The Remaining Healers

[Exiled_Tonberry]

I doubt WHM will ever die, mostly because it's the most iconic healer that people default to before they find out they prefer others...

And then there's all those Holy nukes.

They're already dying out honestly. The only reason it's the most played job is because it's your only choice of a healer until level 30, which by then you're already a bit invested I them anyway.

Looking at endgame raiding, it's becoming more and more common to see dual AST or SCH and AST. WHM simply feels like too much of a nerf in raid utility to be worth bringing for nothing but Cure III, which is useless in this tier to begin with.

[VanilleFang]

...

Pretty much all this. I won't ever give up WHM (because it's always been my favourite class/job on FF), but it's blatant the difference between WHM and the other two healers. If they gave WHM more utility then maybe it wouldn't feel so much weaker.

[Teraluna]

If they do introduce a new healing class then I only hope it's not a copy & paste from another healer for half or more of it's skills.

For longer term whm players, Astro wasn't a completely new class - not by any stretch of the imagination. It was a whm with some fluff.
Fluff which then had to be reworked as output wasn't worth the effort of playing it.

They boosted it - rather dramatically in some areas - which only served to show that it was rushed in the first place, as they struggled with the resource required to introduce 3 x classes simultaneously.

[Nihility]

Astrologian was originally chemist, reskinned to fit an ishgard theme.
just think of the card skills as mixing ingredients and the skillset becomes pretty easy to imagine.

classes that could be made to work as a healer currently would be sage, shaman, oracle, mediator, dancer(but not really the way people think, the game is too reliant on bursty healing), and red mage(but i see this fitting the role of bard/machinist more as a caster/support)

[Razard]

though this isn't applied to Dark Knight...

Ahem

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/D...y_III)#Weapons

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/L...ns#Dark_swords

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Deathbringer



Looks very Sword-y to me.

Now back to your scheduled Healer discussion. Carry on.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

If they do introduce a new healing class then I only hope it's not a copy & paste from another healer for half or more of it's skills.

Oh seriously this. SERIOUSLY. The reason AST was so hard to balance in the first place was because it shared nearly all of WHMs basic healing toolkit. Because of this, none of their heals could be as strong as a WHMs heals or it would make WHM seem weak.

Apparently they said to hell with it all and did it anyway though, and now we have WHM at the bottom by a large margin. I can only hope they purposely over buffed AST just to get them into the raiding scene for at least one tier, and they have a plan for WHM.

[Zojha]

The reason AST was so hard to balance in the first place was because it shared nearly all of WHMs basic healing toolkit.

In a way, so does scholar.

Cure - Physick
Cure II - Adlo
Medica - Succor
Regen - Embrace
Tetra - Lustrate
Assize - Indomitability
Raise - Ressurect
Esuna - Leeches
Shroud of Saints - Aetherflow

Lots of skills with similar function and identical purpose. It's an issue with healer design in general. Since the healing role is defined solely by unavoidable damage, the content decides the pace at which that is dealt and as a consequence, every healer needs to be able to respond in the same way. You can't have a pure HoT based healer when a mechanic demands you heal somebody now and not a moment later (like some prey mechanics). You can't have a healer without dispel if a mechanic demands you dispel a debuff. Or a pure single-target healer when there's unavoidable AoE damage.

Tanks suffer from the same thing and if you look at their kits, it's fairly homogenized as well. You'll always find a main aggro skill or combo, a ranged aggro attack, an AoE aggro attack and at least one 30% mitigation cooldown for tankbusters. And a taunt for tank swaps...ideally. That one really shouldn't be optional. Overall, they have a little more freedom with tanks than with healers, but they still have a standard of copy skills established by the game's design.

They designed themselves into a corner there, really.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Perhaps it's like Yoshi's alleged plan for Warriors? I seem to recall him saying that when the expansion rolls around, Warrior won't be 'leveled up to the same degree' as the other tanks. Perhaps when the expansion gets here, WHM is gonna grow stronger through the new abilities in comparison to the others?

[DamianFatale]

I feel like chemist is the best choice for a unique identity.

[JunseiKei]

Pretty sure red mage will be a magical DPS. There aren't adding in new roles and we are sorely hurting for a new magic wielding class.

Really? Only two casting classes since A Realm Reborn? TWO!? If not red mage, something needs to fill the lack of choices in the magical damage dealing role and I'd be utterly dumbfounded if they waited for 5.0 (2019 if the trend continues) to add in another option.

And red mage could easily fill in the role of a melee- close quarters damage role that wields magic and deals magic damage.