#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[BunnyQueen]

My tank queue times have pretty consistently been 5-10 minutes long for leveling content, 2-3 for roulettes.

The other night I waited 12 minutes as a tank for a dungeon queue. I was like "What the heck?" Queue times are def being effected by something, it smells of lack of healers.

[Arcanepotent]

As a new player who first played on Xbox and then switched to PC, I didn’t know that healing had been such an underwhelming role for so long in this game. As a new player who has only played as a healer for about a week or two, I did notice that compared to other games where I have played as a healer, whether in shooters with support/healer classes or other MMORPGs, the implementation of healers in this game feels definitely more boring and lackluster. I'm not sure how long I'll continue playing this game, but I just wanted to provide my perspective given Square Enix's financial problems over the years. I hope they would take player feedback about roles like this seriously, because fewer players means less revenue, and they definitely need the money.

[Isala]

As a new player who first played on Xbox and then switched to PC, I didn’t know that healing had been such an underwhelming role for so long in this game. As a new player who has only played as a healer for about a week or two, I did notice that compared to other games where I have played as a healer, whether in shooters with support/healer classes or other MMORPGs, the implementation of healers in this game feels definitely more boring and lackluster. I'm not sure how long I'll continue playing this game, but I just wanted to provide my perspective given Square Enix's financial problems over the years. I hope they would take player feedback about roles like this seriously, because fewer players means less revenue, and they definitely need the money.

SE: We're designing this to get new players into the role.

Actual new player: healers in this game feels definitely more boring and lackluster

Seriously, who is SE designing for?

For real, though, thank you for your input on this as a newbie. It's great to have a voice from someone who literally just tried healing in XIV and still thinks the design here is lacking.

[flowerkatie]

The other night I waited 12 minutes as a tank for a dungeon queue. I was like "What the heck?" Queue times are def being effected by something, it smells of lack of healers.

Of course it is lack of healers but it has nothing to do with the strike. There was two brand-new DPS roles added to the game in the expansion, many players have been trying out these roles which has caused queues to be longer for everybody else. If Dawntrail was to have added a healer role then it is guaranteed that healers would be the one sitting in queue for 12 minutes regardless of any strike. The forum is such a small percentage of the player-base and even then not everybody agrees with (or can be bothered to) strike.

[Supersnow845]

Of course it is lack of healers but it has nothing to do with the strike. There was two brand-new DPS roles added to the game in the expansion, many players have been trying out these roles which has caused queues to be longer for everybody else. If Dawntrail was to have added a healer role then it is guaranteed that healers would be the one sitting in queue for 12 minutes regardless of any strike. The forum is such a small percentage of the player-base and even then not everybody agrees with (or can be bothered to) strike.

Healer queues were still near instant at the start of EW when SGE released

In ShB when GNB released it pushed tank queues to near as bad as baseline DPS queues, the double DPS this expansion has made both tank and healer queues near instant (though tanks I still semi regularly get 2-5 minute queues) but SGE really didn’t make healer queues any longer in EW

Something is wrong with the healer role when no matter what the new job situation is healers still functionally always have instant queue

[Arcanepotent]

SE: We're designing this to get new players into the role.

Actual new player: healers in this game feels definitely more boring and lackluster

Seriously, who is SE designing for?

For real, though, thank you for your input on this as a newbie. It's great to have a voice from someone who literally just tried healing in XIV and still thinks the design here is lacking.

Honestly, it just makes me sad and is a turn off because I said to myself when I first found out, "Why am I a healer? Why am I subjecting myself to this when I’m not needed if the other role can heal themselves, then what am I doing just standing there with a chocobo up my butt?" Coming from Overwatch, ESO, and other mixed genre games that have healers or support, I felt way more rewarded and useful as a healer and those games are currently not as good.

