Fixing Every Healer Job

[SirShady]

I will never not be confused by these healer forum AST/SCH/SGE main screeds that spend paragraphs going on and on and on about how dreadfully boring mashing one button over and over again for an entire encounter is, what a wretched awful gameplay experience it is, how it's the worst design in the MMO genre.

And then conclude with "so that's why the 1 button rotation is perfect for WHM."

Quite simply, it's because I believe Square Enix is going to keep at least one healer class at that simple baseline rotation. There needs to be one entry level healer that anyone can pick up and play through the MSQ with. White Mage, as the first and most basic healer, is that job. A second and third damage button could be added just for the sake of having a damage combo, but I don't see them doing that (not that I see them doing any of these suggestions), so instead I suggest additional support options that could be used for a DPS increase instead. However, as Silver pointed out to me, my Afflatus Inspiratione has problems of its own with it basically invalidating lilies as a healing resource, so I'll have to think it through again. I'm a White Mage main too. I play all healers.

I'd also like to point out that the other jobs changes don't give them strict combos like other jobs either, otherwise you could just do that for every healer job and give them a 1-2-3 easy rotation. Scholar has DoTs, a mini-fester, and enhanced versions of broil/art of war, Astro has a machine gun mode that ramps up by rotating through two buttons and an OGCD that is supposed to be timed for when their DoT falls off, and Sage rotates through two different Dosis combos depending on if they need more damage or more heals and gets more toxicon use out of their kit. I find these are all more interesting and nuanced ways to get value out of their kits than a simple 1-2-3 combo, but honestly if White Mage is the "basic" healer, maybe it should get a sweet and simple combo with no strings attached... Huh. Honestly that might just work better.

Edit: Made some updates I think you'd like better! Gave them a basic 1-2-3 combo. The combo and Holy II now reduce Thorn's (renamed Bloom) cooldown. Still a good amount of optimizing to be done.

[Silver-Strider]

Snip

Again, Simple =/= Braindead.
Having Aero 3 back is the bare minimum SE can do for WHM but honestly, Healers just need a flatout rework from the ground up; oGCDs need to be consolidated/removed, systems need to be added or enhanced, and skills need to be adjusted.

For WHM, I would have them function as kind of a mix between WAR's rotation and BLM.
Aero/Dia would function like Thunder, having a ST and AoE version that don't stack but instead of having Aero/Dia proc the Thundercloud effect, attach that effect to Regen/Medica 2. This way, your GCD heals aren't completely worthless once you unlock Lily skills and could potentially become DPS positive, without the need for adding any new skills (apart from an AoE Dia equivalent)
As for the WAR part of the rotation, have a branching combo similar to Storm's Eye and Storm's Path.
Stone/Glare -> Water/Banish -> Seraph Strike to get Cleric Stance for 15s to increase their damage/healing potency by 5%
Stone/Glare -> Water/Banish -> Wind/Aeolus as just a basic combo.

Ofc, in order to add these skills, we'd need to compress/remove skills to compensate.
PI could be dropped entirely and the CD on Temperance could just be lowered to 60s so that it could fill the role of buffing up our heals.
Aqua Veil and Divine Benison could just be merged into a single CD of 60s as well.
Remove Thin Air and buff the MP restored by Assize to 10% and granted a 2nd charge.
Have Freecure just upgrade Cure 1 into Cure 2

Still incredibly simple but much more fleshed out.

[Sebazy]

I will never not be confused by these healer forum AST/SCH/SGE main screeds that spend paragraphs going on and on and on about how dreadfully boring mashing one button over and over again for an entire encounter is, what a wretched awful gameplay experience it is, how it's the worst design in the MMO genre.

And then conclude with "so that's why the 1 button rotation is perfect for WHM."

Honestly, I'm actually inclined to agree with him on this one and since 6.1 I've thought it myself as well.

WHM doesn't have much, but one thing it does have over the other jobs is a little more broad synergy within it's kit coupled with a slower but consistent rhythm, it's historically usually felt more impactful and direct than it's alternatives as well (Even if the numbers generally don't reflect that). The Lily System is easily the best healer gauge mechanic of the 4 now, it has impactful self buffs and Assize is literally a second charge away from being perfection, it's this sort of thing that SE need to build upon.

