Which Healer has the best DPS Solo

Hey guys,

Simple question, when i first played ffxiv many many years ago, white mage and scholar both had lack luster DPS rotations, they could farm but it was very very slow

So im curious with astrot and all the changes, which healer is best at solo content

WHM is great for straight-up power + nearly infinite MP. SCH is no slouch either, more MP costs and Broil II spam isn't any more fun than Ruin spam but at least it has a cooler VFX to look at. AST is the weakest, and has the most MP issues, but can still do solo stuff.

I've found that WHM is far better than AST. I've been trying to solo most of the story quests with AST and it is painfully slow with the low damage output. WHM has far better damage in my experience.

It depends on the kind of DPS you are referring to, sustained or burst, and whether they are alone or not.

For burst DPS, WHM wins hands down, with AST in second and SCH last. This is not only a combination of their main DPS spell, but the rest of their oGCD kit. SCH is a Dot job, so that's where most of their damage comes from.

For sustained DPS, SCH reigns supreme, as they always have. Since they use DoTs as their primary means of damage they are able to attack and heal simultaneously. AST and WHM are almost tied for second and third, with who being where is more player dependent. But WHM is usually last since their spells cost more than an ASTs. But it should be noted that a portion of AST sustained DPS is dependent on their card draws.

Now as for a more definitive answer as to who has the best DPS, the best answer would probably be SCH. The main reason being, most fights are designed for sustained DPS over burst. There may be burst phases, but no fight is just bursting the enemy down.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

For sustained DPS, SCH reigns supreme, as they always have.

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We aren't talking about raids or end game content, this persons specifically asked who has the best DPS in solo content. The correct answer is WHM. If you go on a Target Dummy, and attack it for 10 minutes straight, WHM wins hands down every single time. This whole thing about Burst, Sustained, ETC. means absolutely nothing when talking about solo content.

WHM has the highest potencies on all of their spells, Stone IV > Broil II... ETC... The only reason SCH is beating them is because of off global cooldown heals, not because they have superior HPS or DPS... In solo content, there is no co-healer you can force to use GCD heals. Which gets me back to my main point, they are talking about SOLO content.

WHM is the best for solo content by far.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

For sustained DPS, SCH reigns supreme, as they always have.

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Furthermore, I'll agree SCH has "reigned supreme", more than any other healer throughout the entire games patches after the first expansion. But if you seriously think they have reigned supreme throughout every single patch and during 2.0 entirely, you are completely ignorant. I remember when lvl 50 was the max in binding coil of bahamut turn 2, my FC strongly encouraged me to level a WHM to 50 so we could entirely skip mechanics. Double WHM, was completely broken back then for T2, we could skip doing mechanics and just DPS it.

I really hope what you stated was a hyperbole of a situation that needs to be fixed.

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Originally Posted by Ftail

We aren't talking about raids or end game content, this persons specifically asked who has the best DPS in solo content. The correct answer is WHM. If you go on a Target Dummy, and attack it for 10 minutes straight, WHM wins hands down every single time. This whole thing about Burst, Sustained, ETC. means absolutely nothing when talking about solo content.

WHM has the highest potencies on all of their spells, Stone IV > Broil II... ETC... The only reason SCH is beating them is because of off global cooldown heals, not because they have superior HPS or DPS... In solo content, there is no co-healer you can force to use GCD heals. Which gets me back to my main point, they are talking about SOLO content.

WHM is the best for solo content by far.

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Originally Posted by Ftail

Furthermore, I'll agree SCH has "reigned supreme", more than any other healer throughout the entire games patches after the first expansion. But if you seriously think they have reigned supreme throughout every single patch and during 2.0 entirely, you are completely ignorant. I remember when lvl 50 was the max in binding coil of bahamut turn 2, my FC strongly encouraged me to level a WHM to 50 so we could entirely skip mechanics. Double WHM, was completely broken back then for T2, we could skip doing mechanics and just DPS it.

I really hope what you stated was a hyperbole of a situation that needs to be fixed.

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3 things:

1: Wow, just wow. Did anything in my answer warrant an attack on my personal intelligence. I wont degrade myself with a rebuttal here, but maybe you should think a bit more carefully before you reply to someone else's post.

2: My answer was SCH, because I said most "fights" were designed for sustained DPS, not most content. Last I checked, solo content still has various fights that need to be overcome.

