Ideas for Healer Rework.

[Karowolus]

Disclaimer: The purpose is to give both the classes and the game itself a more creative avenue to prevent designs from being overly repetitive. Three things were kept in mind while designing this:

• Stuff has to be fun but easy and straightforward for the game’s AI to follow on Trusts. Were the trust NPCs updated to follow these skills. (Looking at you Goring Blade DoT Gr'aha.)
• Things have to escape the Healer\Shielder faux dichotomy
• The main concept of the classes need to be preserved
• These are ideas. Ideas Ideas. Its not considering systems in the game and it is very much an early kinda thing. Take what's said here with a pinch of Mountain Salt.

These Ideas mainly came from discussion with a friend.

[Karowolus]

White Mage
A straightforward healer whose primary focus is to control the flow of combat.

• Primarily regen healer
• Reactive healing
• Bursty damage

As the game’s only Lv 1 healer, White Mage should have beginner friendly tools. But that doesn’t mean the class should be devoid of all flavour like British Cuisine. It should have straightforward tools that don’t require the biggest of brains to figure out, but slowly build up on it.

Early Conjurer should keep Stone, Aero, Cure, Regen and Medica. However, the first change I’d make would be to turn Cure an instant-cast spell with a relatively high MP cost, but no cast time and reduced recast time. Then, the second change would be to make Cure 2 be a direct upgrade to Cure

• Freecure procs a free cast of a Cure spell when one’s used and that’s it.
• Medica would still remain as a cast spell.
• Presence of Mind remains.
• Aetherial Shift is a dumb button overall but it can stay I guess.
• Presence of Mind and its upgrade with Glare 4 stays.
• Benediction stays.
• Cure 3 should be a direct upgrade to Cure 2. Let’s keep stuff consistent, shall we?

Then come the first few changes. This WHM is made to be primarily a healer that relies on consistent regens and few punctual burst heals. WHM’s job crystal unlocks a passive trait called “Clear Mind” which boosts the passive HP recovery of the party, boosts HP recovery by Regen effects.

• All healers get access to their bubble early on. Asylum is given to WHMs at lv 30. It counts as an unremovable regen buff, and its cooldown is lower than other bubbles for obvious reasons.
• Medica 2 will remain separate from Medica 1, applying a regen.
• Divine Benison will no longer be a shield. It is now a regen on one person. A follow-up skill called Divine Blessing will remove the regen and heal the target for the remaining duration at once.
• Aquaveil takes any regen effects except for Asylum off of a target and converts them into shields. Naturally, this has a long cooldown.
• Tetragrammaton has a cure effect with a regen as well.
• Temperance increases healing magic potency by 20%. But rather than a reduction of damage taken, it restores the party’s MP. It has an effect that says any damaging skill from the WHM will proc an effect similar to Liturgy’s AoE healing. With an internal cooldown of 3s between pulses.
• Divine Caress will work as how Celestial Opposition currently works, applying yet another regen after a strong heal.
• New button: Refocus. It's Synastry.

The Afflatus bar would fill up depending on how much damage would be thrown out overall. As such, access to Afflatus Solace and Rapture would depend on dealing damage. This bar will slowly fill up outside of combat. Access to Afflatus Misery will remain the same, though it now recovers MP on use.

• To prevent overhealing, a secondary bar called the Zealous Gauge would fill up whenever a healing regen “overflows”. As in, whenever you cast a regen and 60% of it is used to heal someone but there’s a remainder, this second gauge would fill up. Idk if the game can detect overhealing. That's the main thing. It would likely have to be done differently than this.
• This gauge would allow uses of:
• Assize
• A single-target damaging spell called Calentune that heals the caster for the amount of damage dealt,
• Hydropic, which removes all regen effects on the party and deals damage based on how many were removed
• and Iscuria, which saps the entire bar to heal the party.

