A summary of healer issues

[Absurdity]

Lol the high end healers I know mostly quit because healing got mind-numbingly boring. Since ShB. Not because there's pressure.

Both you and fulminating aren't contradicting each other though.

The majority of competent healers had left a long time before 6.2 so the increase in pressure this raid tier destroyed healer participation for savage, because the healers that still remained were incapable of dealing with it and just gave up. And who can blame them when they had an easy time for an entire expansion? Heal checks in ShB were a joke, so all these new healers ever knew was basically getting a free savage carry by spamming 1 and occasionally an oGCD to solve any incoming damage... until they suddenly hit a brick wall in the current raid tier.

It was so bad you could notice it on any role, I stopped counting the amount of times I died to autos as a tank because the random pug healers neither expected nor were able to deal with the increase in tank damage compared Asphodelos.

[Silver-Strider]

Both you and fulminating aren't contradicting each other though.

The majority of competent healers had left a long time before 6.2 so the increase in pressure this raid tier destroyed healer participation for savage, because the healers that still remained were incapable of dealing with it and just gave up. And who can blame them when they had an easy time for an entire expansion? Heal checks in ShB were a joke, so all these new healers ever knew was basically getting a free savage carry by spamming 1 and occasionally an oGCD to solve any incoming damage... until they suddenly hit a brick wall in the current raid tier.

It was so bad you could notice it on any role, I stopped counting the amount of times I died to autos as a tank because the random pug healers neither expected nor were able to deal with the increase in tank damage compared Asphodelos.

And this is exactly why increasing the amount of healing required also doesn't work. You have 90 levels worth of content that healing is easy enough that you can get by with the bare minimum in most cases and still compete it. Hell, there's a short clip of a P4S run where the WHM was literally Medica 2 Spamming during the last 8% of the fight.

THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

There is no excuse to be casting Medica 2 back to back like this man was but here he was, in the final fight of the last raid tier, doing exactly that. This is how low the bar of entry is for savage that this type of player could get that close to clearing the raid tier by using Medica 2 spam.

This tier may as well have been Goridas levels of difficulty for this type of player that it really isn't a wonder at all why Healer participation wasn't particularly high this time around. I have no doubt this type of player struggled and probably quit the savage tier entirely, along with any other healer that fell back on their Medica 2 spam as their primary crutch because there was probably no way for them to handle it. Now imagine this type of player being asked to do even the slightest bit more healing in average content and I just don't see it ending well at all.

[Deceptus]

Pretty much posting anything healer related to the General forum is going to get a tepid response. Most players simply don't care how badly designed healers are.

Now, remove a single button from Samurai and it's the end of the world.

[LaylaTsarra]

Can we get the Cliff Notes version and I personally like my healer.

[ty_taurus]

Can we get the Cliff Notes version and I personally like my healer.

In short:

Healers are too similar to one another, and the better you get at healing, the worse the gameplay feels for many players as the reward for managing your healing better is largely spamming 1 button, the antithesis of MMORPG gameplay. Our healing abilities are excessive in both strength and volume in comparison to how much damage we take in this game, but we also can't increase the amount of damage taken by that much or it becomes very difficult for new or learning healers to survive.

Many dedicated healer players want healers to have modest, yet rewarding DPS spells and abilities that puts them around the same level of DPS depth as the tanks so that when there is nothing to heal, there's a gameplay loop for them to engage with. Since the vast majority of content in FFXIV does not have enrage mechanics, it also doesn't mean that those newer or learning healers have to prioritize optimizing those additional DPS tools, allowing healers to play at the pace they're comfortable in, but always have some kind of engaging gameplay factor regardless of skill level.

[Deceptus]

In short:

Healers are too similar to one another, and the better you get at healing, the worse the gameplay feels for many players as the reward for managing your healing better is largely spamming 1 button, the antithesis of MMORPG gameplay. Our healing abilities are excessive in both strength and volume in comparison to how much damage we take in this game, but we also can't increase the amount of damage taken by that much or it becomes very difficult for new or learning healers to survive.

Many dedicated healer players want healers to have modest, yet rewarding DPS spells and abilities that puts them around the same level of DPS depth as the tanks so that when there is nothing to heal, there's a gameplay loop for them to engage with. Since the vast majority of content in FFXIV does not have enrage mechanics, it also doesn't mean that those newer or learning healers have to prioritize optimizing those additional DPS tools, allowing healers to play at the pace they're comfortable in, but always have some kind of engaging gameplay factor regardless of skill level.

