Healing in Final Fantasy XIV is super rewarding

The first thing I did when I set foot in Foundation, the hub world that is central Final Fantasy XIVHeavensward’s expansion was an entry for the Astrologian and Dark Knight job class. This is extremely strange to me as I only play damage traders in MMOs, and Astrolgian and Dark Knight are healer and tank classes respectively. But part of the beauty of it Final Fantasy XIV is that you can play all classes on one character – no need to create a new character and start the game from scratch like with other MMOs. I thought I would give tanking and healing a shot and if I didn’t like it I could switch back to one of my three damage classes. But now I think I’ll be an astrologer forever.

It often happens – the claims dealer crosses to see how the other roles live and finds a world full of wonder and excitement. In that regard, my experience trying a healing course for the first time is not uncommonBut what’s so interesting and fun to me, how switching classes has become not only an enjoyable gameplay experience, but also a narrative experience.

I play Final Fantasy XIV to enjoy his story. While I’m not on a server known for role-playing, nor in a role-playing free company, in my mind I enjoy role-playing on my own. After the events from An empire reborn, my miqo’te is pissed off, depressed and alone. (Yes, Tataru and Alphinaud are there with her, but one hates them and the other has never been more than the adorable admin assistant who works in a completely different department, so they’re just mild acquaintances at best.) , trying to see some meaning in all the damn shit she’s had to endure. Her black mage mentor gave no advice. All her Bard teachers did was bicker as they secretly searched behind the chocolate stalls. And her samurai sensei seemed only interested in correcting past mistakes with his best Robin Hood impression. At every turn, my character did not receive any comfort until she entered the Athenaerium Astrologicum.

After a series of quests, my character was on her way to become a powerful astrologer, and every step of the way, her teachers taught her to look to the stars for guidance when things were unclear or difficult. For a character so injured, it was personal satisfaction to become an astrologer and have the ability to find the answers she needed in the stars. I’m not one of those astrological types in real life. I don’t know my birth chart and I have no idea what my rising sign is – I’m a Leo, that’s all I want to know. But since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by the stars. Most of my tattoo ideas are from stars. I hunt Etsy for star themed art, even my Twitter name “adashtra” is a mix of my name and the Latin “per aspera, ad astra” or “through hardship, to the stars.” Stars are kind of my thing, so it made me happy to see that something I like in real life brings comfort to my character.

From a gameplay perspective, astrologers are pretty damn cool. They fight with graceful-looking devices called star spheres that float in their hands while a deck of tarot cards magically spin around them. It’s so creative and unexpected and I love it. None of that is tired Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings nonsense, fight with wands and staves, we do the extreme fantasy shit, fight with the power of Tarot. I mean look at me, this look doesn’t quite look!

The prospect of a cure was and still is fraught. My DPS-wired brain has a hard time adjusting to a healer mindset. I used to barely need to know a boss’s strats – just don’t stand in the “X” where “X” is the area damage spell that a boss will spawn on the ground. Now, from the lowest dungeons to the highest raids, I have to know everything else people will die. I ran through the Stone Vigil dungeon as a damage dealer perhaps a dozen times without knowing anything more than ‘don’t stand in the ice’. It wasn’t until as a healer that I learned that you had to use cannons to kill the dragon additions during the second boss. Switching from damage to healer was like asking myself to learn Carl Sagan level astrophysics as a teenager fresh from Algebra I.

The stress of being responsible for a successful dungeon run was a killer. And many people died with me. Even though I am a healer, I am still expected to borrow some of my damage to kill mobs. But sometimes while doing damage I find that the tank health is getting low. I cast a healing spell and keep casting healing spells wondering why they don’t get better, until I finally find that I hadn’t switched targets – I cast those healing spells on the mobs. I’ll switch targets quickly, but it’s long too late – the tank is dead. That happened once at Haukke Manor and I was so embarrassed that I pretended a disconnect and immediately logged out.

I’ve gotten a lot better. Being a healer is great if you want to develop your leadership skills. I’ve progressed to the point where I’m the one leading new players through the lower dungeons, ordering people not to attack the explosive hoods in the Copperbell mines, and jumping against Titan at the right time. It is as if the stars, in their omniscient cosmic power, have clothed my character with the knowledge and confidence it needs to guide others.

The truth is, I’ve never been more concerned with it Final Fantasy XIV since I’ve played a healer. I was on autopilot for 50 levels and now that I have to use my brain, I don’t want to go back. I understand that my damage classes get more complex as my level increases, and I look forward to the challenges they present, but I am thinking about making my astrologer my main class. It fits my character’s story, it’s fun to play, and I never have to wait in a dungeon queue for more than two seconds. Oh yes, I will never give up on this.