You aren't inaccurate about what you said about the striking dummy either. But, as I'm sure you are aware, hitting a dummy is completely different than hitting a moving target that cannot attack back, with no mechanics to avoid. Plus the Coil reference you made is an example of a burst mechanic, which I believe I said WHM was better at, so...

3: There is no right answer to the OPs question. It is an open ended question, whose answer will be dependent on the responders personal experience. I gave my reason as to why I felt SCH had the best DPS, but that doesn't mean I am right. Just as you giving your reason doesn't make yours right either.

I think that SCH > WHM > AST in terms of DPS.

Outside of really weak stuff such as rando overworld mobs where WHM can burst harder.

In terms of numbers:

AST has Malefic III which is 220 Potency and Combust II which is 50 Potency 30s Duration (500 total Potency). There's some extra RNG boosts from getting Spear (More crits), Balance (More damage) or Lord of Crowns (300 Potency ST nuke).

WHM has Stove IV which is 250 Potency, Aero II which is 50 Potency 18s Duration (300 total Potency), Aero III which is 50 Potency with the DoT of 40 Potency 24s Duration (370 total Potency) plus AoE and Assize which has just been buffed to 400 Potency and is oGCD. (As a side note, overworld content can make Assize unusable, because it's large area of effect can make it hit non-aggressive enemies that you then need to spend time killing...)

SCH has Broil II which is 230 Potency, Miasma which is 35 Potency 24s Duration (280 total Potency), Bio II which is 35 Potency 30s Duration (350 total Potency), Miasma II which is 25 Potency 12s duration (100 total Potency) in an AoE, Shadow Flare which is 50 Potency 15s Duration (250 total Potency) which is an AoE and oGCD and Energy Drain which is 150 Potency and oGCD. They also have Chain Stratagem to boost crits temporarily.

So, with a bit of luck, AST can do quite well with decent card RNG. WHM has just the highest damage nuke which is what you spend most of your time spamming. Assize can be pretty effective, especially if you're having to heal yourself and so generating Lilies naturally to reduce its CD. While SCH has the larger number of tools to push out damage, with 2 oGCD abilities and some decent AoE damage and their nuke isn't that far behind WHM, though their DoTs are ironically a bit anaemic, especially if doing content where enemies won't last their full duration...

All in all, as a Healer, you're pretty much doomed to having pretty meh damage, mostly just spamming a 220-250 potency nuke every ~2.5 seconds... But there are some differences when you're doing content where you require healing, so SCH can have their Faerie heal them to spend more time pushing out damage, WHM can build Lillies to reduce the CD of Assize if not healing themselves through their oGCD heals alone, while AST is punished the most for requiring healing because they don't have any way to mitigate the DPS loss from having to cast heals instead of damage.

Yeah, the fairy does a lot of heavy lifting in certain solo scenarios. Not everything done solo is over in 15 seconds - solo duties among them, as well as anyone who wants to do things like soloing old raids. Then there's FATEs, particularly big-mob ones. Maps. If a white mage has to spend one extra GCD healing themselves over using a nuke it takes an additional 9-10 Stone IV casts before they make up that lost GCD in terms of nukes alone. If you're keeping regen on yourself throughout a fight that's 3 GCDs a minute. Assize, Tetra, and Benison all come somewhat late to the package. SCH has triple energy drain while soloing to compete with Assize on single target.

Then there's all the AoE stuff to consider in various bits of solo content and what that actually means.

Then there's the fact that we can now AoE heal NPC allies during solo duties - the Stormblood ones at least.

The technicalities on which healer has the easiest / quickest time soloing are...nuanced, if one really wants to get into a discussion of it. There's not much reason to, though. Nobody's theorycrafting who can do maps faster or who can solo old raids faster, but those are both examples of solo content. All healers do them fine, none of them blowing any other out of the water entirely in terms of ease to survive and general ease/time of killing. SCH used to be one of the first to solo old raids because of Critlo adding necessary survival, but with Stormblood jacking up the max damage we can take and having straight up insta-wipes...that likely won't be a factor in future 'old raids.'

Maybe the best way of putting it is...having a chocobo out will generally make more difference in the open world than any healer you've selected to play.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

3 things:

1: Wow, just wow. Did anything in my answer warrant an attack on my personal intelligence. I wont degrade myself with a rebuttal here, but maybe you should think a bit more carefully before you reply to someone else's post.

