To healers enjoying 5.0: a gil for your thoughts?

SCH is utterly gutted. It's still my main healer, but I guess all my teams from here on out are just going to have to deal with me playing the worst healer and suck it up. I don't understand why we can't use Aetherflow or Dissipation outside of combat. SCH is the only class that is intentionally gimped going into combat. And on top of that the massive nerf to crit Adlo + Deployment Tactics. AND the nerf to Faerie skills. And taking away 65% of the DPS skills.

AST is extremely effective in its current state (I'd even go so far as to say Neutral Sect renders both SCH and WHM meaningless), but it's BORING. All the cards do exactly the same thing and the class now requires no real skill to play. And Divination is such a long cooldown that managing your card alignment doesn't even matter because you have an eternity to draw the correct types.

WHM thankfully was improved SLIGHTLY, though it's main issue of having constant overhealing (i.e. wasted cooldowns and mana) but also no mitigation is still present and extremely apparently in more difficult pulls. It really hasn't changed, though at least lilies aren't totally useless anymore. I guess. At least they didn't nerf anything on this class (not that they needed to).


I guess I'm going to be switching to AST because it is currently BY FAR the most effective healing class, but man, the class is so boring now. I used to actually have to engage with AST and think about what I was doing and plan my tarot card usage, but now I can heal while asleep. It used to be tons of fun and one of the "thinking man's" classes, similar to machinist or pre-nerf scholar.

I mean, if I wanted to turn off my brain I'd just be playing my RDM.

I think the reason that i'm enjoying my Ast on this expansion is not so much the skills or whatever healer role got. But that the expansion was put so well. That you just enjoy it if you don't rush. Idk really. I am having fun lol.

The farther I have gotten in Shadowbringers, the more I have been enjoying Sch. Sure I miss a few abilities that are gone and not being able to use aetherflow outside of combat, and it took some adjusting but it has been working fairly well for me. Still would like a few more things to do when the healing isn't needed.

70-73 was a bit rougher, but Recitation picks up a nice bit of the slack from the missing skills once get used to it. Then it kinda has been building from there. It picked up a bit more at 78 as the regen on Sacred Soil is very nice. I haven't hit 80 yet, but I have heard many like Seraph.

So far been starting dungeons with Recitation -> Exocog then adlo for the first pull. On later ones I try and save recitation for adlo. Then from there its just doing whats needed based on the fight/pull. Even been starting to find ways to sneak in a few extra bio's on the big pull now that have gotten more of the new tools.

Did Halatali hm as AST and did just fine with the tank pulling everything in the beginning. Honestly the new card system is more fun because the seals feel like fishing for all 3 Royal Road buffs instead of just the one. I've had no problems with healing output, MP or enmity in pre-ShB dungeons.

SCH feels easier to manage after the pet changes, although Bane was more fun than the new AoE. No problems with MP, healing or enmity.

Also didn't take long to get used to the combat requirements of the seals and Aetherflow.

A gil for my thoughts? You can have them for free.

Absolutely loving White Mage right now. It doesn't feel dissimilar to how it was, yet it is smoother - with more to consider/weave and no loss to our knack for making space to do other things.

Fluid Aura being bind-only - removes the knockback-annoyance and can give you a teeny bit of playmaking, even if just from a levelling or overworld perspective.
Asylum adding to heals on those within is infinitely better than what it was.
Indulgence pepping our heals rather than just being an unnecessary 'other AoE heal' for topping people - makes for some very powerful recovery on demand.
Wings - look cheesy as hell but the fact we can share a bit of mitigation and add even more healing potency is nice to have.
Benison - still a boss.
Afflatus - I will happily take this over AoE-Aero. Thanks to the new insta-heals and weaving recovery between Holy or whatever you're pressing, you can set up some nice (albeit short) burst windows on demand. Nothing quite like seeing 65k crits in plain Weathered gear as a Healer.
Holy - good god. Costs practically no MP. Doesn't hit nearly as hard but the spammability (coupled with plenty of ways to keep people alive in between) is just delicious.
Cure/CureII - CureI being slightly faster-casting @ 450 potency means it's a great top-up button for DPS (seeing as mostly everything else is a big overheal risk), meaning you won't feel bad for fishing for the odd proc. CureII is still a chunky replacement for any lack of lilies.
Assize - still a boss.
Glare - looks lovely (far less of an eyesore than all versions of stone) and still hits for a meaty amount.

