NEW HEALER CLASS IDEA!

[TankHunter678]

Off the top of my head? Ethical Necromancy 101: "It is the natural order for all things to die so that others may live; it is only a matter of when, and how."

A class of death-revering priests who travel around serving last/funerary rites to put the minds of the living at ease, performing seances and Sendings for lingering spirits, consecrating lichyards, slaying Ashkin and grave-defilers, and occasionally performing feats of miraculous healing for those on the very brink ("No, it is not yet your time.") via acts of sacrifice that Conjurers revere all life far too much to dare tread. Specialists in aether transference; those who draw power not from death, but from the entire cycle of life and its natural culmination, draining from the fell living to give life unto the dying just.
The kinds of people who would look at exactly everything that happened in the PotD storyline and go, "This is what not to do. Nybeth Obdilord wanted to pervert the cycle to extend life beyond its natural conclusion, which is a selfish abuse of the power. If we ever catch you doing that, we'll put you to the scythe just like anyone else."

As I said, there's already a lore opening for death priests in Ul'dah with the worshippers of Nald'thal. A god of bartering.
The same city-state descended from the creators of the Trader's Spurn.
So. There's that.

So basically it would be the Diablo style necromancer, which is all about maintaining the balance between life and death and go about doing much of the things you mentioned. They are seen as much as protectors of the realm/world as they are creepy.

[MagiusNecros]

Alright, I'll bite here.

What exactly can we get out of Time Mage, that we can't get out of Astrologian?

Clocks. /10char

Merchant as a job class would also be fun. Make it the first non magic healer.

But that job would need a mechanic to use Gil to fuel your attacks.

[Shykrin]

Alright, I'll bite here.

What exactly can we get out of Time Mage, that we can't get out of Astrologian?

Honestly, I have no idea how Square would implement it but I'm thinking a Time Mage would heal someone by literally turning back time on that person. Tank gets hit by tank buster, Time Mage uses spell to turn back time to retrieve health back. They would have a defensive CD that's a Slow. Something along the lines of the damage still comes in but comes in the form of a DOT rather than one hit. Obviously there's the ability Haste to increase raid wide damage. A Blink ability with the theme the Time Mage stopped time to move to the new spot.

I was throwing out an idea but the nuances of it I would have to leave to people smarter than myself.

[TankHunter678]

Honestly, I have no idea how Square would implement it but I'm thinking a Time Mage would heal someone by literally turning back time on that person. Tank gets hit by tank buster, Time Mage uses spell to turn back time to retrieve health back. They would have a defensive CD that's a Slow. Something along the lines of the damage still comes in but comes in the form of a DOT rather than one hit. Obviously there's the ability Haste to increase raid wide damage. A Blink ability with the theme the Time Mage stopped time to move to the new spot.

I was throwing out an idea but the nuances of it I would have to leave to people smarter than myself.

Reversing damage via time is how AST heals technically. This is also why AST has Lightspeed to all but eliminate cast times, why it had Time Dilation to extend buffs, and why Celestial Opposition used to extend buffs and stun to "stop" enemies for a moment. Not to mention old Arrow which sped a target up.

[ksuyen]

(Possibly) I am thinking the new healer could be Potion Master or Alchemist. You guess it right, they heal by throwing tubes of healing substance to the ground for AoE heals (HoT/big AoE) or injection for single target. Weapon could be darts or crossbow type - and share gears with pysical ranger. They are very utility heavy, they can buff party-wide with smokes for the following enhancement for a short period of time:
1. Reduce elemental damage taken
2. Increase evasion to avoid physical attacks
3. Increase physical attack power
4. Add element damage onto target’s attack
5. Increase magical potency power
6. Temporarily float target to avoid floor aoe damage
7. Increase haste party wide
8. Grants immunity to the next all physical and magical attacks
9. Reduce enmity but tank paty wide
10. Grants immunity to knock-back mechanic
11. Increase physical and magical defense for 30s
12. Reflect most magic used against target back to the attacker
13. Runic that allow target to absorb damage as MP
14. Regen
15. Shell - reduce the chance target being inflicted by status ailments
16. Temporarily reduces MP cost to 0
17. Increases resistance to interruption or staggering

[Seraphor]

Reversing damage via time is how AST heals technically. This is also why AST has Lightspeed to all but eliminate cast times, why it had Time Dilation to extend buffs, and why Celestial Opposition used to extend buffs and stun to "stop" enemies for a moment. Not to mention old Arrow which sped a target up.

