Differentiating healer identities

[KarmaYraeon]

I would like to preface this is also heavily an astro rant with a little bit of sage sprinkled in.

Since the removal of nocturnal sect on astrologian and the release of sage, it feels like the homogenization of healers has somewhat gotten in the way of differentiating what each of them can really provide to a party, beyond simply being a flavour of regen healer or barrier healer.

While I understand the appeal of doing so, such as helping to guarantee that each healer has the basic tools needed to do their job, or that every healer is always valid in all content, it also kind of sucks when 80% of healer abilities feel so extremely similar to one another, even between subroles.

While a nonissue at lower levels, it is kind of deflating to play as a healer in higher level content when you compare the diversity of healers vs the diversity of every other job and role in the game. DPS for instance are all extremely diverse and flavourful, and even the homogenization of tanks feels less imposed as it has on healers. As such, it would be nice to see better diversity between the functionality of each healer.

[KarmaYraeon]

- Whm
White mage sits in a pretty good position in terms of identity, given it is the original healer.tm. Its identity as the healer-variant to black mage means that it already has a solid position as a cast-time-reliant healer that provides really high raw potency damage and healing. Its regen is always reliable, and its ability to spot heal and aoe heal both are really strong key points of its kit. It would be nice to see it continuing down this route as the go-to standard, simple-but-powerful raw potency healer.

- Sch
Scholar has a solid shield-focused kit, with the ability to reliably throw out extremely strong shields, both on a single target, as well as multiple. It would be nice to see it continue down this route, the more proactive healer to white mage's reactive - reliably providing extremely strong temporary health. It would be interesting if they gave Scholar the ability to soft-stance swap through its faeries as well. One providing the healing it currently has, but the other providing damage buffs or potential, to give it more party tools. A Fey Illumination alternative that increases how much damage nearby enemies take for instance, and a Whispering Dawn alternative that increases ally damage, along with its basic heal and fey union potential as normal. Probably make the faeries an oGCD rather than GCD, even if it means using a double oGCD window to do so. Since it already has multiple tools to manipulate or synergize with its shields, it would also be nice if we got more to do so. A new Tactics ability perhaps that would make using adlo or succor in the middle of combat less of a dps negative. For instance;

Exploitation Tactics (90s CD,
Creates a designated area that grants Volatize to party members in the designated area.
Duration: 15s
Volatize Effect: Damage to Galvanize causes the attacker to suffer unaspected damage equal to the amount the shield is reduced by.

Alternatively it could be a pre-cast effect like Emergency Tactics that just applies to the next Galvanize shield cast. Using Deployment tactics might then spread Volatize too.

[KarmaYraeon]

- AST
Astrologian has always been in a rather tumultuous position, and I feel like its aesthetic potential is sorely missed out on in terms of technical execution. Its cards are always changing, and its time bomb abilities lend itself to more of a time mage aesthetic that I feel would help to really cement its own identity as a healer in a party.

• The timebomb and preemptive abilities of the class such as Horoscope, Earthly Star, Macrocosmos and Exaltation are all incredibly satisfying, fun and unique abilities to use. It would be nice to see more of the kit focus around this style of delayed gratification, since it would also allow for the opportunity to give the class more personal damage which I feel it is lacking. For instance the since-removed Time Dilation would work wonders with any number of astro's current delayed abilities like Macrocosmos or Exaltation, or just extending card effects.

• The current seal system, while nice with its simplicity, feels far less interesting than the older cards, and Minor Arcana and Astrodyne in general feel dissatisfying or outright bad to use. As an alternative, it would be interesting if Minor Arcana function like old Royal Road instead - A lord of crowns perhaps increasing the duration or power of the next card cast, while a lady of crowns halves the effectiveness, but spreads it to everyone in an area around the initial target (It would also be nice if they added a similar visual effect for astrologian's seals as BLM gets with their astral fire/umbral ice, orbiting around themselves...). It doesn't detract from the class' iconic RNG, but it does instead redirect what the RNG is used on, making it feel more enjoyable to gamble cards.

