What I wish would happen to Healers come Endwalker

[inhaledcorn]

I'll be blunt: I'm not sure the direction the healers are going in is the correct one. There's more identity stripping in an effort to balance the healers further, even though, if nothing happens, AST is still going to be the undisputed best healer for the same reason that SCH was the best healer in HW: The mechanics it has just allows it to excel. Now, we're going to have to pick one healer from column A and one healer from column B. Not to mention, this stripping of healer DPS probably had the opposite effect that SE wanted. I can only assume the reduction of healer DPS skills was to reduce the stress on healers to DPS, having lesser skilled healers feel more comfortable to DPS. However, lesser skilled healers aren't going to DPS regardless, and higher skilled healers feel even more pressured to DPS since a single lost cast of their main DPS skill just hurts so terribly.

So, that being said, what I wish they'd do for healers:

In general:

1) Return one DoT to each healer: Aero III for WHM, a new AoE DoT for AST, and Miasma and Bane for SCH. With an 18s DoT as well as it being AoE, this can feel like healer dps is slightly more active without it being overly complex like a true DPS role. This does mean a bit more for a healer to keep track of, but that's what healers generally want. At a certain point, most healers aren't even paying attention to party health unless they're really screwing the pooch on mechanics.

2) 1.5s cast times with the 2.5 GCD: This seems like a necessity at this point for WHM and SCH. The 1.5s cast time is really what allows AST to be so strong since it can DPS and use oGCDs without that much lost in term of Malefic casts. For WHM, they're expected to heal or clip their DoT before they can use important stuff like Presence of Mind or Assize, and SCH has to use Ruin II or their DoT as well. Ruin II isn't even a SCH spell at this point: it's a holdover from Arcanist. Like, it's kinda bananas that the job that's known for oGCD healing is basically punished for oGCD healing.

3) Piety gains an additional DPS benefit: Right now, Piety is a complete dump stat like Accuracy was before it was changed. Most healers would rather cut their piety down to 0 because it's really not that needed since most healing is done by Piety-less sources. It's mainly a cap on how many Raises you can perform before you're dry now. If Piety had some sort of dps benefit, then maybe my relic book wouldn't feel stronger than the Augmented tome book, which is 15 ilevels higher, btw. Personally, I'd like to see Direct Hit become DPS locked, but incorporate the Direct hit effect into Healer Piety and Tank Tenacity. This makes those stats more valuable since it carries something players like, and all the Tenacity/Piety gear has more of a use.

WHM:

Honestly, outside of what I mentioned in the general area, I don't think WHM really needs a whole lot. The only thing I would really change is how Afflatus Misery works. Instead of it only being usable when it has 3 charges and it being less than 3 Glare casts, have it be usable at any charge and how much the Blood Lily is open determines how many Misery charges you have. Oh, and on top of all that, it's directly equal to a Glare (or Glare II, if we get it) cast. This basically becomes a Triple Cast for WHM. On top of the 1.5s cast times, WHM will be extremely mobile, and that's good for a lot of kiting mechanics that exist in Savage content. Misery might have to be split into a single target version and a multi-target version that's proportional to Holy.

SCH:

Hooo boy. Honestly, if nothing changes about SCH come Endwalker, and SGE is at least competently built, I can't say many people will play SCH. At level 80, I shouldn't feel like I have an incomplete kit. Why can't SCH have a true Cure II equivalent? Or a shield less Succor? Why to I need to use a cooldown that has no other benefit than turning my shield heals into raw heals? It doesn't even make them heal for more or cost less MP. What is even the point other than counteracting Doom mechanics or having to cast a second Succor because you already used Indom? Oh, and let's not even bring up the fact if you, heaven forbid, died. SCH is probably going to need a massive overhaul.

1) Aetherflow, as it exists, is probably going to have to go. Aetherflow used to be a mechanic SCH got to access powerful oGCD healing tools with relatively short cooldowns at the cost of another resource and potential DPS. However, as the Expansions went on and the other healers also gained powerful oGCD tools, Aetherflow now feels like it's a punishment rather than a benefit. SE tried to get rid of Energy Drain at the beginning of the expansion which made Aetherflow virtually pointless and nearly non-functional. In 5.4, they nerfed it as punishment for SCH using it. It's painfully clear that SE does not want SCH to have Energy Drain. Honestly, I'd rather they scrap the whole thing before SCH becomes the next MNK.