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I never degraded you, that's just your insecurities playing you. (I'm insulting you for a first time here, with "insecurities", however I never meant to offend you before.)

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Originally Posted by Eloah

2: My answer was SCH, because I said most "fights" were designed for sustained DPS, not most content. Last I checked, solo content still has various fights that need to be overcome.

You aren't inaccurate about what you said about the striking dummy either. But, as I'm sure you are aware, hitting a dummy is completely different than hitting a moving target that cannot attack back, with no mechanics to avoid. Plus the Coil reference you made is an example of a burst mechanic, which I believe I said WHM was better at, so...

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We aren't talking about most fights, we are talking about solo quests. If you think solo content, "still has various fights that need to be overcome." you are dead wrong.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

3: There is no right answer to the OPs question. It is an open ended question, whose answer will be dependent on the responders personal experience. I gave my reason as to why I felt SCH had the best DPS, but that doesn't mean I am right. Just as you giving your reason doesn't make yours right either.

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There actually is a right answer just because you can't comprehend it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. SCH does have the Best DPS in most circumstances. If you think it's always the best, you missed the entire point and i'm sorry for you.

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Originally Posted by Ftail

snip.

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Wow, if that was your attempt at a pseudo-apology, it's not a very good one. Calling me ignorant and then saying I can't comprehend something, aren't the nicest things to say to someone who has an opinion that differs from yours.

Now please, I don't want this to degrade itself into a post battle. You say WHM I say SCH, let's end it at that, for the sake of anyone else who wishes to express themselves on this thread.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

Wow, if that was your attempt at a pseudo-apology, it's not a very good one. Calling me ignorant and then saying I can't comprehend something aren't the nicest things to say to someone who has an opinion that differs from yours.

Now please, I don't want this to degrade itself into a post battle. You say WHM I say SCH, let's end it at that, for the sake of anyone else who wishes to express themselves on this thread.

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I didn't say you were ignorant, I said you could be ignorant or you could be using a hyperbole that I agree with.

Edit:

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Originally Posted by Ftail

I really hope what you stated was a hyperbole of a situation that needs to be fixed.

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Originally Posted by Erakir

If a white mage has to spend one extra GCD healing themselves over using a nuke it takes an additional 9-10 Stone IV casts before they make up that lost GCD in terms of nukes alone.

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Ignoring the fact that you are wrong in your estimate, the same argument can be made for SCH or AST, except more so, since they have lower potency on their attacks. You don't make up an attack, when you use a GCD to heal, you can continue to attack, but that GCD is lost forever. If we are talking about maximizing DPS for the elite, this is a big deal. However, we are talking about solo DPS without a group, where this doesn't matter.

I would say Scholar, because you can switch to Summoner. Anything you do as a Summoner gets you Scholar experience, too.

WHM has the best raw DPS and can burst pretty hard in shorter encounters thanks to Pressence of Mind.

In longer fights I would still argue WHM due to number of MP resources available (Thin Air and 45s Assize). I find myself with a sizable pool of MP on WHM when both SCH and AST would start to run out. You can't really DPS successfully if you have no MP to DPS with.

But if you're looking to purely do solo content in the sense that you're literally the only player, you really shouldn't be looking at healers. Anything 60 or above can be solo'd exceedingly well with a RDM who has lower HPS potential but significantly higher DPS potential. Things dying faster is the best way to mitigate damage.

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Originally Posted by Ftail

Ignoring the fact that you are wrong in your estimate, the same argument can be made for SCH or AST, except more so, since they have lower potency on their attacks. You don't make up an attack, when you use a GCD to heal, you can continue to attack, but that GCD is lost forever. If we are talking about maximizing DPS for the elite, this is a big deal. However, we are talking about solo DPS without a group, where this doesn't matter.

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Wrong in my estimate?

If I use a GCD to heal that I wouldn't have needed to use had I been on SCH since it has a completely free fairy ticking on me nonstop while I'm soloing, I have "lost" 250 potential potency. That GCD is gone, yes. At this t=0 moment, with pure nukes alone, this puts WHM at 0 potency and SCH at 230 potency.

