly unfun in the MSQ solo duties as well and it feels like nobody at SE has thought of this as the game moves towards a more "solo play" focus. I played through all of EW on SCH, and the final solo duty at the end of the story made me laugh with how awful it felt. It wasn't hype, it wasn't satisfying; all I could think about was how much fun it would've been if I was playing a job that wasn't spamming their 1 spell over and over. Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil at what was supposed to be the climax of a 10 year long story arc.

That's exactly why i went through EW as SCH and SMN for all solo duty fights

[Rithy255]

Making more complex healer damage rotations is arguably the #1 priority and issue in this game currently in my opinion. Until healers either actually have to heal more in majority of content or have more complex DPS rotations, it's going to be a role that very few want to do very often.

I don't think healers need complex DPS rotations, they just need something better then 1 button spam, Healers should likely have something Proc based with a few extra dps buttons then they do now, I think even if you make it simple and fun enough some people who like one button spam will still complain, oh well I guess.

If you wanted a "complex" rotation on a Healer I think they'd have to make a new healer as it might "ruin" that healer. (to some players...)

I generally agree though just giving healers somewhat something to do even in casual content (the most played content mind you) would be a good thing.

[Kansene]

I'll be fine with more dps buttons if they get rid of some of the heal button bloat and redistribute their effects among the other abilities. My SCH UI is already full to bursting.

EDIT: Or they could expand the existing buttons, like giving deployment tactics 2 charges and the ability to spread biolysis (it already does this in pvp), make holy and Heavenly Star spread a DoT, make glare/broil/malefic a 1-button 123 combo, or maybe glare could rng proc into a big more impressive glare etc etc.

[Rilifane]

The only thing I'm firmly against are combos.
Because I think 123 ad nauseum is just as boring as 111 as there is no choice, no real interaction, nothing. It's just a fixed "press this after that" and that's it. 123 combos are boring, baseline filler spammers that just take up several buttons while offering minimal engagement.
If we're talking about braching combos with real choice and different benefits, then I can get behind the idea but they would require more like 4-5 additional buttons to feel engaging.

I think for healers it would be better to go for a more dynamic approach with procs, charges, modifications, maybe also gauges and temporary buffs that are naturally misaligned with the stupid 2min bursts so it doesn't end up as "keep everything for 2min burst, push all buttons at once, back into your 1111 corner".
It's also better for the more dynamic nature of healer gameplay that heavily depends on the party you're in. They could consolidate a lot of skills and simply give the merged version charges and adjust the cooldown which would also lead to an additional form of skill expression by trying to use every single charge for double benefit. We only have few examples of that with Holos, Earthly Galaxy and Assize where you can try to plan your oGCDs in a way that it doesn't waste the healing from them without delaying or wasting the mit/ shield.

[fulminating]

I'd like to see holy reduce assize's cooldown by 5s, bane spread biolysis, chain, miasma and any other party-caused debuffs at 60% potency across the board, fey union redesign to be a mark on the target rather than tether and not lock out other faerie buttons. Ast could get hw celestial opposition back, maybe a 121212 summoner-phoenix style glare rotation? Sage should probably just lean into dark arts spam a bit harder. Maybe nuke lucid dreaming too and free up a slot in role actions for cleric stance/largesse/something interesting.

I think specifically damaging gcds having guaranteed procs could be a good way to go, if only to help tie the two halves of the kit together more and help deter curebots. Even if a holy/cure2/holy/cure2 trend comes out of it, that's still better than cure1/cure2.

[Avoidy]

Imagine you're a big bad, and your opponent summons allies from between worlds. And no matter what you do to them, they just can't seem to die. Their wounds heal. Their torn flesh regenerates. And they're bending light in such a way that it causes you physical agony.
This is how I coped with playing WHM through the MSQ. But the actual gameplay element did not match up with the fantasy of it at all, you're right. At the end of the day, you're doing the most boring setup of all time, and often feel like you don't belong in cutscenes. I switched to a dps job for endwalker and it felt right in a lot of ways.

[ForsakenRoe]

Imagine you're a big bad, and your opponent summons allies from between worlds. And no matter what you do to them, they just can't seem to die. Their wounds heal. Their torn flesh regenerates. And they're bending light in such a way that it causes you physical agony.

exactly why some people miss the elemental theme of WHM, we went from (imo) 'crush enemy under masses of earth, tear their flesh with biting windstorms, and pummel them with incredible water pressure' to 'twinkly light go brrrr, with other twinkly light going brrr over 30s'. even then though, we are able to see the orange aoes on the floor because we see the enemy's 'tell' of where they're about to strike, due to our combat proficiency. So then, if others can interpret these 'tells', such as the trust squad, how on earth do the enemies not see through our strategy as a healer of 'well i threw a rock at them, now its time to throw an identical rock at them another 6 times in a row, surely they wont see that coming!'

[NotACapitalist]

This is why I never went with healers on MSQ. Only pressing 1 button for most casual content and hope you don't fall asleep or have a second screen to watch/read something. And there is no enrage so it's fine even if one tank is left standing, healing is also very potent that you only do it every 30-60 sec or so.

Played WHM from ARR to HW on 2021, found out other roles are way more fun

[Inidra]

I am glad to see how many people agree or at least can understand my take, so thank you for all of the answers!
While I don't believe, that the devs have seen this post or ever will, I do hope that more people will talk about it and hoooopefully through that it will reach the devs ears. I am kind of worried about their responses on the healer topic in general. They feel just as disconnected as the blizz devs were.

[Deceptus]

That's exactly why i went through EW as SCH and SMN for all solo duty fights

I learned this last expansion and did the same for Endwalker.

First job to 90 was SMN/SCH. SMN for the MSQ, SCH for when I needed a quick queue into a dungeon.