What we want as healers: A coherent List

[Iedarus]

After careful deliberation of what everyone sees in this role, I've come to the realization that we really need to come together and finally figure out once and for all what we want as a group. I've created this list based on the wants of the general healer population by keeping the gameplay loop simple yet engaging to play in all forms of content by giving downtime tools while also giving plenty of room to focus on healing. Not all ideas are mine. This will be edited to the best of my ability as more input is offered.

SCH:
-Physick becomes Lustrate when Aetherflow stacks remain
-Remove Protraction
-Remove Fey Blessing
-Remove Seraph
-Return Miasma II (Upgrade from Miasma I)
-Put Baneful Impaction on a separate 60 second oGCD cd (Upgrade from Shadow Flare)
-Reskin Consolation for the fairy (Fey Consolation)
-Return Bane
-Put both Miasma II and Biolysis on different shorter durations with higher potency
-Reduce Broil IV potency to compensate
-Give Energy Drain a new effect (50 base potency; 100 potency for 1 dot on target; 150 potency for 2 dots on target; restore HP if target has Biolysis; restore MP if target has Miasma II)
-Change Seraphism to Tome of Nym (Same thing mechanically but it now summons a powerful tome next to the Scholar instead of making us angelic to stay true to the navy tactician aesthetic)
-Upgrade Ruin II to Ruination (Serves the same function of being an emergency movement tool but now with updated visuals and a name more distinct from SMN)
-Return Selene (Merge her button with Eos and we can switch between the two if it is too much; make the button an instant cast GCD; this will encourage the SCH to think about which fairy to pick so it doesn't become glorified stance dancing)
-Speed up the pet movement

This will give SCH a simple yet engaging dot juggling minigame with a little reward tacked on top while retaining its identity.

WHM:

-Cure I Upgrades to Cure II/Cure I upgrades to Afflatus Solace when the WHM has a Lily
-Add Dia II (DOT for x potency a tick to surrounding enemies; upgraded from Aero III; Dia and Dia II overwrite each other)
-Decrease Dia/Dia II duration
-Passive Tweak: Sacred Sight (On top of POM granting three charges, Every Dia tick has a % chance to grant a charge of Glare IV; every Dia II tick has a % chance to grant a charge of Glare IV; charges cap at 3)
-Reduce POM cooldown to 60 seconds
-Give Glare III a 2.5 second cast time to justify the higher damage output of more Glare IVs.

This keeps WHM approachable while drastically raising the skill ceiling. Lily movement tech will be more important and with a shortened DOT duration, the new movement oGCD and more frequent Glare IVs, WHM will have a lot of movement tools to play with. This will basically make WHM feel like the BLM of healers.

Personally, I'd also like to see a return of White Mage's earth and wind magic.
-Glare III is now True Stone
-Dia is now True Aero
-Dia II would be True Aero II
-Holy III becomes/upgrades to True Holy (Just for aesthetic reasons)
-Glare IV is now Dia
-Either this or release GEO as a healer if WHM players wish to keep the holy aesthetic.

AST:
-Benefic I upgrades into Benefic II
-Return the RNG
-Return Royal Road
-Return Time Dilation
-Return Nocturnal sect (Merge the two sect buttons together as a toggleable oGCD for a stance dancing mechanic)

AST was the only healer that justified having two DPS buttons since they were constantly playing the card minigame.

SGE:
-Remove Physis II
-New Passive: Placebo Kardion (Whenever you heal an ally, apply Placebo Kardion to them for x seconds. This buff heals the affected allies for 50% of the healing applied by Kardia. This buff will not affect the target if they are already affected by Kardion.)
-Soteria grants 5 charges.
-Psyche now procs Kardia.
-Psyche cooldown reduced to 40 seconds
-Phlegma cooldown reduced to 20 seconds
-Reduce damage GCD potencies if needed
-Addersting can now be granted for every x times you proc Kardia (Placebo Kardion is not counted).
-Lower duration of both Dots while increasing potencies to compensate
-BRING BACK THE DOUBLE DOTS PLEEEEEEEEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More Kardia interactions keep it true to a battle healer while also doing its own thing apart from Scholar.

