Which healer to use until Endwalker and Sage?

Hello, so with the coming of Endwalker and Yoshi P mentioning it being a full circle sort of thing, I've been thinking of going back to the role I mostly played as back during 2.0, a healer. I plan on being Sage, but I was wondering what healer job would be good to play as in the meantime to both get back into the healer groove as well as get myself ready and prepped for when Sage comes out. I would appreciate advice on what healer to play until Sage.

Scholar is probably a good pick since it is also a shield-based healer. And if you don't have any casters levelled yet, that gives you two jobs for the effort of one.

I do have all the casters at 80 and I have Sch at 80 with Whm at 77 and Ast at 70.

Why not level WHM and AST, since you don't have much left til 80 for either, play around with both a little, plenty of time til November.

I would say maybe AST using Nocturnal Sect. As that's what is being reworked to make room for Sage, that's probably going to be closest of the three healers to what Sage will play like. And instead of using cards to power up your allies, you'll be using abilities to augment your own spells.

Bonus on AST, when your downtime on healer is high, it's the least boring because cards.

It has more of a juggle than the other two. WHM and SCH are simpler for sure.

But for Sage prep, yeah SCH or Noct AST.

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Originally Posted by Renryuu

Hello, so with the coming of Endwalker and Yoshi P mentioning it being a full circle sort of thing, I've been thinking of going back to the role I mostly played as back during 2.0, a healer. I plan on being Sage, but I was wondering what healer job would be good to play as in the meantime to both get back into the healer groove as well as get myself ready and prepped for when Sage comes out. I would appreciate advice on what healer to play until Sage.

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Play the one you love, it's six months away, Endwalker. There's plenty of time to test them all and make up your own mind.

I dont reccomend any of them, but if I had to, I'd suggest noct ast so you can have a taste before it dies for good

Scholar because it’s the most engaging to someone familiar with the game but not up to date on the current healer meta. It’ll get you out of any former 2.0 habits pretty quickly given how much it pushes you to be proactive, and based on your level and gear you’re going to be tested a fair amount till you’re about current item level. It’s definitely more fun to learn than the other two comparatively speaking.

If you want to be a Sage come Endwalker, I would recommend SCH and Nocturnal AST. Shield healers are all about proactive mitigation versus reactive healing, so playing either shield healer in preparation for Sage will give you experience on pre-planning your shielding and being proactive about mitigation. You will have the faerie to juggle with SCH, but other than the buggy pet AI in this game, it’s not a terrible learning curve dealing with Eos/Selene and Seraph. The main issue with the latter is that most content doesn’t have a lot of outgoing damage to warrant using her without blatant overhealing/mitigation. But still worth toying with.

I’ve been taking SCH into level 80 24-mans and EX primals to play with it a bit more, and I’ve had a lot of fun. Does feel really nice to deploy Adlos and prep Consolations to take less damage.

Noct AST isn’t terrible either. It just isn’t as good as its Diurnal counterpart. It will be going away come 6.0, so if you’ve ever been curious about it, now would be the chance to try it out.

For what it's worth Noct AST is really not as good as Diurnal AST. It has its uses, if you main AST you should know when you should (or should not) play it. So, if you're in an alliance, there's a good chance, depending upon your co-healer that you won't end up in Noct AST. even in a 4 man, you may end up switching to diurnal, or even switching back and forth.

I think SCH is more challenging than AST under specific conditions - in general- if you die, SCH absolutely SUCKS. I'll let you find out why, really it's the healer that suffers the worst penalties.

I do think that in levelling dungeons, SCH really does force someone to be a proactive shield healer, you'll have the fairy to think about, which will actually help you heal- and Sage won't have that- so there would be an adjustment- but I expect the basic barrier concept would be very similar.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Scholar is probably a good pick since it is also a shield-based healer. And if you don't have any casters levelled yet, that gives you two jobs for the effort of one.

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This is my go to strategy each expansion. SMN to do overworld stuff quick, switch to SCH when I need to do a dungeon / trial.

