New Healer Job Suggestion: Necromancer

[Archwizard]

And I'd prefer, honestly, that they take that even further. I'd much, much rather play a "Support" -- where healing is a large and vital part of that, but still just one such part among multiple aspects -- than a "Healer", who interacts only with health bars rather than every possible way available to interact with party composition, player mentalities (your "DPS Chads" and so forth), and the fight itself. But at present, and I dare wager in the future as well, those skills are more... incidental than thematic, a way to fill time rather than acting as an integral piece of each job's kit.

I rather agree, although the distinction is a thin line. The "Healers" we have presently already go beyond healing with effects like creating barrier fields or amplifying damage, it's just not their full-time job to supply those.
Much as I would love to see that expanded, there's only so much direction such can be given while still being compatible with the design of FF14 -- in the game's current iteration you won't see anyone (aside from maybe BLU), say, creating walls that block line of fire, or stealing enemy buffs, or spending entire encounters keeping key enemies completely CC-locked. Some games have tried to defy the "Holy Trinity" by implementing status effect-oriented classes who buff or debuff, but ultimately creating a dedicated role as a repository for raw utility just removes potential from other roles.
Utilities in themselves shouldn't define a role, they should help the job stand out and create opportunities for individual player contributions to shine through.
Meanwhile if you create a job that responds significantly better to certain fight mechanics or party compositions, you run into (or rather, aggravate existing) issues of job imbalance and compositional favoritism in a competitive scene.

It feels like we already have a half-baked version of Red Mage, Summoner, Blue Mage, Conjurer, and to lesser extent perhaps even Dark Knight, Machinist, and Astrologian. With Shadowbringers, we'll likely be adding Gunbreaker and Dancer to that list of jobs with "at best half their thematic potential visible in game".

I would argue it's not necessarily that these jobs are "half-baked", just that they were created with room to expand their kits later. When designing within an evolving format like an MMO, you can't ever think of any character class as "complete".

RDM, for instance; being a newer job, it's barely scratched the surface of its potential. But before we can see pinnacles like enchanting allied weapons or combining White and Black spells together into effects neither school would dream of alone, we need a foundation to build off of -- hence its seemingly "half-baked" state.
Reaching a full thematic potential is the entire journey of class design, and we're only two expansions in. AST canonically considers time manipulation to be the peak of its power.

BLU, meanwhile, has no design skeleton whatsoever beyond existing as a repository for all of the abilities that were too niche, imbalanced or impractical for a real job. It's the Giant Space Flea From Nowhere of jobs, literally made to be as bizarre as enemy encounters would allow, I'm not sure what anyone expected.

[Lihtleita]

pretty sure necromancy exists in universe as a branch of thaumaturgy (or maybe im misrembering the 1.0 msq). if they could rework drk into a tank i see no reason why an edgy healer couldnt happen

p.s. bring back leeches

[griffinborn]

FFXIV could probably use an edgy healer concept, and Necromancer, being a classic FF job, would probably be the closest unless they make an entirely unique Job.

[Archwizard]

I've been working on a few sample ideas for how the job could work as a healer (or "support" as Shurrikhan says).

Weapon: Scythes
Extra resource: Soul Gauge, holds up to 100 Soul Power and marks the number of active undead minions.

Reap (1.5 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Deal unaspected damage with a potency of X00.
Additional effect: Absorbs a portion of damage dealt as HP. Healing in excess of maximum HP will increase Soul Power by 1 per 1% overhealing.

Sin Harvest (3 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Deal unaspected damage with a potency of 150 to enemies in a cone in front of the caster.
Additional effect: Increase Soul Power by X per target struck.

Haunt (instant, 30 sec CD) – Deal unaspected damage over time.
Potency: 50
Duration: 30 sec
Additional effect: Inflicts unaspected damage with a potency of 30 to nearby enemies per tick.
Additional effect: Increase Soul Power by X per tick.
Additional effect: If target dies, increase Soul Power by X and reset Haunt cooldown.

