Increase buff durations across the board

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Originally Posted by Seriha

I can't help but feel Cid is fishing for this as more of a buff to WHM, though, as they would reap the benefits of this far more than RDM with their AoE equivalents of spells. But in general, I've always pined for some means to increase buff durations. Prior to Composure, I wanted a tiered trait on RDM that people sub the job for. I've also entertained the idea of durations scaling with Enhancing skill similar to some SMN pacts. This technically exists with barspells, who have a base duration until you hit the enhancing skill of level 55 or so, then they proceed to increase in duration until capping out at something like 15 minutes. So, really, in the same span of time, a player might be without said buffs for 10-30s unless the buffer doesn't pay much attention or is overburdened. I'd even settle for a 5s recast JA that doubled MP costs to double durations. Stepping on SCHs toes? Maybe. They can AoE a lot of buffs, though, giving them more time to do other things.

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Probably. White Mage enhancing magic casting can be quite miserable. While it might be "easy" to keep up a Haste cycle, it is a pain in the butt, and I absolutely refuse to be required to keep Haste on more then the tank. I might do it regardless, but it is one of the things I will drop party if I hear complaining, I don't deal with that anymore - my job is to heal, if you need an enhancer, get a Red Mage or a Scholar.

I think more White Mages should react like this, but the job is so easy to level and get to the level of "just enough" competency that people who hate the job (precisely because they're required to sit in the back, shut up and do monotonous cycles) will burn it up to 99 and spam cures so they can get some gear for another job.

But all that is Haste mostly.

For our AoE spells, stuff like Bar-element spells can be nice with the duration, but keeping up Auspice and Boost-STAT on a group can be a pain, especially when running in to cast them is certain death. Boost-STAT spells are a five minute timer though, so not so bad. Auspice on the other hand is a mere two minutes and thirty seconds, and keeping it up is a total pain.

Still, it isn't so bad with aoe buffs. The main problem I have as a White Mage is that if you plan on only meleeing and still want to keep Haste and Auspice up, they start to eat into your DPS significantly. Haste isn't bad because at least it helps combat, but Auspice, at the incredibly low two minutes and thirty seconds duration, is simple not helpful enough to keep it full timed, especially since SE nerfed the accuracy bonus hard.

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TL;DR: For White Mage, I don't think SE is going to buff the duration of haste, but short of a 10-15 minute duration on others I'm not going to ever cycle it for a shout group anyways. Auspice could either a buff, +10-20 subtle blow might be nice for a party, but even then the duration should at very least be slightly longer, and solo it doesn't help enough to justify keeping it up (although this is more of an issue with Afflatus Misery then Auspice I think).