Thread: Healer identity in 5.0

Ironically, I think the PvP healers make a bit more sense from a design/identity perspective, despite the limited moveset/similar core.

For example, PvP AST is the fast and mobile buffing healer, with instant cast times on their single target GCDs. They essentially have something similar to Red Mage's dual cast trait, letting them instant cast a GCD after a hard casted Benefic. Their speed technically makes them the strongest throughput healer. PvP AST doesn't have any shields or any regen, save for drawing lady of crowns through it's job mechanic. Their card buffs, speed/mobility and throughput healing is what they are given in place of shields or on-demand regens. They do still have Disable/Bole for occasional mitigation though. Not having shields actually makes drawing Bole a bit more desirable as well. (Pray for Bole on limit break)?

Given that AST has abilities that involve time manipulation and speed alteration, I think it makes sense thematically as well.

The lower recast time on Lightspeed and the instant cast trait of PvP AST makes it so the developers can comfortably omit certain healing tools on AST's kit to create a more varied feel. AST doesn't require the same regen/shield mechanics that a WHM/SCH has when it can heal so rapidly. I feel as if PvP AST finds a third way when it comes to keeping the party survival potential that each class brings relatively balanced.

PvP WHM is more of an omni-healer rather than a pure healer. They still don't have utility, but when it comes to survival, they can do it all (shields and regen). They're given several very strong oGCDs that they need to keep people alive. The lily mechanic also makes way more sense in PvP. You need those oGCDs ready as much as possible due to having slower GCD heals. 3 Lilies gives a full 50% cooldown reduction. It's a really strong effect compared to the 20% reduction you get in PvE. Some situations leave no choice, but due to the healing intensive nature of PvP, you definitely don't want to pop WHM oGCDs before 3 lilies if you don't have to.

Of course, fighting other players is very different. You're healing way more often in PvP, so things like personal DPS and utility are a bit less important. It's not clear how well they would translate, but the best bet may be a long-form version of the PvP healers for WHM/AST.

Originally Posted by Nujana

AST:
- Focus on the card identity!
- Make Sects influence cards, not healing.
- Make AST the oGCD/highly mobile heal without hots or shields, lightspeed already fits that fantasy. Of course the healing potencies have to be reduced so it's not on par with WHM in that department.

I have some ideas about this

Diurnal Sect:
Grant you the ability to draw offensive arcana to aid your allies.
Under this sect you can only Draw and Redraw Balance, Spear, or Arrow.
Using Minor Arcana will always grant you Lord of Crowns.
Cooldowns: 10 sec? or maybe longer?
Also possible to Sect swap during battle.

Nocturnal Sect:
Grant you the ability to draw defensive arcana to aid your allies.
Under this sect you can only Draw and Redraw Bole, Ewer, or Spire.
Using Minor Arcana will always grant you Lady of Crowns.
Cooldowns: 10 sec? or maybe longer?
Also possible to Sect swap during battle.

With this Sect effect on card, we can minimize the RNG of our cards.
Sleeve Draw will not affected by Sect. You can get all type of cards.
If you want to Redraw after Sleeve Draw, the Redraw is still affected by the Sect.

Also, I prefer to have a similar effect like in PVP for Lady and Lord.
Lady will give small heal + HoT, while Lord will give small damage + DoT.
HoT potency should not be high to prevent it become OP.
Maybe 100 front heal + 100 HoT for 12 sec? So, 500 potency in total which is the same with current Lady potency.

So let's talk about the new card aka Spire.
Since TP will be gone we need a new effect for this card.
Maybe 10% increase in healing magic like Fey Illumination? Or 10% healing magic recieve like Convalescence?
I want AST to have a balance between offensive and defensive Arcana

Originally Posted by Bobsmiaw

I have some ideas about this

Diurnal Sect:
Grant you the ability to draw offensive arcana to aid your allies.
Under this sect you can only Draw and Redraw Balance, Spear, or Arrow.
Using Minor Arcana will always grant you Lord of Crowns.
Cooldowns: 10 sec? or maybe longer?
Also possible to Sect swap during battle.

