Can Healer Balance Survive a 4th Healer?

[AnotherPerson]

It's possible but it also depends on how the HP curve continues to go up relative to our healing kit and how fight encounters respond to it. If you're referring to the shield/regen dichotomy, then it's very possible to add in a 4th healer. I think mitigations have to be just as viable as shields for this to happen - which isn't impossible as long as the HP difference continues to rise and shields don't get too strong to enable stacking. After all, White Mage isn't really a regen healer as much anymore but a raw HP healer with the introduction of Afflatus Misery, SCH is mainly a regen/few shields/mitigation healer, and AST is the one with stackable regens/shields but no real mitigation besides Collective Unconscious under Nocturnal Sect.

[Risvertasashi]

If you're referring to the shield/regen dichotomy

This isn't a dichotomy anyways, which just kind of shows how little the community tends to know about balancing healers to begin with.

Scholar has some great regens, including the most powerful single target regen in the game. AST is a regen powerhouse even in Noct stance now, which is part of why it's finally competitive with scholar, and in diurnal stance it gets more regens than white mage.

But we're also as close to balanced with healers than we've ever been. Think about that for a moment - and how little it has to do with shields and regens and this dichotomy so many seem to think exists...

[Gemina]

This isn't a dichotomy anyways, which just kind of shows how little the community tends to know about balancing healers to begin with...

...But we're also as close to balanced with healers than we've ever been. Think about that for a moment - and how little it has to do with shields and regens and this dichotomy so many seem to think exists...

I was thinking the same thing initially when I read the OP. All the healers have HPS and damage mitigation tools. Even WHM has Benison on a short CD and Temperance. Though I believe Yoshi himself recognized that a shielding healer and HPS healer were present, this was before ShB and the homogenization that took place.

The false dichotomy is surrounded on the community thinking HPS is its own class of healer when it really isn't. All the healers have phenomenal HPS capability. The only thing present is that one of two healers will have the primary responsibility of damage mitigation. SCH will always have this by default, and WHM never will. However, I find that even this is unnecessary, and it forces the AST to choose a sect based on which healer is in the party, or the opposite sect if grouped with another AST. The only time it is really their choice is in 4-man.

Really what it comes down to are shields not stacking, but the healing kits are set up now where even if there are two SCHs, two ASTs in Noct, a Noct AST and a SCH, etc. it's not the end of the world at all. It's the meta and one player per job comps that continue to enforce SCH and WHM into their branched healer roles. The truth I perceive is that all the healers are currently responsible for both mitigation and HPS tools during an encounter, and they have multiple means to do so without stepping on each other's toes.