A question: What makes a Healer "easy/simple" or "hard/complex"?

[Renathras]

I'm just gonna copy over some ideas I had for SCH from another thread. Although it's somewhat more controversial than my WHM suggestions.

The overall Goal was to reduce the need for our oGCD heals by both expending the DPS toolkit to provide some level of utility and to make the GCD healing toolkit work in a way that would benefit DPS but not handicap the healing side of things. There are some buffs to the oGCD healing side of things but there is also some skills that I want to remove.

Huh. Interesting.

I mean, I'd have gone the opposite way with it - since ARR/HW/SB SCH players enjoyed being GCD damage dealers power-weaveing oGCD healing and mitigation. But I'm always interested in seeing interesting twists. So, obviously, I'm reading on.

So Adlo being kind of a Thorns (WoW Druid) ability, interesting. Though I'm not quite sure how you mean for Succor to work here. Like an AOE Iron Jaws that also is an AOE party heal? Interesting...

Yeah, Physic/Cure/Benefic are all kinda "Uh, wut?" at this point. The only one that isn't instantly overshadowed is...I dunno, Diagnosis MAYbe? But probably not even that.

So your spam nuke/movement nuke gives you some gauge, your DoTs (of which you have...2 GCD ones) have a chance of giving gauge on ticks, Shadowflare is a.....sorta healing oGCD?...oh, three DoTs since you want Bane to be a DoT (not a spread), but on a CD, which doesn't build gauge.....though I'm not sure what "but turns the ability into Fester" means? Bane turns into Fester once you use it? Or something about having gauge turns Bane into Fester? Either way, I do get that you mean for Fester to basically make the Bane DoT a damage down debuff bomb/boobie trap, where the player can either expire it late to get DoT ticks and a short damage down debuff on the boss, or use Fester early if their party needs a longer period of mitigation. That's actually a neat idea. Not sure if it would work or not, but I don't think I've seen it proposed that way before, and that's kind of a cool concept.

Aetherflow: You're honestly not the only one.

Indom is stronger than Fey Blessing and stronger (in healing) than Succor, but if you're pushing more GCD heals, I could see wanting to remove Indom. Just make Blessing into Indom? XD I still think Blessing should have had the CD cut, not the Faerie Gauge. That way you'd have an AOE healing option alongside Aetherpact, instead of gauge being just for a single somewhat lackluster ability and having ANOTHER oGCD CD ability...

The can of worms that is Energy Drain is also something that I can't really think of what to do with. SCH should have plenty of DPS tools now that it wouldn't really need it and if we're reducing oGCD healing tools, we might need to use more Aetherflow abilities more often.

Energy Drain IS one of those kinds of "What even to do with this...?" abilities, isn't it?

Fairies: I feel the Devs want them to be glamour options (though as we know from SMN, you can do that anyway...), but I do like how your Eos and Selene are kind of mirrors of each other, fitting for the Sun/Moon dynamic Lily was introduced to us as having.

Fairy Gauge: I kind of like these, too. Though I'm curious which Faerie you're using during Aetherpact? I'm guessing the one you have active. And I'd guess this ability wouldn't allow swapping for its duration? Basically you have your benchwarmer come in to Aetherpact so your active Faerie can heal and oGCD without interruption. And putting all the Faerie oGCDs on the Gauge actually makes it have a purpose. I'm kind of curious if SCH would be unable to effectively heal if they weren't actively damaging - SGE has an issue right now (though much lesser) that if it IS having to GCD heal party members, it's not Kardia healing the Tank, so the SGE player has to devote more resources (and potentially "catch-up" GCD healing) on the Tank. So I'm curious if you're having to spam Succor/Adlo/Physic (for whatever reason) if you're going to be in a "losing battle" of being gimped since you won't be getting any gauge?

Dissipation: I MUCH prefer this version. Basically Recitation/Rhizomata but for Faerie abilities. Neat idea.

Alternatively, Dissipation and Recitation could be reworked to allow 1 free Aetherflow or Fairy ability usage with 2 charges, Recitation just allowing the skill to Crit over Dissipation.

Note that Recitation in this scenario would be more powerful...and has a shorter CD.

Expendant is also something I hesitate to touch since it's still useful, even after the nerf but with the buff to Covenant/Illumination, do we need it?

I would say YES.

