#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[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

[AmiableApkallu]

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

Because I've been playing through the FFIV Pixel Remaster these past days…

[Kacho_Nacho]

Because I've been playing through the FFIV Pixel Remaster these past days…

Misread that and thought you wrote you were playing through a FFXIV Pixel Remaster. I was like, there's a pixel remaster of this game??? I'd play that in a heartbeat!

[ForsakenRoe]

Because I've been playing through the FFIV Pixel Remaster these past days…

Maybe the way she's able to avoid being a burden is because when there's no damage to heal, she's able to support the team with things like Silence, Confuse, Blink, Haste/Slow, Protect/Shell/Reflect and even Dispel

[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

[Kacho_Nacho]

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

Maybe it's because I'm running in different content; but, I've never encountered this. From my perspective, WHM meshes well with every other healer in the game.

Players who enjoy playing White Mage don't need to apologize for enjoying their job, no matter if another player might groan because the RNG system didn't provide them the optimal healer grouping.

[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.