Is It Even Possible To Have A New Healer Job?

[Rufalus]

Just random thoughts. A convalescence type healer. Apply stacks to a target which increase their healing received by say 2% per stack. A certain big burst heal might consume the stack so you have to start over. Can be cooldowns where targets receive a large% heal increase that wears off when they've received a certain % of their max HP in heals.

How about a split-dmg tether or party-wide aura which gives less dmg received to party members who are on low health and higher dmg to party members who have more remaining HP than their allies so that it balances out and prevents weakened people from being KOd by transferring some of their dmg received to somebody who is healthier.

[Sebazy]

Could you give me an example, Sebazy?

Aye!

The game effectively had 3 different types of healer:

The rune priest/zealot was the games traditional healer, regular heals and fairly straight forward buffs.

The Archmage/shaman was the alternative caster styled healer, their gameplay revolved around balancing healing and dps to charge a secondary resource for additional abilities. Think FFXIV's Red Mage but instead of white/dark nukes, you're juggling heals and dps to charge that bar and get the prize at the end.

Lastly and perhaps most distinctly, the Warrior Priest/Disciple. This was a melee class with very very basic raw healing spells, instead of being MP limited, your melee abilities generated charges for your proper heals with an emphasis on party wide abilities to allow you to focus on your meleeing. Whilst it wasn't perfect, I still think that this job was one of the best and most original healer concepts in any MMO to this date. It's a huge huge shame that SE didn't base RDM on it IMHO!

It's worth noting that whilst the healer jobs were tremendously enjoyable, many people would question the balance between them which is pretty fair. The more diverse the jobs, the harder it is to keep them balanced across a broad spread of content.

[Bluvirus]

I thought dancer could be a melee healer, I think it would be kinda fun. Maybe with HoTs/regen abilities as previously stated. To be fair I just want a dancer class XD

[duvvvv]

AST is going to be the closest thing you are going to get to a pure buffer healer. :B
As for CC-focused, he problem with CC skills is that boss-enemies (like in raids, trials, and dungeons) are immune to most CC-effects besides the few stuns or silences, both of which are usually the tanks job anyway. :B

exactly.
not to mention there's GCD so an all-buff rotation won't be as effective as it's inevitable to throw a regen or two and the necessary AOE heals in harder content.

[Rilifane]

Lastly and perhaps most distinctly, the Warrior Priest/Disciple. This was a melee class with very very basic raw healing spells, instead of being MP limited, your melee abilities generated charges for your proper heals with an emphasis on party wide abilities to allow you to focus on your meleeing. Whilst it wasn't perfect, I still think that this job was one of the best and most original healer concepts in any MMO to this date. It's a huge huge shame that SE didn't base RDM on it IMHO!

It's worth noting that whilst the healer jobs were tremendously enjoyable, many people would question the balance between them which is pretty fair. The more diverse the jobs, the harder it is to keep them balanced across a broad spread of content.

Reminds me a bit of the Mistwalker Monk from WoW. Though you weren't required to use your melee abilities, you were sure as hell more effective if you properly used them to charge up Chi. I generally like the concept of a class whose basic abilities are fairly weak and need to charge special resources for their stronger skills.

I think the question is not only wether the healers are varied, yet balanced but also wether the bosses are varied, yet balanced. If 9 out of 10 bosses require burst healing it's not rocket science to know what happens to hot healers or generally "slow" healers who have some kind of ramp up phase. It's far easier to make every healer viable if the encounters themselves are also varied with some requiring lots of heavy lifting, some with constant raid wide dmg, others a lot of spot heal and others higher eHP or a combination of them.
Like rock, paper, scissors. For a healer to be viable there also needs a boss whose mechanics are "countered" by particular healers.
And with Squeenix tendency to make stuff hit harder but still be heavily scripted, you can almost outright dismiss some class concepts. That healers are incredibly powerful compared to incoming damage doesn't make it easier either.
The leech healer niche is also harder to fill because every healer has the tools to also do decent dps.
Also mp management seems to be much more forgiving, so having constancy paired with efficiency as a defining trait would be hard to implement aswell.
They really designed themselves in a corner here. :/

I'd rather have the occasional balance problems in exchange for varied healer classes. I don't mind getting benched or switching class for a raid or specific bosses though I'm very particular about my main class. You can level all classes on one char which is already a huge plus over many other MMOs and makes adjusting to balancing problems a whole lot easier for the players.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

Perhaps they could come up with something the opposite of AST. What I mean is, instead of a healer that also provides a variety of buffs to the party, the new healer would be a healer that also provides debuffs to the enemies.

