Top 5 Healing Classes in Video Games That Do it Better

When playing an RPG, you're always going to need a healer—someone to patch-up your party's wounds or otherwise provide support. When I look for a healer in any game, I tend to go for ones that take healing to the next level. I want a healer that can do more than just cast "Cure" and end their turn with that. Luckily, I've been able to scrape together 5 of my favorite healing classes that make things much more interesting.

For the sake of confusion, I'll be referring to each one as a "class", even though some games call them "jobs" or "vocations" or something else.

These are in no specific order.

Sovereign | Etrian Odyssey III

Etrian Odyssey has always taken the typical roles of fighter, mage, cleric, etc. and given them each a good, hard twist that makes each class so much more fun to play. In a game where you want to crank out as many actions as possible in one turn, no class does that better than the Sovereign.

In this game, healers are typically best left in the back row, where they'll take fewer attacks and therefore less damage. But the Sovereign is one of the few healers that can stand their ground in the front row, having the ability to equip heavy armor and a shield. Although I wouldn't recommend having them in the front row, it's nice to have that option, freeing up some space in the back row for another ranged character.

Here's the best part: Sovereigns can provide buffs alongside healing. Each turn, you can have your Sovereign provide a row-wide buff to increase attack, defense, speed, or whatever else you want, and also heal that entire row. BUT WAIT—THERE'S MORE. As you progress the Sovereign skill tree, they'll even gain the ability to regain TP (think of MP) whenever they gain a buff, heal the party at the end of the turn if they're at full HP, recover HP at the end of battle, recover HP while walking through dungeons, and even recover TP when a buff's effect ends. If that sounds awesome already, you'll be glad to hear that that's not even half of what's available to them.

White Mage + Spiritmaster | Bravely Default 2

Bravely Default 2 is a game that begs to be broken. Each class can be combined with another, making some pretty ridiculous combos. If you're looking for a good healer combo for this game, look no further than White Mage + Spiritmaster. While there might be class combos that can achieve more healing per ability cast, the biggest benefit of the Spiritmaster is the ability "Reraise".

Buckle up, because I have a gigantic info dump to lay on you. In Bravely Default 2, each character can equip a primary class and sub-class. That character will be able to use the spells and abilities of both classes, but will only have access to the primary class's Specialties, or passive effects exclusive to that class. You'll want the White Mage class as your primary, Spiritmaster as your sub-class. The White Mage's Specialty 2 allows all healing spells to effect the ENTIRE PARTY. The ying to this healer combo yang is the Spiritmaster's exclusive spell "Reraise", which when cast, automatically revives a party member if they are KOed.

Normally you'd need to use multiple turns to revive multiple allies or use BP (Bravery Points that allow multiple actions in one turn, at the cost of losing your next few turns), but in this case you can use Reraise once and it will affect the entire party, saving you precious turns and BP to do something else and making you feel like a god.

Apothecary | Triangle Strategy

I don't normally choose item-based healers, but Medina, when played properly, is pretty cracked. In a typical turn with her, you'd just throw a healing item at an ally and heal them. That sounds pretty boring, but there are lots of layers to her particular brand of healing.

The first things you'll notice about Medina are her increased healing with items, increased throwing range, and that she can use two healing items in one turn. The biggest benefit to using Medina is her ability to recover 1 TP (again, think MP) to her healing target. If you use a healing item that affects more than one ally, they'll all regain TP, letting you pull off some powerful abilities with those characters next turn.

On top of her bodacious heals, Medina does pretty decent damage with her knife, and can provide buffs and debuffs, in case your allies are at full HP—which they most likely will be, with her at their side.

Admittedly, Medina sounds pretty tame when compared to the others in this article. But in a turn-based tactics game, she can make a gigantic difference in just one turn.

Hunting Horn | Monster Hunter World

While Monster Hunter can be enjoyed when playing solo, playing with friends is the definitive experience. If you prefer to play a supportive role when hunting with your bros or gals, the Hunting Horn is the class for you.

The Monster Hunter World version of the Hunting Horn, while a tad bit complex at first, is one of the most satisfying weapons to master. Each attack with the horn plays a specific note, and you'll need to combine certain notes to create a Melody, which provides buffs or healing to yourself and allies near you. One of the biggest changes made to the Hunting Horn in MHW (Monster Hunter World) is the ability to queue up to three songs, allowing you to combo from one melody into another and then another, providing your allies with a fat stack of buffs.

While the supportive side of the Hunter Horn sounds awesome, it's still a weapon and actually does a great amount of damage to monsters, allowing a Hunting Horn user to stay in the front line and still provide support.

Monster Hunter World is on everything, except for Switch. Go check it out!

Idol + Hostess | Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Another game that lets you create some pretty insane class combos. While there are a few other classes useable by other party members, Saeko's healing stats are generally better than anyone else's, and the Idol class has abilities that heal the entire party at once; not to mention that it also excels in debuffing enemies and inflicting status ailments.

With abilities such as "Magical Voice" (heals all allies) and "Miraculous Voice" (removes debuffs and status ailements from all allies), the Idol can also use "Lovedrunk Typhoon", which reduces the defense of all enemies, and even has a chance to charm them. That sounds pretty over-powered already, right? Well, the Idol also recovers a good chunk of MP with every basic attack, so you'll always have enough MP to heal your allies.

While the Idol doesn't have very many offensive moves, you can easily grind a few levels in the Hostess class to learn some great offensive moves like "Sparkling Cannon" to deal some ice damage, and potentially leave them drunk or with a cold.

What are your favorite healing classes that do things differently?

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