2) Greater importance of the Fey Gauge: Right now, you can basically ignore this gauge and lose nearly nothing. It provides a rather weak single target regen and a healing AoE that is so weak and has such a long cooldown, I don't even know why it costs Fey Gauge. I'd like to see every fairy skill cost some fey gauge to use while these fairy skills have their cooldowns either removed or greatly reduced to compensate. It could be charged through Broil casts or Embrace casts if we ditch Aetherflow.

3) Two different fairies again: While I will say I think Selene, as she used to be, was not very good, I don't think making the fairies carbon copies of each other was the right move either. I'd rather see one be a regen fairy (Eos) and one be a shield fairy (Selene). While this will make Eos the stronger fairy 99% of the time, this does give Selene some niche again and not as glamour. Also, if we get rid of Aetherflow, I propose Dissipation (which is also a garbage skill, why does this still exist) becomes Double Summon, where you can bring out the fairy not currently summoned.

Edit: 4) Added effects for shields: So, right now, SCH shields are pretty bad if you don't get a Critlo. Not to mention Deployment is kinda clunky to use because Adloquium has a cast time. If SCH can get a true Physick II, Adloqium can become an instant cast for better use of Deployment. In addition, Emergency Tactics can get a new effect that kind of acts like an AoE Excogitation, but if the shield breaks before it falls off, the power Emergency Tactics/Excogitation will go up. It's not much of an added effect, but it is something that you can plan around using.

AST:

1) Flopping the sects of Collective Unconcious and Celestial Opposition: I think this change would bring the sects more in line with each other, also meaning AST might have to fall back on GCD healing more, which might lower it's pDPS contribution (which is a good thing for such a powerful healer)

2) Return Time Dilation: AST has a larger focus on single-target cards, making this a good skill for that purpose. However, I think if it was changed so that it only affected cards and not anything else, as well as AST being able to target itself in case its alone, it would be more fair.

Note: I don't think we can go back to the old card system like many people want for the simple fact of the matter is: It just took up too much of ASTs job skills. I mean, if we look at how ASTs job skills used to be, 4 out of 6 of the 30-50 skills were dedicated to card management. AST didn't even get it's AoE (Gravity) until 52. And if we look overall, Celestial Opposition, Time Dilation, and Sleeve Draw, as well as the Malefic upgrades left very little room for actual new AST skills. I mean, this is probably the most healing tools AST received at a single time.

[Jaelommiss]

Please no. Healers are already incredibly homogenized. Removing everything the makes their playstyles distinct instead of working to solve the flaws introduced by what little diversity remains will only increase homogeneity.

Not every healer needs identical offensive kits and dots. Not every healer needs identical GCD healing spells. Not every healer needs identical cast times.

One or two good ideas, but they're so densely surrounded in homogenization that I'd stop healing entirely if all of these changes were introduced.

[inhaledcorn]

Please no. Healers are already incredibly homogenized. Removing everything the makes their playstyles distinct instead of working to solve the flaws introduced by what little diversity remains will only increase homogeneity.

Not every healer needs identical offensive kits and dots. Not every healer needs identical GCD healing spells. Not every healer needs identical cast times.

One or two good ideas, but they're so densely surrounded in homogenization that I'd stop healing entirely if all of these changes were introduced.

So, you're saying you're fine with AST being the only one who can comfortably weave oGCDs without clipping? You remember how badly PLD functioned when its stances were on the GCD? The change to PLD's stances had to happen in order for PLD to function at a competent level. Either AST and WHM also get something like Ruin II for weaving or WHM and SCH get the 1.5s cast times, but, either way, these are essential tools that the healers need to function. It's like SCH still not having a Cure II at lv80, and it suffers terribly for it.

Stop calling essential tools homogenization.

[Rongway]

It's like SCH still not having a Cure II at lv80, and it suffers terribly for it.

