Shadowbringers Healers First Impression

I wanted to write down some of my first thoughts from the FFXIV 5.0 Shadowbringers early access.

Astro

Astro is dead. No one should be playing it right now, and instead either playing WHM/SCH, or rioting on the SE forums. It heals less than the other healers, it deals less damage than the other two healers, it suffers more MP management problems than the other two healers, and it buffs less than Dancer. It's still pretty though.

White Mage

Haven't touched it, so I can only record what I hear other people saying: "It's great!".

Scholar

Scholar (and Summoner) is what I'm leveling to 80 first. The removal of many of the job's (and, to be clear, the class') abilities hurts. If you go to Reddit, you'll see people complaining about damage potencies and such being reduced on healers. Personally, I only care in as much as it makes open-area PvE on the job more frustrating than it already is. Instead, what bugs me is the reduction of abilities causing play to be boring. As of today, we can all confirm that it is indeed, boring.

Encounter design (ARR/HW/SB)

It's worth noting that due to the many changes to the Battle System, old content is actually harder than it was before, even with some small ilevel increases from the ShB MSQ. Healers have to spend more time healing, as their heals seem to count for less and tanks are taking more damage.

Encounter design (ShB)

I haven't made it to the first dungeon or trial in the expansion yet; I have a handful of MSQ quests before the first dungeon, which I'll be able to access immediately as I'm already level 71.