Final Fantasy 14: What's The Best Healer Job?

Let's be real: You're either here because you're entirely new to the game and want to start off on the right foot, or you're looking for the current best healer job meta to tackle the new high-end content. Maybe you're looking to switch jobs for the upcoming new Ultimate — maybe you're looking to get into raiding for the first time — or, maybe, your static desperately needs a new healer, you can't stand another week of recruiting, and you just want to hop into the role with the best toolkit available. 

Regardless of your reasons, the harsh truth is that — as with every other role — there is no "best" job. Sure, some jobs will have a higher damage ceiling than others, and sure, there are some specific fights that are made exponentially easier with the presence of certain job mechanics — but the differences are never big enough to override baseline player performance and comfort with the toolkit, and your ability to adapt to a certain job is always going to trump any inherent gameplay differences between them. 

As always in this game, what is the "best" job is always going to be what is the "best" job for you personally. Here's a breakdown of the two regen and two barrier healer jobs in "Final Fantasy 14" by ease of use, damage/healing output, and utility, so you can pick the best one for your own solo play and party composition needs.

The one, the only, the "Final Fantasy" classic with the distinctive white-and-red aesthetic, the White Mage — with a straightforward, no-nonsense toolkit and some of the highest healing potency amongst the Healer jobs, playing a White Mage requires little finesse in return for the biggest heals. Not to mention, it is the only Healer job with an extra stun effect on its signature AOE attack, giving the tank a few seconds of invulnerability at the start of every mob battle by virtue of the mobs simply being unable to attack at all.

However, its greatest strengths are also its greatest downfalls, and it suffers from a lack of utility and mobility. Other than a few single-target shielding abilities to help the Tank soak Tank Busters, it has virtually zero mitigations and relies heavily on keeping your Global Cooldown (GCD) rolling without exceptions.

Still, the White Mage handles emergency situations and unexpected damage like no other, with a respectable pool of Off-Global Cooldown (oGCD) buttons and extreme burst heal capacity — perfect for those who are up to the challenge of handling a resource-heavy powerhouse.

At a glance, the White Mage features:

• A controller-friendly, straightforward toolkit
• Access to the most powerful single-target heal in the game
• Powerful regens and passive healing but no AOE mitigations
• Caster-centered AOE attacks and placeable healer bubble
• Little to no oGCD weaving
• No party damage buffs
• Subpar mobility with limited insta-cast abilities

The signature feature of this job is its contribution to party damage, as its main mechanic revolves around applying damage buffs to the party and itself via Tarot cards — however, it's also the most susceptible to RNG out of all the healers due to the card draws being entirely up to chance. It also requires precise familiarity with the cards themselves, as incorrect application cuts into buff efficiency and can lead to a great overall loss of DPS.

Not to mention, the cooldown for drawing cards is only 30 seconds, meaning that you're constantly drawing and applying cards while running a damage and healing rotation. On top of that, many of the healing abilities have delayed effects and special gimmicks that require precision to use effectively. While the Astrologian has the potential to be extremely powerful, it demands near-mastery from the player in order to deploy any of this potential — this versatile but technical job is best reserved for those who actually enjoy overclocking their brains on a regular basis and thinking five steps ahead.

At a glance, the Astrologian features:

• A big, high-utility toolkit that can feel unintuitive and crowded on gamepads
• Access to the most powerful AOE heal in the game
• Powerful but high-maintenance job mechanic
• Target-centered AOE attacks and caster-centered healer bubble
• Constant weaving that can be difficult on higher ping
• Highest party damage buffs out of all the healers
• Moderate mobility with a solid pool of instant-cast options

This job is all about accounting for damage that hasn't happened yet. Whether that's through delayed healing or hardcore mitigation, the Scholar can throw out barrier shields that cover more than half of each party member's max HP bar, and can even convert these shields into raw heals in a pinch, making it excel in mitigation and emergency burst healing.

However, its main job mechanic is the management of a semi-autonomous fairy with a slightly cumbersome AI — while the Scholar's pool of Fairy-centered AOE healing means it has the biggest healing range of all the healers, the Fairy has to be manually placed throughout the course of a fight. Coupled with the large toolkit, Scholar is a job with a potentially huge disparity in performance between gamepad and keyboard users due to the difference in targeting speed and precision. And, as with Astrologian, its powerful abilities have strict efficiency windows that are best left to those comfortable with tight resource management and constant forward-thinking.

At a glance, the Scholar features:

• A large toolkit that's clunky and nonoptimal on gamepads
• Access to the thickest shields in the game as well as the only party-wide combat speed buff
• Versatile and useful — but high-maintenance — pet mechanic
• Caster-centered AOE attacks and placeable healer bubble
• Tons of oGCD weaving and job resource management
• Static two-minute cycle party damage buff
• Excellent mobility with a wide range of instant-cast abilities
• Free access to the Summoner DPS job due to using the same base class

Introduced in "Endwalker," Sage is the less technical of the two barrier healers — while its shields aren't as outright powerful as the Scholar's, it has much more versatile access to raw healing and is perfectly suited to mitigating sequential/repeated damage, such as from specific fight mechanics or the combined attacks of a large mob group. It also offers greater freedom of movement to party members, as all of its team mitigations are applied as individual statuses instead of locational buffs.

Additionally, its Eukrasia ability serves as a gear shift that effectively offers two versions of its baseline GCD toolkit for the hotkey price of one, making it especially streamlined and smooth to play on a gamepad. Along with its high mobility that lets it keep up with a sprinting tank without dropping its rotation, Sage makes healing through chain-pulls a total breeze. Overall, it's a very solid job that isn't as punishing about imprecision as Scholar, with the tradeoff that it doesn't have the massive shielding power or the all-around utility.

At a glance, Sage features:

• Sleek and intuitive gameplay on controllers
• Easy and free access to both shield and raw healing as well as the only healer gap closer
• Constant passive healing tied to DPS output
• Caster-centered AOE attacks and healer "bubble" applied as buffs
• Tons of oGCD weaving but less punishing job resource management
• No party damage buff
• Best mobility out of all the healer jobs with a huge pool of instant-cast options