Let me clarify this again: THIS LIST IS NOT MEANT TO BE SET IN STONE.

It is meant to serve as a group idea board so we have a coherent idea of what we want. I started this list somewhere in the happy medium between more healing requirements and more dps to reflect it. I'm not marching in here trying to say my way is superior; sure, I'll give my ideas, but I'm mainly doing this so Yoshi P can truly understand what we want.

[Connor]

For SCH:

- Wouldn’t replacing Physick with Adloquium cause a bunch of problems because of of the over 2X MP cost? Especially at lower levels when they have less/no ogcds to rely on. If they made Adloquium cost the same as Physick it would only be 50% of what Eukrasian Diagnosis costs (800MP).
- I can understand the thought behind removing Protraction and Fey Blessing, but at the same time I don’t think just deleting them straight up is the answer either. I’d rather see a world where abilities like that can have actual value rather than just being ‘too much’. But I see why people would rather they were gone, too.
- I’m neutral on Miasma II returning but would there be much point in having both Miasma II and Baneful Impaction? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just make Baneful Impaction a GCD spell? I think it’d still feel weird to have a DoT on a 60 sec cool-down
- Aren’t Rouse and Summon Seraph essentially the same thing in function? I feel like removing Seraph and returning Rouse would just be a step backwards for the class. It might remove the annoying delay on Consolation, but I’m not sure it would feel like anything but a downgrade overall.
— I’m neutral on higher potency / lower duration on DoTs. I don’t particularly mind DoTs lasting like 40 years lol, but it’d be nice there was literally anything to do between them besides Broil. Similarly with Energy Drain scaling with DoTs, it’d definitely be nice if it was more interesting than ‘1 extra broil worth of damage every 60s’

Those are just my thoughts; not suggesting they’re reflective of the healer community as a whole

[Iedarus]

Snip

Good questions!

-By the time you get Adlo, you never want to touch Physick, like ever. You waste a GCD for a paltry heal and the fairy is also extremely powerful in the low levels because her potency is mostly the same throughout the levelling process.

-Protraction and Blessing are just meh, honestly, and with Recitation being on a 60 second CD in the next patch, that means significantly more chances to just recite an indom. SCH already has its bases covered with healing and the new Seraphism ability is just bonkers powerful. I highly doubt SCH is going to struggle without these abilities. Not to mention Union will be there if you need to single target heal.

-Miasma II and Biolysis are on the GCD and Baneful Impaction would be a 60 sec oGCD along with Bane being what helps spread the first two. Just a little something to return SCHs dot gameplay while not making it super overwhelming. In fact, the dots would put less pressure on constantly broiling if we put most of SCH's offensive power into them, so they wouldn't be royally screwed if they ever had to GCD heal.

-The change from Seraph to Rouse not only removes the jank since it's less buttons to click and less pet delay as a result, it also helps relieve Scholar of its identity crisis. I'd personally also like to see a redone LB3 (Maybe call it Fey Rally/Rally of Nym) to cement the Nymian Marine aesthetic. With some potency tweaks Rouse can definitely take its place.

-The low duration dot juggle is precisely what will end Broil spam. As for energy drain, I think its fine as it is as an optimization tool since those little potency hits do add up. The new mechanic should make it more exciting to use correctly.

[LilimoLimomo]

What we want as healers

This doesn't sound like what I've regularly seen others advocating for in the forums, and it's certainly not what I want.

I want tank sustain to drop so that healers become necessary not only for DPS survival, but for tank survival. I want every OGCD heal to be removed (or turned into a GCD) so that we spend more of our GCD's healing. I want some of the bloated buttons to be removed or consolidated so that slightly more engaging DPS patterns can be added to the class for down-time.

[WeakestZenosEnjoyer]

By the time you're going into hard content that Eos can't just carry, you already have aetherflow. There's no level where Adlo spam is a thing.

