Job Actions and Traits Speculation thread

[Blitzgon]

Hello fellow Healers! Ever just sit there and ponder what potential our Jobs may have in the coming expansion? Then come and express them here! It's going to be a long while before any new changes come rolling out and with the healing meta firmly locked in now with the release of 3.4 I thought it might be fun to imagine what Actions and Traits could come to further define the three Jobs from one another.

With that all said and done here are a few thoughts I've had.

White Mage: As things stand right now they are the weakest of the three healers in terms of raid utility. Granted that it is not a bad thing as they do still boast the the highest overall healing output and burst healing. Rather then seeing them gain more utility in mitigation or increasing overall raid damage I would like to see White Mage gain more flexible healing options and reduce the MP load of their spells.

By this I would like to see a ability that places a permanent buff on a target party member. this buff would increase the healing done to the target and they would gain a small amount of HP for any healing spells the White Mage casts. There would be a reasonably long cooldown or perhaps you wouldn't be able to recast it once a battle starts. This would help define the Job in its high healing while reducing the amount of total healing they would have cast to keep the target, which in most cases would be a tank, near topped off.

That alone would be more than enough for me and would differentiate White Mage from the other jobs, Keeping it in line with its high healing potency while keeping it a simple healer.

Astrologian: With its current buffs to their supportive and healing kit, Astrologian has found a fantastic spot currently in the raid scene. Their healing kit heavily borrows from the other two healers depending on which sect you are in but make up for their "average" healing output with huge buffs from their card draws. With this in mind the things I would like to see is more improvements to their current actions.

To start I would like to see Collective Unconscious to reduce how much the regen heals, or remove it altogether, and reduce the damage reduction in favor of being able to cast while inside it. I would love to see this become a pseudo Astrologian "Ley Lines", where while you are inside the bubble and everyone else that is in it will receive a increased healing done to them. The only draw back would be that the Astrologian would have to stay inside the bubble for it to remain out or until it wears off. with its current range it would be difficult to use but if it could increase the range that would be wonderful.

The other change I would like to see is perhaps a trait to Celestial Opposition. This might be a bit strong and hard to use but I would love to see if the damage the party has taken be regen over the next fifteen seconds. It would be a massive heal for high raid damage but it with its long cooldown it would be a decision between helping the party with extending their buffs or saving it for a massive heal. I always thought that it would be very cool if this ability also turned back time on the parties wounds.

Astrologian has always been A strange healer that never could decide on what kind of healer it wants to be. I would really like to see the card system expanded as well but then it runs the risk of being overly complicated and distracting. There is a ton of different changes I could think of but those two I think would help their role out without making the cards more complex.

Scholar: With having a free healing pet, loads of mitigation, and being able to deal respectable damage, what more could you ask for from a damage reducing healer? With perhaps a decent AoE they would be set but honestly I could go on about how SCH and SMN should be split from the same base class but that is a different topic.

What do you guys think, anything you'd like to see?

[ZhaneX]

Cure IV? Seems fairly obvious, but all the same. As far as what utility it could bring to the kit, I seem to recall someone suggesting it having an auto-regen application, which would save on casting times at the very least.

Going off of Kuribou some more, maybe a skill similar to Reverse? Turning what are normally healing spells into powerful attacks? Though given we've already got Cleric Stance for general offensive options, perhaps make it something more like an OGCD Ability, keeping potency affected by Mind rather than Intelligence, enabling some timely DPS on the fly without having to switch to Cleric?

All I've got off the top of my head.

[GeekMatt]

I'm not crazy about your AST suggestions, but I thought the WHM one was kind of cool. With CU I like the way it works but I'd like to see just a tiny bit of flexibility in it. Specifically I'd want to be able to activate it during the last second my of movement without it breaking because my right foot twitched as I came to a halt, just to make it a tad easier to time the skill. A1S for example, I found trying to time it between jumps was fairly useless—if only I were able to activate it a second sooner. Additionally I feel like instant casts should work with CU. This would have it working nicely with the AST tool kit. Also, I think AST should be focusing more on speed/time management than on potency, with WHM being the opposite. Specifically with Diurnal, as Nocturnal really demands that potency to be useful in its role.

SCH is still a totally unique healer excelling in the same way it always has with the fairy/DPS combo. I think they should continue to focus on those aspects. Something like, if the SCH lands a Critical Broil then the fairy procs it's own instant Succor-type spell, etc, anything to increase the amount of time you can potentially be DPSing, hopefully relative to SCHs long time love affair with Crit.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Copy and pasting from another thread.

WHM: I feel that WHM has a ton of dps potential that it can't utilize because of it's jarring MP issues and the nature of it's job.

Maybe they should develop more skills like Assize, but don't make it effected by Cleric Stance.

Or make it so that when under shroud of saints, divine Seal or presence of mind, you get a stack, let's just call it Priest Stance, that lowers the mp cost of all DPS spells and allows you to dps outside of Cleric Stance without penalty.

Let's say this Priest Stance stack increased by 10 seconds with each of these abilities you use. You can effectively stack up to 30 seconds of being able to fully dps, outside of Cleric Stance and at a lower MP cost.

I just really don't want them to slap utility and shields on them just because the others have it.
WHM deserves it's own identity just like the other two have.

[ckc22]

Sch is going to get murdered in 4.0 and I'm going to be pissed....

[Watachy]

Give celestial opposition the opportunity to improve a shield you've put on your party. Since you can improve the regen duration. This skill ain't as effective as it should be in Noc Stance ^^

Im not for a huge change on Collective Inconscious since the spell is the fine the way it is actually and fits perfectly well with the strange mix SE wanted to give to the AST beetwen shield and HoT !

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Sch is going to get murdered in 4.0 and I'm going to be pissed....

SCH will never die. So long as their pet works the way it does.
SE created a monster and they have no idea what to do with it.

[ADVSS]

SCH will never die. So long as their pet works the way it does.
SE created a monster and they have no idea what to do with it.

oh yeah, they know, they didnt toss that wtf skill at 60 for no reason. I pray to the twelve for all our brave scholar friends entering the next expansion

[ckc22]

SCH will never die. So long as their pet works the way it does.
SE created a monster and they have no idea what to do with it.

I disagree heavily. If healer DPS is nerfed sch will quickly find itself ousted. And square already put a target on our heads for 4.0...

[Kabzy]

I disagree heavily. If healer DPS is nerfed sch will quickly find itself ousted. And square already put a target on our heads for 4.0...

They did say in one interview though that they will try to buff others rather than nerf us and WARs. So best case scenario we may just be very same-ish. Plus if they add another healer, that could balance out our 'off-healer' role as it is.

I'd be interested to hear more about the OP's opinion on removing SCH from their base class. What would you expect we do if we lost our entire DPSing toolkit? :'D