Lets Disect what the healers are getting and see where some issues might be

[Ceasaria]

I want to share with you my analysis about the healers in Shadowbringers.
My goal here is to show what will be the state of healing, and for that I will focus only the healing kit.

How each healer will play with his new kit ?

WHM

• With the new Lily, we can already say that WHM will cast 4 free (mana and instant) heals spells within 90 sec : Afflatus Solace and Afflatus Rapture. This spell are equivalent to Cure II and Medica. So it seems like we will no cast Cure II and Medica anymore. I don’t think they are loosing some dps (by casting in the end Afflatus Misery) because heals are needed in 90 sec anyway. So maybe even WHM will cast less Recup and Medica II to compensate.

• Talking about Medica II, HoT potency double, duration healved, it’s now equivalent to Medica after 3 sec, whereas it was 6 sec. It’s just for 300 additional mana. Medica II is clearly boosted, and Medica will no longer be required and could even be deleted (thanks to Afflatus Rapture too).

• We can say the same thing about Cure II too which was already cast less because of Tetragrammaton. Now, Afflatus Solace which bring 0 cost mana and is instant would be favored compared to Cure II.

• Cure III, no changes here and will still help a lot during tough times.
  Same for Assize, Tetragrammaton, Benediction, Divine Benison (slithy change).

• I think, WHM will try to cast Plenary Indulgence before every Medica II and Cure III to have an immediate additional heal with 200 potency only. I think it’s the only nerf this job has received. But it’s not that quite noticeable so, it’s okay.

• Asylum now grants a kind of halved Mantra inside which is really nice for burst heal or reinforce shields. So, now WHM will need to think about gains benefit from the two effects (HoT, ½ Mantra) at the same time if possible. Not sure, but maybe the HoT from Asylum is boosted by the ½ Mantra.

• Temperance, I think is the new king ability which allow every 2 min to reduce damage by 10% (huge radius of 30 yalm) and give a healing boost to WHM. It’s very welcome for many situations while during 20 sec the team take damages and you need to heal them with Cure III for example.

AST

• Don’t know where to go first. We can already not talk about cards which are only for dps now.
  I want to remind that AST lost his healing bonus on stance but it’s been compensate with more potency on healing spells. I didn’t do the calculation but it seems equitable.

• You will use Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helios a lot as Earthly Star, it doesn’t change here.

• Celestial Opposition is now a mini free Aspected Helios (but with 2 min cd, ouch). It’s 400 healing total potency or a small shield of 150% shield potency. It’s maybe one of the worse healer ability ingame now with Plenary Indulgence (halved potency, halved cd).

• Horoscope is another ability playing with Aspected Helios or Helios. It’s maybe the only ability I can’t tell much because we don’t have the potency. But It look similar to Plenary Indulgence…

• Now one ability welcome because of the incapacity to change stance is Celestial Intersection which give a HoT if Nocturnal or a shield if Diurnal. The funny thing is, if you compare to Celestial Opposition, it’s more or less similar but the recast time is divided by 4 ! Which really put Celestial Opposition to one of the worse ability.

• However, the principal interest of AST seems to be during Neutral Sect allowing the use of the two sect (with largess effect) which could be nice to clearly solo heal during 20 sec.
  I mean, you can cast together Celestial Opposition, Celestial Intersection, Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helio. "Removed text". Okay so I correct my self here. Same Regen doesn't stack with another AST. Shields from Celestial abilities seems to stack together and with another AST too. So, it's better than I though. So, it's seems possible to do a big HoT and shields burst every 2 min which is nice.

• I let that for the end but Collective Unconscious is not so great now. The HoT is garbage, the worst HoT ever now (50 potency) among healers. The 18 sec 10% reduction is nice but need to gather together (ok not a big deal) and last 12 sec less than Temperance.