Nocturnal Sect:
Grant you the ability to draw defensive arcana to aid your allies.
Under this sect you can only Draw and Redraw Bole, Ewer, or Spire.
Using Minor Arcana will always grant you Lady of Crowns.
Cooldowns: 10 sec? or maybe longer?
Also possible to Sect swap during battle.

With this Sect effect on card, we can minimize the RNG of our cards.
Sleeve Draw will not affected by Sect. You can get all type of cards.
If you want to Redraw after Sleeve Draw, the Redraw is still affected by the Sect.

Ha nice !
We would have Diurnal cards deck and Nocturnal cards deck.
I like that.
Hmm, but in that case we need to exchange Royal Road for Spear with Spire or we would have 150% / double duration / double duration for diurnal deck,
and 150% / AOE / AOE for nocturnal deck.
I wonder too what could be the new effect of Spire (Movement speed ? Instant cast ? a kind of Mantra ? ...).

Originally Posted by Levy9

Ironically, I think the PvP healers make a bit more sense from a design/identity perspective, despite the limited moveset/similar core.

For example, PvP AST is the fast and mobile buffing healer, with instant cast times on their single target GCDs. They essentially have something similar to Red Mage's dual cast trait, letting them instant cast a GCD after a hard casted Benefic. Their speed technically makes them the strongest throughput healer. PvP AST doesn't have any shields or any regen, save for drawing lady of crowns through it's job mechanic. Their card buffs, speed/mobility and throughput healing is what they are given in place of shields or on-demand regens. They do still have Disable/Bole for occasional mitigation though. Not having shields actually makes drawing Bole a bit more desirable as well. (Pray for Bole on limit break)?

Given that AST has abilities that involve time manipulation and speed alteration, I think it makes sense thematically as well.

The lower recast time on Lightspeed and the instant cast trait of PvP AST makes it so the developers can comfortably omit certain healing tools on AST's kit to create a more varied feel. AST doesn't require the same regen/shield mechanics that a WHM/SCH has when it can heal so rapidly. I feel as if PvP AST finds a third way when it comes to keeping the party survival potential that each class brings relatively balanced.

100% agree with this, faster cast speed also works perfectly with our tons of cards oGCD.
Maybe also reduce the cast time for all healing spell? like Benefic = 1.5 sec, Benefic 2 = 1.5 sec, and Helios = 2 sec?
However, keep all AST healing spell potency lower by at least 10-20% than WHM.

Some addition: the abridged (instant cast) from Benefic cannot be used to instant cast Ascend to prevent it become OP.
Abridged only work to instant cast Benefic, Benefic 2, and Helios. Not working with MAlefic and Gravity.
Abridged + Benefic = got Abridged again ( same as PVP, you can instant spam Benefic overtime)
Abridged + Benefic 2 = no additional Abridge
Abridged + Helios = no additional Abridge
Maybe also add mp cost reduction when under the effect of Abridged (like 25% mp cost reduction)? since we depend on fast/spamming healing especially in a dungeon?

The main problem from AST will be the Aspected Benefic since we use it on our job quest to heal and provide a barrier.
So, SE cannot delete this spell. They have to give a different effect and healing mechanism for this spell.
On the other hand, I think Aspected Helios can be deleted.

For burst healing, we have Earthly Stars.
For mitigation + regen, we have Collective Unconcious.
So we do not need an additional HoT/Shield from the Aspected spell.

WHM: More elemental spells and more holy-magic. Give them some party buff.
SCH: More fairy skills VS SCH skills but revamp how they are being used and how she reacts. Revamp Selene.
AST: More card related spells (not necessarily buffs but also heals and DPS) but lower draw recast so you spend more time on cards.

Al healers should be able to regen AND shield but they could have separate party buffs that are complementary. DPS output should be similar on all jobs.