Is It Even Possible To Have A New Healer Job?

[Kacho_Nacho]

Following success (meeting of all short-term goals and minimum completion of long-term goals prior to enrage), the only improvement to that criteria is through increased speed, which is essentially just the rate by which long-term goals (which in 100% of a fights due to XIV's encounter designs are simply and always DPS) can be accomplished. Why shouldn't a toolkit be parsed for its benefit to the only existent long-term goal?

There will never be a benefit to exceeding the minimum value required for a short-term goal such as surviving a tankbuster except by the degree by which it allows for increased contribution rate towards the long-term goal (the boss's death).

That's not an issue. That's not a problem with the community or with toolkit design. The only true issue is lack of mechanic engagement by which for many different tools to provide competitive indirect throughput towards the long-term goal in how they meet short-term goals. And that is a fight design issue.

Very much so, Shurrikhan. While there have been several excellent ideas for new healer concepts, they all seemingly stumble when faced by the elephant in the room.

The current duties and raids are all designed around the abilities of the three current healing jobs. If a new healing class is to be added, the damage taken by the party, and the means by which it was dealt will need to be adjusted.

For example, a drain and heal class could have excellent throughput; but, if the damage received by the party by a single attack is too much, the drain and heal healer will be hopelessly overwhelmed. The same thing happens with a HoT healer. You can have the best healing output in the game and still be unable to keep your party alive due to high burst damage.

But, I'm preaching to the choir.

So, can a new healer be added? Perhaps, but there would need to be adjustments to the instances and raids. Otherwise, what we will end up with is a class like we already have with a few whistles and bells; but, not anything particularly unique or interesting.

[Alien_Gamer]

Very much so, Shurrikhan. While there have been several excellent ideas for new healer concepts, they all seemingly stumble when faced by the elephant in the room.

I disagree. I mean no disrespect but you sound like you've already decided that the answer is no and you're just looking at things to support that point of view.

HW released a new tank, healer and DPS. The new dungeons introduced throughout HW showed a clear intent to balance the content among the new and old jobs. But they also didn't adjust any of the pre-existing content around the new jobs. The new jobs handled some things better than the original ones, and some things worse. SB continued that trend. The 61+ content shows a distinct change in design philosophy that clearly incorporates the new classes and previous content was left alone; and again in the old content they do better in some things and worse in others. Future expansions will create content with the new classes in mind and old content will sort itself out naturally.

You also assumes the devs won't balance the new healer kits so they'd be able to get through spikes in damage. Not every healer does well in every content, some are definitely more challenged than others but they're all capable of doing all the content. New healers will be no different. Some can weather spikes and tank busters better than others but all can do it. The concepts and core mechanics are what set the playstyles apart. The rest is just balancing the numbers on the new kit to make everything viable which is the exact same philosophy behind making new DPS classes and nobody would dream of creating this topic for a DPS and have it taken seriously.

The history of this game has already disproven your points. New healers can be made. New healers will be made. New healers will be viable in everything.

[Kacho_Nacho]

I disagree. I mean no disrespect but you sound like you've already decided that the answer is no and you're just looking at things to support that point of view.

*snippers*

No disrespect taken, Cynehild.

In truth, I'm on the fence. I'm just taking the opposing view to promote more discussion on the issue.

The history of this game has already disproven your points. New healers can be made. New healers will be made. New healers will be viable in everything.

*nods*

True. But, hasn't the introduction of astrologians been a bit of a rollercoaster? They were too weak for a long time then buffed to the point where they were too powerful. Many healers were urged to switch to the job at the beginning of SB.

Now, honestly look at the current situation. Do you see any glaring holes? I don't. (honest)

That's a good thing!

But...

It puts the devs in a difficult position. They have painted themselves into a corner where there would have to be a lot of work done on the game overall to accommodate a new healer. Given that the number of players playing healers did not increase with the introduction of astrologians, would it be worth the effort?

[Renathras]

Given that the number of players playing healers did not increase with the introduction of astrologians, would it be worth the effort?

The answer to this is the answer to the question "Did the number of healers in SB decrease?"

Why?
If healers whet down in SB but did not in HW, the implication is that AST didn't add any new healers, but kept existing healers from abandoning the role (they had a "new toy" to play with). If healers in SB did NOT go down, then the implication is that healer players play or maintain playing healers, regardless of a new healer Job being added. (I will note this is also true with the tank Jobs, if you think about it. SB has data for a good "natural experiment", as it were.)

EDIT: I speels gud! XD

EDIT2:

Another reason for the shortage is the group size. Perhaps making part 5 man ans raid 10man would help (or create a shortage of dps)

Kind of a separate issue, but I see this tossed around a lot and don't understand. The game is designed around a 4 person base party. So unless the game code is changed, it is limited to party sizes of 4, 8, 12(presumably), 16, 20(presumably), and 24. 5 or 10 doesn't make sense in this context. On the OTHER hand, they could up the normal dungeon size to 8, with a party arrangement of 1 tank, 1 healer, and 6 dps (we know they can adjust the role distribution, because we have 1 tank, 2 healer, 5 dps and 2 tank, 2 healer, 4 dps arrangements of 24 man content, and, presumably, this would work on 8 man content as well).

To me, that's a more realistic expectation, and would deal with the problem of too many dps as well, if not better than, going to a 5 man party size, with FAR less game code having to be rewritten (including old dungeons, etc.) Only problem would be if this would create a "dps shortage". But I remember reading somewhere the playerbase was 15-20% tanks, 15-20% healers, and 50-60% dps, so...eh? (If ques got long, some tanks/heals might go dps, but...)

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

At this point, a new healer is going to have to be a non-caster because obviously we have caster covered. I've seen Dancer mentioned as healer. If you look at what Dancer did in FFT, then it could be feasible to have a heal/buff character based on that.

However, what a friend of mine mentioned and I agree, is that the next healer should be Chemist and come on a wave of a consumable item rework. Because restorative items are, on the whole, USELESS WASTES OF INV unless you are running PotD solo or without a healer. (I'm not talking about raid food or buff potions, I'm talking your standard restoratives).

In FFT, Chemists could use a range of weapons, but they could 'throw' items to party members and had potency buffs for those items. How would that work in FF14? Well, imagine an item healer who's item CD is the same speed as a healer's spell. The have a built-in potency buff. Can hold more than one phoenix down. Has a 'Mix' skill that can combine a pre-determined set of items into buffs, debuffs and esuna effects (maybe even mega-phoenix or auto-life--that would be fun). And of course can deliver those items at range. It would certainly be a challenge to make its utility as simple as caster healers but it could work and would certainly make restorative items useful again.

I think at this point, a new Healer is NEEDED if the shortage I keep hearing about is anything to go by. I think making it interesting will make some people switch back or just switch. Period.