Picking a healer

[Fevelle]

May I ask what were you guys doing with the downtime? No seriously, there is sooo much time in between healing, what were you casting?

On downtime we're probably DPSing. As I stated in another thread, not agreeing with current meta doesn't mean we don't try to adjust to it.

Holy cow, the healer classes (even astro) have waaay more HPS than necessary...

Yes they do, and I hope SQEX changes this someday. We barely have sustained damage on normal content, the closer we got to having a fight where healers had to deal with party wide damage the whole time in DF content was Cuchullain day one.

Instead, they insist in creating hard hitting mechanics, the do-or-die type (see Ozma's meteor). We have ZERO heal checks in DF content, not even Hellwind can be counted because there's a HUGE window of no damage between Hellwind and the next mechanic.

[Parawill]

Yes they do, and I hope SQEX changes this someday. We barely have sustained damage on normal content, the closer we got to having a fight where healers had to deal with party wide damage the whole time in DF content was Cuchullain day one.

Instead, they insist in creating hard hitting mechanics, the do-or-die type (see Ozma's meteor). We have ZERO heal checks in DF content, not even Hellwind can be counted because there's a HUGE window of no damage between Hellwind and the next mechanic.

It really is only a priority check for the alliance with the main tank. But yeah, SE makes really weak sustained damage in contrast to its heavy front-loaded burst damage as shown in Savage content.

They difference between progression raid (BCOB, SCOB, FCOB, Gordias & Midas) and DF content is that DF content has only priority checks, and progression raid has a combination of HPS/Mitigation checks & priority checks, for healing anyways .

[CookieMonsta]

On downtime we're probably DPSing. As I stated in another thread, not agreeing with current meta doesn't mean we don't try to adjust to it.

A4S, A7S and A8S were steps in the direction of needing higher healer engagement but even then it could still be Solo healable by a whm/astro with timed input from the SCH.

As for the original post:

SCH is the most in demand healer right now, that is because it is possibly the most difficult healer to play in the current endgame because it requires you to be a tactician. You need to walk this extremely fine balance between healing, shielding and DPS. Its a high intensity job with immense benefits if played well as every endgame prog static will be looking for one.

Astro I cannot comment too much as I've only raided with them a few times but its a high skill floor extremely high skill ceiling job. In the right hands it can output similar HPS to a WHM but gives the party powerful buffs AND can mitigate additional damage thus giving it a strong edge in specific fights.