How to Fix Healers for Everyone

[ValentinaValei]

There are a lot of posts talking about how to fix healers, and a lot of ideas that are floating around, many of which take into account the personal interests of the suggester, but not the interests of the rest of the player base. This post is intended to help with that and to give my own possibly biased take.

If you want to know what gives me credibility, go look at my funny numbers. I'm just a guy that loves healing at a high level and that pays close attention to all the healers that I run into, usually because I get annoyed at how poorly they are performing. I haven't put in any effort over the last 2 expansions because there's literally nothing to do. Even TOP and DSR put me to sleep with how boring healing them is. The last fight I genuinely had fun in was optimizing the first 2 phases of TEA.

The first thing we need to figure out when fixing healers is what do they want? There's so much disagreement. Some want a complex dps rotation, some want to never deal damage at all. Some want enemies to throw massive amounts of damage at them requiring spamming GCD heals, some want only enough damage that their OGCDs can handle and not a single drop more. How do we create a class of jobs that can cater to every single one of these players when what healers want seems to be all over the place?

The answer is that all healers want the freedom of choice.

They want to choose whether they should be doing damage or healing. They want to choose if they handle the healing or if they push it onto their co-healer. They want to choose which spells and abilities to use and when, based on their own understanding of their job, and under no circumstances do they want someone else to make that decision for them. Triage in all its possible shapes and forms defines the role at all skill levels.

Healing is the most flexible of all the roles. Tanks must lead, and must mitigate busters, or they die or cause others to die. They must do damage to draw aggro, at least a little. dps must do damage, must do combos, or hit procs, and manage damage dealing cooldowns. Otherwise they would just sit there doing nothing. Any dps no matter how skilled or unskilled does damage if they choose to play at all. Healers don't have to heal if they don't want to, shirking all responsibility to a co-healer, or running with a team that deals so much damage that enemies die before health ever needs to be restored. They don't have to do damage if they don't want to, just watching their tanks and dps and supporting them, while everything dies around them. They can completely ignore any spell or ability they want, or overuse any spell or ability they want, and their job functions completely fine at low, mid, and yes, even high levels. I've seen plenty of healers who don't know what they are doing clear every ultimate. Now obviously this doesn't apply at the highest levels of play, but most players do not ever see anywhere near that level of play. You might say that this is a fault with encounter design, or with the design of the other roles, and yes, it is both, but that isn't the topic of this post.

Healing happens to carry the most responsibility of all the roles. If someone else makes a mistake, healers are by far the most equipped to fix it, and thus, if they die, the party has its highest chance to wipe - which in many cases even in casual content is guaranteed without a caster res (or a warrior/paladin) regardless of the skill level of the other players. It is important for the other roles enjoyment that healers are designed in a way that minimizes the chances of an unskilled healer trapping a party in all but the most challenging of content. I recently finished leveling all my dps to 90, and probably about 20% of my dungeon runs had the healer die to at least one boss, causing either a wipe, or a tense dps check.

So, healers need to be easy enough that even an unstable stack of bricks can play it, while also being deep enough that it holds the interest of the most sweaty veteran, and the transition between the two extremes cannot alienate those in the middle, while also providing a steady increase in performance and reward as a player ascends the skill levels. Luckily, healers and encounters are already designed for the lowest skill level, with an extreme amount of powerful options to heal, and nothing to use it on.

For this redesign I will focus on improving the healer skill cap and player progression while keeping the casual healer experience the same.

Player types to consider:
Hardcore - Ultimates, Speedruns, Blind Progression, Combined Healer Optimization
Midcore - Savage, Late Ultimates, Guided Progression, Personal Optimization
Softcore - Extreme, Criterion, Late Savage, Light Optimization
Average - Alliance Raids, Roulettes, Exploration Zones, Basic Optimization
Casual - Relics, MSQ, Mount/Glamour Farms, Negative Optimization

Note that these are not hard classifications, each type bleeds into the ones around it. These are just general trends of content that these types of players focus on, as well as the types of optimization that can most often be found if any. They are a representation to illustrate my points and not definitive. Don't ask me what Negative Optimization is. You already know what it is.