Like say a Chemist job that throws various concoctions at enemies that makes them take more damage, slows their attack speed, or reduces the damage they inflict, etc.

[TarynH]

I thought dancer could be a melee healer, I think it would be kinda fun. Maybe with HoTs/regen abilities as previously stated. To be fair I just want a dancer class XD

DNC is a healing job in FFXI. It uses TP to heal instead of MP, and has to melee to get the TP. It's a pretty fun job, and kind of different to be up on the front lines with everyone. I wouldn't mind seeing something like that in FFXIV.

Chemist would be fun too; mixing potions to heal, and DoT/dmg on the side. Could possibly combine it with a less MMO-friendly class/job from other FFs and name it something else.

[GhostZukin]

Rift has Chloromancer, which does damage in order to heal, and can push a button to switch from direct tank heals to group heals. I'd totally roll healer again if there was something like that in this game, but not sure what it would be to fit in with the FF lore.

[Ilyrian]

Perhaps they could come up with something the opposite of AST. What I mean is, instead of a healer that also provides a variety of buffs to the party, the new healer would be a healer that also provides debuffs to the enemies.

The problem with that idea is that the class would become mandatory in all set-ups, if it was to have any worth - endgame or otherwise. Every healer has to be able to heal on its own, so in 4 mans a debuffer would be better than any other and in 8 mans mandatory. AST buffs had to be nerfed back to relative nothingness to remain balanced.
The idea of a support class - as fun and good as it is - just can't exist in an MMO as a single class/job/w/e unless it's some kind of auxiliary to a main spec or it's part of the game from conception – which FFXIV isn't currently and would have to have a major overhaul to accommodate.

[Kacho_Nacho]

Aye!

The game effectively had 3 different types of healer: The rune priest/zealot was the games traditional healer, regular heals and fairly straight forward buffs.

The Archmage/shaman was the alternative caster styled healer, their gameplay revolved around balancing healing and dps to charge a secondary resource for additional abilities. Think FFXIV's Red Mage but instead of white/dark nukes, you're juggling heals and dps to charge that bar and get the prize at the end.

Lastly and perhaps most distinctly, the Warrior Priest/Disciple. This was a melee class with very very basic raw healing spells, instead of being MP limited, your melee abilities generated charges for your proper heals with an emphasis on party wide abilities to allow you to focus on your meleeing. Whilst it wasn't perfect, I still think that this job was one of the best and most original healer concepts in any MMO to this date. It's a huge huge shame that SE didn't base RDM on it IMHO!

It's worth noting that whilst the healer jobs were tremendously enjoyable, many people would question the balance between them which is pretty fair. The more diverse the jobs, the harder it is to keep them balanced across a broad spread of content.

Thanks! The classes of Warhammer Online sound like they were fun!

Now, looking at the current situation, we have everything covered as far as healing goes. We have HoTs, single heals, AoE heals, damage mitigation, and buffs. Any new healer would be redundant on a lot of fronts. In addition, if the new healer is too good, players will be less inclined to play the current three. But, if the new healer wasn't good enough, then the question of why the new healer was added in the first place comes up.

Certainly, a big issue is that our boss fights don't allow a lot of variety in healers; but, as you pointed out, that may be a blessing. It's far easier to balance a few jobs than it is many.

I'm inclined to believe unless there is a complete overhaul of FFXIV's dungeons, and our existing healing jobs, there can be no additional healers added.