So... that spiderman shirt... (new job tease)

[Shougun]

Sorry I suck at coming up with ideas. Especially since this is my first MMO. I just feel like you only have two ways to heal and that's it. AST almost broke the mold but they basically made it a combination of SCH and WHM. They could have added healing cards or give more unique actions like synastry. I guess, yes shields and HoTs are the basic ways to heal but I wish they could spice it up more instead of repeat copies.

Problem is all the other ways are kind of hard to balance, and when I mean kind of I mean its already a pain to balance normal stuff so these weird ideas would be like "OP" or "Kick on sight".

Heal via damage as Vexander brought up is one, but it'd of course have to be a multiplier of your damage into healing otherwise you'd deal way too much damage compared to other healers and heal at the same time. And if you heals lack then your main purpose is lacking, aka no one wants you.. lol. I feel this one is a more likely to be a viable different vision. You could if concerned about balance build it into their MP management more like a Auriel (damage translates into energy resources which is used for healing).

Life siphon / sharing healers have existed but I imagine they'd be a serious pia to balance in PvP. Basically they share their own health and have less MP management because they're managing their health into others. Could use some reserves (stacking buffs) mechanics to bring the hp down a bit realistically and add a few mechanics to juggle.. but again these type of healers generally have excellent self health generating tools because their healing method is via their own life.. thus PvP could become an issue (other healers are already fairly hard to kill (w/o CC at least) so maybe the difference isn't that bad but it could be awful). Some sort of cultist, bloodmancer, necro thing.

Another thing they could try is play around more with the delivery options, like bouncing, pulsating, and etc:
Bouncing: Hits a target, and then nearby targets in order for lesser amounts. Think chain lightning and all those good rpg classics. Forking rather than bouncing could be too.
Pulsating: Imagine helios/Medica except instead of once it goes off multiple times for a lesser value each time but a higher total potency, could even pick a pusling target instead of off yourself
Ray: Sort of in line with siphon idea above except that its just specifically a ray that heals the target while the ray is active
Battery/Building: Fill up a battery that you can release at a later date, for the built up amount (method of building can be healing, damage, damage taken, time)
On Hit: Not like above idea where it powers your heals this one is more like the target gets a buff that when they hit something they get healed, also could use the enemy being hit heals the attacker
Object/Localized: Like the turret on MCH, except for healing and could utilize other deliveries within it (like pulsating/bouncing). Like a node that reduces a single nearby player's damage, after X seconds heals the party for a formula of that damage reduced. Or a crystal font that pulsates when the target is attacked healing nearby allies (besides the target). Simpler stuff is fine too, a ray that heals the lowest nearby player, a healing aura, an MP battery that mages can stand by to drain into themselves. Pretty open.

Ofc we already have DoT, Shield HP, Single Target, and AoE, and these are not bad options and could be incorporated into the less used versions as well.

You could probably whip out a really fancy geomancer creating healing structures and all these weird special effects, but it'd still be a pain to balance lol. If it gets too geometrical you might expect that the Job has a higher reward (meaning if you're really good at placements you could reach a higher skill ceiling). Or if they're really big it might make the ideas less novel but I guess easier to balance.

When I say pia I'm not saying "never will happen" just that anything truly different is going to take a real careful eye, like more than a regular job's attention to detail. Balancing direct heals and basic dots is a bit easier. So.. I'm not trying to shut anything down . I agree it'd be cool to see something different