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Originally Posted by IDontPetLalas

I think SCH is more challenging than AST under specific conditions - in general- if you die, SCH absolutely SUCKS. I'll let you find out why, really it's the healer that suffers the worst penalties.

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Completely disagree here. It depends if Aetherflow is up or not. If it is, Lucid > Atherflow and dump 3 Energy drains give you a LOT of MP back very quickly.

The one you enjoy playing the most.

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Originally Posted by Deceptus

This is my go to strategy each expansion. SMN to do overworld stuff quick, switch to SCH when I need to do a dungeon / trial.



Completely disagree here. It depends if Aetherflow is up or not. If it is, Lucid > Atherflow and dump 3 Energy drains give you a LOT of MP back very quickly.

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MP is the least of your issues if you die as a SCH. For one thing- hey - where did my fairy go?

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Scholar is probably a good pick since it is also a shield-based healer. And if you don't have any casters levelled yet, that gives you two jobs for the effort of one.

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Nocturnal AST instead. Enjoy it while it lasts!

None of them, don't bother with current healers as they're not very fun unless you like carpal tunnel and other RSIs from pressing one button over and over.

If you're insistent on playing one, though. Use either WHM for its ease of use, or use Nocturnal AST since that's being taken from AST and being made into Sage if the trailer is anything to go by.... while still being a 1-button-wonder spam class.

I see people suggesting SCH because it's a barrier healer, but the thing is, that doesn't really mean anything right now. Barriers are near-identical to flat healing in functionality. The only barrier that has any amount of unique attributes that make it different than just healing is Blackest Night, and that's on a tank.

It ultimately depends on what or if they intend to do anything about barriers for healers in 6.0, but if you want to actually learn how to play around barriers, then Dark Knight is your best option.

noct ast because if build properly and use correct it can really put some nice migitation for the entire party for more effective and easier than sch with its only 125% succor vs co+helios=for 250% cata is that 15% hope and once u get your one cata and use DT u gotta wait on that horrible 1min+ cd of DT so any additional cata if it even happens become useless while ur waiting on that DT horrible skill cd to come off. co is only 60 secs cool down big difference vs dt 1min+ timer. Di intersect+netrual aspected bene=450% block totally pwns even alqo. noct ast +dirunal netrual sect ast shields and regens all stack to boot, the only thing that do not stack of ast is their cards all their spells stack, enjoy this before square turns us into another sch/sch combination. Shown as you can see in my sig which the regens+shields stack. Finally co = instant cast shield, aspected benefic instant cast shield and light speed + aspected helios also = instant cast. get a old lvl 60 hw or sb 70 duties and enjoy them big bubbles covering your hp while a sch which its mere 125 succor meh and nothing else to give party shield wise not counting alqo + dt until lvl 80 stuff with seraph whom Idk them shields is as just as low as succor.

It's worth giving them all a try, it would give you a good opportunity to learn more about each individual skillset and how they function in a full-party+ setting.

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Originally Posted by IceBlueNinja

until lvl 80 stuff with seraph whom Idk them shields is as just as low as succor.

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Deployment Tactics is far stronger with Adloqium because the potency is much higher than succor.
Seraph's AOE applies an Adloqium strength shield on everyone in range and can be applied twice during the ~20s summoning window, their single target spamable one is weaker though.
Basically everything is better than having to cast succor, including Sacred Soil.

If it was me I'd avoid Noct AST. It's simply an inferior version of Diurnal and only serves as a necessity for low ilv prog. If things don't change much, shield healers will likely still be pure healers with bonus shields. Learning how to effectively pure heal on a "shield healer" and only use shields when necessary or they're free oGCD's will make you a better healer than going Noct to "learn shields" and blindly spamming AspHelios. For that reason Diurnal (which has Neutral and bubble mit) or SCH, and learning how to use the toolkit efficiently are probably your best choices.

