



As a healer main in this game for nigh on 14 years all I can say is that I’m tired. My role has been eroded of complexity and expression for 3 expansions. I’ve watched the tanks do my role for me for 2 expansions and my feedback and critiques continue to fall on deaf ears.
I have no idea who modern healers are designed for but I know now it’s not me. This is the first expansion I’m truly considering dropping the healer role and not returning, so if that was the goal- congratulations I guess



Funnily enough, you don't actually need a super complex job kit to solidify lore identity within gameplay.I imagine one's "ideal version" also hits a snag if someone wants job fantasy/lore in there.
Reminder that White Mages were the opposing rival force to Black Mages in an actual war, or that Scholars were the core member of an entire nation's military unit that likewise made Black Mages think twice about conquering them. Now look at them... heals that go unneeded and DPS you could manage with an auto-clicker. It's like those meme pictures comparing a majestic wolf to a pug in a silly hat, lol.
Let's take WHM for example, they could get really high potency on their attack spells because they're said to be equal to the BLMs, but to balance that destructive power, ALL their heals are on the GCD (but also very powerful).
Or let's take SCH for example, they could get some buff fields to place or special stratagem as they're meant to be a tactician (not a fairy mage), then their DoTs could have debilitating debuffs tied to them, like healing down or slow or heavy, which, while not being useful in challenging content, do provide flavour and identity.
It's also worth noting that SE nailed job identity according to lore before ShB. WHM's Holy was one of the strongest AoE spells in the game, MNK was a fast brawler that ramps up in speed but stalls when there's nothing to hit, WAR hit really hard in damage stance but was required to lose damage to access a powerful heal+mit skill. Every job had strong identity and it's unfortunate that the team threw that away in favour of chasing the ever elusive "perfectly balanced game".
When it came to FF14, I always thought (still do) that combat is its weakest point. The combat itself is shit regardless of class because the base design is trash.
To me, it feels clunky, bloated for the sake of artificial complexity, without real depth, and doesn't feel rewarding enough when you do a correct sequence.
Sure, you can drop your combo and do a little bit less damage, but does it really mean anything? Not really, unless everyone is equally bad and somehow the boss enrages, that is if the entire party doesn't wipe beforehand.


Unfortunately, it would seem that SE prioritizes 'let's implement the new gameplay idea we have, and then contort the lore to fit the new gameplay', rather than letting the established lore naturally guide the gameplay design. We can see this most clearly with AST, where it once was a job based on something that is inherently 'random' (drawing a card from a Tarot deck and interpreting its meaning), now the gameplay has changed to 'you know exactly what you'll draw and when'. And previously, the initial quests had to be rewritten due to making every card functionally identical for SHB/EW's effectsFunnily enough, you don't actually need a super complex job kit to solidify lore identity within gameplay.
Let's take WHM for example, they could get really high potency on their attack spells because they're said to be equal to the BLMs, but to balance that destructive power, ALL their heals are on the GCD (but also very powerful).
Or let's take SCH for example, they could get some buff fields to place or special stratagem as they're meant to be a tactician (not a fairy mage), then their DoTs could have debilitating debuffs tied to them, like healing down or slow or heavy, which, while not being useful in challenging content, do provide flavour and identity.
Same with SCH. Some of the quest dialog still refers to curing debuffs from NPCs with the line "Traditional restorative magicks may treat the symptoms, but not the underlying cause. To balance their humours, you must leech the impurities from their bodies." At least, so says GamerEscape's articles on the quest dialog. I have no idea why they felt the need to remove Leeches/Exalted Detriment and force us all to use Esuna, because it didn't save any buttons on the hotbars in the end
And let's not get started on WHM, who abandoned the 'elemental damage' aesthetic in favour of twinkly lights, which is fine if if were a burst phase or something, but Glare/Dia being the whole game for WHM now causes a conflict with RDM's lore. If RDM was made from the knowledge of WHMs and BLMs working together, surely we'd have VerGlare instead of VerStone? or VerDia instead of VerAero3? Some might say 'oh it's cos we went to the First and there was lots of Light there to use', to which I'd counter A: We're no longer on the First, and B: We had access to Glare 3 in The Void, the place where there is literally zero Light aether remaining, and bringing some back is the whole plot point of 5 patches worth of story

It does make me concerned if some of the higher ups and / or shareholders have the Devs by the leash to prevent the classes from actually being fixed. You know, the threat of being fired and all for not complying to the decisions.
Some of these actions mirror the concerns with what happened in Warcraft before. The moogle store and mobile game versions (cough Diablo Immortal cough) are a couple. One explanation for the strange class changes could be to rope in as many new players as possible to milk the cash cow quickly for the short term. The "new" players may eventually notice over a year what's going on, but some higher ups won't care since they expect fresh blood who doesn't know anything to replace them too. After that, Blizzard then had the "free" shiny mount if you specifically purchase at least 6 months of sub time after that. Self explanatory why it had to specifically be at least 6 months with the previous single month purchases totaling 6 not counting.
All of these reasons have a strong impact for why I think we may need to push harder than we are currently doing.

so... did anything change? are healers better now? lmao topic didnt even get a 2nd glance from SE



