#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I was rarely averse to using GCD heals with AST even in ShB since it was just normal to lose personal dps by healing with the other two. They also added Horoscope then, which just encourages using either Helios too, so the overall design certainly didn't feel like they wanted us to do lossless healing, at least.

Apart from horoscope and the overpowered neutral sect at the time, I remember having my ear bleeding in ShB days because people often screamed they wanted to do lossless healing like AST. CU, CO, CI, Earthly Star, uncharged Horoscope, & Essentials were all free to use due to the nature of their built in 1.5s at that time, whereas WHM and SCH had to 'pay' to a lesser extent to use their oGCDs outside 30s DoT refresh window. They 'felt bad' having to pay for said loss because XYZ had some way to do it lossless'y. Well, look what we get today lmao.

[Supersnow845]

Apart from horoscope and the overpowered neutral sect at the time, I remember having my ear bleeding in ShB days because people often screamed they wanted to do lossless healing like AST. CU, CO, CI, Earthly Star, uncharged Horoscope, & Essentials were all free to use due to the nature of their built in 1.5s at that time, whereas WHM and SCH had to 'pay' to a lesser extent to use their oGCDs outside 30s DoT refresh window. They 'felt bad' having to pay for said loss because XYZ had some way to do it lossless'y. Well, look what we get today lmao.

This pretty much sums up the ShB healer design problem. AST was the problem child yet they decided to model everyone after AST rather than bring AST back in line with the others

[Azurarok]

to be honest I'm not so against lossless healing in of itself, and am more bothered by the fact they decided they do it exactly the same way AST did when WHM had lilies and SCH had RuinII + Energy Drain

And despite all that SGE adderstings aren't dps neutral

[GartredZW]

to be honest I'm not so against lossless healing in of itself, and am more bothered by the fact they decided they do it exactly the same way AST did when WHM had lilies and SCH had RuinII + Energy Drain

And despite all that SGE adderstings aren't dps neutral

Adderstings are a pretty interesting concept. If they really lean into that sort of thing, I think I'd enjoy healing more.
Your reward for GCD healing isn't more damage, but free-er movement. In such a scenario that you'd need to GCD heal anyway, and there's a movement mechanic that you can't slidecast through, then Toxicon is very useful. You can remain DPS neutral through that movement.
It's just not much of a factor at all in reality. Most of the time either a movement can be stutter-stepped to, or it's so great and immediate that three toxicons might not be enough.

[Shurrikhan]

Adderstings are a pretty interesting concept. If they really lean into that sort of thing, I think I'd enjoy healing more.
Your reward for GCD healing isn't more damage, but free-er movement. In such a scenario that you'd need to GCD heal anyway, and there's a movement mechanic that you can't slidecast through, then Toxicon is very useful. You can remain DPS neutral through that movement.

This. Exactly this.

Though, it makes me wish all the more that there were more interesting flavor of (A) barrier use on the job's end and (B) occasional needs for maintaining range, another advantage Toxicon provides above Dykresis, via encounter incidence/tuning/design (prevalence of PB AoEs, need to make time for a safe healing GCD later, etc.). Though, in the latter point, we're getting back into the "Why are AoE attacks basically just wasted keys in a majority of raid fights?" territory.

...I also wouldn't mind, though, if Addersting and/or Toxicon were to be revised somewhat to have other means of generation, and perhaps even to do something more obviously related to the shield('s destruction), though I'm not sure what the latter would best be.

[Supersnow845]

That’s the problem. Energy drain and ruin 2 as well as Lilys were ways to generate weave space (you can also include miasma 2 when SCH had mana management) that you were compensated for to overcome restrictions. the idea of AST having 1.5 was because it had so many weaves with its cards but it also allowed for free healing

Honestly instead of everyone getting 1.5 AST should have swapped to 2.5 and and be given the extra charge of lightspeed it has now to compensate for its card weaves without really giving it free reign to have limitless free healing

[Shurrikhan]

Honestly instead of everyone getting 1.5 AST should have swapped to 2.5 and and be given the extra charge of lightspeed it has now to compensate for its card weaves without really giving it free reign to have limitless free healing

Ehh, given how large an advantage Lightspeed could already be in the context of movement requirements during decently high healing requirements back in Stormblood, I'd rather the solution not come with even more imbalance in mobility.

I'd rather they had just... tuned AST around typical in-practice uptime costs of using those Card actions. If undertuned because too much weaving... just buff AST proportionately. No need to restructure the whole casting paradigm among healers over it.

As for in-practice gains being ignored due to losses in theoretical-maximum (vs. striking dummy) output... Keep the 2.5s casts and just get rid of the additional delay from roundtrip ping, provide a couple brief lessons and tips on uptime so that it's painfully obvious to someone that losing a third of a GCD to use Assize without timing it to an instant-cast would matter far more (at ~110 potency) than the third of a Misery's loss relative to filler spam, and you're golden.

If there's to be any broader casting reforms, they should come from partial client trust and QoL: let the server better trust the client when it comes to having ended movement and provide, say, the ability to briefly lock movement in place until a cast is actuated (also client-predictive) and/or until a movement command is started anew, so one can't so easily accidentally cancel a would-be start-of-cast on controller and so latency doesn't so delay the start of one's casting in general.

[Kacho_Nacho]

That’s the problem. Energy drain and ruin 2 as well as Lilys were ways to generate weave space (you can also include miasma 2 when SCH had mana management) that you were compensated for to overcome restrictions. the idea of AST having 1.5 was because it had so many weaves with its cards but it also allowed for free healing

Honestly instead of everyone getting 1.5 AST should have swapped to 2.5 and and be given the extra charge of lightspeed it has now to compensate for its card weaves without really giving it free reign to have limitless free healing

Either that or ignore all the complainers and let Astrologians be Astrologians. It's individuals excessively obsessed with job balance who bent the job designer's ear and led us to where we are now.

It's also important to note, given the sheer amount of odd or unasked for changes in our jobs, these individuals were highly likely to have been family members or co-workers of the job designers than anyone from outside of Square Enix's workforce.

We're in a classic ivory tower situation all around.

[Kes13a]

personally, I agree. screw balance... aside from pvp which they have shown they can do different than pve... we are all on the same side. who cares if someone does more damage or has more healing or tanks better. the primary concern should be.. is it fun to play?

right now... none of the healing jobs make me happy to be a healer. they are all mid sized cars of a different colour. no, they arent all the exact same... except in the concept of how dull they are. if that was SE's intent, they have succeeded.

[Kacho_Nacho]

personally, I agree. screw balance... aside from pvp which they have shown they can do different than pve... we are all on the same side. who cares if someone does more damage or has more healing or tanks better. the primary concern should be.. is it fun to play?

Yes! A thousand times yes!

It should have been pushed from the very top person in Square Enix to the lowest office intern to the player base that FFXIV is not a competitive game like World of Warcraft. The focus should have always been is the job fun and does its functionality match its job fantasy via lore, party role, and the feel of its play?

Game balance has shown itself to be a cancer. Players are unhappy with the constant changes to their favorite jobs. FFXIV is losing its veteran players across the boards as a result.

Developers need to change their total approach to this MMO and go back to the question of what makes a job enjoyable and proceed from there.

right now... none of the healing jobs make me happy to be a healer. they are all midsize cars of a different colour. no, they aren't all the exact same... except in the concept of how dull they are. if that was SE's intent, they have succeeded.

Total agree. Playing a healer is terribly dull. I've haven't even finished DT's MSQ on my main. I feel no joy playing a white mage right now.