Healer identity in 5.0

[number473]

Focusing on regens or shields in particular misses out on what is really required by the classes. Each healing class needs a way to passively keep up the health of the party. This is essential. I think that is is also reasonable for each healer to have a way to prepare for upcoming damage and make it possible for party members to survive bigger incoming hits. I think that if we want to see greater balance, with the way that content is currently structured, we need all three healers to have well-rounded toolkits that allow them to complement each other.
Take a look at the dps classes. On the whole they accomplish the same thing (dealing damage) in different ways (the play style of the class). With healers we have not even been starting with the assumption that they will able to all do the same things.

On the topic of shields, I think that is good for all three healer classes to have access to them. At least, I think it's important for them to be able to prepare for a big hit ahead of time to minimize the amount of time spent in stressing low-health situations, or at least to provide some leeway for errors or tough situations. There are other options like % damage reduction that have a similar end result.
I think that there is plenty of space for them to differentiate how the healers' shields work. We already see this: WHM's shield is instant cast and has a cooldown which makes it great for soaking up general damage but harder to use for tankbusters if you want to maximize uptime. Nocturnal AST has the best on-demand shields with a small heal to go along with it, and it has the added benefit of being instant cast. SCH has a weaker single-target shield (outside of situations where you can fish for a crit) that falls in with the other skills in it's toolbox. Even back in ARR, WHM had stoneskin as a shield so there is certainly precedent for all healers to have ways to prevent incoming damage.
They have also said the we will be able to see shields as part of the ui in the future. I hope for two changes along with this: WHM's shields should change from a percentage of max hp to a potency so that their effectiveness isn't reduced when not using them on a tank. I think the main reason that skills that don't heal instead shield for a percentage of hp is because it is hard to tell exactly how much has been shielded without a heal number or hp bar indication.
The other thing I'd like to see is a cap on the amount of shields someone can have compared to how much hp they have. This would make it possible for all sorts of shields to stack, since it would never be able to go past this maximum and become overpowered.

In terms of passive healing, these are things that give the healer space to do other things like dps or move during mechanics while healing still continues to take place. The main ways that this takes place is through regens, but oGCD heals also contribute to this. Of course the king of passive healing is the fairy. The way that things work now, each healer should have a way to keep the hp of the party ticking up over time without having to constantly hard cast things like Cure or Benefic. This is a large part of what the problem with Nocturnal AST is - They have had to boost the heal percentage on the sect numerous times for this reason, since when the tank takes damage you often have to stop what you are doing to tend to his hp, having few options to keep his hp ticking up otherwise.

[Coltvoyance]

They have also said the we will be able to see shields as part of the ui in the future.

Do we have a source for this? It's the first time I'm hearing of it. If so it's a great idea and could allow Square to introduce the concept of "Overhealing". Essentially creating healing skills that fill a "second" health bar (formerly the TP bar in the party UI?). And perhaps it slowly diminishes over time along with taking damage. This could give healers greater focus on casting heals to maintain this "second" health bar, as it continuously drops, instead of just dealing damage. Especially if the next attack requires that level of extra health to survive, or a specific amount of "Overheal" (which may provide different benefits to regular HP).

The key would probably be making sure that it's a different set of skills that fill this gauge; or maybe that's the WHM niche. Lets say SCH Aldo can add Healing and Overhealing at the same time, but it fills the bars separately (meaning if both bars need to be full, SCH can only fill the HP bar, and some of the Overhealing bar cause shields can't stack) meanwhile AST can fill either the HP bar, or the overhealing bar (new Sect stance switching) But for WHM, it can fill both as if they were one continuous Healthbar; not requiring a stance switch to do so, and is able to fill it more quickly, giving more purpose to it's "power healer" status. (Theoretically it could turn Bene into not just an "oh shit" button, but also an "incoming tank buster" button). This extra power could actually give WHM more DPS time, while the other two have to spend more time casting GCD overheal spells to reach that level.

Though as I write this, it seems evident that this isn't so much making WHM more powerful... as just putting handicaps on the other two healers. It's basically like putting both SCH and AST in wheelchairs and forcing them to use the wheelchair ramp while leaving WHM as the only healer with legs that can still use the stairs..... But it's a thought. It would at least make WHM feel powerful XD.

[NissaR]

Do we have a source for this? It's the first time I'm hearing of it. If so it's a great idea and could allow Square to introduce the concept of "Overhealing". Essentially creating healing skills that fill a "second" health bar (formerly the TP bar in the party UI?). And perhaps it slowly diminishes over time along with taking damage. This could give healers greater focus on casting heals to maintain this "second" health bar, as it continuously drops, instead of just dealing damage. Especially if the next attack requires that level of extra health to survive, or a specific amount of "Overheal" (which may provide different benefits to regular HP).

I'm not exactly sure when this was mentioned, but it might've been during one of the FanFests or LiveLetters. It wasn't on a slide or anything, but they did talk about being able to see shields in the future. I wish I remembered. The Las Vegas FanFest would be my best guess.