The concept of pure healers

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Take into account no matter what there will always be an optimal healer pair and that'll make the third a tertiary choice. No game can be perfectly balanced - but we can at least try to get as close to that as possible in terms of the XIV healer paradigm.

Yes this is something to keep in mind. No matter what happens, we shouldn't be looking for WHM to just outright be better than AST or SCH. It should just be competitive enough to seriously be considered rather than scoffed at instantly. I just believe that a job that specializes in just healing is simply a non competitive identity. Unless of course the healing is so strong it has the ability to trivialize damage, which again would be unbalanced...

Then again, why should WHM worry about trivializing damage when SCH can put up shields worth more than the entirety of a DPS' HP or an AST can put up cards that can up your DPS to the point where DPS checks are steamrolled?

[Fernosaur]

Then again, why should WHM worry about trivializing damage when SCH can put up shields worth more than the entirety of a DPS' HP or an AST can put up cards that can up your DPS to the point where DPS checks are steamrolled?

You say this as if a crit Adlo is something we can just poop any time we want, lmao.


Disregarding that and getting back to the main thread, I think WHM will have some form of party buff utility that will be tied to their healing. This would keep the "pure healer" concept without making them healbots. I mean, if you look closely, WHM has a lot of utility already in the form of Repose, Fluid Aura and Stone (soon to be replaced by Break). Of course, I know that none of this matters in most of the game, but it really shined in PvP, for example. This leads me to believe the dev team won't refuse to give WHM actual utility. In their eyes, the job's core concept is that of a pure healing class, which can be interpreted as not having any gimmick attached to their main mechanics. This doesn't prevent them from gaining some form of utility spell, so I think that we'll see some new spells that aren't just more heal heal heal.

At the same time, I'm almost entirely sure that AST's healing output is gonna go down, and that Balance is going to be toned down too. As Ghishlain said, the problem in the current meta isn't WHM being bad, it's that AST can do literally everything. A relatively heavy-handed nerf on AST's healing potencies could do wonders for WHM even if Balance was left as is. AST would still be optimal, yes, but it would be a risky choice for progression. Then again, I do think Balance has to go entirely: a healer has no place buffing damage output better than a DPS can.

I guess we have 18 days to go to see what they do to adress this problem.

[Ghishlain]

Yes this is something to keep in mind. No matter what happens, we shouldn't be looking for WHM to just outright be better than AST or SCH. It should just be competitive enough to seriously be considered rather than scoffed at instantly. I just believe that a job that specializes in just healing is simply a non competitive identity. Unless of course the healing is so strong it has the ability to trivialize damage, which again would be unbalanced...

If we go with the premise that "pure healer" = "Stronger healer" then WHM should have a healing power that's stronger than AST and SCH, though not necessarily the power to trivialize healing checks (though I do relish the idea of WHMs being able to create 2-1-5 groups).

Take raid mechanics and meta composition out of the equation at this time - WHM is currently suffering because it's a shadow of AST. Take WHM out of that shadow and increase their healing power and your choices go from SCH, AST, and "weaker AST" in the current iteration to SCH, AST, and WHM. Then raid groups pick the healer pairs they want to run based on their preferences and skill sets.