Brainstorming DPS rotation changes for healers

[NegativeS]

If you've engaged in any FFXIV discourse recently, you'd know that healers are kind of in an odd spot. Most content is not challenging enough to warrant the use of the majority of their kit, but their DPS rotations are not robust enough to give them something to do during the downtime. The result is a role that feels anemic and boring to many.

In lieu of the difficulty of this game being cranked up to give healers something to do after mastering the content they're healing for, having more robust DPS rotations seems like a good addition so as not to alienate new players.

In this post, I've brainstormed some hypothetical changes to the four healers to give their DPS abilities a little more complexity. In doing so, I've brought back some old abilities, reworked some abilities, and came up with some new ones.

This is just me brainstorming on a lazy Saturday afternoon, so don't expect it to be perfect. I'm of a mind that any kind of complexity would be leagues better than what we have already, but I tried not to go too crazy with it. I specifically tried to avoid leaning on combos, as that would lead healers into the same monotony that tanks currently find themselves in. Instead, each added ability generally has its own use separate from the others, but come together when used properly to become much more powerful.

Some of the potencies might need tweaking as well, but it's mostly based on current in-game numbers.

Any suggestions for improvements are appreciated. My main goal here is to show that more complex DPSability is possible without taking away from the ability of healers to heal.

WHM

Being entirely honest, I don't play a lot of WHM, nor do I have a lot of knowledge on its past. It's DPS rotation currently is certainly impactful, though it's a little stale. We can fix that by giving it back a few old tricks.

Cleric Stance
Toggleable effect. Becomes "Priest Stance" when active, which disables the effect.
Causes magic damage dealt to increase by 10%, but reduces healing provided by 15%.
"Cleric Stance" and "Priest Stance" both have a 15s cooldown. (As in, you can turn Cleric Stance on and off in quick succession, but must wait for the cooldown to turn it back on again, and vice versa)

Dia
Becomes "Aero III" while the caster is under the effect of "Cleric Stance".

Assize
Becomes "Worldswrath" while the caster is under the effect of "Cleric Stance".

Aero III
Returning ability.
Deals 55 potency of unaspected damage over time to target and all enemies within 5y of target with a duration of 25s.
Effect does not stack with Dia.

Worldswrath
Deals 800 potency of unaspected damage to enemies within 15y of the caster.
Requires 1 Lily to cast.
Nourishes the Blood Lily.
40s cooldown, which it shares with Assize.

Afflatus Misery
Unchanged, but notably cannot be used in Cleric Stance.

Glare III & Holy III
Now reduces the cooldown of Assize/Worldswrath by 4s when cast.

Intended progression (single target):
Dia -> Cleric Stance -> Worldswrath -> Glare III -> Priest Stance -> Afflatus Misery
Intended progression (multi target):
Cleric Stance -> Aero III -> Worldswrath -> Holy III -> Priest Stance -> Afflatus Misery
Glare III or Holy III as filler otherwise.

SCH

SCH is pretty notable in that they've seen a very large share of trimming and made to fit into a WHM-shaped hole. Their existing DPS rotation sticks them with two legacy abilities that haven't seen updates in several expansions, so the changes here will be trying to breathe some new life into them while also re-introducing some of the old DoT management.

Broil IV
Now has a 25% chance to grant the "Ruination Ready" effect to caster.
"Ruination Ready" has a duration of 30s.

Ruin II
Becomes "True Ruin" while the caster is under the effect of "Ruination Ready".
Otherwise unchanged to allow its continued use as a mobile DPS filler.

True Ruin
Deals 400 potency of unaspected damage to the target, and 200 potency of unaspected damage to enemies within 5y of the target.
Enemies with active "Biolysis" effect that are struck by "True Ruin" are inflicted with "Miasma".
Resets the durations of "Biolysis" and "Miasma".

Bane
Returning ability.
Spreads a target's "Biolysis" and "Miasma" to nearby enemies within 5y.
Potency of spread effects are decreased by 30%. Resets the durations of "Biolysis" and "Miasma".
Costs 1 Aetherflow, and increases the Faerie Gauge by 10.
15s cooldown.

Miasma
Returning not as an ability, but strictly a debuff applied by striking an enemy inflicted with "Biolysis" with "True Ruin".
Deals 100 potency of unaspected damage over time with a duration of 20s. Additionally, decreases the afflicted's damage dealt by 5%.

Aethersup
Deals 200 potency of unaspected damage to enemies within 15y of the caster. Enemies with "Biolysis" or "Miasma" have these effects removed. Removed instances of "Biolysis" and "Miasma" are transformed into damage-nullifying barriers for allies within 15y of the caster. Potency of barriers is 400 base, with an additional 50 for each instance of "Biolysis" and "Miasma" removed up to a max of 700.
60s cooldown.