I came here to FFXIV because I heard the praises of it being the best MMO out there, so of course I wanted to try it, looking for a game where I could be a healer and say "wow, I’m doing something, I’m helping my team and it feels good." And I think every new player and even veteran players want to feel that, not have their role and usefulness snatched away from them. And that’s what I’m seeing here, and it’s not a good feeling, and such a turn off. If I wanted to play DPS, I'd play a DPS. I'm so tired of games, not just MMORPGs but games in general, making everything about DPS, but oh here’s some healing on the side for you.

I’m so dejected, to be honest, I’ll probably let my free trial run out and move on to something else. There are a few MMOs I have my eye on whenever they release. I guess I’ll give them a go. FFXIV has let me down, and as sad as I am about it, I don’t think things will change as the producers don’t seem to care. And with most of their players actually being American, that’s quite disturbing to see they don’t care to listen to these forums. As a new player, that doesn’t give a good impression at all, and first impressions are everything.

[flowerkatie]

Healer queues were still near instant at the start of EW when SGE released

Even if this were completely true, it was released with a damage along-side it so it doesn't add much validity to the argument. Not only that, there were people struggling with healer queues in Endwalker from who I've spoken to and from a brief search you'll find multiple people complaining about their experience in healer queue. (Here's one example of a meme with 4k upvotes).

Something is wrong with the healer role when no matter what the new job situation is healers still functionally always have instant queue

Regardless, every game I play that has a role that is support-based, from MMO's to other types of games completely and my experience in playing support roles throughout; they've always been in-demand, niche and played by less of the player-base than the other more "desirable" roles. I don't believe support roles in all of these games were badly designed, I think that people are sometimes scared about picking them up or do not find them enjoyable. It isn't exclusive to Final Fantasy.

[Supersnow845]

Even if this were completely true, it was released with a damage along-side it so it doesn't add much validity to the argument. Not only that, there were people struggling with healer queues in Endwalker from who I've spoken to and from a brief search you'll find multiple people complaining about their experience in healer queue. (Here's one example of a meme with 4k upvotes).



Regardless, every game I play that has a role that is support-based, from MMO's to other types of games completely and my experience in playing support roles throughout; they've always been in-demand, niche and played by less of the player-base than the other more "desirable" roles. I don't believe support roles in all of these games were badly designed, I think that people are sometimes scared about picking them up or do not find them enjoyable. It isn't exclusive to Final Fantasy.

“Even then it was released with a damage dealer” how does that change the argument at all. SGE releasing didn’t affect healer queues anywhere near the level GNB affected tanks and now in a double DPS expansion healers are rarer than tanks

There is obviously something wrong with healers. Deflecting it to “oh supports in general are unpopular” isn’t valid because people have shown they are willing to play tanks with GNB’s release, but they don’t want to play healers

[Blixie]

I realize extensive efforts to control the narrative have been an epic fail, but using upvotes on a random meme to support speculative commentary is an all new level of WTF?-even for this place.

In other news-I'm very much enjoying not playing my healers, and I have no plans to take them up again unless/until things change. Unlike many of our amazing forum regulars, I can't see the future, or read the minds of the dev team, so I can only guess at what might happen.

I'm not holding my breath for changes, but I do hope SE will recognize the cost of poor job design and correct course.

[flowerkatie]

“Even then it was released with a damage dealer” how does that change the argument at all.

If you don't believe that 1 healer being released verses 2 damage makes no different in the argument then that's fine. I disagree.

here is obviously something wrong with healers. Deflecting it to “oh supports in general are unpopular” isn’t valid because people have shown they are willing to play tanks with GNB’s release

I didn't deflect the argument, I simply added my opinion that I believe supportive roles are less played, healers even lesser than tanks.

But atlas, I am happy to concede both of those points to you because neither of them are relevant to what my point was meant to be. The queue isn't because of the strike, even in your reasoning; the queue is caused by the role not being engaging and something being 'wrong' with healers, not because of the strike. That's the only point I was making in my response to someone. I don't agree with your points but it is also not important to the point I intended to make.