What if the new expansion doesn't a healer or a tank

[basketofseals]

I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a new tank at all. Healer balance is in shambles. It was decent for a while, but the recent AST buffs once again threw things off.

It's thoughts like this that make healer/tank balance so hard to hear feedback from.

I dunno what it is, but people will just never be satisfied unless healers and tanks are somehow 100% perfectly even. The difference between a WHM and AST is not big.

[TaranTatsuuchi]

For every expansion that doesn't have healer/tanks that's 2 more years that the people who main those roles don't get new things to play with.

Do that long enough, and those players will start to feel shafted, some may even up and leave.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

For every expansion that doesn't have healer/tanks that's 2 more years that the people who main those roles don't get new things to play with.

Do that long enough, and those players will start to feel shafted, some may even up and leave.

Perhaps. But there are just as many people, especially those that raid, that just dread the chaos that will definitely ensue with a new healer.

If anything, they need to redesign AST first. If another healer is brought into the game, AST can not remain a copy of WHM and SCH. Unless of course, AST copies the new healer as well, which would be ridiculous.
AST can only exist as is so long as WHM and SCH are the only other healers in the game, since AST is balanced around the strength of those two healers specifically from the ground up.

[Cidel]

No healer/tank in new expansion?


Then fine, not only do they give themselves a little more breathing room, but probably made some fans happy that one of their favorite (classic) jobs wasn't shoehorned into being a dedicated healer/tank.



...

New healer/tank in new expansion?

Here, let me simulate the threads that would flood the forums :

-RIP WHM
-(new tank) is superior to DRK in every way
-Why would you take anything other than SCH and (new healer) for trials/raids?
-(new healer) has high DPS and decent heals. It killed WHM.
-(new tank/healer) should have been DPS.
-Angry WHM here.
-(new healer) has a useful job gauge, what about WHM?
-(new tank/healer) is too mandatory for content. Nerf please.
-I just unsubbed today
-I want to play (new healer), but my static is making me play AST.
-"AST, AST, AST! Why does she get all the attention!?" SE: "WHM, this isn't about you." "IT NEVER IS!!" *storms off*




Honestly though, their balancing act is going to be interesting to watch no matter what roles new jobs are allocated to.

[Tsukino]

I would be disappointed because I want more healer and tank jobs around as an option.

I'm not sure I would be surprised though, especially since they couldn't even figure out how to make a third type of healer in the game as it is.

[MOZZYSTAR]

Pretty sure they said no Geomancy but I could be wrong/misremembering. I definitely think we could use more tanks/healer variety and no more DPS until we get some tanks/healers. We have like 20 DPS classes only 3 healer/tank classes...

[Risvertasashi]

Pretty sure they said no Geomancy but I could be wrong/misremembering. I definitely think we could use more tanks/healer variety and no more DPS until we get some tanks/healers. We have like 20 DPS classes only 3 healer/tank classes...

Spoiler warning:

But it was namedropped this patch. So I wouldn't rule it out entirely. Probably they just mean, not FFXI style. Kind of like how RDM was changed for FF14, or blue mage would have to be changed for FF14.

[Iscah]

Spoiler warning:

But it was namedropped this patch. So I wouldn't rule it out entirely. Probably they just mean, not FFXI style. Kind of like how RDM was changed for FF14, or blue mage would have to be changed for FF14.

Geomancy was already the focus of the Stormblood AST questline, so it's well established as a class that exists in the world of the game - it just seems to be a cross between conjury (water/earth/wind and healing) and astromancy (thematically 'drawing on earth's power' and able to cast shields and wards). The question is whether it's distinct enough, gameplay wise, to be worthwhile as a playable class.

[Dualgunner]

Pretty sure they said no Geomancy but I could be wrong/misremembering. I definitely think we could use more tanks/healer variety and no more DPS until we get some tanks/healers. We have like 20 DPS classes only 3 healer/tank classes...

I get the hyperbole, but there are only 9 DPS classes. However, let's break something down quickly, because there's something unique to DPS that tanks and healers don't share: sub-roles. These are roles that the game itself splits DPS into. There are caster DPS, ranged DPS (for the purposes of this post I'll call them snipers to differentiate them from casters), and melee DPS. Somebody who likes melee DPS won't necessarily like ranged DPS, so adding MCH in Heavensward did nothing for them, even though a DPS was added for instance.

With that in mind, let's look at all of the roles, we have:
3 Tanks
3 Healers
4 Melee DPS
3 Caster DPS
2 Sniper DPS

Laid out like this, you have just as much flavor to pick from if you wanted to be a healer or a caster (bonus points because SCH/SMN level together). You have less flavor to pick from if you wanted to play a ranged DPS instead of a tank. You have more flavor than anything to pick from if you wanted to go melee.

Of course, you can ask why tanking or healing has no sub-roles like DPS do. Honestly, that's a very good question, but if we look at it from the perspective this game seems to give us, I would posit that's because in FFXIV, tanks and healers are themselves sub-roles of DPS. Hear me out, and mind I speak only within the confines of FFXIV and the paradigms it has set up for itself.

Melee are DPS with specializations of higher natural damage, but with the necessity of being in range of the boss and working around mechanics to remain in range of attack.

Caster DPS are DPS with specialization of high natural damage, with the necessity that they have to remain still while casting, their challenge being finding safe places to stand while mechanics are going off where they can plant down and do damage.

Sniper DPS are DPS with specialization of support; they do less damage than Casters and Melee, but in return they have virtually unrestrained mobility and the ability to support the party through damage buffs and resource management skills.

Tanks are DPS with specialization of aggro manipulation and damage mitigation. In return for doing less damage, they keep the boss off of their squishier counterparts and have less complex rotations.

Healers are DPS with specialization of, well, healing. In return for their ability to restore their party's HP, they do less damage, however have arguably the simplest rotations in the game (though these are also intentional so the healer can perform its primary role of healing).

I can see them working toward getting every role up to 4 choices in the future expansions.

[RitsukoSonoda]

In the long term unless the new tank or healer jobs add something very dynamically different to pull players off being DPS the population ratios of roles will not change outside of the first maybe month or so. The issue with SB was at launch they only added 2 DPS jobs. An extremely large chunk of the playerbase wanted to play and try out the new jobs. This included players that occupied the tank and healer role normally. result the balance shifted further and we saw all the stuff they did to try and get players to at least queue roulettes on non dps roles >.>