Next Jobs

[BasicBlake]

I agree with Mirron that Geomancer will be a healer. It’s nice to ponder what it would be like as a caster, sure that’s fair. I think Geomancer as a caster would try to inspire too much from old FF where you have a spell caster based on terrain, and that really doesn’t have a place in this game unfortunately.. Geomancy is a lot more than that and the culture of the game already more aptly reflects the Geomancy of reality- which is divination by the earth. The first thing you must do in the Swallows Compass is dispell a barrier made from Earth, Wind, and Water. Those elements are also relative to Conjury- a healing discipline. At the end of the day, I would not get my hopes up for this job to be a DPS role.

Well I guess it's a good thing that all of the instances that we have Geomancer/Geomancer coded things in this game they aren't basing their casting on terrain then! I am not sure I am drawing the comparison where we are having to break into a temple as "yes, this means healing". And while Conjury is based in healing, why would you then say we need a second healing disciple focusing on those three elements? Do you really think we "need" a SECOND Wind/Water/Earth healer? Healers really just waited 6 years for another.... Wind/Water/Earth healer. There are just wildly better options hinted in game for a healer that isn't just a copy of a different healing class we already have.

I know I am going to be beating a dead horse with a stick here with this but: What in Swallow's Compass heals? Where does Seiryu heal? Where was Ganen known as a healer (I mean they could introduce a katana and bell wielding one so know knows eh)? Why does Kyokohu need you to heal if he is already a healer? Why can't Levava use Geomancy if it's healing? Where do they show any Tengu in the game healing?

We just don't have a single instance of Geomancers actually being a healer, or being a healing discipline.

In regards to Vendalwind:

Class distribution? We have 4 tanks, 3 heals, 4 melee, 3 physical ranged. And with us just getting a physical ranged, I would think it would be a pretty common consensus that we will be getting a caster and a healer with 6.0

[Archwizard]

And let's not forget that just because a job has barrier effects in the lore doesn't mean it will heal.

I mean, the Mhach raid has us undoing barriers made by Black Mages, who incidentally have their own shield ability.

Not to mention barrier healing itself is in a precarious position.

That being said my hopes are with a Chemist/Grenadier for the new healer role cause a lot of interesting mechanics could be used for it.

There's kind of a big reason I listed it as a Ranged DPS instead of a healer. (Aside from it expressly not being a Disciple of Magic.)
But when it comes to Chemist, you have to handle its trademark ability: the Mix command.

You got two big options.

One, is you have Mixing be an on-demand ability that functions as the core of their actions. Mix A+B+C to get a bomb, mix B+C+D to get a heal. It would make for the backbone of a solid rotation.
But if the job is primarily a healer, what if you need to stop a damage Mix to actually... y'know... heal?
Easy solution, either make it purely for damage or purely for support, so there's no crossover or potions blowing up in your face because the situation changed. But if you make it purely for support, you have to deal with a high APM task that other healers can handle with one spell (and they do their damnedest to avoid having to use GCD heals as often as possible).
And if you do it to attack...
Healers don't have rotations, for a reason. Notice how they only get a few essential skills for attacking, with an extra or two cooldowns (or pseudo-cooldowns, like WHM's Lilies)? This is because if they had a "rotation" of any complexity, even as simple as a 3-step combo, they would have to step out of that rotation in order to do their main job - healing. They get the basics so they can put it down and pick it back up at any time; their attacks are just meant to be filler between the moments of actual healing.

The other option, is you have Mix be a series of CDs you only use periodically, like the old NIN Mudras or the old AST Spread. Bear in mind that this is not only derivative and hard to make distinct from those two examples, but can mean several Mix combinations will go avoided or unused. The old AST spread got reworked because players were using all of their tools to try and game exactly one perfect combination. Even NIN already avoids Hyoton or Shuriken Toss, and that's in a damage capacity where its rotation could have been built to maximize use of all options - not a support role where the emphasis is on a few priority tools for select emergency functions. I can't name the last time I used Synastry as an AST, because healers are already drowning in higher priority tools.

Mix just doesn't really work for a healer - which is exactly the conclusion the devs came to when they tried to push CHM back in HW, and led to us getting AST with the remnants of their Mix system.

