I wish AST never had a DPS buff

[Gemina]

I kinda wish AST didn't exist. A lot of today's issues with healers is a direct result of the devs trying to make AST fit in. I know that is a bold statement, but one that continues to ring in my ears as something I perceive to be true.

I don't think any healer should have the ability to increase DPS in anyway. Not even their own. That's just one of the issues though. I have to echo an earlier post I read, and mention that any utility that doesn't increase DPS is deemed as inferior. It's unquestionably true, but it is also something I strongly oppose. Due to content design, you either have to give all the healers the ability to increase rDPS, or none of them. This just won't sink in with the devs though, even though they are the ones that design the encounters.

[Heilstos]

First the AST is not the Problem Gemina. Evertime a new healer can be that Problem if you think in that way. So you can say pls let the WHM strong and dont make new healer Devs. So the WHM has his place than? I believe at the latest at the Fan Festival, where the fourth healer is expected to be presented. Nobody shares this opinion self-centered opinion The Whm has a great kit but in SB the community did not like it so SE looks how they can improf the kit of WHM. No Mana problems, Afflatus Misery ....

But look at the whm changes in ShB. Its okay that you have Afflatus Misery for 3 times GCD Healing? I don't think any healer should have the ability like Afflatus Misery in anyway. I know that is a bold statement, but one that continues to ring in my ears as something I perceive to be true. Due to content design, you either have to give all the healers a ability with so a high DMG-output, or none of them. This just won't sink in with the devs though, even though they are the ones that design the encounters. Its the same Problem and I see that SE try to make for all class a fantasy and playstill, which is different in the way of healing and support. And is you have play a glaremage than make DPS and push your dps. I do not understand the 150s CD for Presence of Mind I think 2min is okay.

With the lose of the old effect from "The Ewer" ASTs loses a mana reg and have to take more piet and the WHM has not this problem. Is that okay? In if you look in one Hand the AST playstil is so much busyer than in Stormblood and so the rng from the cards is away. A lot of the AST player switched to WHM, because its to hard to play.

All Healer have there own problem but only to look for benefics that from each playstil is not fair. You have to see what are the requerments for that benefis. So if you see a Problem change your playstill to fix it or try to live with that. If you see that your class has a high dmg out put ask the cohealer to open up glare window. Instand to ask here to remove AST, SCH, WHM and make only one healer and everyone, who wants to play heal take this only Job. In my opinion to community wants a balanced Jobfield and a different playstil. That task is hard to make it true. And if you say buffs are unfair that is output from a tank the same problem.

SE make a great Job in the way healing is at the moment. You can peer all three healer as a team and it do not feels harder to heal. I do not talk to Healer DPSing, I like it that the dps feels the same, but I know that the community do not like it. I look to the SCH.^^

[Lastelli]

I have to echo an earlier post I read, and mention that any utility that doesn't increase DPS is deemed as inferior. It's unquestionably true, but it is also something I strongly oppose. Due to content design, you either have to give all the healers the ability to increase rDPS, or none of them. This just won't sink in with the devs though, even though they are the ones that design the encounters.

That'a not the problem. At the end of the day, DPS is just damage, it doesn't matter how you do it as long as it's consistent and more or less equal to what other jobs bring. I mean, the emerging meta includes WHM and AST, so it's not a matter of dps utility. The problem in late HW and StB was that AST personal DPS was basically equal to WHM, while also bringing random but strong enough DPS buffs and having MUCH better oGCD heals than WHM in a game where optimal healing dictates that you minimize GCD healing, so even with very unlucky card draws, AST was still better than WHM.
At the end of the day, no matter what people say about how they enjoyed the RNG aspect of cards, they were very bad design from the beginning. First, because at all levels of play, healers should not and do not rely on RNG based defensive buffs because you can't just go "ops, didn't draw the right card, we're gonna wipe" (this is part of the reason why the old lily system sucked, it provided an rng way to slightly increase healing output). Second, because the probability of drawing the right card in the very niche scenario you may need a specific non-dps utility card was too low therefore making niche cards like the ewer, the spire or the bole close to useless and rr/minor arcana fodder. The argument that some people make that you could put those cards in your spread and use them when needed is laughable. No one used spread for things like ewer and spire, let's be real. The only way to make AST work without jeopardizing the healers' balance was by removing the rng. Sorry, but that's just how it is.

But anyway, the problem healers have now has nothing to do with AST. It has more to do with how the healing toolkits are designed, fight design, low healing requirements and this foolish tendency to simplify everything in the game because the devs hope that by making everything simple bad players will magically get good...and this is backfiring because bad players are getting even worse because they have no need to even try anymore.

[Deceptus]

I kinda wish AST didn't exist. A lot of today's issues with healers is a direct result of the devs trying to make AST fit in. I know that is a bold statement, but one that continues to ring in my ears as something I perceive to be true.
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100% agree.

First the AST is not the Problem Gemina.

Except at it's core it is the issue, it has caused nothing but balance issues between it and the other two healers. Tanks were in a similar situation. They had 2 and then DRK came along and then it was a constant fight to buff and nerf to give each a time in the sun and get them in raids. Then GNB Came along and they decided to go with the dedicated MT/OT dichotomy.

Whenever there is only 2 slots available and 3 healers, there are going to be balance issues. There really isn't much debating that. Serious groups will take the best two and leave the lower performing one out.