As far as the suggested WHM changes go:

The return of Aero III or a renamed version of it is gud, I'd go one step further and also return Fluid Aura with some potency as an oGCD on a 30 second timer.

As mentioned above, IMHO no WHM adjustment suggestion is complete without adding a second charge to Assize, I've mathed out why it's such a huge benefit to the ability with zero downsides and it just makes sense at all and every level. It allows it to be aligned and double cast with bursts window whilst also giving you a free charge to actually use as a heal in between. Everyone wins.

Personally, as far as the Glare combo goes, my take on this is slightly different. I'd actually like to see a PvP style auto combo that breaks on any other GCD action with the second and third steps having an increasing chance to proc a secondary oGCD alongside reducing the cooldown of your Thorns ability.

This adds some nuance with a proc to watch and rapidly reducing cooldown to track whilst also visibly rewarding and encouraging consistent DPS and the prioritisation of oGCDs to keep it going.

[SirShady]

Scholar Changes
Miasma is back.
Shadow Flare is back.
Bane is back, allowing Scholar to spread their DoTs.
Chain Stratagem is now spreadable as well for AoE situations.
Scholar now has a semi-spammable mini-fester in the form of Putrefy.
Scholar now has a supportive faerie gauge spender in the form of Fey Frenzy.
Dissipation is now on a 2 minute cooldown. Now changes Fey Illumination to Fey Divination and Whispering Dawn to Fey Fury. These abilities do not share a cooldown with each other, just buttons, to avoid bloat.

New Scholar Abilities
Miasma - GCD 30 second DoT.
Shadow Flare - OGCD damages and slows all enemies in an area for 15 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
Putrefy - GCD deals damage with a potency of 200-400 to a target, and half this amount to surrounding targets. Potency is enhanced based on the number of the caster's DoTs on the target. 30 second cooldown.
Fey Frenzy - OGCD ability, costs 10 Faerie Gauge to apply a 10% cast/recast reduction to all party members for 10 seconds. 60 second cooldown.

Fey Divination and Fey Fury can only be used while under the effect of Dissipation... These abilities do not share a cooldown with Fey Illumination/Whispering Dawn but they do replace the buttons.
Fey Divination - Increases critical hit rate of party by 10% for 15 seconds. Can only be used once during Dissipation
Fey Fury - Deals 350 potency and applies a 5% vulnerability debuff in an AoE for 15 seconds. Can only be used once during Dissipation

Scholar Breakdown

Scholar is now the unofficial DoT class of the game, able to set them up, spread them, and maintain them easily. Putrefy gives more variety and synergy in your rotation, and is DPS positive as long as you maintain your DoTs. Chain Stratagem is useful outside of single target scenarios. Dissipation is now an intrinsic part of your toolkit and allows for more "battle tactician" flavor. With these changes you will be applying DoTs, keeping them rolling with Putrify, and swapping into Dissipation to unlock your full supportive potential! It's a big bag of tricks but if you can make it all work, you'll have some amazing output.

[Nizzi]

Scholar Changes

Miasma is back.
Bane is back, allowing Scholar to spread their DoTs.
Chain Stratagem is now spreadable as well for AoE situations.

Agree with all of these, SCH would benefit tremendously from all of this as it stands and these are my biggest wants for SCH and what would happily keep me playing for years to come. (Provided the other good things about Scholar weren't messed with)

Faerie Gauge now gradually fills by 5 per tick while remaining in combat.
Dissipation now restores doubles Faerie Gauge regen for a total of 10 a tick, changes Fey Illumination to Fey Divination and Fey Blessing to Fey Frenzy.

Scholar doesn't need passive resource gain; WHM/SGE have it, let SCH stay different.

Fey Fury - OGCD ability, at the cost of 10 Faerie Gauge, empowers your next Broil or Art of War to deal an additional 25% potency.