• Before you could count on Earthly Star and CU as master cards.
  Just Earthly Star remains as the only powerful tool of AST which is really depressing.
  Edit : Neutra Sect could maybe be count as one too (if there is no issue by stacking HoT and shields)

• I can mention that Essential Dignity has 2 charges now, maybe the best improvement for AST in Shadownbringers, it’s...lol (again need to see Neutral Sect ingame because it could be this one the best thing).

SCH

• I will begin with the basic actions of this job.
  First of all, Adloquium has seen a slight boost (100% shield → 125% shield), maybe for compensate the lost of an eventual largess which is not give back under another ability (not as WHM and AST). in the end, the shield adlo potency will be goes from (360 largesse SB → 375 ShB).
  So even without critical aspect (which become Catalyse), Adlo + Deployment will continue to rule when we know that Fey Illumination, Asylum, Nature’s Minne, Mantra, etc., are here to help.
  Succor is like 20 potency total behind Aspect Helios, so not a big deal.
  There are no playstyle changes for Adlo, Succor and Physic (when you care about mana and no need to shield) at the end.

• Recitation, an ability giving a critical every 90 sec will allow to recover strongly any situation. Crit Indomitability would become as powerful as Earthly Star, Crit Adlo for tank buster, Crit Excog if you need to recover someone (like ¾ potency of Benediction I would say). Don’t see the interest on Succor if shields are not effected by it.

• With that, there are 2 others big changes which will affect how SCH will play : Aetherflow abilities, and the Fairy.
  The most important is abilities tied to Aetherflow. We know that Energy Drain has been removed, which mean, SCH will use only healing/mitigative abilities.
  So every 60 sec (bye bye trait), you will use 3 of them : Lustrate (can go to 3 uses), Excogitation (can go to 2 uses), Sacred Soil (can go to 2 uses), and Indomitability (can go to 2 uses).
  Just with that, I can let you imagine how SCH was already the best in mitigation and shield, but now add healing on top of that.

• To extend on these abilities, Sacred Soil has now a new effect : a HoT superior to Collective Unconscious (after nerf) which is 100. He can cover and recover anything easily within 60 sec. For each Aetherflow, you could go for 1 Excog on tank, 1 Sacred Soil for incoming damage + HoT for team and tank (dealing with boss) + 1 Indomitability for recover the damages. It’s very simple and very efficient.

• And if it’s not enough, you can Dissipate your fairy (which will come back now after 30 sec) and have another 3 Aetherflow charges for emergency Lustrate I guess or cast one more Sacred Soil, Indomitability, or Excog. Don’t forget the 20% healing boost which could serve your Adlo + Deployment or Succor.
  You will tell me, “but I don’t want to sacrifice my fairy”. Embrace is nerf (250 → 150), what’s the matter now ? You gain more to sacrifice her now than before.
  Just by looking at that, I can already picture the domination of SCH, but there are more : the Fairy.

• Alright, she is nerf, you can’t control Embrace, potency is nerf, ok.
  But it’s largely compensate by the aetherflow abilities healing power now and Seraph.
  SCH still has Whispering Dawn, Fey Illumination (which is Fey Covenant a bit nerf combined with Fey Illumination). So Eos based abilities are still here.
  Same for Fey Union despite a small nerf.
  And I forgot Fey Blessing, an AOE heal with 250 potency every 1 min.

• Seraph replace Eos for 20 sec and allow two new things every 2 min.
  Embrace is replaced by Seraphic Veil which is 33% stronger and add a shield of the same potency, ideal for tank during tough moment (if Seraph cast on him). Fey Union is replaced by Consolation which is Succor for free (can be casted 2 times max).

Conclusion

WHM is slightly buff because principally of Asylum trait, Temperance, and some free mana and instant spells tied to Lily. But, Cure II and Medica will become useless because of the redundancy of his kit. He will have no problem of mana as now and will be ideal for progress and rez. He really lack of a barrier AOE spell/ability. It’s a “normal” evolution for the White Mage, the continuation across the different expansions.