Sow (instant, 1 sec CD) – Restore target ally’s HP other than self.
Cure Potency: 200
Soul Gauge Cost: X Soul Power, or X% of caster’s health.

Soul Spiral (instant, 15 sec CD) – Restore HP of all nearby party members except self.
Cure Potency: 200
Soul Gauge Cost: (3x Sow)
Additional effect: Cooldown reduced by 4 sec for each affected target that is not overhealed.

False Life (2 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 750
Additional effect: Inflicts Necrosis, causing unaspected damage over time up to the amount of healing received, excluding overhealing, and preventing the effects of False Life.
Duration: 15 sec
--> Trait: Enhanced Sow – Sow has a 15% chance to remove Necrosis.

Occultation (instant, 30 sec CD) – Create a barrier around self or target that absorbs damage. Damage absorption equals 1% of target HP per Soul Power consumed.
Can only be cast with at least 1 Soul Power in the Soul Gauge. All Soul Power is lost upon execution.
Duration: 30 sec

Lichyard (instant, 90 sec CD) – Channels all Soul Power to create a designated area in which party members regenerate health.
Can only be cast with at least 5 Soul Power in the Soul Gauge. All Soul Power is lost upon execution.
Cure Potency: 150
Duration: 1 sec per 5 Soul Power consumed.

Riskcharge (instant, 20 sec CD) – Double the potency of the next Soul Gauge effect, but double the health cost or consume 1% of caster’s health per Soul Power drained.
Duration: 15 sec

Exhume (3 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Summon a revenant to fight at your side.
--> Trait: Magick and Mend – Up to 2 revenants may be in your service at once.
--> Trait: Magick and Mend II – Up to 3 revenants may be in your service at once.
--> Trait: Enhanced Exhume – Cast time is reduced by up to 75% if no revenants are active.
--> Trait: Enhanced Exhume II – Cast time is reduced by up to 50% if fewer than 2 revenants are active.
Number of active revenants is marked on the Soul Gauge. All Revenants respond simulaneously to movement commands. Max HP of revenants is based on necromancer's Mind stat.
Revenant abilities:

• Digest (Instant) – Deal damage to the target and restore own HP and necromancer’s Soul Power. (All active revenants execute Digest simultaneously per pet GCD.)
• Decoy (Instant) – Transfers enmity from necromancer. On Obey, will only cast when ordered.
• Soul Douse (Instant) – Deal unaspected damage to all nearby enemies equal to max HP while incapacitating self. On Obey, will only cast when ordered. (If not on Obey, will automatically cast upon receiving fatal damage. On Obey, only one revenant will cast Bloat per pet GCD.)
• Sacrifice (2 sec cast) – Restore HP of all nearby party members equal to remaining HP while incapacitating self. (Only cast when ordered, even on Sic. Only one revenant will cast Sacrifice per pet GCD.)

Pain (2 sec cast, MP, 45 sec CD) – Reduce target enemy’s damage by 10% and prevent them from inflicting critical or direct hits.
Duration: 10 sec
Additional effect: Heavy +40%.
Duration: 10 sec
--> Trait: Aura Siphon – Chance to cause your next Sow to increase the healed target's damage by 10%.

Psychopomp (instant, 2 min CD) – Causes damage inflicted or health consumed by your spells to restore MP based on damage dealt.
Additional effect: Removes cast time of Reap
Additional effect: Reduces cast time and recast time of Sin Harvest by 50%
Duration: 10 sec

Fear (2.5 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Inflicts targets with Hysteria, causing them to flee in fear.
Duration: 30s
Cancels auto-attack upon execution.

