How would you make each healer dps rotation unique?

[Atmaweapon510]

So a common sentiment going around is that healers need a more engaging dps rotation other than spamming 1 spell and 1 DoT. How would you go about differentiating how each healer plays in a way that gives them leeway to pause their rotation in the event they need to heal?

As a bonus given the recent healer-less EX trials, is there a mechanic you could introduce that would allow healer dps to at least match tank dps in the event that there's literally no healing to be done while also not hampering your ability to immediately switch back to casting heals (No cleric stance as it existed)?


Edit: Actually getting a lot of suggestions around here so I may as well just go ahead with mine.

General:

-Add the instant ability Aethercharge as a role action. Aethercharge costs 1000 MP and can only be used while above 90% MP. Aethercharge increases the damage of the next X filler spells by Y potency. Filler spells being Glare/Broil/Holy/etc...

This is a similar concept to Seraph Strike from Bozja, but constrained in a way where you can't accidentally sabotage all of your healing potential. This is basically just an MP dump whenever you aren't casting anything other than filler spells.


White Mage
-Simple builder spender system like how Lilies build into Afflatus Misery. Casts build a gauge which lets you cast another ability.
-Spender comes with a small Medica effect like a GCD Assize.


Scholar
-More DoTs whose timers don't line up so you have to keep conscious track of each different one.
-Easily replaceable ground targeted DoT so you have to keep track of when the boss moves
-DoTs build up to Ruin IV for builder/spender cash out dopamine.



Astrologian
-Make Astrodyne feel more impactful.
-Astrodyne is now a damaging ability that generates 15% MP.
-With 3 of the same or 3 different seals, Astrodyne deals major Single target damage to the target.
-With 2 of the same and 1 different seal, Astrodyne deals major AoE damage around the target. Potency is 70% of the ST version



Sage
-Uses fast burst windows like MCH and RPR. Does not use DoTs like other healers to shift power into this window.
-Phlegma generates Addersting to enable burst window. Eukrasian Dosis consumes Addersting to initiate burst window. Toxicon is now an ogcd ability that's constantly weaved inside of burst window.
-Burst window is very short and increases healing output by virtue of triggering Kardia more often.



Outside of SGE's mini burst windows (that still improve healing output in a roundabout way), all of these are designed to be unobtrusive or complement what healers currently have and give each healer plenty of leeway to drop whatever their doing and spam their version of Medica for when their party just can't stop getting hit by mechanics. The healer that would otherwise be the most penalized, White Mage, even has their dps system spam Medica for them.

[RinaShinomiya]

A simple diet coke BLM rotation for WHM for example. You can make aero work similarly to Thunder, AoE version that doesnt stack, stance change button, stone 1 & water 1 for single target, stone 2 and water 2 for AoE. Make stone and water spells be the same button based on stance to reduce bloat. change free cure to proc off of Water spells and reward a lily. holy can be your foul equivalent. At the same time move lillies down into ARR level range and build their healing kit around it so a WHM's MP economy is mostly used for DPS while lillies give plethora MP-free heals. Yes its still a 1 button rotation but having stuff to micromanage makes it better to play.

As for AST honestly just copying dancer with their RNG feather procs and card themed standard and technical staps sounds most fitting rn but i also toyed with the idea of making a card themed Ninjutsu from NIN.

SCH will be a little difficult since the current iteration of Arcanist doesnt fit SCH gameplay at all. Maybe make it a dot themed class with Bio Miasma etc. Kinda like bard, with tacticts skills that proc off of dots.

[Sylve]

How about instead of turning healers into pseudo DPS jobs, we instead boost the frequency of unavoidable damage.

Second boss in Panda has been absolute blast to heal specifically because pugs fail mechanics regularly along with consistent frequent unavoidable damage.

I barely have the GCDs spare to drop my Dot on the boss, let alone be upset at spamming Dosis.

The only time we healers are "spamming our 1 button" is in groups that never fail mechanics and have good coordination.

We need the content to put our entire healing kit, including GCD heals, to use throughout an entire encounter.
We only get reduced to spamming our single DPS button for any length of time when the fight is fully optimized/overgeared.

[SWB]

What made scholar fun in ARR is they had numerous dots that you weren't just ruin spamming while managing their uptime, so perhaps spell 1 is a spam spell, spell 2,3, and 4 are all on cooldowns perhaps 3, 5, and 7 seconds respectedly and best dps rotation is keeping them all on cd while healing. More og scholar feel

[RinaShinomiya]

How about instead of turning healers into pseudo DPS jobs, we instead boost the frequency of unavoidable damage.

Second boss in Panda has been absolute blast to heal specifically because pugs fail mechanics regularly along with consistent frequent unavoidable damage.

I barely have the GCDs spare to drop my Dot on the boss, let alone be upset at spamming Dosis.

The only time we healers are "spamming our 1 button" is in groups that never fail mechanics and have good coordination.

We need the content to put our entire healing kit, including GCD heals, to use throughout an entire encounter.
We only get reduced to spamming our single DPS button for any length of time when the fight is fully optimized/overgeared.

