Focusing on the wrong things

I want to take a case by case look at why I think many of the changes look great on paper.

WHM
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WHM maintains its excellent MP management tools and the lilies have been updated to provide some nice new toys to the WHM. The only thing the WHM really lost was Aero 3. Big deal.

Gained:
* Improved Plenary and Lily mechanics
* 2 new instant MP free heals
* New healing buff cooldown
* Big hitting AoE spell 4 or 5 times a dungeon

Lost:
Aero III

This just looks like a win to me.

AST
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In the majority of situations, most cards were not all that good. The usefulness of an AST in any given run was a mixed bag. This is REALLY true for dungeons (What the majority play) where you rarely needed tools like Bole or Ewer for any reason.

Now, every card is useful to someone and instead of playing a game with teammates (In terms of how much AST help them) AST fall more in line with other jobs and have a minigame to execute for nearly 100% positive results.

Other than the card rework system...AST lost...Time Dilation and Lord of Crowns damage.

Gained:
* A heal buff in Neutral Sect
* An AoE heal in celestial opposition (In trade for a stun and time dilation effects)
* An MP free AoE heal
*

Lost:
* Time Dilation (Now that cards will be available so often there really is not a need for this anymore)...RIP Enhanced Arrow/Time Dilation fun.
* Lord of Crowns damage (Changed into a buff)

In truth, I think AST, while less complex on the card system, is now far more approachable to the majority of players and will have some huge moments of feelings like a healing god. Oh yeah, Lightspeed and Gravity still exist. DPS will be fine.

SCH
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This is the one I think there is the most consensus exists about and I am most sympathetic (as a SCH main) to. Let's be real, SCH has had a full on identity shift. SCH traded AoE and some personal DPS tools for amazing recovery and prevention tools. There is no two ways about it, the DPS rotation of SCH is now simple, in exchange for more ways to make sure noone ever dies.

Gained:
* RECITATION! - This one cannot be overstated...absolutely a godlike cooldown that will allow SCH to reliably bypass mechanics.
* Excog on self
* An MP free AoE heal from the fairy
* INSTANT CAST FAIRY COMMANDS - Dear lord thank god. this will let the SCH reactively use the fairy to mitigate failed mechanics...especially with...
* Seraph - an pretty stellar buff to the fairy on a decent CD
* Art of War - AoE spam...pretty basic.

Lost:
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* AoE DPS tools - Ouch (Condensed due to char. limit)
* Energy Drain - This will shift some MP management to the fairy.

SCH will be fine for Trials and Raids. I imagine once people get decent with their new classes, this will be the least preferred dungeon healer because the AoE DPS potential just really is not there and is boring as sin. A DPS spender via Aetherflow would go a long way.

SCH actually has the strongest AoE nuke right now.
Its an Instant with 150 potency, Plenty of room to weave oGCDs without interrupting back to back casts. Slightly more MP cost to compensate. Con is that it requires melee range. Losing DoT spread sucks, But it does look like the Potency lost from Baned DoTs is baked into Art of War, once the DRs from the spread are taken into account via the 50 additional potency over Miasma II. Also a boon to healing with oGCDs, since we no longer *need* to burn an AF stack to spread DoTs, meaning more Lustrates for the Tank and more AoWs in return.

Pro for Gravity is its range and is now instant under Lightspeed, allowing better oGCD utilization during the LS window. Middle of the three on MP cost, but that's probably fair given its range. Although, Since it can potentially beef its own damage by 8% by burning a Lady on itself, that could bring Gravity closer to parity with Holy damage.

Pro for Holy is slightly faster cast time at base and the stun, though that loses effectiveness fast, lower potency at 140, But again requiring melee range. MP cost is below Gravity, the Stun is what makes it the 'best' AoE option since it eases Tank pressure. Either harsher Diminishing Returns on the stun, or replace it with a Blind effect. Though even that might cause people to consider it the best.

Losing Energy Drain for SCH certainly sucks for MP management if we're looking at it through a Stormblood lens, but the number of new, powerful and free healing provided by the Fairy not only means less MP 'wasted' using our own MP Healing, but it also opens more windows for Broils. More so than the other Healers, a well played SCH should be able to open DPS windows for itself more often than it does now.

Also I really like what I read of the new AST Cards. Since I cannot find ANY footage of AST gameplay from the media tour (Nor do I recall anyone talking about the changed Lord/Lady), I cannot validate Balance/Lord/Divination overwriting. Leaning towards overwrite but i'd love to be wrong.

Main complaint about sch dps has been that it just isn't fun, is a single button spam, has no risk/reward decision making, and leaves very little room for a skill gap to form. Basically anything that you may strive for on a class you'll be playing for months has been removed. Also, will be clunkier to play than the current iteration.

