Pipe Dreams: Expanding the healer pool

[Reika]

Well whm would be built more completely around healing if it didnt have Clerical stance... or elemental attacks.... but thats a different threads matter.

[AceofRains]

White mage isn't build around pure healing, its built around healing and damage mitigation. I'm kind of sick of people crossing these too things, yeah, they're in the same catagory, but they are two completely different aspects a job can have.

[SkyeWindbinder]

White mage isn't build around pure healing, its built around healing and damage mitigation. I'm kind of sick of people crossing these too things, yeah, they're in the same catagory, but they are two completely different aspects a job can have.

Good job, you can split hairs. lol

My point still stands, though. It's built around healing the sam way a monk is built around hand-to-hand damage. The WHM having a few abilities besides healing to make sure it can at least halfway defend itself doesn't change that fact.

[Dzian]

<Skipped irrelivant text> which is that the WHM should definitely remain the best healer until another class is introduced that is built around the power of healing. Likely a huge case of misunderstanding. And headaches. Well, at least for one of us. :P

The bold part is key. As I said noone expects a monk to become an awesome healer or even a paladin. (though personally I would like paladin to have a healing buff. even it had the potency of a whms cures it wouldn't have the mp supply to maintain a full party. but i guess thats just my play style try and keep myself standing not rely on others) but yeah of the jobs in 1.0 noone expects any of them to really be a super awesome healer.

The original topic was alternative ideas future jobs that can fill a healers role and the different ways in which they can do it.

I don't want 4 jobs that specialise in healing magic and cure spells, just as i dont want 4 jobs that specialise in hand to hand combat

I'm looking to a future full of mass scale contents and 24 man events with a HUGE selection of jobs to choose from not just the handfull we have now. There is plenty of room for more healers.

If for example XIV had 20 jobs to choose from. how would you spread those jobs amoungst various roles.
I personally would have maybe:-
3 healers- whm, chemist etc
4 tanks- pld war etc
4 support- brd cor maybe arcanist with its enfeebles etc
9 dps- mnk drg sam ranger drk bst etc etc
or something like that. a fairly decent spread across all roles i think.

reading this though it seems some people would have 1 healer 1 tank and 18 dps jobs
side note:- how do you do the click to show thing?

[fusional]

White mage isn't build around pure healing, its built around healing and damage mitigation. I'm kind of sick of people crossing these too things, yeah, they're in the same catagory, but they are two completely different aspects a job can have.

!!!

people don't understand that direct healing, period-based healing and damage mitigation are all different things. they don't understand healing throughput. they just see lifebars not dropping to 0 and call it even.

[SkyeWindbinder]

The bold part is key. As I said noone expects a monk to become an awesome healer or even a paladin. (though personally I would like paladin to have a healing buff. even it had the potency of a whms cures it wouldn't have the mp supply to maintain a full party. but i guess thats just my play style try and keep myself standing not rely on others) but yeah of the jobs in 1.0 noone expects any of them to really be a super awesome healer.

The original topic was alternative ideas future jobs that can fill a healers role and the different ways in which they can do it.

I don't want 4 jobs that specialise in healing magic and cure spells, just as i dont want 4 jobs that specialise in hand to hand combat

I'm looking to a future full of mass scale contents and 24 man events with a HUGE selection of jobs to choose from not just the handfull we have now. There is plenty of room for more healers

side note:- how do you do the click to show thing?

Guess we agree on some stuff. Good enough for me.

[IndigoDarkwolf]

how do you do the click to show thing?

HB and /HB in square brackets. If you click the "Go Advanced" button, it's also the speech bubble with the question mark icon.

Example usage (you should be able to see it if you "reply with quote" on this):

This text is hidden until someone clicks the button to show it.

Unfortunately, "Preview Post" in the advanced editor doesn't correctly portray what the hidden areas will look like.

Edit: I really like to use that HB tag when quoting people. Especially people who aren't well-read on their Shakespeare.

[Reika]

Hmm was always wondering how you do that too.

And Super agree with Dzian. We have to look at the bigger picture. 24m raids with only 8 playable jobs. That would most ineveitablly lead to massive job stacking lol.

Tho, if they go by my suggestion found in the battle mechanics forum, that can easily be upped to 16 different classes .

[Yrusama]

Here are some examples of other FF games (excluding XI, because most of us know its job list by now) that have multiple classes with healing abilities:

FF Dimensions:
Dancer can AoE heal in an instant with Curing Waltz, without a charge time, but it's not as strong as a Curaga. It can also remove some status ailments, but only White Mage and Seer (upgraded WHM) have the fix-all Esuna.
Summoner can cast Unicorn, or even Dualcast it if they mastered Red Mage beforehand (Dual-Unicorn is about as strong as a Curaga). It can also use Pheonix for mass-raise, something WHM can't do. Summoner can keep up with White Mage for a while, but run out of MP quickly.
Ninja can heal single targets based on percents, but the MP cost is rough on their low MP pool.
Dragoon can use Healing Breath (about as strong as an AoE Cura from a WHM.)

Now let's look at FFTA2:
Elementalist can do moderate healing, but more importantly it leads into...
Summoner, which again has Unicorn and Phoenix.
Blue Mage has its usual buffs and moderate healing spells, as well as its own method for Reraise.
Seer looks like a White Mage, but its strongest healing spell is Cura (or rather its only Cure type spell). It can also nuke, but specializes in tactical use of spells and MP.
Cannoneer has Potion Shell (long-distance AoE potion) which has a fixed healing amount.

FFIII:
Devout has a greater proficiency in higher-tier healing spells than lower, the opposite of White Mage. This would count as an example of a better healer than WHM if it wasn't a blatant upgrade of WHM.
Bard can only use Paeon (healing spell) if they Sing while wearing a Dream Harp. Not very effective.

So there you have it. While some of these jobs do make great healers, nothing has ever compared to a White Mage in terms of raw healing power. There are a lot of jobs that can buff slightly faster than WHM (such as with Mighty Guard) but don't have the all-around healing utility.

I'm all for other classes getting healing abilities, but nothing should ever outshine a White Mage in the support role. WHM doesn't have anything else going for it, so taking its healing specialty away will effectively kill the job.

[sharazisspecial]

Scholar in ffta2 could become way better at healing then whm with element absorbing.
Summoner with blood price and dual cast outclassed white mage due to its larger aoe radius, longer range and multi-purpose spells. E.g heal+ revive , heal+ cleanse and aoe regen.
They are also alot more useful to have over a whm.

Sage in ffta was also a much more useful heal capable class to have then whm with its raise aoe heal and life and the fact that it was tanky and had powerful nukes.

Alchemist with the appropriate healing items became a better healer then whm as well. They also outheal a whm in early levels with their double item potency ability.

Lets not forget about the cute animists with their 100% single target heal . If you could always get heads the tinker would be the best support/healer hands down .

Time mage from previous games had regen , Undo an ability that would undo damage and rewind that could reset the battle.

So all these classes could out class a whm in a pure support role and hp healing role.

Whm kind of sucked compared to other classes in tactics advance 1 and 2.