#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[TheDruidOcelot]

I mean why would personal stories even be more powerful than any of the indepth gameplay feedback people have provided? What would make them more valuable than the analyses that have been meticulously provided to the devs over years?
I'd think that as devs mechanical and design-related feedback should help them more to actually address issues.

Sure, I can write about why I love the challenge of unpredictableness, the great feeling when everything goes wrong and you can pull the group up again, the fact that I recently had a Tsukuyomi run where first-timers died constantly and my co healer and I were busy as hell, while we only had our limited lvl 70 tools. That was the most fun trial I had in a long time. Or how I love the multifaceted responsibility in pvp by providing healing, damages and buffs, forcing me to be always on my toes, always keep different aspects of the fight in mind, develop a good game awareness and quick analytical skills.
That this challenge of novelty is what entices me about this role.

But how would this feedback be more convincing than telling the devs in detail what exactly we take issue with and how they could fix it?

it won't.

cause the naysayers' point just boils down to "sit down, shut up, and queue as healer so my duty will pop, only dps and tanks matter", and none of the 6 years of feedback has ever done enough to bring attention to this. its why healers choosing to leave the role in any sort of coordinated effort are simultaneously "whiny/entitled" as well as "devious masterminds holding the playerbase hostage".

its why the strike (that hasn't even started yet) is simultaneously "useless" and "going to destroy queues".

its why "square enix won't listen to us" but also "we should make an effort to beg people who already openly hate healer mains to give us nice publicity" (when we know people like kayokostar were never going to do anything other than feed harassment brigades and just generally be nasty).

"don't give feedback on the forums" while the forums are where we are told to give feedback by square enix.

"give feedback but politely" points to the 6 years of feedback in the healer forums from the start of the issues

we did!

but the naysayers don't want us to actually do any of the things they suggest. what they want is for us to well... what i said up there at the top. "sit down, shut up, fill our queues" with a nice heap of "the problem only exists because its being spoken about, speaking about the problem is willing it into existence!"

[Ryaze]

I’ll sign the pledge.

Media tour interviews/PR statements have been so disappointing and such a lame series of excuses that making significant changes will “create chaos”.

Add in some personal disappointments in today’s PLL, and it’s time to make some kind of stand.

So many low effort changes. So much fluff with lack of substance.

[ThomasOfEger]

How about adding some tasks to each heal class within the heal instance ? Like, at certain points they start dancing, they run through a certain segment of the instance... kind of like a puzzle. It would cancel some spells and healing would be more of a game mechanic,mini game. The suggestions in this comment are just things that just occurred to me. You can imagine anything. Not only would it be fun, but if it's really a situation where the party needs a heal it would be more rewarding for whoever is playing the healer.
I don't think the problem is that every job is capable of some self healing, but the problem is that the cast - wait - push button again mechanic is unattractive and boring for healers

[PresidentValentine]

Made a forum account just to sign my name.

Been playing since 2017ish

Thank you for doing this.

[Sarixis]

~~Manifesto~~

• Over simplified DPS rotation
  Every job in FFXIV has a 'filler GCD' skill that they press when there are no other requirements. No role in the game pushes this skill more than healer. Not by a long shot. Our offensive capability should still feel dynamic and rewarding. Yes, we are healers, but we are also casters.

Just adding my 2 gil to help strengthen your arguments, assuming it does reach the devs.

While the DPS rotation being boring is a valid critique, I highly recommend you instead emphasize and make the foundation of your argument around how it is physically damaging instead. The repetition of pressing a single button/key so much has forced multiple high level raiders to retire the role due to getting carpal tunnel / tendonitis this expansion. This gives you a much stronger argument based on a legitimate health risk rather than a subjective opinion that can't easily be countered with other subjective opinions from other player groups (not that they won't still try). The correlation between pressing a single button and contracting tendonitis / carpal tunnel is also not difficult to get valid supporting evidence from it being a documented occurrence within office jobs (it's anecdotal but I have to use an ergonomic mouse to avoid getting tendonitis for my job).

• Excessive oGCD heals.
  These are not only abundant, but exceptionally powerful. This in addition to self-sustain on other roles reduces the dynamic of healing comrades.

