"Barrier Healers" aren't barrier healers

[Colt47]

The thing that got healers into this weird discussion is that healing is as hard as the group makes it out to be, which means it is very hard to figure out how to make the job less stressful because the developers have zero control over how much someone gets hit by something. If anything, this is the only game I've seen where they went the opposite direction and made things hit harder in an attempt to make healing easier. I guess maybe they figure it is less stress on the healer if the dps dies to an obvious tell vs just falling over from gradual damage?

[Gemina]

Theoretically, the healers do work differently. But how many people in your roulettes play scholar proactively? When i was learning savage in shadowbringers on scholar, of course you're supposed to shield BEFORE the damage hits with seraph and succor.
But in roulette content? You could argue that it's a dps loss to heal on any healer.
Honestly the more i think about it, the healers are all fked up.

If you use Succor or Consolation at full HP, you lose out on the heal potency and only receive the shield potency. IOW, the game punishes you for being proactive with SCH. Never mind the fact that if Seraph isn't already out, you likely won't get consolation off before the raidwide hits. These kind of skills are designed to protect from sustained raid damage, not one and done abilities by the boss. Deployment tactics is what you use for those.

But yes, you are right in that healers are all kinds of effed up. It's almost like they are inserts from another game.

[Supersnow845]

Seraph is just a trash fire of an ability in general

It’s a Demi so it ghosts the actions queue, it takes an age to actually get out on the field and consolation has such a delayed animation to heal hit that consolation fails at its main job of functionally being SCH’s answer to panhaima/lilybell AND consolation is so delayed at applying its shield that if seraph desummons during the consolation animation the heal is cancelled meaning seraph whiffs eos action queue, is useless for like 3 seconds because she will also ghost skills cast during her summoning AND she is useless in the last 3 seconds as well

Seraph should just be rouse that turns fey blessing into a pure shield with 2 charges

[ty_taurus]

What I think really needs to change is that Demis should not dismiss your Carbuncle or Eos for Summoner and Scholar. This would allow them to give Carbuncle more tools to actually function like the support caddie that they're trying to make him out to be without worrying about timing due to Demi summoning. With that in mind, Summon Seraph could become a lot smoother of an action as well if she doesn't dismiss Eos. I'd also rework the animation to work like Summon Ifrit/Titan/Garuda where Seraph is immediately conjured in a swift animation, rather than daintily fluttering down for several seconds. Maybe even remove "Summon Seraph" as an action and just have Consolation as an ability that calls her down for one action, then dismisses her.

[Gemina]

Seraph is just a trash fire of an ability in general

It’s a Demi so it ghosts the actions queue, it takes an age to actually get out on the field and consolation has such a delayed animation to heal hit that consolation fails at its main job of functionally being SCH’s answer to panhaima/lilybell AND consolation is so delayed at applying its shield that if seraph desummons during the consolation animation the heal is cancelled meaning seraph whiffs eos action queue, is useless for like 3 seconds because she will also ghost skills cast during her summoning AND she is useless in the last 3 seconds as well

Seraph should just be rouse that turns fey blessing into a pure shield with 2 charges

Seraph is SCH in a nutshell. She's a powerful healer that cannot reach her full potential due to a flawed design. However, despite her setbacks she still remains an invaluable asset on the field. Along with 1000 potency of total healing from direct heals and shields with Consolation, she also tosses out free mini Adlos that are weaker than true Adlo, but stronger than Embrace. Ghosting is already an issue with Eos that carries over to Seraph. This doesn't pardon the flaw, but it also doesn't add any additional setbacks to SCH either. In contrast to what I said earlier, in order to truly take advantage of deploying Seraph, the SCH actually has to be very proactive, and know the fight. You can really only take full advantage of her with sustained raid damage. There are a lot of mechanics especially at the EX level and beyond that this qualifies for.

Seraph is not SCHs answer to Panhaima or Bell. Both of those abilities are evolved from Consolation as the ability first came into play when level 80 was the cap. Haima/Panhaima very much distinguishes SGE from SCH because both abilities make SGE far more efficient at deploying shields. SCH doesn't really have an answer for either right now, making Seraph due for an upgrade. This was the point I was making in the other thread 'Starting Sage' when other posters where making these abilities comparable when they are not.

Your suggestion with Fey Blessing is a good one, but this should just be available to SCH/Eos without Seraph. My thoughts on Seraph is that she should be one of two of SCH's gauge spenders, but requires the gauge to reach a certain amount before she can be summoned (I'm thinking 30 so she can be used with each Aetherflow). Once she is summoned she will deplete the gauge. She will despawn on command, or after the gauge reaches zero. In either case, Seraph will cast an AoE nuke before she despawns and the gauge starts at zero afterwards. The idea is that SCH uses their gauge on Aetherpact for ST focused healing, and Seraph for raidwide damage scenarios.

Right now, SCH has next to no incentive to use their Faerie gauge, especially in casual content. Tying Seraph to it and adding the nuke fixes this. It also rewards the SCH for using their Aetherflow charges. Seraph's abilities should not mirror Eos', but rather upgrade them. They already did this with Seraphic Veil, and this should be extended to Angel's Whisper and Seraphic Illumination as well. I was also thinking of replacing Consolation with an instant raise.

I already know this all wishful thinking and none of it will happen, but one can dream.

[Deceptus]

At gear parity in leveling dungeons all the healers have to be able to use pure heals.

The fairy / kardia mixed with the shield is supposed to make up for the lack of pure healing. That's supposed to be the point

[Raikai]

I absolutely hate the sub-niche they created for healers because what happens when an inevitable new healing job appears? They're gonna resurge the 'flex' role AST used to do? (A slap on the face of ASTs, because it was a popular one, even though a specific sect were stronger).

[Supersnow845]

I absolutely hate the sub-niche they created for healers because what happens when an inevitable new healing job appears? They're gonna resurge the 'flex' role AST used to do? (A slap on the face of ASTs, because it was a popular one, even though a specific sect were stronger).

Easy, they will use this to justify never adding another healer

Please look forward to it, we will continue to remake AST every expansion as your new healer

[Niroken]

I absolutely hate the sub-niche they created for healers because what happens when an inevitable new healing job appears? They're gonna resurge the 'flex' role AST used to do? (A slap on the face of ASTs, because it was a popular one, even though a specific sect were stronger).

Nah, they'll do what they did with tanks. Give up and make them the same.

[Supersnow845]

Nah, they'll do what they did with tanks. Give up and make them the same.

I wonder how they will do that considering the healers are already more similar than the tanks