lol suppose sch is inferior to like noct ast is too. shields are inferior overall get rid of them and make all jobs regen only smh. Love how noct so inferior yet it shield better compared to sch in many ways. Ah well the day a regen with full hp saves me from 1 hits vs a shield can(with that aside) shields can allow you to somewhat have a second chance or more make up something you slip up on since no one is perfect and mistakes can happen, and not die if your new and pogging stuff to let you know how to avoid such mech another time. Ah old arr content mini ilvl no echo where shields was much needed. Play what you want friend noct just as good at dirunal specially at 72 and up where you still get regens as u would get shields both is balanced. Mm cant wait to see the new sage vs sch battle royal on whos the better migi like old noct ast vs sch oh and you dont need to spam helios. I am trying to (state not say) if its in a case something is going bad example co healer down whw/di ast partner and boss about to do a another big aoe after his/her first you can light speed using one asp helio then the regular helios to patch up team in noct effectively or in 80 and up situation neutral that gives regens too. not saying to spam asp helios like your crazy when its not needed but ofc those who naturally wanna start things assume I was saying to literally to spam vs if it gets to be that oh snap situation where you have to.

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Originally Posted by Sunhwapark

It's worth giving them all a try, it would give you a good opportunity to learn more about each individual skillset and how they function in a full-party+ setting.


Deployment Tactics is far stronger with Adloqium because the potency is much higher than succor.
Seraph's AOE applies an Adloqium strength shield on everyone in range and can be applied twice during the ~20s summoning window, their single target spamable one is weaker though.
Basically everything is better than having to cast succor, including Sacred Soil.

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Ah I see, whew though ast is claim the most tactical and busiest it seem easier to me than sch, I kudos you cause the resource management thing with sch is just not my cup of tea, so I respect you or my friends playing this job, its like how I do rdm over blm even though I know of a power house blm is but the movement and management is tough heh. Thanks for that info on seraph alqo thing ill give this a try as

I think it would be best to play more than one.
I don't think playing a shield healer will do all that much as preperation because shields are pretty much an afterthought in this game and nothing a healer truly relies on like in other games where shields are by far the most mana and time efficient while direct heals fall short and are expensive emergency heals or where regens are more like a weak but steady baseline healing.
We'll also hopefully finally get a big overhaul on all healers which means getting too comfortable to the point of being stuck in a certain playstyle will do more harm than good. But even though an overhaul is probably coming, playing different healers to get a general feel for what they can and can't do aswell right now aswell as their unique "rhythm" will help you become a much better healer.
For DF content it won't really matter that much but if you want to get a more in-depths feeling for it, at least leveling all of them with lots of DF is the way to go. You have plenty of time until EW.
SCH and AST have an equally expansive toolkit but they use it very differently. AST can simply keep oGCDs rolling without a downside while many SCH oGCDs are tied to AF as an additional resource. WHM has a very barebone toolkit and it relies on making the most of your limited resources and doing things in the right order to not waste potency and mobility.
Playing one healer (Sage in your case come EW) well is only half of being a good healer, having an understanding for all of them is the other half. And nothing teaches the latter like personal experience.

Try Paladin.

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Originally Posted by Renryuu

I do have all the casters at 80 and I have Sch at 80 with Whm at 77 and Ast at 70.

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Why are you asking which to play, when you already have SCH at 80? :p pretty sure you know how they play.
I'm guessing that's what you liked most since it's ahead of the others.

Oh god please, not here too... /facepalm
Ahem... anyway...

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Originally Posted by AC9Breaker

Try Paladin.

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I'm dead reading this ;) Should've been WAR though!

Fun aside...
My suggestion is: just play all three healers as you see fit. Considering the trend of overall class changes that has been happening every expansion release, it's kinda redundant to expect 100% of current system to carry over to Endwalker, something's bound to change and who knows what it would be and how large the adjustment we have to make.

Playing all three teaches us more than just being good with our chosen class; it also gives us a hindsight of how our co-healer will handle each damage and ultimately avoiding wasting each other's resources. It tells us the strength and weaknesses of said healers, allowing us to make better decision of how to cover each other's mistakes.

But most importantly, do enjoy what you're choosing to play.

