Is there any hope for next expansion?

[NobleWinter]

Are healers going to be part of the major overhaul to reintroduce job identity? Have the Dev's said that they would like to try anything new with Healers? As far as I know it's been radio silence for any plans concerning change. Dawntrail adding only the most superficial abilities to every class after three expansions of lackluster healer gameplay has not left me very hopeful. I do appreciate getting new healing classes like Warrior and Paladin but they seem to take away more fun from actual healers in exchange.

[Carighan]

They have plenty job identity, actually. Just nothing to heal, so you never notice their identity, either.

[PercibelTheren]

They have plenty job identity, actually. Just nothing to heal, so you never notice their identity, either.

Do they? AST is "better WHM with more sparkles" and SGE is "better SCH". All the healers play the same. Which is why I no longer main the role.

[Supersnow845]

Do they? AST is "better WHM with more sparkles" and SGE is "better SCH". All the healers play the same. Which is why I no longer main the role.

SGE is just far worse SCH honestly

The SGE/SCH imbalance is arguably the most egregious in the game

[Rithy255]

SGE is just far worse SCH honestly

The SGE/SCH imbalance is arguably the most egregious in the game

Well it would be if healers are important lol.

[Carighan]

Do they? AST is "better WHM with more sparkles" and SGE is "better SCH". All the healers play the same. Which is why I no longer main the role.

White Mage is the "raw output" healer. In fact, you can place the four healers on a matrix, where one axis is "output vs utility" and the other is "shield vs heals". WHM is healing and output focused. Astro by comparison is healing and utility focused.

White Mage emphasizes this in their movement mechanic being free instant cast heals (the Afflati spells), in Cure III which is a highly unique spell for maximum output only situations, their biggest CD being based on raw healing and getting mana-free casts of their biggest spells to further emphasize the ability to just go ham on everyone's health bars. Even an area that increasing healing taken, no matter from which source.

Contrast this with Astro, which shows a way more nuanced and utility focused approach. Their cards and Divinition to enhance the damage ouput of their groups and reduce tank damage taken. Their ability to intermittently provide shielding beyond a single ability. The fact that three of their abilities focus on (ideally) pre-planning for when damage will be taken to automatically re-heal it (which plays into the whole "divining the future"-angle of the job, too). Essential Dignity scaling with health missing. Their biggest CD including a damage GCD and scales with damage taken.

Then you get to the shield healers, Sage is very much what White Mage is for raw health, but for shields. Lots of ability to provide raw output, even while nuking. Instant cast shields, spammable. Damage reductions galore and stackable. Throws cola cans if actual healing is needed. Can supercharge shielding on a tank. And their primary resource for movement depends on shields since they need to be used up to provide it. Also a strong identity due to their manaregen being tied to the skills that further just push more output and more DR onto the group. To keep going, you gotta keep spamming!

And in contrast to that, again, Scholar is more utility centric (also utterly wasted as a concept, this is the one job that doesn't even show slight signs of design or identity, but on a gameplay level it works out). Damage taken debuff, runspeed, extremely varied modes of healing and shielding to cover every situation. In return it can't just spam shields while moving all day, but hey, it can actually spam (a weaker) nuke while moving!

If you actually had to use your whole kit, and your GCD heals/shields, constantly, the jobs would feel quite distinct despite so many similarities. They could be worlds better (and Scholar needs to be scrapped entirely and re-done from the ground up, it's a hodgepodge of all those years of ill-fitting design ideas), but they do work out. Or would, if there was stuff to be healed in this game.

[PercibelTheren]

I no longer believe anything they say, to be honest. They either make promises they never deliver on, or deliver a lot less/something vastly different than what it sounds like. If their idea of "reworks" is what they did to AST and BLM in Dawntrail, I'd rather they just don't touch jobs at all.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

[...]I do appreciate getting new healing classes like Warrior and Paladin[...]

I cackled hard reading this part.

Humors aside, probably no. As cynical as that sounded, that's what they've been doing for as long as I've been playing personally. They've done absolutely nothing to convince me the otherwise. Not just on healer gameplay, mind you. Long ago, I thought healers are the red hooded step child, which may be true if this is still Shadowbringer. But after Endwalker and everything else that rolls by the following years, they're probably extending the same treatment everywhere else. As if trying to see how low they can cut corner until too many player breaks away.

[Laerune]

It's a coin toss for now. Yoshi did say at first that we would see something in 7.0, then pushed it to 8.0.

We will know more late this year, when fanfest starts.

[Calysto]

I guess AST getting a rework is mandatory with an expansion.

As for the job identity focus, it could be a redesign if the Jobs UI and I wouldn't be surprised.
I wouldn't be surprised if they just skipped the whole thing like they never said it either...

So yeah, hope seems an empty promise like 'become the warrior of darkness' or 'go on a vacation'