Is It Even Possible To Have A New Healer Job?

[Sylvain]

Hate to break it to you guys, but none of the healers we have are "burst" healers.
Having a VERY minor amount of burst doesnt make them a "burst" class.

Well, what would you define as burst healer?
All 3 healers can top a party from 10% to full in a few GCD


I think what people mean by burst VS HoT would be that most of the heal actually come from the HoT portion. A bit like MedicaII with a stronger HoT and weaker initial heal.

However there's very few case where MedicaII HoT will actually heal on each tick over its duration.
As a side note, HoT doesn't mean it has to be a really lengthy weak HoT. (like they all currently are in this game)
HoT can be powerful, most HoT from WoW's resto druid have a rather short duration and some of them are actually tweaked to make most of their heal in the initial ticks.
But something like this would require FF14 to rework their ticking system.

And yes current, current healer are tweaked toward direct strong heal. (what most people could call burst)
for AST/WHM, their basic heal are a simple yet good example. cure1: small heal, cure2: bigger heal, most ofgcd are also quick hp recovery mechanic. Essential Dignity, Assize Tetragrame etc. They are all based on giving hp quickly.
There are few other options, Asylum and Collective Inconsciousness, but seriously, how many time will Asylum actually heal on each of its tick (unless placed on tank) and since when do AST use C.I for the HoT? C.I is almost exclusively used to reduce a boss aoe burst, the HoT is then useless as more often than not the other healer will cast 1 or 2 aoe heal topping people (and if they aren't the HoT will perhaps tick once or twice and that's it)

If mana was a concern perhaps healer would be more kin to let HoT ticks. But mana is far from being a concern since not only we have more than enough mana to spam almost anything + rez 4-5 time a fight, and on top of that we have so much of it that we can actually spamm the boss with dmg skills.
So beside optimising your dps on a fight you know very well (so you know when you can let HoT ticks without risking a death), there's no incitive to let a HoT tick.
Most player will simply spend another 2sec on another Medica to be sure everyone is full.
And this is possible because our heal are just too potent. It is simply too easy to top a group.



So this is why Ithink, most people say "it wouldn't be really good" when it comes to raid wide damage is that most fight do ask you to heal quickly the damage.

Very few fight leave you with DoT slowly crippling you or anything making a HoT useful. And when they do (like shin) the DoT is so weak that you barely notice it.
So far only tank benefit from HoT and since most fight only require 1 tank a time for a significant portion of the fight, it's not something you'd value the healer for.

Group are more concern by the lack of shield than the lack of HoTs. If you go as double WHM, you're worried that some aoe may kill one of your dps. Going as double shield is more an annoying than anything else, but this is easily fixable by making one healer not applying shields.

And this is also something they'd need to adress.

Assuming they do make some kind of HoT healer, it means that you could end up with a shield less group (unless they'd give shield to all 3 healers but WHM, that'd be odd), fight would need to be designed around that, and they are currently not designed around not having shields. Unless you overgear the fight, many boss will simply obliterate dps and healers on their first AoE.

I dont even want to play a HoT healer

Well that's fine; I'd probably stay with my AST too but many player would like to play a HoT healer and this is something they don't have access to. (and no, WHM isn't a HoT healer, having access to Recup + Weak MedicaII HoT doesn't make you a HoT healers)

[CreinCrein]

A healer with an aura mechanic could be fun. Something that consumes mp over time similar to the old darkside to create an AOE HoT/utility aura originating from the caster, as well as single target toggle-able spells that latch onto a target, draining MP over time to provide various effects. We need something to compete with SCH's GCD-less healing niche. Maybe toss in an actual dps rotation that's not as mindless as spamming broil, malefic or stone.

[Claire_Pendragon]

The difference between "BURST" and just simply always being good at the role you do, is that to "BURST" you need to be unable to maintain this level of effectiveness. if basic cure1 can be maintained, and still be an effective way to get a tank up to full HP in a couple of GCD, then that doesnt count as "BURST"
Cure2 and cure3 USED to be the burst healing spells, back when WHM would actually fear running out of MP trying to overdue it with thier "burst".

You cant maintain BURST, otherwise its not BURST.
Putting an ability on a CD, does make the CD itself the resource, and is the only real form of burst atm.
But if there's no real mechanics built around it, then it barely scratches the surface of being a class built on that mechanic.

oGCD heals were not meant to for burst, other than benediction.
They were meant for movement heavy fights, where SCH outdid WHM, due to WHM being a turret healer.

In most cases, you do NOT need to pop oGCD heals, to heal a tank up after a heal. Basic heals WILL work, unless you need to move, or as I made it sound, the exception being a 2nd attack just as strong is about to go off. And in most cases, you have 2 healers, and both healers basic cures are almost always enough, if the tank mitigated propperly. (in the case they dont, then the group is probably having a tank out of tank stance, who doesnt swap with their OT to maximize thier CDs, which is one of the worst ways to do endgame, though possible, by being carried by your healers)

You DO however, need to shield a tank right before a TB, in order to maximize the shields effectiveness.

Next up, Burst in this game is either "over doing it" at the cost of performance later, such as being out of MP, or the more simplified method of being less effective 2/3rds of the fight, and then more than effective 1/3rd of the fight. Which is "almost" possible, with a proper amount of teamwork with your off healer, as SCH sort of does this already. The 1st is better than the second, though combinations of both can still work.

WHM is vanilla basic healer, with no "theme" or mechanics. Its closer to a jack of all trades healer, than a specialized healer atm. (Though it was originally designed to be closer to a burst healer in 2.0, and then burst healing was far less useful in 3.0, so people went to DPS healers, and then the MP drain was far lessened to the point of just being "standard" healing.)

