Easiest Healer to play?

[select20]

I have never healed before in an MMO. I would like to learn. I have been tanking almost exclusively for probably 15 years.

Also, if I could ask two more questions so I don't have to make other posts.

What is the hardest and easiest Tank job to play and/or master?

What is the hardest and easiest DPS job to play and/or master?

Just planning out which jobs i want to finish leveling. There are nights when I feel like playing something challenging, other nights, I just want to chill. I would like to have options depending on how I feel.

Thanks ahead of time for the replies. I'm constantly blown away by how helpful and polite the community is here compared to other mmo's I have played.

[Jaelommiss]

This will depend heavily on what your goals are and what you find challenging.

If you're looking to clear dungeons without deaths as a pure healer then all of them are equally easy. SCH's pet covers a lot of the healing burden, but both AST and WHM have so much free healing that there's no risk of failure.

If you wish to deal moderate damage but still err on the side of caution then I'd go with WHM. It has a diverse set of healing spells that can be spammed and a very simple damage toolkit. AST has superior MP efficiently when played well and a similar set of healing spells, but cards add a tight timings and can be distracting if you're new. SCH has a small set of healing spells and many of its healing abilities (cooldowns) rely on a shared resource. After you're comfortable with SCH's resource management it's the easiest healer to use in dungeons because of its instant cast aoe attack.

Mastering any of the healers will rely on maximizing cooldowns. Every one of them has "free" oGCD healing that can be used to cover the majority of damage if used efficiently. Additionally, you'll need to understand all the tank jobs' defensive cooldowns and how the other healer jobs work. Every healer composition plays slightly differently. Beyond that each healer presents different playstyle challenges.

WHM plays similarly to BLM. Limited mobility, lots of cast bars. You'll need to know what mechanics are coming and preposition to maintain uptime.
AST is very high activity. It's the most mobile of all healers but makes up for that with lots of oGCDs to weave. You'll need to be able to target an ally, use an oGCD, and retarget the boss in under a second if you want to avoid clipping your GCD. There's also a decent amount of double weaving so low latency is a must. Using cards effectively requires an understanding of every other job in the game so that you can maximize burst windows, though this is only a concern in organized groups.
SCH is somewhere in between. It has lots of casting but also has an at-will instant cast for mobility and weaving at the cost of reduced offensive output. More oGCDs than WHM, but doesn't need to target allies like AST. Of the three healers I have the least experience with SCH in endgame content. Hopefully someone else can give a more detailed summary for it.

[Liam_Harper]

WHM for sure is the easiest to play and learn, but still difficult to optimize at high end due to very limited weaving and mobility. But it's a good healer to pick up starting out. SCH requires good heal mapping and AST is high APM and requires positioning and some knowledge of the encounter. AST is a little more rewarding when played well and is currently the best healer in the game at 80.

WAR is definitely the easiest tank by a mile and dps is subjective. You might find a melee clicks better with your tank experience. GNB is probably the hardest tank (but not too difficult) due to extra apm and BLM the most difficult dps to master.

[Absurdity]

If we're talking about the easiest to get into then PLD and WAR are probably on about the same level. They both have rather simple rotations and it's really only when you get into optimization that paladin becomes a completely different beast. Warrior does however turn dungeons into a complete joke at level 76 when you gain Nascent Flash.


Gunbreaker, as already mentioned, has a higher APM due to it's load of oGCDs at level 70+.

Dark Knight feels somewhat lacking in defense since you don't gain access to your low cooldown mitigation in the form of Blackest Night until level 70 and Dark Mind only works on magic damage which doesn't help much for trashmob pulls.

[oblivion238]

After the 5.3 changes, AST is easily the best healer to start off with. At low levels you basically have a free 40s benediction, access to regens before WHM, and infinite mp, which is actually a problem for the other healers as they get their mp tools much later on.

[YakuzaKiryu]

Depends on your own playstyle honestly, we all might have different opinions.

I personally think AST is easiest, but WHM is very easy too, again, depends how you play.

Easiest tank in my opinion: PLD it's very user friendly- most cooldowns, self heals too OP. has 2 very basic rotations from melee combo -> magic combo

Most difficult: either DRK or GNB: both have more complex burst combos when off cooldown, but then again that's up to the player,

Easiest DPS: I'd say they're all equally challenging in their own way: each DPS has a strict DPS rotation that gotta be followed to maximize your DPS. ex: BLM is the easiest class to play, but can also act as a double edge sword and be the most difficult if you dont utilize your toolkit and stay away from icemage. But to answer this honestly: maybe DNC, or RDM/BLM is fairly really easy to follow- realistically all are but they dont have too much weaving as some others.

Most difficult DPS: again, BLM can also be very difficult if you're trapped playing icemage all the time. Other than that, I'd say MNK is pretty up there with SMN (SMN has a lot of double weaving)

Up to honestly each player, but no class is fully difficult once you get practice in! I hope this helps! (:

[select20]

Thanks for all the replies. I had to travel right after making this thread and forgot about it.

Great info though. The Sch looks appealing only for the little pet. I have always had a weakness for pets. I will probably stick to Whm until I really learn the ropes. One this is for sure is you cannot use the 1st sixty levels to gauge your performance with a given class.

[Absurdity]

Thanks for all the replies. I had to travel right after making this thread and forgot about it.

Great info though. The Sch looks appealing only for the little pet. I have always had a weakness for pets. I will probably stick to Whm until I really learn the ropes. One this is for sure is you cannot use the 1st sixty levels to gauge your performance with a given class.

Quick bit of advice in regards to that. If you want to play SCH for the pet...don't.

[select20]

Quick bit of advice in regards to that. If you want to play SCH for the pet...don't.

I will keep that in mind.

[FujikoN]

WHM (White Mage) very good healer and dps also. Easy to play.