Needs of each type:
Hardcore - Combined Healer Optimization opportunities are required. Greeding should be required. Perfect play should be a goal, and near perfect play should be required. Perfect execution of fight mechanics should be required. These players should not only be expected to be intimately familiar with their co-healers kit, but also should be expected to be in constant communication with them, working together to create optimal situations. DPS checks should be tight, and should require significant optimization to meet.

Midcore - Optimization opportunities are required, and should grant tangible benefits. Greeding should be a fine line that the player can play with to maximize their own contribution to the content and heal checks should require strong OGCD usage and good planning. These players should know the kit of a possible co-healer, and should have the opportunity to collaborate with them, but not be required to in order to clear content as at this level the focus is on personal play. DPS checks should be tight, and making multiple mistakes should lead to failure.

Softcore - Nuanced Design that can be optimized and allow for greed. DPS rotations should benefit from good decision making. Healing requirements should necessitate the usage of OGCD skills and improper weaving should be punished if performed too often via heal checks and minor DPS checks. For these players, the full kit of the job they play should be considered, but not the co-healers kit.

Average - Simple Design that can be lightly optimized without stressing the player or punishing them too much for basic mistakes. Simple DPS rotations are fine, but the option to engage in a more complex system should exist. Healing requirements should be met if the player focuses only on GCD healing. Treat an OGCD heal as a GCD heal for these players, as many of them have a hard time weaving.

Casual - Functional Healers who can do their job without using the majority of the kit. DPS capabilities do not matter as the content they engage with does not have an enrage that could matter. Many of them also simply refuse to attack as it breaks with their idea of the class fantasy. Healing requirements should be met with only the GCD capabilities of the job.

Any healing redesign must meet the requirements for all of these players. Players must have a goal they can reach or try to reach at the pinnacle of play, and casual players must be able to enjoy relaxed healing with no damage requirements or else the rest of the player base will suffer.

Healer Identity:
Damage - The potential for personal damage contribution
Recovery - The potential to deal with an emergency or unexpected situations
Prevention - The potential to minimize the frequency of emergencies or unexpected situations
Utility - The potential to aid teammates either defensively or offensively

White Mage: Simple and powerful, with extremely high output, but limited or straightforward options.
Damage: +++
Recovery: +++
Prevention: +
Utility: +

Scholar: Versatility specialist, with widespread and unique options and powerful mitigation.
Damage: ++
Recovery: +
Prevention: +++
Utility: ++

Astrologian: Buffs allies, with performance increasing significantly when knowing what allies will do next.
Damage: +
Recovery: ++
Prevention: ++
Utility: +++

Sage: Heals by doing damage, and performance increases significantly when maximizing dps uptime.
Damage: +++
Recovery: ++
Prevention: ++
Utility: +

Proposed Redesign Pillars:
Resource Management:
Healers should need to focus on their mana. Run out and you can't heal. Don't spend enough, and you won't do damage. Mana is a finite resource. There are only so many lucid dreams or other mana generators you can hit in a fight, and only so many mana ticks that will happen before the fight is over. This should matter significantly for optimization but barely for casual content. People of all skill levels should want some piety on their gear.

Opportunity Cost:
Healing costs damage. Healing and Damage cost mana. Bigger spells cost more mana and have a longer cast time but are more powerful. Good swiftcast usage should help a lot with the bigger spells but not be required.

Flexibility:
Healers should have the freedom of choice to manage their resources the way they want, with a solid baseline and a reasonable cap.

Simplicity:
Any changes made to existing healer systems should be easy to understand, and easy to implement. Most importantly, keep functional changes to a minimum, and use existing systems and animations to a maximum, to ensure that technical debt does not hamper the solution. Incoming damage profiles also can't change, so the changes must work for existing fights.

What to do:

Keep standard GCD heals such as adlo and aspected helios the same. Keep stacking mechanisms such as aetherflow and cards the same. Shorter DoTs keep Healers more attentive, maybe change them to last 15s and buff the potency to match. Since casuals don't engage with OGCDs, or are so bad at weaving that OGCDs are practically GCDs anyways, there is no need to change the baseline system that already works for them.

Single target healing abilities should be cheap and free OGCDs on cooldowns, ex. tetra. Alternatively they can cost stacks but have low cooldowns, ex. lustrate. This helps the most in dungeons, where mana management requirements should be at their lowest to ensure that casual players have a good time.

