Future healing class archetypes...

Was thinking about the future of healing classes and how they might implement new healers in the future.

Here are a few ideas in that vein...

Healing Through Damage

My favorite healing class of all time had to be the Discipline Priest from WoW. Its primary means of healing was via dealing damage, which was used to cover light healing, but it had additional tools to use if light healing wasn't going to be enough at that particular moment.

I'd love to see a healer like this in FFXIV, one that uses smart heals to heal the nearest injured party member when you deal damage to an enemy.

The balance of this kind of healer revolves around using DPS for light healing while more intensive healing requires the use of abilities that may quickly drain it of mana if you're not careful.

The Blood Healer

There's no real example for this healer that I can reference, but the idea is fairly straightforward: a healer that does its best healing by giving away chunks of its own HP to other players.

The class would focus on constantly restoring its HP using weaker but reliable spells, maybe primarily HoTs of some kind. It would then trade chunks of its HP to give larger chunks of HP to party members, and some of its cooldowns would do things like increase the amount of HP given for the same amount of HP taken, and something similar to DK's "living dead" where you can pop a CD to stay alive and keep healing at 0 HP for a short period of time.

The key to this healer would be situational awareness. You need to know when it's a good or bad time to "give it your all" as you place yourself at extreme risk if you drop too low right before a raid-wide AoE. The class may even have a trait for always taking reduced damage, due to its volatile nature.

The Melee Healer

Nothing too fancy here, just fairly potent heals that can only be done at short range, with perhaps the most powerful heals being in melee range. Now THIS class would definitely have a natural damage reduction, and possibly increased movement speed as it would be find itself needing to run to the targets it needs to heal in a hurry.

Also, this kind of class would be perfect for an aura of some kind: basically, a passive bubble that either has a HoT or % damage reduction just for being near the healer at the time.

I'm not sure if any of the aforementioned ideas could be added to the game as preestablished FF classes, but they'd be neat to see either way.

Feel free to post your own healing class concepts. :)

I feel like melee and heal-through-damage combined (cough mistweavers) would be perfect for a DANCER type healer in this game (only FF can do dancer better than mistweaver ever was, that poor class has so many balance issues)

As for blood healers, Vanguard had a blood mage that could heal and Forsaken World had the Vampire class, with a blood spec for healing.

Speaking of Forsaken World, check out the bard healer. They ONLY had aoe heals, no single target direct heals at all, and this cool combo system for combining chords to make song buffs.....

I would rather have a Plate Armor, Giant Mace wielding class.

A healer through damage can be a mess to balance when the class structure is so ridged.

The one class I think I see them doing next is a reverse Ninja, the Chemist. You use say 6 chemicals to create different effects via mix and match.

I have played around with the idea of a Pugilist and Conjurer melee heal job. I do this when I'm bored, and I love reading other people's ideas for jobs. The blood healer could be awesome, like a Necromancer. Though I like AST, I was a little disappointed it plays too much like the existing heal jobs, so I hope the next one can be different.

When ast was announced, I thought it would be a HoTs healer for sure as it would be a fitting third type of healer. Still waiting for a HoT healer although my favorite is the healer via damage, like chloromancer from Rift. anyone

When ast was announced, I thought it would be a HoTs healer for sure as it would be a fitting third type of healer. Still waiting for a HoT healer although my favorite is the healer via damage, like chloromancer from Rift.

I normally play a "heals through damage" class. Blood Mage in Vanguard was my favorite, along with Chloromancer in Rift and Blood Magic in The Secret World.

Honestly Healing Through Damage is a good sidethingie but should never be your main way to heal for a couple reasons:

If the heal is actually smart like the disc priest you are referring to then it's straight up cheating, the game is doing your work for you without any input other then hitting your damage rotation
A healer wants control above all else, you don't want your "smart" heal acting like a dumbass and healing the wrong target which might cause a wipe.

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Honestly Healing Through Damage is a good sidethingie but should never be your main way to heal for a couple reasons:

If the heal is actually smart like the disc priest you are referring to then it's straight up cheating, the game is doing your work for you without any input other then hitting your damage rotation
A healer wants control above all else, you don't want your "smart" heal acting like a dumbass and healing the wrong target which might cause a wipe.