If this has a CD, you've just created another ShB Fey Blessing - a button that doesn't need to be tied to gauge at all due to its CD being longer than it could ever feasibly gauge spend with that ability; if this does not have a CD, you've created another reason for the perception of "Scholar doesn't want to heal!"
We don't need any DPS abilities associated with your faerie. I'd rather they get rid of gauge entirely then introduce DPS abilities into your Faerie, and I'm saying this as someone who thinks SCH desperate needs its DoTs back and someone who thinks Aetherflow/Energy Drain is a good thing. SCH doesn't need to be doing more DPS number wise, and it especially doesn't need to sacrifice more of its healing prioritization to do so in my opinion.

Putrefy - 15 second cooldown, deals damage with a potency of 275 in an AoE, reapplying all of the caster’s DoTs

If they give back Miasma to SCH (and I really, really pray that they do) giving it a "Tri-Disaster" that refreshes its DoTs eliminates the point and we will warp back to the exact same SCH that has 1 DoT now in the future. If you use 1 button like Iron Jaws to refresh your DoTs constantly after they've been applied, there's no management and it functionally just becomes the same 1 DoT gameplay we have now. Do not add Iron Jaws/Tri-Disaster to SCH when the DoTs return, or else SCH will be led down the same road it's on now. DoT management needs to actually be management; SCH needs to be casting Miasma and using Bio rather than hitting them once a fight and then pressing a button to reapply over and over. Why bother having separate DoTs at that point?

[WaxSw]

Sch

The problem with your Sch changes is that you add opportunity cost to even more Sch mechanics without addresing any of the current issues aetherflow has. Currently Sch wants to heal with aetherflow as little as possible with one of its core mechanics an with stuff like Fey fury, fey divination and fey frenzy we make it so it wants to no heal with the fairy gauge too.

I think there are good changes like the return of dots and the spread stratagem but Sch is a healer and this design punish Sch anytime they want to heal with anything that interacts with any of their gauges instead of creating a situation where they want to rely on those.

Sage Changes

Good ideas in theory but not all that good in practice, to summarize:

-Physis changes would make the tool completely useless in downtime scenarios meaning Sage would have a disadvantage healing there and in stuff like ultimates downtime is present (and in DSR a lot). I think the idea of an AoE kardia should go in soteria, a tool that is already useless in downtime, making it trigger a kardia heal in all the party members and an aditional 70% potency kardia heal on the kardia target (so it doesn't lose its niche as single target sustain)

-Ixochole changes would be very bad when doom mechanics happen making sage ill suited to deal with those as aside holos and pneuma (both locked until very high Shb and EW endgame) all the hp heal Sage would have is prognosis and the physis you propose, but as prognosis doesn't trigger kardia physis there would be useless too. Like Physis I like the concept but there is other skill that would benefit from that and its holos, not only it change woudn't leave Sage without HP heals at lower levels but also would make holos a more cohesive tool as both the shield and the damage reduction are effects you want to trigger before the attack happens instead of how now both effects want to happen at different times (hp after the attack but mitigation before)

-Toxicon, a nice addition but not a meaningful one. Sage use toxicon as either AoE dps tool or movement tool and both uses are much more meaningful than the extra heal

-Duodosis, I like the idea of the combo but... that's all? You just changed 1 spam into 1-2 spam, where are the kit interactions? where are the build up or additional effects? Where are the branching paths? A standard combo works in other classes because as filler when its used its effects go further than just damage (building gauge, branching paths, giving buffs...) but this combo doesn't really do anything like that, its fake depth.

-Eukrasia Duodosis would barely be used if used at all, its in reality a 340 heal at the cost of dps potency in a class bloated with free heals. Eukrasian Diagnosis at least has a niche of building up toxicon and even with that is barely used because single target sustain is not a problem in the current game so a similar fate would await this attack.


I think that the main problem of these Sage changes is that as the "dps healer" it barely changes its dps rotation in a meaningful way and creates a way more limiting playstyle when healing.

[SirShady]

Sch.

I think the main problem here honestly is mostly the fact that Scholar already has a plethora of OGCD healing, and the faerie gauge being tied to Fey Union really limits its use. I think if we swapped Fey Union (Fey Union costs 1 aetherflow to tether for 9 seconds to an ally?) with Energy Drain and used the Faeria Gauge strictly a DPS spender that would eliminate the problem, but it might be a bit tricky. Not sure how other Scholar players would feel about that.

Sage changes.

