Next new job better be heals

[Saefinn]

Personally? I think adding a forth healer could address a couple of the issues going on. The one I'm thinking about is the idea that all the current healer design philosophies from ShB could go into the new healer and bring the other healers into a state that respects their design better and what people got out of them before being put in the state they are now. It means the people who praise the changes have got something and those whose preferred healers have changed for the worst can get back what they loved.

But the cynic in me, past experience and looking at where we are with healers and the damning silence from the devs on it agrees more with Billy. My biggest concern with a 4th healer is that it'll be subject to the same issues we've got and be a bit 'meh'. It'll likely feel good to begin with because new healer role to learn with new shinies, but once the initial novelty goes and the healer problems set in, it'll not feel worth having the 4th healer. I'd prefer them to address the big problem of how healers play. It feels like this problem needs dealing with first IMO.

[Leidiriv]

There's 2 levels of head scratching with this one. How do we design a new healer that's distinct enough gameplay-wise and also distinct thematically. It's hard to theory because nothing naturally fits there and I've never seen anyone hit a home run on ideas for this. Necromancer doesn't make sense to me as a healer. Shooting healing darts is weird too. Chemist encroaches on alchemist, we got the potions already they just don't go out into the field throwing them on people. On a gameplay level we are already covering the very limited ways healing can make sense in a game with this kind of encounter design.

I like seeing ideas, I just haven't seen any that get me hyped enough to think they gotta do this. I guess my personal wish would be an Ivalician arithmetician who has an option to store and stack up the smaller heals, addition them (combine) into one big heal when burst healing is needed. If we got too complicated on some of the calculation abilities it would upset people who are bad at math but I think that would be an interesting option for people who are into that. Jobs don't need to appeal to everybody that's why we got a lot of options.

I mean, Chemist doesn't have to be *called* Chemist, and there's a lot of mechanical design space for the class. Not too long ago I put together a full 1-80 kit for the class (calling it Medicus) and I think I managed to make it fairly mechanically distinct from the other healers while still fitting encounter design in this game.

[Rufalus]

I mean, Chemist doesn't have to be *called* Chemist, and there's a lot of mechanical design space for the class. Not too long ago I put together a full 1-80 kit for the class (calling it Medicus) and I think I managed to make it fairly mechanically distinct from the other healers while still fitting encounter design in this game.

I like your name for it better. Must have missed that one. Non magical delivery of heals to people at long range is still a bit of weird concept (lob a medikit like American football?) but we have stranger things.

[Leidiriv]

I like your name for it better. Must have missed that one. Non magical delivery of heals to people at long range is still a bit of weird concept (lob a medikit like American football?) but we have stranger things.

Mind if I toss a link to the thread, actually? It's a bit of a doozy as a read, but I've spent probably more than a healthy amount of effort on trying to balance the numbers lol.

[SweetPete]

I don’t mind either way if we get a new healer or not. I’d rather them work on balancing the 3 we have. Hopefully in 6.0 they can all go back to being great but we shall see. However if they do give us another healer I would love to see geomancer. Since Whm is moving away from elemental magic and to more light and holy magic that leaves room for Geo to pick up those elements. I don’t like chemist so I’m biased towards it lol. I love magical healers. Even a melee healer will a great addition. I’m rooting for Geo.

[ty_taurus]

Something I'd like to see from the existing healers and the new healer (hopefully), is having them differentiate how these healers contribute to rDPS.

I know this is a sensitive topic, but rDPS is a concern for healers and how we perform in battle--not just our healing tools. The problem right now is that, outside of Astrologian's cards and Chain Stratagem, there are few ways we can do this outside of Glare/Broil/Malefic spamming. This both isn't fun for those of us who are fine with DPS contributions as a healer and those who don't like it. What I think would help all of us be happier with the state of healing is redefining how each healer does this, and having 2 of the healers be more passive while the other 2 get more aggressive.

WHM and AST make good candidates for the passive healers. These should be designed to appeal to the "thou shalt not DPS" healers where their kits should minimize their reliance on offensive spells. The AST's cards are a good example of this: Spend more time giving damage to other party members so you don't have to do it yourself. Perhaps AST should get more abilities like this, perhaps a buff that deals X Potency damage to the enemy while the party member with the buff uses Spells or Weaponskills, or more tools like Earthly Star that both heal AND deal damage. WHM currently has Afflatus Misery which acts as DPS forgiveness, but if we make Blood Lily generation more valuable than Glare, and ways to spend our time trying to nourish this Lily faster, then WHM becomes the healer who gates their DPS behind GCD healing (Aff. Solace/Rapture). You contribute to rDPS by healing, basically.

SCH and the new Healer can be more aggressive--finding ways to maximize the time they have to contribute to DPS while protecting the team and having more intricate ways to DPS rather than just mashing the Broil button. In the example of SCH, we have the fairy already. Why not take some of the healing tools off the SCH and place them on the Fairy? Make the SCH more about micromanaging the Fairy's healing while you DPS the enemies. Healer 4 could be a drain healer that heals the party by doing damage. Not a necessity, but 1 possibility.

With a system like this, you'd have healers for all kinds of player mentalities. We don't really need to force one side or the other to bend to our preferred way of playing FF14 if we have different jobs that compliment those different styles evenly.

[BasicBlake]

I don’t mind either way if we get a new healer or not. I’d rather them work on balancing the 3 we have. Hopefully in 6.0 they can all go back to being great but we shall see. However if they do give us another healer I would love to see geomancer. Since Whm is moving away from elemental magic and to more light and holy magic that leaves room for Geo to pick up those elements. I don’t like chemist so I’m biased towards it lol. I love magical healers. Even a melee healer will a great addition. I’m rooting for Geo.

Taking away the elements from white mage and then just slapping them on another class in the same role would seem like such a waste, I feel like. At least switch the roles up. It would be like making another healer and giving them the old card effects from Ast.

[Shurrikhan]

An Entomancer could be interesting.
Maybe they could control a swarm of aether-eating insects that drain aether from an enemy target and grant the party heals from it.

Pretty sure the only Entomancer we'd get at this point is one to be sicced on the devs, not by the devs, which I think was the joking suggestion above.

[SweetPete]

I guess I see your point. However I am sure square can spice up the job with those elements haha. Anyway, I was thinking of Morpher too. With the Nu Mou in the game now I can totally see Morpher becoming a new job. We have nothing in the game like it and it will definitely bring some edge back. It doesn't have to be a limited job either. It can be a regular job. For the job quest. Go out and capture monsters. Take back to the Nu Mou. They work their magic and Bam you can turn into a monster. There are lots of monsters in the game that has healing spells to so it can definitely work. Who knows right Guess we just have to wait. Geomancer or Morpher will be great additions I think. Especially Morpher since there is nothing in the game like it at this point.

[SweetPete]

Taking away the elements from white mage and then just slapping them on another class in the same role would seem like such a waste, I feel like. At least switch the roles up. It would be like making another healer and giving them the old card effects from Ast.

I guess I see your point. However I am sure square can spice up the job with those elements haha. Anyway, I was thinking of Morpher too. With the Nu Mou in the game now I can totally see Morpher becoming a new job. We have nothing in the game like it and it will definitely bring some edge back. It doesn't have to be a limited job either. It can be a regular job. For the job quest. Go out and capture monsters. Take back to the Nu Mou. They work their magic and Bam you can turn into a monster. There are lots of monsters in the game that has healing spells to so it can definitely work. Who knows right Guess we just have to wait. Geomancer or Morpher will be great additions I think. Especially Morpher since there is nothing in the game like it at this point.