Geomancer and Chemist - A Better Idea

[Archwizard]

I'll start by saying that something's gonna have to give. The FF roster of jobs is very short on potential healers, as most concepts aside from White Mage have focused on dealing damage. As such, a known job being retooled to fit the role of healer is not outside the realm of possibility (in fact, I dreaded the devs doing this to RDM for that very reason).

True, especially since many "healers" historically have just been variations on White Mage -- but on the other hand, it's not outside the realm of possibility for the devs to create an entirely original job (such as Gunbreaker, which in spite of its allusions to FF8 is still original).
Even in the event of them retooling a job, there's still boundless potential for them to create a unique toolkit. For instance, I've proposed creating a Necromancer healer before that focuses on draining and redistributing health, sacrificing minions, and temporarily afflicting allies with Undead statuses for benefits like life-leech and evasion.

The important thing to me is the creation of a unique job that's fun to play. A lot of the proposals for "Geomancer or Chemist healer" ignore, at the end of the day, that it's a game and what we have access to should be enjoyable to use, not just full of visual flair.

Geomancy could be treated as one of those cases where similar ideas came about in two different locations despite no connections between either. Man's relation to the land and the elements may have developed one way in Gridania and another in the Far East

My understanding is that, while they result in similar power sets, the CNJ and GEO's approaches to spirits are opposed. Conjurers work to pacify and appease the elementals of the Twelveswood, and contract them for power, aid, or resources; Geomancers repel and subjugate angry spirits around Hingashi and Othard, directing the energies within the land via spiritual mediums to do so.

the feng shui/fortune aspect (which, as far as I can tell, is a FFXI thing).

Not at all. Feng Shui has always been a part of the Geomancer job from its inception; its Japanese name is even "Feng Shui Soldier". This is why the job has used bells since FF3, a trend which continues in the instances it's seen here in 14 (granting, Kyokuho's looks more like a rattle, but it has jingle bells on it).

There is no "either/or" with regards to the Feng Shui and Land/Spirits aspect.

This approaches the level of nonsense I've seen with regard to BLU ("if it can't have stupidly overpowered spells (Lv5 Petrify, Lv5 Death, Tail Screw, Doom) we can't call it a blue mage").

I think that's an unfair comparison that involves putting a lot of words in mouths.

BLU's identity isn't tied to being "stupidly overpowered"; in fact, if anything most of its skills would be considered gimmicky in the hands of other jobs save for those Instant Death spells you mentioned. Two of its strongest attacks involve literally killing yourself.
BLU's identity is tied to utilizing enemy abilities as attacks -- a point which is what led the developers to introduce the Limited Job system in order to maintain that.

Likewise, Chemist's identity in every entry is tied to consumable items. If you removed that element, it wouldn't be related to the original job in gameplay at all, it would just be a generic healer with potions in its cast animations and particle effects.

Having played an unconventional healer before (Merc/Bodyguard Bounty Hunter in SWTOR), I have an appreciation for healers with gameplay that does not involve waving your hands to heal wounds. I'm sure there are others who wouldn't mind a healer that was away from what we've seen with WHM/SCH/AST.

And I concur, but again, the issue is that if all the devs have to go on is "throws potions", they could just as easily pull out Scholar and reskin its abilities to toss potions and change nothing else to satisfy that demand.

That's a call for the players to offer more of what they want to see, particularly to make something that truly is unique from other healers in terms of gameplay and party offerings.

That said, if you told me to make it work while keeping everything else as is, I'd bunch it with the ranged

Like I said.

Funnily enough, I just finished drafting a take on Chemist as a healer class right before I found this thread, and this Chemist doesn't even rely on the Mix mechanic.

I commend you on your originality then. Feel free to play the aforementioned drinking game whenever someone brings Mix up.