Zombie Powder (instant, 1 min CD) – Inflicts target with Zombie, causing it to fight for you. Target is immune to Zombie status for 1 minute after execution.
Duration: 10s

Undying (2 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Grant Undead status to target ally, converting incoming direct damage and most Instant Death effects into healing of equal potency but making the target immune to other healing effects.
Duration: 10 sec, or until 100% HP is restored
Additional effect: When Undead status ends, target is afflicted with Anastasis, preventing them from receiving Undead status.
Duration: 1 minute
--> Trait: Specter of Death – Critical healing from Sow, Soul Spiral or False Life reduces the duration of Anastasis by 5 sec.

Vampirism (instant, MP, GCD) – Causes self or target ally to heal for an additional 5% of damage they inflict.
Duration: 10 sec

Red Feast (2.5 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Causes self and all nearby allies to heal for an additional 2% of damage they inflict.
Duration: 30 sec

Phylactery (instant, 3 min CD) – Prevent self or target ally from falling below 1 HP by means of most attacks.
Duration: 10 sec

Trait: Pestilence – Removing a damage over time effect with Esuna has a X% chance to apply it to its original caster.

Reunion (8 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Resurrects target to a weakened state.
--> Trait: Seance – While the Soul Gauge is full, Reunion is cast instantly and consumes all Soul Power instead of MP. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute.

Death (instant, MP, 3 min CD) – Deal unaspected damage with a potency of 1000 to an enemy or Undead ally. Can only be executed when target’s HP is below 20%.
Additional effect: Attempts to inflict Instant Death on enemies whose level is equal to or lower than your own.
Additional effect: Generates 100 Soul Power
Trait: Angel of Death – Death resets the cooldown of Psychopomp.

Funeral Rites (instant, 2 min CD) – Channel Soul Power to increase the damage the target receives based on their missing health.
Auto-attack ends upon execution.
Effect ends upon using another action or moving (including facing a different direction).
Duration: 10 sec, or until Soul Gauge empties
Soul Gauge Cost: 10 Soul Power per sec

LB3: Witching Hour

All subject to change, of course, but the goal is just to get the creative juices flowing.

[Shurrikhan]

All subject to change, of course, but the goal is just to get the creative juices flowing.

Liking what I see. Some random thoughts:

1. Could it fit in more resource mechanics than just SP? Like, anything more directly related to summoning or resource-consuming abilities, maybe generated through damage dealt to enemies or taken by self or allies? I'd love to see something I could balance between tactically keeping an enemy down (or an ally up) and just outright nuking (or nuke death-negating) an enemy (or ally) with. Bone Shatter, for instance, just sound a little too epic for a Dismantle-Lethargy combo, as fitting as that effect and its short cooldown would be.
   
   
2. Would it be at all worth offering temporary maximum HP augmentation (i.e. increase maximum HP while healing for the same amount) through the NCM's toolkit? Or would that overly favor Warrior and WHM/Diurnal alone? Just some more food for thought.
   
   
3. Would love to see some more Revenant abilities, if possible, though I don't yet know how I feel about having multiple of them out at one time, especially if they're not specialized from the start. I feel like that'd get in the way of reactivity. The Revenant-Necromancer interactions also feel like they might not yet be fleshed out fully?
   
   
4. The important one: How, if at all possible, does an SP-exhausted Necromancer react to raid damage that must be healed immediately, given that they must first heal themselves? If not possible, how often do you expect that might be an issue? If ever an issue, is this an intended balancing point?

[Archwizard]

Liking what I see. Some random thoughts:

A lot of these are food for thought, though to address a couple points:

I like to think that the summons themselves effectively are a resource, owing not only to their ability to generate Soul Power over time, but also by the fact that each one can be detonated either to heal or harm in an AoE -- hence the ability to stock multiple. Unlike other pet-based archetypes, the necromancer is infamous for treating each of its minions as disposable, since there are always more dead to work with.
Otherwise, the goal for the necromancer's interaction with their pets is to be a happy medium between Scholar's virtual passivity and Summoner's micromanagement -- something you need to more actively control, but not fret over to the point of neglecting your own casts.

