Healers in the new expansion

[RopeDrink]

People aren't asking for Healers to become DPS in terms of complex rotations or comparable damage numbers - they are saying that if damage is going to remain the most go-to aspect of content (thanks to very low healing requirements) then Square can do better than having said Healers resorting to mashing two damage buttons while waiting around for a moment where they MIGHT need to heal something.

Personally, I'd prefer some more DPS flare rather than piling on more damage to heal. One can make the content of all descriptions somewhat more engaging, the other is just increasing numbers so that you just do slightly less damage and more of the other. I feel sorry for people who tuned into my streams and enjoyed the sight of me glaring things to death, whereas I could go play certain other MMORPGs where Healers actually do have damage rotations, utility buttons AND their own healing buttons/strategies to consider. Riders of Icarus "Priest" is an example of this, as is WoW's Disc Priest, seeing as they both heal through damage. It is one of many ways to make it more engaging than it is, WITHOUT trying to fully convert a Healer into being a DPS that can heal.

I'm fine with WHM - also one of its most aggressive in terms of DPS.

It always was (and likely always will be) a case of 1-5 buttons. In ShB case: that is Dia, Glare, Holy, Afflatus and Assize. I miss AeroII, but it was just another DoT. Instead of considering uptime of two dots, I have more heals to weave between one-button less of damage, and it feels more active now than it ever did despite that one change, what with Asylum now being useful, cheesy fairy wings, ST/AoE lily on top of our standard, revamped MedII not lasting forever, a useful Planery etc. Holy no longer costs obnoxious amounts of MP, thus can spam it for days. As such, the damage may be slightly more brain-dead, yet the other buttons give back (even if they don't do damage and even if you don't need to press them as much as one might think while content remains low-heal).

Sure, it'll always boil down to: AoE? Spam Holy. Not AoE? Spam Glare, but the in-between is better.

[YusiKha]

The optimisation ceiling for healers has become boring as sin now - and the easiest fix to that would be a simple dps rotation, something more akin to tanks’ than our current auto attack + occasional skill NPC rotation.

[Olipopsicle]

Uhh, SCH didn't really lose much in the way of healing when it came uniqueness. We kept the fairy, and all of our healing skills. We really only lost our DPS, which didn't really make us unique.

Lol, Embrace now heals for almost nothing and they removed SIC. Our fairy was basically deleted this expac.

[Olipopsicle]

why ? op classes get well deserved nerfs, im happy playing my whm

So that means you'll be happy when WHM gets hard nerfed then, right?

[Zoveeb]

Hi. I don’t normally post, but as a healer I think I should throw in my two cents. I played AST to 80 and cleared both ex trials. I’ve been leveling SCH but I haven’t played WHM so I can’t say anything about WHM. I agree with a lot of the criticism of the changes to AST and SCH. Personally, I can live with most of them, but I’m not particularly enjoying them either… That’s the thing: Most people seem either angry at the changes or merely tolerant of them. While many of the new abilities are cool and fun, many of the changes feel more like annoyances than improvements.

At the moment my only suggestion is concerning low potency cooldowns, specifically Fey Blessing and Celestial Opposition. I don’t understand why they are on such cooldowns if they heal for so little. They should heal closer to Earthly Star if they are on such a cooldown. I’m considering removing them from my hotbars because such small heals aren’t worth paying attention to the cooldowns.
Celestial Opposition is worse but using Fey Blessing feels equally disappointing in a fight. The sound effects for these two abilities should be the losing horn from the Price is Right.

I don’t really understand the reasoning behind the in-combat requirement for Aetherflow. Again, it feels like an annoyance for no reason, rather than an improvement.

The new card system seems somewhat disappointing. Sure, it seemed like everything was aoe balance before but there were times when we did other things. Using Ewer and Bole from time to time felt like you were doing something to adapt to different situations. It felt more interesting. Personally, I think AST is a healer job, their cards should be part of their healing…
It seems to me, the main reason I prefer AST is the ability to switch stances depending on the presence of another healer. Healing with AST is still fun but the cards at this point feel more like an annoying chore… especially when I feel forced to play 7+ ogcds in 10 seconds when sleeve draw is up…

[galbsadi]

While many of the new abilities are cool and fun, many of the changes feel more like annoyances than improvements.

^ In a nutshell...THIS.

[Dynia]

So that means you'll be happy when WHM gets hard nerfed then, right?

why nerf WHM when is equal to other healers now? you have damage buffs but lower personal dps as astro now, you deal less damage but give that damage to others
WHM have 0 freaking utility at least will deal a bit more damage then other healers

[Random_Guy]

As a scholar main ill say at the very least our numbers are pretty decent (could probably use some tweaking here and there but not much) it's our kit and flow that really sucks at the moment, however from everything I've read and seen through the forums and in game the astros definitely need some number improvements in some areas. To say the classes are even remotely equal at this EXACT moment right now though is kinda crazy though.

If they don't plan on balancing and tweaking a few things before or slightly after raids then the astro mains are definitely on the shortest end of the stick in terms of everything except the slight buff (which honestly isn't that much). to say WHM is overpowered at the moment might be true given the comparison and the focus being mainly on dungeons, although in my personal opinion it seems pretty alright (in my opinion they shouldn't change it too much honestly if at all) there may be a few other classes who may/may not have issue with them doing pretty much the same damage as them, probably only tanks and a few of the low dps classes.


although as an outsider looking in with only a little info to go on it is still oddly satisfying to see a white mage pop that one ability and see everyone die.

[DawnSolaria]

why nerf WHM when is equal to other healers now? you have damage buffs but lower personal dps as astro now, you deal less damage but give that damage to others
WHM have 0 freaking utility at least will deal a bit more damage then other healers

Damn sure hope they turn out equal, cant say for raid but whm feels broken as hell in dungeon both play as whm/sch and as a tank.

Edit: and it seems like the meta is whm/sch with whm outdamaging ast by 2k dps on average, doesnt look like those cards are helping either as fastest clear time parties are all whm/sch combo. Time to buff ast or nerf whm.

[MuseTraveller]

Just tossing my two cents as someone who tried the new AST with an open mind and was okay with the card changes at first.
To put it shot, I don't like it. I hope it gets changed to how AST used to be eventually.

As it is now it just feels way more taxing with little reward. The new skills feel very unrewarding for the huge CD they have. I tried the new card system but it just half baked. You may as well have just 2 cards and the only reason one would keep drawing different ones is the seals which even if you collect all 3 feels like more of a hassle than it's worth. You can't prepare 3 seals before a fight and timing the 3 seals with your raid group's burst window is more stressing than it's worth the 15 seconds dps increase.

I miss Royal Road and getting the 50% + AoE or 200% , it felt way more satisfying.
AST was amazing as it was, it just needed some tweaks maybe. Now it feels really off.
Unfortunately I don't expect to see any significant changes until 6.0 so... there is that. :c