It would work for a DPS, however. Consider that first option again in the hands of a DPS (since the second is, again, just Mudras): Someone who has the time to consider what to mix, who can get mileage out of multiple concoctions in a row ("Here's a corrosive gel that will make the target vulnerable to my attacks, here's a blasting agent that will make my next hit into a napalm attack, here's a powerful incendiary that will activate the blasting agent..."), and can have a niche in groups through pre-selecting concoctions for powerful opening or post-transition bursts. (I mean if you only attack once every 3 GCDs, that third one is gonna hit like a train. Start mixing when the boss invuls, or when you see an add phase coming... you may as well be casting Death.)

[Seraphor]

There's kind of a big reason I listed it as a Ranged DPS instead of a healer. (Aside from it expressly not being a Disciple of Magic.)
But when it comes to Chemist, you have to handle its trademark ability: the Mix command.

You got two big options.

One, is you have Mixing be an on-demand ability that functions as the core of their actions. Mix A+B+C to get a bomb, mix B+C+D to get a heal. It would make for the backbone of a solid rotation.
But if the job is primarily a healer, what if you need to stop a damage Mix to actually... y'know... heal?
Easy solution, either make it purely for damage or purely for support, so there's no crossover or potions blowing up in your face because the situation changed. But if you make it purely for support, you have to deal with a high APM task that other healers can handle with one spell (and they do their damnedest to avoid having to use GCD heals as often as possible).
And if you do it to attack...
Healers don't have rotations, for a reason. Notice how they only get a few essential skills for attacking, with an extra or two cooldowns (or pseudo-cooldowns, like WHM's Lilies)? This is because if they had a "rotation" of any complexity, even as simple as a 3-step combo, they would have to step out of that rotation in order to do their main job - healing. They get the basics so they can put it down and pick it back up at any time; their attacks are just meant to be filler between the moments of actual healing.

The other option, is you have Mix be a series of CDs you only use periodically, like the old NIN Mudras or the old AST Spread. Bear in mind that this is not only derivative and hard to make distinct from those two examples, but can mean several Mix combinations will go avoided or unused. The old AST spread got reworked because players were using all of their tools to try and game exactly one perfect combination. Even NIN already avoids Hyoton or Shuriken Toss, and that's in a damage capacity where its rotation could have been built to maximize use of all options - not a support role where the emphasis is on a few priority tools for select emergency functions. I can't name the last time I used Synastry as an AST, because healers are already drowning in higher priority tools.

Mix just doesn't really work for a healer - which is exactly the conclusion the devs came to when they tried to push CHM back in HW, and led to us getting AST with the remnants of their Mix system.

It would work for a DPS, however. Consider that first option again in the hands of a DPS (since the second is, again, just Mudras): Someone who has the time to consider what to mix, who can get mileage out of multiple concoctions in a row ("Here's a corrosive gel that will make the target vulnerable to my attacks, here's a blasting agent that will make my next hit into a napalm attack, here's a powerful incendiary that will activate the blasting agent..."), and can have a niche in groups through pre-selecting concoctions for powerful opening or post-transition bursts. (I mean if you only attack once every 3 GCDs, that third one is gonna hit like a train. Start mixing when the boss invuls, or when you see an add phase coming... you may as well be casting Death.)

Back in HW, it's clear that they were entertaining the idea of Mix being used for various different effects, seeing as that's what AST ending up doing with it's cards.
However, they've since done a u-turn on that healer stance by removing all of those card effects.

This is the problem I see with all of these Chemist ideas lately, they keep using the Mix mechanic for various different buffs, debuffs and DPS skills. That isn't going to work and isn't going to happen.

However, there's plenty of scope for a Mix like mechanic to give us a new and unique healing mechanic, with absolutely nothing to do with buffs or debuffs.
This is the concept I've put in my Chemist idea, linked in my sig.
Essentially, you use oGCD skills to combine three different qualities on the job gauge, these are then applied to your 'special' heal (think Aspected Benefic/Aldoquium)
Use a Regen mix, your next heal has a regen, use a Shield mix, your next heal as a shield, use a potency mix and your next heal has a higher potency, use both and the heal has both a Regen and a Shield.
This is essentially combining the ability AST has to use either Regens or Shields, with the concept of SCH's Emergency Tactics, an oGCD that modifies their special heal Adloquium.

This would create a core signature healing kit that is unique, so not just another WHM clone.
It breaks down the Regen/Shield dichotomy which frankly has to happen if we're to get any new healer. (combine this with giving WHM a party shield, SCH an extra regen and making AST's CO do the opposite of the stance it's in)
And I can't see this mechanic fitting any more perfectly that it does for Chemist, it's literally forming combinations of qualities, it is still in all respects a 'Mix' mechanic.

