Evolved White Mage: Fixed

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Originally Posted by Zaytex

[...]I fully expect every healer to no longer have cast times.

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Kinda ironic that a role where they're supposed to find opportunities to cast something got their spellcast removed, whereas roles where their mobility should be free are given cast time.

Sure this is mostly from the guy who gets a lot of good reception out of PvP job designs... but still...

It's just a rethinking I suppose.

If you look historically, it's not clear that casters have cast times.

Yes, they sometimes did. Some books had spellweavers needing to focus for a while and not be distracted/interrupted to weave their magic. OTOH, plenty early pen&paper RPGs ultimately allow you to move/act while preparing spells, or even just use spells outright (Earthdawn for example is very lenient in this regard, but then in that, everyone is a magic-user in a way). Even just focusing on video games and even just in Final Fantasy, most do not have a cast bar system for magic. You just select it from your menu, the character uses it, much like any other attack, item or whatever you select. Done.

We don’t have little things like resistance, reflecting, and dynamic encounter interplays though, & they clearly were casting way more in the past expacs, a sign that they were intended to require these different kind of mental load to be played. Moreover, comparing single player games like other FF title where you’re actually controlling an entire party of differing job archetype vs here in MMO where you pick one & stick to it till the end of encounter is just ain’t it. Take all of that out, what do we have remains here? The sword/staff icon on damage numbers?

To me all these recent decisions to reduce spellcasting since late ShB/EW up till this demo felt more looking like the designer playing Sekiro or some form of Hack & Slash genre game, then suddenly had an epiphany “Oh I know! Let’s make the casters cast less spells because these melee mechanics are cooler!”, nothing more.

Glare? That’s Holy Arrow. Bio? That’s Poison Arrow. You get the drill.

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Originally Posted by Rein_eon_Osborne

We don’t have little things like resistance, reflecting, and dynamic encounter interplays though, & they clearly were casting way more in the past expacs, a sign that they were intended to require these different kind of mental load to be played. Moreover, comparing single player games like other FF title where you’re actually controlling an entire party of differing job archetype vs here in MMO where you pick one & stick to it till the end of encounter is just ain’t it. Take all of that out, what do we have remains here? The sword/staff icon on damage numbers?

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I didn't say I agree with the shift in particular, more that it's not easy to say "but casting should always be a thing". I'd say historically the majority of comparative material will disagree with you there.

Now, why do older MMORPGs in particular use a lot of slow castbars? Three reasons, actually:

• Fragility. Spellslingersare near-universally frail in return for their powerful magic. One way to express this is to flat out make them unable to act if successfully attacked, and one easy mechanical way of doing this is to give them a slow castbar and make damage intake interrupt this. (note that FFXIV does not use this mechanic, despite how crucial it once was to the ideas of castbars in MMORPGs)
• Delayed response. An easy way to make space for strong abilities is to have them happen... later. So add a 4s-10s castbar (we're talking old MMORPGs here, Complete Heal in EQ1 is a 10s cast!) and it's fine if the effect at the end is super strong, it happens a long time after whatever game effect prompted you to want to use it (i.e. tank taking damage for the CH example) happened. Note that FFXIV also doesn't use this context, as we know ahead of time what'll happen precisely, and when.
• Technical reasons. EQ1 used a 6s server-tick close. This meant that they had to slow you down to ideally 1 or fewer abilities in each 6 second window, lest the server cannot actually tell the order of things any more (it just gathers it all up and synchronizes HP values etc on the next 6s clock cycle). FFXIV is also rather slow with it's 2.5s GCD which means the server doesn't have to react tooooooo quickly to stuff, we can't act super-quick anyways. Slow castbars help mask very low server tick frequencies as they naturally disallow you from adding multiple complex mechanics (old MMO spells are often the more complex stuff, physical classes usually relied on autoattacks primarily), and this way the server has only one of those scripts to process each tick.

That's not at all to say that I don't want slow spell casts in my MMORPGs. But there's a reason they once were everywhere (and far far slower than what even FF14 started with) and nowadays are quickly becoming more and more rare even in other MMORPGs. Look at GW2 where virtually all casted mechanics allow full movement during it. Look at WoW that also steadily increased speed and reduces hard casts. Look at FF14 itself. There's a reason for this:
Nowadays, PvE encounter mechanics are horribly involved compared to back when 10s castbars were thing in EQ1. Class mechanics themselves are insanely complicated, even in a game as static-rotation-only and 0-decision-space-0-adaptation in its class design as FF14, compared to say a Warrior in EQ1 that basically had two buttons an its autoattack. This all removes the need for what castbars once provided. We no longer need them to provide tension.

