The finalized 5.0 healer changes revealed (links)

[RulerOfPotaoes]

If AST is gonna be the "damage" buffer i dont think a 3 min build up for a measly 6% potency AoE buff is worth it.

If they are going to keep that potency then the CD has to be lowered to 120 secs. If they want to keep the 180 sec CD the the potency should be increased to at least 8%

[Sylve]

If AST is gonna be the "damage" buffer i dont think a 3 min build up for a measly 6% potency AoE buff is worth it.

If they are going to keep that potency then the CD has to be lowered to 120 secs. If they want to keep the 180 sec CD the the potency should be increased to at least 8%

Divination isn't a card buff. Theoretically the effect could stack with cards. Which means combined with Sleeve Draw you could feasibly get Lord/Lady on at least 2 DPS and then trigger a Divination on stored Seals (Lord/Lady don't have Seals associated), So it'd be around 14% on the Jobs that matter for Damage Buffs. Pop that in sync with Chain Strat/Battle Litany inside a Trick Attack? The combined damage output would be insane.

It'd also be pretty crap if a 6% buff overwrote an 8% buff from Lord/Lady. Wouldn't put it past them, but still.

[Deceptus]

All of this.

Plus, now we also have to look forward to two more years of them trying to "balance" healers, until the next expansion comes around and we're graced with, wait for it . . . two more DPS jobs again, and more excuses as to why we can't have a new healer job.

Well, I mean Ninja and Dragoon have to share gear with SOMETHING right? /s

There are the two dps jobs.

ah yes after re reading it sacred soil does not gain its regen effect until lv78. still better in every way to Collective Unconscious and it gives fairy gauge which helps sch more XD

so any lv78+ schs if i don't see sacred soil every 30s while fighting you better be dancing the manderville mambo

Can't count the number of times I've been on my WHM only to drop Asylum and see tanks (and everyone else) stand outside of it

[Ghishlain]

Main issue with this is that basically every SCH healing skill is an ability and not affected by Dissipation.

You still get three Aetherflow stacks with Dissipation which is 1,800 potency worth of healing to burst with. This value gets even better with other Aetherflow ability that are off cooldown / about to come back online during those 30 seconds. This 1,800 potency already surpass the 1,500 potency your fairy will provide during those 30s; and that's assuming the 150 potency from the pet = 150 potency from the SCH - something we'll need to test once ShB goes live. 1,500 fairy potency is closer to 990 SCH potency with the current way pet healing potency is calculated.

I always found the healing+ on Dissipation to be pretty pointless since SCH's entire kit revolves around good CD management - if you're ever at a point on SCH where you're relying on GCD heals to maintain your party, something has gone south fairly quickly at that point. [Edit] Just rethinking this comment for a moment - we'll probably see more Dissipation used to augment Deploy+Adlo since the stacks you gain will surpass the fairy healing, assuming the fairy cannot use anything but embrace during those 30s anyway. Something good SCHs will be able to build their CD management around and take full advantage of all the different CDs the SCH kit gives them.

Only buff I'd ask for Dissipation at this point is to not "unsummon" the fairy but instead Silence / Pacify the fairy so the SCH can continue to build Fey Gauge while taking advantage of these three stacks.

[Eisenhower]

10 potency. Malefic lost TEN potency. You know whats probably worth more than 10 potency? A near permanent 8% +Damage buff that we can now keep on ourselves thanks to the card changes. So literally no change or a very very minor damage buff at worse. Combust got it worse, going from 50p to 35p. Made up again slightly by the Card buff, but not quite as much.

50% uptime in solo content is one helluva stretch for the description of "near permanent". If the lights were on for half the time I was in a room, I wouldn't call the room "near permanently illuminated".

That being said, 10 potency lost from a 220 base equals to 4.5%. Assuming that the AST use Minor Arcana on self with every card on cooldown, you can translate the buff from 8% with 50% uptime to 4% with 100% uptime. So If you're standing there only casting Malefic II with no clipping ad infinitum there is a slight loss with the new potencies and cards. Combust, in turn, was changed from 500 total potency to 350 total potency - a loss of 30%. No card in the world is going to compensate for that.

