A summary of healer issues

[Lethros]

only necessary when the target would take damage that would otherwise kill them

I said in dungeons, and really meant outside bosses. Tanks die if you don't do anything (although with some single pull/low level exceptions). Healing one way or another, that was part of the way I liked to do it then (Heavensward when I started). I didn't mean healing in raids or trials. I don't think I really did any at-level extreme trials until Stormblood, definitely no savage until then, and maybe not even any normal raids

[Deceptus]

Except, it's ogcd, and therefore

1) Mana efficient
2) Does not replace damage output

Stoneskin, on the other hand, if we're being SLIGHTLY honest, was a thing you did at the start of a fight, then forgot existed for the most part and watched while it got cleared by the first thing every boss does, specifically because they were designed to clear stoneskin as their first move.

If you had played at 2.0 you'd know that Stoneskin could be slotted in your extra skills. I used it all the time on PLD as mitigation when the cast time was less than the mechanic cast time. Or at the end of a pull, getting ready for the next group to give my healers some extra breathing room.

Also, it was a flat % so you could put it on FATE mobs to give a HUGE shield (the FF13 event comes to mind, Lightning had a LOT of HP)

As a scholar I used stoneskin a lot in dungeons in battle. I would drop cleric stance, heal the tank, add adloquium and stoneskin, then go back into cleric stance. Stoneskin maybe wasn't the most efficient way, but it was safer and gave extra time between healing. But it's long enough ago that I'm not sure how much I might've needed to heal and how often. I think it was tough for white mage to use stoneskin in battle because of the MP cost, but scholar could manage very well with aetherflow and energy drain. But maybe your idea is also mixed in with that stoneskin II could only be used outside battle (I think?)

Pretty much this. As a SCH in dungeons I would end every pull with an Adlo -> Stoneskin and that gave me plenty of time to set up a Bane Bomb.

[Rosa_Frandlia]

Except, it's ogcd, and therefore

1) Mana efficient
2) Does not replace damage output

Stoneskin, on the other hand, if we're being SLIGHTLY honest, was a thing you did at the start of a fight, then forgot existed for the most part and watched while it got cleared by the first thing every boss does, specifically because they were designed to clear stoneskin as their first move.

You are forgetting, stoneskin was also instacast meaning a weaving tool. Whether it be for Assize, Tetra, or Assylum it gave you a chance to weave when regen or aero didn't need to be recast. A shield and a 600 potency heal is much better than a cure 2 when we had stoneskin. stoneskin 2 was the one to cast either at a start of a fight or a phase transition,

[Ayesafaile]

Summon Seraph is a repackaged Rouse with a whole host of issues. But it looks pretty so it must be good, right?

Edit: Worth mentioning also that pets are still broken in Shadowbringers, double casting their abilities on a frequent basis (not to mention all the Seraph-related ghosting issues). Why did we change from a better system that worked, again?

[RayThrust]

White mage's magic is all pure light based and has moved away from its stone/wind/water effects

the fact that white mages draw magic from the land and themselves in order to cast things.

To be fair that kind of makes sense. Light is basically all the magic that’s left in the First.
And while many complained about WHM mainly just spamming the same spell in SB too, it honestly seemed like they just hated to “throw rocks”.

Unpopular opinion; outside of duty roulettes, but in higher tiered content I actually prefer the new AST cards. Bole might have made healing that one tank in levelling roulette easier, but didn’t do squat anywhere else. Balance and the occasional Ewer was all I really wanted tbh.
I do think SCH “deserved” to be pegged down a notch, but not by the cost of removing so much of their identity and play style that separated them from the other healers.

Great post!
I agree with most of your points, if not all of them, but I think WHM is actually a healer they somehow managed to push in a positive direction.

[Recon1o6]

To be fair that kind of makes sense. Light is basically all the magic that’s left in the First.
...
Great post!
I agree with most of your points, if not all of them, but I think WHM is actually a healer they somehow managed to push in a positive direction.

In regards to light, with respect to the elements, it should only have affected the casting of either wind or stone, not both due to their positions on the elemental wheel

Thank you!
With whm, there's 3 main reasons i can think why everyone plays it.
1. Blood lily, its quite popular for being unique and super strong.
2. The lily mechanic actually functions compared to sb. Its not hard to improve on useless
3. Its the healer kit that plays the smoothest. Sch abilities don't synergise and ast is a nightmare on controller especially with the play button or minor arcana and horoscope is cited as needing qol a lot

[Truen]

The OP (Recon1o6) did our community a real service by listing our concerns in such a clear and easy to read format. Bravo, great post.

[Crushnight]

Unpopular opinion; outside of duty roulettes, but in higher tiered content I actually prefer the new AST cards. Bole might have made healing that one tank in levelling roulette easier, but didn’t do squat anywhere else. Balance and the occasional Ewer was all I really wanted tbh.
I do think SCH “deserved” to be pegged down a notch, but not by the cost of removing so much of their identity and play style that separated them from the other healers.

It's not a unpopular opinion, the card system is divisive though, it only looks like an unpopular opinion due to the general rule, your more likely to be vocal about something when it makes you unhappy. There are plenty of people who are content with how all 3 healers currently are and thus say nothing a lot of the time but there is no way to get that data without mandatory serveys, as someone could be running all content on healers but are unhappy so participation in content is flawed data, thus the only see able data is a lot of complaints about healers.

That said there are major issues with Ast that should've been worked on by now and the fact it doesn't get mentioned at all is abysmal on SE's end. I am of course talking about the controller issues, this should have been allieviated or at least talked about trying to allieviate this issue by now. It is horrendous trying to optimise Ast on controller in raids especially for any length of time especially if you wipe early on. Sleeve Draw needs a rework because I doubt they would touch the targeting system which is where the issue stems from and the reason it didn't bother most people before the time extensions and Royal Road by making all cards mandatory single target they created the 1st job to give me hand cramps and I played sch in ARR/HW/nin in SB gg SE gg.

[JazihStar]

lots of great points here i have been healing (mostly as scholar) since the cleric stance dancing days weirdly kinda miss that madness felt similar to tanks having a tank and dps stance definitely been a crazy rollercoaster of changes over the years

[OvernightSiren]

Agree with all points.

I remember before ShB they said that they were making ShB fights require more healing, so that the loss of our DPS abilities wouldn't be noticed since we'd be healing so much but like....that's not the case. I still spend a lot of the fight DPSing (and rightfully being expected to do so) but the difference is now my DPSing is SO boring. Biolysis...Broil III....Broil III...Broil III. In dungeons it's even worse. As a SCH, having multiple DoTs and Bane really made the job feel very unique to the other healers.

I also agree that the healers are far too homogenized, but while that's true I still think SCH has the least distinct identity of the three. AST still has unique damage buffs with some element of thought to them and WHM continues to have the identity of having the strongest raw heals. What does SCH have that make it unique? Our fairies are watered down to the point that their best use is just waiting for the aoe regen to come off cooldown. Aetherpact is mostly useless and there's no strategy to it--you will ALWAYS use it on the tank. Aside from that the only other "unique" part of SCH's kit is chain stratagem which requires zero thought--you're always going to use it on the boss unless you're in a pinch during a DPS check. I felt like Fey Wind and giving SCH multiple DoTs with bane as well as two distinct fairies really made them feel so much more unique than they are now. And we lost all that with our only new DPS tool being "Art of War" which has a really underwhelming visual compared to Holy and Gravity.