New Healer Request Next Expansion

[Archwizard]

I'm of the mind that if people are going to request healers, they should at least have a preferred design to go with it, doesn't asking for someone else to do all the work seem a little boring?

This. Precisely.

My problem with the requests for Chemist aren't because I hate the idea of a potion-based healer or whathaveyou. My problem is that "potion-based healer" is as far as most people get with the idea, and that only providing the aesthetics without a mechanical backing implies a lack of interest in how that affects gameplay. Mix alone can't do it any more than Scan alone would have made Scholar worthwhile here (and SCH didn't even have a "Scan"-like skill until Stormblood).
Just telling me "it's a healer that uses potions and technology instead of magic" doesn't excite me as a player (especially since in terms of gameplay, it will either be magic anyway or end up a support ranged job) -- the actual flow, abilities and impact of the job are what will make it worth playing.

Sure, there's a level of leaving it up to the devs to decide I'm sure, but if these are the same crowds that think the presence of an additional healer will help balance out the others, there should be a little less blind faith and a little more critical consideration.

Personally, this is why I keep saying Necromancer would be an interesting idea; there's so much more to it than wielding scythes or summoning zombies. You could get:

• Drain-based attacks, healing by redistributing life force, and use of HP as an alternate resource to create "battle healer" (attack in order to heal) gameplay
• The ability to give allies variant Undead statuses to increase their survivability (Vampire to leech HP, Ghost to evade attacks, Lich to delay death, etc)
• The power to summon and then sacrifice minions to heal or inflict damage
• Debuffs like Pain (AoE Paralysis?) or Fear/Hysteria to reduce crowd damage output
• Passive bonuses towards resurrection (maybe even take some of that burden off RDM?)
• Soul barriers, "false life" effects, and/or damage/healing inversion for tankbusters
• A potential repository for the dark magical utility skills BLM is apparently forbidden to grab, like Curse, mind control (Zombie!), or even Death (likely an Execution spell)

... any of which could provide a different take on healer gameplay AND change the healing paradigm with regards to our existing healers: WHM as the power healer and green DPS, SCH as the barrier mage and passive healer, AST as the vers healer and damage buffer, NCM as a rezbot for progression and battle healer off it.

Which can make it frustrating to have people turn around and simply say "Chemist!" with no interest in how it plays or what roles it fulfills, simply because the name invokes nostalgia.

Ah, but of course it's not the name, right? They'd be happy with "Salve-maker".
Which, I feel I must note, is quite a confusing attitude when these are often the same crowds who will also ask for Time Mage as a healer, when Astrologian is 14's Time Mage by a new (and dare I say, more appropriate) name.
Or the same crowds who will say "Necromancer isn't a classic FF job" fresh off of Gunbreaker and while pleading for Green Mage or a Plague Doctor.

Personally I’d prefer if GEO skills went to CNJ/WHM instead, since geomancy already has deep ties to conjury and could provide WHM with access to shielding spells and maybe return the Elemental themes.

... Which is unlikely, given the shift WHM has taken towards being primarily Holy-oriented. I believe Yoshi-P has stated in interviews that the intent for WHM from here on out is to distance itself from the elements as much as possible in favor of Holy.

Meanwhile as Patronas has noted, WHM has never had need for spells like Quake or Flood or Tornado because it's primarily a healing job, who have minimal attacks outside of the three staples (filler, DoT, AoE).
It's not only more fitting to put some of the most powerful elemental spells in the lore in the hands of a separate DPS job, but more practical as well from a design and gameplay standpoint since they would have reason to use more than one.

Besides, while Conjurers and Geomancers bear some overlaps in toolkit (enough so to speculate that GEO would have been a branch off CNJ had the devs not regretted branching SCH), within the lore they are quite distinct. While Conjurers of the Twelveswood live in harmony and communion with the Elementals, the Geomancers of Hingashi and Othard instead use their powers to ward off or even subjugate negative spirits.
(The important distinction is in their weapons. CNJ/WHM use staves and wands made of unworked wood that the Elementals have blessed. Geomancers, based on Feng-shui practitioners, use bells so that the ringing can repel evil spirits, hence the "gong" sounds you'll hear as they attack throughout HoH and Swallow's Compass.)

I would argue that to claim GEO can't exist because it shares some abilities with WHM would be like claiming PLD or RDM couldn't exist for the same reasons. They may have similar powers but they are used entirely differently, ie "not as a healer".

[IntrovertAnt]

I'd like it if the Chemist felt like a potion/gadget themed job with some form of tie-in with Alchemy crafting. I know the potions, elemental resistances, and status potions, got removed for lack of use and such. But without them I feel like Alchemy is really missing something vital.

Referring to the Alchemy tie-in. What about for people who don’t have Alchemy leveled? Would they just not be able to be a Chemist?

And if it didn’t have a tie in, why would we have both a chemist and an alchemist?

[Archwizard]

Referring to the Alchemy tie-in. What about for people who don’t have Alchemy leveled? Would they just not be able to be a Chemist?

And if it didn’t have a tie in, why would we have both a chemist and an alchemist?

I can't wait for the follow-up from people who want a Godbert-inspired Oil Wrestler job as an offshoot of Goldsmith.
Or for Pirate to require Fishing as a prereq. Maybe a Botanist-Druid or Leatherworker-Beastmaster.

