SCH needs some nerfs

[Bourne_Endeavor]

We tend to forget here on the boards where we like to have higher level discussions about endgame events, but these sorts of issues don't affect most players. The vast majority of players spend the vast majority of their time not raiding. WHM my be behind in the cutting edge progression meta, but it's perfectly fine in the rest of the game (relatively, lilies still suck no matter what.)

That said, I'd rather see WHM brought up than SCH and AST brought down. WHM has always been the "safe but boring" healer, but as a concept that doesn't play well in the current game design. They need a support gimmick (cards, faeries) rather just a "more heals" gimmick (lilies.) Maybe in 5.0 rework lilies into a party buff mechanic or something.

Quite frankly, healers are overpowered in this game. Bringing WHM is only make content even easier because of how fights are designed. The issue is the developers have a vision for how they intend healers to function which differs substantially from the actual metagame. We simply don't play the way they want hence why despite the removal of Cleric, Yoshida still prattled, telling players to stop expecting healer DPS. Unfortunately, White Mage is trapped in the tug-of-war between concept and execution. How does this effect casual players? Well, casual White Mages ever want to venture into harder content, they'll be bombarded by a meta scene that simply doesn't want them. It's highly discouraging to see static recruitment omitting your preferred job and high end players pointing out the endless flaws it has. Yes, yes, "everything is viable!" People don't care. And while there will always be a meta, each job needs to be competitive. That isn't the case for a lot of them.

Balancing around casual players is why the devs continue to struggle. The only thing that matters for job adjustment is the high end scene because these are the players taking the jobs to their limits. A perfect example of this flawed approach is Astro. I suspect the devs never realized just how much simply giving Malefic III an instant cast would impact their DPS. Why? Casual players are far more likely to not keep their GCD rolling or consistently double weave. It wasn't a problem because they weren't looking at the proper content to see it.

[Brightamethyst]

Quite frankly, healers are overpowered in this game.

Agreed, but that's a failure of game design, not class design. Nerfing SCH and AST wouldn't make WHM better, it would just make everyone equally bad.