I guess if I had free choice, I'd prefer slow-caster-type characters to focus on just few individual but very slow spells, if for no other reason than to highlight just how powerful those attacks are. Say on a Sage, Pneuma should maybe be a much slower cast, 4s++, and also be much stronger. Even just as a damage thing, NEEEEEM the target for super big numbers, but also basically a complete heal on the whole group. LBs should probably cast much longer than they do now even if the effect is already ongoing while the castbar fills. Black Mages should maybe only really have a castbar for Flare Star, but it could be 5s-7s, and hit for obscene amounts. Both the values and the casttime be so long, and contrasting so harshly with all the other abilities, you know the big stuff is coming. (granted with Black Mage I'd also like if they had to "feed" a genkidama style attack slowls over 20-30s and then an instant sends it off, same general conceptual idea though, but of a bad fit as that's how some FF games made summons work)

But back to the topic of evolved-WHM, I guess I kinda would only want to see cast bars on the big heals and the single biggest nuke or so. Kinda how they're doing it. Of course, from my perspective those cast bars are too quick, and everything else (despite being instant) is too slow, but I suspect lowering the GCD clock is a bigger ask on a technical level. Something I suspect will happen. It has to, eventually. Much like the ability removal now had to happen, and honestly like 4+ xpacks ago.

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Originally Posted by ty_taurus

I made a small edit based on the conversation for the lack of Surecast. I gave Aethereal Shift 2 charges and made it a knockback immunity while standing still and a dash in the current direction, similar to how Bard was displayed, while moving. Thoughts on that?

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Better than dependence on Role Actions, for sure.

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Originally Posted by ty_taurus

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I like: that you've kept Cure and Medica upgrading to Solace and Rapture for regen. I like working with role skills like Esuna for additional effects so long that each job gets their own additional effect, be that each on the same role action or each on a different one. Divine Caress no longer being a shield but instead increasing HP by its overheal is interesting. I do think that some would say its feels SCH (Protraction), but since its by overheal, its definitely very pure healer in design to me. Keeping with the theme that there are no dots, so you instead divided Dia and Glare by instacast and cast time, that's a nice touch. Aetherial Shift. The idea of Surecast being on your movement button and the conditional difference is "Am I moving or not?" sounds like it could be bad, but also sounds like the tiniest piece of player skill expression. And I like player skill expression.

I'm indifferent to: Stuns on the combo attacks of Dia and Glare seem oddly placed. It makes it so you can't really control your stuns on a single target who you may actually want to stun for a particular cast. It also could be a little annoying seeing "Can't be stunned" far more often than we do currently--Don't hate it, but not in love with it. Float is cute and fun, a good reference to other FFs. However, it doesn't fit 14 unless more pitfalls, hazardous floors, or puddles are available in content AND other jobs had some way of handling it. This isn't your intent but: imagine requiring a WHM for the dungeon Drowned City of Skalla because it is the only job at all who can make you walk over the pits between the 2nd and final boss. Now devs would never let that happen, making Floats other uses more reliable. Float over damage puddles and reduce damage to 0 to mitigate more damage than shield healers? I just don't think they would add this. If they did, it would be a role action instead, and classes like Ninja and Bard would also probably get some sort of "trap damage" mechanics.

I don't like: Assize's 40s cooldown if the healing gauge doesn't automatically generate lilies every 20s as it does now (you didn't say this, it's just not clear). It indicates that I have to expend Assize on cooldown just to ensure I get half the healing that is currently generated by the Healing Gauge. However, if Holy III grants Sanctity for lilies on a 20s cooldown, I guess I have to upkeep both Assize and Holy to get more Lilies than I have now. That's not so bad, just moves DOT maintenance to Lily maintenance. I understand that you got rid of Tetra, but Bene being both 2 stacks AND a 60s charge time, down from 180s, is a bit egregious. You could seriously do too much content with only Bene like this.

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Originally Posted by BlueMageQuina

Snip for length

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I don't think I updated this, but I mentioned earlier that I could move the stun to just High Dia. Which if you did want to hold it for a specific cast, what you could do is precast Dia, then go back to Glare > High Glare while sitting on High Dia and then cast it when you need to stun.