More powerful single target heals should cost mana, and be OGCDs with long cooldowns, ex. benediction or recitation. They can also cost stacks ex. taurochole or excog. This adds some minor strain to casual healers, but will be effectively a dps neutral GCD heal for experienced players that can also be used to burst heal at the cost of mana.

AoE heals should be expensive GCDS, and never free, costing a chunk of damage and mana at the very least. The more powerful the AoE heal, the longer the cast time, the longer the cooldown, and the more mana it should cost. Ex 2s cast time Medica at 400 potency for 900 mana and 0s cooldown vs 4s cast time Lilybell at 2k potency for 3k mana and 60s cooldown. There should be very few OGCD AoE heals aside from specialist tools such as soil or plenary and most of those should be regens. Maybe give each healer a high mana cost instant AoE heal on a long cooldown (120s) for emergencies but that's it. I should need to choose if pressing a powerful AoE heal is worth it in an optimization setting, but just do it because its strong as a casual.

Mana spenders that have long cast times and high damage should be added to every healer, allowing them to gain stacks, or deal additional damage in exchange for heavy mana consumption. Properly managing these should lead to interesting but not required optimization. Some rough ideas below, please don't focus on the exact numbers, but more on the ideas behind them (I'll include a minor rework to addersting and toxikon):

Role Action: Charge
No cost
5s cast time, 2.5s recast time
Restore 10% mana.

Veterans can optimize mana recovery during downtime, transforming it into dps or utility later, and casuals can have a failsafe in case they die, or in case they really need mana.

White Mage:
Glare 4
4s cast time, 2.5s recast time
Spell, 1500 mana
Deal damage in an AoE equal to 200% of a Glare 3 with 50% falloff for additional targets. Charge the blood lily by 1 step.

Thin air optimization, swiftcast optimization, 2 miseries in a burst window if you can turret, and a huge chunk of your mana if you want more. It's not a huge dps increase, but I'm sure it would feel amazing to slam some of these out. Worried about mana consumption? Just don't press the button. Want to optimize? Get as many of these as possible while meeting healing checks and keeping your glares going. I guarantee it won't be easy, especially if something unexpected happens or there is a movement heavy fight.

Scholar:
Baneful Impaction
3.5s cast time, 2.5s recast time
Spell, 1500 mana
Apply a 15s dot in an AoE equal to 150% of a Broil 4. Gain 1 aetherflow stack.

Want more energy drains and double dot management? Done. Want more aetherflow stacks because athena normal just yeeted 4 people off the ledge and your red mage decided to lb3? Done. A major issue with inexperienced scholars is their inability to manage their aetherflow stacks properly. This is a way to smooth out the learning curve for middle of the pack players while also introducing them to an optional dps increase. Once again casuals don't need to press this, and veterans will be calculating every single one they can get, trying to snapshot 2 of them inside raid buffs while keeping track of scholars already existing mana issues. Scholar has a whole host of other weird issues though and those will need to be tackled one by one.

Astrologian:
Oracle 1, Oracle 2, Oracle 3
5s cast time, 2.5s recast time
Spell, 1500 mana
Draw a random card in the slot of your choice except for a lord or lady. Your next Fall Malefic or Gravity 2 deals 200% increased damage.

Massive Lightspeed synergy for burst windows, and the ability to target specific minor burst windows for cards, or to grab a utility card just in case you need it. A bit of rng to scratch that itch that I know a bunch of you have. Many casual players will love a way to buff that doesn't deal damage, and hardcore players might be melding piety to maximize those dps cards. Average players have an easy to access toolkit for any situation that they see coming. That's a long cast time you might say, to which I would retort, what's the matter? Can't see into the future?

Sage:
Addersting
Passive
3 Charges
Recover 1 Addersting whenever you cast Eukrasian Dosis or Eukrasian Dyskrasia.

Toxikon
0.75s animation lock
1s cooldown
Ability, 1 Addersting
AoE 100 potency attack that procs Kardion and Eudaimonia.

