Healer Boost recomendation

After the the lack luster changes to SCH I have decided to switch healer roles. I am going to purchase a class booster. I need a recommendation. WHM or AST? Please explain why. I love to heal and feel under powered and overwhelmed with SCH.

SCH got many buffs that we requested. It is in a much better place, but if you really want to change, here are my thoughts.

Go with WHM if:
1) You want to feel powerful both DPS and raw healing
2) If you want to take part in progression style game play but eventually be phased out for an AST once they can solo heal everything since they bring more to the team.
3) Want to push fewer buttons

Go with AST if:
1) You want to be the busiest a healer can be since we have healing, DPS, and our cards to worry about.
2) Want to always be included as part of a team as one of the healers. (I can't imagine any team turning down an AST for one of the other healers if they don't have an AST already)
3) Want to feel really weak with solo DPS, until you realize that your cards boost the entire teams DPS and that is thus your own DPS making you the strongest healer DPS wise.
4) Have some of the prettiest spells and abilities in the game.
5) Want the absolute most boring DPS abilities out of the three healers.

Maku covers it very thoroughly. AST is the 'safe' choice -- powerful heals and tons of utility, guaranteed raid slot for both progression and farm/speedkill. But it's a busy, high skill cap job (although this may actually be a plus for you).

If you feel overwhelmed with SCH, WHM might be a better option than AST because you don't have the extra card management layer. You simply get a lot of high power healing options, great MP management tools, and strong personal DPS.

Unless you're doing the speed run type stuff, getting groups typically isn't a problem in Stormblood (although that can depend on just how bleeding edge you are on content). YMMV, of course. :)

Slightly on topic... What are the bonuses of having sch boosted (like Maku's description)?

Go with SCH if:

1) You want to run low level content without actually healing at all and just being a DPS with a healing pet.
2) You want to LVL SMN but don't want to actually use SMN until you have Bahamut (my main reason for leveling SCH to 70).
3) You have to be busier than a WHM but less busy than an AST, due to having to kind of micro manage pet but not really.
4) You like pet jobs.

I think SCH's kit is more fun to play with than Noct AST (even though AST is probably more powerful). Using Aetherflow stacks wisely, optimizing Chain Strategem and Deplo, and managing the fairy are more exciting than cards to me personally (Lightspeed being really niche because of it lowering damage also sucks too). This might be the perspective of a slightly bored raid-level AST who has played the job since it launched with HW, though.

It's still so unfortunate to me how much of WHM and SCH's balancing woes come from how awful and half-baked AST was as a healer concept. :(

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Originally Posted by Tridus

If you feel overwhelmed with SCH, WHM might be a better option than AST because you don't have the extra card management layer.

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Not necessarily. The first thing I noticed when I switched from WHM to AST was how much easier heavy-movement phases became. Essential Dignity's lower CD, Light Speed, the ability to place Earthly Star, and of course Aspected Benefic (not to mention Lady of Crowns) just gives you more options for keeping people alive while running than Tetra, Benediction, and Regen. AST is also arguably more approachable because its healing and DPS/support systems are almost entirely separate. WHM's much-vaunted personal DPS is contingent upon you utilizing two of your more potent healing tools -- Assize and Presence of Mind -- for dealing damage.

Ultimately, GCD bottleneck and movement-forcing mechanics are the biggest killers in tight healing situations and WHM just seems much more susceptible to both IMO.

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Originally Posted by Maku

4) You like pet jobs.

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Personally... this would be a stronger point for me if SE wasn't so afraid of pet jobs. I know it's a sensitive balancing issue. Nonetheless, SE has steadily been moving power away from pets and putting it onto the main job (for both SMN AND SCH)... not that they can't still be fun, but it kind of kills the 'pet job' appeal of it for me. (Any other game, if you told me there was a pet job healer, I would be all over it).

Honestly Aniond, I'd take a look at what sort of player you are to help get a better idea. WHM and AST can both get the job done across different levels of content but they have their strengths to be sure.

AST has a bucket load of utility. The card system has slowly become a bit less of an RNG slog and they can add a lot to the group outside of their ability to heal so long as you're comfortable managing your cards and healing at the same time. That is why you'll hear mention of WHM's being in a lot of high end content groups during first clears but being replaced by an AST as the one and only healer as time goes on.

WHM is the 'carry-ist' (yes that's a word now) of the healers in my opinion. They've got a lot of raw healing potency and several emergency nuke heal buttons as well as an endless pool of mana thanks to things like Thin Air and Assize. They don't bring utility to the party. Instead they are a massive Ctrl+Z and excel in dungeons and pulling new groups through content.

My advice would be, if you're on the fence and are a high end raider looking for a consistent, guaranteed spot, look at AST. They have a nice aesthetic and can be a joy once you get the flow down. If you're more the sort who spends a lot of time in dungeons and 24 man raids, WHM will definitely deliver on the fantasy of feeling like a powerful healer that can backpack sprouts through thick and thin.

Honestly I leveled AST (in Noct mode as much as posdible) immediately after SCH was capped, and am now leveling WHM, and the fluid simplicity of WHM is making me gleeful.

If it's the fact you feel underpowered as SCH, then WHM make be the way to go from the big bursts, but AST isn't lacking in that area. Really I think you should look at AST's card system and decide if balancing that on top of healing and weaving DPS looks to encumbering. (AST having a mitigation stance is nice, too.)

WHM utility comes more from the burst heals leading to more raw DPS uptime. It's kinda like SAM in that sense, though not as extreme.