Cure II potency: 700
Adloquium potency: 300 [base] + 375 [galvanize] = 675
Adloquium relative power: 675/700 ≈ 96.43%

Assuming a WHM and SCH with the same crit multiplier cmult:
Crit Cure II potency: 700 * cmult
Crit Adloquium potency: (300 [base] + 375 [galvanize] + 375 [catalyze]) * cmult = 1050 * cmult
Crit Adloquium relative power: (1050 * cmult) / (700 * cmult) = 150%

To say that SCH doesn't have a Cure II is a bit disingenuous. Adloquium has a high effective potency that is only rendered ineffective if someone needs to be healed from 1 to full immediately; and these cases are typically planned for and can be worked around through effective allocation of Recitation, Emergency Tactics, and Excogitation.

[inhaledcorn]

Cure II potency: 700
Adloquium potency: 300 [base] + 375 [galvanize] = 675
Adloquium relative power: 675/700 ≈ 96.43%

Assuming a WHM and SCH with the same crit multiplier cmult:
Crit Cure II potency: 700 * cmult
Crit Adloquium potency: (300 [base] + 375 [galvanize] + 375 [catalyze]) * cmult = 1050 * cmult
Crit Adloquium relative power: (1050 * cmult) / (700 * cmult) = 150%

To say that SCH doesn't have a Cure II is a bit disingenuous. Adloquium has a high effective potency that is only rendered ineffective if someone needs to be healed from 1 to full immediately; and these cases are typically planned for and can be worked around through effective allocation of Recitation, Emergency Tactics, and Excogitation.

It's also far more expensive than a Cure II and cannot be spammed, unlike a Cure II. It also doesn't work well on someone just revived from death, meaning SCH has to either use Physick, which is terrible, or use a Lustrate, which might cuts into their planned cooldown usage and definitely cuts into their DPS contribution.

And, that's three cooldowns + 2 GCDs what it can take the other two jobs to do with 1 cooldown and a GCD, and this is assuming you even have those cooldowns to use. WHM and AST can use oGCDs to heal, but SCH needs oGCDs to heal. It's a bit odd that the job that's supposed to be a tactician has literally 0 backup plans.

[SieyaM]

Really we are stuck with thinking that the only other thing healers can do is DPS when there is the option of adding support or debuff abilities to their kits. I think SCH would thematically fit with having a few Debuff abilities, or even just bringing back shadowflare would be an excellent start towards more activity for healers.

[Semirhage]

WHM:

Honestly, outside of what I mentioned in the general area, I don't think WHM really needs a whole lot. The only thing I would really change is how Afflatus Misery works. Instead of it only being usable when it has 3 charges and it being less than 3 Glare casts, have it be usable at any charge and how much the Blood Lily is open determines how many Misery charges you have. Oh, and on top of all that, it's directly equal to a Glare (or Glare II, if we get it) cast. This basically becomes a Triple Cast for WHM. On top of the 1.5s cast times, WHM will be extremely mobile, and that's good for a lot of kiting mechanics that exist in Savage content. Misery might have to be split into a single target version and a multi-target version that's proportional to Holy.

I like several of the ideas here, but god I can't contain my eye rolling when I see "WHM doesn't need a lot". Riddle me this. (All three healers are boring for basically the same reasons) -> (lol only two of them need huge reworks and the third one will be totally fun with minimal changes)? I'm not seeing the logic between the steps there.

[Jaelommiss]

So, you're saying you're fine with AST being the only one who can comfortably weave oGCDs without clipping?
Stop calling essential tools homogenization.

No, and I never said that. There are plenty of ways to give all three healers adequate weaving opportunities, but using the same method for all three healers is absolutely homogenization. The fact that this is done for all three casters proves that it is possible. Claiming that all healers MUST use the same design to facilitate weaving can only possibly be supported by being ignorant to the systems already present in the game.

[AnotherPerson]

2) 1.5s cast times with the 2.5 GCD: This seems like a necessity at this point for WHM and SCH. The 1.5s cast time is really what allows AST to be so strong since it can DPS and use oGCDs without that much lost in term of Malefic casts. For WHM, they're expected to heal or clip their DoT before they can use important stuff like Presence of Mind or Assize, and SCH has to use Ruin II or their DoT as well. Ruin II isn't even a SCH spell at this point: it's a holdover from Arcanist. Like, it's kinda bananas that the job that's known for oGCD healing is basically punished for oGCD healing.

