POLL: Best healer for 4 mans?

[Ambivalence]

Hello,

I just wanted to get a general consensus for what healer you prefer in 4 mans only.(Speed clearing) more specifically. I am of the mind that WHM<AST<SCH - what are your thoughts and why?

[zuzu-bq]

You can make a stawpoll for it if you want. But for level 50 and further, its WHM for sure.

[Pence]

I'm going SCH. Never really need to leave cleric stance.

[GunsBlazing]

SCH is the best in my opinion, unless you are able to pull massive groups of monsters (at least 8+) all the way through a particular instance. Even in dungeons where you get clusters that large, every pull is not of that size, so SCH tends to still beat WHM. WHM does a lot more damage on huge pulls than SCH can, but it can't compete against SCH on normal-sized pulls at all in terms of DPS. Since most dungeons go back and forth between pull sizes, I'd say SCH overall is the best. Astrologian is the worst in general for damage. I'm assuming that you are taking DPS into account, because if you are one of those healers that doesn't ever touch cleric stance, then there's really no difference at all. It's easy/lazy/slow clear mode no matter which you choose, at that point. WHM has three potent regen effects to mitigate the amount of incoming damage that will require an actual hard heal, SCH has an aoe regen and shields to slow the amount of incoming damage to do the exact same thing, and astro has either or. If all you're doing is healing, then they don't play much different from one another so saying one is better than the other is not really a meaningful assessment. On the healing side, they all fulfill the exact same functions, merely with different methodologies of achieving them. On the offensive end of the spectrum, they're all pretty different. Most of AST's attacks are just copied and pasted versions of white mage's spells, but they lack the other aspects that make WHM much stronger for AOE (Mainly assize and Aero III). SCH is just typically stronger than both of them in the damage front. As mentioned before, WHM wins once pull sizes get really large, but that is a rarity, and won't have much factor in overall dungeon completion time anyways, since they do lower boss DPS and lower DPS on all the smaller pulls the game forces you to engage due to barriers and such to prevent speed running.

To summarize; If you're DPSing, Scholar is typically the best. If you're doing nothing but healing, then it honestly doesn't matter at all. There's no reason to choose one over the other on four man content at this point, just go with whichever is your favorite in terms of aesthetics.

[TheWaywardWind]

This is wholly based on how competent your party is. All three healers are great but I personally prefer speed running through shit so it depends.

SCH is weak with AoE but is great with single target.
WHM is undoubtedly the strongest when it comes to AoE damage.
AST comes close to WHM but also has its cards to buff people who are AoEing.

Honestly, either WHM or AST gets my vote. Scholar is nice but it doesn't pack the punch that spamming Holy + Aero III + Assize or Gravity + Enhanced Balance on BLM/AoE DPS does.

[FoxyAreku]

SCH is weak with AoE

You're joking right

For the topic: I've always been of the opinion that Warrior+Scholar+Bard+Black Mage is the god composition for dungeons.

[JackFross]

SCH is weak with AoE but is great with single target.
WHM is undoubtedly the strongest when it comes to AoE damage.
AST comes close to WHM but also has its cards to buff people who are AoEing.

SCH is the only one of the three who can do consistently high AoE dps throughout a dungeon without mana issues. WHM has the highest burst AoE, sure, but it peters off quick and they're forced into a situation of low Mana, even with Assize and Shroud, because of how much MP Holy drains.

WHM has the highest single-target dps of all three healers
SCH is easily the king of AoE with any pull that's less than ~5 or so, due to Bane's diminishing returns, and very rarely do you run into many pulls in the current dungeons that exceed that threshold.

I haven't played AST, so no comment, though when my friend plays it and feeds me Balance+Arrow, things die real good, so that makes it so maybe they're good? But uh, 15% of my dps is still less than half what either other healer could bring to the field, instead, and Gravity costs the same as Holy while doing the same damage, but AST lacks A3, Assize, and ~7s of constant party stun. Their stun is nice, but on a cooldown and not as long.


I'm torn between SCH and WHM. WHM is way easier (pop hots, dps!) while SCH is really beholden to how well the tank rotates CDs, since a tank who uses them is invincible with a Fairy, but one who doesn't will die real quick without shields. I alternate, but I lean toward SCH, since I like the class more, even though I think WHM does it all the most efficiently (if you know what you're doing and properly manage MP)

[Pence]

I think you're underestimating SCHs AOE capabilities in speed runs, Alexander.

Bio 40 + Miasma 35 + Bio 2 35 + Miasma 2 10 + SF 25 + Blizz 2 50 = 195 potency first 3 mobs
Bane 55 + SF 25 + Blizz 2 50 = 130 for 4th+ mob.
Coupled with a 3% attack speed buff for the whole party half the time, and fairy healing.

If you have 6 mobs that's 975 potency and the 3% buff half the time. A WHM using Holy will be pulling 200 + 180 + 160 + 140 + 120 + 100 (Total 900) and Aero 3 40 (Total 240) is pulling 1140 without a fairy healing or the buffs.

WHM will come out on top still, but SCH definitely packs a punch. (Due to set up time, Assize and such)

[Neela]

I think you're underestimating SCHs AOE capabilities in speed runs, Alexander.
(...)
WHM will come out on top still, but SCH definitely packs a punch. (Due to set up time, Assize and such)

uhm you are right with alex i lately switched from whm to sch for farming, cause our ast soloheals - so i never have to leave clearic at all – therefore sch > whm. but the topic was "speedrun with 4 people" so whm definitly outdamages sch here with his aoe bombs

so i would go with whm – aero/holy/assize is just great for trash mobs if you havent to cancel cleric that much.

[Garflex]

If you have 6 mobs that's 975 potency and the 3% buff half the time. A WHM using Holy will be pulling 200 + 180 + 160 + 140 + 120 + 100 (Total 900) and Aero 3 40 (Total 240) is pulling 1140 without a fairy healing or the buffs.

WHM will come out on top still, but SCH definitely packs a punch. (Due to set up time, Assize and such)

You will almost always have Assize up for each pull, so that must be factored in. Aero III = 370 Potency to everything it hits. So, 370 Aero III + 150 Holy(Average) + 300 Assize = 820 potency to everything, 2 of them being consistent throughout the pull as long as MP allows the Holy spam, which it usually does for 3/4 of the pull.