First time healing question..

[Przyjaciel]

For someone that has never healed before is one of the healing classes easier than the others? Or is there one that is more useful? I mainly hear people saying play WHM... I don't hear a lot about the other 2 classes, so I was wondering why that was

[Billythepancake]

WHM is probably the easiest, and the only one that starts at level 1. If you want to play SCH you have to play ACN, a DPS,to level 30 first. Between the 2, just pick one, they don't play much differently at this point, SCH just has a lot more oGCD heals attached to it, and fairy management was gimped so that complexity is gone as well.

For AST, you can try it if you want, it's certainly the prettiest of the 3, but it's also the most difficult ,and least rewarding (according to most) to play.

Honestly, the best advice I can give is try them all out, see if you like one and play it. None of them are that difficult. I also just have an incredible negative bias towards healers atm after the changes from this expansion, so take my opinions with that in mind. The best advice I can give you as any healer, you don't need to heal as much as you think you do, learn to balance DPS and healing, the sooner you do the better off you'll be.

[Mhaeric]

White Mage is definitely the easiest to learn, since almost all of its GCD and oGCD abilities are just direct heals or regens. Scholar has several oGCD that modify healing spells, and most of their healing is done through their oGCD limited resource so they take some practice to be most efficient but are great at healing once learned. Astrologian has cards as a significant part of their oGCD abilities making it very busy work to manage it properly.

All 3 healers are viable despite what some people might say. I personally main SCH (along with RDM) so it's my favourite. I do like playing AST though too. I level WHM but don't really play it since it's too boring for me with just its direct heals.

[einschwartz]

WHM is definitely the most beginner friendly of all healers. Strong heals, straightforward abilities, plentiful of oGCD heals, and great MP management. You may stumble across people who say WHM is boring to play. This is because it have plentiful of skills to get its job done so you can press that 1 dps button over and over again.

I can't say much about SCH since I don't have it leveled yet, but they provide shields on top of healing. It feels great to play when you know the encounter of certain fights so you could pop shields before damage goes off.

AST is a little bit of both where they can choose stances between providing HoTs or Shields. It is the busiest job among the 3 because on top of healing, they have to juggle with cards to buff the party. You have to learn the different card effects when starting out, albeit they are much simpler now compared to previous expansion. Then also have to align seals correctly for the ultimate (6%) party buff.

[Mhaeric]

AST is a little bit of both where they can choose stances between providing HoTs or Shields. It is the busiest job among the 3 because on top of healing, they have to juggle with cards to buff the party. You have to learn the different card effects when starting out, albeit they are much simpler now compared to previous expansion. Then also have to align seals correctly for the ultimate (6%) party buff.

14% on most of the party in 4man or most of the DPS in 8man if you pair it with Sleeve Draw.

[einschwartz]

14% on most of the party in 4man or most of the DPS in 8man if you pair it with Sleeve Draw.

Ah, yes. Thank you for reminding me.
I have stopped playing astro but did enjoy throwing Lady/Lord with Divination myself.

[MPNZ]

Just make sure to balance DPS and healing spell use for the most part, but.... I only tend to use AST & WHM, BTW...

WHM is the template HLR with high-output healing and damage spells with a tendency to leave most players extremely bored

AST is a fortune teller with great mobility and options between either being shield or regen focused. The card mechanics are not very comfortable for controller set-ups right now, and it's basically a weak buff-bot with an attention trap and a frantic playstyle and weak healing. It's mostly just spamming Benefic II frantically on extremely undergeared tanks, atm...

[Tigore]

It's probably unnecessary, but I can only agree that White Mage tends to be the easiest to get into.

White Mage gets mentioned more since the players seem to feel it has the least issues out of the 3. It's not so much that they can't do their job right. All 3 can do good healing when the minor patch buffs came in.

For Scholar, the main complaints are more pertaining to the players feeling bored with the DPS rotation. For the most part, it's Bio then Broil / Ruin spam for single target and just Art of War spam for AoE. White Mage does have equivalent spells, but they also have a Blood Lily system added into the mix at high levels. The Holy AoE also stuns enemies and looks way more flashy than slapping the ground with a small explosion. Art of War is instant cast, but still . . .

For Astrologian, quite a bit of players don't like the new card buff system and prefer the old one. I feel neutral to it since both systems give cards you don't need when Lady Luck decides to troll you. I still have moments of redrawing three times trying to get that last different seal only to convert it to Lord or Lady. There was one time I had to say screw it and just settle with a 4-5% Divination since it's better than 0% for that Main Scenario "final boss". He would have been dead by the time I waited on the next card in 30s.

[Sloprano]

For someone that has never healed before is one of the healing classes easier than the others? Or is there one that is more useful? I mainly hear people saying play WHM... I don't hear a lot about the other 2 classes, so I was wondering why that was

If you're trying out healing first time, would recommend unlocking all three jobs (and conjurer class) and see which one you like for how it plays and feels at that point, the job stories, themes, asthetics and read up on upcoming skills to see which one resonates with you the best. They're all useful for restoring health, minute optimization only comes at cutting-edge content so only worry first about those that you would like to play. Give them all a spin in dungeons and then PotD to see and try out skills up level 60. You might just enjoy more than one of them.

Good luck.