#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[Supersnow845]

In recent weeks I’ve noticed the resurgence of what I’m gonna term “the WHM problem” (yes I hate WHM how can you tell) in which an extremely large subset of the playerbase when referring to healers either positively or negatively point to a feeling of “power” or “strength” with WHM.

I’m sure you know the comments I’m referring to- the “it has so many HUGE heals” and “the blood lily just feels so satisfying” despite by every healing metric possible WHM is the absolute worst healer and people find it “easy” because playing it literally forces your cohealer to work harder to compensate for how useless WHM is.

When you have such a disconnection between people’s perception of the power of a healer and its actual relevance what incentive does square have to actually make the other healers unique and powerful; I mean SCH’s healing kit is already 80% of the way there on the “interesting and powerful front” and yet people still think playing “it goes in the square hole” “solving” every mechanic with rapture while the shield healer is running around in a panic trying to do both healers jobs at the same time is the definition of “powerful”

I’m becoming more and more convinced (similar to right back in SB) that nothing will change with healing design until something manages to pull back the curtain for these average players and shows them how garbage WHM actually is or the reverse where fight design changes so that WHM stands on its own two feet and all healers move forward together rather than the current design of WHM being an enforced burden on the shield healers who’s crying wishing for an AST or the other shield healer

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

[...]I’m becoming more and more convinced (similar to right back in SB) that nothing will change with healing design until something manages to pull back the curtain for these average players and shows them how garbage WHM actually is or the reverse where fight design changes so that WHM stands on its own two feet and all healers move forward together rather than the current design of WHM being an enforced burden on the shield healers who’s crying wishing for an AST or the other shield healer

In a similar vein, I too think that healer design will never change until they actually improve WHM instead of sentencing the job into the "for stupids"-box (something that I vehemently despise). And because WHM aren't allowed to grow, so too the other 3 because the disparity would be way too noticeable to common eyes.

To this day I'll never get why of all choices to make healers better from StB to ShB---instead of pushing WHM to stand proudly next to their SCH and AST siblings, they decided to butcher the rest down to WHM degree and sh!t never recovers since then.

Ig it kinda make sense in a way that it lessens their work because this means they're only required to make 1 job for an entire role? lmao

[ForsakenRoe]

In recent weeks I’ve noticed the resurgence of what I’m gonna term “the WHM problem” (yes I hate WHM how can you tell) in which an extremely large subset of the playerbase when referring to healers either positively or negatively point to a feeling of “power” or “strength” with WHM.

I’m sure you know the comments I’m referring to- the “it has so many HUGE heals” and “the blood lily just feels so satisfying” despite by every healing metric possible WHM is the absolute worst healer and people find it “easy” because playing it literally forces your cohealer to work harder to compensate for how useless WHM is.

If such players are motivated more by 'feeling' rather than the numbers behind the job's performance (eg how SGE/SCH have more 'effective HPS' in all content due to having so much more mitigation), then the solution in my mind is simple: rather than trying to convince the players who don't care for/understand the numbers, using numbers, convince them that the update will be fun for them via appealing to their 'feeling' of the job.

For example, take a suggestion I keep repeating:

- Dealing damage or using healing spells generates Gauge (a 0-100 gauge). Healing spells build it far faster.
- Spend 50 Gauge on a strong AOE healing action, which also gives you 3 buffs to your job gauge (I use the term 'Petals'), one for Earth, one for Water, one for Wind.
- With the relevant elemental Petal in your gauge, Stone/Glare upgrade to Quake, Aero/Dia to Tornado, and Water/Banish to Flood. These are AOE (so you can AOE DOT with Tornado, for example), and 'refund' the damage lost by using the healing GCD.

A player who cares about the numbers, will see this idea and say 'ah so I can use a damage neutral heal, and I can build up to it by doing damage. Furthermore, there's a refund attached which can be deployed at a later time compared to when the healing action is used (by a couple of GCDs, you won't want to delay 'pressing Glare' by much), and so I could theoretically use the healing action one GCD before the raidbuff window, then place the refund actions within the burst window for more damage (in the same way that we prepare a Misery outside of raidbuffs, then spend it inside as an optimization)'. Then, that leads to 'can I wrangle my healing rotation in such a way that I can do both, and get Quake, Flood, Tornado AND Misery into the raidbuff window?'

