I Would Have Preferred The Dev Team Use Resources On A New Healer Than On Blue Mage

[ZODSTER]

Like many members of the community, I too was expecting a brand new healer class. Unfortunately, that’s not happening. I’m still holding out hope that they surprise us and announce a new healer class but that seems unlikely.
I do give credit to the dev team for always trying to give the player base a new experience. We saw this with Blue Mage. But now I’m wondering if the resource to make Blue Mage took away from the resource to make a new healing class. I don’t have any proof or context of the ongoings of the dev team but if this was the case, then I feel like Yoshi and team really dropped the ball.
We didn’t get another healing class, we got Blue Mage but as a limited class, and now we have several people from the community going into Shadowbringers with their hyped completely deflated. I still love this game. And no I’m not going to unsub or participate in the childish healer strike. I just want to communicate that I’m disapointed and I am not walking into Shadowbringers with the same hype as a few months ago.

[SabrinaR]

I'm gonna make a wild guess here that Blue Mage was supposed to be the third job in shadow bringers, but the designers couldn't make their concept work and threw it away as a "limited job", and that dancer was originally supposed to be a healer but got turned into DPS since that role is more popular.

[Tharia]

I'm gonna make a wild guess here that Blue Mage was supposed to be the third job in shadow bringers, but the designers couldn't make their concept work and threw it away as a "limited job", and that dancer was originally supposed to be a healer but got turned into DPS since that role is more popular.

Hmm considering how old some leaks were that predicted certain things I kind of doubt this.

[Auryan]

Like many members of the community, I too was expecting a brand new healer class. Unfortunately, that’s not happening. I’m still holding out hope that they surprise us and announce a new healer class but that seems unlikely.
I do give credit to the dev team for always trying to give the player base a new experience. We saw this with Blue Mage. But now I’m wondering if the resource to make Blue Mage took away from the resource to make a new healing class. I don’t have any proof or context of the ongoings of the dev team but if this was the case, then I feel like Yoshi and team really dropped the ball.
We didn’t get another healing class, we got Blue Mage but as a limited class, and now we have several people from the community going into Shadowbringers with their hyped completely deflated. I still love this game. And no I’m not going to unsub or participate in the childish healer strike. I just want to communicate that I’m disapointed and I am not walking into Shadowbringers with the same hype as a few months ago.

You're right though. There isn't any connection between developing BLU and the adding of another standard healer job. Much more likely is that they didn't want a repeat of what happened in Heavensward. Where all three jobs came out as weak and had to go through different balancing adjustments to make them viable. And to this day, they still haven't reached that goal seeing as how DRK and MCH are often described as the worst in their respective roles.

I feel bad for the people who wanted a new healer, but grasping at straws for a justification probably isn't going to make it any less disappointing. On the bright side though, you do get a new ranged DPS with support in the vein of BRD. And of course a cool-looking, flashy tank in Gunbreaker.

[Daisy]

Call it a stretch but there's always the possibility of them adding a job in a patch instead of expansion, similar to NIN and BLU. That, and boy Yoshida sure drew alot of pointless attention to that hammer. Sort of like he wanted us to notice it. It's only showed up in a handful of games but green mage uses hammers and has a few interesting spells for a healer role. If nothing else, there's next expansion. But yeah, I understand how the hopes of the healers out there have been layed low at the moment.

[Auryan]

Call it a stretch but there's always the possibility of them adding a job in a patch instead of expansion, similar to NIN and BLU. That, and boy Yoshida sure drew alot of pointless attention to that hammer. Sort of like he wanted us to notice it. It's only showed up in a handful of games but green mage uses hammers and has a few interesting spells for a healer role. If nothing else, there's next expansion. But yeah, I understand how the hopes of the healers out there have been layed low at the moment.

I thought it was odd how they were fixating on Gaia's weapon, it seemed like they were alluding to something.
I get the impression that it was a balancing pain in the ass when they added NIN back in the day. So a brand new standard job late into an expansion seems very unlikely. Maybe the hammer is in reference to an existing job being able to wield a hammer now? A reworked WHM will act more like a Cleric. Now that would be surprising.

If anything, I assume a new limited job will be added near the end of the expansion. Perhaps a hammer wielding BST? So many theories, so little time.

[KylePearlsand]

That would be interesting. Classes essentially getting access to a second weapon type. Dancers were said to have throwing weapons but their animations look like they were made with chakram in mind. We know the battle system is getting a(nother) rework so we'll have to wait and see.

[ThunderGodThor]

It would be interesting if they scrap blue mage (keep level 50 progress for those that got that far) and reworked it into a healer for Shadowbringers. Probably too little time left for that. Make it similar to scholar as a dps/heal but with a focus on debuffs. Just an idea.

[Kalise]

That would be interesting. Classes essentially getting access to a second weapon type.

They already tried this. See: CNJ/WHM and THM/BLM wands and shields.

Then they abandoned it.

Call it a stretch but there's always the possibility of them adding a job in a patch instead of expansion, similar to NIN and BLU. That, and boy Yoshida sure drew alot of pointless attention to that hammer. Sort of like he wanted us to notice it. It's only showed up in a handful of games but green mage uses hammers and has a few interesting spells for a healer role. If nothing else, there's next expansion. But yeah, I understand how the hopes of the healers out there have been layed low at the moment.

It's possible but I dunno... Given that they don't much like trying to do any major changes to jobs in patches, I wouldn't put much hope in them releasing a full job in a patch.

As for the Hammer...

So far, the only jobs that have used hammers have been, Warrior, Berserker, Onion Knight, Chocobo Knight, White Mage, Green Mage and Viking.

I don't know about you, but Gaia's hammer looks an awful lot like it has been inspired by some Norse designs. Which could suggest Viking. Other than they likely don't want to add another mDPS...

But who knows... Green Mage could be cool and would fit well with the Viera coming.

Or it could just be that Gaia with her Hammer ends up being important for the Eden storyline for some reason...

[Daralii]

It would be interesting if they scrap blue mage (keep level 50 progress for those that got that far) and reworked it into a healer for Shadowbringers. Probably too little time left for that. Make it similar to scholar as a dps/heal but with a focus on debuffs. Just an idea.

It would take more than 3 months to create a job from what is effectively scratch, yes. They'd have White Wind, two sets, and 3 wands to work with... and that's it.