What is imbalanced about the healers. I keep seeing this said everywhere.

[NYCAcimStudent]

Personal opinion: Wouldn't a ton of things be fixed in this game if FFXIV just stopped with the endlessly scripted fights? Why can't there be more random damage, like most other MMOs? A heavily scripted fight gets boring that much faster and it makes a SCH wildly superior to WHM. If the fights are going to remain as choreographed dances, I am not sure why WHM even exists as a healer.

WHM is an amazing healer that is trapped in the wrong game. Help!

[Dyvid]

It will be interesting if SE can go back in time, look at the original WHM/SCH (because it works well here) and try another path for the implementation of AST and the balancing between the 3 healers.
I think the sentence of the mysterious man is dedicated to us : rewrite the healers history.

I was thinking about this and had some crazy idea that I doubt would happen. First image the healers where designed like this; WHM is direct healer, SCH is shield, and AST is heal over time. Next a healer would get a bonus in MND based on setup.
WHM and SCH, WHM would get the bonus were on big hit the WHM would heal the party up then SCH would shield the party, giving the WHM and SCH free time to buff/debuff/dps.
WHM and AST, AST would get the bonus were on big hit the WHM would give a medium party heal and the AST would top them off with HoT, giving the WHM and AST free time to buff/debuff/dps.
SCH and AST, SCH would get the bonus were on big hit the SCH would Shield the party while AST restores HP with HoT. Since Shield would absorb extra incoming damage and HoT would restore HP without much input, SCH and AST would have time to .....

Anyway, I curious on what they plan to do and really hope they just change AST to HoT rather than trying to make it stance dance between WHM and SCH. That was just a bad design in general.

[Bobsmiaw]

I was thinking about this and had some crazy idea that I doubt would happen. First image the healers where designed like this; WHM is direct healer, SCH is shield, and AST is heal over time. Next a healer would get a bonus in MND based on setup.

AST as HoT healer is actually not bad.
Combined with their time manipulation magic, AST can fast forward the HoT into single big heal.
It is different with Emergency Tactis as you have to put the HoT first before accelerating it.

However, I think this will not happen as WHM will always have Regen.
This is how SE design white magic since ancient time (Similar with Female only Vierra, they don't want to ruin Lore).
Hope they can find a better solution for healer balance while making each healer unique.

[KittenMittens]

While it's true that White Mage does the least damage overall, it's also the easiest healer to get the most mileage out of by far. White Mage only needs minor changes and most of the people here are making it out to be Heavensward levels of imbalance, which it's not.

[Grimoire-M]

Personal opinion: Wouldn't a ton of things be fixed in this game if FFXIV just stopped with the endlessly scripted fights? Why can't there be more random damage, like most other MMOs? A heavily scripted fight gets boring that much faster and it makes a SCH wildly superior to WHM. If the fights are going to remain as choreographed dances, I am not sure why WHM even exists as a healer.

WHM is an amazing healer that is trapped in the wrong game. Help!

Not really. SCH by the nature of Aetherflow can readily adapt to non-scripted encounters just fine. It arguably would benefit more from the change than WHM would. WHM's GCDs certainly let it adapt to RNG but I do not think it would be any closer to AST long term, just solidified as a top prog healer. Again AST's GCD heals are more than competitive with WHM's and their cooldowns are better in most cases. The only edge WHM has is Cure III at the moment, and Star + Indom both do a really good impression of that while Succor/Helios can be rotated in as needed with enough potential gains elsewhere.

The only damage that seems pertinent to me if you wanted to give WHM any specific advantage is dealing enough damage to the main tank consistently enough that either they sit in tank stance soaking up Cure IIs or they die. And any back to back AoE needs to be in long enough strings that Cure III wins out in raw efficiency compared to Indom/Star. Which...realistically only happens during enrage mechanics as of late.

[Dyvid]

AST as HoT healer is actually not bad.
Combined with their time manipulation magic, AST can fast forward the HoT into single big heal.
It is different with Emergency Tactis as you have to put the HoT first before accelerating it.

However, I think this will not happen as WHM will always have Regen.
This is how SE design white magic since ancient time (Similar with Female only Vierra, they don't want to ruin Lore).
Hope they can find a better solution for healer balance while making each healer unique.

I think it's fine that WHM and SCH have a regen ability, just like AST would have a normal heal but it's main source of healing would be HoT. Maybe increase recast time of Regen? As for lightspeed I was think maybe increase the speed of ticks so it becomes a cascade of heals over time?

As for SCH, I'm surprise there aren't a lot of FF games for reference here. FFXIV's version has three main characteristics; Shield, Fairy, ACN abilities. Obviously Shields are what define SCH so it should be untouched with maybe tweaking mp cost. Pet A.I. needs to be overhauled with Fairy included. Embrace should be considered as an auto attack and all spells changed to instant abilities (Sorry SMN still suffers from this plague if SCH has already been fixed). Furthermore using abilities should take priority over movement, meaning the Fairy would stop, cast ability, then continue moving. Selene's skill set also needs work; Silence and Fey Caress. If I'm wrong please correct me here but seem like trash abilities that could be used for something else. Lastly we come to ACN and trying to move it away from what SMN has. Traits can do this with great effect. Part of me says get rid of DoT and part says keep them. Maybe change / combine them into two different one that apply a DoT and debuff like lower attack damage? I think Aetherflow is a good tool and should stay. I would love to see Libra added but since telling a monsters weakness would be a laughable skill, have it lower defense? I also liked Chain Stratagem that makes to SCH feel more like a tactician using books.