Expedient is one of the neatest abilities to me in quite some time since it offers non-mitigation, non-damage boosting, non-Raise UTILITY to the party...and it's utility that people actually VALUE. Yes, a lot of people sleep on this, but it's definitely a form of utility that isn't "you do more damage", "you take less damage", or "I'm raising you because you took too much damage". Most of the rest of the utility in the game is one of those kinds, but Expedient is different. Yeah, it has the mitigation part, which is NICE, don't get me wrong, but it has something ELSE. And it's something else people actually VALUE when used well. Meteors on ZodEx and Chackrams on HydEx, you can really feel the extra buffer it gives the party. Using it on HydEx is what helped me get my first clears there, because people were otherwise largely too slow (and for whatever reason, couldn't use Sprint).

I cannot overstate how cool it is to me for the Devs to introduce an ability that ISN'T damageboost/mitigation/Raise or damage dealing itself, but that is so popular with players they actually have to nerf it. I think we need more of those, not less.

Like I said, it's a work in progress and it might not provide the full picture of anything either but hopefully, it can at least give some context to my thought process.

I mean...I'm not one of the people who dislikes current SCH, but I actually like those proposals a lot. I'm a bit concerned about emergency healing situations and balance, but if those things could be addressed? It seems creative and interesting, and I'd definitely at least give it a spin, even if it wasn't my favorite in the end. It would definitely diversify the Healer Job offerings, in a great way, and I think that's a good thing.

As for AST, ...

Yeah, I'm not much of an AST player (I can play it, I just don't like it that much), but honestly, I really like your proposed changes there, too.

Major Arcana for the "all cards are Balance" since people would fish for Balance otherwise, Minor Arcana for the actual interesting side buffs (which are no longer competing with Balance), and ShB era Minor Arcana (under a new name) to convert cards you don't need at that time into Lord/Lady.

Imo, that's a good idea. One of my complaints about SCH is that BECAUSE Energy Drain uses Aetherflow, it makes Lustrate, Sacred Soil, Indom, and Excogitation (when the latter two aren't using Recitation) fight with Energy Drain, and because "damage >>> all", Energy Drain often wins. But contrast with SGE, which has basically Lustrate, Sacred Soil, Indom, and not-Excogitation...and actually USES them. Is, in fact, ENCOURAGED to use them (for MP management, but what's important is they have a reason to use them and they aren't forced to choose between them and something else).

HW/SB Arcana had all the "bad" ones competing with Balance. And like Energy Drain, Balance always won. Splitting them into Minor Arcana like this takes the SGE route where you have Plegma (Balance) and then Addersgal abilities (Minor Arcana), and you're incentivized to use both and actually USE BOTH because they aren't competing with each other.

I might be gushing a bit, but I think that's a fantastic idea.

And you make it even BETTER with Crown Play there (whatever name you'd call it; I'm guessing Undraw isn't the name you'd settle on?) - Say you get the Minor Arcana Bole but the boss is untargetable or the tank buster just happened and no one needs any mitigation for a while? Convert it into 50/50 free damage (Lord) or free healing (Lady) to open up the slot to draw something else next and get some use out of the "dud" at the same time. And if you draw Bole and the tank buster is coming up? Well, obviously toss it on the Tank!

It's low-key brilliant and honestly, I'm...kind of shocked you're the first person I've ever seen propose it because it's elegant and allows AST to have both the "wanted" buffs, the "niche" buffs, and some RNG fun, and a "bad draw" protection to keep the "bad" cards from getting you down.

I honestly love this idea. You're selling yourself way short!

Then have their identity be more "time magic" again (HoTs and less direct heals), but like WoW's Resto Druid (same concept, just nature regrowth instead of time, but same diff), having some burst tools and HoT -> burst conversion CDs for emergencies. This would make it more distinct from WHM, which supplies more direct, burst healing but has HoTs on the side, so AST and WHM would be mirrors of each other instead of carbon copies.

I don't really see a reason to keep the Seal system either. Astrodyne is a weak skill, even at 3 seals, that they could probably just turn it into a 2 minute buff with all 3 bonuses without it really impacting AST all that much.

Honestly, the Seal system has never been good. It was introduced as a way to say "See! We've taken your Card diversity but you still have some RNG here!", but then they (yet again) stuck the RNG on things that people want (Divination), which then caused them to 180 and stick it on something where the different levels were arguably "happy accidental bonuses" rather than something people really were excited for, making it completely lame. Just dumping it and making Astrodyne a 2 min buff with all the bonuses would probably work better, I agree. Bonus points: Less buff capping.

Edit: This is what happens when you post at 2am lol. I'll edit this to clarify some things.

Honestly, I think you're REALLY selling yourself short.

Yeah, I don't like your WHM idea, but I love these. These are both pretty creative ideas that I haven't seen other people suggest, and your AST one is an amazingly elegant solution to the "boring cards, but if not, RNG feast of famine" situation. I love it in particular. Though it doesn't change AST's GCD game...maybe with actual interesting Cards, it wouldn't have to...