While their power varies from one game to another, healers are always a vital part of any party they’re in. Within the Xenoblade Chronicles series, healers haven’t always been necessary, but in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, their value cannot be understated.
In Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s role system, healers of course provide health restoration to the attackers and defenders, but also usually come with a host of useful buffs and debuffs. Just like attackers, they also have to be careful not to draw too much enemy aggro from their healing. With the plentiful classes and arts that the game offers though, it can be hard to know which arts to prioritize for general or specialist healer playstyles. Here are the best options.
8 Resonant Flag
For a buff-heavy playstyle, the Signifier class is unlockable around chapter 5 of the game, and plays with buffs in a big way. The class has the ability to provide itself and its party with random buffs, helping keep the whole squad alive.
Resonant Flag provides a convenient way to keep the buffs cycling around the party. It allows the Signifier to share any buffs they have with the rest of the party. With arts from other classes, this can become even stronger, allowing the whole party access to powerful enhancements.
7 Heal Bullet
A big limiter on some arts is how long it takes to get a hand on them. New classes in XC3 take some effort to unlock, and even more to spread around the party. The War Medic class gains value from being one of the first unlockable classes, usually being the second one that the party gains access to.
Heal Bullet ends up being one of the most consistent arts from this class. It’s purely focused on healing, and does its job exceptionally well. It applies a sizable heal to all allies in range, and has a relatively short cooldown of 17 seconds, making it a consistent healing source.
6 Way Home
When the game starts, the party has access to only the first three steps of a Burst combo, with Break, Topple, and Daze mostly appearing in attacker, defender and healer classes respectively. Burst isn’t obtained until at least chapter 3, and even then is locked behind a talent art, which can take a while to charge.
Once the Troubadour class is obtained around chapter 6, a much easier Burst option is obtainable in Way Home. For any parties looking to make use of burst’s item dropping effects, Way Home is a vital art.
5 Multiblast
War Medic has already been mentioned as a good healer class that is obtainable earlier than most others, but Heal Bullet isn’t the only valuable art that this class offers. Multiblast is also more than worth using.
The main difference between Multiblast and Heal Bullet is that Multiblast doubles as an attack. This means that it can miss and lose its healing effects, but as it’s a master art, it can be used on other classes, providing them with more strong healing options that also help with damage.
4 Hornet
An important detail to consider about arts is the different ways they recharge. Arts from Keves classes use a timed cooldown, while Agnus arts are recharged via auto-attacks. Depending on the class these arts are being used with, this can change which arts are more valuable.
Hornet provides an Agnus alternative to Multiblast, being more useful on classes with fast auto-attacks. No matter what class it's being used on however, Hornet still provides slightly more damage than Multiblast — alongside some possible drawbacks, like the ability to miss.
3 Aquamind
Aquamind is an extremely strong art for healers; however, it is mainly limited by how long it takes to gain access to. Specifically, it is unlocked via the Lifesage class, which is a strong healer class, but is only obtained upon beating XC3 in its entirety.
Once players get a hand on it, however, Aquamind becomes hard to ignore. It doesn’t provide immediate healing, instead healing the party over time. However, it also speeds up art activation. This, combined with its decent recharge rate, means it can be used quite regularly, and allows for faster heals.
2 Ring o'Roses
While Aquamind helps with art speed, there is an art with an even stronger buff. However, this art sacrifices any damage or healing due to the sheer power of its effect.
The Troubadour class gains a lot of its value from its ability to speed up art recharging, and is available at chapter 6. Due to this, Ring o’Roses will be accessible for a decent amount of the game. Its art recharge effect is quite powerful, and being a master art, it can also be swapped unto other classes, providing a powerful buff to any playstyle.
1 Soulfire
While regular arts are much easier to charge up, talent arts justify their higher cost through their higher power and utility. As every character can only have one, the talent art slots are a highly contested space.
One of the better options for this slot on a healer is Soulfire, the talent art of the Strategos class. Not only is its class available as early as chapter 3, but Soulfire is also a high-power heal for the whole party. Beyond that, it also applies an attack down effect to enemies, meaning the health allies just received will last them much longer.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is out now on Nintendo Switch.