Psyche
1.5s cast time, 2.5s recast time
Spell, 1500 mana
Deal damage in an AoE equal to 100% of Dosis 3 with 50% falloff for additional targets. Recover 3 Addersting. Proc Kardion and Eudaimonia.

The current implementation of Toxikon and Addersting is completely uninspired and feels more like an afterthought than something that makes sage unique. Good chance to change it to make sage feel like a proper dps. Spam ogcds like a madman, track the cooldown of phlegma, juggle a double dot, and manage positioning for 2 of your spells. With 4 adderstings naturally getting generated per minute and the ability to hold them for dps or for burst healing, or to space them out like a regen, sage should feel fairly dynamic and much better to play. Casual players don't tend to play sage as much as the other healers, but those that do will appreciate the fantasy of attacking harder to heal harder. Average players have a clear and linear route to improving and optimization, while hardcore players can mash buttons in burst windows until their fingers get sore. Why the short cast time? Well sage is already an extremely mobile and button mashy job, why not play into it some more and give it some identity?

Final Words:
I'm aware that these changes would significantly ramp up the mana demands of every healer, and that burst healing while moving would suffer significantly. I am of the opinion that at the highest levels, proper swiftcast usage for healing should be mandatory. This system would need a few tweaks for sure, but I think the design direction would lead us to a much more happy healing community on every front with giving healers the ability to choose how they want to play their job, and rewarding them for every step they take towards increasing their skill level, but not punishing them for deciding not to. Will I still play healer if nothing changes? Yea, but only because my static needs me to and I like them more than I dislike the current state of healing.

[Payadopa]

Bring back aggro management. There. Fixed. Now suddenly tanks and healers have something to do.

[bitofabother]

I think you're onto something. The tradeoff like that is really interesting, since it would even add some real MP management back in. It wouldn't be incredibly punishing to have a ~1.5x delay GCD, for most levels of play, in case someone used them at a bad time and needed to react with a big followup heal.

I think cards still need (a better) rework under this, because otherwise the button setup for the draw slot will be hard to sort out for a lot of levels (going off how much I already hear of people using macros for cards on each slot). I'm not sure that this many Play buttons for single target can really be addressed.

[Wildheaven182]

Aggro management, mana mangement, unavoidable damage.
There is no unavoidable damage in the game and nothing to cleanse either. Everything should deal enough passive unavoidable damage that content is not possible without a healer. Otherwise, delete healers from the game. 3 dps is fine with me if they want to make warrior the tank/healer job.

[IDontPetLalas]

I think you're onto something. The tradeoff like that is really interesting, since it would even add some real MP management back in. It wouldn't be incredibly punishing to have a ~1.5x delay GCD, for most levels of play, in case someone used them at a bad time and needed to react with a big followup heal.

I think cards still need (a better) rework under this, because otherwise the button setup for the draw slot will be hard to sort out for a lot of levels (going off how much I already hear of people using macros for cards on each slot). I'm not sure that this many Play buttons for single target can really be addressed.

When I read "Role Actions:
Add a new role action called Charge which is a 5s cast time spell that restores 1k mana. Gives healers something to do during downtime with no healing, and maximizes optimization opportunities while giving casual healers a failsafe in case they run out of mana." Well, "interesting" is not how I would view this, it's sound rather punishing. I would rather have useful things to during downtime, not some artificial "are you awake? we'll make sure you are!" skill.

It's also one thing to tie a resource to what can technically be seen as an optional (ins some content) skill- DPS- but not when it's tied to their core skills, healing.

So "Mana spenders that have long cast times and high damage should be added to every healer, allowing them to gain stacks, or deal additional damage in exchange for heavy mana consumption. Properly managing these should lead to interesting but not required optimization", no not really interesting, especially when added to additional consequences such as decreased healing during heavy movement phases.

[glamazon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNJGY9B7VW4&t=633s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF3XIhJm_N0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2YZ1dx34ug

his reworks address this but was ignored

[Zolvolt]

Healer should play differently depending on the chosen healer choice. Not just in "how many ogcd's you cast" or "how many lost damage gcd's are refunded" but the entire healing experience should be different from healer to healer. If you know how to play one healer, you know how to play every healer in this game sadly. The only difference is shield vs. regen and understanding the job gauges, which are dead simple (and barely different for sch and sage). Thats no bueno.