Honestly the Sage changes were a big WIP when I pushed them to the forums. I was passing out at my desk and figured I'd look them over later lol. Your feedback here is really helpful! It really highlights the rough spot shield healers are in.

Physis changes would make the tool completely useless in downtime scenarios meaning Sage would have a disadvantage healing there and in stuff like ultimates downtime is present (and in DSR a lot). I think the idea of an AoE kardia should go in soteria, a tool that is already useless in downtime, making it trigger a kardia heal in all the party members and an aditional 70% potency kardia heal on the kardia target (so it doesn't lose its niche as single target sustain)

Honestly, it's a valid worry with stuff like downtime and Doom causing problems. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for the healers to have certain weaknesses, but I can see it being stifling in certain content. Perhaps the jump from Physis I to Physis II could heal at the same or slightly reduced potency, but give the Kardia buff to allies for 10 seconds to compensate? That would you could still use it in combination with Prognosis for downtime but a good chunk of value comes from the Kardia buff.

In retrospect, I wouldn't touch Ixochole and would much rather gives that change to Holos, like you said. That makes a lot more sense.

Good point on Toxicon. I would rather move the focused Kardia aspect of it to something else then as more of an emergency button.

The point of the combo is to balance their healing around using Duodosis carefully, managing the HP of the tank while putting out as much personal DPS as possible, but I get what you're saying. I've thrown up a new idea, using a three hit combo which accumulates more Addersting, which can be used on higher potency and higher healing. Toxikon would still be the go-to in AoE and mobility situations. Let me know what you think!

[WaxSw]

I think the main problem here honestly is mostly the fact that Scholar already has a plethora of OGCD healing, and the faerie gauge being tied to Fey Union really limits its use. I think if we swapped Fey Union (Fey Union costs 1 aetherflow to tether for 9 seconds to an ally?) with Energy Drain and used the Faeria Gauge strictly a DPS spender that would eliminate the problem, but it might be a bit tricky. Not sure how other Scholar players would feel about that.

It would make them heal more yes however some would complain about how in encourages overhealing and kinda goes against the fairy identity as its not something that is there to damage

Physis

That would be better but I still think physis would suffer more than gain anything from that change as it limits the applications of its heal buff (no more buffing GCD shields or you lose kardia procs) and in downtime it would still feel bad to use as well as making it a more impractical tool than current version in the case you have high healing scenarios where you gotta use multiple GCD heals. Personally I feel that if you really want to make physis something that procs kardia making it an attack like pneuma (with point blank aoe so its used in downtime) would work (and open up synergy with Zoe) and as said Soteria could be the "kardia for everyone" button

Toxicon and Dps

If you want an emergency kardia button I'd suggest something that makes the GCD heals proc it for a short while, GCD heals are mainly for emergencies so it would fit well and make the kardia mechanic not useless in those scenarios. With that said I don't think emergency buttons like that should be a focus for a barrier healer fix as their whole kit is around avoiding said scenarios

I like the new combo idea but I feel adding 2 more buttons like that would make Sage get too close to button bloat. I think in this department you're forgetting that Sage's identity is also being able to change the buttons with actions like eukrasia (even if this identity is very undeveloped) so maybe that button bloat problem could be solved if you lean on eukrasia versions of existing buttons or new buttons.

[SirShady]

Scholar stuff

Yeah, honestly at this point I think the faerie gauge should just be removed, totally reworked, or left in its current meh state. It's such a clunky system with it only being a tether that's tied with all your aetherflow healing.

Physis

I gotta be honest, I've never actively thought about Physis buffing the GCD shields when I use it since I so rarely need to spend time shielding as a Sage anyway. That's just a nice little bonus when getting through the end of P4S2. A good work around would be making it so the Kardia buff is only spent by a certain number of attacks, but honestly I don't think losing an extra GCD in the rare instance you actually want to shield isn't worth stressing over. It's a tiny bit of antisynergy for a really niche case. Besides, now you have Holos to shield with as well, which is better than a physis buffed Eukrasian prognosis. I think losing 50 potency during downtime healing wouldn't make or break Sage's ability to get through mechanics. If the downtime is 10 seconds, that's still only an 150 potency of healing you're missing, less than a third of cure I, but I understand the concern.

