New Healer Request Next Expansion

[Ryoutoshi]

Yes, I'm aware next expansion is 2 years out. But I have no idea when they make plans for new jobs so now is as good as any.

I've seen it spoken about for a few years now but I would love a Chemist healer. I thought the Scholar would fill that more tactical feeling role but it now feels more like a Fairy based healer than a shield/buff/debuff healer.

I'd like it if the Chemist felt like a potion/gadget themed job with some form of tie-in with Alchemy crafting. I know the potions, elemental resistances, and status potions, got removed for lack of use and such. But without them I feel like Alchemy is really missing something vital.

Even if people didn't use them it was nice to have. And I liked being able to stock up on and use pots like in other FF games. Status potions made overworld mob fighting more interesting too. Bringing them back for hunt monsters would be really cool and maybe help with the bitting issue with them? And elemental resistances made primal hunting fun for crafted gear usage. If those comeback, maybe limited it to crafted gear so it's a little edge trial runners can use if they care to invest in crafted stuff. I've always liked the defense oriented side of crafting rather than the more damage focused concerns of most people.

If Chemist could help bring potions and features like these back that'd be great. Even if only they could use them.

[ksuyen]

Setting up a cauldron in the dungeon sounds cool. Everyone can click on it to get their healing potions to be used during fight multiple times. Self-healing concept is not new in FF with healing potions easily available.

[Brandedblade]

Setting up a cauldron in the dungeon sounds cool. Everyone can click on it to get their healing potions to be used during fight multiple times. Self-healing concept is not new in FF with healing potions easily available.

They had a similar concept in wow, the Lightwell, and guess what? No one clicked on it. So... yeah

[EpicOverlord85]

Yes, I'm aware next expansion is 2 years out. But I have no idea when they make plans for new jobs so now is as good as any.

I've seen it spoken about for a few years now but I would love a Chemist healer. I thought the Scholar would fill that more tactical feeling role but it now feels more like a Fairy based healer than a shield/buff/debuff healer.

I'd like it if the Chemist felt like a potion/gadget themed job with some form of tie-in with Alchemy crafting. I know the potions, elemental resistances, and status potions, got removed for lack of use and such. But without them I feel like Alchemy is really missing something vital.

Even if people didn't use them it was nice to have. And I liked being able to stock up on and use pots like in other FF games. Status potions made overworld mob fighting more interesting too. Bringing them back for hunt monsters would be really cool and maybe help with the bitting issue with them? And elemental resistances made primal hunting fun for crafted gear usage. If those comeback, maybe limited it to crafted gear so it's a little edge trial runners can use if they care to invest in crafted stuff. I've always liked the defense oriented side of crafting rather than the more damage focused concerns of most people.

If Chemist could help bring potions and features like these back that'd be great. Even if only they could use them.

I honestly want them to fix the current the healers before they add a fourth into the mix.

[Archwizard]

I honestly want them to fix the current the healers before they add a fourth into the mix.

The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Just look at tanks this expansion. The devs decided to add GNB as a fourth tank so they could have an even balance of "preferred offtanks" versus "preferred maintanks" -- and then that launched a rework so every tank could have a hand in either position, partly so you aren't screwed by random queues and partly so nobody feels relegated to one position.

Introducing a fourth healer could similarly lead to a re-examination of the role, just as a rework to the healers we have could create a natural opening for a fourth.

So... they stripped support away from AST so they could give it to a new healer? What’s the point of getting a new healer if instead of adding something new to the healers as a whole we’re just getting the same healers distributed over more jobs? I feel the same about them removing the time mage aspects to AST, and will be annoyed if time mage is the next healer for that reason.

[...]

But for what end? We need balance so that people can play the jobs they want without disadvantaging their team. This reasoning kind of falls apart if people don’t want to play the job. Which is why MCH got a complete rebuild. And why AST needs one, if they’re dead set against reverting their changes. And does that mean that we won’t get a new healer next xpac because they need to spend time on AST? Sooner or later the devs need to bite the bullet and admit that healers need some love, and fix the existing problems WHILE adding a new healer.

Exactly! And that's why I've been pretty disappointed with a lot of the suggestions people have been making for new healers.