• Similarly, Astrodyne feel unimpactful and outright bad to use in many cases. The MP regen is nice, and the casting speed increase is alright, but the damage bonus is practically nonexistent given the job's already low personal damage. Instead, the ability could work like Monk's chakras and nadi's. As a concept; each cast of astrodyne could provide one stack of Harmodyne or Discodyne based on the combination of seals consumed, while Astrodyne itself always gives bonus MP regeneration and spell speed. When cast a second time, it also consumes both stacks of Harmodyne/Discodyne to additional effect. Each stack of harmodyne perhaps sharing 50% of the Astrodyne MP regen effectiveness to allies, increasing healing they receive, and afflicting enemies with a substantial DoT. Each stack of discodyne instead shares 50% of the astrodyne's spell/skill speed bonus to allies, and applies a MCH Wildfire-style debuff to enemies, which can feed off of the dot damage from Harmodyne. Combining them gives the biggest spread of utility, though doubling them up is better for the raw potential of each buff.

[KarmaYraeon]

- SGE
Sage has attempted to bring to life the long-standing idea of having a damage-focused healer. However, I feel like trying to make it a scholar-comparable barrier healer has rather fallen flat on its face. Its shields aren't as strong as scholar, and to use its shields in the middle of combat feels kind of bad, besides pan/haima.

• It would be nice if Sage pulled away from being a second barrier healer, and instead focused more on its damage mitigation tools, vs scholar's temporary health tools. I feel that reducing damage taken would also help keep Kardia relevant as well, as an ally that hasn't lost any health thanks to a shield isn't getting any use out of it.

• Kardia itself feels somewhat disappointing compared to the original dream of having a damage-focused healer. While I understand the balance concern, it feels like it tries too hard to keep in line with scholar's faeries. As an alternative, it would be nice if the kardia flat healing was reduced, and instead incorporated a small percentage of the damage the sage dealt overall, with single target abilities of course having a higher % than aoe.
  The idea is that when spamming Dosis, it wouldn't really change how much potential healing the class already provides, but in big pulls with a lot of aoe spam, it can recreate the same healing power fantasy that warriors get through Bloodwhetting. While each cast of Dyskrasia or whatever other aoe might have a lower base healing potency than single target spells, it would very quickly stack up to near-absurd healing for those that manage to keep themselves in the thick of a pull and have solid DPS.

• On the note of kardia being more reliant on the sage's damage, it would be understandable to reduce how much raw healing power the job has, which in turn could make healing against raidwides or aoes far more difficult. As such, it would be interesting to see them lean more into exploiting kardia interactions, such as the already existing Soteria. For instance, an ability that allows kardia healing to spread to nearby allies as well, or a mitigation cooldown that halves the damage the target takes, and spreads the remaining damage to nearby allies.

[KarmaYraeon]

Overall, I feel like healers are in an awkward position in the game. They each have so much potential in terms of realizing an identity, but the homogenization to make sure they are all valid, I feel, has gotten in the way of letting any one healer shine in a particular fashion, beyond strict niche situations. Since healers can't really have the same degree of down time involvement as other classes, such as having damage rotations, it would be nice to see them each branch out more into their own unique fields of healing and support. The idea of 1 regen, 1 barrier healer feels rather contrived and has done nothing to really create options for healers and instead simply taken away cool ideas from those that exist, such as astrologian's nocturnal sect, or other similar ideas such as the potential of making scholar a hybrid healer too through its faeries. This idea of strictly keeping to regen or barrier healer disparities like this also gets in the way of future additions to the role which will simply kick up a whole new mess.

I look forward to see what the team behind the game has in store for healers both in terms of their kits and identites, as well as content they need to heal for, in the future. I simply hope they consider more branching options than sticking to the same copy-paste template that inhibits having more freedom and options for 90% of the game and its content like it does currently.

[AmiableApkallu]

White mage sits in a pretty good position in terms of identity, given it is the original healer.tm. Its identity as the healer-variant to black mage means that it already has a solid position as a cast-time-reliant healer that provides really high raw potency damage and healing. Its regen is always reliable, and its ability to spot heal and aoe heal both are really strong key points of its kit. It would be nice to see it continuing down this route as the go-to standard, simple-but-powerful raw potency healer.

I've never quite understood where the "high raw potency healing" image for WHM comes from:

- Lustrate and Druochole aren't that far below Afflatus Solace, Cure II, and Tetragrammaton.
- Indomitability and Ixochole are the same potency as Afflatus Rapture and Medica.
- Adloquium, Succor, Eukrasian Diagnosis, and Eukrasian Prognosis actually come out ahead of Cure II and Medica if you include the shields.

