The healer issue? I really dunno what to put here.

[Kacho_Nacho]

That's the weird Part.

To me it feels like the Encounter design team puts in just enough unavoidable damage that the average group of the targeted skill level needs a healer to deal with those mechanics, then expects the Healers to contribute dps in between these mechanics, and maybe when people do a stupid (really loved the DoTs replacing vuln stacks on some bosses on the new raid for that when doing em with the static Yesterday.)

But the job Design team approaches Healer with a mindset of "well I guess healers want to heal stuff, so they don't need more damage spells than strictly necessary to clear solo msq duties"

It does seem that way, doesn't it? I've been healing in various online games for almost two decades now and how FFXIV handles healers is asinine compared to other games.

[Supersnow845]

By a random group of average players in DF or by an organized group of veterans who can play with a peak level of skill? When your typical, average player grouping up with other typical, average players can reliably clear an extreme without healers, then I'd feel there's a conversation that needs to be had. But just because something "can" be done by high-level players doesn't make it the norm or worth changing the experience for everyone else.

It’s been done at least 8 seperate times with a pick me up PF group

[ForsakenRoe]

By a random group of average players in DF or by an organized group of veterans who can play with a peak level of skill? When your typical, average player grouping up with other typical, average players can reliably clear an extreme without healers, then I'd feel there's a conversation that needs to be had. But just because something "can" be done by high-level players doesn't make it the norm or worth changing the experience for everyone else.

the vast majority of pf i log on to every night is not doing this , even if it can be done

> 'EX trial still needs healers'
> 'actually it's been cleared without healers already'
> 'Well that doesn't count because I said so' <---- YOU ARE HERE (both of you)

This community sometimes

They gave Shake aoe healing because of the more frequent multi-hit attacks in Savage where it was objectively inferior to Dark Missionary and Heart of Light, especially with the overabundance of magical based raidwides. Admittedly, they went a little far with it but from a balancing perspective, Shake did need the buff. Keep in mind, Warrior's self sustain is not anywhere near overpowered in Savage.

You know what would also have closed the gap between Shake and DM/HOL? Using Physical Raidwides more often. This tier looks to be quite heavy on them (3rd fight especially comes to mind), and so we're likely going to see the reverse problem: WAR is 'too strong' because of the 'buff' to Shake, and DRK/GNB's mitigations hold less value because they don't affect Physical damage.

Want to buff Shake anyway? We have a tool for that now, it's called Panhaima. No, seriously, if we have the ability to have 'layered shields', why not have Shake apply 5 layers of 100p shielding, instead of a Regen effect? That way, any shielding that isn't used (eg if it blocks 3 hits of a multihit raidwide, so 2 shields remain) instead of that 200p being just 'free healing' (detracting from the Healer role's responsibilities) those layers would just... poof, at the end of the duration. They'd protect the party (part of the Tank role identity) but wouldn't HEAL the party (which is the Healer role's identity).

It’s been done at least 8 seperate times with a pick me up PF group

The way they're going with 'well it doesn't count', we'd need a party of only BLMs, played only by IGN or Kotaku staff who have never touched an MMO in their life, and then maybe that would be sufficient evidence for them that healers are, once again, not required for content that is meant to 'require' all three roles

The goalposts get moved so much, they've got a timeshare set up in the Caribbean

[Zaytex]

The healer issue has always been a thing in this game, but with DT tripling down on the current design philosophy and fixing none of the core issues, people have had enough, me included.

Doing damage on healer is boring - Healers just like every job are designed to do damage and optimal gameplay is to remove GCD healing from your rotation and rely exclusively on ogcd's so you can use every GCD on damage. This is mind numbing since it basically means you're mashing one button for 90% of an encounter. Even in DT as WHM, I'm pressing glare 1 55%-60% of the time in an extreme despite it being the GCD healer with afflatus, glare iv, misery, etc. It's even more on the other healers.

Overbearing mitigation/sustain from other roles - Tanks in particular have become so bloated in their self-sustain that at the casual level, healers are practically not needed in 90% of content. If your damage rotation is miserable and all fun is tied to your healing... but your healing isn't needed, or is very little, it's not fun.

Recent encounter design - A lot of EW fights in the high-end content had an obscene amount of body checks. The peak of healer gameplay (imo) is when you're able to savage a fight via your triaging and individual skill. If a failed mechanic simply one-shots a player, or wipes the entire team regardless of healing or mitigation, then not only are you playing a boring one-button dps job, but your healing is not really impactful, and just exists to refill health bars.

The only role which punishes skill/optimal gameplay - I've noticed this a lot in DT, but most of the healers I see in PF or DF these days are just... bad at healing. They don't do enough damage, they spam GCD's, and they use their cooldowns wrong. Yet, that's more fun than optimal healer gameplay. Because like I said before, optimal healer gameplay is to spam one dps button and fit all healing checks into your ogcds... that's not fun. Your gameplay loop actively becomes worse the better you are at with healer.

Those are the core issues, but honestly, the main problem with the role is just the boring damage rotation. If I'm expected to do damage and in an optimal fight, do nothing but damage with my GCD, then can I have an interesting rotation to play with?

I've played healer less and less the more I've played FF14, and with DT I've gotten to the point where I only play healer when progging high-end content because it's just too insufferable anywhere else.