I also think Chemist has to be a healer if we're to get it. It's the only other job/class besides WHM that has actually been a healer canonically.
Time Mage and Astrologer weren't healers before, and neither was Scholar, just as the only canon tank class before was Paladin.

[BasicBlake]

Back in HW, it's clear that they were entertaining the idea of Mix being used for various different effects, seeing as that's what AST ending up doing with it's cards.
However, they've since done a u-turn on that healer stance by removing all of those card effects.

This is the problem I see with all of these Chemist ideas lately, they keep using the Mix mechanic for various different buffs, debuffs and DPS skills. That isn't going to work and isn't going to happen.

However, there's plenty of scope for a Mix like mechanic to give us a new and unique healing mechanic, with absolutely nothing to do with buffs or debuffs.
This is the concept I've put in my Chemist idea, linked in my sig.
Essentially, you use oGCD skills to combine three different qualities on the job gauge, these are then applied to your 'special' heal (think Aspected Benefic/Aldoquium)
Use a Regen mix, your next heal has a regen, use a Shield mix, your next heal as a shield, use a potency mix and your next heal has a higher potency, use both and the heal has both a Regen and a Shield.
This is essentially combining the ability AST has to use either Regens or Shields, with the concept of SCH's Emergency Tactics, an oGCD that modifies their special heal Adloquium.

This would create a core signature healing kit that is unique, so not just another WHM clone.
It breaks down the Regen/Shield dichotomy which frankly has to happen if we're to get any new healer. (combine this with giving WHM a party shield, SCH an extra regen and making AST's CO do the opposite of the stance it's in)
And I can't see this mechanic fitting any more perfectly that it does for Chemist, it's literally forming combinations of qualities, it is still in all respects a 'Mix' mechanic.

I also think Chemist has to be a healer if we're to get it. It's the only other job/class besides WHM that has actually been a healer canonically.
Time Mage and Astrologer weren't healers before, and neither was Scholar, just as the only canon tank class before was Paladin.

This is why I am convinced we are going to get Chemist or a Chemist trope come 6.0 as a healer. It's been shown as an actual healer in previous games, it doesn't step on any toes thematically (This is very important to the dev team).

Breaking down the Regen/Shield split I think is a top priority when it comes to a new healer. Which baffles my mind when people want Geomancer to be a healer when it shares similarities to white mage and people are all "B A R R I E R". So you got another white mage scholar combo, congrats healers, can't wait to watch you guys complain for the next 6 year until another healer is released. (So you guys get another whm/sch combo and you have reduced geomancer to a 3 spell whammy for dps, sounds fantastic......)

Also, the Dev team has been very good about implementing things that did not work out at the time. Samurai melee was pushed back but ultimately released, Viera was pushed back from HW and now we have them, Chemist was supposed to come with HW but was pushed back. And then finally we were supposed to get an Eastern Caster with Stormblood that they couldn't get right in time (But we sure did get a lot of eastern caster themes in the whole expansion).

I will be very interested to see if we get to see Bajsaljen in action with the Bozjan Front, or if not him, other medics he has trained.

[Vendalwind]

:

Class distribution? We have 4 tanks, 3 heals, 4 melee, 3 physical ranged. And with us just getting a physical ranged, I would think it would be a pretty common consensus that we will be getting a caster and a healer with 6.0

This is a whole can of worms thats been opened many times in many different threads. Read through some of my old posts via my profile if you want to find some of my thoughts on role distribution. In short tho because role classifications have changed over time and raid design role to slot balance is currently not the historical norm it is a gross oversimplification to conclude a new caster is next in the form you just used. Healer tho is a given both by historical role distribution, current role classification, and raid slot design/distribution.

[BasicBlake]

This is a whole can of worms thats been opened many times in many different threads. Read through some of my old posts via my profile if you want to find some of my thoughts on role distribution. In short tho because role classifications have changed over time and raid design role to slot balance is currently not the historical norm it is a gross oversimplification to conclude a new caster is next in the form you just used. Healer tho is a given both by historical role distribution, current role classification, and raid slot design/distribution.

I don’t care enough to go search it up to be honest because we won’t get anywhere in the argument when it comes to it being “roles have changed before” vs “the game website lists them as so”. So we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one!