#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

[…]On a side note - what you mention regarding giving things a few weeks for common guides to appear - this is an issue across all games, for all roles. There isn't really a solution to this. The joy comes from figuring the fight out, but the nature of majority of the raiders on FF is to wait for a handy guide with an included slideshow - and then tackle the content. That takes out a major, MAJOR part of the enjoyment out of it. <- this is how I honestly feel. Blind week/month 1 progression is where most of the fun is; but this might be a personally subjective thing, and at this point we're not even talking about healers[…]

Well yes. That is one from many contributing factors. “Healer Issue” isn’t easy to be singled out per point just like that because each points aren’t as much of an issue on their own but do actually snowball when more exists at the same time. I.e. let’s take what you said here: the existence of progging phase & ‘farm’ phase. Is that much of an issue on their own? Not quite. I think it’s unrealistic & unhealthy to keep the game perpetually in ‘prog phase’—it removes the sense of progression. But what if we add more issue into the mix, such as (a)uber static fight timeline; (b)heavily simplified dps kits; (c)heavily bloated healing kits; (d)lack of consequences & player agency; (e)lack of responsibility… and hell, even (f)nonhealer kits encroaching healer’s kits—which… lol, aside from being ‘not exclusively healer issue’ suddenly also make for the joke #ffxivtankstrike! xD

Suddenly it becomes impossible to not talk all of those, considering they’ve been dismissed, or handwaved for about 5-8 years depending on where you draw the line—they add up over time & does not go away; problems do not fixes themselves by being ignored after all! It has come to the point where both spectrums that is more common casual & savage folks begun to see the field drying up.

[gllt]

I actually just think it's fine to want the game to be more interesting outside higher level optional content. You can argue that ARR shouldn't get that hard and serve as the really sluggish tutorial that it is. But I still have to queue into that content and get level synced and help others play through the game. And I like doing all the dungeons from ARR and post ARR. But I'm not the only one who hates losing half their kit etc.

I think the jobs absolutely have to be redesigned to work with the new slew of expansions coming and the bigger numbers and expectations.

I think SMN is a good idea that needs to take it's simplicity and good ideas and push it further, earlier, so it can remain easy to play but more interesting to optimize.

I think we either need to get much more of our core kit much earlier in the game or have a separate sync system for actions so that we have more leniency with what kits we take into what content.

I think all the jobs and roles are both getting a mixture of changes that make sense and stuff that makes me want to go back to bed when I see it.

I just think healers are the worst. Why do I even have to summon the fairy anymore. Like yeah I want to be able to exist without Eos there sometimes I guess but it's rare. You turned Selene into a skin but then proved you can trick people into playing stances with glowy buttons and gauges? And gave us another move that, while I love, affects how other people play the game by making them sprint which people don't like even though I do? But you did that after getting rid of Selene and her mechanics?

I never know what's going on in there.
I was astounded to see the dot spread on SGE.
Like wow, a good idea. Now put it in their ARR kit.

[Hellebore_Ghrian]

On a side note - what you mention regarding giving things a few weeks for common guides to appear - this is an issue across all games, for all roles. There isn't really a solution to this.

Yes and I can even say I mostly agree and it was also discussed in the thread.

It's just healers suffer even more from this because of stuff upgrades etc... That makes them to have only the short "prog" phase to enjoy. And it is one of the major issues that was pointed out here. While other roles still have room to optimize things in "farm" phase to find fun, what remains to experienced healers is to spam a lone nuke. That's why a lot of us (I haven't said all of us), who have played healers for some years, are drifting away from the role.

[MAD_ARCHITECT]

I am a healer who is not participating in the strike (although I agree with every complaint,) and I would like to share my experience playing through Dawntrail so far.

My job is Scholar and I have been doing the MSQ with it, for Science (tm).

First off, the good: the first trial (I have done but one) was engaging. I am pretty good at playing the piano to keep people alive and I like to do it, especially when things go south while I am in the middle of learning the mechanics myself. I had a lot to heal and a lot of opportunities to pick people up off the ground or save them before they got offed by an upcoming mechanic. I was able to engage with the game as intended.

Now, the bad...

