Why don't we have more DPS abilities ?

[Azurarok]

Exactly PCT’s filler would be boring as dirt if it was just fire in red, aero in green and water in blue. Its filler works because it’s 4 seperate parts that interact with each other

It's interesting that's how most combos work in PvP. I think they're largely not designed to interact with the rest of their job's kit since its encounters are way faster and unpredictable. You're never guaranteed to actually be able to execute them fully so they can't put much behind it.

Their idea behind healers probably also runs under a similar notion, incoming damage should be at varying rates and amounts via content design and human error, leaving less room for a real rotation, but content design is very static and they also don't leave room for human error in harder content, where it's more likely to happen.

[Carighan]

The more I think about it, the more I'd love for a healer to actually be based on carrier + rider spell combinations.

This job has in effect only three spells, that's it:

* A 3,5s casting spell that has a very strong effect.
* A 1,5s casting spell with a moderate effect.
* A delayed instant that happens 1,5s after you press the button, with a weak effect.

These are the only spells the char has. If used on a friendly target, it'll always be a heal, on an enemy it'll be a damage spell.

Then there's the riders. These are split into primary and secondary riders. Note that due to the way the riders cycle their shorter GCD, the 1,5s spell and the instant can only have one, while the long-casting spell can have two but you can only press each rider once, then it greys out. You can't double-press the same rider into the long-casting spell. You use these while the spell is casting, and for the instant, while it's animation is cycling for 1,5s before the effect hits.

Primary riders are:

* Dispersion: Reduces output but causes it to reach every same-type (friendly/enemy) target in a certain radius around the main target.
* Inversion: Reduces output greatly but causes it to hit the other type of target in the same radius as Dispersion around the main target - but for the opposite base effect.
* Piercing: Reduces output (say, less than Dispersion) but hits everyone in a line from you through the main target to a certain distance out.
* Chaining: Redduces output like Inversion but it intelligently chains to two same-type targets from the main one, preferring low-health targets within jumping distance.

Secondary riders are:

* Lasting: Effect is 3x as strong but happens over 30s. DoT / HoT, basically.
* Sapping: If hitting an enemy, drains health to you. If hitting a friendly target, gives them a 1-shot buff that on their next instance of damage they deal, they drain a fixed amount of health back from it.
* Shielding: If hitting an enemy, places a debuff for X seconds (base ability!) that makes that enemy deal Y% less damage (again, base ability) against friendly targets you used this on in the last 60 seconds. So you can do big but short lasting mitigation by using a 3,5s casting Piercing Shielding hit on your team, then an instant Shielding one on the enemy.
* Etc...

Ideally there are only a small portion of target/reach/type selections (the "primary" riders) and an expanding selection of effect/interaction selections (the "secondary" riders). But all the same, just 3 base buttons.

The big thing here would be that this job has in a way exactly as many damage as healing buttons. And vice versa, of course. And also as many damage types/options as it has healing options. And vice versa.

[Naychan]

Personally, I'd love that.

Make ~every fight have a random combination of:

* Constant pulsing damage on the group that requires constant healer attention.
* Every autoattack 1-2 non-tank targets (random) are also hit for 25%-40% (random) of their health.
* Between each autoattack, a non-telegraphed line-AoE or circle AoE is shot into the room for 10%-25% of people's health (random).
* All autoattacks cleave for a portion of their damage into everyone in a medium range from the boss, essentially always hitting melee DPS.

Constant need for low~moderate healing, that'd quickly outpace even the overblown oGCD selections the current healers have (all the big hits happen on top, but are slightly reduced since people might be randomly at 60%-70% HP!), requiring a steady stream of small GCD based healing.

Once we got that, shift some of the current oGCD timers into GCD stuff, even if the CD is kept, and ideally add ways the offensive abilities interact with these CDs or abilities (reduce CD, turn them oGCD, remove next mana cost, etc).

I don't think I'd need any more damage if I had actual healing to do, tbh. I play healer because I want to heal, if I want to focus on doing damage I'd be playing a DPS!

The rest of the community would go ballistic about it being to hard (push button get pizza). Also while healing works this way in many games ffxiv is not built for that. Content should be doable within 30-45 min for a dungeon and 45-60 for a 24 person raid. If they did what you suggested it might take longer to clear and they are worried it would frustrate people. Also, not everybody could keep up with that type of healing therefor we would need skilled players which defeats the purpose of dumbing down healers so everybody can play them (I'm not saying anybody is not skilled, I'm just looking at it the way yoshi envisions it). I agree our focus should not be dps but with all the healing we do in general content what else is there to do?

[ElysiumDragon]

Because you're a WHM.

WHM is the 'easy' healer, that's the job's entire identity. No frills, no card shenanigans, no pet jank. Just raw healing and a little DPS. It even has an unconditional dash like Dancer.