Time Mage? We have AST, and the reason we don't have Haste is because who else actually wants it? The only job that ever wanted the Arrow was BLM, that's WHY they made every card The Balance. They still have Gravity and Lightspeed, just reskin Repose as "Stop" for them and half the TIM requests would die overnight.
Geomancer? We have WHM, and to be honest I'd much rather see GEO as a DPS with all the Earth/Wind/Water skills WHM will never have now that it's a Holy specialist.
Plague Doctor? It's like you people weren't paying attention to the SCH storyline. And they literally spread disease to fight.
Same thing with Green Mage, SCH is sort of nebulously defined and could easily just be an affliction-specific healer, on top of Green Mage having been created mostly just as a repository for de/buffs they couldn't figure out where else to put.

I think the only suggestion I've heard that could actually be unique from the existing healers is Chemist/Salve Maker... And that has its own problems!

• Problem the first: The devs already tried it! The fact they could never balance the Mix ability is exactly why they scrapped it to give us AST instead.
• Even if they COULD get Mix to work, everyone just wants it to be friggin' NIN Mudras all over again. Really fudging the definition of "unique" there.
• Ignoring that we already have Alchemist as a crafting job, I'm not terribly excited for the 'unique potential' of a bandaid-and-potion spec healer. If you tell me "extra action button" I will direct you to run Rathalos a few times (or look up the history of WoW's "Lightwell") and see how the layman understands the responsibility of self-healing.
• And frankly, I just think it would be so boring? From an aesthetic standpoint all of the Chemists in FF have looked like any General Goods Vendor you can find in Thanalan, and every other skill would be just pulling another potion bottle out of your behind and lobbing it across the room (or firing it out of whatever substitute gun they come up with). From a gameplay standpoint I haven't heard anyone propose anything BUT Mix to support their position, which as we've established, wasn't functional.

I have to constantly wonder whether the people ASKING for a Chemist actually are interested in PLAYING it, or just want to see another "classic" job represented in raids.

... Which is why I propose adding the Necromancer. Something completely unconventional and out of left field so the devs really have a chance to show their creativity with the job, both in terms of skills and aesthetic. Something that doesn't step on other healers' toes or rip from their skilltree in a way that makes you ask "wait why doesn't WHM have Sacred Soil and SCH have Asylum?"

[Billythepancake]

I honestly want them to fix the current the healers before they add a fourth into the mix.

This 100 times over. SE can't handle the 3 healers they have now, why would we want a 4th one?

[tesni_g]

This 100 times over. SE can't handle the 3 healers they have now, why would we want a 4th one?

The thing is, they could absolutely handle the 3 healers we have now IF THEY WANTED TO.

Asking for a fourth healer AND a serious overhaul of the healing role is a completely reasonable request. A green light for the dev team to spend any time at all on healing would give us some really good quality of life changes next patch. I believe that. But they would actually have to put time into it, which they have chosen not to do. We feel unheard to the point that now we're bickering about which major problem a game should fix.

I want both. An overhaul now (5.x) that gives design space for that new healer in 6.0. It can be done. But it requires resources and I'm not confident that healing will be prioritized alongside more of SAM's minor adjustments.

We're trying to tell you, SE, that we want you to spend more time on our role to fix widespread, recognized problems with gameplay.

I personally am going to stop giving developers a pass by saying "well they historically haven't so they won't. They can't." They can. They could at any point and they have chosen not to and they are continuing to choose not to.

Big overhaul, new healer. For the health of the player community, we need both.

[Hatstand]

The thing is, they could absolutely handle the 3 healers we have now IF THEY WANTED TO.

Asking for a fourth healer AND a serious overhaul of the healing role is a completely reasonable request. A green light for the dev team to spend any time at all on healing would give us some really good quality of life changes next patch. I believe that. But they would actually have to put time into it, which they have chosen not to do. We feel unheard to the point that now we're bickering about which major problem a game should fix.

I want both. An overhaul now (5.x) that gives design space for that new healer in 6.0. It can be done. But it requires resources and I'm not confident that healing will be prioritized alongside more of SAM's minor adjustments.

We're trying to tell you, SE, that we want you to spend more time on our role to fix widespread, recognized problems with gameplay.

I personally am going to stop giving developers a pass by saying "well they historically haven't so they won't. They can't." They can. They could at any point and they have chosen not to and they are continuing to choose not to.

Big overhaul, new healer. For the health of the player community, we need both.

Here here.

[Seraphor]

Technically the healers are more balanced now than they've ever been, DPS output excluded...
People not liking the mechanics of those healers is an entirely different issue.

[Shurrikhan]

Technically the healers are more balanced now than they've ever been, DPS output excluded...
People not liking the mechanics of those healers is an entirely different issue.

No, it's not. The words were "fix" and "handle". That is in no way limited to balance. Gameplay has at least as much to do with the attractiveness of a job as how perfectly tight its balance is.