I've raised my views in a couple of threads, but figured I'd make my own.
The devs I think have made clear what their intended direction is for healing jobs. I can 100% see the potential. I've played since A Realm Reborn and remember being a SCH during that time and loving its design and one of the main things I loved was this idea of it being a shield healer, it created a different dynamic for how I interact with people's health pool. And honestly, I can get behind this, if the devs pull it off.
To see the devs make a definite statement that they intend for the "pure" and "shield" healer distinction like we had in 2.0 is hopeful. Yet my fear is that they won't achieve this goal because of existing design.
So my feedback here is. Nerf SCH's Pure Healing. And balance Sage's against it.
If you need to then buff shields to compensate. You could allow us to stack them so we're not disadvantaged in a dual-shield healer set up. You could remove the timer on the effect so none are wasted. Or apply a penalty to secondary shields if 2 stacked is too strong. Or just apply a longer timer if a permanent one presents problems.
Unless you nerf then the stated goal cannot be achieved. SCH is too good at oGCD pure heals. Shields are situational and if anything end up getting the "Emergency Tactics" treatment because Emergency Tactics provides a guaranteed heal. Galvanise relies on people to take a hit.
A "shield" healer is not a pure healer with shields as an after thought. It's a specific healing style that was achieved in 2.0. The game has evolved since then, but the direction SCH has taken was not to build on its shield mechanics, but to build on its oGCD's and healing potential. This, if anything, eroded any distinction between "pure" and "shield" healer. This means if they try to carry this distinction with current healer design without shaking anything up would make the distinction redundant as it already has been.
So SCH will need nerfs for this to work. I hope that they are nerfed come 6.0, but given even in its current state Scholar is still considered a 'shield healer' when it barely even needs them of course makes me worried the same trend will follow. Hence a thread.
Shield healers need to rely on their shields for it to work.
And for SCH I think this approach could make Seraph feel more useful. Buff her shields. The use I think she has is that she can protect the party to help prevent incoming damage and slap an AoE regen down to get their health up whilst the SCH is able to put their focus on something else (or help get HP up if there is a requirement for them to get it up quicker than a Regen will compensate). I used to use Eos a similar way to compensate my weaker heals in ARR but with Succor.
But the ways I found shield healing interacts with people's health bars (and is how I played it in 2.0):
- You preempt an attack and help mitigate and absorb the damage and you heal the difference. Mechanics are scripts, so this can be a proactive way of healing.
- Once an attack has gone off and your party members have suffered damage, you can shield from further damage until you get their health back up. This would how a Shield healer can be reactive.
It's why I think when SCH got bigger heals it become OP. Its existing tools were good enough but seems there was a perception that SCH's heals were weak.
Yet in ARR I was able to perform some crazy carries, do speed runs and all sorts of useful junk with my SCH. I never found this approach to be weak. I just have to think about it differently than I would a WHM.
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The devs I think have made clear what their intended direction is for healing jobs. I can 100% see the potential. I've played since A Realm Reborn and remember being a SCH during that time and loving its design and one of the main things I loved was this idea of it being a shield healer, it created a different dynamic for how I interact with people's health pool. And honestly, I can get behind this, if the devs pull it off.
To see the devs make a definite statement that they intend for the "pure" and "shield" healer distinction like we had in 2.0 is hopeful. Yet my fear is that they won't achieve this goal because of existing design.
So my feedback here is. Nerf SCH's Pure Healing. And balance Sage's against it.
If you need to then buff shields to compensate. You could allow us to stack them so we're not disadvantaged in a dual-shield healer set up. You could remove the timer on the effect so none are wasted. Or apply a penalty to secondary shields if 2 stacked is too strong. Or just apply a longer timer if a permanent one presents problems.
Unless you nerf then the stated goal cannot be achieved. SCH is too good at oGCD pure heals. Shields are situational and if anything end up getting the "Emergency Tactics" treatment because Emergency Tactics provides a guaranteed heal. Galvanise relies on people to take a hit.
A "shield" healer is not a pure healer with shields as an after thought. It's a specific healing style that was achieved in 2.0. The game has evolved since then, but the direction SCH has taken was not to build on its shield mechanics, but to build on its oGCD's and healing potential. This, if anything, eroded any distinction between "pure" and "shield" healer. This means if they try to carry this distinction with current healer design without shaking anything up would make the distinction redundant as it already has been.
So SCH will need nerfs for this to work. I hope that they are nerfed come 6.0, but given even in its current state Scholar is still considered a 'shield healer' when it barely even needs them of course makes me worried the same trend will follow. Hence a thread.
Shield healers need to rely on their shields for it to work.
And for SCH I think this approach could make Seraph feel more useful. Buff her shields. The use I think she has is that she can protect the party to help prevent incoming damage and slap an AoE regen down to get their health up whilst the SCH is able to put their focus on something else (or help get HP up if there is a requirement for them to get it up quicker than a Regen will compensate). I used to use Eos a similar way to compensate my weaker heals in ARR but with Succor.
But the ways I found shield healing interacts with people's health bars (and is how I played it in 2.0):
- You preempt an attack and help mitigate and absorb the damage and you heal the difference. Mechanics are scripts, so this can be a proactive way of healing.
- Once an attack has gone off and your party members have suffered damage, you can shield from further damage until you get their health back up. This would how a Shield healer can be reactive.
It's why I think when SCH got bigger heals it become OP. Its existing tools were good enough but seems there was a perception that SCH's heals were weak.
Yet in ARR I was able to perform some crazy carries, do speed runs and all sorts of useful junk with my SCH. I never found this approach to be weak. I just have to think about it differently than I would a WHM.
Continue reading...