When it comes down to it, ASTs have the lowest direct damage and over time damage potency-per-MP efficiency among the healers and I'm unconvinced that the cards provide sufficient offset in terms of rDPS. At least all cards provide an easily quantifiable boost to damage. Shame about the flavour though.

As for the "potency changes" it is true that 1 potency in StB can't be equated to 1 potency in ShB. But surely potencies within a job and between jobs in ShB are comparable (e.g. an AST dealing 100 potency worth of damage should be the same as a WHM dealing 100 potency worth of damage)? Unless we're expecting SQEX to be using vastly different formulas for different jobs and actions, which sounds like madness.

Such things aside, one of the more egregious points is the state of Collective Unconcious and Celestial Opposition which feel like they're too weak compared to their counterparts in WHM and SCH - and it's not like ASTs can throw cards at their healing actions to make them stronger or increase ally mitigation anymore. In my eyes, the effects are too weak for the cooldowns given.

[Alathon]

Wow they've ruined everything I loved about playing Healer. Literally unplayable.

If you want to communicate your feelings about the changes, say so, and use words that describe feelings. Disappointment and disgust come to mind.

If you want to communicate that there are things wrong with 5.0 healers, describe their mechanics honestly. "Simplistic and boring damage options", "homogeneous damage and healing options across the Healer category", "emphasis on expanding healing kits that is disconnected from the low amount of healing required by FFXIV content".

Dishonest exaggerations such as "literally unplayable" make it less likely that complaints about the lousy 5.0 healers will be taken seriously. They'll play just fine and the obvious and expected reaction from non-healers (and likely SE as well) will be "those whiners are full of crap".

[Yulja]

All of this.

Plus, now we also have to look forward to two more years of them trying to "balance" healers, until the next expansion comes around and we're graced with, wait for it . . . two more DPS jobs again, and more excuses as to why we can't have a new healer job.

Also the fact that there were no healer mains in the media tour and like almost no questions regarding healers in interviews. Why is SE so scared of healers? Or do they dislike this role?
Balancing is one point and some things might make sense but overall the changes are just ridiculous. Most of them make no sense and do not help new players to play a healer because on max lvl they will find out that all healers are almost the same just different skins.

This game is based on subs and therefore the community should be heard.
If SE is not reaching out to the healer community this time and do things correctly what should the playerbase think of them? It is not like FFXIV is the only game on the market so why should they behave like this towards the healer playerbase?

What a joke... I went from being a pure WHM main for years to now feeling pretty grossed out and even disgusted thinking about levelling a healer into ShB. They really have no clue or desire on how to make healers fun or engaging. White Mage got Divine Seal back for their level 80 cap ability, Scholar got their DPS gutted and AST’s potencies and new card system is hilariously bad and boring. It’s a good thing they added the trust system in time for these appalling healer “additions” (more like culling) so I don’t have to wait for healers anymore.

Why not just delete the healers and be done with it, Square? That seems like it would be the route most appealing to you given how uninspired and out of touch these healer “balancing” acts have been. The fact that Yoshi P didn’t even REALISE people were upset at getting no new healers speaks volumes on how out of touch they are on the matter, it’s kinda sad...

This but I still have the feeling that they already almost deleted the healers and made them into being just different skins of each other(PvP and PvE). I am super angry and disappointed today.

[Ilenya]

Anyone have a good guess as to why Collective Unconscious was nerfed like that? Because that feels...VERY questionable.

[Maltothoris]

Anyone have a good guess as to why Collective Unconscious was nerfed like that? Because that feels...VERY questionable.

If I were to hazard a guess, they probably thought it was too strong on its own and reduced. Not wanting to have the mitigation go on too, I think they changed CO to make it have similar potency together (250+400) which ironically is still weaker than prenerf CU without old CO.

Honestly though. I have no idea.

[Ilenya]

If I were to hazard a guess, they probably thought it was too strong on its own and reduced. Not wanting to have the mitigation go on too, I think they changed CO to make it have similar potency together (250+400) which ironically is still weaker than prenerf CU without old CO.

Honestly though. I have no idea.

Like, I could potentially see the change if not for the fact it is still channeled. I seem to recall some of the buff lasts outside the channel, but unless the duration is long enough, that's still pretty unhelpful.