Very well summarized

[Kolaina]

Precisely.

When we still have Timmy the Medica II Mage running around letting people die (unintentionally, unfortunately) because they do not know how to utilize 30% - 100% of their entire healing kits from bottom casual to EX/Savage+ contents as of today, what makes people think raising incoming damage would magically 'fix' the issue, if it fixes any at all in the future?

Lmao, really.

This is more than half of whms. Glad I’m not the only one to notice the mediocre medica 2 healers.

[Nizzi]

Teehee xP I happen to LOVE healers the way they are x3
Don't you guys like um, actually play the game??? Didn't you know that healers... erm... HEAL??? Those silly dumb DPS mains are like, CONSTANTLY taking damage in my normal mode easy content! Why don't you wannabe DPS mains just go play DPS and let us, the REAL HEALERS do our job? D:<

I happen to love my 1 button rotation so much I'm going to post it here so everyone can smile and feel warm inside and giggle too as they think about how much fun this is!

Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Bio Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil Broil

woohoo teehee that was almost as fun as it is in game and stuff, haha i love this game best game EVARRRR

[Avoidy]

Healing in this game is boring as hell. Even when it's intense, it's rarely fun; it just feels stressful because people are fucking up and now that's falling on you to deal with. In the game I used to play (tera), healers handled the group's resource management. So you replenished the team's mana, you boosted their attack speed/recast times, and you kept them topped off so they could cheese mechanics. People planned for this, and so a good healer was critical for actually being able to pull off your rotation properly. The difference in that game between a good healer and a bad healer was that with a bad healer you'd run out of mana during your burst, but with a good healer you wouldn't. Or with a good healer, you could straight up ignore certain mechanics, but with a bad healer you'd lose uptime dodging everything because you couldn't trust them. This game punishes you for getting hit with vulns and damage downs, so good luck playing with that for very long. You would also regularly debuff the boss in this other game, and optimal play meant keeping that debuff going for the entire fight so the rest of your group could do more damage that way as well. It felt good. It felt meaningful. People would literally say "I want to go for a personal best, and I need you healing for me to do it." In this game, 90% of the time I just spam a single button to contribute some speck of damage and that's pretty much it in the absolute best case scenario. Like, spamming 1 button is the optimal situation I'm striving for as a healer. The longer I can do that, the better. That's not enjoyable for me. Hell, I'd wager it's not enjoyable for anyone, which is why every time I queue up a daily as a healer it pops immediately. Nobody's lining up to be bored as hell. In a lot of the normal content, you don't even need a healer. People go out of their way to avoid recruiting one so they can finish faster.

Unfortunately fixing it means changing how the entire game works. XIV utilizes a system where everyone operates independently of one another (compared to other team based games, slapping a party buff every 2 minutes is nothing), so support jobs in general feel a bit empty. Hell, I used to love AST for having more stuff to deal with, but then they ripped the sigils out of divination and put them on a self buff that I frankly don't give a shit about, and other flavorful things like sects or the cards themselves were gutted to appeal to metawankers who won't be happy until they've minmaxed the fun out of the game. Frankly, I've given up on healing in XIV. I just play SCH when I don't have any other choice, or when I want a queue to pop. Watching yoshi say that lapis manalis would have something new for healers to grapple with, and finding out that he was talking about using esuna on doom, solidified my stance that nobody on the devteam actually heals in this game and it'll never get better.

And oh my god, watching them tell healers "if you want to be engaged, just bang your head against an ultimate" was such a slap. Tera was a free to play kMMO with an incompetent staff that ran it into the ground, but even they found a way to make healing feel engaging in all content difficulties. That game's dead now, but it has a private server, and guess what? When I went to play it, they had a healer surplus. As in, I queued for something as a healer, and it didn't pop for several minutes. But when I queued as a DPS, it filled immediately. It turns out when you make healing feel important and valuable and rewarding and engaging, people actually want to do it.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

[...]Watching yoshi say that lapis manalis would have something new for healers to grapple with, and finding out that he was talking about using esuna on doom, solidified my stance that nobody on the devteam actually heals in this game and it'll never get better.[...]

Lordy, did Yoshi-P specifically mentioned -that- in Lapis Manalis intro? M-maybe he meant we can Repose the griffin to pseudo stun the Griffin at the beginning!!

Lmao.