If both healers spent the next 9 GCDs purely nuking with Stone/Broil WHM is now at 9*250 = 2250 potency. SCH would be at 2300. It takes a 10th stone to "make up" the lost damage relative to had I been on SCH and not needed to use a GCD healing because I have a permanent regen on me while soloing. Yes, it's not entirely accurate because over those next 10 GCDs there are DoT refreshes and other things going on. Yes, of course if all healers have to use that GCD to heal in a situation then none of them gain a leg up on potency-per-second.

I'm talking about solo DPS, too. I'm just talking about more than the 10 second open world trash fights. I'm not going to ignore the gained GCDs from a fairy if I'm soloing a single mob FATE or something more difficult (Palace of the Dead? Heaven on High? You're highly encouraged to go quick if you're trying to solo up to a point here), but as WHM levels up it will obtain 'free' oGCD healing via asylum, benison, assize, and tetra. Benediction too. Doesn't eclipse the fairy if I look at everything from a healing potency-per-minute standpoint, and oGCDs still cost time unless weaved, but those bring things a lot closer. This doesn't factor energy drain healing, it doesn't factor fairy laser cause that's level 70. Doesn't really factor rouse. Heck there's even the shadowflare slow that we forget exists.

You won't hear me arguing that in many instances this solo-healing-sustain aspect won't matter and you can just mash your face with Stone and assize to kill a mob in 5 seconds, sure. WHM factually has the most target dummy DPS. On the whole I'm very inclined to say WHM comes out ahead in solo content, but I'm not gonna ignore caveats that put SCH closer and potentially ahead in certain scenarios. It's simply not as cut and dry as copying the Stone Sea Sky numbers.

Ghish is right, though, that in many of these prolonged-solo situations where this can become pertinent, a SCH will feel the MP bar before a WHM will, and that's another point for WHM - and what they say about RDM is completely true.

there is no real pro or con in solocontent for a certen healer - dps-wise they are so close that playstylepreferances are more importend. SCH is more sustained dps while WHM is more burst. but its up to you what you like better.
Just make sure to have snacks for your chocobo with you...

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Originally Posted by Erakir

Snip

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You're missing the point, you don't "Make Up" damage that you lose when you spend a GCD to heal. That damage is lost forever.

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Originally Posted by Ftail

You're missing the point, you don't "Make Up" damage that you lose when you spend a GCD to heal. That damage is lost forever.

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No, you're missing my point. I understand that 19 Stones will always be less than 20 stones. That 48 Broils will always be less than 49 Broils. But we're comparing healers here. This is a relative comparison. What will X do over a period of time, what will Y do over the same time given all the conditionals involved. The conditions are not always "striking dummy" and I've tried to mention several pieces of solo content that showcase this.

If one healer has to spend an additional single GCD cast to heal themselves and another healer doesn't, the second healer has fit in an additional filler DPS spell. In the case of WHM vs SCH, it takes 25 seconds of straight DPS filler nukes before the WHM has caught up with the same SCH in terms of their output from that one extra Broil the SCH got in vs a WHM's "lost" stone IV from, say, casting regen on themselves. The fairy frees up potential healing GCDs in various bits of content - yes, while solo.

I don't know how else to phrase it without breaking out a timeline of graphics or putting it in a chart. It's all predicated on "Does the WHM have to cast a GCD heal that a SCH doesn't" - and in many cases that answer is no. But not all of them.

Don't forget if all you're concerned about is DPS, SCH has selene which after Fey wind can be dissipated for bonus Aetherflow stacks aka more damage.

I think in a straight up dummy fight, a well played SCH can out dps a well played WHM.

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Originally Posted by Erakir

No, you're missing my point. I understand that 19 Stones will always be less than 20 stones. That 48 Broils will always be less than 49 Broils. But we're comparing healers here. This is a relative comparison. What will X do over a period of time, what will Y do over the same time given all the conditionals involved. The conditions are not always "striking dummy" and I've tried to mention several pieces of solo content that showcase this.

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What you posted here contradicts what you stated earlier.

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Originally Posted by Erakir

If a white mage has to spend one extra GCD healing themselves over using a nuke it takes an additional 9-10 Stone IV casts before they make up that lost GCD in terms of nukes alone.

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I was wrong when I said,

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Originally Posted by Ftail

except more so, since they have lower potency on their attacks.

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I can admit when I said something wrong, which I linked here to prove my ignorance. SCH is able to beat WHM in DPS, even with a lower potency attacks because they cast it more.