As said before, WHM still feels like WHM of eld, yet there's more to consider and the package feels fuller and smoother without being all that much different. I had an absolute blast levelling to 80 and will remain a WHM main as I've always been.

I really love what they did for healers in terms of... having to actually heal, and I hope they go even further down this road in the long run. This is all I can say without going off-topic too much, because what they did to Astrologian(my main job in 4.x) I do not like one bit, and it made me switch over to DPS. I'll gladly heal for shorter roulette queue times though ^_^.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RopeDrink

A gil for my thoughts? You can have them for free.

Absolutely loving White Mage right now. It doesn't feel dissimilar to how it was, yet it is smoother - with more to consider/weave and no loss to our knack for making space to do other things.

Fluid Aura being bind-only - removes the knockback-annoyance and can give you a teeny bit of playmaking, even if just from a levelling or overworld perspective.
Asylum adding to heals on those within is infinitely better than what it was.
Indulgence pepping our heals rather than just being an unnecessary 'other AoE heal' for topping people - makes for some very powerful recovery on demand.
Wings - look cheesy as hell but the fact we can share a bit of mitigation and add even more healing potency is nice to have.
Benison - still a boss.
Afflatus - I will happily take this over AoE-Aero. Thanks to the new insta-heals and weaving recovery between Holy or whatever you're pressing, you can set up some nice (albeit short) burst windows on demand. Nothing quite like seeing 65k crits in plain Weathered gear as a Healer.
Holy - good god. Costs practically no MP. Doesn't hit nearly as hard but the spammability (coupled with plenty of ways to keep people alive in between) is just delicious.
Cure/CureII - CureI being slightly faster-casting @ 450 potency means it's a great top-up button for DPS (seeing as mostly everything else is a big overheal risk), meaning you won't feel bad for fishing for the odd proc. CureII is still a chunky replacement for any lack of lilies.
Assize - still a boss.
Glare - looks lovely (far less of an eyesore than all versions of stone) and still hits for a meaty amount.

As said before, WHM still feels like WHM of eld, yet there's more to consider and the package feels fuller and smoother without being all that much different. I had an absolute blast levelling to 80 and will remain a WHM main as I've always been.

---

Doesn't it feel like WHM has a lot of redundant abilities now?

When it comes to effectiveness WHM sems best by far right now, with both healing and damage being through the roof. Can't say much whether it's fun to be spamming glare/holy or not, but in Trials and Dungeons WHM is a complete powerhouse.

Current AST was definitely very fun for me, getting it to max level.
Between new cards requiring constant maintenance, variety of healing CDs and those cooldowns actually being necessary (at times, with tanks still adjusting to changes) AST healing kit feels more complex than in SB.
Sadly all that complexity isn't rewarding. Buffs from cards are barely visible, Divination is boring by design and the amount of "useless" buttons we now have is silly. Celestial opposition with its potency is only a tiny step above being a waste of hotbar space. (RIP AoE stun, I still miss you) Collective Unconsciousness... the animation is still pretty, I guess? Also Noct sect is remains being a trap. Diurnal all the way.

Then you enter max level EX Trials and you realize that all your spells,(even the GCD heals) hit like wet noodle.
No matter how hard you try to time your Cards/Divination/Earthly Stars etc. properly - SCH and WHM do the job better and require less effort.

So yeah, I'm gonna go back to crying in the corner, using all my new shiny buttons to shield myself from reality.

The first time since I started playing ARR that I don't know which of the healers to play. Not because they are all so fun but because all are just so meh. I always switched between them, AST was my main but constantly played SCH and WHM too for pretty much all content. Now I switch between them and nothing sticks. Nothing stands out, nothing clicks with me. Maybe after 5+ years ONLY playing healers in FFXIV I am done with healing...

Finally got my SCH to 80 and it plays so well at that level, Summon Seraph is basically Rouse on steroids and it's so satisfying when you have it out. While I'll confess it took a hit on lower levels, I dont feel it's as bad as most people where making it out to be.

I'm positively in love with the way sch plays and flows now. Once they address some of the bugginess with the pet I think they'll be in a very good spot

Also for those of yall who cant find your fairy, if you go into your targeting options in character configuration and toggle off the disable pet toggling button.