Goodbye, and good luck.

[Sunhwapark]

10 years was a good run but it's over. It's time for this jaded, grizzled veteran to turn around and walk away.

Best of luck wherever you may go to Deceptus, it was always nice to see your discussions in the Healer forums, and also your thread on "healers wanting engaging content" will likely live on for a long time.

[Kaixern]

This is kind of what I've been doing for years.

At around the start of Shadowbringers, I felt like no single job or role was "fulfilling enough" for me to "main it." If I say I'm a dancer main, it's because I enjoy it more than, say, dark knight, by a very small margin. This is to say, I have my preferences within each role but the feeling of "THIS IS IT, THIS is the job for me" has been lost for years now. This is kind of unfortunate, because I think being able to attach yourself to a certain job creates a stronger sense of identity, and to some extent, a sense of "ownership" of the job. The flip-side of it is that... well, if you identify strongly with a job, and CSU3 turns it on its head, "ruining" it, well then your enjoyment of the game takes a huge hit. This was your main job... but now it's something almost unrecognizable and unenjoyable. The linchpin of your enjoyment in this game is now gone.

In order to stave off these feelings, I pretty much have adopted a mentality that attaches itself to no one single job or role. There is no linchpin. This is literally the only way I am able to continue on with the game when it comes to the gameplay side of things. If a job is drastically changed in a direction that does not vibe with me, well... real bummer, but time to move on to something else, I guess.

Let me be clear, I don't like this mentality. I would much prefer to have a job to call my own and feel secure in knowing that it's one I'll be able to continue to call my own, but it is simply not sustainable with the way the game is currently designed.

I agree with this.
The awkward feeling, like the devs wants to push people to play as much classes as possible, not because they will like it but because they will be unable to stick to the identity of one because they will all be devoid of it.
(And i really hope to be proven wrong on that point)

[Kissune]

Sad to see so many long term healer mains leaving because of these changes (or lack thereof). I'm gonna be stepping away from the role myself, and probably the game altogether if 8.0 doesn't seem promising. We've had boring gameplay for years, with AST as the last beacon of semi active mechanics. With that gone, there's nothing really left. Even if SGE gets to double DoT it'll still be a slap in the face to the rest of us. And it won't be enough.

I hope the people who still heal can enjoy it, and are fans of the overly simplified and basic gameplay. With what the media tour leaks have shown me, healing will be less useful and more bloated than ever, with tanks further able to trivialize 99% of content with their own toolkit. It's such a shame this game is driving away the people who played it for years for the sake of people who won't even stick with the role anyways.

Best of luck in wherever you end up, friend. Hope to see you in 8.0, or whenever square enix figures their design philosophy out. I'm not hopeful.

[Deceptus]

Don't worry if people boycott healers they're gonna say "the role is still too hard and demanding, let's make it easier". Surely this will fix the problem.

Nah, Yoshi will just beg again "Please try healers!"

[Aravell]

Nah, Yoshi will just beg again "Please try healers!"

People definitely do try healers, but will they stay? That's the actual question.

If the people he's trying to attract to the healer role don't stay on it, then he's causing veterans to bleed out of the role for no benefit.

And from what we've seen of new healers coming to the forums to ask why healers are so boring, I think a lot of them likely aren't sticking with the healer role long-term.

[Mesarthim]

I for one beg the question of why I would ever go back to AST again. They can't help themselves. It changes... every, single, expansion!

Not necessarily for the better. I do find it comical that I never seen them actually remove (albeit only for one expansion) a capstone ability before (Sleeve Draw). Feels like they're just throwing random ideas at a wall for a couple of hours, deciding that's all the time they're going to devote to it for TWO AND A HALF YEARS, and then leaving it at that.

[GrimGale]

Past expansion had a lack of healers during the first wave of leveling. Even with the introduction of SGE, healer was still the least played role. I can't imagine what's gonna happen this time.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Next: "Please give trusts NPC a try!"

[OliviaLugria]

Healer shortage? Let's just make them easier and reduce the amount needed.

Dungeons? Everyone has variant cure.
Trials? 1 healer all you need
Alliance raid? 3 will suffice
Savage? I guess 2 since we split the part support/dps but you can bring a 3rd tank or a 4th!
Ultimate? Our last fight didn't need them so I guess we'll just make that the norm.