It's never been about numbers, just gameplay. It used to be that if you didn't like the whm gameplay you had options. Now you have reskins.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EaMett

Main complaint about sch dps has been that it just isn't fun, is a single button spam, has no risk/reward decision making, and leaves very little room for a skill gap to form. Basically anything that you may strive for on a class you'll be playing for months has been removed. Also, will be clunkier to play than the current iteration.

It's never been about numbers, just gameplay. It used to be that if you didn't like the whm gameplay you had options. Now you have reskins.

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100% agree

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HyperSMB

I want to take a case by case look at why I think many of the changes look great on paper.

WHM
--------

WHM maintains its excellent MP management tools and the lilies have been updated to provide some nice new toys to the WHM. The only thing the WHM really lost was Aero 3. Big deal.

Gained:
* Improved Plenary and Lily mechanics
* 2 new instant MP free heals
* New healing buff cooldown
* Big hitting AoE spell 4 or 5 times a dungeon

Lost:
Aero III

This just looks like a win to me.

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Not quite. The lilies are better, but Plenary in Stormblood allowed us to essentially toss out some medicas for one bit of AoE damage, and then use PI to take care of later AoE damage. Now it's just a flat "Add 200 potency to your next AoE!" which quite frankly is rarely needed.

I see everyone going nuts about the new healing buff... except everyone seems to forget that we LOST Largesse. So it's not a new healing buff, it's taking our existing one and moving it to level 80 with twice the cooldown.

One can't really say that WHM didn't suffer any negative changes.

We still have to see how the healing requirements are going to be. On paper it seems that their focus is entirely misplaced, but that is also going by the standards we currently have. This might change. However, I will also say that their focus isn't where it should be because healing and DPS capability was never what caused the toes being stepped on and leap frogging with meta healers in the first place. This happens because two healers can increase rDPS, and the last one cannot.

I am totally fine and have been asking for healers to be more like healers. As such, I am still going to play all three of them. I wasn't in favor of the removal of DPS skills and just wanted less downtime, but it is what it is. What ruffles my feathers is that the SCH/AST favored meta is still not going to change. It disturbs me that the problem rDPS capability causes should be glaring them in the face while someone making decisions is saying or agreeing to: "Remove the knockback along with the damage from Fluid Aura and increase its range." Or grab yet another WHM exclusive skill and give it to the others. WHM feels like an abuse victim whose perpetrator still buys them a Mercedes.

In short, it's a good thing I am such a tolerant and dedicated healer. Maybe even a foolish one. But based off of all the changes, I don't think I am going to like healing any less so that's a good thing. As far as healer balance goes though, we are as stagnant in that regard as ever.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EaMett

Main complaint about sch dps has been that it just isn't fun, is a single button spam, has no risk/reward decision making, and leaves very little room for a skill gap to form. Basically anything that you may strive for on a class you'll be playing for months has been removed. Also, will be clunkier to play than the current iteration.

It's never been about numbers, just gameplay. It used to be that if you didn't like the whm gameplay you had options. Now you have reskins.

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Exactly.
After seeing the PvP changes I am pretty angry. All healers are now the same, just with different names and skins. This is what we said over weeks now but that it is also hitting PvP wise is just hilarious.
SCH is still Hybrid there(needs Broil for Aetherflow) and all healers just have the same exact things and it just feels like you only change a talent and glamour for another heal(though WHM and AST do not HAVE to DPS to gain something).

All those changes, everything, is just a joke from SE right? My brother(who plays all 3 Healers and SCH got his heart) was just shocked today that it even hit PvP hard and that all predictions from the Forum were completely right. He is criticizing and now thinking what to main in ShB. He plays healer for over 16 years now, SCH was like the best class/job he ever had in any game, WHM felt amazing in PvP, even SCH and AST were fun but now everything is changing and he is confused what to do and think.
I can understand him, I can understand everyone complaining but I do not understand how SE is designing.
SEs way to design between the roles is so different. Look at SMN and SCH, like seriously, this is just a joke. The difference is a joke.
I am really sad about the changes and I don't know how ShB will feel if the gameplay of healers will be like that and I hate it if my healer community, my brother, have to suffer form these kind of changes because SE is not capable to design and balance correctly.

We don't care about being nerfed a little bit or being buffed a little bit ... we are upset because they simplify and make our healer more boring to play.

( and our salt is multiply by the fact that we don't have new healer precisely because they wanted to improve those 3 healer before )

Speaking about a 4th healer and looking at this disaster they created right now, am not really looking forward to any new healer because it will just end in a huge disappointment.