Fey Blessing is just such a nothing ability that it's primed for the axe, personally I'd just add an upfront heal to Whispering Dawn or reduce its cooldown via trait to replace the heal potency. (it can't be replaced by a higher level ability, that just adds an awkward gap)

In terms of their damage kit any solution other than unethical DoT mage would just be incorrect. I'd like to see Deployment gain it's PvP functionality compared to a different ability just to spread DoTs though.

[Iedarus]

By the time you're going into hard content that Eos can't just carry, you already have aetherflow. There's no level where Adlo spam is a thing.

Fey Blessing is just such a nothing ability that it's primed for the axe, personally I'd just add an upfront heal to Whispering Dawn or reduce its cooldown via trait to replace the heal potency. (it can't be replaced by a higher level ability, that just adds an awkward gap)

In terms of their damage kit any solution other than unethical DoT mage would just be incorrect. I'd like to see Deployment gain it's PvP functionality compared to a different ability just to spread DoTs though.

Problem with deployment is that it is tied to spreadlo. With Recitation getting gigabuffed, it would be easier, balance wise, to just return Bane.

I think Whispering Dawn is fine as is. Fey Blessing simply adds nothing to the kit, like you said.

[Iedarus]

This doesn't sound like what I've regularly seen others advocating for in the forums, and it's certainly not what I want.

I want tank sustain to drop so that healers become necessary not only for DPS survival, but for tank survival. I want every OGCD heal to be removed (or turned into a GCD) so that we spend more of our GCD's healing. I want some of the bloated buttons to be removed or consolidated so that slightly more engaging DPS patterns can be added to the class for down-time.

Given the general consensus outside the forums, most people prefer the oGCDs. I'm fine with them too since healers should be the only ones allowed to heal consistently without losing damage. The problem is simply the gameplay loop. The list I have has also trimmed down the bloat to make room for DPS buttons.

First and foremost to fix tank sustain is to nerf WAR. I agree tank sustain is insane, right now, but I'm simply focused on how to make healers more fun to play.

[SpiralMask]

personally i DONT want to see other roles nerfed in terms of mitigation and sustain, but i'd like fight and encounter designs to be updated with that in mind: more intermittent/spiky damage for healers to react to, or more periods of sustained damage, or healer-specific mechanics like juggling or cleansing debuffs for mechanics secondary healing requirements like keeping someone above certain thresholds or specifically avoiding overhealing (or [bad things] happen), less outright oneshots/partywipes from trivial failures on someone's part--healers should exist to correct mistakes and recover the situation (pardon the pun), which is impossible if any mistake simply ends the fight instantly.

my personal wishlist would be:
-a group tagalong ability of some kind (on WHM maybe?). like grabs everyone in a radius (7-10y?) and dashes with them to a different (preferably safe) location. think it's new en avant with a mass-rescue attached. i'd say as a separate ability, since having that mandatory with its movement would make raid situations impossible to use it, but as an option seems neat and useful (like SCH's expedient).


SCH
- something to make use of the completely vestigial fairy gauge--more gainers, more spenders. there's a whole swathe of selene abilities that got cast into the void for no reason and could easily fill that
- something GCD-wise to spend it's time on, since it's massive powerful OGCD and shield kit leaves a lot of free time for it (not even counting when there's no healing needed or your party is competent and not taking unnecessary damage). that used to be DoTs, but could be made into something that charges the fairy gauge or something. debuffs? idk.
- something to unify the weird disparity of dissipation, seraph, and now seraphism: many abilities will lock you out of resources or using certain abilities, even when it's against their stated purpose (dissipation gives you aetherflow, whose actions fill the fairy gauge... for actions you're not allowed to use during dissipation). how about making aetherflow/dissipation also cash in any spare stacks of aetherflow and converting them to fairy gauge rather than simply wasting them.
- moving that new dot out from behind chain strategem--it's weird to be asked whether to waste chain strat before a boss to kill a pack, or waste the DoT's aoe potency on a boss (it IS plus, as of media tour, but still wasting half its function)

SGE
- differentiate its attacks (potencies, secondary effects, *something*): currently they're all numerically identical GCDs (with the exception of phlegma). this includes it's capstone laser--they're all the exact same potency and aoe potency, giving the illusion of choice rather than a proper hierarchy.
- make toxikon an oGCD. it requiring a secondary resource to get while still fighting for GCD space against numerically identical competitors for single and aoe target situations seems rather confused to me.
- more eukrasian alternate skills would be nice in future, but i can understand limiting it to a few toggles to prevent dark arts syndrome--that said, it does very neatly allow for new skills to be added without impacting the total number of buttons/keybinds a player needs.