A lost GCD is lost GCD, I hope you can admit your faults and we can come to an agreement that we we're both wrong at points. The reason I argue with people on here is to learn, and I learned a lot, and I hope you can too.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

edit: hitting a dummy is completely different than hitting a moving target that cannot attack back, with no mechanics to avoid.

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What do you think Solo content is with no other party members? Do you think it's as hard as a savage fight or something?

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Originally Posted by Eloah

1: Wow, just wow. Did anything in my answer warrant an attack on my personal intelligence. I wont degrade myself with a rebuttal here, but maybe you should think a bit more carefully before you reply to someone else's post.

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Please be more careful when reading someones else's post and getting offended by it for no reason. Especially, when those people agree with you for the most part.

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Originally Posted by Ftail

I really hope what you stated was a hyperbole of a situation that needs to be fixed.

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Originally Posted by Erakir

If I use a GCD to heal that I wouldn't have needed to use had I been on SCH since it has a completely free fairy ticking on me nonstop

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Edit: WHM has two regens you can put on yourself, you don't need a fairy to heal you when you have two regens you can put on yourself right before a fight. SCH doesn't have regens on demand, it's on a cooldown for a single regen.

Erakir, I just want to thank you before I stop responding to this thread. You replied to me with information that helped me change my perspective. Other people just say I'm insulting them, so they don't care to read the points I had to make. You are respectful and replied to me in a manner that was constructive to the thread. I actually learned a lot from reading your comments, which was my original goal. Thank you for increasing my knowledge, and arguing with me helped change my perspective on some things. Honestly, it's because of people like you who argue with facts instead of feelings, that I still post on these forums. It's always a delight to read what you have posted.

W-What's going on here O_o

Anyway... SCH>WHM>AST for solo
SCH>AST>WHM for party.

SCH wins in solo situations because of their crazy self sustainability and mobile options, WHM can come close but will need to stop to heal or avoid an aoe, and as soon as that happens you're losing.

Are people really trying to boil this down to a single GCD being a difference maker? I don't recall any time during solo-content where pre-regen didn't do this for me each and every time with no need to stop - hell you can double-regen for extended battles if you wanted to stop, or asylum-regen if you didn't - all you had to think of as a WHM was getting your target dead. Aside from certain story-mode bosses or very specific fights, you have nothing to do other than cast regen between kills and go ham -- yes, even if Assize pulled extras. It's not like you HAVE to kill extra pulls in most cases, and if you wanted to anyway you can just go HolyMoly and move on. Heck back when I was curious about treasure chests I'd just plop Asylum/Regen and blow up everything with PoM/Holy/AIII without even needing to look at my healthbar. Furthermore, they have the MP Regen to keep this up.

It is not accurate to treat everything like striking-dummies, nor is it accurate to try and be pedantic over minor variables like 'Joe Soap might need to use a heal - oh my!' - there is no doubt in my mind, having recently levelled my AST after spending forever as a WHM, that WHM to this day feels the fastest and smoothest in every situation that both encountered. This isn't the same as comparing it to raiding where situations are far more contained and comparisons are much easier to make via data, mass examples and streamlined processes within static/equal situations.

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Originally Posted by RopeDrink

Are people really trying to boil this down to a single GCD being a difference maker? I don't recall any time during solo-content where pre-regen didn't do this for me each and every time with no need to stop - hell you can double-regen for extended battles if you wanted to stop, or asylum-regen if you didn't - all you had to think of as a WHM was getting your target dead.

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Well, it all came down to the lack of defining "Solo Content"

What is solo content?

Is it overworld?

Is it MSQ?

Is it soloing level 50 Hard Dungeons?

Level 60 Hard Dungeons?

Level 50 Trials?

All these can be considered "Solo Content" if you well... Solo them.

Some can be blasted through without any issue.

Some WILL require you to heal yourself.

Thus DPS will be affected by GCD's spent not pushing out damage.