Another example, is like saying PLD is a burst DPS, because at Lv70, it does more dmg than the Lv10 PGL its in a party with.
The PLD is clearly the muscle of the group and easily out dmges the PGL, but if their attacks/mechanics arent actually about Burst, its no more a burst class, than it is a DoT class, with its stronger DoT than the Lv10 PGLs attacks.)
Having a HoT, Shield, etc, alone isnt enough to make u the "hot/shield" class, unless no other class has it at all, and then you're just BARELY being put into that position by default. (and yes, HoT classes shoudl be based on "burst playstyles" while things like basic healers shold be closer to a MNk, in "stable healing")

[Kacho_Nacho]

Good points, Claire! It all goes to show what goes into the design of a healer. Such phrases as burst healer and HoT healer are thrown around a lot but healing is deeper. You have to consider what to put on the global cooldown and what not too. Just as you have to consider proactive healing, reactive healing, damage mitigation, and damage dealing.

Each of these things have a profound impact on the feel of a healing class and its performance. In addition, you have to consider how damage is dealt to the party through the various encounters and dungeons.

So, with all these things taken into account, is there room for another healing class? You all know my opinion; but, there have been some interesting ideas proposed in this thread. For example, I'd like to hear more about how a melee range healer would work.

[Zojha]

You cant maintain BURST, otherwise its not BURST.

And you do not maintain healing in the first place, because that just results in pointless overheal.

You're just arguing semantics. With the power of healing spells in this game and the way mechanics come at you, healing typically comes in brief bursts of activity followed by periods of nothing filled with DPS. The gameplay is burst gameplay, regardless of how you technically classify abilities.
The defining thing about burst is that it's explosive, sudden, rapid. And I'd consider any sudden, explosive health bar movement in either direction such, regardless of how often the health bar ping-pongs back and forth in a given time period. But that is arguing semantics as well.

And honestly, the "theme" is only relevant insofar the mechanics are relevant. If your HoT or leech-DPS or proxy or whatever healer ends up "bursting" people back up for every mechanic that can remotely threaten the group and then only using their thematic abilities to top the remainder off, that theme really isn't relevant. You're gonna play like a WHM in the end.

You are right however that WHM currently isn't much of a specialized healer. But neither is Scholar, there's hardly a healing tool you won't find in its kit and the interactions with shields are just two abilities, so not much of an identity as per your own admission. AST doesn't set itself apart with its healing either, it sets itself apart with its cards. And any new healer would probably not be specialized either, but set itself apart via other means.

[Bahati]

I had imagined a Dancer class would have some sort of Bard-like buffs from dancing with perhaps HOT abilities and a few panic buttons. I wouldn't expect anything too terribly unique with our current meta. I'm personally not a fan of how similar our healers are currently. I much preferred when it was just WHM and SCH and I didn't much care that everyone wanted SCH for raiding because I loved WHM as a class.

[Indefiinable]

I’ve always quite fancied the idea of a dark healer like a puppet master who heals by stealing life force directly from the boss/mobs and giving it though pupppet strings to the player(s) thus damage dealing at the same time. Who’s dots on the boss would equal minor buffs to the party. And would have to sacrifice say a portion of their own health or dots/buffs for “burst” healing. Ooooh it could have either like a creepy mirror or like a voodoo doll < (insert sacrificial lala here) that shows the cause and effect of its actions

[Chortle]

Adding unique mechanics to a new healer class could be refreshing.

I think a "siphon" type of mechanic could be useful in a more dps-oriented healer.

The more damage they do, the more they heal allies. The specifics of how that would work would take someone with more game design knowledge than myself haha, but "do damage to heal" is an archetype that hasn't been introduced yet.

[Kacho_Nacho]

I’ve always quite fancied the idea of a dark healer like a puppet master who heals by stealing life force directly from the boss/mobs and giving it though puppet strings to the player(s) thus damage dealing at the same time. Who’s dots on the boss would equal minor buffs to the party. And would have to sacrifice say a portion of their own health or dots/buffs for “burst” healing. Ooooh it could have either like a creepy mirror or like a voodoo doll < (insert sacrificial lala here) that shows the cause and effect of its actions

It's an interesting idea. There is just one issue with healers who heal by dealing damage.

They tend to become the most popular. However, that may not be an issue in FFXIV because healers are already expected to contribute to the damage dealing.

[Shurrikhan]

There is truth to this, but there's work arounds. (Such as SMN, for bursty situations in 2.0, and changes made to SMN to make them work better for burst DPS moments)

A HoT healer would focus on keeping 4 HoTs up, with maybe 1 or 2 being the more important/strong ones.
Then when a person is at cap or close to it, an ability to remove all HoTs, and gain a small def/att buff per HoT. (something like .5% bonus)
(AoEs would work a bit differently.)
An oGCD would increase how much it heals for, based on the number of HoTs up, and remove them. (Emergency heal)
A GCD would heal based on the number of HoTs up, w/o removing them.

And so you have the likeness of WoW's Restoration Druid, a HoT healer who can nonetheless function in burst situations.

But even that runs into issues when you need your full strength on two separate targets who there is no time to stack HoTs on beforehand due to the pressure proceeding that event.

We only have as much freedom in our healer styles as the fights and surrounding compositions allow. And if it doesn't add new concerns or difficulties, it's going to feel pretty much like any of the existent healers.

There is a very fine line between what mechanics allow for at all and what becomes functionally redundant.