AST
- the mild re-diversification of card effects is a step in the right direction, but i'd like to see the devs return AST's card effect modification abilities (bumping their effect, duration, making them multi-target, etc)
- return some mention of it's old sects back (consider some sort of stance or modifier-toggle to swap skills from healing to shielding--wait a minute did AST get half it's healing kit removed so that SGE had a shiny toy in eukrasia?)

WHM
- bring back any aspect of it's conjury roots--everything being shiny white holy effects is *incredibly* boring, and a complete downgrade from it's origins.
- something to spend it's downtime on: WHM has huge stonky heals and nothing to do when healing isnt needed. adding glare 4 and procs is a bare start, but consider adding more avenues to proc it's activation, or something like painting the floor with buff-aoes (you're never going to make a proper geomancer, so why not let WHM have fun with earth/water/wind as a counterpoint to BLM's fire/lightning/ice--both thematically due to the origins of black and white magic via mhach and amdapor as well as there simply being a hole there for a class to aesthetically fill for those elements)

[Iedarus]

Snip

SCH:
Would be nice to do more with the gauge aside from Union. I also agree that Selene should make a return, however, this list is designed to not be too drastic of a change from what we're getting, now; they are simply tweaks to make the changes fun and simple for all forms of content. Oddly enough, Dissipation has grown on me when I started viewing it as a high risk decision making tool/emergency tool. Part of the beauty of SCH is seeing how many EDs you can get away with, after all.

SGE:
Potency differentiations would be good. Fortunately the two dots are working to break that up. Maybe in the future this can be broken up even more. I think Toxicon is fine as a GCD since my tweak would make Addersting much better. Don't forget Toxicon is a gain on AoE. DT is where I believe Eukrasia actually feels complete. I agree, the mechanic is actually ingenious because of how it minimizes button bloat, allowing SGE to have more damage buttons than the average healer.

AST: Yeah I believe Royal Road did that. I would also love to see Nocturnal Sect make a comeback but I worry that would require a full rework. Honestly, it would be cool if the sects worked like cleric stance/sword oath and shield oath; AST would do well with a stance dancing mechanic.

WHM: Oddly enough, I believe if all the listed desired changes for WHM were put in place, the job would be in a VERY good spot. Would love to see for 7.0/8.0 spells like True Stone, True Aero, True Aero II, True Holy, and Dia (renamed from Glare IV) just to add more visual distinction.

[vetch]

-Upgrade Physick to Adloquium at level 30
-Cure I Upgrades to Cure II (BEGONE FREECURE!)

-By the time you get Adlo, you never want to touch Physick, like ever. You waste a GCD for a paltry heal and the fairy is also extremely powerful in the low levels because her potency is mostly the same throughout the levelling process.

Good, another 'healer fix' theorycrafting thread made by someone who doesn't actually play healer in all content. Please join a Coils MINE static and then re-draft your list.

Cure 1 should upgrade into Solace whenever you have a lily, not into C2, and Freecure should be changed into a single lily pip that unlocks at level 30. This un-traps Freecure while consolidating buttons and keeps WHM viable in 50 MINE where it doesn't have its MP economy and actually needs to use Cure 1 and Freecures.

Physick is used in 50 MINE as a triage heal when non-tanks take avoidable damage but your Lustrates are already budgeted.

This doesn't sound like what I've regularly seen others advocating for in the forums, and it's certainly not what I want.

I want tank sustain to drop so that healers become necessary not only for DPS survival, but for tank survival. I want every OGCD heal to be removed (or turned into a GCD) so that we spend more of our GCD's healing. I want some of the bloated buttons to be removed or consolidated so that slightly more engaging DPS patterns can be added to the class for down-time.

Support all.