Assize doesn't make up half your lilies in the build. I added the lily bloom basically as a way to guarantee you have a blood lily nourish on Afflatus Solace/Rapture/Esuna III, but I understand the concern of having aspects of your healing tied to the Assize cast. I wanted to have one more aspect of damage first because it helps take pressure off your GCDs to be so high in potency for balance, which the numbers I listed could very well need adjustment. I just chose nice round numbers for communicating the idea. Also, it adds a little more variance to your DPS gameplay. And thing is, if the extra healing it provides through a lily and Solace/Rapture aren't things you feel like you can fully utilize, then you're not really losing anything just reaping the benefits of the damage anyway. But I do understand not wanting to waste resources even if they aren't needed. I feel similarly about Kardia procs. That said, you do always have Aquaveil as a more neutral option for lily usage if you don't have a lot of reasons to heal. It's also helpful for MP management. In hindsight I don't love the regen I added to it though. I did it so that it would feel like a job always benefits from a secondary effect even if you cast Aquaveil on a job that doesn't care about MP or can't generate more for balance reasons (like Black Mage or Dark Knight), but in retrospect I think it'd be better without. EDIT: I made a clarification that MP goes to magic jobs and HP to physical jobs. I think that could work nicely.

Personally, I just don't think single target healing is that important when push comes to shove for Benediction. In content that really pushes healing, you still need to heal the party anyway. If it still feels too powerful, though, what I could do instead is something similar to what I did with Holy III. Like, I could give Benediction a 120 second cooldown instead of a 60 second cooldown with two charges. Instead, you can use it off cooldown as much as you want, but each use decreases the effectiveness by half until the cooldown resets. So you use it and its a 100% heal, then a 50% heal, then a 25% heal, then a 12.5% heal etc. It gives you a few opportunities to use it like Tetra but the power of a raw 100% heal is still more limited. Thoughts?

I made this days ago after I posted other healer kits in the “I hope that the Evolved __ kit looks something like this” threads for AST, SCH and SGE. I wasn’t going to make a WHM kit at all but those threads inspired me. I wasn’t going to post this but Ty Taurus’ kit inspired me to do the same. Then I got to thinking that the Evolved WHM is the cause of our fears for Evolved healers.

So here is the build I made for EvWHM. I hope you (Ty) don’t mind me posting this here rather than making a 10th thread of WHM ideas:

EVOVLED WHM KIT

My Evolved WHM build was inspired by both the Fan Fest build and what I have read for years here on the forums. It will aim to keep the simplicity and healing-focus that the devs want for WHM, while also incorporating many of the missing pieces of WHM’s identity from their build—Thin Air, Presence of Mind, wind magic, etc. It will even incorporate pieces which have been missing for several expansions—Stoneskin, Protect, Cleric Stance, water magic, etc.

With this build, I hope to improve on the Evolved WHM base. It aims not necessarily to be a complete structure with all the knickknacks desired, but instead to be a design as a sort of purposeful chassis or skeleton. I have left intentional spaces whereon actions can be elaborated. These intentional spaces are both to honor the devs’ desire to keep WHM simple, and to have spaces within the kit where WHM’s complexity may be enriched in further expansions to come.

I am keeping all the actions the devs had shown in Fan Fest and am just elaborating on them:

1. Surecast
2. Swiftcast
3. Esuna
4. Raise
5. Cure
6. Medica
7. Glare
8. Holy
9. Holy Sanctity
10. Liturgy of the Bell
11. Benediction
12. Tetragrammaton
13. Aquaveil
14. Aetherial Shift
15. Plenary Indulgence
16. Temperance

Four of these actions have been renamed: Holy Sanctity (called Afflatus Misery), Liturgy of the Bell (called Afflatus Liturgy), Divine Benison (called Afflatus Benison) and Plenary Indulgence (called Lilyweaving). Afflatus actions, notably, have been renamed so that all actions that consume from the Lily Gauge have Afflatus in their names. This is just cognitive conditioning for the “simple healer.”

GAMEPLAY CYCLE AND JOB GAUGES

WHM does not instant cast all attack spells. WHM has two “phases” or “states.”

The primary state is its natural, native state without any conditions or procs. This primary state sees all of WHM’s actions as Earth-, Water-, or Wind-aspected. All spells here have cast times.

The secondary states are heightened states brought about via the gameplay loop. These secondary states sees all of WHM’s actions as their Light-, Holy- or otherwise religiously-themed upgrades. All healing spells here are instant casts, attack spells have cast times. The secondary state of WHM’s mechanics are an elaboration of Fan Fest’s main mechanic in which Plenary Indulgence gave WHM a temporary state that allowed for Healing Lily actions to be cast.

There are two secondary states, a short form and a long form:

The short form is Plenary Indulgence, which has been renamed “Lilyweaving.” It functions similarly to Fan Fest allowing for a 5s window to cast Healing Lilies. This short form only changes heals to their Light counterparts and costs a Healing Lily: Cure to Afflatus Solace, Medica to Afflatus Rapture, etc. The 5s window to cast these is called “Partial Indulgence.”