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Originally Posted by IceBlueNinja

lol suppose sch is inferior to like noct ast is too. shields are inferior overall get rid of them and make all jobs regen only smh. Love how noct so inferior yet it shield better compared to sch in many ways. Ah well the day a regen with full hp saves me from 1 hits vs a shield can(with that aside) shields can allow you to somewhat have a second chance or more make up something you slip up on since no one is perfect and mistakes can happen, and not die if your new and pogging stuff to let you know how to avoid such mech another time. Ah old arr content mini ilvl no echo where shields was much needed. Play what you want friend noct just as good at dirunal specially at 72 and up where you still get regens as u would get shields both is balanced. Mm cant wait to see the new sage vs sch battle royal on whos the better migi like old noct ast vs sch oh and you dont need to spam helios. I am trying to (state not say) if its in a case something is going bad example co healer down whw/di ast partner and boss about to do a another big aoe after his/her first you can light speed using one asp helio then the regular helios to patch up team in noct effectively or in 80 and up situation neutral that gives regens too. not saying to spam asp helios like your crazy when its not needed but ofc those who naturally wanna start things assume I was saying to literally to spam vs if it gets to be that oh snap situation where you have to.

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I feel like I'm getting Deja vu from this post. I wonder why... >.>

We've been over this before. There's nothing wrong with barriers on a conceptual level, and there are plenty of opportunities in design for them to become important and powerful tools, but that is just not how Square has handled them in this expansion. Sure, a regen isn't going to save you from a theoretical 1-shot, but name a single instance of a true-to-its-name 1-shot in any relevant content that can only be survived with a barrier. Or name a single instance where tanks are heavily pressured on defensive cooldowns and require a barrier healer to help them mitigate through a series of would-be 1-shots that they need to consecutively mitigate.

Until they either create tank busters that are designed to require a healer's barrier to survive, or there's some kind of incentive to barriers like with DRK's Blackest Night, they're just simply a different shade of heal that costs you a GCD to use unless you're WHM. Honestly, Divine Benison is the best barrier by far for that reason alone.

And again, I want to emphasize that this is entirely possible for Square to do. Most of us desperately want them to do this too. I would gladly get on my hands and knees and beg Yoshi-P to make barriers unique and interesting (among other things), if I knew that this would actually inspire change for the healers.

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Originally Posted by Rein_eon_Osborne

I'm dead reading this ;) Should've been WAR though!

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I'm dead serious when I say that I had a few WAR outheal me in expert/ 80 on WHM :p
So WAR sounds like a good choice for healer.

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Originally Posted by Rilifane

I'm dead serious when I say that I had a few WAR outheal me in expert/ 80 on WHM :p
So WAR sounds like a good choice for healer.

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I did Pagalth'an on WHM last week with a WAR. I legitimately thought I was having a stroke and wondered if I'd hit Benediction without realizing it. It wasn't on cooldown. The WAR just healed himself from near-dead to full in about half a second with no assistance from me. (yes I was going to bene in another half second, I wasn't about to let him die)

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Originally Posted by Semirhage

I did Pagalth'an on WHM last week with a WAR. I legitimately thought I was having a stroke and wondered if I'd hit Benediction without realizing it. It wasn't on cooldown. The WAR just healed himself from near-dead to full in about half a second with no assistance from me. (yes I was going to bene in another half second, I wasn't about to let him die)

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I tried to pull this off but my pug healer would always keep me above 80% for that matter :( "Lemme be green tank reeee"

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Originally Posted by Rein_eon_Osborne

I tried to pull this off but my pug healer would always keep me above 80% for that matter :( "Lemme be green tank reeee"

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^ Thats basically just using Sacred Soil and Whispering Dawn in most content xD Throw an Excoc in to be save and forget about healing for the rest of the pack

I usualy heal my dungeons or most content in general without shields (Except for Fairy shields), you just dont need to atm. Fairy can heal most content on her own xD
You use Shields to help mitigate hard hitting AoEs or Tankbusters. But thats only for the Savage bosses or current EX primals.

I mean...healing is sooo boring right now--but, if I'm playing with friends I guess I'll be on a SCH. I guess.
I hope they give us back dps rotations; the 5.0 build has been so boring...questing on my Scholar just sucks.
Dot, Broil, Broil, Broil...forever :(