I could just be a pessimist, but I really doubt if they were hinting a new job that it's gonna be a healer.
Not when the weapon is a hammer.
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Or it goes to WHM who had it in previous FF's. That seems more likely.
http://www.c4vct.com/kym/numbskul/art/trol-ffm.jpg
DNC as a ranged DPS is a surprise to me. I was expecting it to be a Dex based Melee DPS with added party support skills and a heal at most at the level of RDM that would share gear with NIN.
Healer if Shadowbringers takes us into Garlemald I was thinking would be something like Chemist and its LB3 would be like a grand potion table flip... >.>
Look, if you don't like how Bard or Machinist play, but you wanted to play a ranged DPS, you had the three casters. If you didn't care about where you stood, you had the melee options.
If you don't like how White Mage plays, you only have two other options, and they don't really play all that different. They have small differences but keep the same core gameplay loop of casting DoTs and nukes when not having to heal. In comparison, MCH and BRD play really distinctly from each other.
It doesn't matter if WHM is massively played or not in this argument. It's massively played because out of all of the healer roles, WHM is the easiest and most iconic of them all, that's why. None of the healers feel unique aside from some nuances here and there, AST may as well be considered just a combination of SCH/WHM.
And they keep making some better than the others without learning from past mistakes. (I'm loooking at youuu AST.)
And I'm not even sure why you're mentioning MCH in a discussion about healers that has no place to be mentioned honestly.
It's simple. Because Dancer made more sense as a ranged DPS than a healer, it doesn't matter who plays BRD or who plays MCH. Healers should be fixed as well, you're just angry dancer wasn't a healer and so you're constantly shifting the argument as much as possible to make it seem like it should have been just because it's what you wanted.
It makes no logical sense for it to be a healer in job wise.
And herein lies the problem with why we're not getting new healers.
I was hoping it would be a healer but I'm actually okay with it being ranged physical. It was the only alternative I was willing to accept because we only have 2, and ranged physicals are a de facto fourth role. I feel that their near-mandatory inclusion in 8-man content as the support slot does justify a bit of distinction from all other dps.
But what makes this even better is that 6.0 is definitely going to have a healer now, and it's now possible that it might be Chemist as our first non-mage healer! I'd love that!
I personally won't unsub because bar this the rest of the expansion appeals to me. I never change my character's race either so the race stuff doesn't bother me either.
That said, I am really disappointed. I feel kind of burned out on the current healers and wanted something that felt fresh and I didn't really find the battle system changes we get with an new expansion on the existing jobs really do that for me. I enjoy healing but it looks like I will have to look at the other roles if I want something that feels different as a choice of only three dishes gets old after several years.
Then maybe they shouldn't have added Dancer. Most of the people who seemed to hope for it seemed to hope it would be a healing class. Healers really needed something new.