Energy Drain
Consumes all Aetherflow to deal increasing amounts of unaspected damage.
1 Aetherflow: 80 potency.
2 Aetherflow: 100 potency.
3 Aetherflow: 140 potency.
Still returns a portion of damage dealt to the caster as HP.
Increases Faerie Gauge by 10 per Aetherflow consumed.

Intended progression:
Biolysis -> Bane -> Broil IV -> True Ruin
Bane as filler to reset when Ruination Ready isn't active.
Aethersup when needed for mitigation.
Energy Drain to dump unused Aetherflow stacks.
Ruin II as filler when moving.
Broil IV as filler otherwise.

Also...

Aetherpact
Reworked.
When used while targeting an ally, orders Eos to execute "Fey Union", which works exactly the same as it does now.
When used while targeting an enemy, orders Eos to execute "Fey Focus", which increases damage dealt to the target by 10%.

Devastation
"Broil IV" becomes "Devastation" while under the effect of Seraphism.
Deals 400 potency of unaspected damage. Has a 50% chance to grant "Ruination Ready".
(Note: This is under the assumption that they don't just get the hint and trash Seraphism--something like Eorzean_username's 'Knowledge of Nym' would be an overall superior replacement in this vein)

AST

Oh, Astrologian... what have they done to your cards? They just can't think of what to do with you, can they?

Though it risks making some AST oldheads upset, I'm going to only go back to EW's version of AST, because it's simple enough to fit into a rotation, and what we have currently is nothing short of a travesty. This means that "Draw", "Undraw", "Play", "Redraw", and "Minor Arcana" are the same as they were before DT.

Augury
Uncastable, but transforms into a different ability depending on the most recent card played.
Solar sign cards (Balance, Bole) grant the "Solar Alignment" effect to the caster, turning this ability into "Determination."
Lunar sign cards (Arrow, Ewer) grant the "Lunar Alignment" effect to the caster, turning this ability into "Veneration."
Celestial sign cards (Spear, Spire) grant the "Cosmic Alignment" effect to the caster, turning this ability into "Excitation".
All three have one use before the ability reverts back into Augury, and using different cards overwrites the previous effect if it was unused.

Determination
Deals 200 unaspected damage to a single target.
oGCD instant cast.

Veneration
Deals 50 unaspected damage over time to the target with a duration of 20s.
oGCD instant cast.

Excitation
Causes the target to take 10% more damage for 10s.
oGCD instant cast.

Lord of Crowns
If cast while "Solar Alignment" is active, "Solar Alignment" is removed and this ability's potency is doubled.
If cast while "Lunar Alignment" is active, "Lunar Alignment" is removed and this ability afflicts all struck enemies a 100 unaspected damage over time effect with a duration of 20s, in addition to its initial damage.
If cast while "Cosmic Alignment" is active, "Cosmic Alignment" is removed and this ability causes all struck enemies to take 10% more damage for 10s, in addition to its damage.

Lady of Crowns
If cast while "Solar Alignment" is active, "Solar Alignment" is removed and this ability's potency is doubled.
If cast while "Lunar Alignment" is active, "Lunar Alignment is removed and this ability afflicts all affected allies with a 300 potency heal over time effect with a duration of 10s, in addition to its initial heal.
If cast while "Cosmic Alignment" is active, "Cosmic Alignment" is removed and this ability causes all affected allies to take 10% less damage for 10s, in addition to its heal.

Fall Malefic
Reduces the cooldown of Draw by 2s.

Earthly Star
Mostly unchanged, but using Lord or Lady of Crowns while within its circle magnifies its range to the entire area of Earthly Star.
A comparatively minor change, but would give some nice utility to Earthly Star.

Intended progression:
Combust III -> Draw -> Play -> Earthly Star -> Minor Arcana -> Fall Malefic -> Draw -> Play -> Augury
Minor Arcana used when desired effect is available.
Fall Malefic as filler otherwise.

SGE

Sage already has a decently robust DPS rotation, especially with the use of Eukrasia. However, if I had to make one change...

Eukrasian Dosis III
Tick damage has a small chance to reset the cooldown on a charge of "Phlegma II".

Eukrasian Dyskrasia
Tick damage has a small chance to make the next "Toxicon II" cast not require Addersting.

(Thanks EusisLandale for pointing out that I'm stupid)

Please keep in mind that the goal here is to give healers something to do during downtime, not give them competitive damage. SE has said in the past that their stance on making actually healing a challenge is to "go play Ultimate", which means everyone who doesn't play Ultimate can go kick rocks. They aren't going to make the game more challenging, so the very least they can do is make it more engaging.

[lolnotacat]

I don't want to have more DPS as a healer. If I wanted to DPS I'd play DPS. I want the healer role itself to be more engaging. More boss damage, more punishing mechanics, toolkits that have useful skills that don't exist to just pad hotbars (looking at you psysick and cure 1). If I wanted to just play a game where the Trinity was abandoned so everyone did damage I'd go back to Guild Wars 2.