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It's possible to do, without making everything a smart heal. VG did it very well with Blood Mage, as did The Secret World and Rift, but I'm not sure that XIV would support that kind of gameplay, since VG/TSW/Rift allowed you to have multiple targets.

It doesn't matter SE would bring yet another hybrid.
*jokes*

A TRUE BUFFER

I would like to see a TRUE buffer healer (AST does not count as full buffer job since their buffs are locked behind RNG) based in the elements, my friend and i had some ideas like:

Learned at level 20 *Fire* Blesses the target with fire, the next 4-5 attacks will deal 15-20% more damage, auto attacks not included . Does not stack with other elements.
CD- 15-25-30 seconds(maybe 30 seconds)

Learned at level 35 *Wind* Blesses the target with wind, the next 4-5 spells will be instant and the GCD reduced by 1 second. Does not stack with other elements.
CD- Same
and so on.... (actually in my opinion this is how AST should work...but anyways....)

This healer's CDs would be based in enhancing their buffs, spreading the current effect to all players in the area (not like royal road, but a sepparate hotkey with this specific effect) on a long CD... etc.

Their healing kit would be fully based in HoTs that would shine when paired with a co-healer (specially AST because their buffs would stack and this job would be able to complement AST weaknesses ) also this job would not have many DPS (2....3 maybe) abilities since their role would be to increase the raid DPS/Heals
This healer would have a great synergy with AST (just like SCH has a great synergy with WHM)

ALSO, their 60 CD could be an ability that reinforces your co-healer (or yourself) unique characteristic for example.

*uses lv60 skill on a WHM* all of WHMs heals/attacks would have their potencies increased by X% for 20 seconds

*uses lv60 skill on a SCH* all of SCH shields would have an increased 100 (or maybe 150) mitigation for 10 seconds. ( Adloquium would be a 400 shield, Succor would be a 250 shield )

*uses lv 60 skill on an AST* Draw would have its recast time reduced to 5-10 (probably 10) seconds and all cards would be buffed by 20% for 30-40 seconds

*uses lv 60 skill on *insert this healer job name here* or yourself* All of *insert name* buffs would be able to stack for 5 seconds (so you can throw fire+wind+etc and throw your target into a "super" mode)
Of course, this skill would have a super long CD (180-250 seconds maybe) and it can only be cast on healers.

I would definitely love to see a job like this in the game, it would be unique and usefull.
But, just like every other player, i can dream....right?
(sorry for the huge text wall >_>)

All these ideas r neat and would be cool to see in ffxiv but
The instances/ raids punish healers who cant heal the 3 types of dmg

-raidwide
-tank busters
-single target

With how yoshi designed these fights they will always require burst heals as the damage for progression groups is a lot and wimpy Hots wont do it. Because of how these fights r tailored around, any future healers will be forced to be jrs/ copies of the current existing healers.
There's just not enough diversity in playstyles for healers in content.
There will always be the age old debate of "why bring X when u can bring a healer that can heal better/ with less effort"

We have the spells for blood healer already or at least we had. In early 1.0 thm had sacrifice that took away a bit of hp to heal and put a regen on the target.

It is going to be really hard for them to come up with new ideas because they have covered quite a bit in the three we have:
1. WHM: Has really good single target healing and really good AOE Healing.
2. SCH: Crappy AOE healing (better now though) and lower single target healing but with shields.
3. AST: Can do both of the others but not quite as good as either. (although diurnal is pretty kick ass with all the changes now)
What else could they do? Better AOE healing would be way to OP. Better single target would not be the way to go either. You couldn't go that Bleed healer that people are talking about or they would not survive mechanics in raids...unless they change how they are doing fights completely.

