Ultimate Representation: Good, Bad, or Indifferent?

[Renathras]

So far, as of this writing, there appear to be 18 recorded clears. The Healer representation is as follows:

WHM: 13
SCH: 9
AST: 5
SGE: 9

The pairings are:

WHM/WHM: 0
WHM/SCH: 5
WHM/AST: 0
WHM/SGE: 8

SCH/SCH: 0
SCH/AST: 4
SCH/SGE: 0

AST/AST: 0
AST/SGE: 1

SGE/SGE: 0

The most cleared combination so far is WHM/SGE with 8, WHM/SCH with 5, SCH/AST wth 4, and AST/SGE with 1. No doubles have resulted in clears, nor have any Pure/Pure or Barrier/Barrier (if anyone's even trying them)

The most popular overall healer is WHM at 13, then SCH and SGE tied at 9. AST is the least popular, but not terribly so, with 5.

All of WHM/SCH, WHM/SGE, AST/SCH, and AST/SGE (all four of the possible Pure/Barrier combinations) have resulted in at least one clear. So all "standard comp" (1 Pure + 1 Barrier) Healer team seem to be viable.

.

EDIT: Statistically, at least, it seems a pretty fair distribution and every standard comp being viable, so that's a good sign, I'd think...even given all the weirdness with the clear race thus far, one would expect that to shake out in the numbers anyway (that is, whether everyone's cheating or some are and others aren't shouldn't affect this representation), so...I dunno, seems like a good thing. A bit better than the Tank situation where DRK is 100% of them. XD

[ASkellington]

Indifferent.

I don't think any one was concerned (really) over whether X comp of A/B healer could clear Ultimate. Pretty sure all the healers are balanced to do so.

As far as doubling on a class, (if anyone wants to deal with Divination/card nightmare power to you) I think WHM would struggle the most.

For me at least my concern was never whether or not a healer was viable (they all are) or excluded (they aren't like MCH or PLD was iirc).

[ForsakenRoe]

TBH these stats do not surprise me much, after it was discovered just how tight the damage checks are, the consistent output of selfish-dps like WHM or SGE would theoretically get higher, because the whole 'crit variance in burst window' thing is very annoying. The other thing that comes to mind is how good SGE would be compared to SCH because of Kerachole being a 'sticky buff' instead of Soil. Anything where you have to spread out very far (Monitors, for example) it'd be a lot better for. The one thing that comes to mind as 'maybe this isn't so great' is SGE applying 2-3 buffs per healing action (Physis/Autophysis, Haima/Haimatinon, Holos/Holosakos), potentially hitting the buff cap easier.

Oh yeh and WHM/SGE can heal/shield while moving that's probably really useful

The thing I'd be most interested to see is, will SCH/SGE get a clear, or has SE finally made content that cannot be bested by 2x Barrier

[Venur]

or has SE finally made content that cannot be bested by 2x Barrier

I whish that someone on the team had played everquest 2 back in the days. That game had a lot of flaws but they knew how to designe different healers and find a nich for most of them.

[Xelanar]

Have they fixed the issue with buffs overflowing during that one phase? Because if not, that probably is one of the main reasons we cannot tell for certain, how indicative job representation for any role actually is.

[SenzorialBoundries]

Not surprised AST is giga hard to play in this ultimate.

[ForsakenRoe]

I think the issue with AST is less that it's 'harder to play' (which, dont get me wrong, it is), but that when the Hello World cast goes out, AST would have Divination, Harmony of Body/Mind/Spirit on itself, Clarifying Draw at times, along with giving other people Div and a card, the sheer number of 'oops extra buffs' compared to WHM means it's probably a nightmare for the buff cap

What does WHM have at the same time, just POM? 'Misery ready' isnt a 'buff', it's a job gauge thing, Assize being ready is just a CD. Hope the AST rework trims some of these weird buffs. Like, why can't they change it so AST, upon using Astrodyne, gains one of these effects (I dont remember the order, so play pretend ok):

1 Seal - Harmony of Body: Grants MP regen
2 Seal - Harmony of Mind: Grants MP regen AND Spellspeed buff
3 Seal - Harmony of Spirit: Grants MP regen AND Spellspeed buff AND 5% damage buff

So instead of you getting all three buffs for having 3 different seals, you get just one. But that one has the effect of the 'previous buff' baked in. This reduces the number of buffs that go out during the 2min window there from 5 (Clarifying Draw, Div, 3 Harmonies) to just 3.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I think the issue with AST is less that it's 'harder to play' (which, dont get me wrong, it is), but that when the Hello World cast goes out, AST would have Divination, Harmony of Body/Mind/Spirit on itself, Clarifying Draw at times, along with giving other people Div and a card, the sheer number of 'oops extra buffs' compared to WHM means it's probably a nightmare for the buff cap

What does WHM have at the same time, just POM? 'Misery ready' isnt a 'buff', it's a job gauge thing, Assize being ready is just a CD. Hope the AST rework trims some of these weird buffs. Like, why can't they change it so AST, upon using Astrodyne, gains one of these effects (I dont remember the order, so play pretend ok):

1 Seal - Harmony of Body: Grants MP regen
2 Seal - Harmony of Mind: Grants MP regen AND Spellspeed buff
3 Seal - Harmony of Spirit: Grants MP regen AND Spellspeed buff AND 5% damage buff

So instead of you getting all three buffs for having 3 different seals, you get just one. But that one has the effect of the 'previous buff' baked in. This reduces the number of buffs that go out during the 2min window there from 5 (Clarifying Draw, Div, 3 Harmonies) to just 3.

Alternatively, they can integrate those buffs into the gauge instead, just like DRK’s 10% damage to their gauge. (And while we're at it, update the gauge to show MA cooldown timer too)

[Rilifane]

Alternatively, they can integrate those buffs into the gauge instead, just like DRK’s 10% damage to their gauge. (And while we're at it, update the gauge to show MA cooldown timer too)

Yes to both. Having a cooldown you can't see when everything has to get so heavily funnelled into 2min bursts is really annoying oversight.
And having a myriad of different buffs when you can just either integrate them into the job gauge so it has a better purpose than being a glorified "how many times can I spam this skill?" counter or at the very least condense them into a single buff with all effects would make much more sense with the buff limit. It's not like you'll get into the situation of wanting to click off one of the buffs but not all.

(And while we're at it, give us a second charge or LS)

[ForsakenRoe]

Oh right, I forgot you'd have Lightspeed up during the 2min window to weave properly, that's another buff towards the buff cap then