What changes will push sch out of meta

[Risvertasashi]

That's a shame. Im curious to read what they had to say. Could you link if you still have it around?

Full text here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ival_eu_press/

Relevant QA:

Q: What can expect from the combat revamp and how will the abilities be handled?
Y: What we're not going to be doing is we are not going to be rebuilding it from the ground up. So we're going to concentrate on two things with this revamp. During the course of the 3.X series and the introduction of more actions the action rotation that was necessary for high DPS became very complex so we started seeing a big gap form regarding the skilled and casual players and we wanted to bring up the bottom. The second thing is currently with Final Fantasy XIV a lot of players use the controller so with the amount of actions it's getting very difficult for a lot of those players to use all of the actions available. So with the raise of the level cap to 70 it's getting to the point where there is not enough ways to use all these actions. So we'll be cutting the number of unused actions and combining similar actions to keep the total number of actions at 70 at about the same it is now.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Unfortunately they've already said they aren't going to do this kind of overhaul. AST's healing kit will largely remain a copypasta of WHM's.

Which is also why I'm skeptical that SE can balance it. If AST can't keep up with healing, people will have to take WHM. If it can, then it can heal just as well as WHM (if not better like currently) and also hands out Raging Strikes CDs, among other things.

I honestly don't believe they'll be able to fix AST vs WHM either.
See, there's an inherent problem with WHM. Creating a healer that can heal higher than others is nice, but other healers still need to heal content without too much trouble as well, so those higher heals become unnecessary as the content is balanced to a point where you don't need the higher numbers.

It's not safer either, as people like to claim. Mitigation makes things safe, not higher healing power. And WHM has 0 mitigation, probably won't have any in 4.0 either.

[Fernosaur]

That's a real shame, I hadn't really read any of that.

I was thinking the other day what changes to AST could be made to restore WHM their identity without pushing AST out. I thought that instead of making AST a "main-heal" kinda class, they should have left them as a regen/shielding hybrid throughout the fight. Leaving the cards as they are and limiting some of their more powerful healing hit (Benefic II and Aspected Helios) to CDs, while allowing them to change Sects in battle (with a 30 sec CD on the sect, maybe) could have worked for a more interesting class that doesn't get in WHM's shoes too much, and also makes it so you don't have to balance two healing classes in one, since DiAST and NoctAST wouldn't have to be seen as different roles.

It's probably not perfect, but I think these changes would be healthy for the meta:

- Getting rid of Benefic II and replacing it with a 45 sec-1 min. CD that would increase the healing potency of the next spell cast by 50%. This would make a Benefic the same potency as Benefic II, and would increase Aspected Benefic's potency a lot to serve as cushion.

- Changing Aspected Helios to be an instant ability, not a spell, on a 1 min. CD, affected by Sects respectively. To make up for Synastry not affecting Noct!Helios, the shielding potency could be brought up to 290 or 300 to be a surrogate Deployment Tactics (as it is right now).

- Allowing sects to be used in the middle of battle with a 30 sec CD, thus allowing for hybrid healing styles.

- Getting rid of Stella and giving Malefic the Heavy effect (since all healers have a form of this).

- Replacing Stella's skill slot with a 3 min CD ability that would make all Aspected effects be transformed into healing on all targets within 15ym of the AST. Basically something similar to Emergency Tactics, except that you'd use it after casting, thus transforming all remaining HoTs into burst healing, and all shields into burst healing as well. With this, the healing potency of Helios might have to be changed, but being on a 3 min CD I don't think it's awfully necessary.

- Additionally, combined total potency on AST's HoTs would probably have to revised, and possibly reduced, as well as the duration on Aspected Helios' regen.

- Cards are left as they are right now, with Balance, Arrow and Bole being dumb af.

I'm not sure these changes would actually bring WHM up from the grave, but at least I think making AST's burst healing more gated, like Scholar's is, would make seem WHM more desireable.

[Shurrikhan]

AST already seems the theoretically strongest healer to me, so focusing primarily just on WHM:

Revamp the CNJ procs to make them more responsive and reliable than just mana reduction on sequential casts, thereby also making WHM more mana-efficient as an off-healer. That's basically all you need. SCH's advantage here is much like WAR's as an OT; just as WAR relies least on actually tanking for its damage output, the SCH relies least on sequential casts (actually healing) for its output over time. Level the responsiveness some. It's alright for WHM to still ramp up some compared to AST somewhat and especially to SCH, but it shouldn't be unreliably fishing for procs. And if a portion of WHM mana restoration should still be based on casts dealt, it should apply also to offensive casts, not just curative ones. It would be ideal if the replacing traits play somewhat into increased spell speed or oGCD spell-power, in order to improve WHM's sense of responsiveness.

