Healers in Variant Dungeon

[Wasselin]

Are healers at a disadvantage compared to other roles in Variant Dungeons solo (or with a party)?

I pretty much only gear and play the healer role and Variant dungeon solo seemed a little slow to me. Spirit Dart seems kind of weak, even though it does make trash packs a little easier. It's definitely doable, but the bosses feel like they take forever and it gets a little boring.

Then I looked at Variant Cure and it seems so powerful? It kind of makes me wonder, if you have the option, why you would ever do it on a healer over a dps.

If I had a geared DPS I would try it myself but I don't and I'm not sure I want to quite yet.

[Semirhage]

Yes. Spirit Dart gives tanks and healers the same damage boost, but tanks already deal several thousand more DPS than healers do. On top of that, it's yet another showcase for how combat works, and especially how skewed FF14 makes it: damage is always useful. Healing and mitigation happen infrequently, and when they need to. This is just how it works, and it's not a paradigm unique to this game. But since HeALeRs sHOuLd HeAL oNLy according to the job designers, they have crap tools for dealing damage. So the way it ends up is, you have a healer given an ability they can use occasionally that bumps their damage up, and a DPS given an ability they can occasionally use to bump their healing up. Weird, the ability that falls in line with how the combat system actually works (i.e., you heal once a minute or so but deal damage constantly) is more useful.

[BaconBits]

Going solo is pretty much as fast as doing it with a group, even faster if you draw the short end of the stick and get a group that are incapable of learning mechanics no matter how many times you scrape them off the ground, or are incapable of hitting buttons and do less damage than your bog standard Sylphie. Worse if you manage to get an ungodly combination of both.

Do yourself a favor and gear up a melee DPS if you have one, Variant Rampart trivializes raidwides and practically nullifies tankbusters, and Variant Cure will pretty much carry you through everything so long as you don't eat like 2 or 3 mechanics in a row. Trust me, you don't want to solo a dungeon with a healer damage rotation, you'll be bored to tears like I was.

[Wasselin]

Thank you for your answers. I did all three paths, got the emote, and while it was neat to see the new locations and learn the mechanics I don't think it's something I want to repeat a lot with the slow healer dps. If I ever get around to gearing up a different role I will probably give it another try.

[Maltothoris]

The hilarious thing is that Spirit Dart is actually pretty weak comparative speaking. The 2040 potency is actual potency, I compared this to my dia dot and dia would 2500 per tick compared to spirit's 2040. probably because they didn't want it to be too strong but indeed. solo healer variant is pretty slow so it would be far better to gear up a dps.

[VictorSpoils]

The mobs seemed to die quicker solo while bosses took longer. Also felt like enemies dealt the same damage regardless of party size, but that could be wrong. Though it could explain why mobs were no challenge at all in light parties, much less solo.

[KageTokage]

Is enemy HP tuned to role like it is solo MSQ duties or is it strictly based on player count?

I was still getting faster runs as solo healer with BiS then others were doing with full parties because of how much variance there is in gear level/player skill.

[Knot_D]

Is enemy HP tuned to role like it is solo MSQ duties or is it strictly based on player count?

I was still getting faster runs as solo healer with BiS then others were doing with full parties because of how much variance there is in gear level/player skill.

It is based on player count. I've been unlocked all the routes with Sage and it's same speed as other tank and DPS jobs

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Going solo is pretty much as fast as doing it with a group[…]

Me giving some randoms ‘side eyes’ when they say “Man going with party is definitely way faster” in party chat.

[Sorimachi87]

Dunno about you guys, but i play regularly as a healer in the variant dungeons, doesn't matter solo or in a group. ^^"