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Originally Posted by Yumi_umi

All these ideas r neat and would be cool to see in ffxiv but
The instances/ raids punish healers who cant heal the 3 types of dmg

-raidwide
-tank busters
-single target

With how yoshi designed these fights they will always require burst heals as the damage for progression groups is a lot and wimpy Hots wont do it. Because of how these fights r tailored around, any future healers will be forced to be jrs/ copies of the current existing healers.
There's just not enough diversity in playstyles for healers in content.There will always be the age old debate of "why bring X when u can bring a healer that can heal better/ with less effort"

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That's why the healer i'm suggesting would have a 25s CD that converts HoT into one burst heal, also, most of my suggested job's HoTs stacks so you can have up to 3-4 HoTs going on your target, and one of the elements *earth* would be an "adloquium" kinda of buff that will mitigate a % of the next 2-3 hits (a big % btw because *earth* would have 60-70s CD)
Also the *water* element would increase the healing potency from the next 3-4 heals cast by you or your fellow healer.
SE is completelly capable of creating an unique healer with utilities for high level content without turning it into:
A) Hybrid
B) A copy of another healer with lower potencies. ._.

Next healer - Blue mage

Skills
See scholar core skills? Now rename 90% of them for something else. That's their skillset, also remove every possible dps chance the class might've.

Concept
Pet class in a nutshell, why? Because every boss fight is made of 4/8 vs 1 so blue mage enthralling capability wouldn't be possible so they need to be a pet class that summons their stuff into battle.

The gimmick
They use elemental bullets like the dude from the final fantasy anime, but instead of dealing damage, he either adds debuff to mobs or buffs to party members. Maybe add endow capability where each element causes a different effect on the target the buffed party member is hitting.

http://puu.sh/jVPrF.jpg

I'm missing HoT healer too. One that mainly does her healing through them and the burst heals are more and emergency measure.

I think chemist will be next but I think it will be more in line with a doctor aesthetic.

Or talking bigger. I could see them turning illusionist into a healer job.

I'd like to see a red mage as a healer.
Uses a rapier. but Using the same spells as a blm and whm put together probably wouldn't work, so i was thinking (staying within the "pulling from 2 types of magic" that reds are known for) it could use tp for attacking and mp for healing. Because it can pull from 2 separate resources, the trade off would be a slightly higher than average cost for spells and skills. Since your not using mp for everything. Id also like to see it have a lot od de-buffs.

Melee dps /debuff healer.

Given how fond the battle content designers seem to be of "stay away from the healer" mechanics, I can't see a melee healer ever really being a thing. Even if the melee parts were just their Cleric Stance equivalent, any progression-type fights with those sorts of mechanics would largely exclude them, since healer DPS is often needed to get past DPS checks at lower item levels.

AS4 is the most current example of this kind of mechanic, but we also saw it in Ifrit EX and T12 (though I know tanks often passed brands in the last phase).

A DPS-oriented healer (like Disc from WoW) would be pretty interesting, though a nightmare to balance given the progression community's emphasis on healer DPS. Such a healer would become the default alongside a SCH most likely, unless things changed significantly.

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Originally Posted by Alahra

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Im not saying it will be rge new dps healer. Just a different way to do it.
Thinking back to all the final fantasy tactics games, the red mage and fencer jobs do have some good ranged moves.
And all the melee class have at least 1 ranged move regardless.

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Originally Posted by Mikedizzy

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You don't need anything to be 'better' they just gotta be different play styles and unique in some way. Everything needs to be viable in most if not all situations but since the job system is around you just play what you like to play.

Granted it is something that they are having a hard time doing right now though.

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Originally Posted by nexas506

Im not saying it will be rge new dps healer. Just a different way to do it.
Thinking back to all the final fantasy tactics games, the red mage and fencer jobs do have some good ranged moves.
And all the melee class have at least 1 ranged move regardless.

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I was responding to the OP more than to you, which mentions the idea of both a DPS-oriented healer and a melee healer, separately. Both options would have some trouble in the current metagame, at least.

I want Red Mage more than most folks (I've been obsessed with that hat since I was 5), but I can't see them making it a melee healer if they go that route just because of current trends in encounter design.

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Originally Posted by Alahra

some valid stuff

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Oh. Ok. Then how about the debuff healer.
And omg dualcast. 1 cast time. Casts the spell twice. ( beef it up by cutting the total mp down by 25% like buy 1 get the second half off) and the off global cool down time depends on the spell used. Heal 1 is a 30 second CD. Heal 2 is a 45 second CD. Something like that.
I might just go make a red mage thread. Lol

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Originally Posted by nexas506

Oh. Ok. Then how about the debuff healer.
And omg dualcast. 1 cast time. Casts the spell twice. ( beef it up by cutting the total mp down by 25% like buy 1 get the second half off) and the off global cool down time depends on the spell used. Heal 1 is a 30 second CD. Heal 2 is a 45 second CD. Something like that.
I might just go make a red mage thread. Lol

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A debuff healer could work and would be the natural mirror of AST. I don't think RDM will be that healer, though (my best guess at this point is that RDM will be a tank, as that would cover 1) melee, 2) defensive/white magic, and 3) offensive elemental/black magic).

