How would they even make another healer job though?

[Melichoir]

Healing is more than "Whos got A Regen/Shield/Buff" etc. Its also a matter of how those heals are delivered. Otherwise were essentially saying every single DPS job is just a straight up carbon copy of one another because they all predominately just do damage by using skills.

If youre gonna see another healer, itll probably be a hybrid healer, and will probably incorporate a system we havent seen yet. My personal thoughts would be a chemist equivilant, with a system of stocking heals as an expendable resource. That is you pre-create a bunch of heals and hold onto them and throw them out when needed. It may end up being a strong burst healer. Dunno how this would work out in the bigger picture but it might be interesting.

[Nemmar]

Withholding new features for a dream of perfect balance is something that will never come out as a net positive.

I honestly don't see this big problem with healers, i wish someone would tell me exactly what's wrong despite the damage output/rotation.



With that said, if they added chemist, for example, it could be a healer based on instant casts (maybe lower potency to make up for it) and therefore more mobile. I mean, it's not only about how the healing works, but how the spells are delivered. Different animations give a different feel to the jobs. Saying things like Scholar is both heals + shields is a reductive way to refer to the job. Scholar has an emphasis on the Fairy pet. That is it's fantasy and uniqueness. If you're gonna tell me that the Fey AoE heal is just the same as Medica from WHM, well in the end result it is, but the way it is achieved, isn't.

[Razard]

Withholding new features for a dream of perfect balance is something that will never come out as a net positive.

I honestly don't see this big problem with healers, i wish someone would tell me exactly what's wrong despite the damage output/rotation.

The true but facetious answer?

WHM: Nothing
SCH: Muh Green DPS!
AST: Muh useless fluff cards! (Oh I suppose I was undertuned at the start of 5.0, but who cares! I lost my worthless Bole card /cryface)

I think I got the gist of it.

[Kazrah]

A healer in this game, when you think about it, can be broken up into two main elements: a healing specialty, and a secondary feature.

Healing specialties simply refer to whatever "special effect" is tacked onto a portion of non-basic healing skills in a standard healing toolkit. This is pretty simple to spot via what kind of heals a particular healer job is known for, so HoTs for White Mage, shields for Scholar, and alternation (picking either HoTs or shields) for Astrologian. Typically, a healing specialty is the element which a healer job relies on to both perform its role and to stand out among others in this role. Other examples would include Delayed Heal Triggers like Excogitation, Escalation (heals leaving buffs increasing the amount those heals heal for), and even Periodic Absorption or "Shields over time".

Secondary features, on the other hand, are elements that are usually associated with damage dealt on some level or offering a degree of ease on healing to provide more damage as a healer, but are mainly designed with the purpose of keeping a healing job unique and at least somewhat interesting. For White Mage, this would be extra damage via spells and abilities such as Assize and Afflatus Misery (which I still prefer to call "the fart bomb"). With Scholar, its secondary feature is indirect healing in the form of its fairy, which despite seeming more like a healing feature, is intended to offer ease in healing for the job to do more damage with its basic damage toolkit. Then there is Astrologian, who has its card system that allows for (at least in theory) a means of increasing damage of allies to offset for what damage it can't do. Healing via Damage is a really good example of a secondary feature, as it can offer an ease in healing required and promote damage while not being as broken as it would be if it were a healing specialty (since that means it'd have to be more relied on, resulting in massive balance issues). Other forms of indirect healing such as totems are another good example.

From those two things, you'd follow the basic healer kit shared across other healers:

Basic heal
Large heal
AoE heal
Instant heal
Specialty heal
AoE specialty heal
Raising spell
"Increased healing" cooldown

Basic damage spell
Periodic damage spell
AoE damage spell

I could probably fill it out more, but kinda nodding off. Anyway, after all that, add in some any spells or abilities that would "round out" its overall kit and voila, FFXIV healer.

[Duskane]

Healer but with a rifle

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

Maybe a greater focus on AoE placement heals/ shields / buffs? If the next healer is geomancer, it could be like we are casting enchantments on the land itself. Think of those totems the enemies use in Wanderer's Palace (Hard).

From what I've seen in the Astrologian quests, Geomancer is just reskinned White Mage in XIV. I'd say that an item based healer would probably be the next logical step. Given Alchemist is already being used, call it Apothecary (ala Octopath Traveler) or Salve-maker (ala Bravely Default).

Healer but with a rifle

I think there's a job in TA2 called Canonneer that works like that.

[AriaEnia]

I thought they're gonna make Geomancer or Chemist as the new healer.

[Duskane]

I think there's a job in TA2 called Canonneer that works like that.

there's also Ana from overwatch and Sharla from xenoblade Chronicles both are healers that use a sniper rifle so its not too much of a stretch to fit in the healer role somehow

[AriaEnia]

there's also Ana from overwatch and Sharla from xenoblade Chronicles both are healers that use a sniper rifle so its not too much of a stretch to fit in the healer role somehow

Well in the Star Wars The Old Republic, there's a class where you shoots a bomb or missile filled with green liquid that heals.

[Mansion]

Ideas and creativity are not the problem here, there's plenty in the FF world and outside to flesh out a new healer job. Just like dancer could have been one if steps had a mudra like effect that would trigger heals etc.

I would not mind no new healer if SCH WHM and AST got a major revamp that would change them so much that they don't feel so identical.
But that's what I expected from ShB, and that's not what we got.