In the official forum of Final Fantasy XIV, healers have been calling for a strike for a few days now. Why are the supporters of the healing jobs currently up in arms? MeinMMO summarizes the situation for you.
Why is there a tense atmosphere among the healers from Eorzea right now? When a new expansion for Final Fantasy XIV is on the horizon, the chances are higher than ever that the developers from Square Enix might address some of the larger issues with the jobs – normal content updates often do not provide the right environment for extensive adjustments to the classes of the MMORPG.
Just as an expansion is expected with Dawntrail on July 2, 2024. Specifically, the guild of healers has high hopes for the trip to the continent Tural, as the community of supporters in Final Fantasy XIV has compiled a long list of problems, wishes, and suggestions for improvement over the years (via forum.square-enix.com).
The freshly released launch trailer for Final Fantasy XIV – Dawntrail:
No healer, no problem?
This is what concerns the healers: Just these hopes were dashed after the media tour in June, from which MeinMMO editor Sophia Weiß brought interesting news, after seeing a video from the channel Xenosys Vex, which shows a run through the first dungeon of Dawntrail (via Youtube).
In the video, you see a group consisting of one tank and three damage dealers who easily play through the dungeon without a healer. It took less than 20 minutes, and the final boss was defeated.
The demands of the strikers
This dungeon run highlights a trend that many players from the healer community have long complained about: The sources of damage in many fights are too predictable, and all tanks and damage dealers now have too many ways to protect or heal themselves or others.
This situation has already encouraged healers in the past to make as significant a contribution offensively as possible. If supporters could be selectively replaced by more damage dealers in some content in the future, it would be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back for many healers.
How does the community react? First, a discussion arose in the official forum about what can be seen in the video (via forum.square-enix.com). From this exchange of opinions, a second thread eventually called for a strike (via forum.square-enix.com), followed by more than 3,115 comments and a dedicated channel on Discord.
The community demands that healers have their place in all content of Final Fantasy XIV and can contribute comparably to tanks or damage dealers. They criticize the homogenization of jobs, the greatly simplified DPS rotations, and the self-healing and protective abilities of non-healer jobs.
How does MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz assess the situation? The communities of MMORPGs often tend to pack only the classes and jobs that currently dominate the meta into their groups. In such an environment, it’s unfortunately common for individual playstyles and classes to fall by the wayside for a while.
Bringing fewer healers to get through the instance faster with more offensive players is a popular lever for ambitious guilds. It becomes difficult when this meta becomes widespread within the majority of the community, making it hard for healers to find groups.
I don’t believe that will happen. I know from personal experience that Square Enix tends to reduce the difficulty level of dungeons at press events so that even guests who have played little Final Fantasy XIV can master the final boss.
The level dungeons are also quite easy by nature so that they can be mastered even with AI companions.
Nevertheless, over the years, the healer community has compiled many valid points of criticism that Square Enix should not ignore. I hope that Dawntrail can address some of these issues. Some things will definitely change: After many nerfs for the classes, the community is concerned about the difficulty level of Final Fantasy XIV – the director reassures