Healer DPS should be a bonus to an encounter for everyone doing the mechs right and not needing healing outside of unavoidable damage, not an expectation because the damage is so low it can be resolved with a couple of AOE heals.

[Teno]

I don't want to have more DPS as a healer. If I wanted to DPS I'd play DPS. I want the healer role itself to be more engaging. More boss damage, more punishing mechanics, toolkits that have useful skills that don't exist to just pad hotbars (looking at you psysick and cure 1). If I wanted to just play a game where the Trinity was abandoned so everyone did damage I'd go back to Guild Wars 2.

Healer DPS should be a bonus to an encounter for everyone doing the mechs right and not needing healing outside of unavoidable damage, not an expectation because the damage is so low it can be resolved with a couple of AOE heals.

Healers in ffxiv ARE GREEN DPS, period. If you want to play a pure healer, go somewhere else. I don't know where exactly because games are progressively doing away with this garb relic of a system that is the trinity.

Even this game is forgoing the trinity progressively, with everyone having more heals and support. But healers are still left in a ditch.

[lolnotacat]

Healers in ffxiv ARE GREEN DPS, period. If you want to play a pure healer, go somewhere else.

I'll play and give my input where I damn well please. You don't like it, go somewhere else.

[Teno]

I'll play and give my input where I damn well please. You don't like it, go somewhere else.

Who complained about healers wanting an engaging gameplay again ?

[lolnotacat]

Who complained about healers wanting an engaging gameplay again ?

I don't find playing whack a mole to complete a rotation to be engaging.

[TDawnstar]

IMHO, we need healers to do more healing, not do more DPS. What I would like, however, as a quick fix that can be implemented at once is make the DOT stackable to 1 minute (like the RPR debuff on the target is). It would be a nice QoL change.

[LuciferMournstar]

IMHO, we need healers to do more healing, not do more DPS. What I would like, however, as a quick fix that can be implemented at once is make the DOT stackable to 1 minute (like the RPR debuff on the target is). It would be a nice QoL change.

I don't want to have more DPS as a healer. If I wanted to DPS I'd play DPS. I want the healer role itself to be more engaging. More boss damage, more punishing mechanics, toolkits that have useful skills that don't exist to just pad hotbars (looking at you psysick and cure 1). If I wanted to just play a game where the Trinity was abandoned so everyone did damage I'd go back to Guild Wars 2.

Healer DPS should be a bonus to an encounter for everyone doing the mechs right and not needing healing outside of unavoidable damage, not an expectation because the damage is so low it can be resolved with a couple of AOE heals.

Thank you, both of you. I agree with this, nerf tank healing and make more healing for healers. NOT more DPS with rotations. They tried that years ago with crap like Cleric Stance stance dancing. All that lead to was deaths cause healers "Opps, I forgot I had Cleric Stance on" or "I zoned out trying to DPS more, sorry." Not to mention the amount of healers who would let people die because they wanted to focus DPS, just because they wanted to upload their numbers to FFlogs so they could grandstand and gatekeep "Top barse 95th percentile".

[IDontPetLalas]

Thank you, both of you. I agree with this, nerf tank healing and make more healing for healers. NOT more DPS with rotations. They tried that years ago with crap like Cleric Stance stance dancing. All that lead to was deaths cause healers "Opps, I forgot I had Cleric Stance on" or "I zoned out trying to DPS more, sorry." Not to mention the amount of healers who would let people die because they wanted to focus DPS, just because they wanted to upload their numbers to FFlogs so they could grandstand and gatekeep "Top barse 95th percentile".

You will always get people who make mistakes, I have lost count of the tanks who don't use mitigation or who cleave their parties.
Cleric stance wasn't fundamentally wrong, it was poorly designed, and even no I don't "remember this" as someone who was able to stance dance on my SCH. removing almost all DPS skills from healers won't stop a healer necessarily from losing tracking of healing someone, in can make the problem worse for some healers because they get bored spamming 1. That doesn't even equate to someone who is hyper-focussed on their parse.

I have yet to see a healer who is asking for a rigid "1,2,3" rotation, and this game supports far less DPS options for healers than multiple games

[Teno]

IMHO, we need healers to do more healing, not do more DPS. What I would like, however, as a quick fix that can be implemented at once is make the DOT stackable to 1 minute (like the RPR debuff on the target is). It would be a nice QoL change.

More healing why not, but it won't work in anything less than savage. And it has been tried multiple times, and failed spectacularly, by going the exact opposite way.

Besides, it'd be the exact same as right now in any casual content, 11111 spam, because well, it's casual/easy for a reason. So it wouldn't change anything for a large part of the game.

The logical next steps are doing like what they do with other roles. They get heals, so conversely healers should get more offensive variety. The ways to do that have been discussed countless times.