Plus they still have Gravity, which is a pretty icon 'time magic'.
Can't imagine a Time Mage without it.

[Archwizard]

They would have a defensive CD that's a Slow.

So, on the one hand I will grant that a Slow effect isn't out of the question, particularly as Scholar previously had one on Shadowflare before its disappearance.

On the other hand, that would make a terrible defensive CD for multiple reasons. For starters, Shadowflare was AoE but only had 5% potency to balance it, so for it to be worth a CD as a defensive tool it would need to be either an AoE with low potency, or high potency and strictly single-target. And if you're counting on it in emergencies, I expect you were thinking the latter.
"Okay, one target, well what about throwing it on the boss?" There we have two more problems. Logistically, the Slow wouldn't prevent the damage, it would only... slow it, so if you intend to cast it before a tankbuster or AoE (as you would for an emergency CD) you'll only buy a second or two to top your targets off before the inevitable hit; its primary value would be in reducing auto-attack damage. More importantly though, most bosses would simply resist a Slow like all other status effect, which is why most debuffs thrown out are intended to increase the target's vulnerability to damage rather than attempt to alter their own. It's far more useful for a crowd of regular mobs who won't resist it and output more attacks worth slowing, which then makes it something of a waste of a CD.

A Blink ability with the theme the Time Mage stopped time to move to the new spot.

On the other hand... why would a healer want that?

Don't get me wrong, I understand the value of a mobility tool in a broad, general sense, particularly for casters -- but you'll find such tools beyond Sprint are more the rarity among casters, since our range tends to eliminate such needs.
BLM has two because its substantial cast times and emphasis on pumping out damage in lieu of utility means it's in the most danger during Bullet Hell phases without one and suffers the greatest performance loss on the move. RDM has two because its standard rotation features a melee phase, so they require a means to close the gap before the GCD and transition between the two roles. All the other casters get is access to instant spells so they can run-and-gun, or at the very least can slide-cast with spells they can pump out faster than the GCD.
So unless we call it a filler tool that comes in place of a healing, damage, or raid utility advancement so you have a second sprint, the only way it could directly benefit the healer's own kit is if they have substantial cast times like BLM, or lack range with certain spells like RDM, either of which would make it bottom tier regardless of how its theoretical healing/damage compares since they would affect a healer's ability to respond.

As for everything else you mentioned... AST could do that easily, and as TankHunter and Seraphor have both pointed out, already has in the past.

[Archwizard]

So basically it would be the Diablo style necromancer, which is all about maintaining the balance between life and death and go about doing much of the things you mentioned. They are seen as much as protectors of the realm/world as they are creepy.

That's one comparison that could be made, yes. I would just as easily throw out "Grave Domain Cleric", but I'm sure plenty of other comparisons could be drawn.

Alternately we could just as easily kill a Lich in the first quest, loot his soul crystal and spend the rest of the time trying to figure out positive applications to the same powers on our own while receiving guidance from their lingering spirit, leading to the healer route.

Point is there's more than one interpretation of Necromancer, and you could very easily take your pick or mash a few together for the lore.

Lore changes. Exceptions are made all the time. It's not for the players to decide when.

[TankHunter678]

So, on the one hand I will grant that a Slow effect isn't out of the question, particularly as Scholar previously had one on Shadowflare before its disappearance.

On the other hand, that would make a terrible defensive CD for multiple reasons. For starters, Shadowflare was AoE but only had 5% potency to balance it, so for it to be worth a CD as a defensive tool it would need to be either an AoE with low potency, or high potency and strictly single-target. And if you're counting on it in emergencies, I expect you were thinking the latter.

I want to point out that the reason why Shadowflare had a weak slow was due to its long duration. Urianger has a Gravity ability that inflicts a 20% Slow and 20% Heavy for 20 seconds on entire mob packs which did all its damage in one hit. If he ever chain casted it then every time the slow was reapplied it would suffer diminishing returns in the form of its duration cut in half stacking each time.

Its a matter more of does it deal damage (if so how much) and does it reapply itself from an active field or if it is a one time cast. A Healer ability which places a Arm's Length debuff "barrier" to slow enemies who hit it (like the old Eye for an Eye did for reducing damage) would not suffer from a low potency.

[odym82]

You could easily think of Necromancy as just really late healing