/s

[Rika007]

I'm going to throw a wild option out of left field and say I would love to see the Psychic Dress Sphere from FFX2 turned into a healer in XIV. I always loved it's aesthetic and style, and it's playstyle in X-2 was all about protecting against elemental damage, so it's wide open on what it could actually be made into in a hypothetical XIV option. It's teleportation abilities would provide the healer role with a much needed mobility option, and it's nul and eater spells would be fun to represent a new way of healing by choosing the correct spell to 'eat' damage and convert it into HP. But more importantly it would be a job that based on it's aesthetic would provide some much needed hype to the role. With Dancer having gone to Ranged DPS, we've pretty much ran out of all the most iconic FF job's that have that certain 'cool' factor that get many players super excited to try out something new. I feel like instead of going with another robed, sparkle mage healer, the next one should be one that shift's the paradigm a bit.

Admittedly I know a Psychic has almost 0% chance of ever happening in this game, but the idea remains. A chemist could be cool but again I would want to see it really have an aesthetic counter to the current healers. A chemist I could see having a very battlefield, gunbreaker styled modern look, using a healing dart gun and actually walking around in Armor instead of robes. I feel healing need's this as a foil to the look of all it's current jobs.

[SieyaM]

I honestly do not expect a new healer job next expansion or ever. They always cite balance issues when asked about adding new healers and the balance issues are never going away. The reality is that one job will always be better, no matter how slight, than others. this was true for other jobs and yet they added more DPS and tanks last expansion.

[Rika007]

I honestly do not expect a new healer job next expansion or ever. They always cite balance issues when asked about adding new healers and the balance issues are never going away. The reality is that one job will always be better, no matter how slight, than others. this was true for other jobs and yet they added more DPS and tanks last expansion.

If this is what actually occurs then Healer players will eventually start quitting the game, and unlike all the other times where players are just being hyperbolic, they would have a valid reason. Terrible melee balance in 3.0 when Monk was considered a meme and DRG and NIN was a hard locked meta combo didn't stop them from adding SAM. Terrible caster balance in 3.0 when summoner was blowing Black Mage out of the water didn't stop them from adding Red Mage. Dark Knight in 4.0 was no different then White Mage in 4.0 yet they added Gunbreaker, Machinist was an absolute meme compared to Bard in 4.0 and yet Dancer got thrown in with no thought at all, while also doing a complete and total gutting of Bard on top of it.

Healer every time they have added a job there has been a balance problem. This will never change, and it never will. So if they continue to cling to that, they better be ready to start losing players over it.

[Hatstand]

If this is what actually occurs then Healer players will eventually start quitting the game, and unlike all the other times where players are just being hyperbolic, they would have a valid reason. Terrible melee balance in 3.0 when Monk was considered a meme and DRG and NIN was a hard locked meta combo didn't stop them from adding SAM. Terrible caster balance in 3.0 when summoner was blowing Black Mage out of the water didn't stop them from adding Red Mage. Dark Knight in 4.0 was no different then White Mage in 4.0 yet they added Gunbreaker, Machinist was an absolute meme compared to Bard in 4.0 and yet Dancer got thrown in with no thought at all, while also doing a complete and total gutting of Bard on top of it.

Healer every time they have added a job there has been a balance problem. This will never change, and it never will. So if they continue to cling to that, they better be ready to start losing players over it.

First off, not enjoying playing a game is an excellent reason to stop playing it. I’d say better than anger at the devs over their continued behaviour.

Also, as you say, balance issues have never stopped the devs from adding a new dps class. Yet they cited balance as the reason that we didn’t get a new healer in Shadowbringers. If this double standard is worth getting angry over, it’s worth getting angry over now.

I agree with you that if they keep this up expansion after expansion more healers will get fed up and leave. I just don’t think it’s a discrete cause. It’s a continuous one, and it’s just a question of when each individual healer decides they’ve had enough.

[Archwizard]

I'm going to throw a wild option out of left field and say I would love to see the Psychic Dress Sphere from FFX2 turned into a healer in XIV.

I love left field ideas like this, not just 'cuz they're unexpected, but because the people who pose them tend to put a greater deal of thought into their reasoning than people whose suggestions just rely on buzzwords.

My main concern, however, is that aside from "Magic" and "Physical" damage in a broad sense, elemental typings don't really matter to damage. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if most bosses today simply default to Unaspected damage for magic, barring obvious elemental themes. So you end up with a heavy, heavy imbalance with Psychic's "spell eating" ability, since having specific elemental effects would be basically pointless most of the time and even potentially crippling based on the healer's encyclopedic knowledge of the exceptions to what is or isn't Elemental/Magic/Physical damage.

[hynaku]

There better be new healer in the next expansion or later on in this one. Or I would say the healers should go on strike and then see how Yoshi will fix the problem. I use to main a healer but not anymore since 5.0. Next expansion they better get rid of mp to make it fair where ones that used tp don't have to worry about running out of it anymore.

[Lambdafish]

My problem with the requests for Chemist aren't because I hate the idea of a potion-based healer or whathaveyou. My problem is that "potion-based healer" is as far as most people get with the idea, and that only providing the aesthetics without a mechanical backing implies a lack of interest in how that affects gameplay.

All the suggestions for CHM I have ever seen have been because of the gameplay implication rather than aesthetics. The idea of mix fits so well with XIV and would be central to CHMs mechanical identity, just as cards are for AST. People are always throwing around the idea of "healing mudras", and now that we have dancer, the idea of incorporating the step/mudra functionality into a healer seems very interesting and very feasible.

Please don't presume the reasons for why people want jobs. I threw around CHM early in the thread and by the sounds of your comment, you would assume I only want it for the aesthetic, which simply isn't true. CHM aesthetic is bland.