AST has not evolved, he has regressed. Can no longer extend the duration of the HoT (and buffs), Unconscious Collective is nearly bad, the whole new effect about double stance may stack together and some effect don't stack with SCH or another AST. Hopefully, he can charged Essential Dignity to 2 now. Add the rework of the cards to that, and you obtain a complete unnecessary and missed rework of Astromancien. A real waste (if Neutral Sect doesn't allow to stack different regens and shields from various capacities).

SCH was, is and will stay the king of healers. He is not only powerful in mitigation and barrier, he is now very powerful in healing too. Thanks to the DPS simplification (lol) which removed Energy Drain, letting no choice to Scholar to use his healing abilities tied to Aetherflow. His fairy is maybe not manageable as before and Embrace is nerf badly but it’s largely compensate by Seraph and other improvements (Aetherflow abilities, Recitation).


Edit : I think I was a bit wrong about the "Neutral Sect" of AST, so I fixed that.

[Eloah]

Sorry I lost you here, Biolysis and Art of War are awesome names that fit SCH really well.

Well, I'll say it's not that the names themselves are bad or don't fit SCH general motif. It's just that since they've been "gutted" they seem sorta, adlibbed, if that makes sense. Like Art of War sounds like another Tactics skill, so it sounds more like utility. Like maybe that should of been the name for the Recitation skill. Biolysis seems more like a Bane/Fester/Contagin skill. That's all. For what they actually are, I personally don't care for the names.

Also anyone who thinks Dissipation is "good", I'm sorry it's not. It wasn't good before, it just had a niche use for DPS. In fact while the healing was nice it was always treated as a DPS skill. Also we still have the Aetherflow trait to my knowledge, so yay 45 seconds to sit on potential heals.

[Ceasaria]

Also we still have the Aetherflow trait to my knowledge, so yay 45 seconds to sit on potential heals.

[Eloah]

Welp, not like I had anything useful to spend the stacks on anyway, lol. You run frucked up SE.

Also do you know what SMN's looks like? Curious about Energy Drain for them.

[illumy]

so whm no longer have nature magic wing earth water? and just uses light magic? welp that's sad:/

[Josco]

Okay so Lets look at their DPS first, since that is the biggest issue.

Is it, though?

[Eloah]

Is it, though?

Well let's say the split is like 33/33/34, with 34 being DPS. It's still technically bigger, lol. But it's a collective issue not solely one one thing, since each healers kits vary on what is considered "bad".

[Josco]

Well let's say the split is like 33/33/34, with 34 being DPS. It's still technically bigger, lol. But it's a collective issue not solely one one thing, since each healers kits vary on what is considered "bad".

I'd argue the biggest issue is they "balanced" DPS, but then enormously imbalanced healing, and overall made the classes look less engaging.

I see the breakdown like this:

WHM: DPS--more boring
Heals--the same, slightly less bad

AST: DPS--slightly more boring (no LoC); I personally think cards look fine, but most ASTs I know say it looks boring, so I'll defer to them
Heals--worse

SCH: DPS--way, way more boring
Heals--way, way better

I just think if you're going to tell us you are taking the time to "focus on balancing the existing healers," it would be a good time to focus on balancing the existing healers. It feels like they tried to homogenize DPS, then got bored and moved on to something more interesting to them.

[Urthdigger]

Regarding WHM, something I see a lot of people failing to realize is that we lost Largesse. A lot of people look at Temperance like a buff, saying "Oh, and now we can do this for heavy healing moments!" ...except we already did have a tool that used to do that, from level 45 onward (so it worked in leveling dungeons for keeping tanks up during large pulls) and with a far shorter recast timer. The 10% damage reduction added is nice, but at the cost of a far larger recast timer and getting it waaaay later, it's not a good price.

[Deceptus]

Regarding WHM, something I see a lot of people failing to realize is that we lost Largesse. e.

Oddly enough WHM's first lost Divine Seal (20% inc healing) and it was given to everyone as Largesse. Then that was taken away and given back to WHM as Temperance.

SE loves to take stuff away and give the very thing they took back later under the guise of "improvement"