If I'm understanding what you're saying about making it into an attack, it would just proc Kardia the one time? It might as well just be Pneuma then. I like the idea of it applying Kardia and then the healing being based on which attacks the Sage decides to use. You could potentially get more mileage out of it with your addersting spenders. My problem with making Soteria the "kardia for everyone" button is that there's already a superfluous amount of OGCD healing in Sage's kit, and outright buffing Soteria to be another AoE heal when you already have so much free heals flying around wouldn't make the "vampire healer" identity stand out. The other problem is that Physis is on a shorter cooldown than Soteria. It is the most used AoE heal on Sage because it doesn't cost Addersgall. Physis is the perfect button to put this kind of mechanic on to embrace that Kardia playstyle.

Emergency Kardia Button

The point here is to lean into that "vampire healing" archetype. Yes, just having the GCD heals proc Kardia would functionally work, but that goes against the job identity. Tying heals to your Addersting (which is much more available because of the new combo) means you get much more healing from dealing damage, and balancing your stacks with how much healing you might need as well as your new Kardia-applying physis and Soteria lends a great deal of depth to it. The point of the changes is to tie your personal damage kit to your basic healing playstyle, and to have the OPTION for it to work as an emergency button if you synergize it with your other cooldowns, but honestly a Zoe'd Pneuma will do you better in most of those circumstances anyway since it comes out faster. Simply applying Kardia to your GCD heals for a time doesn't provide this same synergy or job fantasy.

With that said I don't think emergency buttons like that should be a focus for a barrier healer fix as their whole kit is around avoiding said scenarios

Maybe I said something wrong here, but I don't want the Addersting heals to be an emergency button. I'm trying to lean into the "vampire healer" playstyle. They should be a large portion of your heals, that CAN become an emergency button with proper use of the new Physis with Soteria, so long as you've kept a stack or two of Addersting.

On an unrelated, I don't think I'd even call Sage a shield healer anyway. You rarely if ever should shield outside of putting Eukrasia Diagnosis on the tank before pulls and Eukrasia Prognosis in ultimate, and the only synergy shielding has with your kit is using Zoe/Physis to buff your next shield, which again is incredibly rare. Sage really is just a standard healer with shields tacked on to its design. If anything, my new kit encourages more shielding with the changes to Holos and Druochole.

As far button bloat, you can't expect to not add any buttons if you want to give them a DPS rotation. Your only other options be to make it a two part combo with the second attack's Eukrasia mode being tied to Addersting. I made it a three hit combo because...

-Duodosis, I like the idea of the combo but... that's all? You just changed 1 spam into 1-2 spam, where are the kit interactions? where are the build up or additional effects? Where are the branching paths? A standard combo works in other classes because as filler when its used its effects go further than just damage (building gauge, branching paths, giving buffs...) but this combo doesn't really do anything like that, its fake depth.

I mean we get rid of Tridosis and just stick to Duodisis and make it a 1-2 combo that builds Addersting, to use on the Eukrasia'd version. This would lower it to only 1 new button.

[fulminating]

Scholar Changes
Scholar details that take me over the character limit

I like the suggested fey abilities, however I would change the name of putrify to fey tality. I think it's a pretty reasonable way of including more support abilities without "Summon Selene changes deployment tactics to bane, recitation to only affect damaging spells etc". I would question how well the three minute timer would work with everyone and their dog's burst being on 2m, but perhaps this would be the impetus to have more varied raid buff timers. I would also like to ask about how Fey Fury would mesh with trick attack mug - overwriting when used together or stacking? I suppose what I'm thinking is these abilities seem to be really rather strong - chain, Fey Divination and Fey Fury would all be used in the opener presumably, which would be pretty good in raids assuming they don't make every hardhitting ability a guaranteed crit.

The faerie gauge needs removed or things on the faerie gauge need to not also have timers on, having both feels redundant.

I think lustrate should go back to being a flat% heal, maybe with a significantly higher % on crit - 30 and 50 perhaps. Small things like that could really help lean into the battle tactician side of things.

RE: White mage - do you think having a full GCD cast time on its attacks would help it feel more distinct again? prior to 6.0 I thought the hardcasting made it feel much more a counterpart to black mage in a way that's since been slightly eroded.