In case anyone was wondering the raw potency values:

6 min @ 2.5 GCD = 144 GCDs

SCH

• Shadow Flare - 250 potency / 60s = 6 Shadow Flares = 1,500 potency / 6 min
• Miasma - 300 potency / GCD (24s) = 15 GCDs = 4,500 potency / 6 min
• Bio II - 350 potency / GCD (30s) = 12 GCDs = 4,200 potency / 6 min
• Energy Drain - 450 potency / 45s = 3 Energy Drains for Initial + 24 Energy Drains/45s + 6 for Dissipation = 4,950 potency / 6 min
• Broil II - 230 potency / GCD = 117 GCDs = 26,910 potency / 6 min

42,060 potency / 6 min
7,010 potency / min


WHM

• Assize - 400 Potency / 45s = 8 Assize = 3,200 potency / 6 min
• Aero II - 350 potency / GCD (18s) = 20 GCDs = 7,000 potency / 6 min
• Aero III - 370 potency / GCD (24s) = 15 GCDs = 5,550 potency / 6 min
• Stone IV - 250 potency / GCD = 109 GCDs + 4 GCD for PoM = 28,250 potency / 6 min

44,000 potency / 6 min
7,333.33 potency / min

WHM will lose 100 potency per oGCD clip so with 8 Assizes and assuming they all clip you can drop WHM's potency by 800 to 43,200 / 6 min (7,200 potency / min)


AST

• Earthly Star - 200 Potency / 60s = 6 Earthly Star = 1,200 potency / 6 min
• Combust - 500 potency / GCD (30s) = 12 GCDs = 6,000 potency / 6 min
• Malefic III - 220 potency / GCD = 132 GCDs = 29,040 potency / 6 min
• Lord of Crowns - 300 potency / Sleeve Draw = 3 Lord of Crowns = 900 potency / 6 min

37,140 potency / 6 min
6,190 potency / min

Let me know if I missed anything~

Judge what you will from these values too~

For Lord of Crowns of AST, it's more complicated than that.
You need to do probabilites with Draw and Sleeve Draw to be able to calculate the average of Lord of Crowns drawn for your 6 min.

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Originally Posted by Ceasaria

For Lord of Crowns of AST, it's more complicated than that.
You need to do probabilites with Draw and Sleeve Draw to be able to calculate the average of Lord of Crowns drawn for your 6 min.

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Yeah AST is not so straightforward when you got out of "raw potencies" because buffing is in AST's rotation. In 6 minutes, you Draw 12 times and you Sleeve Draw 3 times. If you are solo, then you can Spear/Balance or even Arrow yourself a lot during these 6 minutes, and it will necessarily alter those raw figures, even if you trade off some Lord of Crowns.

I don't disagree with the sentiment above, but I definitely don't have the time to do those calculations at this juncture either, unfortunately.

For an absolute (and also extremely unlikely) maximum , one could assume the AST will have 100% solo Balance uptime.

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Well, it all came down to the lack of defining "Solo Content"

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There doesn't have to be a clear definition. My point was that people are getting overly pedantic over details when the content is sporadic - it's not like we're comparing healers in a raid scenario where such things actually have merit in a more stable environment vs set content. If Joe Soap decides to solo MSQ on day one and then do overworld on day two followed by the odd unsynced dungeon solo on each day, they're not going to swap healers to squeeze out an extra 1-5%. The vast majority who ask such a broad question do not do so with intent to have it smashed down to end-game calculations and nit-picking.

I have no desire to do any calculations myself either, yet based on the information provided by those who have, as well as my own experience, WHM has always been the smoothest experience in terms of achieving whatever I want as a solo-healer. You know, generic term. It doesn't have to boil down to each individual portion of what does or does not constitute being 'solo'. No amount of "Yeah but you lose X potency when you heal yourself" is going to change this.

WHM to me is the obvious answer. They have the edge in potency, can regen between pulls, have arguably the best burst tools and have next to no MP concerns (and of course a lot of solo content would allow passive MP & Health regen between pulls anyway which renders some factors moot in X or Y content type - more variables). I don't care if assize pulls extras, or if I get sloppy and decide I might waste time using a heal - the last thing I care about is 'oh no, it's not a DPS button, this means my efficiency has dropped'. That level of detail is often only really digestible by those at the higher end of the spectrum whom value it, and happens at such a variable rate that trying to calculate it in such a pedantic manner will never be accurate. I rarely heal myself when solo - a new player may be more cautious and heal much more than needed. They don't know where to go to maintain levelling up-time, may not know when DoTs are worth using, [insert plethora of other tiny details that effect everything due to it being a broad term].

