Advice on choosing a healer

[Hawklaser]

On the most basic level, Whm should almost always have the best raw healing power, Sch should almost always have the best shields, and Ast should be between the two as it can stance swap between the two. Sch also does have the benefit of having its level tied to SMN.

I play Sch myself. I rather enjoy it as in order to do well and not burn off my mp overly fast I do have to be very proactive. I try and apply my shielding heals just before they are needed to have the shields absorb the damage. So for example, I'll have the boss set as my focus target, and when I see it charging up its tank buster I will try and time it to get and Adlo to go off on the tank just before the tank buster goes off, and follow with a secondary heal depending on how things stand after.

Some of Sch big tools are:
Exocog, a premptive heal that goes off when target hits 50% health, or timer runs out.
Adlo. Decent heal with a shield that doubles on a crit.
Sacred Soil. 10% dmg reduction zone, that just picked up a sweet regen effect this expansion.
The fairy, a pet that helps out with the minor healing.
Lustrate, a large single target instant cast heal and no cool down, with a charge system.
Indomitabilty, Strong Instant cast AoE heal.
Chain Stratagem, Raid crit rate buff on single mob.

It takes a little bit to get used to Sch's aetherflow charges, used for Exocog, Lustrate, Indomitability, and Sacred Soil, but with as strong as each ability is, it does make sense to have some limits on them.

[Mandeville]

Thank you very much for the input, all!

Hopefully they consider diversifying rather than homogenizing next time, makes me a little sad as I usually love healing. I'll try out SCH once I'm caught up on old MSQ, and if nothing else I adore all of the ranged physical classes! =)

[EaMett]

The tldr is:

All healers are more or less the same. AST has the card system, SCH has a bit of a different spread in it's healing toolkit, WHM surprisingly have the more engaging damage dealing currently and are overall the best healer so far this expansion.

Of course these next couple of patches might change things up so you'll have to see.

[gumas]

AST is not in good spot right now, but they still can get the job done it just WHM can do it while having easier time than AST

on the other hand iam sure AST is going to get "fix" so it could end up same as WHM or even better, so nothing wrong with levelling AST too. i just plan to level it to 80 and leave it there until they fix the class.

[TankHunter678]

Until AST gets buffed or the Cards get reverted back/reworked to actually be useful or at bare minimum engaging avoid it. Everything it can do is done better, easier, or made up for by the raw power of the other healers.

[Brandedblade]

OP, all 3 healers are still capable of running content.

AST is currently underfunded in its dps and ogcd healing but it's still more then capable of handling the current content. And hopefully with the eden and eden savage patches they'll at the minimum adjust ast potencies so they arent to far behind.

SCH heals very well but people are too used to the "complexity" the past expansions had for it, at its core level it's still the ogcd/shield healer, it's just that its dps toolkit is more streamlined. It needs some work still but it's still extremely good.

WHM is in it's best spot it has in years,especially once you unlock the Afflatus spells which will significantly smooth out the experience. However, it's also the most straightforward and has no way to increase its party's damage past it's own party damage.

[Duskane]

White mage and Scholar are fine as a starting point

White mage basic somewhat engaging with its strong DPS and strong heals
while Scholar has the fairy helping you out in low levels till your more use to the kit and more so Plan OGCD skllls

Leveling AST it has never been enjoyable till max level for me

[LariaKirin]

All healers will always be viable for any content. Besides, you'll probably end up wanting to play two, maybe all three healers actively.

Once you've seen all at 70+ you'll find your own favorite - so play the one that you want.

My own bias is telling me to suggest SCH, because you also get the benefit of having level 80 SMN.

[IanFrench]

You can level them all and find out what suits you the best. At the moment, there is some serious issue with healer balance. But that will most likely to be adjusted with the next patch. So just try them all and see how you feel.

[Ayer2015]

Present state, I would choose either WHM or SCH. AST feels very rough at the moment.