Final Fantasy 14 healer fans are sharing their frustration with how DawntrailThe changes in the work of also shaped the MMO’s general attitude towards support jobs, going so far as to stage a role-related strike.
With the highly anticipated release of Dawntrail getting closer every day, players are learning more about update 7.0 and its upcoming changes thanks to the expansion’s recent media tour. Among the sea of reports and previews, however, one video in particular managed to divide the community more than most. The clip in question is of streamer Xenosys Vex, better known as Xeno, clearing Dawntrail’s first dungeon – without a healer.
If you don’t know why this is such a big deal, it comes down to years of work and changes in priorities affecting healers specifically. Most players don’t prioritize healing anymore, and haven’t for a while, actually healing or defending – instead they deal as much damage as possible to keep up with DPS classes and tanks. This is due to the fact that a lot of the content just isn’t hard enough to warrant much healing, especially with spells that carry cooldowns.
With all of this and pressure from party members, players are often faced with dealing more damage instead of focusing on healing, Xeno’s ability to clear a dungeon without a healer was the last straw for many. IN carving on the official Final Fantasy 14 forums, aptly named “#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE,” the community is calling for “healer strike support” to “express the displeasure” players feel regarding Square Enix“neglect of the role as well as of the players playing it.”
The goal of the fan-led strike “is to gather support for the necessary changes and adjustments that must be made to reaffirm its [the healer role’s] place in content that requires grouping.” Some of the issues healers hoping to see Square Enix see include the amount of healing and self-sustaining abilities given to other roles, excessive post-cooldown healing abilities among healers, homogenization of jobs, and “lack of threat level in almost all forms of content.”
Another huge issue acknowledged in the thread, echoed by players of all roles, is the oversimplification of jobs – especially DPS classes. While Yoshi-P says Dawntrail will finally bring “more personality” back to MMO work in patch 7.2 and beyond, it’s not yet known how Square Enix intends to do this or how it will affect healers. The changes players are aware of so far aren’t exactly soothing either, with plenty of abilities and buffs increasing the self-resilience of non-healing players.
All of this plays into the mood of the fan-led strike: “Healers need to feel like they have a place in all forms of content.” There needs to be an “equal effort between all party members to facilitate clears,” such as dealers damage deals damage, healers heal and tanks charge. As an astrologer myself, I understand it. Even though I won’t be hitting (I can’t keep my static cooldown), sometimes I feel like my role involves applying a damage-over-time debuff to enemies and constantly casting Fall Malefic – and that’s about it.
I’d happily welcome dungeons and raids that require heavier heals and more stressful mana management as a change. It seems many healers would as well, not just those on the Final Fantasy 14 forums. Various Reddit posts discussing the strike are circulating, with one announcing that “Dawntrail will kill the healer” role and another asking “how long until” the treatment is considered “totally useless.” Hopefully that never happens – my cards and I are counting on it.
2 years later, Final Fantasy 14’s Yoshi-P is ‘really torn’ on whether removing one of the MMO community’s most beloved skills was the right decision