If you want big-brain DPS stuff, Sage exists, and is actually pretty fun. I'll use WHM to learn a fight, but Sage to have fun doing that same fight.

[Supersnow845]

Because you're a WHM.

WHM is the 'easy' healer, that's the job's entire identity. No frills, no card shenanigans, no pet jank. Just raw healing and a little DPS. It even has an unconditional dash like Dancer.

If you want big-brain DPS stuff, Sage exists, and is actually pretty fun. I'll use WHM to learn a fight, but Sage to have fun doing that same fight.

SGE has 5 meaningful DPS buttons, WHM has 5 as well. What is so gigabrained about SGE, it’s the same dosis spam as WHM glare spam.

Not to mention the actual gigabrain healer in modern 14 (as far as you can call any healer gigabrain) SCH……..also has 5 damage buttons

If WHM is the easy healer why does it have arguably the highest non glare ratio of any healer

[Carighan]

The rest of the community would go ballistic about it being to hard (push button get pizza). Also while healing works this way in many games ffxiv is not built for that. Content should be doable within 30-45 min for a dungeon and 45-60 for a 24 person raid. If they did what you suggested it might take longer to clear and they are worried it would frustrate people.

Not really, comparatively speaking most games have less health on their enemies than here since not everyone is a "DPS and also xyz", in particular not healers. Yeah I know GW2 exists but unlike FFXIV, GW2 was quite explicitly built for this "everyone is DPS first and foremost" and doesn't even have roles in the traditional sense.

Also, not everybody could keep up with that type of healing therefor we would need skilled players which defeats the purpose of dumbing down healers so everybody can play them (I'm not saying anybody is not skilled, I'm just looking at it the way yoshi envisions it). I agree our focus should not be dps but with all the healing we do in general content what else is there to do?

That's kinda my point, the damage should not be so high that you have to nerve-wrackingly heal like a maniac, rather you "spam" healing. The way you "spam" your nuke now. Nothing special. In easier content like dungeons, you should be "fine" just spamming Cure/Benefic/etc, and sometimes casting the odd group variant. You can do much better (and in turn gain time for some nukes/AoEs), but it would not be required.

And then scale for normal / extreme / savage / ultimate / criterion savage from there. The last basically works like I'd envision things on many trash pulls, tbh.

If WHM is the easy healer why does it have arguably the highest non glare ratio of any healer

Technically speaking, I cast Glare less often on my Astro than on my White Mage...

[Docteur_Fluttershy]

Because you're a WHM.

WHM is the 'easy' healer, that's the job's entire identity. No frills, no card shenanigans, no pet jank. Just raw healing and a little DPS. It even has an unconditional dash like Dancer.

If you want big-brain DPS stuff, Sage exists, and is actually pretty fun. I'll use WHM to learn a fight, but Sage to have fun doing that same fight.

WHM is the most straight forward. That doesn't directly translate in "easiest" from that alone.
You will have a greater success of learning a fight in SGE rather than WHM, mostly because SGE has more tools and a way better movement capacity. It allows for more 'screw up' situations.

For example, if you have a healer that can only use one spell to heal, and not potencialy a great one, it's gonna be the 'easiest' to understand sure. But he will be probably the hardest to play since his 'one button' won't cut it for every situation. having more tools and more powerfull ones, with great mobility, is what make a class easier compared to another one.

[CaptainLagbeard]

Sage probably has the best DPS gameplay of the healers... But at the same time, SCH is just the better designed Job purely because of Chain Stratagem and Energy Drain.

If they took all the spells and abilities of all the healers and put them onto one singular Job, you could end with one actually well designed Healer job... Though it might still need some boost to their attack's potency...

[Teno]

Sage probably has the best DPS gameplay of the healers... But at the same time, SCH is just the better designed Job purely because of Chain Stratagem and Energy Drain.

If they took all the spells and abilities of all the healers and put them onto one singular Job, you could end with one actually well designed Healer job... Though it might still need some boost to their attack's potency...

They all have the same gameplay anyway... If they were to mix it all in one, it'd end up similar to what scholar was back then (spell uptime management), because at the end of the day no healer has true identity right now, it's just the same but largely pruned from what it was.

[Reginald_Cain]

Forum curebots will tell you that they 'picked healer to heal, not dps'. I suppose SE's underpaid job developers have the same philosophy.

Personally, given how idiot-proofed the modern game is, having anything to do as a healer but cast an AOE regen and then spam 1 for 2 minutes is exceedingly rare.

PREACH! some hyperbolic healers have been driving me crazy with demanding healer toolkits shift further toward healing only and i just want stormblood scholar back!!! T_T You cure bots ruined it. Im glad you enjoy mindlessly filling hp bars and spamming 11111 2111111 2 all day. ugh i hate hate hate hate hate hatehatehatehatehate HATE YOU! - kefka These psychos are why shadowbringers ruined healers.