We do not need all healers to be homogenized even further where they literally all play the same. I rather they have SCH actually make their faerie skills activate without being on the GCD or oGCD - treat it as an independent pet whose actions can be used without the scholar giving the command because the current oGCD command creates a very long delay for the pet to activate it between Embraces. If we can manually have the faerie hardcast the skill without spending an oGCD or break our GCD, that would be better. It will make it feel like an actual pet rather than a clunky and slow method to get an oGCD heal whose activation timing varies between 1 to 3 seconds after the initial cast. Plus, it'll differentiate the healers - AST may have oGCDs they can use whereas SCH faerie's abilities are subject to a cast timer, but can be cast concurrently with their GCD skills. In this manner, you can control your faerie heals much better without having to clip or have your faerie oGCDs fight for aetherflow oGCD weave slots. I do still agree that they should get some more weave slots though, but it definitely shouldn't be solved by just making every skill have a 1.5 cast time.

3) Piety gains an additional DPS benefit: Right now, Piety is a complete dump stat like Accuracy was before it was changed. Most healers would rather cut their piety down to 0 because it's really not that needed since most healing is done by Piety-less sources. It's mainly a cap on how many Raises you can perform before you're dry now. If Piety had some sort of dps benefit, then maybe my relic book wouldn't feel stronger than the Augmented tome book, which is 15 ilevels higher, btw. Personally, I'd like to see Direct Hit become DPS locked, but incorporate the Direct hit effect into Healer Piety and Tank Tenacity. This makes those stats more valuable since it carries something players like, and all the Tenacity/Piety gear has more of a use.

Yes, but also no. Piety is a stat that people use in prog and adjusted for comfort. No healers cut their piety down to 0 outside of a controlled setting because if you queue up in Duty Finder, you get screwed over by not having enough natural MP regen if the party is new and the healer end up spending a lot of MP to heal mistakes. Ideally, Piety should be adjusted to get a bit more bang for its buck by giving it a slight DPS boost, but simply letting healers stack piety because it's the healer equivalent for DPS materia makes it so we no longer have any MP management left. At that point, you might as well remove the MP bar entirely from healers.

SCH:

Hooo boy. Honestly, if nothing changes about SCH come Endwalker, and SGE is at least competently built, I can't say many people will play SCH. At level 80, I shouldn't feel like I have an incomplete kit. Why can't SCH have a true Cure II equivalent? Or a shield less Succor? Why to I need to use a cooldown that has no other benefit than turning my shield heals into raw heals? It doesn't even make them heal for more or cost less MP. What is even the point other than counteracting Doom mechanics or having to cast a second Succor because you already used Indom? Oh, and let's not even bring up the fact if you, heaven forbid, died. SCH is probably going to need a massive overhaul.

We have a Cure II equivalent called Adloquium, but we aren't supposed to be relying on it so heavily in the first place because we have a plethora of oGCD skills for that instead, which is enough to cover the damage for most content if you're using the skills effectively - that is where the 'tactics' in SCH takes into play. It's not meant to play like WHM who can bank on GCD heals for raw Hp healing when things go wrong. If the damage is that high that you cannot heal everything, then you should be also relying on your cohealer to cover the remaining damage as well. A shield healer really doesn't heal people to full hp, they heal enough to ensure the party survives the next mechanic.

1) Aetherflow, as it exists, is probably going to have to go. Aetherflow used to be a mechanic SCH got to access powerful oGCD healing tools with relatively short cooldowns at the cost of another resource and potential DPS. However, as the Expansions went on and the other healers also gained powerful oGCD tools, Aetherflow now feels like it's a punishment rather than a benefit. SE tried to get rid of Energy Drain at the beginning of the expansion which made Aetherflow virtually pointless and nearly non-functional. In 5.4, they nerfed it as punishment for SCH using it. It's painfully clear that SE does not want SCH to have Energy Drain. Honestly, I'd rather they scrap the whole thing before SCH becomes the next MNK.

