New Healer Request Next Expansion

[PatronasCharm]

Chemist would definitely bring me back to healing. I made a post a while back in the lvl 70 era on how I would love to see a Chemist operate, and I threw in Primeval Brew (From FFXI as a fun little throwback) not sure if any FFXI fan out there recognizes what that is about though XD.

But Chemist, give it to us SE!

Below is that post I made a while back ago, I need to update it bc it's only lvl 70.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Healer-Concept

[Archwizard]

Chemist would definitely bring me back to healing.

Okay... Why?
What do you find uniquely gripping about Chemist, as a full job, that no existing job can accomplish?

[PatronasCharm]

Okay... Why?
What do you find uniquely gripping about Chemist, as a full job, that no existing job can accomplish?

I'd love to see a healer move away from its traditional magic based healing. Give me something new, unique, that plays in the same role (regardless of it all being flavor text). Give me a cool hand-cannon, remove cast time, on-the-go, no interruptions, etc. I think it would be a neat concept.

Also look at my concept on it. It's a pretty easy read, and I did my best to NOT copy / paste anything related to the other healers. For example, the Chemist will bolster Attributes, rather than giving them an attack buff. But... again, it's all Role Play lol.

[Hysterior]

Seeing how it is going, just remove all the healers and give DPS and tanks the ability to heal. Problem solved.

[Archwizard]

The way I see it with Chemist, if the theory about DNC not being a healer was right because DNC is non-magical, then having CHM be a non-magical healer is unlikely. It wouldn't surprise me if they were a support-oriented ranged job, but an actual healer is more likely to be an actual caster.

[lunar_seraphim]

The way I see it with Chemist, if the theory about DNC not being a healer was right because DNC is non-magical, then having CHM be a non-magical healer is unlikely. It wouldn't surprise me if they were a support-oriented ranged job, but an actual healer is more likely to be an actual caster.

I don't remember them saying Dancer wasn't made into a healer because it is non-magical. Their reasoning was that there were only two physical ranged DPS jobs and they wanted to add another.

[Cyrocco]

A lot of what people are requesting for healer roles aren't necessarily unreasonable, it's just that they're can't function from a standpoint of "Put Chemist in," and that's because most jobs in Final Fantasy don't heal. Before the devs came up with what we have for Scholar, it wouldn't have worked at all. "Put Scholar in" would've been just as unreasonable. In it's original rendition, Scholar could only cast low tier black and white magic, had Scan, and...that's it, the job would've been laughable if it were introduced into XIV as a rudimentary red mage.

Another popular request is Geomancer, and well, that job never even had access to healing to begin with, it was a randomized spell class, a shift that hard may as well be the same as asking Beastmaster to be a healer.

I'm of the mind that if people are going to request healers, they should at least have a preferred design to go with it, doesn't asking for someone else to do all the work seem a little boring?

[PatronasCharm]

A lot of what people are requesting for healer roles aren't necessarily unreasonable, it's just that they're can't function from a standpoint of "Put Chemist in," and that's because most jobs in Final Fantasy don't heal. Before the devs came up with what we have for Scholar, it wouldn't have worked at all. "Put Scholar in" would've been just as unreasonable. In it's original rendition, Scholar could only cast low tier black and white magic, had Scan, and...that's it, the job would've been laughable if it were introduced into XIV as a rudimentary red mage.

Another popular request is Geomancer, and well, that job never even had access to healing to begin with, it was a randomized spell class, a shift that hard may as well be the same as asking Beastmaster to be a healer.

I'm of the mind that if people are going to request healers, they should at least have a preferred design to go with it, doesn't asking for someone else to do all the work seem a little boring?

That is true, I absolutely loved SCH in FFXI, it was a fun healer / DPSer; not the BEST, but it's set of tools made it effective; it's probably why I don't play SCH in FFXIV, bc I loved it so much in FFXI that it's design here is so, idk, just not what I, as a player, envisioned bc it was warped by FFXI's great design. It goes with GEO too, FFXI's GEO was neat too, not revolutionary, but fun nonetheless.

I believe FFXIV could make a fun, unique GEO, that could fit with its current cookie-cutter framework, instead of "Holy", give it "Quake", instead of "Stone," give it "Water," instead of "Aero," give it, "Thunderstorm," and then fill in the gaps with its healing spells.

Back to Chemist, if put some effort by the Dev. team could be made fun, but they'd have to make it simple enough to where it's not a burden when healing.

Imagine having to Brew a powerful potion when a tank gets a tank buster and your instant mega heal is on GDC? Let's say, X-Potion is that OGCD (Benediction / Essential Dignity) move? He'd have to Combined 2 Super Potions to create a Mega Potion, pop the tank with it and hope he's not dead! While the other caster healers just pop a cure spell. But, since the CHM technically has no "cast time" they could fire 3 Super Potions at the tank before a caster can pop a cure.

