Every problem with the current iteration of healers.

[DiznypKC]

(part four)

How could this be done?

I am not a game designer, though I am a writer and spend a lot of time reading/engrossed in character development, themes, etc. I've had a lot of spare time lately, and have written a full rework of the White Mage job from level 1-80. I'm not going to share it, but it is the basis of my opinion.

The Lore is the MOST important aspect when designing these jobs. It's almost maddening to see what has happened to them over the years because the story is literally right in front of them. If you just pay attention to the details, you could also easily come up with myriad ways in which these jobs could be reworked/improved and not break the game. But I firmly believe that if one were to delve into the core identity of each healer, a plethora of possibilities becomes open to you.

For example, what we know just from the official guides: (I've put in bold specific phrases.)

White Mage: "White magic, the arcane art of succor, was conceived eras past that the world might know comfort. Alas, man began perverting its powers for self-gain, and by his wickedness brought about the Sixth Umbral catastrophe. Although the art subsequently became forbidden, it is now in the midst of a revival at the hands of the Padjal, chosen of the elementals. Those who would walk the path of the white mage are healers without peer, possessed of the power to deliver comrades from the direst of afflictions—even the icy grip of death itself."

Scholar: "In an age long past, when mankind flourished under the radiance of arcane mastery, the island of Vylbrand was home to a city-state called Nym. Though the history of that age tells of countless wars waged with earth-shattering incantations, it was the brilliant strategic maneuvering of Nym's scholars that allowed their mundane army of mariners to throw back would-be conquerers time and again. These learned men and women defended the freedom of their tiny nation with their unique command over spell-weaving faeries, utilizing the creatures' magicks to heal the wounded and bolster the strength of their allies."

Astrologian: "Ever has man coveted knowledge, and none more so than that of his fate. Thus did he labor to master the skill of foresight—but initial efforts bore little fruit. That is, until he looked to the stars above, which foretell the coming seasons, and learned to read the heavens. Though this gift is known today as astrology, the people of Sharlayan saw fit to not only read the stars, but to write their movements as well. By attuning their aetherial energies to that of constellations, they learned to wield magicks with heretofore unseen properties. Thus was astromancy born—a new form of magick which grants its users power over fate. Employing a star globe and divining deck in their miraculous deeds, fortune always smiles upon these masters of arcana."

[DiznypKC]

(in conclusion)

Right there you have three solid, unique identities. White Mage, master of healing and the elements. Scholar, master tactician bonded to a magic-weilding fairy. Astrologian, fortune teller and master of fate. If that doesn't slap you in the face and make you wonder how the jobs ended up nearly identical...well...I don't know what to say.

I feel as thought I have taken up enough of your time for now. I'd be happy to discuss this more on a different thread meant for it.

[nalol]

if u take that litterally .; then AST with foresight should be the shielder. Usually wards/shields/prevention magic is linked to foresight.

SCH should then buff allies more and at same time .. how do u recreate the strategic maneuvering ? give them lots of tools for the different situations --> which they have. jack of all trades ? now .. a jack of all trades can easily be OP or UP.

WHM is still powerful healer. maybe a way to make them unique it to give a group invuln with ofc long recast. buuuut ... seeing how game is designed, would u really want that on a healer ?

[Lodi]

(in conclusion)

Right there you have three solid, unique identities. White Mage, master of healing and the elements. Scholar, master tactician bonded to a magic-weilding fairy. Astrologian, fortune teller and master of fate. If that doesn't slap you in the face and make you wonder how the jobs ended up nearly identical...well...I don't know what to say.

I feel as thought I have taken up enough of your time for now. I'd be happy to discuss this more on a different thread meant for it.

And how we have WHM the master of... light. And water.
AST which is an unfortune teller because right now it's inferior to WHM in every way and having one in your group only means the run will be slightly longer.
SCH who actually has different heals but the strategic depth of a kiddie pool.

But hey, balance! (not)

[Grimr]

Problem #1: Reduced mana pool. Our mana pools went up naturally over the course of expansion but now you have all the mana in line along with the melee. If anything hlrs should have 15k or more. In regards to other casters 15k. I know red mages are having trouble with mana and the only one not affected atm is black mages. I have no idea about sum.

Problem #2: weak heals. Maybe its because i am currently lvling my hlr but his heals feel weak. Everything from assize to cure 2. This may change with better gear. Not really a fan of the amts. Sometimes i have no prob keeping the tank alive with 6+ mobs other times i do have issues. Medica 2 is 5 secs too short. It should go back up to 20s so i don't have to cast it repeatedly. (Cure 3 range is crap and assize used to do a lot more back in stb)Again a lot of these issues go back to our reduced mana pool.

Problem#3 Shields or lack there of.... I could go on and on yes divine bension is nice at 30s cd though i preferred stone skin.