Finally, you can improve their synergy with AST (especially Diurnal AST) by revising certain card effects to be more universally useful, rather than just situational, preferably without relying on absurdly strong effects such as post-buff Balance or its counterpart 'minute-long-Rampart'. If needed for either, you can also cause overheal ticks to "bloom", spreading to nearby wounded instead. I'd recommend possibly allowing for 'bonus' healing against heavily wounded allies, but WHM is already a strong enough progression healer. Unless DPS requirements are very high, it's during the farming period that it falls out of fashion.
________________________________________

As for improving AST as a progression healer, the main direction is the same as ever: Fix the cards. Their tooltips might need to be expanded significantly, but they shouldn't so often go situationally to waste. Ideally, each should adjust group play somewhat. However, even should they end up about equally useful in most circumstances, albeit for different purposes, I'd still like to see more control exertable over the RNG components of drawing cards.

At most, you might add another spell or two involving card usage for added versatility.

[Sinaloa]

Make fairyskills cost mana. (about 10% of the Players cost for a similar spell)

The higher requirement to micro the fairy and the decissionmaking wheter to use the mana to heal or deal damage would rise his skillcap and lower his value.

[Tiva]

Ok ok lots of great replies, awesome!
I want to address a point I've seen brought up many times so far.
"Meta" is always going to be one comp. That is literally what "meta" means. Unless we get massive class homogenization (I don't recommend it) there will always be one "best" comp, mathematically. What I would like to see personally is that meta is only slightly better than maybe 2 or 3 other possible comps. Instead of being such a big gap.

By saying "how can we push sch out of meta", I do not mean "how do we nerf the shit out of sch and make healing unbalanced in favor of whm/ast". That is not what I asked and it's sad that healing has been so unbalanced this expansion that this is the immediate assumption from so many people. I'm saying, how do we make it so whm/sch and ast/sch comps are slightly worse than whm/ast, therefore giving these classes a chance to be in meta together. This does not mean that I would like to see sch become unviable. That would suck. I just feel (and I feel the same about monk and paladin btw) that its time to put the "spotlight" on other classes and let them shine for a while.

[Ariane]

Dirunal AST is probably actually the best healer right now. If you nerf SCH's fairy or you give the noct AST the answer to the fairy, you risk that AST/AST being the best thing. AST has the potential to replace both healers and they have insane card buffs. If AST heals are equal or even just "good enough", they will better than both the WHM and the SCH.

[Ghishlain]

Currently, one of SCHs largest strengths is fight design. SCHs best healing and mitigation tools come from their cooldowns. With how scripted the fights are currently designed, it doesn't take too long to determine the optimal moments to use the correct cooldowns.

If fights were designed to be much more random in nature, it would put a monkey wrench in the SCH kit as it becomes more difficult, if not impossible, to have an ideal CD rotation for the SCH. That would push SCH away from being the optimal choice for those particular fights if this were to occur.

Upping overall healing frequency would also potentially put a damper on SCH because, again, their best tools are cooldowns. You'll notice that despite the strength of SCH, there are very very few SCH solo heals in the 3.X era versus the 2.X era. This just showcases how limited SCH can get.

The strength of the SCH kit is not just the kit as a whole, but also revolves around fight design and party design. If that gets shaken up in some capacity, you may see SCH slip out of the Meta as players shift to more favorable and direct healing that AST and WHM can provide.

Not to say and of the above will happen in 4.X, but it's one of the contributing factors to SCHs current position.

[IttyBitty]

As long as SCH has a fairy that acts like a completely free permanent regen effect, SCH isn't going to go anywhere. WHM is not going to be desired in groups unless it gets HUGE changes. AST does everything WHM does and more. Why take WHM? Cure 3? Incredibly niche. Benediction? More like mehnediction.

WHM has garbage resource management, basic healing spells that cost more than AST's despite having the same potency (why the heck??????), No native mitigation beyond the absolute trash that is Stoneskin (which is single target only, don't even get me started about untraited Virus/E4E) in exchange for slightly higher burst healing output and a marginal personal DPS advantage. Compared to the alternatives...well.

WHM needs reliable mitigation skills to even begin to approach the table AST and SCH currently sit at.

[AlphaSonic]

Remove Indomitability, WHM should be the only healer with an instant AoE heal. Sacred Soil is never used because Indomitability exists.