Geomancer

[BasicBlake]

There really aren't any other healer options that aren't White Magic related other than Chemist. And of those White Magic related jobs they're either White Mage+ or mixed with Black Magic, neither of which really makes it a "better" healer option than Geomancer. What is better or worse is ultimately subjective, and at least for me I wouldn't consider Chemist as a Healer better than Geomancer.

And none of what I'm proposing is taking the same animations, simply the aesthetics. White Mages changes make sense in this light. Otherwise it just seems somewhat arbitrary.

I feel like what he could be saying is, wouldn’t that feel lazy? Let’s take Aero/Stone away from White Mage and give it to the other magic user that has comparisons to conjurer. So now you have NEW Stone/Aero healer alongside OLD Stone/Aero healer. True you could change the aesthetics of it, but at the end of the day that would end up White Mage 1 and White Mage 2, I feel like Yoshi wouldn’t even waste the developers time on that. At least switch the roles!

[SeikishiYuuki]

I feel like what he could be saying is, wouldn’t that feel lazy? Let’s take Aero/Stone away from White Mage and give it to the other magic user that has comparisons to conjurer. So now you have NEW Stone/Aero healer alongside OLD Stone/Aero healer. True you could change the aesthetics of it, but at the end of the day that would end up White Mage 1 and White Mage 2, I feel like Yoshi wouldn’t even waste the developers time on that. At least switch the roles!

Yea I think it's definitely hard to create a new healer with a strong identity, since WHM has been the core of things healing related forever. You could say though the removal of the elements lends to either side, a new healer using those elements or a Geomancer dps with them. But coupled with what has become fairly expansive lore or caster Geomancers it just looks more and more like the aim is give us a Caster DPS Geo and a new stand alone healer. Though Yoshi could always curve ball us and give the other or neither.

[Archwizard]

Yea I think it's definitely hard to create a new healer with a strong identity, since WHM has been the core of things healing related forever. You could say though the removal of the elements lends to either side, a new healer using those elements or a Geomancer dps with them. But coupled with what has become fairly expansive lore or caster Geomancers it just looks more and more like the aim is give us a Caster DPS Geo and a new stand alone healer. Though Yoshi could always curve ball us and give the other or neither.

If GEO were to be released, I think there's some strong mechanical potential for GEO to be introduced as a DPS job, since at least as a DPS (much like with BLM) there's reason to distinguish between its elemental spells -- such as having phases in its rotation -- and there would be no complaints about putting Quake, Tornado or Flood in the hands of a caster.
Meanwhile, there's historically little backing for GEO as a healer across the series, at best having support potential alongside a plethora of damage effects. If I remember correctly, Kyohuko only ever casts Qi of Earth and Qi of Wind to attack, and I didn't see any heals from him (... though being that it was a healer questline, it would have been redundant if they gave you an NPC follower just to heal you, wouldn't it?). Sure, he enchants barriers around the city, but that's along the lines of the quest text saying that a BLM can rewrite people's memories, make golems, or polymorph an entire city -- not evidence of their actual capabilities as a combat class. (Plus it would be, what, placing a number of static GTAoE barriers and heals like Asylum and Sacred Soil? ... anything actually new and useful against a boss?)

As far as what the next healer would be, I'd be happy to see them get creative with a new job. As long as its healing model isn't another clone of WHM or SCH.

[BasicBlake]

If GEO were to be released, I think there's some strong mechanical potential for GEO to be introduced as a DPS job, since at least as a DPS (much like with BLM) there's reason to distinguish between its elemental spells -- such as having phases in its rotation -- and there would be no complaints about putting Quake, Tornado or Flood in the hands of a caster.
Meanwhile, there's historically little backing for GEO as a healer across the series, at best having support potential alongside a plethora of damage effects. If I remember correctly, Kyohuko only ever casts Qi of Earth and Qi of Wind to attack, and I didn't see any heals from him (... though being that it was a healer questline, it would have been redundant if they gave you an NPC follower just to heal you, wouldn't it?). Sure, he enchants barriers around the city, but that's along the lines of the quest text saying that a BLM can rewrite people's memories, make golems, or polymorph an entire city -- not evidence of their actual capabilities as a combat class. (Plus it would be, what, placing a number of static GTAoE barriers and heals like Asylum and Sacred Soil? ... anything actually new and useful against a boss?)

As far as what the next healer would be, I'd be happy to see them get creative with a new job. As long as its healing model isn't another clone of WHM or SCH.

If you let Kyokohu get low enough he will use Qi of Water, a heal. But at the end of the day it’s all just placeholder animations anyway. And it was stated earlier that even people such as Yugiri get a heal in certain story quests just to keep it moving.