Suggestion, make light party content tank/dps/healer/support

Not the same thread you've seen before. It should be clear that the closest thing we have to a support class is not bard but Scholar. Make is so that the division becomes:
Tank: Mrd, Gld, war, pld
Healer: Cnj, Whm
DPS: Arc, Acn, Smn, Thm, Blm, Pgl, Mnk, Lnc, Drg
Support: Bard, Scholar

This way, groups will have the option of having the dps oriented support or the healing oriented support. Scholar's base class is still a dps class and with cleric stance it can still fulfill the regular dps duties. While we are at it, seal the deal by restoring the old effect of rain of death so that both scholar and bard have a mitigation skill.

Yes, I'm aware that this only leaves one healer job, but when the next wave of new classes and jobs come along, maybe this opens an opportunity for a melee type healer (like a medic class). It just occurs to me that scholars have the most support abilities out of most classes. It has the fairy aoe haste, fairy aoe damage reduction, fairy aoe regen, fairy aoe heal buff, several shielding skills, several mitigation skills, etc... Along with a weaker heals than the pure healing class whm. While bard has the aoe tp regen, aoe, mp regen, aoe resistance debuff, it used to have an aoe damage reducation, etc... along with weaker damage than a pure dps class. This is a perfect balance and as long as they add another healing class to prevent healer throttling, this should work out fine, where people will choose whether they want the support healer or the support dps. Of course premade groups will be completely unaffected so you have no worries for the content we currently have.

Aside from your idea of putting sch in the support category (lol @ weaker than whm), assuming the new gun job is support, as Yoshi said "it's not what we expect", then doing what you suggest would make for some god-awful terrible queues for the support role when it comes out.

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Originally Posted by Alistaire

Aside from your idea of putting sch in the support category (lol @ weaker than whm), assuming the new gun job is support, as Yoshi said "it's not what we expect", then doing what you suggest would make for some god-awful terrible queues for the support role when it comes out.

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By pure potency comparison, whm has both higher single target and aoe heals. That was my point.

Wouldn't this only work for 30+ content? Since Bard and Scholar are both "jobs". What about dungeons below Level 30?

This thread is so going to turn to WHM vs SCH lol.
I like the divide you created, especially that recently lots of my runs end up with double BRD aka zero LB. SCH is as good of a healer as WHM, imo it has no place in support.

If they add a new type of job then they should increase the light party size, or make it variable 4-6 or something. It's already bad with 2 dps to every tank when the actual player ratios probably don't come close to matching that based on queue times.

Support as a slot could work, but holy hell, not a SCH. SCH are 100% healers. They are built to buff and work in tandem with the fairy. If you are one of those people who are misguided by parsers, WHM will ALWAYS have bigger heals since they don't have a pet doing some of the grunt work for them. Shoot, a really good SCH can out heal a WHM if they can micro they fairy with perfection.

On topic, we'd most definitely need a selection of new classes that could act as a support, and they'd need some sort of MAJOR appeal to get players to choose them.

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Originally Posted by UBERHAXED

By pure potency comparison, whm has both higher single target and aoe heals. That was my point.

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Still doesn't place SCH in a support category lol

Better idea:

Change the party dynamic to one more akin to Rift. DPS, DPS, Tank, Heals, Support. With support able to float between DPS, Tank, and Heal roles as-needed.

WHM vs SCH aside, queue times for your proposed support role would be catastrophically bad.

Edit: Oh, and they'd make DPS queues twice as bad as they are now.