2) Greater importance of the Fey Gauge: Right now, you can basically ignore this gauge and lose nearly nothing. It provides a rather weak single target regen and a healing AoE that is so weak and has such a long cooldown, I don't even know why it costs Fey Gauge. I'd like to see every fairy skill cost some fey gauge to use while these fairy skills have their cooldowns either removed or greatly reduced to compensate. It could be charged through Broil casts or Embrace casts if we ditch Aetherflow.

SCH just needs more free GCD weave slots outside of Ruin II that doesn't create a DPS loss to properly use all the oGCDs that move resources around. This can be done in a couple of ways -

1. The SMN treatment - give Ruin II an temporary buff and that replaces Ruin II it into Ruin IV with a stack of Ruination. You can save up for a free oGCD weave slot and hold it until you need it. At the same time, if you spend your stacks inefficiently, you can still use Ruin II to weave, but you would be punished for your own mistake by paying up a DPS cost.
2. Assuming SCH can get more DPS tools, give SCH Instant cast GCD DPS tools that are used in the SCH DPS rotation so they have more free weave windows, but Ruin II would be used for emergencies when those windows aren't up.
3. Energy Drain is decoupled from Aetherflow, Energy Drain is still an oGCD skill but has 3 charges, with a 30 second charge timer. This will enable Ruin II to be used more frequently, unless you blow all your stacks on your burst window - in which case you have to make the choice between whether using Ruin II without Energy Drain is a DPS gain in the next 30 seconds, or you would be able to avoid Ruin II alone by the time you need a weave window again. Essentially, you have to plan your GCDs accordingly after, which fits the 'tactical' part of SCH imo.

I think Aetherflow and Energy Drain should be decoupled while removing the weaker oGCD heals the SCH has in its kit - this is to move Aetherflow's importance a bit higher in heal priority while at the same time removing the weaker oGCD heals that take up a weave slot. Aetherflow is how SCH regains MP, so I think this mechanic should be kept. As for unused stacks, I think Aetherflow should be allowed to stack up to 6 times instead, but each use of Aetherflow only gives 3 stacks. This is to help avoid overcapping excess Aetherflow stacks / be able to utilize Aetherflow stacks for more heavy healing phases and avoid wasting them when they aren't needed. However, if you don't use aetherflow stacks by the time you reach 6 stacks on the third aetherflow window (180 seconds), you would just be overcapping like how WHM overcaps with 3 lilies (90 seconds).
Since Energy Drain would be decoupled, it should either be just a regular oGCD DPS skill with 3 charges that either
1. regenerates 500 MP on hit (ideally, you would have at least 1 charge used on CD like Assize)
2. or remove the MP regeneration and Aetherflow gives 1500 MP every 60 seconds to account for the change.

Heavy agree that Fey Gauge should have more importance - Currently, we either use Fey Gauge once for Fey Blessing (which is really weak AoE Heal every 60 seconds and barely consumes the Gauge), or we use it for a regen tether, except tethering an ally prevents us from using the other faerie oGCDs unless we break the tether - which creates the current oGCD tax for re-tethering. There's also a lot of instances where you could overcap on Fey Gauge due to the way it works. Making the faerie be able to cast these concurrently with our spells would be the best way to go about this since they'll actually be free after.

Alternatively, they could make the Fey Gauge be a resource that the SCH uses that doesn't require the faerie to be out - this resource is accessible during Dissipation to make Dissipation less clunky - you would be able to consume a decent amount of Fey Gauge to activate your version of an oGCD Whispering Dawn (These oGCD skills would share a cooldown with the Faerie's version so while you wouldn't be gatekeeped away from all your oGCDs, you still have to properly manage their usage). In Addition, using Dissipation can also grant some Fey Gauge to guarantee you can at least access one of your faerie's oGCD so you won't feel that powerless if you used it in an unplanned scenario.

[LariaKirin]

So, you're saying you're fine with AST being the only one who can comfortably weave oGCDs without clipping?

A big "No, thanks" from me on the 1.5s cast time. AST can keep it and WHM could use some mobility and weaving tools.
SCH is my favorite and the dynamic of trading potency for weave slots with Ruin II is a very important part of the gameplay.