You're not wrong but at this point they'd have to overhaul the encounterdesign of 8 years worth of content and I just don't see that happening so giving us more to do than just 1 button spamming is the easiest fix they could do rn.

[Anhra]

I would start by removing the entire DPS Kit. DO keep in mind that any Potency mentioned are just estimations on my part.

Now that we have a clean slate, i would inpliment the following Spells for Scholar (do note that i am using FFXI names as a placeholder name for "new" abilities):

Scholar (seperated from Arcanist and now its own Job):
-Aetherflow removed (Healing Spells that require Aetherflow will simply become OGCD Spells with multiple charges) and replaced by "Grimoire". Grimoire will work as follows, using it allows you to change your "stance" towards Light and Dark aspected Skills. This Skill will come at a reasonable CD and will lock you for a limited time towards one stance but can be changed in combat.
- Basic Spell attack: (Light) Broil I-IV low potency, instantcast, has a chance do deal double damage. (Dark) Dark I-IV high potency, long cast time for arround 3 sec, also applies heavy 50% for 20sec.
- Spell #2: (Light) Poison I-IV applies Poison to target for 1 Minute, arround 50 Potency every 3sec. (Dark) Miasma I-IV 150 potency and applies a Dot with 100 Potency/every sec arround Caster which lasts 10sec
- Utility (Light) Sacred Soil, as it is, but grants movement speed instead of HoT. (Dark) Shadowflare deals 50 potency damage every 3sec to all who enter it and applies Heavy 50% (doesnt stack with Dark I-IV)
- Bane: (Light) 200 Potency 3sec cast time, 400 damage aganist Enemies suffering from Heavy (Dark) spreads DoTs/debuffs to nearby targets (only own ones)
- Seraph removed, instead, SCH gets a Skill called Tabula Rasa, which allows Eos to use the next Light aspected Skill or Selene the next Dark aspected Skill, costs 50 Fairy Gauge
- Energy Drain: now grants 100 Fairy Gauge on use. deals 250 Damage instantly and restores Mana, with arround 60-90sec CD
- Virus: Deals arround 100-150 Potency damage for every debuff applies to a enemy (only from SCH), if the target dies to the Skill, it jumps to another nearby target (120-180sec CD), 2,5sec cast time.
- Fey Teleport: 5sec cast time, Switches position with summoned Fairy (dunno how much CD would be fair for this tbh, but id say it should be 60sec)
- Libra: changes your Grimoire into the opposite Element, 2 charges and 60sec CD, instant use.

Note: Eos and Selene should be reworked for this the following way: Eos stays as is, but Selene applies the "low Shield" which Seraph did instead of regular Heals. Also, Selene should grant haste with Fey illumination again and a 150 Potency single target attack that applies Paralyze instead of Whispering Dawn.

Fairies should also become targetable and killable again, and this time with proper Defense values. If Squeenix can design NPC's for Bozja for fates to fight alongside players, they this should be a piece of cake.

[Recon1o6]

Personally output wise id suggest healers should be 20% less than dps, just like tanks being 20% less. So tanks/healers do 40% of the party's damage and dps doing 60% (each individual t/h does 10% each dps does 12%)

As for rotations thats easy.

Sch can be dot mage once more. Broil, miasma, miasma 2, bio, shadowflare, bane, art of slap, fester, energy drain

Whm can have a version of its stolen self buffing. An elemental combo that has water/stone/aero and has a burst that deals light damage.

Astro can have a 2 or 3 part proc system and an action that triggers from playing cards. This action starts off a little mudra esque thing where you read the enemy's fate and do a damaging move to them.

Sage gets a couple of changes to its existing one button dps mechanics, then gets to have more addersting generators and a combo. You can use eukrasia to make something akin to hw/sb dark arts. The effects will be various debuffs on the target.

[Duskane]

for SCH would add another Dot and put fester like ability on the Fae gauge as a cost of 20 and its a 30 second GCD cd with no cast time
and change ruin 2 animation

WHM should have a combo like system for spells somewhat a spiritual successor of Black mage cycling through fire and ice,
cast glare gain buff which lets you cast a stronger version of Stone casting stone will increase strength of next Glare etc etc.
Each successful "combo" would give you one Blood Lilly so you can proc misery through damage and not healing and just take misery off the Lilly gauge,
letting you save two misery similar to BLM polyglot and so it doesn't feel like such a DPS loss using misery and be a nicer movement tool.

[Dianoia]

Give SCH 3 dots + an ability to consume the dots, dealing full potency of all applied dots on a target, during burst phase.

AST needs a 1-2-3 combo with a flashy finisher, all on hard GCDs so as not to mess with cards on oGCDs.

WHM needs a dot + 1-2 combo with some resource mechanic and a finisher.

SGE gets a 1-2-3 combo that gives an Addersgall and a single-target finisher that uses 3 Addersgall.

[Hysterior]

SCH> Dots Galore.
WHM> Pure nuker. More flat DPS skills.
SGE> Small DPS in multiple healing skills (or vice versa) / death by a thousand cuts
AST> DPS buffer (lowest personal DPS of all healers but most team DPS)