Obscure Classes

[Fukuro]

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With all of that out of the way, I would love to see jobs that break stereotypes commonly associated with fantasy roles. Psychic is a great example of this as a caster DPS or a healer that isn't quite a traditional spellcaster. Grenadier as a healer, or something like Chemist using a more tech-themed means of providing heals as another example. How Dancer will be implemented is a step in the right direction, but I think this is probably the best way we could get a puppet-themed job (as in not FFXI's Puppetmaster). While I'm curious about Gunbreaker, unless the tank stat changes of Stormblood are reversed, the only tanks we can realistically get are the stereotypical heavy-armored tanks, meaning that we'll likely wind up with more heavy-armored jobs new to the series; that's not a bad thing.

i can't agree more on this. i'd love to have a non magical job like chemist as healer, going so far letting them use daggers or guns as weapons. that would be so nuts!!!!
i'm sure if healers wouldn't be so darn similar to each other, they'd be more popular in general. i don't feel as big of a difference between scholar/astro/whm compared to blm and brd for example.
but i also don't see them doing anything against this in the near future, since they always bring up the same excuses. i know the healer jobs are difficult to balance - but then finally do something about it. they already told us exactly the same in 4.0, and i'll expect them to do the same for 6.0

[Kazrah]

i'm sure if healers wouldn't be so darn similar to each other, they'd be more popular in general. i don't feel as big of a difference between scholar/astro/whm compared to blm and brd for example.

While that is a bit of a faulty comparison given that Black Mage and Bard are two completely different types of DPS, healers ultimately need a particular base kit of spells in order to function as healers in this game. Yes, some things can be changed or tweaked here and there, but they still need to have the basic healing kit or else they tend to fail at their role.

On the other hand, since there won't be a new healer, this may give the job devs a chance to test the waters a bit on what they can and can't do with healers. Any information gained from what they do with healers for 5.0 can go into whatever the next healer will be.

[Fukuro]

While that is a bit of a faulty comparison given that Black Mage and Bard are two completely different types of DPS, healers ultimately need a particular base kit of spells in order to function as healers in this game. Yes, some things can be changed or tweaked here and there, but they still need to have the basic healing kit or else they tend to fail at their role.

Why is this a faulty comparison? Yea they are completly different types of dps, it's exactly that- healer roles are in need for variation - even when u compare the caster dps roles, redmage and black mage feel and play much more different. there are tons of other mmo's doing it already. Maybe rework healers into def/off healers for example? just make them a tiny bit more interesting. the healer roles just feel like a copy past of each other.

[ADVSS]

Why is this a faulty comparison? Yea they are completly different types of dps, it's exactly that- healer roles are in need for variation - even when u compare the caster dps roles, redmage and black mage feel and play much more different. there are tons of other mmo's doing it already. Maybe rework healers into def/off healers for example? just make them a tiny bit more interesting. the healer roles just feel like a copy past of each other.

I mean if all it takes to balance healers is to go "main healer/off healer" just like with tanks, which will probably be what happens. Not even joking. But yeah most definitely yes. One thing before these new changes, was alot of want for a TP based healer, namely chemist in the idea that they didnt have to rely on magic, but TP. Being able to perform as well, but using a different resource. Now that TP will be gone, well IDK. Was a missed opportunity imo

[Kazrah]

Why is this a faulty comparison? Yea they are completly different types of dps, it's exactly that- healer roles are in need for variation - even when u compare the caster dps roles, redmage and black mage feel and play much more different. there are tons of other mmo's doing it already. Maybe rework healers into def/off healers for example? just make them a tiny bit more interesting. the healer roles just feel like a copy past of each other.

DPS need far less mandatory things to be effective at their role. They just need things that do damage or things that briefly make what damage they're doing better. With that, you can get far more variation visually between each DPS role, while having more limited variation across all DPS roles. Ultimately, the end result is at least one damage type in each role: the handgun (red mage, dragoon, dancer in ShB), the machine gun (summoner, monk/ninja, bard), and the shotgun (black mage, samurai, machinist). So trying to compare Black Mage to Bard isn't so much apples-to-apples so much as apples-to-duran in that they're both fruit, but that's all they have in common.

Meanwhile, healers have a lot more things they need to be mandatory like....

a basic single-target heal (Cure, Physic, Benefic)
a basic aoe heal (Medica, Succor, Helios)
a strong single-target heal (Cure 2, Adloquium, Benefic 2)
a strong aoe heal (Medica 2, Indomitability, Aspected Helios)
an offhand heal (Regen, Embrace, Aspected Benefic)
an instant heal (Tetragrammaton, Lustrate, Essential Dignity)
a cheap aoe effect (Asylum, Sacred Soil, Earthly Star)
a basic damage spell (Stone, Ruin/Broil, Malefic)
a secondary damage spell (Aero, Bio/Miasma, Combust)
a basic damage aoe (Holy, Miasma 2, Gravity)
a raise (Raise, Resurrection, Ascend)
an excluse MP generator (Assize, Aetherflow, Ewer card)
a general cooldown (Presence of Mind, Spur, Lightspeed)

a general healing theme (HoTs, shields, alternation) and a supplementary feature (raw healing, extra damage, card system)

Yes, healers are very similar, but they need all those types of spells and abilities in order to function at higher levels. However, you can still get different playstyles, and good healer mains will never play all healers the exact same way despite how much of the healer toolkit is mandatory.