Which healer to use until Endwalker and Sage?

[Naoki34]

Hello, so with the coming of Endwalker and Yoshi P mentioning it being a full circle sort of thing, I've been thinking of going back to the role I mostly played as back during 2.0, a healer. I plan on being Sage, but I was wondering what healer job would be good to play as in the meantime to both get back into the healer groove as well as get myself ready and prepped for when Sage comes out. I would appreciate advice on what healer to play until Sage.

Play the one you love, it's six months away, Endwalker. There's plenty of time to test them all and make up your own mind.

[Recon1o6]

I dont reccomend any of them, but if I had to, I'd suggest noct ast so you can have a taste before it dies for good

[Grimoire-M]

Scholar because it’s the most engaging to someone familiar with the game but not up to date on the current healer meta. It’ll get you out of any former 2.0 habits pretty quickly given how much it pushes you to be proactive, and based on your level and gear you’re going to be tested a fair amount till you’re about current item level. It’s definitely more fun to learn than the other two comparatively speaking.

[HyoMinPark]

If you want to be a Sage come Endwalker, I would recommend SCH and Nocturnal AST. Shield healers are all about proactive mitigation versus reactive healing, so playing either shield healer in preparation for Sage will give you experience on pre-planning your shielding and being proactive about mitigation. You will have the faerie to juggle with SCH, but other than the buggy pet AI in this game, it’s not a terrible learning curve dealing with Eos/Selene and Seraph. The main issue with the latter is that most content doesn’t have a lot of outgoing damage to warrant using her without blatant overhealing/mitigation. But still worth toying with.

I’ve been taking SCH into level 80 24-mans and EX primals to play with it a bit more, and I’ve had a lot of fun. Does feel really nice to deploy Adlos and prep Consolations to take less damage.

Noct AST isn’t terrible either. It just isn’t as good as its Diurnal counterpart. It will be going away come 6.0, so if you’ve ever been curious about it, now would be the chance to try it out.

[IDontPetLalas]

For what it's worth Noct AST is really not as good as Diurnal AST. It has its uses, if you main AST you should know when you should (or should not) play it. So, if you're in an alliance, there's a good chance, depending upon your co-healer that you won't end up in Noct AST. even in a 4 man, you may end up switching to diurnal, or even switching back and forth.

I think SCH is more challenging than AST under specific conditions - in general- if you die, SCH absolutely SUCKS. I'll let you find out why, really it's the healer that suffers the worst penalties.

I do think that in levelling dungeons, SCH really does force someone to be a proactive shield healer, you'll have the fairy to think about, which will actually help you heal- and Sage won't have that- so there would be an adjustment- but I expect the basic barrier concept would be very similar.

[Ariel_Valmont]

The one you enjoy playing the most.

[Laphicet]

None of them, don't bother with current healers as they're not very fun unless you like carpal tunnel and other RSIs from pressing one button over and over.

If you're insistent on playing one, though. Use either WHM for its ease of use, or use Nocturnal AST since that's being taken from AST and being made into Sage if the trailer is anything to go by.... while still being a 1-button-wonder spam class.

[ty_taurus]

I see people suggesting SCH because it's a barrier healer, but the thing is, that doesn't really mean anything right now. Barriers are near-identical to flat healing in functionality. The only barrier that has any amount of unique attributes that make it different than just healing is Blackest Night, and that's on a tank.

It ultimately depends on what or if they intend to do anything about barriers for healers in 6.0, but if you want to actually learn how to play around barriers, then Dark Knight is your best option.

[IceBlueNinja]

noct ast because if build properly and use correct it can really put some nice migitation for the entire party for more effective and easier than sch with its only 125% succor vs co+helios=for 250% cata is that 15% hope and once u get your one cata and use DT u gotta wait on that horrible 1min+ cd of DT so any additional cata if it even happens become useless while ur waiting on that DT horrible skill cd to come off. co is only 60 secs cool down big difference vs dt 1min+ timer. Di intersect+netrual aspected bene=450% block totally pwns even alqo. noct ast +dirunal netrual sect ast shields and regens all stack to boot, the only thing that do not stack of ast is their cards all their spells stack, enjoy this before square turns us into another sch/sch combination. Shown as you can see in my sig which the regens+shields stack. Finally co = instant cast shield, aspected benefic instant cast shield and light speed + aspected helios also = instant cast. get a old lvl 60 hw or sb 70 duties and enjoy them big bubbles covering your hp while a sch which its mere 125 succor meh and nothing else to give party shield wise not counting alqo + dt until lvl 80 stuff with seraph whom Idk them shields is as just as low as succor.

[Sunhwapark]

It's worth giving them all a try, it would give you a good opportunity to learn more about each individual skillset and how they function in a full-party+ setting.

until lvl 80 stuff with seraph whom Idk them shields is as just as low as succor.

Deployment Tactics is far stronger with Adloqium because the potency is much higher than succor.
Seraph's AOE applies an Adloqium strength shield on everyone in range and can be applied twice during the ~20s summoning window, their single target spamable one is weaker though.
Basically everything is better than having to cast succor, including Sacred Soil.