Problem #4 DPS: It is nice we have that blood lily aoe but i want aero 3 back it was a nice insta cast aoe dot. Now i have to case dia on every single mob to dps. I can only guess these new magic spells have to do with sin eater magic. If we are expected to dps we will need a better mana pool. At times if there are multple mobs on the tank dps takes a back seat to healing.

[Acidblood]

Problem #1: Reduced mana pool. Our mana pools went up naturally over the course of expansion but now you have all the mana in line along with the melee. If anything hlrs should have 15k or more. In regards to other casters 15k. I know red mages are having trouble with mana and the only one not affected atm is black mages. I have no idea about sum.

The cost of spells also used to go up every level, and in percentage terms most spells cost about the same as they used to (in some cases significantly less) ...

However:
- AST lost Ewer, both for themselves and the party.
- SCH Aetherflow is now a fixed 60s instead of (effectively) 45s, and I think Energy Drain does less (percentage wise) then it used to.
- Refresh (physical ranged), Mana Shift and similar party 'MP restore' abilities are no longer a thing.
- Lucid Dreaming (which I think got nerfed on potency to compensate for it's shorter cooldown) is too generic; i.e. while it’s fine for WHM (who also has 45s Assize, Thin Air and a whole bunch of free abilities) it doesn't make up for the losses or costs that other jobs have.

NB. That said, I still think the main motivation behind having a fixed 10K MP is not having to recalculate the BLM rotation every level.

[MPNZ]

if u take that litterally .; then AST with foresight should be the shielder. Usually wards/shields/prevention magic is linked to foresight.

SCH should then buff allies more and at same time .. how do u recreate the strategic maneuvering ? give them lots of tools for the different situations --> which they have. jack of all trades ? now .. a jack of all trades can easily be OP or UP.

WHM is still powerful healer. maybe a way to make them unique it to give a group invuln with ofc long recast. buuuut ... seeing how game is designed, would u really want that on a healer ?

AST: Foresight would be more interesting if it would highlight aoe circle paterns or stuff like Titan's movements on the map 30 seconds ahead, but it would need to create massive affect that could cause latency issues. And, the cards themselves really did fit in with AST's lore and fulfilled that aspect. Though, negating an entire tank buster or stack damage could work in terms of shielding by making divination into a resource stack, or return royal road in the form of that resource stack just to be within AST's theme. But, this is really unlikely as the devs would see this as basically "unfair" or "overpowered", which is why status effects like bind were severely nerfed

SCH: actually, debuffs and spells like "confuse" are way more in line how fairies tend to behave. And, wouldn't being able to control a lot of fairies facilitate a squad like structure work too.

SCH:



New stack mechanic: Fairy deployment
will have four stacks that can be placed on individually targeted players to aid in healing, or for other skills that will be unique to this mechanic. And, yes, you will be able to stack four at a time, and multiple stacks per target players. This will have a recall fairies ability too

• Extra dead: can only be used one stack per player. Creates an arcanima copy of the player, leaving the targeted player at 25% HP & MP. Does not work on death by falling incidents
• Fall save: Stack-Fairy retrieves the silly person who just fell off the edge

Arcanima wickerman: An emergency "the tank has died" utility that binds, interrupt upon summoning, sets it's aggro table to A(or S) for twenty seconds, disperses into aether, and restores 13% of the party's mp

New gauge: battery

• Grants a 1.35% increase to raw dps to the entire party for twelve seconds with a recast timer of eight minutes to re-access the OGCD that will fill the gauge
• Conserve energy: decreases raid dps by 15%. every successful attack form casting player's party will increase battery gauge by 6-8%. Effect will end once gauge is fully charged. Action will be greyed until recast timer is unlocked after cooldown

Basically, these would definitely be inline with "strategic combat" but it's like a total overhaul for like three expac's or something. That whole thread should really be bumped

[Chiami]

[...snip]

[IvoYaridovich]

I feel like, for all 3 healers, they feel fine and fun when healing is required. Its when downtime/low heal requirements hits that they turn into a slow slog where its basically, no thought required. Spamming our 1 damage button while occasionally tapping an appropriate gcd to top off the tank just doesn't feel exciting or engaging. AST gets around this slightly better with the cards, but its still not the greatest. I'm not saying healers need complex damage rotations, but 1 button is just... incredibly dull.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Honestly I feel like each healer actually heals fine. I've played WHM and AST both in every Savage and I didn't feel at a disadvantage at all in either case, I actually felt like AST heals were built better for a raid environment while WHM is better at unplanned healing.

The main difference really is how much is healer has to juggle in-between healing. WHM just has to DPS. AST is expected to DPS, while managing a card system in-between casts and not clipping and for a controller player like me, scrolling through the party list to find the right DPS to throw the card on. It's too much work.
For me it's not that AST is weak, it's simply too hectic to play efficiently enough when I can just grab WHM and DPS normally or SCH and be....well almost perfect.