Of course, what the strikers already know: healers barely have a gameplay loop of any kind for either healing or dps. Right off the bat, questing in the overworld, I recalled that I have little to do vs enemies but press 1 really hard. I fully realized how awful this felt when I ran into some Hunt marks in the 96 zone and remembered that Scholar was my only mid-90s job, so I had nothing fun to switch to to kill them. Pressing 11111 to down an at-level mob alone is genuinely soul-numbing, and pressing my 2 minute cooldown for one or two overworld enemies because I am desperate to do something else is not a good feeling at all.

In Dawntrail dungeon content, if even a single other person in the party has seen the instance before and is able to avoid the telegraphed mechanics, there is very little interaction with the game for me for the full duration of the instance. I may toss out an Expedient or a Sacred Soil to feel as though I am contributing by providing my fellow players some extra breathing room, but I do not feel as though it has ever made a tangible difference. If the tank knows his job as well, there is nothing for me to do at all during pulls--in these brand new dungeons that I have never seen before, remember!--except admire the scenery, observe the mechanics, and press Art of War/Broil while my fairy casts Embraces that are overheals next to the tank's own, faster self sustain. There have been boss wipes of course, for want of knowledge, but after those, my fellows are usually converted into 'seen the fight' players and have no problem avoiding the mechanics thereafter, once again alleviating me of any need to carry out my primary duty. Or play the game.

With these experiences fresh in mind, I would describe the Dawntrail Duty Roulette healer duty as being a babysitter while players learn how to do a set of mechanics, whose greatest contribution will always be Swiftcast+Raise, and whose job usefulness disappears completely once the mechanics are learned, given a competent set of teammates. It is bad enough that, when I played through the dungeons again with my friends in premade parties to help them level alt jobs, I could see clearly that my choice of job was a burden to the speed and efficacy of the run simply because they are all good at the game and do not need such training wheels to succeed.

To be clear, I have not yet completed the MSQ. The most recent dungeon I have completed is Level 95. So, to reiterate: I haven't even finished the MSQ or gotten endgame gear yet, the game is/was in early access which means all the content was brand new. Under these conditions the experience is still this way.

We will see if the notorious Lv. x7 dungeon shakes things up at all in the honored tradition of Bardam's Mettle, but my expectations are low and my disappointment is high. I am not surprised, however. I quit healing at the start of Shadowbringers because of how bored and bothered these changes originally made me feel, and two expansions later, nothing has changed at all, except the delivery of the PvP kits--proof that the design team can give us fun, unique things, but for whatever reason will not do so for 99% of the game's content.

[Naouu]

What I'm gathering from this thread from anyone who does more than casual content:

-Skill expression is too limited, and needs to be improved upon for healers. I think I can agree with this- add back cleric stance and a few gcd for a dmg combo. I think this would be a good start.

As for the rest of the complaints:

I don't agree with imposing changes on other jobs if you don't dedicatedly play them. It's giving Karen energy.

[TsubameMikage]

What I'm gathering from this thread from anyone who does more than casual content:

-Skill expression is too limited, and needs to be improved upon for healers. I think I can agree with this- add back cleric stance and a few gcd for a dmg combo. I think this would be a good start.

I said it earlier, we have all of Eureka and Bozja as testing grounds for new abilities - give us Seraph Strike instead of Glide!

I don't agree with imposing changes on other jobs if you don't dedicatedly play them. It's giving Karen energy.

There is no reason for any DPS or tank to offer AoE healing. There is no reason for tanks to be able to heal others, at all, without a significant cost to their own survivability. I say this as someone who routinely plays as a Paladin: Clemency needs more downsides to casting, and Holy Sheltron's Knight's Benediction should only apply to the caster, not the recipient (same for WAR's Nascent Flash's Nascent Glint, GNB's Heart of Corundum's additional affect of Brutal Shell). I'm fine with them applying to themselves for self-sustain, but healing the party should be the healer's job, first and foremost.

I'm even leery of RDM and SMN having access to a targeted heal spell and a raise, even if it makes sense lore-wise.

[TheRealQuah]

If you want more involved damage rotations then just play dps.

[Kes13a]

If you want more involved damage rotations then just play dps.

I believe thats the entire plan. (in case you missed that along the way, it does tend to be a bit of reading)

[Isala]

If you want more involved damage rotations then just play dps.

Not for very much longer if they keep trimming them down every damned expansion.

[Rolder50]

Not for very much longer if they keep trimming them down every damned expansion.

*Cries in former summoner main*