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Originally Posted by Alahra

I was responding to the OP more than to you, which mentions the idea of both a DPS-oriented healer and a melee healer, separately. Both options would have some trouble in the current metagame, at least.

I want Red Mage more than most folks (I've been obsessed with that hat since I was 5), but I can't see them making it a melee healer if they go that route just because of current trends in encounter design.

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Well I posted some time ago a Void Mage healer idea that was supposed to do a little bit more damage than SCH. The trade?
No cross class skills from CNJ so they can't be stacked in hardcore progression and situational AoE healing.

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Originally Posted by AlphaSonic

Well I posted some time ago a Void Mage healer idea that was supposed to do a little bit more damage than SCH. The trade?
No cross class skills from CNJ so they can't be stacked in hardcore progression and situational AoE healing.

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Maybe I'm having a moment, but I can't actually think of any CNJ cross-class that are actually universally useful except for Cleric Stance (which is something that any class without CNJ as a subclass would have to have its own version of, most likely), so that's not really a penalty. The AoE healing bit could be significant enough to prevent stacking, but it would be difficult to keep their AoE low enough to do that but not low enough to also prevent a DF pairing of two of the class from functioning.

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Originally Posted by Alahra

Maybe I'm having a moment, but I can't actually think of any CNJ cross-class that are actually universally useful except for Cleric Stance (which is something that any class without CNJ as a subclass would have to have its own version of, most likely), so that's not really a penalty. The AoE healing bit could be significant enough to prevent stacking, but it would be difficult to keep their AoE low enough to do that but not low enough to also prevent a DF pairing of two of the class from functioning.

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The penalty is not having protect, they had their own version of Cleric Stance.

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Originally Posted by AlphaSonic

The penalty is not having protect, they had their own version of Cleric Stance.

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Oh, Protect, wow. I can't believe I forgot that. >.< They couldn't remove that, though, as the class would need it when paired with itself in DF content like Trials and such, or even just solo in 4-man content.

Priest. Uses prayer and faith to command purifying magic. Each move be directly inspired by one of The 12. its story quests could involve you going to those places in eazoria with those rocks that have a symbol of the 12 on them in order to learn a new ability. It can also see beyond the physical plane and alter the world around him.
The stat changing healer. (like mind up,mind down. Dex up, dex down etc...) think about it. 6 main stats. 12 gods. Each one is already associated with an element so why not a stat too. Eachone would have a stat up or stat down ability.

1 more randomidea.. a healer that learn nothing for itself, but can cross class what ever it wants from the other healers.
(i know it sucks but it sounded fun)

If they made a dps healer then its obvs going to replace a healer.
A healer that can actually do a decent amount of dmg is welcomed more than a super potent healer that will most likely over heal if played by the majority.
So noooooooo to a dps healer, also yoshi would have to take back what he said when he mentioned
" healer dps was not taken into consideration "

So yoshi and the dev team really limited their choices with the content and healers they already made.

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Originally Posted by Yumi_umi

If they made a dps healer then its obvs going to replace a healer.
A healer that can actually do a decent amount of dmg is welcomed more than a super potent healer that will most likely over heal if played by the majority.
So noooooooo to a dps healer, also yoshi would have to take back what he said when he mentioned
" healer dps was not taken into consideration "

So yoshi and the dev team really limited their choices with the content and healers they already made.

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Funnily enough, that's the path they want to take white mage. They want to make it a paladin rather than a main healer (note the paladin class on JP is named knight).

I think this would be a really cool set-up in all honesty.

im thinking the blue mage will be the next healer cause red mage is obviously more suitable for a tank or DPS class in FF lore, so maybe you can heal and also cast abilities you learn from mobs...who knows want SE has stored for us