#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[OliviaLugria]

Well...if things die faster, then less healing is needed...so more DPS means less healing anyways.

Sure, the potency of all non-healer role sustains could be lowered, but not likely to happen in the near future.

Tbh, I don't care much about non-healer role sustains, I think crossparty dynamics are a good thing. There use to be way more of them.

I'm more focused on healer gameplay and the dissonance it creates. The game should be at its most fun when everyone is playing well, but the better everyone is the worse the gameplay is for healers. Your reward for being good at your job is a 2 button dps rotation with a few bells and whistles.

[Kacho_Nacho]

It’s only “bad” because we have such a surplus of OGCD healing that invalidates the need of GCD healing, that using GCD healing is largely a sign of poor resource management. The problem isn’t exactly “the GCD heal is bad,” but more “why are you running out of other heals so quickly?”

If the distribution of resources were more balanced like HW or even SB (though SB was where OGCDs started getting a little aggressive), then GCD heals wouldn’t be viewed so negatively. It doesn’t help either that we also don’t get any really noteworthy GCD heals. We have Medica, we have Medica II, and we have Succor… that’s it across all healers—some variation of those three.

Well said. I'd go as far to say healers shouldn't have more than three OGCD heals. These should their basic HoT, Esuna, and a big heal at great cost to their mana.

Square Enix should make healing choices meaningful again by making the player have to decide between when they can land their healing spells, the amount of health restored, how many damage they can contribute, and their mana pool.

In addition, Square Enix needs to reduce button bloat by tossing redundant spells and having spells upgrade in a logical manner. For example, Cure I should evolve into Cure II.

Medica I and II should be overhauled and changed to a new progression of healing spells, Medica I, II, and III. Remove Cure III from the spellbook, have the new Medica I, II, and III be the AoE healing spells, and have each gained at a logical level for the character to have them in regards to the content.

I might struggle to make myself clear on the next part. Please bear with me and I hope will you get the intent of what I'm about to write.

Here we go. I feel spells on cooldown have little place in a healer's toolkit. Healers are secondary damage dealers. We're not in a race to a finish line. Our focus should be keeping the party alive, helping out on the damage, and making sure we have the mana to do that.

Our decision making should revolve around those concepts. We've gotten so used to juggling cooldowns that we lost sight of that idea. Most of the time, we use our cooldowns without thought and that's part of the problem.

Healers should never do anything without thought.

Instead of cooldowns, healing and mitigation spells should have their mana costs be part of the decision making process. We need to make a meaningful choice when we press our keyboard or joystick button. That's what keeps a healer engaged.

[FairyDJ]

It’s only “bad” because we have such a surplus of OGCD healing that invalidates the need of GCD healing, that using GCD healing is largely a sign of poor resource management. The problem isn’t exactly “the GCD heal is bad,” but more “why are you running out of other heals so quickly?”

If the distribution of resources were more balanced like HW or even SB (though SB was where OGCDs started getting a little aggressive), then GCD heals wouldn’t be viewed so negatively. It doesn’t help either that we also don’t get any really noteworthy GCD heals. We have Medica, we have Medica II, and we have Succor… that’s it across all healers—some variation of those three.

Not to Mention the GCD healing hasn't seen an upgrade since release outside of a minor potency adjustment. Like I would love to see a Curaga/Curaga II and even Medica I be upgraded to Medica III

[Jeycht]

You know, it’s funny. DPS optimization was basically not a thing even high end raiders cared about on healers back then, but if we were to transport back to ARR, it’s interesting to compare Lustrate to Adloquium. Because back then, Ruin’s potency was 80 while Energy Drain’s was 150. It’s actually the reverse where Adloquium was the better tool for DPS and Lustrate was worse. But Aldo costed a lot of MP and didn’t actually restore much HP. Lustrate healed more and could heal through Cleric Stance. It’s wild how interesting the dynamic between those actions was, and it’s a shame we didn’t have the knowledge and understanding of the games systems to better appreciate it back then, because there’s such an interesting choice to make between the two.

And yet dps optimization as healer was a thing in Bahamut ARR and became more apparent during the last tier. Everyone in the team used poison potion as early as the first tier. Dot uptime etc. You had to actually cast heal back then, but whenever you didn't have to you either refreshed your dot or cast a rock or something to do damage. There were even healers going melee range to do more damage with AA. DPS check on the only savage version (second tier) was crazy too.

[rawker]

You know, it’s funny. DPS optimization was basically not a thing even high end raiders cared about on healers back then, but if we were to transport back to ARR, it’s interesting to compare Lustrate to Adloquium. Because back then, Ruin’s potency was 80 while Energy Drain’s was 150. It’s actually the reverse where Adloquium was the better tool for DPS and Lustrate was worse. But Aldo costed a lot of MP and didn’t actually restore much HP. Lustrate healed more and could heal through Cleric Stance. It’s wild how interesting the dynamic between those actions was, and it’s a shame we didn’t have the knowledge and understanding of the games systems to better appreciate it back then, because there’s such an interesting choice to make between the two.

Well.. We also had to manage not to over heal lest we rip enmity off the tank. Not to mention that in a trash pull, Bane is already a non-negotiable + Swiftcast Shadowflare, then spam Blizzard 2. God, I miss those days.

And yes, Ruin's potency is just as much as a Bio 2 + Miasma + Aero + Bio tick.. heck even less so missing a few Ruins isn't much of a loss.

[Raikai]

I'm not playing healer either unless something changes for the better, but I don't expect such changes until 8.0. What ever bandaid they could put on in the meantime anyway?

Thank goodness PCT got me really hooked in from what I've seen so far.

[ArismontDailemont]

Adding a +1 here. I have rarely ever felt the need or desire to post on these forums except when it came to healer gameplay, and even then I was seldom moved from apathy. I'm refusing to buy Dawntrail because I do not wish to support developers that, insultingly, ask for feedback on their designs to be put here but stick their heads in the sand and refuse to acknowledge said feedback. Enough is enough. I'm only going to help my friends finish up clearing the Criterion dungeons as a Sage, and then I'm unsubbing.

Astrologian is what got me interested in Heavensward all those years ago, and I went through pre-buffed Astro with joy. Even doing Main Scenario quests as a healer back then, I found enough engagement on Scholar to have a satisfying experience, but no longer. The only way I'd consider coming back would be if they fully address the gameplay and thematic failings in healers. I hope the movement gets enough momentum to make positive change.

[ChaiDragonwell]

I like the idea, but I don't have confidence that it will make a difference. With that said, I definitely will be joining in. I want to be able to play as a healer and actually have fun. I want to be able to enjoy myself in casual content, god forbid in solo duties or instances the way DPS jobs and even tanks to a lesser extent can. Make healers great again :P