There's a reason why when you look at savage parses, WHM was the top by a LARGE margin, SCH came in second, and at a DISTANT third was AST. No one was playing them because they were simply sub par.

IMHO, They need to get a 4th healer and make it either a Shield based or a regen base and force AST to go the opposite. Then you'll have 2 Regen based, and 2 shield based and you can interchange between them.

[Seraphor]

Except tanks aren't a strict OT/MT dichotomy, and that wasn't their intention anyway.
(If this dichotomy did exist, then PLD and WAR would be the OTs, which doesn't make much sense)
Having 2 strict Regen and 2 strict Shield healers would mess things up, as you'd be expected to have one of each available, otherwise you may as well go back to having just two healers and if the other one is a SCH then you're screwed if you're a SCH.
They need to go away from the Shield/Regen dichotomy, and have a fourth healer than can be proficient in either, just like AST.
That's why they've now given every healer a shield, every healer a regen, and allowed many AST/SCH shields to overlap.

[KDSilver]

I kinda wish AST didn't exist. A lot of today's issues with healers is a direct result of the devs trying to make AST fit in. I know that is a bold statement, but one that continues to ring in my ears as something I perceive to be true.

No don't worry. As much as I love and loved AST, I always felt the same.
Or I would say, I would have prefer AST to stand on its own with its unique gameplay and not all this regen/shielder mess + copy paste of WHM based toolkit.

[Seraphor]

No don't worry. As much as I love and loved AST, I always felt the same.
Or I would say, I would have prefer AST to stand on its own with its unique gameplay and not all this regen/shielder mess + copy paste of WHM based toolkit.

I'd say the problem was having a Regen/Shield dichotomy to begin with, as it prohibited the existence of other unique healers.

[KDSilver]

I'd say the problem was having a Regen/Shield dichotomy to begin with, as it prohibited the existence of other unique healers.

Of course. And it's stupid from the devs themselves to think this actually exists in the first place.
Look at scholar. He always had some regen despite being called the "shielder" healer. From the healer player and healer community, it has always been seen a very versatile healer (and he is). But from dev team point of view, it seemed like it was mostly if not completely a "shielder".

[Seraphor]

Of course. And it's stupid from the devs themselves to think this actually exists in the first place.
Look at scholar. He always had some regen despite being called the "shielder" healer. From the healer player and healer community, it has always been seen a very versatile healer (and he is). But from dev team point of view, it seemed like it was mostly if not completely a "shielder".

The real issue is that stacking shields can be really OP, hence why regens generally stack and shields generally don't. They've only been relaxing this for the sporadic shields, like Benison, Intersection and Catalyse, and of course Neutral Sect otherwise that would be gimped in AST/SCH.

But AST shielding is better now than it's ever been, which is why I think a fourth healer should mimic AST's versatility, just with a unique application of regen/shields.
Like here where I've suggested a Chemist that can apply either or at any time, basically throwing off the shackles of AST's sects and therefore requiring more thought as to which skills/rotation you use rather than just clicking on one sect or the other at the start of the fight.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ea-for-Chemist

This should work ok, because all the other healers announce what mode they use. WHM is regens, SCH is shields and AST has a display for the Sect they're in and doesn't change once the battle commences. But it would make it more of an 'advanced' healer. The problem might be if there's 2 of the new healer...

[Kalise]

The real issue is that stacking shields can be really OP, hence why regens generally stack and shields generally don't. They've only been relaxing this for the sporadic shields, like Benison, Intersection and Catalyse, and of course Neutral Sect otherwise that would be gimped in AST/SCH.

But AST shielding is better now than it's ever been, which is why I think a fourth healer should mimic AST's versatility, just with a unique application of regen/shields.

Though, the issue with something like that, is that unless WHM and SCH are the best at Regen/Shields, you start to make it so that AST and the new healer are in an advantageous position because they can be either which is far better in DF.

It also limits how diverse the healer role can be, if every single one boils down to Regen and/or Shields. So every healer feels like a WHM/SCH clone.

It would be far more appealing if they managed to make WHM and SCH comparable in healing while being the "Regen" and "Shield" healers (Or having WHM being a direct heal style healer given that they have so many direct heals and would fit with the typical design many people see for WHM being the DD healer) while allowing other healers to have unique healing styles instead, but with comparable healing capacity.

For example,

- WHM as a direct healer. They have really high throughput direct healing. They also deal damage through direct damage spells like Quake, Flood and Holy.
- SCH as a Shield healer. They apply various shields (Also introducing semi-permeable shields that absorb only a percent of incoming damage so shields have less capacity to be broken by nullifying mechanics). While dealing damage via DoT skills (Bio, Miasma, Bane)
- AST as a delayed healer. They use a lot of triggered heals that they set up before damage is done (Things like Horoscope, Earthly Star and mechanics like Excog). They also deal damage in a delayed fashion, applying "DoT" effects that detonate on expiration for their damage (Can be detonated early for lower damage too)
- NEC (Necromancer) as a siphon healer. Draining aether/health away from enemies, themselves or summoned spirits to power up their healing skills. Dealing damage in a way that also provides healing to themselves/their party.
- CHE (Chemist) or FLI (Flintlock, if you want to have more distinction from Alchemist. Also, potential to have a Moogle teach you the job) as a HoT healer. Using their magic cannon to mix together salves that heal over time. Dealing damage with a variety of debuffs depending on mixed ingredients.

As opposed to WHM, SCH, WHM2.0, SCH2.0, WHM+SCH, WHM+SCH2.0