I wish AST never had a DPS buff

[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