Plenary Indulgence is a buff that says the following healing action cast by the WHM will be applied to the whole party as a follow-up hit called Confession. So Tetra? Confession. Assize? Confession. Calentune? Confession. Thin Air returns to being a duration buff. White Mage gains Banish. Every 5 uses of Glare, Banish and then later Banish II, will proc to deal damage to an enemy. Further charging the Afflatus Gauge. (Think like Mage’s Ballad’s Procs)

Liturgy is removed. In its stead, WHM gains Afflatus Exorcism. A DoT version of Afflatus Misery that consumes a single Afflatus stack. Again, it’s meant to be very easy to play and reward people for dealing damage without being overly wasteful.

[Karowolus]

Astrologian

A complex healer with delayed mechanics and the ability to buff the party. Lowest damage, preparatory-type healing but juggles buffs.

• Does not heal straightforwardly
• LOADS of safety nets though

Astro… oh Astro… We all know this is the most overloaded of healers. And it comes from the fact that HSW’s design shoved so many tools onto their classes it made them jacks of all trades. Astro lost several identities over the years, but one thing made it consistent. Specifically the safety net healing. So why not lean into it?
So, what stays?

• Benefic 2 and Helios remain, as do their Aspected versions.
• Combust and Malefic remain in their boring glory
• Essential Dignity remains in all its scaling stacking glory.
• Gravity remains.
• Earthly Star remains.
• Macrocosmos remains.
• Collective Unconscious remains.

First things first! And the longest of the changes. There is no such thing as a Neutral Sect in Astrology. Sorry to burst that particular bubble. Instead AST gets two stances back, but not as how they worked before.
Diurnal Sect grants the additional effects on Aspected Benefic and Helios applies a barrier as usual.
Nocturnal Sect makes Malefic and Gravity actions give a small shield that’s additive whenever used.

This is reflected in the DRAW button. How so? Well… think of the current draw system. Astral and Umbral, right? BORING. Let’s make it Diurnal Draw and Nocturnal Draw, and until the button is pressed again they take those stances. Celestial Opposition is a party-wide heal in Diurnal with a regen on it or a party-wide heal with a shield in Nocturnal. Exaltation works as normal during Diurnal. It becomes Celestial Intersection in Nocturnal, healing when the barrier breaks. Cards and such we're still discussing....

• Horoscope remains with a twist. It stays, but gives the AST a buff to Helios actions that makes them instant cast OGCDs, turning them into Helios Conjunction. Horoscope Helios is procced off of it. Horoscope overall lasts longer.
• Synastry is removed, as it’s given to WHM. AST rarely used it anyway and WHM has a lot better uses for a Synastry skill than "delayed healer" AST.
• Sun Sign is its own skill.
• Minor Arcana is removed. In its stead, Lord of Crowns becomes a damaging action that applies a DoT on the enemy, and Lady of Crowns is a healing OGCD that applies a regen on the party. Or just remove them.

These are mainly my friend's idea. My thought is that the Diurnal and Nocturnal aspects should be like Black Stance / White Stance from RDM in PVP.
You're by default in Diurnal, and then can use 'Nocturnal' to switch to the other. And Vice-Versa

[Karowolus]

Sage
A healer that combines combat tools with healing tools. Damage and healing feed off of one another.

• Damage is gauged off of offensive skills
• Reverse Macrocosmos
• Has Bloodwhetting. You heard me.

SGE loses its shield healer design. Sorry, that's Scholar's job, stop being "SCH but better", be original for once. Instead it becomes more offensive-focused and derives its heal from there.

• Diagnosis is a simple heal spell. Prognosis is a simple AoE healing spell. Nothing about them changes.
• However, their Eukrasian versions are removed.
• Eukrasia from here on is purely offensive.

First things first, let’s buff Kardia a bit. Every spell you use to deal damage with actually contributes to healing, and Soteria is there to make sure the healing lands.

• Soteria grants +1 Addersgall when cast.
• Since shields no longer exist, Pepsis gets changed. Rather than removing things, it applies Pepsis to the party, and they all share in on Kardia for the next few casts at a reduced potency. (2 or 3 times.)
• Similarly, since there are no shields around, Toxikon becomes a viable movement tool with stacks uncoupled from shields. (Like in PVP)
• A new action called Choler procs Kardia heals based on both the target and the Sage’s GCDs.
• A new action called Sanguis procs damage based on Kardia procs.