Or from a different angle, any combination of healers has to be able to deal with "oops, everyone's at 1% HP" mechanics in Duty Finder, so WHM's allegedly high potency heals don't set it apart in the exact scenario where high potency heals ought to mean something, because the party can't rely on having a WHM in the first place.

I wish WHM were the healer counterpart of BLM, but for me, WHM simply lacks in everything that actually makes playing BLM interesting and fun.

[Allegor]

I've never quite understood where the "high raw potency healing" image for WHM comes from:

- Lustrate and Druochole aren't that far below Afflatus Solace, Cure II, and Tetragrammaton.
- Indomitability and Ixochole are the same potency as Afflatus Rapture and Medica.
- Adloquium, Succor, Eukrasian Diagnosis, and Eukrasian Prognosis actually come out ahead of Cure II and Medica if you include the shields.

Or from a different angle, any combination of healers has to be able to deal with "oops, everyone's at 1% HP" mechanics in Duty Finder, so WHM's allegedly high potency heals don't set it apart in the exact scenario where high potency heals ought to mean something, because the party can't rely on having a WHM in the first place.

I wish WHM were the healer counterpart of BLM, but for me, WHM simply lacks in everything that actually makes playing BLM interesting and fun.

I have the feeling WHM's "strong burst healing" niche was only true for ARR and maybe while leveling in HW but the reputation stuck until today. If anything, WHM's only real advantage over SCH and SGE is that their heals don't have limited charges, even if they have to gcd to use them (which likely mean things took a nosedive, but I digress)

[KarmaYraeon]

I've never quite understood where the "high raw potency healing" image for WHM comes from:

- Lustrate and Druochole aren't that far below Afflatus Solace, Cure II, and Tetragrammaton.
- Indomitability and Ixochole are the same potency as Afflatus Rapture and Medica.
- Adloquium, Succor, Eukrasian Diagnosis, and Eukrasian Prognosis actually come out ahead of Cure II and Medica if you include the shields.

Or from a different angle, any combination of healers has to be able to deal with "oops, everyone's at 1% HP" mechanics in Duty Finder, so WHM's allegedly high potency heals don't set it apart in the exact scenario where high potency heals ought to mean something, because the party can't rely on having a WHM in the first place.

I wish WHM were the healer counterpart of BLM, but for me, WHM simply lacks in everything that actually makes playing BLM interesting and fun.

It isn't so much that white mage has high raw healing potency, and moreso that it feels like white mage could and probably should lean more into that style of play. A more straight forward healer that is at least neutral in terms of doing its gcd healing, perhaps beyond just the lilies feeding into afflatus misery. The idea of it playing as a mirror to black mage where it swaps between a heal-focused phase and a damage-focused phase that feed into eachother is kind of a stretch, but something along the lines of healing being at least net neutral for more than just 3 lilies would be nice. Like lilies taking 30 seconds to generate instead of 20, but then casting non-healing gcds reduce the time left to your next lily. Maybe using non-lily gcds improve the potency of following damage spells and vise versa along a similar vein as astral fire and umbral ice stacks.

The idea is general that it would be nice for the class to feed more into that long cast, high power fantasy as a healer, not necessarily that it currently sits there. Sage and scholar tend to focus more on mitigating damage than really healing it, and astro focused on its ogcd healing, so if only by that metic, it feels like white mage should be able to more reliably and better use gcd healing and benefit from it, rather than just spend a few lilies and get a net neutral out of it every now and then.

[AmiableApkallu]

It isn't so much that white mage has high raw healing potency, and moreso that it feels like white mage could and probably should lean more into that style of play.

Okay, fair enough, but I'm still left wondering what niche that style of play actually fills. For White Mage to not be required in any content, content cannot deal out so much damage as to make high raw healing potency required. Which means the only way to make that potency uniquely useful is for the players to repeatedly take avoidable damage and/or tank the floor. Is that interesting? Can that be made interesting? (I don't have the answer.)

I could see White Mage leaning into a GCD-based, cast-times style of play, though. I mean, it already does. It's just not satisfying when the healing kit is so heavily biased towards "restore HP" and the DPS kit is… well, what I've been doing since I was a Lv.1 CNJ .