Geomancer

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Originally Posted by IDontPetLalas

We're in a dire need of improvements to the current healers, not a fourth healer. There are games that are fine with only 2 healing classes since those classes (or jobs here) are well designed - they have a certain challenge and complexity to them. I would rather not have 4 healing jobs that are bland and boring and essentially almost carbon copies of each other, I would rather have 3 jobs that have their own individual well thought out designs- if that means waiting several expansions for a 4th healer- I have no problem at all with it.

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That's nice, but many do want a new healer, and just like tanks, it might take adding a new healer to shake up their current healer format enough to introduce those changes that would give us more interesting and fun healers to play.
Healers are currently stifled by the shield/regen dichotomy. We have a regen healer, a shield healer, and a wildcard to fill in the gap. A fourth healer necessitates tearing down that dichotomy, just like a fourth tank got rid of the MT/OT meta.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

That's nice, but many do want a new healer, and just like tanks, it might take adding a new healer to shake up their current healer format enough to introduce those changes that would give us more interesting and fun healers to play.
Healers are currently stifled by the shield/regen dichotomy. We have a regen healer, a shield healer, and a wildcard to fill in the gap. A fourth healer necessitates tearing down that dichotomy, just like a fourth tank got rid of the MT/OT meta.

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There's that crucial word "might". I would indeed have no objection IF the introduction of a fourth healer did in fact force the development team to take a good hard look at the current healers. That would be a fantastic outcome.

I am however definitely against adding a fourth healer if the development team just listens to those who are let's say- bored? Those who may have maxed out their jobs and running out of alts to level? No, I want the dev team to integrate any new healer if any only if intelligent design changes are made to the current healers as well to keep all of them interesting to play and balanced at all levels.

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Originally Posted by IDontPetLalas

We're in a dire need of improvements to the current healers, not a fourth healer. There are games that are fine with only 2 healing classes since those classes (or jobs here) are well designed - they have a certain challenge and complexity to them. I would rather not have 4 healing jobs that are bland and boring and essentially almost carbon copies of each other, I would rather have 3 jobs that have their own individual well thought out designs- if that means waiting several expansions for a 4th healer- I have no problem at all with it.

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I absolutely see your point, but they thought the same in SB - where they had much stronger individual gameplay - and yet here we are today. As Seraphor said, gaining that new job *might just be* what we need to really shake up the mould they've made. Yes, there IS the potential that "they're just another WHM or SCH", but I'd rather see them try than have folks' hopes crushed yet again for another expansion - because as good as ShB was, I still feel sore about that.

To go back onto the topic of Geomancer proper, however - I replayed through the AST questlines just last night for lore tidbits and info, as well as trying to quell the nagging "they're the same as AST" thought that I've seen folks talk about. And... As it turns out, they kinda are? In the sense that the metaphysics they pull from (elements and the effects of their usage) are the same, but NOT their means or ends.

As we've seen with Swallow's Compass, which was built on three intersecting ley-lines (a tidbit that I just can't recall where I learned it from, to my chagrin >:/), geomancy focuses pretty exclusively on earth, wind, and water. But unlike the druidic warlocks that we call Conjurors (whose healing magic seems unaspected anyway), geomancers seem to just straight up skip asking elementals for permission and focus on a mix of feng-shui style-magic and ley-line attunement. However, they also do not seem to make use of soul crystals, as a large portion of their teachings are learned (and lost) from masters of the art.

But how would this affect them potentially as a healer? Well, Kyokuho has a few abilities he'll spam, aptly titled "Qi of (element)", and the water one happens to be a heal... Which isn't enough on it's own to state "They're obviously healers!". The impression I got was that they're basically the duality of BLM to Astrology's WHM; while they're similar in that they draw aether from celestial sources (stars and the planet) and overall divination theming, they don't seem to focus *twisting* that fate to heal or damage - moreso sealing, warding, and creation ala binding spirits into shikigami.