Holos retains its shield, but now becomes Shake it Off. Remove that broken-ass button from WAR.
For the rest, SGE remains mostly the same, relying on Addersgall to heal besides proc-ing Kardia.
It does however lose Haima and Panhaima to SCH! Oh don't worry... It's meant to be a Kardia healer. How so?

SGE gains more damaging options to make up for it:

• Kathreptis - What it says on the tin, but less broken. It is a shield, but until it breaks, it reflects damage back to the enemy.
• Pharmakon - Bloodwhetting. I am serious here. And yes it stacks with Choler.
• Panacaea - The above… but party-wide.
• Pentahumor – Continuous laser beam AoE for 10s that deals damage to anything caught inside during the duration, that also pulsates a heal on the party. Would be an initial cast followed by a 10s 'Zone' similar to their PVP LB.
• Philosophia remains as the buff to heals and granting the party Kardia, but rather than it being a 20s button, it’s a toggleable stance. The toggle consumes a bar that is filled up by successive hits of damaging spells. Soteria and Choler are also applied to the party when used during Philosophia.

[Karowolus]

Scholar

A healer that makes use of fairy familiars and seeks to maximise damage dealt. High end damage, shield healing and support.

• Primarily shield healing
• Makes use of terrain via fairy pets
• DoT damage

“Don’tcha wish your Scholar was hot like Sage? Don’tchaaa”
But the fairy sure does! That’s why we’re bringing in a few fairies up. I personally find Scholar to be pulled in three different directions. Aetherflow (read, Sage but worse), Fairy (read, Summoner but worse) or normal skill healer (read: any healer, but a lot worse).

Let’s make Scholar consistent for once, yes?
Sooo.... First things first, yes? Aetherflow, you’re fired. Eos, you’re promoted. Shields…
…

• Broil stays, Biolysis stays.
• Adloquium remains the same, with its chance to crit giving people Galvanize.
• Succor works as normal.
• And pretty much nothing else stays because it’s all getting changed!

First, the fairies!
Upon changing to SCH, their innate passive is “Dawnservant”, which instantly summons Eos.
Eos stays on the field and acts as a supportive unit. Eos cannot be unsummoned.
Eos has access to the following skills:

• Embrace: Auto-Heals the party member with the lowest HP.
• Whispering Dawn: Changes the following 5 Embrace casts to be party-wide.
• Sit: Places Eos where the SCH is. If the SCH moves away from her Sit range, she returns to following the SCH and is not unsummoned.
• Heel: Has Eos follow the SCH around. Replaces Sit.

You want a healbot? Here, have a healbot. It'll have a bit better use every 2 minutes anyway. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Flying Fairy
Scholar gets summons now, similar to Summoner. These are a one-use only that enable further skills. Specifically, there are two buttons that change whenever a Fairy is used, overwriting the actions:

• Fey Echelon
• Fey Schiltron

Three additional actions called Gonfalon will be unlocked and can be used outside the fairy’s influence.

Summon Selene:
The Scholar summons the Selene fairy who casts Indomitable Moon on the party, casting a shield on them with a burst of light, dematerializing soon after. The SCH gains the Lunar Aura, which unlocks the following skills, all cast from the perspective of the SCH:

• Lunar Echelon: A 4-stack attack similar to Titan, which applies a Lunar Echelon shield on the party with each cast. The shield will be lengthened with each cast if they haven’t broken. It does not heal them while the shields are applied.
• Lunar Schiltron: Applies a small Lunar Schiltron shield to a single target. It does not heal them while the shield is applied.
• Lunar Gonfalon becomes Standard of the Moon: A banner is dropped on the floor for 10s. The banner will tether to people and cast a shield on them. It does not heal them while the shield is applied. If the shield breaks while Standard of the Moon is still present, the banner will recast the shield as long as the party member is within reach. Standard of the Moon buffs the party’s Critical Hit rate when dropped.