Something something Leeches being too different.Same with SCH. Some of the quest dialog still refers to curing debuffs from NPCs with the line "Traditional restorative magicks may treat the symptoms, but not the underlying cause. To balance their humours, you must leech the impurities from their bodies." At least, so says GamerEscape's articles on the quest dialog. I have no idea why they felt the need to remove Leeches/Exalted Detriment and force us all to use Esuna, because it didn't save any buttons on the hotbars in the end
And let's not get started on WHM, who abandoned the 'elemental damage' aesthetic in favour of twinkly lights, which is fine if if were a burst phase or something, but Glare/Dia being the whole game for WHM now causes a conflict with RDM's lore. If RDM was made from the knowledge of WHMs and BLMs working together, surely we'd have VerGlare instead of VerStone? or VerDia instead of VerAero3? Some might say 'oh it's cos we went to the First and there was lots of Light there to use', to which I'd counter A: We're no longer on the First, and B: We had access to Glare 3 in The Void, the place where there is literally zero Light aether remaining, and bringing some back is the whole plot point of 5 patches worth of story
I was also talking about the light magic simply complementing WHM. I mentioned a while back that WHM should have their earth, wind, water and light magic to mirror BLM's fire, ice, lightning and dark magic. Having something like Holy being a finisher to a mini rotation would pay better homage to how the spell worked in previous titles while letting an earth spell like Quake take the place of their AoE. I would also love to see Aero 3 make a comeback and maybe be upgraded to Tornado.
The psycho in me also still yearns for WHM getting Ley Lines to play into a high potency stationary playstyle like BLM but that'll probably never happen.
I'll give healer a try up until level 100. If I do not like it, I'm off the role, entirely.Was this what Yoshi P wanted for people like me? Did he assume we were too foolish to take any semblance of complexity? How could such an allegedly open developer act so dismissive towards his own players? The flavor of the jobs I loved so much throughout the franchise were mere husks of themselves. What was once a magical world peeled away to reveal a sterile room of four walls. No imagination, no challenge, only accessibility for the sake of it. I didn't feel welcomed, I felt betrayed.



I've always seen PoM as WHM's counterpart to Ley Lines, speeding up their GCD while it's active(and so it deserves a second charge too). It obviously doesn't chain them down to a small space like it, but its duration being half as long seemed like a trade-off that made sense.
At any rate I also wish WHM was a turret healer to mirror BLM, though it probably could've used more instant cast resources had they kept the 2.5s casts. Lilies mirror Polyglot in that sense, but it was still lacking a triplecast and thundercloud/firestarter.
GlareIV I think has the potential to work as a Triplecast counterpart if they put it behind a different skill, and they could've expanded on Freecure to mirror Thundercloud/Firestarter, with current Thin Air guaranteeing a proc like Sharpcast.



I know POM is meant to serve as their Ley Lines but it's just so boring and unrewarding compared to playing smart and knowing when to drop your circle so you can get maximum value out of the job. I think them being 2.5 sec would be ok since Aero, Aetherial Shift, and Lily movement tech/Afflatus Misery can help a lot with movement.I've always seen PoM as WHM's counterpart to Ley Lines, speeding up their GCD while it's active(and so it deserves a second charge too). It obviously doesn't chain them down to a small space like it, but its duration being half as long seemed like a trade-off that made sense.
At any rate I also wish WHM was a turret healer to mirror BLM, though it probably could've used more instant cast resources had they kept the 2.5s casts. Lilies mirror Polyglot in that sense, but it was still lacking a triplecast and thundercloud/firestarter.
GlareIV I think has the potential to work as a Triplecast counterpart if they put it behind a different skill, and they could've expanded on Freecure to mirror Thundercloud/Firestarter, with current Thin Air guaranteeing a proc like Sharpcast.
I'll give healer a try up until level 100. If I do not like it, I'm off the role, entirely.Was this what Yoshi P wanted for people like me? Did he assume we were too foolish to take any semblance of complexity? How could such an allegedly open developer act so dismissive towards his own players? The flavor of the jobs I loved so much throughout the franchise were mere husks of themselves. What was once a magical world peeled away to reveal a sterile room of four walls. No imagination, no challenge, only accessibility for the sake of it. I didn't feel welcomed, I felt betrayed.




That’s exactly what ShB WHM was and the community absolutely hated it because they refused to see that Lily’s were an absolute gain because they were movement tools and weave slots even if they were immediate lossesI know POM is meant to serve as their Ley Lines but it's just so boring and unrewarding compared to playing smart and knowing when to drop your circle so you can get maximum value out of the job. I think them being 2.5 sec would be ok since Aero, Aetherial Shift, and Lily movement tech/Afflatus Misery can help a lot with movement.
As a healer main in this game for nigh on 14 years all I can say is that I’m tired. My role has been eroded of complexity and expression for 3 expansions. I’ve watched the tanks do my role for me for 2 expansions and my feedback and critiques continue to fall on deaf ears.
I have no idea who modern healers are designed for but I know now it’s not me. This is the first expansion I’m truly considering dropping the healer role and not returning, so if that was the goal- congratulations I guess
|
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
|
Cookie Policy
This website uses cookies. If you do not wish us to set cookies on your device, please do not use the website. Please read the Square Enix cookies policy for more information. Your use of the website is also subject to the terms in the Square Enix website terms of use and privacy policy and by using the website you are accepting those terms. The Square Enix terms of use, privacy policy and cookies policy can also be found through links at the bottom of the page.

Reply With Quote