TLDR Edit: I'm incredibly unsure. The lore behind geomancy as a whole still feels incomplete, as well as Leveva genuinely trying to blend astromancy and geomancy into one. She seems to vaguely have an idea of how to do that (as of the AST 80 quest), despite the metaphysics of geomancy being almost a dichotomy to astromancy in practical use.

Honestly after the job changes they made in SHB I really don’t want them to add any additional jobs to any job group until they’ve reworked the currently existing jobs. I’d be all for new stuff if there wasn’t a 75% chance it is was just going to be another homogenized job.

No thank you to geomancer, I'd rather my whm get elements back

Geomancy as well appears to function as a regenerative healer...like whm is. as we all know, a shield healer and a regen healer go well together. In the ast questline we always used nocturnal, the barrier sect.

Chemist though would be much better. None magic healer, chance to break the frustrating lack of non robe glamour.

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Originally Posted by IDontPetLalas

We're in a dire need of improvements to the current healers, not a fourth healer. There are games that are fine with only 2 healing classes since those classes (or jobs here) are well designed - they have a certain challenge and complexity to them. I would rather not have 4 healing jobs that are bland and boring and essentially almost carbon copies of each other, I would rather have 3 jobs that have their own individual well thought out designs- if that means waiting several expansions for a 4th healer- I have no problem at all with it.

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a 4th healer and fixing the other three are not mutually exclusive. We had 3 unique healers at the end of HW, but all with individual problems to work on that didn't require wrecking them
We should have 4 fun healer jobs, or if can't have another healer, 3 fun healer jobs.

That and if SE continues to refuse to listen, I'd rather have a 4th healer that's somewhat fun (since new jobs tend to be a bit more fun) with 3 dull conjurer rip offs, than 3 conjurer rip offs and no 4th healer.

I truly hope that Geomancer is not the next healer. I can only imagine this class would feel incredibly similar, at least thematically to White Mage pre-Glare & Dia. My guess is that Geomancer would use, Wind, Water, and Earth Magic to heal...as fire, lightning and ice make little sense as support spells and White Mage already encompasses these elements.

I'd prefer Chemist or Time Mage. My top pick is Chemist, but I'd be happy with Time Mage as well.

Geomancer is fine as a Caster DPS with an emphasis on debuffing. Just like Time Mage makes more sense as a DPS with a focus on suport skills.

For those who don't remember, Chemist was originally going to be our first healer added back in HW. But early in development they couldn't get the Mix command to function as intended. From that scrapped concept they developed Astrologian, using cards as an alternative to Mix, and Machinist, using a gun as a weapon, since at that point a "gun-wielding job was already "hinted" at.

Additionally, for Geomancer, while the quests do draw parallels between them and Astros, it never outright calls them healers, they are referred to as "protectors". While a healer is a good conclusion, given their higher output and focus on "defense" them being tanks or tanky DPS makes more sense. And in the series they have a history of being tanky, so it's not foreign to them.

I personally want the next healer job to be Necromancer, they already kinda teased it with the second boss in Heroes Gauntlet, and Yoshi p is a big fan of Tactics ogre which heavily features Necromancers.
Also in TO necromancy has a few of healing type spells, albeit for undead units only, but you could just do some funky stuff with the lore to pretend all the necro's party members are zombies xD.

It would also give an excuse to make a healer with a more fun and complex dps rotation too, similar to SMN, you could have a summon undead unit spell, and attacks commands similar to egi assault.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_

I personally want the next healer job to be Necromancer, they already kinda teased it with the second boss in Heroes Gauntlet, and Yoshi p is a big fan of Tactics ogre which heavily features Necromancers.
Also in TO necromancy has a few of healing type spells, albeit for undead units only, but you could just do some funky stuff with the lore to pretend all the necro's party members are zombies xD.

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While I myself would like to see a Necromancer such job wouldn't fit in Eorzea. Necromancy is a crime and WoL isn't exactly about doing crimes.
So we'd only get a Necro if they completely remove the whole "raising the dead and controlling zombies" thing but in such case it'd probably be easier to just name it something else as well.