But for a casual player who 'just wants to play the game', what they see from an update like this is cool visual effects, the vaunted 'HUGE heals' that WHM is known for, and the feeling of 'power' as they obliterate dungeon trash packs with Quake/Flood/Tornado, because the animations are so meaty/'impactful'. They'd get to be told by the lore of the game that 'WHM almost ended the world, via their participation in the War of the Magi', and then also get to feel that power, and use that power

[Azurarok]

(despite Krile being present, and still presumably knowing how to be a White Mage?).

iirc she does state her conjury's not nearly as good enough to do it, so I'd imagine she's still only around lv70. CNJ Y'shtola also doesn't have any free healing tools while her dps kit acts like she has some kind of gauge for powerful spells too.

It does make me think that's the healer design they want to go with, but are way too afraid of offending someone to actually do it. The JP boards still get complaints from players who run into dps-chasing SCHs wasting every aetherflow they get on Energy Drain (which I think is a condition that got worse from the 1.5s broil), and whenever I try to bring up dpsing in there, I get shot down because it's assumed hard content will be balanced to require them to fully use that dps kit.

[Maltothoris]

The big of course is how long fights are structured like this, they all will inevitably become stale. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...#gid=498577154

Now when you go to the one website, now the values may be a bit different but it's still the same idea.

Edit: Not really that important per say, but it is hilarious that Alisaie has more healer duty supports than Urianger.

[Alice_Rivers]

On WHM, I've been playing more AST (for raids) and SCH (because I don't) and it's never more than a week before I'm revisiting my familiar WHM, it might just be that but no matter how much I want/feel the need to play/practice another healer something keeps pulling me back so WHM is clearly doing something right (even if I can't put a finger on it).

[Supersnow845]

Well that’s kinda my entire point

What incentive does square have to improve the design of the healers and really allow the other three to do something unique when people point to WHM as an example of having some kind of ephemeral “power” or “good feeling” to it as an example of good direction (if flawed) design when in reality the class is literally so weak it’s externalising its own responsibilities onto its cohealer

I don’t know a single shield healer main who doesn’t groan when a WHM joins a party. Is a class really well designed when it’s “fun” because it’s simple but in reality it’s simplicity comes from forcing its cohealer to work harder to compensate for it

[Azurarok]

I do end up going back to it fairly often too, but I think it's more because I like its lower/more consistent apm and less busy 2m burst? It has a more comfortable rhythm to it imo.

Don't think the job has to be trash at mitigation to keep that despite how much the devs seem to insist on it, at least.

[Aravell]

Personally, I do prefer seeing a WHM join as my cohealer rather than an AST.

Because, despite AST being better than WHM in everything except moving 15y in a straight line instantly, a lot of AST players are absolutely awful at the game. Between drifting Divination, throwing out cards randomly, not using Neutral Sect because "muh deeps" and using literally only Macrocosmos at the start of a mechanic and expecting me to soloheal everything in between so they can pop it at the end, I'd rather have the weaker WHM in the party.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

One of the reason why I still go back to WHM from time to time is because they're the only one that can 'feel different' to play, but I think that's just a 'me thing' and my muscle memory from ShB days when Lilies had up to 3 functions back in those days. Need to move? I'll use a Lily... doubly so if I can weave something after. Or vice versa, and hopefully I'll also have something that I would heal in each use---thankfully I usually did. It's rare of me to use lily spells for a singular purpose outside dumping them out of uptime for Misery.

Of course, all these enjoyments had diminished so much. Mobility? Almost no thoughts required with 1.5s cast time. Lily management? Bah just use 'em they're so abundant. What if I overspend lily? Lmao well here you go 2nd charge tetra, asylum, lilybell, blah blah blah, now you can heal with oGCDs more like other healers. Hell I was really enjoying how Holy was the only remainder 2.5s cast time in their arsenal because it lets me mimic the old Lily management drills regardless whether they're actually beneficial or not i.e. popping solace on tanks when AoE appears beneath so I can move + toss 1 or 2 oGCD before repositioning to Holy more. Math probably says no but fr, who cares about the minimal dps loss---on a healer? (Now who's being the parse brain? :/ I wonder, tsk tsk...). But apparently that too is a sin.

EDIT: On aesthetic side, I also enjoyed how WHM's animation looks 'flowy' and slow. It gives an impression that they require to concentrate heavier and be vulnerable to unleash their magicks. Many of their animations DO NOT flow well with 1.5s cast time.