Is It Even Possible To Have A New Healer Job?

[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.

[Claire_Pendragon]

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.

We dont technically have a HoT healer, we have healers with 'some" regens.
WHM being the closest, as they can stack medica2, and regen.
(Though their mechanics arent really built on HoTs)

Saying "we have it covered" is like saying DPS having Second Wind has healing covered.

But i do agree we need some adjustments to prior jobs, who borrow mechanics, in order to fill their own mechanics out, so that those mechanics can get a playstyle in and of itself.

[Sebazy]

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.

I think they can add a new healer, the issue they have is that it really needs to fit into one of the two pigeonholes we have currently. How it gets there is fair game really, IMHO SE do have room to put in either a disc priest or melee style healer to compete better with the SCH slot.

I'm all for diverse jobs in this game, but with the whiny player base we have, it's not going to happen.

Depressingly true about the whiny player base, but that's really an online game thing in general, FFXIV isn't alone there. The devs just need to know when to listen to us and when to ignore us. Yoshida's got a reasonably decent track record so far if you ask me <3

[Kacho_Nacho]

I think they can add a new healer, the issue they have is that it really needs to fit into one of the two pigeonholes we have currently. How it gets there is fair game really, IMHO SE do have room to put in either a disc priest or melee style healer to compete better with the SCH slot.

Depressingly true about the whiny player base, but that's really an online game thing in general, FFXIV isn't alone there. The devs just need to know when to listen to us and when to ignore us. Yoshida's got a reasonably decent track record so far if you ask me <3

I'll have to take a wait and see stance on this. Either of those concepts could work; but, there would need to be something there which will make the jobs enjoyable to play.

Now, Cyrocco mentioned a sacrificial healer, that's something new to the game. I wonder if the concept could work in FFXIV?

As far as a whiny player base, 'eh. I don't see them having much influence on the game. It's the well written, thought out posts which capture the developer's eye.

[VanilleFang]

melee style healer

I would love a melee healer. It would be a nice change of pace for the role as a whole. All the healers play differently, but they feel so same-y with them all being casters with melee weapons.