Summon Hemera
The Scholar summons the Hemera fairy who casts Daybreak on the party, healing them with a burst of light, dematerializing soon after. The SCH gains the Daylight Aura, which unlocks the following skills, all cast from the perspective of the SCH:

• Solar Echelon: A 4-stack attack similar to Titan, which applies a shield on the tank. Each hit does heal the tank. Similar to Lunar Echelon, the shield is lenghtened with each cast if it wasn’t broken.
• Solar Schiltron: Applies a regen on a single target
• Solar Gonfalon becomes Standard of the Sun: A banner is dropped on the floor for 10s. The banner will pulsate a regen for that duration to anyone within range. Standard of the Sun buffs the party’s Direct Hit rate when dropped.

Summon Astraea
The Scholar summons the Astraea fairy who casts Falling Star on the party. It reduces damage taken by the party, storing a portion of the damage mitigated for 10s, dematerializing soon after. This damage is being stored into Starry Gonfalon. The SCH gains the Starlight Aura, which unlocks the following skills, all cast from the perspective of the SCH:

• Starry Echelon: A single long cast similar to Ifrit. Upon being cast, the SCH applies Miasma to all enemies surrounding them. Starry Echelon applies Energy Syphon on SCH. Energy Syphon’s effect lasts 10s and during this duration, any Broil spell cast will heal the party member with the highest aggro on the target hit by Broil.
• Starry Schiltron: Applies Energy Drain on the party, converting a portion of damage they deal into HP.
• Starry Gonfalon becomes Standard of the Skies: A banner is dropped on the floor for 10s. A burst of damage emanates from the banner, dealing a portion of the damage stored by Falling Star to all enemies around it. It reduces the defences of all aggroed enemies when dropped.

• Physick is wholly removed. This may trigger some people, but don’t worry. Have you seen the new fairies?
• Concitation is an instant-cast OGCD, similar to how Holos is now. Stacks with Adloquium.
• The SCH has access to Consolation from the bloody start. Hallelloo. 2 charges.
• Lustrate has 3 stacks. No cost, just cooldown.
• Indom has no cost, just cooldown.
• Sacred Soil has no cost, just cooldown.
• Excogitation has no cost, just cooldown.
• Fey Blessing has no cost, is now a SCH action called Auxilliary Tactics.
• Fairy Gauge went to the store to get milk and won't be coming back.

New SCH actions:

• Retaliation: Remember Eye for an Eye? That’s pretty much it. For those who don’t know, imagine Arm’s Length, but instead of applying Slow it applies Reprisal.
• Contravallation: Haima.
• Convalescence: Since the fairy’s not being eaten for Aetherflow, we’re putting the effects of Dissipation here.
• Dissipation: Reworked into a buff on the party that takes the next hit they take and slowly spreads it out as a DoT instead.
• Phaetonic Hymn: Aetherpact tethering the Scholar to the party member. It has no cost, just a cooldown.
• Hyperion Hymn: Lilybell.
• Helionic Hymn: A fairy that applies damage reduction and a growing shield to people around it. Basically a second Sacred Soil but without regens.

Reworked Skills! Because good lord, stop fighting your own designs, Scholar!

• Recitation works on both Excog, Adlo and now also Manifestation and Contravallation.
• Deployment Tactics now works with Manifestation, Contravallation and Retaliation.
• Emergency Tactics does not work with Contravallation.

Seraph of War
The Scholar merges with Eos periodically once all Banners were unlocked, typically at the 2m window.

• The Seraph explodes with damage upon transforming.
• All healing will be increased.
• During this duration, Adloquium and Succor are buffed to Manifestation and Accession.
• The SCH continuously throws out Embrace passively. Will also normally execute Whispering Dawn. However, they will have the Seraph's upgrade which applies a small shield on every Embrace cast.
• Emergency Tactics becomes a toggle, turning all cast Adlos\Succors into heals until switched off.
• Chain Stratagem unlocks the following damaging combo on its own button:
• Baneful Logistic (deals damage),
• Festering Tactic (applies a poison),
• Biological Warfare (casts old Shadow Flare, applying a puddle of poison underneath the target).

[Karowolus]

I do understand that a lot of these ideas are basically like... Completely flipping the ideas of classes on their heads and taking what is the norm at the moment and kinda telling it to go sit in the corner.
And that some of these are complex and really, these ideas are still being discussed, etc.
But I wanted to know what folks would think if this was a possibility. almost like a 'we could dream' kinda thing.

