Future healing class archetypes...

[RichardButte]

Was thinking about the future of healing classes and how they might implement new healers in the future.

Here are a few ideas in that vein...

Healing Through Damage

My favorite healing class of all time had to be the Discipline Priest from WoW. Its primary means of healing was via dealing damage, which was used to cover light healing, but it had additional tools to use if light healing wasn't going to be enough at that particular moment.

I'd love to see a healer like this in FFXIV, one that uses smart heals to heal the nearest injured party member when you deal damage to an enemy.

The balance of this kind of healer revolves around using DPS for light healing while more intensive healing requires the use of abilities that may quickly drain it of mana if you're not careful.

The Blood Healer

There's no real example for this healer that I can reference, but the idea is fairly straightforward: a healer that does its best healing by giving away chunks of its own HP to other players.

The class would focus on constantly restoring its HP using weaker but reliable spells, maybe primarily HoTs of some kind. It would then trade chunks of its HP to give larger chunks of HP to party members, and some of its cooldowns would do things like increase the amount of HP given for the same amount of HP taken, and something similar to DK's "living dead" where you can pop a CD to stay alive and keep healing at 0 HP for a short period of time.

The key to this healer would be situational awareness. You need to know when it's a good or bad time to "give it your all" as you place yourself at extreme risk if you drop too low right before a raid-wide AoE. The class may even have a trait for always taking reduced damage, due to its volatile nature.

The Melee Healer

Nothing too fancy here, just fairly potent heals that can only be done at short range, with perhaps the most powerful heals being in melee range. Now THIS class would definitely have a natural damage reduction, and possibly increased movement speed as it would be find itself needing to run to the targets it needs to heal in a hurry.

Also, this kind of class would be perfect for an aura of some kind: basically, a passive bubble that either has a HoT or % damage reduction just for being near the healer at the time.

I'm not sure if any of the aforementioned ideas could be added to the game as preestablished FF classes, but they'd be neat to see either way.

Feel free to post your own healing class concepts.

[LycorisSelunis]

I feel like melee and heal-through-damage combined (cough mistweavers) would be perfect for a DANCER type healer in this game (only FF can do dancer better than mistweaver ever was, that poor class has so many balance issues)

As for blood healers, Vanguard had a blood mage that could heal and Forsaken World had the Vampire class, with a blood spec for healing.

Speaking of Forsaken World, check out the bard healer. They ONLY had aoe heals, no single target direct heals at all, and this cool combo system for combining chords to make song buffs.....

[Nektulos-Tuor]

I would rather have a Plate Armor, Giant Mace wielding class.

[Raso]

A healer through damage can be a mess to balance when the class structure is so ridged.

The one class I think I see them doing next is a reverse Ninja, the Chemist. You use say 6 chemicals to create different effects via mix and match.

[LStarbreeze]

I have played around with the idea of a Pugilist and Conjurer melee heal job. I do this when I'm bored, and I love reading other people's ideas for jobs. The blood healer could be awesome, like a Necromancer. Though I like AST, I was a little disappointed it plays too much like the existing heal jobs, so I hope the next one can be different.

[phyxx19]

When ast was announced, I thought it would be a HoTs healer for sure as it would be a fitting third type of healer. Still waiting for a HoT healer although my favorite is the healer via damage, like chloromancer from Rift. anyone

[phyxx19]

When ast was announced, I thought it would be a HoTs healer for sure as it would be a fitting third type of healer. Still waiting for a HoT healer although my favorite is the healer via damage, like chloromancer from Rift.

[Muahbec]

It doesn't matter SE would bring yet another hybrid.
*jokes*

A TRUE BUFFER

I would like to see a TRUE buffer healer (AST does not count as full buffer job since their buffs are locked behind RNG) based in the elements, my friend and i had some ideas like:

Learned at level 20 *Fire* Blesses the target with fire, the next 4-5 attacks will deal 15-20% more damage, auto attacks not included . Does not stack with other elements.
CD- 15-25-30 seconds(maybe 30 seconds)

Learned at level 35 *Wind* Blesses the target with wind, the next 4-5 spells will be instant and the GCD reduced by 1 second. Does not stack with other elements.
CD- Same
and so on.... (actually in my opinion this is how AST should work...but anyways....)

This healer's CDs would be based in enhancing their buffs, spreading the current effect to all players in the area (not like royal road, but a sepparate hotkey with this specific effect) on a long CD... etc.

Their healing kit would be fully based in HoTs that would shine when paired with a co-healer (specially AST because their buffs would stack and this job would be able to complement AST weaknesses ) also this job would not have many DPS (2....3 maybe) abilities since their role would be to increase the raid DPS/Heals
This healer would have a great synergy with AST (just like SCH has a great synergy with WHM)

ALSO, their 60 CD could be an ability that reinforces your co-healer (or yourself) unique characteristic for example.

*uses lv60 skill on a WHM* all of WHMs heals/attacks would have their potencies increased by X% for 20 seconds

*uses lv60 skill on a SCH* all of SCH shields would have an increased 100 (or maybe 150) mitigation for 10 seconds. ( Adloquium would be a 400 shield, Succor would be a 250 shield )

*uses lv 60 skill on an AST* Draw would have its recast time reduced to 5-10 (probably 10) seconds and all cards would be buffed by 20% for 30-40 seconds

*uses lv 60 skill on *insert this healer job name here* or yourself* All of *insert name* buffs would be able to stack for 5 seconds (so you can throw fire+wind+etc and throw your target into a "super" mode)
Of course, this skill would have a super long CD (180-250 seconds maybe) and it can only be cast on healers.

I would definitely love to see a job like this in the game, it would be unique and usefull.
But, just like every other player, i can dream....right?
(sorry for the huge text wall >_>)

[LilithFalcon]

I think this would be a really cool set-up in all honesty.

[GideonHighmourn]

I normally play a "heals through damage" class. Blood Mage in Vanguard was my favorite, along with Chloromancer in Rift and Blood Magic in The Secret World.