Points with only 2 sentences like this should be modestly expanded to give clarity to the uninformed who may stumble upon this thread. As they are right now, they're too vague and easy to misunderstand for those with zero context on the problem. My recommendation is to treat this like explaining symptoms of a condition to a doctor, as that will more clearly communicate to the devs (who you ideally want to see this) what the problems are as a player. For example:

"Playing the healer role feels unsatisfying with no impact as an overall experience. Having so many healing tools doesn't feel useful or necessary when most content doesn't need you to use them. This leaves my only methods of contribution to be resolving mechanics and pressing a single button on repeat, which is starting to give finger pain to some. It's either worsen this pain or just stand there and appear to others like you're not contributing, which puts the role in a lose/lose situation. Instead of feeling like a savior or preserver of life, improving your skill as a healer only serves to punish the player with monotony and physical pain from repetitive action."

Not perfect, but it at least tries to communicate the player experience and current problems. Hopefully all of this came off as constructive, because I'm genuinely not trying to tear down what you're doing.

[Gemina]

Just adding my 2 gil to help strengthen your arguments, assuming it does reach the devs.

While the DPS rotation being boring is a valid critique, I highly recommend you instead emphasize and make the foundation of your argument around how it is physically damaging instead. The repetition of pressing a single button/key so much has forced multiple high level raiders to retire the role due to getting carpal tunnel / tendonitis this expansion. This gives you a much stronger argument based on a legitimate health risk rather than a subjective opinion that can't easily be countered with other subjective opinions from other player groups (not that they won't still try). The correlation between pressing a single button and contracting tendonitis / carpal tunnel is also not difficult to get valid supporting evidence from it being a documented occurrence within office jobs (it's anecdotal but I have to use an ergonomic mouse to avoid getting tendonitis for my job).



Points with only 2 sentences like this should be modestly expanded to give clarity to the uninformed who may stumble upon this thread. As they are right now, they're too vague and easy to misunderstand for those with zero context on the problem. My recommendation is to treat this like explaining symptoms of a condition to a doctor, as that will more clearly communicate to the devs (who you ideally want to see this) what the problems are as a player. For example:

"Playing the healer role feels unsatisfying with no impact as an overall experience. Having so many healing tools doesn't feel useful or necessary when most content doesn't need you to use them. This leaves my only methods of contribution to be resolving mechanics and pressing a single button on repeat, which is starting to give finger pain to some. It's either worsen this pain or just stand there and appear to others like you're not contributing, which puts the role in a lose/lose situation. Instead of feeling like a savior or preserver of life, improving your skill as a healer only serves to punish the player with monotony and physical pain from repetitive action."

Not perfect, but it at least tries to communicate the player experience and current problems. Hopefully all of this came off as constructive, because I'm genuinely not trying to tear down what you're doing.

Thank you for your suggestions! I will take all of this into consideration as the manifesto is still being worked on and finalized. We would like to have it complete before the strike is officially underway, so all suggestions are welcome. However, I would recommend joining our discord. Your suggestions are more likely to get seen there. I do read all the posts here, but I am also human and can miss some things.

[Kazamaiya]

While i don't play healers much, i very much so sympathize with those that do and want to see Healers be given the respect and rightful changes that they deserve.
You have my support! #FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[Anatha]

Did you seriously just claim pressing one button does more damage to your hands than having to manage many?

Please don't speak about matters you know nothing about.

You can argue it is boring, but don't bring unhinged nonsense as an argument.

All it really serves to do is demonstrate the weakness of the case.

[GrimGale]

Did you seriously just claim pressing one button does more damage to your hands than having to manage many?

Please don't speak about matters you know nothing about.

You can argue it is boring, but don't bring unhinged nonsense as an argument.

All it really serves to do is demonstrate the weakness of the case.

Huh, never really thought about it. I know repetitive strain injury is a thing, and I wonder if small variations in repetitive motion make it better or worse? In any case, it seems this is an adjacent issue to gaming as a whole.

I do now my old controller's "Broil" key was the first thing to break. The pad underneath it that is supposed to make it "bounce" back up after you press it gave away.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Huh, never really thought about it. I know repetitive strain injury is a thing, and I wonder if small variations in repetitive motion make it better or worse? In any case, it seems this is an adjacent issue to gaming as a whole.

There are entire genres of games where people are mostly clicking one button. (Diablo, Path of Exile and other ARPGs, a lot of repetitive clicking in MOBAs too like LoL). I think at least in XIV you have to wait for a cast time to click it again, and if you aren't clicking that, you are clicking something else, so...not sure this is that compelling.

Players need to protect their own health and well-being but I don't see how healers that have cast times and less to click have it worse than higher APM dps jobs or anyone else. If it's too much, it's best that person play something that has very infrequent clicking like a story game or something.