There is more than enough to see that even if you threw all the variables at it, a WHM would very likely still be the smoothest ride due to potency/burst and lack of MP concerns with double passive healing. It's probably one of the few things going for it at the moment, which isn't saying much seeing as the gap between healers in a 'casual' sense isn't that big. End game is different, hence don't treat them as the same as it doesn't make things any more or less accurate and just confuses matters for anyone reading who is not a number-crunching tri-healer who probably stopped doing solo content years ago.

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Originally Posted by RopeDrink

There doesn't have to be a clear definition. My point was that people are getting overly pedantic over details when the content is sporadic - it's not like we're comparing healers in a raid scenario where such things actually have merit in a more stable environment vs set content. If Joe Soap decides to solo MSQ on day one and then do overworld on day two followed by the odd unsynced dungeon solo on each day, they're not going to swap healers to squeeze out an extra 1-5%. The vast majority who ask such a broad question do not do so with intent to have it smashed down to end-game calculations and nit-picking.

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However, without a clear definition, you can't be sure whether the person who's asking is Joe Soap going into MSQ/Overworld/an Unsynced dungeon where the difference between healer DPS is so marginal so to as not be important, or if they're looking to do content that is much more difficult and strict in DPS output such as soloing the Odin trial, where time spent healing instead of DPS becomes more significant.

I mean, someone asks a question on the forums, it's generally a sign they want an answer a bit deeper than "Well, IMO WHM feels smoother" whatever the heck "Smoother" means in terms of DPS output (I guess you mean "Does more damage" or something? Or bursts the usual chaff you fight in overworld/MSQ better?)

Since, if we're going on "Feelings" then personally, I've found AST to feel stronger than the other 2 healers. Ironically, given that statistically they're the weakest, it just feels like Malefic has been chunking way harder than Stone and Broil, not even accounting for cards (My card RNG is the worst... Apparently the game thinks I need nothing but The Spire and The Arrow).

However, that's not really going to help someone who might want to know what actually is the highest DPS healer in a solo environment, if, for whatever reason, they wish to actually use a healer to tackle some tough fights. Rather than looking for a healer class to level up solo (Which would definitely be SCH because you can level as SMN for fighting overworld and then just do dungeons as SCH for fast queues) or to just do general casual end-game farming (Again, SCH because of also getting SMN to use)

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Originally Posted by RopeDrink

WHM to me is the obvious answer. They have the edge in potency, can regen between pulls, have arguably the best burst tools and have next to no MP concerns (and of course a lot of solo content would allow passive MP & Health regen between pulls anyway which renders some factors moot in X or Y content type - more variables). I don't care if assize pulls extras, or if I get sloppy and decide I might waste time using a heal - the last thing I care about is 'oh no, it's not a DPS button, this means my efficiency has dropped'.

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Yet, there's also merits to other healers. SCH doesn't need to regen between pulls because they have their fairy constantly healing them and AST can Aspected Benefic for regen too - Both can also use Adlo/AB for shields if they wish instead. SCH also has little concern for MP due to Aetherflow and Energy Drain.

AST is the only one who has MP concerns, because you'd want to turn your Ewer cards into Balance/Kings for more damage.

However, again, depending on the content, this may or may not even be a concern. Casual grinding and leveling makes all these things moot, because you either don't have access to the skill or more than likely, you have little need to use these skills.

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Originally Posted by RopeDrink

End game is different, hence don't treat them as the same as it doesn't make things any more or less accurate and just confuses matters for anyone reading who is not a number-crunching tri-healer who probably stopped doing solo content years ago.

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End game is vastly different, because it's not solo.

However, the people who focus entirely on end-game and non-solo content, probably wouldn't care to enter a thread that's specifically talking about SOLO healers doing stuff SOLO (Rather than being the sole healer in a raid with maybe a RDM as backup for Verraise and Vercure in a pinch).

So the end of the day it's:

If you're casual and just wanna casually farm stuff, go SCH because you can then just play SMN which will out DPS all the healers.

If you still wanna farm stuff on specifically healer, then it honestly doesn't matter because they're mostly in line with each other.

If you wanna try and solo difficult content then there's an argument to be made for either SCH or WHM as they have the best mana management as well as mechanisms for higher uptime on DPS (Which can be relevant depending on the content such as avoiding Odin's Shin-Zantetsuken after 6 minutes/when he's at 15% life which gives you only a ~30s window to kill him in)