Stone III Confirmed for WHM

[Ethos]

The only reason WHM is mandatory now is because two scholars can't stack their shields. AST ought to be fully stackable with SCH, rendering any combination of two of the three healer classes viable (hopefully).

If AST shields in barrier stance stack with SCH then WHM would need some ridiculously powerful new abilities to even be considered bringing to a raid. Ideally the whole reason AST has two healing stances is so that they can pair evenly with any other healer even another AST.

[Tint]

if the shields stack you can kick paladin and dark knight into the trash too. then we only need a tank who can hold enmity and makes damage...

[Blueyes]

I actually suspect that the shield buffs from Scholar and Astrologian won't stack. Originally the buff applied by Adloquium or Succor was simply referred to as "Adloquium." The name of the buff was later changed to Galvanize which is basically a generic term as opposed to something that sounded specific to Scholar. I imagine the main healing spells from Astrolgian will also apply the same Galvanize effect. Doing so would help promote the idea that Astrologian should use their heal stance when paired with a Scholar.

[Knoahl]

Stoneskin and Adloqium can already stack and they arent overpowered, they compliment each other. What if it changes a spell to a HoT or a pure barrier as opposed to a heal that applies a barrier, and also astro wont have a faerie healing whilst casting the shield and isnt deffo going to have a crit = double the barrier either... Its still highly likely we will be able to stack them, just not two astros stacking there shield, same as 2 white mages and 2 scholars.... Lol

[VanilleFang]

The only reason WHM is mandatory now is because two scholars can't stack their shields. AST ought to be fully stackable with SCH, rendering any combination of two of the three healer classes viable (hopefully).

No. The shield should not stack with Galvanize. AST has a healing stance and a barrier stance. This is how any combination of the three will work. If the AST shields stacked with SCHs WHM would be pointless compared to the power of double shields.

And do you even read what you type? The "only reason" they are mandatory is because the shields don't stack, and then state that the shields of AST and SCH should stack. Like really?

Stoneskin and Adloqium can already stack and they arent overpowered, they

Its still highly likely we will be able to stack them, just not two astros stacking there shield, same as 2 white mages and 2 scholars.... Lol

Stoneskin is completely different then Galvanize. You can't use this as reason why AST and SCH shields will stack. Not to mention Stoneskin can be used by SCHs.

It is highly likely they won't stack because SE has stated that they have the Healer and Barrier stance to compliment the other healer. Use Barrier stance for when you have a WHM co-healer and Healer stance for SCH.

[Vlady]

Enkindle for SCH would be just awesome!

Scholars are already taking enough from summoners. I hope our new abilities are a bit more creative and unique then what we already see.

[giantslayer]

And do you even read what you type? The "only reason" they are mandatory is because the shields don't stack, and then state that the shields of AST and SCH should stack. Like really?

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do read what I post.

Two white mages can use medica/medica 2 at the same time with no loss of potency. Scholar and White Mage can use succor and medica at the same time with no loss of potency. If two scholars use succor, one of the shields is wasted, basically cutting 50% off of one of the scholar's AOE heals. No other combination of two healers loses potency based on the other healer.

Two scholars is generally regarded to be the worst combination of two healers you can have. Having two scholars isn't all that bad and you can still clear content with it, but it is sub-optimal. Would this be the case of the shields were stackable? I think not.

As to saying AST shields ought to stack with SCH, that was a prediction based on the idea that as a different class, their shields would work differently and not use Galvanize. If that prediction were true, then there would be no loss of healing potency from pairing AST with WHM or SCH, making none of those combinations sub-optimal. I could very well be wrong on that, but that is premature for anyone to say.

[Cynfael]

Two scholars is generally regarded to be the worst combination of two healers you can have.

To restate my opinion from another thread, I personally find 2x WHM to be generally less desirable than 2x SCH. For any content where you would specifically want a WHM/SCH combo, you would not want to double up on either class; for all other content a single WHM brings enough party-wide healing power that a second WHM should be redundant.

Also, I have more faith in the AI of the fairies than I do in the snap healing and multitasking capabilities of the average player in DF and would rather have two winged healbots on the field who can be relied upon to cast regardless of how inattentive their owners might be than two WHMs who may or may not be at all quick on the draw.

[ZeratoTyrael]

In the first benchmark of ARR, there was a 8 man group chasing a dragon through sastasha or toto-rak. No kidding.
Toto-rak/Sastasha with dragon endgame full party raid confirmed!

Just a thought...

Seems possible and plausible but confirmed is something else.

I feel like one of the few people that was really looking forward to that fight....alas it never happened lol (at least so far!)

[ZeratoTyrael]

To restate my opinion from another thread, I personally find 2x WHM to be generally less desirable than 2x SCH. For any content where you would specifically want a WHM/SCH combo, you would not want to double up on either class; for all other content a single WHM brings enough party-wide healing power that a second WHM should be redundant.

Also, I have more faith in the AI of the fairies than I do in the snap healing and multitasking capabilities of the average player in DF and would rather have two winged healbots on the field who can be relied upon to cast regardless of how inattentive their owners might be than two WHMs who may or may not be at all quick on the draw.

This I agree with. The game is balanced around 1 WHM and 1 SCH. Having 2 of either is sub-optimal, it doesn't matter which job it is. Now good players can compensate for there being 2 WHM or 2 SCH but in the end if anyone wants to argue "optimal" and "sub-optimal" it's yes or no, not in degrees of "optimal". Are 2 WHM or 2 SCH viable? Sure. Optimal? Nope. Now as far as one being more desirable than the other in that kind of setup....meh that's a point of view. There are merits to both sides of duplicate healer setup if it really comes down to it, but in the end 1 WHM and 1 SCH is, hands down, better in any given current content and should always be preferred.

Aside from that essentially pointless argument I'm looking forward to seeing how AST will really fit in. I'm tired of speculating, I just want to get my hands on those damn jobs lol. I almost want them to increase the raid size for future content like the replacement for the coils to at least 10 (maybe 12, they've got that multiple of 4 thing going on with this game so far). Would be interesting to see all the different jobs of each role (specifically tanks and healers) interact with each other in appropriately challenging content aka not things like the CT raids >_>