(As an aside, I chose "Bone Shatter" as a name because it felt wrong to use the word "Cripple", particularly if it could be taken out of the context as a verb and used instead in its pejorative noun form.)
I've had half an idea in my head for a bit for the Necromancer to sort of... sing a hymn that will accelerate the target's death at low-health. I thought of Death as a good balance (and a classic) but it's a very selfish effect more in tune with damage-dealing than supporting the group. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, just look at Aero III and Lord of Crowns.)
You are free to make suggestions as far as more abilities and creating the types of tactics you envisioned, however -- I don't think of what I wrote as the end-all-be-all, and I could see Sacrifice being shuffled off into a sort of Enkindle effect.

Temporary max HP augmentation is something worth considering to pair with the large degree of leech-healing (and definitely makes me think of the Blood Death Knight style from WoW), though I would argue that it's somewhat unnecessary with effects like Phylactery, and that absorption effects are easier to balance. On the other hand one could argue that such an effect would also be equally fitting for a WHM, given their intense focus on raw healing.

For Raid damage that must be healed immediately, if s/he can't cast Lichyard either due to the cost or cooldown, the intent is that the Necromancer Sacrifices a Revenant. The downside to sacrificing Revenants is both that you lose resources, damage, and a source of enmity control, but also that they take time to resummon and must be done so individually, which increases the risk-reward factor of their use. While the Necromancer does not have the ability to create barriers or HoT effects like other healers, it can stock up to 3 charges of the Revenant at once, similar to a Scholar's Indomitability, and in a pinch the Necromancer can summon them more often than Scholar can cast Aetherflow.
Bear in mind though that Reap isn't the only way to generate SP, and they should have the opportunity to generate a small amount over time between minions and their DoT, and even without enough SP they can consume their own health. Reap is just the most effective way to maintain the loop.
If it's found that the Necromancer can't keep up with other healers as a result of not having a barrier or HoT, of course, then one option is to downtune Red Feast, give it an MP cost and remove its CD, allowing the necromancer to retain a unique form of healing while still fitting with the sacrificial theme. (Granting "unique" doesn't seem to really be an issue if you look at AST, but I feel like AST is missing the opportunity to use its time magic to, say, delay incoming damage effects and turn them into DoTs to heal more easily.) Maybe even add a single-target form to match Regen/Adloquium/Aspected Benefic?
One could also argue for a CD that instantly stocks all 3 Revenants (albeit I consider this distasteful as many players would then ignore Exhume entirely), or some trait to reduce Exhume's cast time under certain conditions, such as having burst all 3.

In fact, I'll just go ahead and make a couple of those additions now. Give it another glance.

[GrindShack]

XD Just gonna leave this here:

https://alcasthq.com/eso-necromancer-healer-build-pve/

They do make use of Divine magic for this build, however this is just to show relevance for this in a "current game".

[Archwizard]

I've been working on a few sample ideas for how the job could work as a healer (or "support" as Shurrikhan says).

Updated a few descriptions and changed some names to better match some classical FF skills.

[Iscah]

Lore-logic-wise, I don't think I want to get "raised" by a Necromancer instead of a regular healer...

Also, on the passing comment that "scholar learning their skills from tonberries" sets a precedent for learning monstrous arts, it doesn't. Regardless of what they are in other games, in this game they are transformed humans, and the skills we learn from them originate in a human discipline from before the curse took hold. We're not learning "tonberry magic".

[Seraphor]

Death (3 sec cast, MP, 3 min CD) – Deal unaspected damage with a potency of 1000. Can only be executed when target’s HP is below 20%.
Additional effect: Instant Death on enemies whose level is equal to or lower than your own.
Additional effect: Fully replenishes Soul Gauge.

Even on a 3m cooldown, that is definitely not a healer skill...

If anything, this could, and probably will, be a BLU skill.