Opinions welcome. The usual.

[sharknado]

White Mage

• Tetragrammaton has a cure effect with a regen as well.

I would remove one row of random buttons as a start. Then add some cool-looking stuff. For dungeons something for trash packs. For bosses a button to increase self-survivability and/or self-death protection. Next, we would need some skill/reward skills - maybe very short duration dot that if present on boss/mob when he casts a damaging ability the healer get some charges as a reward and can use them on cool abilities - from super heals to stronger attacks (machine gun glare! carpet bombing trash packs). Existing dots could just get canned. Healer damage should go from consistent to bursts through the skill/reward system so healing isn't a direct block for dealing damage.

Cure I should switch to Cure II and no Freecure. Cure III with cleave heal is kind of unique enough to be its own thing. Could have additional shield/DR on stacked players maybe?

[Chiru_Kai]

Very complex. I can appreciate the write up and effort that went into it so a +1 to all posts.

Thing is kinda that healer is *mostly* okay, and for game development and game design there is a "KISS" approach: Keep It Simple and Stupid.
Completely overhauling jobs is not something that has ever been done, and likely will not happen. This is a GREAT what-if scenario, but I don't have high hopes for any of this actually even being considered because it's just way too much work and doesn't address why healers are 'optional' in the first place, and that reason is: tanks have too much sustain for themselves AND party.

What I would instead recommend is proposing ideas for an immediate win™ scenario.

For example:
- Removing all healing and shielding abilities of tanks. They can only mitigate and reduce damage for themselves and party as a tank should, but not heal. Instead, what they should do is increase their healing received, or get bigger mitigations. But for real, remove all of the heals and barriers that tanks can apply to themselves or partymembers. This is a healer's job and it shouldn't overlap. Period.
- All healers should get a damage optimization if there are less heals to do:

WHM: overcapping on lillies = feeding the Blood Lily.
SCH: Energy Drain is great as it is. I would maybe add in a combo, similar to SMN's Fester/Necrotize that is a small potency oGCD that gets added after using Energy Drain. Maybe also can spread Biolysis DOT?
SGE: Toxikon gets more potency from 360 to 420, making it a DPS gain even on single target and you WANT to use these in bursts. Addersgall overcap = automatic Addersting stack if possible. Possibly Rhizomata can get an additional proc that if used on full Addersgall stacks, it also refills ALL Addersting.
AST: gets Redraw ability back with a 60 second cooldown, but only applies for Minor Arcana. Can change Lady of Crowns into Lord of Crowns and vice versa. Redrawing the minor Arcana increases its potency by 50%. (redrawn Lady into Lord = 600 Potency damage. Redrawn Lord into Lady = 600 potency AOE heal). Also helps with the first raid burst right now I think, which is always kinda forced to be a Lady.

[Alice_Rivers]

I'm not particularly good at SCH but I do love that idea of SCH, leans much closer to it's lore than current SCH does. As for WHM, as the previous poster said Cure 3 is great as is and to sacrifice it's functionality I'd want to see something like Medica 1 getting a buff to serve it's role as a large aoe heal to actually be viable in the face of Medica 2's regen. Really Medica 1 should get a buff anyway given the amount of added potency Medica 2 has in regen but that's another thing.

Also, might I add, attacking WAR like that is very brave of you.

[Karowolus]

In regards to Cure III, I think a slight misunderstanding is present.

The idea of Cure would basically have it be a bit like 'Lemme eat your MP' Heal. And that it would evolve. So you have Cure I, then Cure II with Freecure being a 'MP Efficiency for Repetitive Heals', and Cure III would retain it's AoE nature.

To give it a like... 'Current Example' It would be like.. If Cure III in this situation was like a 3000 MP Cost Heal, instant cast and reduced GCD for it. It wouldn't be your 'Primary Healing Tool' because you'd have more of an incentive to manage the rest of your resources. Especially with the concept of this new WHM being 'Regens are Strong, but let me play with them'