Hello everyone!

I've mained as a magplar healer since release and with the advent of changes to combat starting with the release of Scalebreaker, I personally feel that playing as healer has never been more fun and engaging. However, with the recent shift from the heavy use of spam-able ground-aoe heals (namely Grand Healing and Energy Orb) to a more diverse use of both ground and targeted healing abilities, I have had more and more difficulty ensuring that my heals make it to my intended allies - particularly with targeted heals in large open-world circumstances (namely Cyrodiil). Before I continue on with the nitty-gritty of my concerns and suggestions, I want to apologize ahead of time if anything I mention here offends anyone. I recognize my view on the subject is limited (especially since I only play as a healer) and hope none of my assertions neglects or down-plays anyone else's.

___Suggestion #1: Target Selection Option___

Currently, non-aoe healing abilities select targets within 3 different circumstances. Those are:

1. Full-range: any ally around the caster, within the ability's range is a potential target (Ex: Steadfast Ward, Regeneration, Twilight Matriarch)
2. Frontal: any ally within the semi-circle extending in front of the caster is a potential target (Ex: Rushed Ceremony, Malevolent Offering)
3. Specific: only the ally centered on the player's reticle is targeted (Ex: Mend Wounds, Nature's Grasp)

I would like to request that the players have the option to select from these targeting methods, preferably per ability that is slotted. Because targeted healing abilities do not all function the same, I imagine the options would look like this:

1. Standard: uses the abilities default method of target selection
2. Directional: only targets allies in front of the caster
3. Targeted: targets only the player centered on the caster's reticle. If no ally is targeted, the ability targets the caster unless the caster is an invalid target (Ex: malevolent offering)

These options would only apply to one instance of healing per cast. What this means is that for heals that target multiple allies (such as Twilight Matriarch and Radiating Regeneration), only the first target healed by the ability must follow the constraints of the applied option. Any secondary targets would be selected based on the ability's default selection method. In addition, options 2 and 3 would not be available for some abilities due to the fact that they already use the targeting system (Ex: cannot select Directional for Rushed Ceremony) or their default is "more specific" (Ex: Cannot select Directional for Nature's Grasp or Mend Wounds)

The reason for my suggestion primarily concerns my difficulty utilizing Rapid Regeneration efficiently in Cyrodiil. About 60% of the time I cast this, the heal often fires off at a random player (that I first off had no clue was present) far behind me rather than the target in front of me that I was desperately trying to save. While in battlegrounds and instanced dungeons, this is normally less of an issue since the fewer potential targets makes it much more likely that the target I intend to heal is the one that the ability ultimately selects. However, the frequency that Rapid regeneration, and also Steadfast Ward, will target an ally asides the intended even in small-scale content is still very noticeable, though I believe it is due to another issue that I will mention in the next suggestion.

I believe this suggest is a wonderful way to address many of the concerns with targeted heals across all forms of content - PvE, PvP, group-oriented, and solo.

• Because of the high demands of maintaining ability rotations, watching out for boss mechanics, etc in PvE content (especially end-game raids), players may opt for full-range cast healing (the default/standard for Regeneration and Steadfast Ward) so that they can respond promptly to rapid drops in allies' health without having to search the room for them. It can be a headache coordinating everything, but since every player present in a dungeon is a member of the group, players would not sacrifice as much specificity for speed.
• Healers in PvP content - especially in massive-scale content - would more likely select the Directional option for their heals. With so many players able to be present in one place, most healers want to dedicate their targeted healing to specific targets - particularly allies they think are able to be saved (or in some cases, worth being saved) or members of their group. The Directional option gives players the right level of flexibility to manipulate whom they heal, but also leave enough open room for them to be "good Samaritans" to the periodic stranger outside of the group.
• Lastly, I believe the Targeted option will be a popular option among solo-oriented players. Many solo-oriented players avoid Rapid Regeneration except in small-scale since it couldn't be self-cast reliably. With the Targeted option, not targeting a specific ally in the reticle (in clustered environments, by pointing up to the sky or into the ground) will allow solo players to guaranteedly apply Rapid Regeneration to themselves and even refresh it before expiration. This also gives them the flexibility to cast targeted heals on an ally if they care to, though at the minor inconvenience of having to align the reticle to the player (which I feel like solo players will be good at anyway since you do that a lot to target enemies).

Possible issues with my suggestion: My largest concern is the implementation of the targeting options. The example options I mentioned before are my best stab at what I would like to see, but I would not be surprised if I failed to acknowledge any contradictions with the already present system. I would also like these targeting options to be customizable per slotted ability. This means that I could have Rapid Regeneration utilize the Targeted option and use it to heal only myself while having Healing Ward on the same bar, but using the Directional option to have a flexible control over who it targets. I believe this could be implemented into the UI for both console and PC. For console, a single button (maybe the select button [I don't play console, so I don't know the exact controls]) can be pressed while selecting the ability to bring up the Target Selection Options. For PC, it could be as simple as right clicking the ability while on the skills page to bring up the options in a pop-up.

___Suggestion #2: Change or Add Option to Health-based Prioritization___

My current understanding concerning which ally a targeted heal will select from the potential pool is based off the following criteria:

• The player is missing health (with exception if all players in the sample pool have full health, the heal will still cast based on the rest of the criteria, but then it doesn't really matter)
• The player has the least amount of health
• If the heal is a HoT (Ex: Regeneration), the player does NOT already have an instance of the HoT

If I am wrong about the mechanics of selection, please correct me and disregard the rest.

If not, my suggestion concerns the last two criteria. I would like to suggest them re-written as follows:

• The player has the least percentage of max health
• If the heal is a HoT, the player does NOT already have an instance of the HoT from the same caster

The circumstances that brought about my concern with the first of the two adjusted criteria involve the disparity between different players' max health. Especially in Cyrodiil - where stat diversity is much more prominent than in battlegrounds (where players are grouped based on similar experience) - I notice that my targeted heals are often needlessly directed to players with low health pools. For example: If I am trying to cast Honor the Dead on an ally with 18,000 out of 28,000 health (~64% health), I would instead heal another ally in the same vicinity with 16,000 out of 18,000 health (~89%). It's arguable which of the two targets was closer to death, but in my opinion, I would have rather healed the first target since that takes him/her further away from execution range.

The final piece I am not entirely certain of because the problem itself isn't entirely consistent. In battlegrounds pvp (too many people in Cyrodiil pvp for me to notice if it still is an issue there), I periodically have an issue where I cannot cast Rapid Regeneration on an ally that already has Rapid Regeneration cast on them - but by another caster. I use Bandits UI addon to track my Rapid Regeneration on myself and allies. The addon identifies between buffs/Hots that are cast by me vs other players and I have had other players cast Rapid Regeneration on me while I have an instance of my own Rapid Regeneration active on myself. However, during some recent fights, I will attempt to cast Rapid Regeneration on an ally (that ally also being the only ally that has lost health), but because the ally has Rapid Regeneration cast on themselves, my Rapid Regeneration will sometimes just cast on myself (at full health). I also have combat numbers enabled on the base game's options and no healing is registered on the ally (so I don't think it's a UI bug). This only happens every now and then, around ~15% of the time I am trying to cast Rapid Regeneration on an ally with another caster's Rapid Regeneration active.

___Conclusion___

Thanks for taking the time to read this! I appreciate any constructive feedback or suggestion. If the majority find the idea above agreeable, I would love to see something of the sort implemented in the future.