It's time to level a healer but I'm not sure which one to pick!

[Alrin]

WHM is easy to play and i think that it is most comfortable of the three for someone new to healing.

However if you want to try SCH then you definetly should. Its not that much harder, performs well and is not overwhelming with so many buttons to press like it was before. And you are Lalafell which is plus lore wise

[Machi_Machiavelli]

Sch seems easier than whm. Hard to heal when you only slot holy.

[Rakshazi]

I have leveled my tank of choice and a dps of choice and I intend to move on to my healer of choice... except I can't decide on which one. My fc members did strongly recommend Whm but I'm kind of conflicted cause I like the thought of having a slave by my side. Is Scholar really all that bad? Been only hearing bad things about non-Whm this expansion
. As for Ast, I tried playing during HW and I did not really like all the card mechanics.

If you aske me (I'm about to level up healer as well, want to get those role side quests in Crystarium) - I would choose the SCH. 1st of all he have a fairy - plus for me everytime. Love 'em. 2nd If i'm not mistaken, you will recieve an EXp for ARC, so you will simultaniously lvl up the SMN as well. If I'm not mistaken, tho I CAN BE.

[Hydrium]

WHM is kind of the flavor of the month at the moment, they put out great damage and can heal almost solely with ogcds.

AST has historically been the balance job, can play like both SCH and WHM depending on what was needed, cards were gutted recently so it's become nothing more than find who does the most DPS and spam every card on them.

SCH is serviceable, not bad, not great. Gets the jobs done.

[KohakuTribal]

If you haven't healed in previous versions, you're in a good place. A lot of the negativity of the healer camp right now is about what was changed from before. But not all.

WHM is straight forward, strong heals. Always has been. It's the easiest to pick up, IMO. 5.0 has a much better job gauge that's easy to use. They kitted us with some insta-heals and fixed a few weird abilities like Plenary Indulgence. DPS is also very good and Holy spam is as ridiculous as ever. WHM are very happy right now. You wouldn't be wrong to pick it.

SCH negativity is primarily focused on the loss of their DPS package from before. That was the draw for a lot of SCH mains. However, SCH is absolutely still a formidable healer that plays well. It's just not as DPS focused anymore. Plus the new Seraph is pretty rad. Fairy auto-healing makes a lot of dungeons a no-brainer. The fairy can heal most damage without a whole lot of player intervention.

AST negativity is pretty well deserved, IMO. The uniqueness of the card system was steamrollered and made cookie-cutter simple. There's very little decision making anymore. Just flat attack bonuses with short duration, so you're constantly having to throw them out. It keeps you really busy and requires several button presses at times (distracting you from healing and mechanics) and culminates in a pretty lackluster ability with a really long CD. The potencies of AST abilities seem a bit low, especially considering how much else they have to do for cards. Celestial Opposition in particular is pretty meh. It's the only healer with a ranged AOE though. It might be worth waiting to see if this class gets a patch soon...

Otherwise, a big difference between healers is the "type" of healing. WHM have good Regen and restorative healing, while SCH have shields for damage mitigation and the fairy for auto-healing. It's all healing, but they play and feel different. AST have the ability to swap stances and do either Regen or Shields.

[Evanoel]

Anything but AST, it's trash now compared to the other two.