Proposed QoL changes to Healers

[Therad_Yaeger]

I want to preface this by saying I am not a healer main.

Healers are my least favourite role to play and I typically only play them at the start of expansions to get them to the level cap, or if playing with friends who don’t mind if I screw up in a dungeon etc.

There are a number of reasons I don’t enjoy healer, however the biggest issue is having to re-read and relearn all the skills and what they do. Now this is obviously the case for a lot of the jobs for a lot of different people; Melee changing to Tanks, Healer changing to Phys Range etc. But it is one thing to re-read the tool tips, it is another to understand them and how they work in a Trial, Dungeon or Raid.

As such I have 2 proposed changes.

1. Spells that prove a Heal or Shield should have “Heal” or “Shield” written in the tool tip. Ideally in the top right corner. Just to make it immediately clear what kind of skill it is.

Examples:
Heal: https://prnt.sc/imqxIrt7YjXc
Shield: https://prnt.sc/RcNS-H3hJigA

2. If an Ability would buff a healing or shielding Spell, the Spell(s) it would buff should be highlighted as such.

Example: https://prnt.sc/NSj5iXrgv47G

What I mean by this one, is it should act like a 1-2-3 combo, where pressing your 1 highlights your 2 indicating it is buffed and will do more damage if used in combination.

Skills such as Zoe, Philosophia, Lightspeed, Synastry, Neutral Sect, Presence of Mind, Thin Air and Fey Illumination (to name a few, there are probably more) should highlight what Spells they buff. That’s it. It could use the exact same animation for the 1-2-3 combo but highlighted in Green instead of Yellow.

I feel this change would help with both new Healers and returning Healers - highlighting what gets buffed would help understand what order to press your buttons. I find I end up becoming a PentaWeaving Legend as I mash every button in the hopes something works.

Zoe is a good example of this (I enjoy SGE the most out of the healers) - I rarely press this button because I forget what it does in the moment of a fight. When I do finally use it, it’s either too late (no more damage/tank is dead), I use it at the wrong moment, or it drops off as I (somehow) don’t use it. If the Spells it buffs were highlighted, I feel I would be less likely to forget and more likely to use those skills and remember what Zoe does going forward.

(Side note this could be togglable so Veteran Healers don’t have to use it if they don’t want to)

What do you guys think?

[Packetdancer]

I'm not sure I agree "Heal" versus "Shield" is necessary—especially as some things blur the lines a bit and might need multiple terms in their tooltips, or might change which show in the tooltip based on things like AST's Neutral Sect—but honestly, I do fervently agree that the tooltips in general could use a quality pass; that's hardly a thing unique to healers.

Like any time a new expansion drops and you're reading the new tooltips (and tweaking hotbars if needed), there's the fun of "Ah, this tooltip says 'Can only be used when under the effect of <something> Ready', now I get to go try to read everything else to see what actually will give me this new <Something> Ready buff. Maybe it's another ability, maybe it's a Trait upgrading an existing one..." Yes, it's probably easiest to just go to the job guide on the website and Control-F to find the appropriate term, but it should probably be more discoverable in-game than it is.

[hydralus]

Presence of mind doesn't enhance any particular spell, it makes spellcasting faster. At 92 it changes so you can use Glare IV but it outright replaces the ability and also highlights it. Thin air also works for all spells it just reduces the MP cost to 0.

[AmiableApkallu]

1. Spells that prove a Heal or Shield should have “Heal” or “Shield” written in the tool tip.

And what about buttons that provide both? What if it's heal and shield at the same time (e.g., Eukrasian Diagnosis/Prognosis), versus shield now and heal later (Divine Caress)? What if it's mitigation now and heal later (Exaltation)?

2. If an Ability would buff a healing or shielding Spell, the Spell(s) it would buff should be highlighted as such.

…

Skills such as Zoe, Philosophia, Lightspeed, Synastry, Neutral Sect, Presence of Mind, Thin Air and Fey Illumination (to name a few, there are probably more) should highlight what Spells they buff.

Tanks and DPS are reasonably expected to know which of their buttons are GCDs (Weaponskills and Spells) vs. oGCDs (Abilities). I think we can hold healers to the same standard.

That list somehow manages to omit skills like Plenary Indulgence, Horoscope, and Emergency Tactics — the ones that actually "buff" only specific Spells, and thus ones where such highlighting might actually be useful.

But I think the whole notion has things backwards: It's not, "I'll push this buff, and then find something to use with it." It's, "I want a buffed version of X, so I'll push the buff first, then X."