Necromancer for 5.0 - Do we want it?

[Kassiekane]

It is clear that the devs have reduced the amount of jobs we get per expansion cycle, and we can safely assume that we will get a tank and healer next expansion considering we got two dps this time around.

Taking into consideration that the devs start developing their next jobs around the x.2 patch period, I think this is a ripe time to make clear what we would like to see.


Why Necromancer?
I personally would like to see this as the next healer job as I believe it would provide a great opportunity to blow in a breeze of fresh air into the current line of healers we have now. We have the 'pure healer' that is White Mage, we have the 'tactical' healer that is Scholar, and we have the 'support' healer that is Astrologian - however, all of them are similar in their themes in the sense that they're generally passive in their abilities. Sure, the other healers may be 'powerful' in their respects, but how about a healer that's more aggressive and arrogant in both their aesthetics and abilities? A dark lord that drains the souls from their enemies to mend the wounds of their allies, then proceeds to desecrate their graves to amass more power? I think that could potentially be a very fun class to play.

Of course, these are just my own thoughts. If this sounds like a great idea for the next healer job in FFXIV, show your support by leaving a like. If you disagree, or have certain ideas for Necromancer for SE to see, discuss them and I will add them into this post.

[Maku]

First thought is: healer that heals by DPSing will be the only healer people become willing to play with. If you weaken their healing compared to the others then they wont be viable in raids/savage but will still be the go to for all other content. I just can't see a way to balance this. It sounds more like a RDM in a different light to me.

[Joladis]

A Necromancer class also wont work for the game from a story standpoing (yes I know not everyone cares about this but alot of other people do me included) because a Necromancer is seen as evil and the Warrior of Light would never condone such a practice.

[ManuelBravo]

Necromancer? How would even tie into the story? While DRK did turn does to darkness it semi make sense. For Necromancer however seems more of a void type of class. ( Reach palace of the dead 100 for details. ) No thanks maybe if they added a void type of expansion. Then maybe. Personally I would like to play a type of evil role, unfortunately this would be the wrong game to implement it in :/....unless they made some type of split story line one for forces of good and one for the forces of evil. Not likely, I do wish there is some type of MMO like that. Besides WoW that was just awful.

[VanilleFang]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Healers that heal through DPS sound like a good idea but they are next to impossible to balance. It makes me think back to City of Heroes where the two "best" healing powers was Dark Miasma (I think that's what it was called). The primary, spammable heal on most powers with a strong heal/support focus were a small AoE burst. Empathy (the staple heal everything power), for example, had its AoE originate from the caster. Dark Miasma had the AoE originate from the target enemy. So while they could not heal outside combat, in combat they were very strong because not only did the AoE heal but it also dealt damage.

[Verdan]

Do we want it? No we don't.

[Averax]

A healer that has to do damage to heal never really works out well, it ends up being too complex for anyone to manage properly. If we had anything like that, it'd probably be a niche buff that temporarily converts X% of damage dealt into healing for the group.

A Necromancer class also wont work for the game from a story standpoing (yes I know not everyone cares about this but alot of other people do me included) because a Necromancer is seen as evil and the Warrior of Light would never condone such a practice.

They could make it work in a lore friendly sense if they wanted to, Blizzard did it with Diablo's Necromancer.

[Holy-chan]

I would love it. It is totally my type of thing. I agree that it fits very little in the game's setting based on lore, necromancy being very shunned upon. But, without going into detail to avoid spoilers, the level 61-70 questline for alchemist delves a bit into the act of bringing the dead back to life. It was also mentioned at various times (without being specifically story-related) that the alchemist master has considered the "forbidden arts".

I don't think it's completely impossible to make it work.

[Cyrocco]

Sure, lets try getting four healers balanced when three seems to be impossible.

[Averax]

Sure, lets try getting four healers balance when three seems to be impossible.

If you keep throwing things into a dumpster fire, eventually it will get smothered and go out.