Healing in Final Fantasy XIV is super rewarding

The first thing I did was set foot in the Foundation, the central center of the world Final Fantasy XIVThe Heavenensward expansion has been enrolled in the Astrologer and Dark Knight job class. This is extremely characterless to me, as I only play on damage dealers in MMOs, and Astrolgian and Dark Knight are classes of healers and tanks, respectively. But part of the beauty Final Fantasy XIV is that you can play all the classes on a single character – you don’t need to create a new character and start the game again, as you would in other MMOs. I thought I’d hit a tank and heal, and if I didn’t like it, I could go back to any of the three damage classes. But now, I think I’ll be an astrologer forever.

It often happens – the damage dealer traverses to see how the other roles live and finds a world full of wonder and enthusiasm. In this regard, my experience trying a healing class for the first time it is not out of the ordinary. But what was so interesting and fun for me it is how change courses have become not only a pleasant gaming experience, but also a narrative experience.

I play Final Fantasy XIV to enjoy her story. Although I’m not on a server known for role-playing, nor am I in a free role-playing company, I enjoy role-playing alone in my head. After events of A reborn realm, my miqo’te is angry, depressed and alone. (Yes, Tataru and Alphinaud are there with her, but the one she hates, and the other has never been more than the adorable administrative assistant working in a completely different department, so it’s just light knowledge at best case.) for answers, trying to see some significance in all the damn shit he had to go through. Her black magician’s mentor offered no advice. All her bard teachers did was quarrel, while they secretly had fun behind the chocobo stables. And her samurai sensei seemed only interested in correcting past mistakes with the best impression of Robin Hood. At every step, my character was not offered any consolation until he came across Athenaerium Astrologicum.

After a series of searches, my character was about to become a powerful astrologer, and with each step, her teachers taught her to look to the stars for guidance when things were unclear or difficult. For such a wounded character, becoming an astrologer and having the ability to find the answers he needed in the stars was a personal fulfillment. I’m not one of those real life astrologists. I don’t know my birth charts and I have no idea what my ascendant sign is – I’m a Leo, that’s all I like to know. But since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by the stars. Most of my tattoo ideas are star. I sell Etsy for stellar art, even my twitter name “adashtra” is a mixture of my name and the Latin “per aspera, ad astra” or “through difficulties, to the stars”. The stars are kind of my stuff, so I was glad to see that something I enjoy in real life gives comfort to my personality.

From a gameplay perspective, astrologers are damn cool. She struggles with ornate-looking devices called globes that float in their hands, while a deck of tarot cards magically orbits her. It’s so creative and unexpected and I like it. None of this tired Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings shit, fighting with wands and staves, we do extremely fantastic shit, fighting the power of the Tarot. I mean look at me, it doesn’t look that bad!

The prospect of healing was and still is full. My DPS brain is having a hard time adjusting to a healer’s mindset. Before, I barely needed to know the layers of a boss – just don’t stay in the “X” where “X” is any area damage spell a boss will generate on earth. Now, from the lower level dungeons to the biggest raids, I need to know everything or people will die. I ran through the Stone Vigil dungeon as a damage dealer, maybe about ten times, knowing nothing more than “don’t stay on the ice.” I just learned as a healer that you have to use cannons to kill the dragon during the second boss. The transition from damage to healer was like asking me to learn astro at the level of Carl Saganphysics as a freshman out of Algebra I.

The stress of being responsible for a successful dungeon was deadly. And with me, people died a lot. Even though I’m a healer, I’m still expected to borrow some of my damage to help kill the crowds. But sometimes, while I’m doing damage, I’ll notice that the health of the tank is declining. I’ll cast a healing spell and continue to cast healing spells wondering why they don’t get better until I finally notice that I haven’t changed targets – throwing those healing spells into the crowd. I will change the targets quickly, but it is already too late – the tank is dead. This happened once in Haukke Mansion and I was so embarrassed that I faked a disconnect and disconnected right then.

I have improved a lot. Being a healer is very good if you want to develop your leadership skills. I progressed to the point where I’m the one leading new players through the lower dungeons, guiding people not to attack the explosive caps in the Copperbell mines and jumping at the right time fighting the Titan. It’s as if the stars, in all their cosmic power, have invested my character with the knowledge and confidence he needs to guide others.

The truth is, I’ve never been more involved Final Fantasy XIV because I played a healer. I’ve been 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 become more complex the higher my level, and I look forward to any challenges, but I’m thinking of making my astrologer my main class. It matches my character’s story, it’s fun to play and I never have to wait more than two seconds in a dungeon queue. Yes, I never give up on that.