Idk, this is all for fun! But I think CHM could work really well.

[YusiKha]

I believe FFXIV could make a fun, unique GEO, that could fit with its current cookie-cutter framework, instead of "Holy", give it "Quake", instead of "Stone," give it "Water," instead of "Aero," give it, "Thunderstorm," and then fill in the gaps with its healing spells.

Personally I’d prefer if GEO skills went to CNJ/WHM instead, since geomancy already has deep ties to conjury and could provide WHM with access to shielding spells and maybe return the Elemental themes.

[Archwizard]

I'm of the mind that if people are going to request healers, they should at least have a preferred design to go with it, doesn't asking for someone else to do all the work seem a little boring?

This. Precisely.

My problem with the requests for Chemist aren't because I hate the idea of a potion-based healer or whathaveyou. My problem is that "potion-based healer" is as far as most people get with the idea, and that only providing the aesthetics without a mechanical backing implies a lack of interest in how that affects gameplay. Mix alone can't do it any more than Scan alone would have made Scholar worthwhile here (and SCH didn't even have a "Scan"-like skill until Stormblood).
Just telling me "it's a healer that uses potions and technology instead of magic" doesn't excite me as a player (especially since in terms of gameplay, it will either be magic anyway or end up a support ranged job) -- the actual flow, abilities and impact of the job are what will make it worth playing.

Sure, there's a level of leaving it up to the devs to decide I'm sure, but if these are the same crowds that think the presence of an additional healer will help balance out the others, there should be a little less blind faith and a little more critical consideration.

Personally, this is why I keep saying Necromancer would be an interesting idea; there's so much more to it than wielding scythes or summoning zombies. You could get:

• Drain-based attacks, healing by redistributing life force, and use of HP as an alternate resource to create "battle healer" (attack in order to heal) gameplay
• The ability to give allies variant Undead statuses to increase their survivability (Vampire to leech HP, Ghost to evade attacks, Lich to delay death, etc)
• The power to summon and then sacrifice minions to heal or inflict damage
• Debuffs like Pain (AoE Paralysis?) or Fear/Hysteria to reduce crowd damage output
• Passive bonuses towards resurrection (maybe even take some of that burden off RDM?)
• Soul barriers, "false life" effects, and/or damage/healing inversion for tankbusters
• A potential repository for the dark magical utility skills BLM is apparently forbidden to grab, like Curse, mind control (Zombie!), or even Death (likely an Execution spell)

... any of which could provide a different take on healer gameplay AND change the healing paradigm with regards to our existing healers: WHM as the power healer and green DPS, SCH as the barrier mage and passive healer, AST as the vers healer and damage buffer, NCM as a rezbot for progression and battle healer off it.

Which can make it frustrating to have people turn around and simply say "Chemist!" with no interest in how it plays or what roles it fulfills, simply because the name invokes nostalgia.

Ah, but of course it's not the name, right? They'd be happy with "Salve-maker".
Which, I feel I must note, is quite a confusing attitude when these are often the same crowds who will also ask for Time Mage as a healer, when Astrologian is 14's Time Mage by a new (and dare I say, more appropriate) name.
Or the same crowds who will say "Necromancer isn't a classic FF job" fresh off of Gunbreaker and while pleading for Green Mage or a Plague Doctor.

Personally I’d prefer if GEO skills went to CNJ/WHM instead, since geomancy already has deep ties to conjury and could provide WHM with access to shielding spells and maybe return the Elemental themes.

... Which is unlikely, given the shift WHM has taken towards being primarily Holy-oriented. I believe Yoshi-P has stated in interviews that the intent for WHM from here on out is to distance itself from the elements as much as possible in favor of Holy.

Meanwhile as Patronas has noted, WHM has never had need for spells like Quake or Flood or Tornado because it's primarily a healing job, who have minimal attacks outside of the three staples (filler, DoT, AoE).
It's not only more fitting to put some of the most powerful elemental spells in the lore in the hands of a separate DPS job, but more practical as well from a design and gameplay standpoint since they would have reason to use more than one.

Besides, while Conjurers and Geomancers bear some overlaps in toolkit (enough so to speculate that GEO would have been a branch off CNJ had the devs not regretted branching SCH), within the lore they are quite distinct. While Conjurers of the Twelveswood live in harmony and communion with the Elementals, the Geomancers of Hingashi and Othard instead use their powers to ward off or even subjugate negative spirits.
(The important distinction is in their weapons. CNJ/WHM use staves and wands made of unworked wood that the Elementals have blessed. Geomancers, based on Feng-shui practitioners, use bells so that the ringing can repel evil spirits, hence the "gong" sounds you'll hear as they attack throughout HoH and Swallow's Compass.)

I would argue that to claim GEO can't exist because it shares some abilities with WHM would be like claiming PLD or RDM couldn't exist for the same reasons. They may have similar powers but they are used entirely differently, ie "not as a healer".