What are alternative healing options you want to see on a new healer class?

[Allegor]

It's not that WHM has better gcd healing, it's just that - generally speaking* - it uses more gcd healing than the others. Just because lilies are dps neutral [now] doesn't mean they stopped being gcd heals - if anything, they're still technically a dps loss until gaining Misery at lv 74, but I digress

* as in, all forms of content, not just static raiding

[glamazon]

I love this. How many years did it take to get a fourth? How gutted were healing classes? What are the lowest played classes? Groups don’t even need healers w warriors as tanks and paladins. Who wants to mash one button.

[Anhra]

Squeenix cant even design a single good PvE Healer, and People already want a 5th one? Sheesh.

[Silver-Strider]

Until and unless they change Healer Design, there's just no point in a 5th Healer. The Shield/Pure Healer design is meaningless because the overwhelming majority of skills are just copy/paste from one another with only the aesthetics changed, so what would even be the point of adding a whole new job when it's going to be stuck spamming 1 button the whole time with whatever nonsensical gimmick they decide on for it and even there, only AST has a gimmick that they can actually interact with whereas every other healer the gimmick is resource management, if you can even call it that. Lilies, Aetherflow, Addersgal are all just pointless resources that don't really make the jobs more interesting and are little more than a UI element that keeps your overbloated Healing Toolkits from being spammed, as though that's even relevant considering how little healing is actually needed in this game. They could remove all 3 of those systems and just make the skills have CDs and realistically nothing is lost at all, other than maybe what little IQ is actually needed to play healers nowadays.

Do I want an Alchemist Healer that debuffs enemies? A Druid that heals with Plants? A performer that heals thru song and dance? Yes but I don't think that any of those jobs will work with how boring Healing Design is currently.

[Shurrikhan]

It's not that WHM has better gcd healing, it's just that - generally speaking* - it uses more gcd healing than the others. Just because lilies are dps neutral [now] doesn't mean they stopped being gcd heals - if anything, they're still technically a dps loss until gaining Misery at lv 74, but I digress

* as in, all forms of content, not just static raiding

It feels like the easiest way to think about these things are simply

• (A) a given job's throughput profile -- i.e., their combined offensive + curative output curves (i.e., how much healing one can produce before sacrificing any damage, and the slope(s) thereafter by which damage must be sacrificed for further healing), and
  
  
• (B) the given job's CPM profile -- both total CPM and what percentage of (GCD) casts a given spell (or ability) comprises / how varied the job's button-presses are.

In that regard, WHM is now much more alike in category (A) to other healers as of the Misery buffs and actually faintly more varied (to about the consequence of having a second DoT) in category (B), especially in regard to GCD casts. The first has made that patch an improvement for balance, the second (however slight) for gameplay.

[Lazariah]

Until and unless they change Healer Design, there's just no point in a 5th Healer. The Shield/Pure Healer design is meaningless because the overwhelming majority of skills are just copy/paste from one another with only the aesthetics changed, so what would even be the point of adding a whole new job when it's going to be stuck spamming 1 button the whole time with whatever nonsensical gimmick they decide on for it and even there, only AST has a gimmick that they can actually interact with whereas every other healer the gimmick is resource management, if you can even call it that. Lilies, Aetherflow, Addersgal are all just pointless resources that don't really make the jobs more interesting and are little more than a UI element that keeps your overbloated Healing Toolkits from being spammed, as though that's even relevant considering how little healing is actually needed in this game. They could remove all 3 of those systems and just make the skills have CDs and realistically nothing is lost at all, other than maybe what little IQ is actually needed to play healers nowadays.

Do I want an Alchemist Healer that debuffs enemies? A Druid that heals with Plants? A performer that heals thru song and dance? Yes but I don't think that any of those jobs will work with how boring Healing Design is currently.

Agreed, with in addition it is a large part due to encounter design. FFXIV has incredibly predictable damage, none of which is taken constantly therefore the need to heal in many parts of any given fight is simply not there. So what do we do? We press 1 button. It's not fun, nor engaging. But unfortunately they don't want to give us anything else to do in the downtime. Why? I have no idea. But it's made healing really dull.

I'd love for them to actually think about fun when designing the healer classes. I think they did when they redesigned PvP but not for PvE. I hope the feedback they get about healers in PvP pushes them in the right direction. We just want things to be more engaging and fun. It's not that much to ask. I can't even imagine what a 5th healer class would be like until they address the current issues.

[D6Damager]

I would love to see new healers like:

Chemist who throws around potions and gases to heal and buff teammates. Instead of flat dmg like Ast cards they could increase stats or resistances briefly. Uses a short ranged hand grenade as a weapon.

Voodoo Doctor/Bokur who siphons life from enemies while simultaneously healing allies. Has no party buffs but instead applies debuffs to enemies (Incidentally I think this what MCH should have...but that's another post). Uses a blowgun or totem as a weapon.

Chirugeon a straight-up non-magical field medic or surgeon. Applies sutures and bandages to heal and support. Uses an autopsy saw as a melee weapon that inflicts bleeds.