Can Healer Balance Survive a 4th Healer?

[Semirhage]

I'll admit WHM is fascinating though. Despite everything it remains the most popular healer by far at all levels of gameplay. It's currently the worst choice in this Savage tier and the forums love to hate how it works and constantly request it to get raid buffs, debuffs, utility and complexity. But I feel there's something in its popularity, that many people do like the idea of straightforward effective gameplay without micromanaging clunky pets or juggling card rng. Probably best they build on that and make the gameplay smoother and flow better rather than rework it, more weave, a bit more engagement on dps, similar mobility to BLM and it'd be great. Similar with SCH, they could look at what made it popular in StB, putting fairy actions onto the oGCD was big mistake really.

Much as I hate this fact, it's got truth in it. WHM is too popular to be allowed to be anything other than the McDonald's of healing.

Then again, I look at BLM. It shares a lot of that iconic hype. Doesn't need raid buffs. Has procs that align with their skilled play and make them feel powerful instead of just reducing how sucky they are (looking at YOU Freecure). Has a few timers to manage (horror, horror! White Mages can't handle anything other than passive noninteractive gameplay!). And best of all, it's allowed its power level without its competition staging a forum revolt and whining their asses off every time they're can't both have and eat their utility plus power cake that cements them into direct upgrades to the "baby" job.

This is a (largely; yeah yeah there are outliers) solved problem with caster DPS. They don't have snobby SMN and RDM mains clutching their pearls and screeching every time BLM is actually allowed to be, y'know, good at something or have an identity.

[Side-Eye]

I'm sorry man, but they really did give Astro everything, and if they hadn't have taken away the old cards it would have been near play scheme wise to 3.0 Scholar; exceedingly complex and a high skill ceiling to pull off that makes it truly satisfying.

Played Scholar since 2.2, was a White Mage all through Beta and on till 2.2.

I HAD to go Astro not to loose my mind, it was THAT boring on Scholar. I love Scholar, but Astro is the only Healer job that is remotely engaging anymore.

I bet if you asked those who played AST as main, they'd consider post-5.0 astro to be far less engaging than the job was before. And that's what pisses me off. We were FINE with the card system not yielding consistent DPS; it was very much satisfying because of the variety it could potentially offer a group. The only people who I've heard praising the "all-DPS" card system are DPS mains and those who only played AST when they had to.

[Mortex]

I bet if you asked those who played AST as main, they'd consider post-5.0 astro to be far less engaging than the job was before. And that's what pisses me off. We were FINE with the card system not yielding consistent DPS; it was very much satisfying because of the variety it could potentially offer a group. The only people who I've heard praising the "all-DPS" card system are DPS mains and those who only played AST when they had to.

Consistent wise the new astro is really well made. Feeling wise it’s so boring. Like the new system feels like you use food dye to paint bread in 6 different colors were 3 of them are for lactose intolerant and the other are for lactose tolerant people. In the end it’s bread the same is with the cards it’s just different colored single target balances. And also the removed Job theme of time magic.

[Side-Eye]

And also the removed Job theme of time magic.

This was what disappointed me the most. Astro was given the duty of filling whichever heal role complimented our co-healer, but the two aspects which gave us our job's identity were 1) utility of the card system, and 2) our time-manipulation. BOTH were taken away in 5.0. And Squeenix didn't even bother to re-write the lore which explained how and why those things mattered. After people stopped playing AST in droves, devs simply buffed the base remnants of the job so we could continue being a competent healer. In a few cases they actually over-compensated, but they never restored the things that had previously made the job interesting and engaging.

[Lyth]

By time-manipulation 'theme', do you mean Time Dilation? It's not like you were ever rewinding damage.

Wasn't it regular WHM vs. diet (Balance) WHM since 2015? It's not like the rest of us could ever tell the flavor of your sparkles apart.

[QooEr]

By time-manipulation 'theme', do you mean Time Dilation? It's not like you were ever rewinding damage.

Wasn't it regular WHM vs. diet (Balance) WHM since 2015? It's not like the rest of us could ever tell the flavor of your sparkles apart.

time dilation and celestial opposition. extending regens and buffs to get more healing and mp is a lot more interesting than having a free medica ii ans free mp on cards, even if the results are the same

[Mavrias]

time dilation and celestial opposition. extending regens and buffs to get more healing and mp is a lot more interesting than having a free medica ii ans free mp on cards, even if the results are the same

don't forget about the limit break "Astral Stasis" whose animation has the astrologian literally rewriting the stars and seemingly reversing time.

[Side-Eye]

By time-manipulation 'theme', do you mean Time Dilation? It's not like you were ever rewinding damage.

Wasn't it regular WHM vs. diet (Balance) WHM since 2015? It's not like the rest of us could ever tell the flavor of your sparkles apart.

Well... you would've had to actually PLAY astro to fully understand the loss. Apparently, you did not.

[Grimoire-M]

Well... you would've had to actually PLAY astro to fully understand the loss. Apparently, you did not.

Considering that it applied to Celestial Opposition as well (which was largely considered to be a DPS/MP Cooldown due to its interaction with Luminiferous Aether and AoE Balance). The Time Mage aspects certainly were present, but mostly as a subtheme. Time Dilation had the upper hand as a DPS cooldown that had real application as an actual healing tool. I would like to see it again, but only if it applies to regens only. The relative DPS gain of extending a Lord/Lady card is enough to push out its utility.

[Lyth]

...

Nobody is claiming to be able to understand your loss or your grief, little one. But a time mage, you were not.