The long form is found by using your healing cooldowns like Temperance. A new gauge is built up to spend on healing cooldowns. When healing cooldowns are used, they will grant “Plenary Indulgence,” longer 20s window used to cast Light-related actions. During Plenary Indulgence, all actions—not just heals—are upgraded to their Light counterparts.

The priority logic of actions is simple. These actions do not change for either Partial or Plenary Indulgence: Surecast, Swiftcast, Esuna, Raise, Benediction, Afflatus Misery. As for the rest:

1. Plenary Indulgence is active; all actions are Light
2. Partial Indulgence is active; action becomes Light if it is a heal with Afflatus in its name
3. Neither of the above conditions are not met; all actions remain Earth, Water or Wind-aspected

There are two gauges:

The Lily Gauge works more or less the same as Dawntrail. It is learned at level 30. It grants 1 Healing Lily every 20s. It records usages of the Healing Lily by nourishing the Blood Lily up to 3 times. Because it works by counting up in seconds like ≈all of the Fan Fest gauges, the Light Gauge has been made to function differently.

As mentioned, Healing Lily heals are accessed through Lilyweaving in order to fill this gauge.

The Light Gauge is a new gauge which makes up the core mechanic for your Light-related actions. It is learned at level 40. Like the Lily Gauge, it is filled through the use of Healing Lilies at a rate of XX (15?) per Lily up to a maximum of 100. The Light Gauge is consumed by the healing cooldowns Cleric Stance, Presence of Mind, and Temperance. These three actions are upgrades in their respective upgrade order. These three healing buffs give WHM their own buffs alongside the Plenary Indulgence buff. Unlike the Lily Gauge, only effective healing on a least 1 player—and not healing to players already at full HP—fills the Light Gauge.

Once WHM has reached full Light Gauge, it may enter one of the appropriate healing buff for its level. This will convert all its actions to Light actions. Accumulated Light is used as a resource cost for all Light actions during Plenary Indulgence by converting all MP and Healing Lily costs into XX (10?) Light per cast. (Actions with charge times or recast times recast times have both the Light and charge/recast cost.) Healing Lilies may still be generated during this time.

Whenever the Light Gauge is depleted, Light actions revert to Elemental for the remaining duration of healing buffs and Healing Lilies cannot be used to generate more gauge. Whenever the duration ends, your Light actions revert to Elemental actions if not already reverted by the previous rule.

The Light Gauge is reset to 0 at the end of the duration of your healing buffs: this is used to gate access to Plenary Indulgence by requiring the gauge to be filled again. Healing buffs therefore have no cooldown but can only be used at full gauge.

The gameplay loop has become:

1. Use Lilyweaving to enter a short Light window called Partial Indulgence >
2. Spend Healing Lilies during Partial Indulgence to heal (well) and generate Blood Lily and Light Gauge >
3. (Optional: Use your Blood Lily as a flexible damage/healing burst while building toward a full Light Gauge) >
4. When Light Gauge is full, use your healing cooldown to enter a longer Light window called Plenary Indulgence
5. Capitalize on Plenary Indulgence as a payoff window which grants various healing buffs, grants access to Light spells, and replaces your action costs with Light costs from your Light Gauge >
6. The cycle then repeats.

LILYWEAVING

The devs’ action was Plenary Indulgence. This action is renamed Lilyweaving.

Level 100 Lilyweaving tooltip:

Restores XXXX MP when the next Healing Lily is consumed and grants Partial Indulgence.
Duration: 5s. (Recast: XXs. (15s?))
Partial Indulgence Effect: Certain Earth-, Water-, and Wind-aspected actions change to their Light-aspected counterparts.
Duration: 5s. (Recast: XXs. (15s?))
Effect ends upon execution of an action that consumes a Healing Lily.

TEMPERANCE

Cleric Stance (level 40) is the base. It upgrades to Presence of Mind (level 60), which upgrades to Temperance (level 80). Temperance gains a trait for Divine Caress at level 100.

The purpose of this upgrade system is not only to keep Cleric Stance and Presence of Mind in name and memory, but also to have a sense of vertical healing progression during the leveling experience. Thusly, Cleric Stance is the base effect, Presence of Mind adds spell speed to the base, Temperance increased healing magic potency.

Cleric Stance tooltip:

Grants Plenary Indulgence while also increasing healing action potency by 10%.
While under this effect, Light actions do not consume MP nor Healing Lilies, but instead cost 10 Light Gauge.
If the Light Gauge reaches 0 while under this effect, all actions revert to Elemental actions for the remaining duration of the effect.
When this effect ends, the Light Gauge is reset to 0.
Duration: 20s.
Plenary Indulgence Effect: All Earth-, Water-, and Wind-aspected actions change to their Light-aspected counterparts.
Duration 20s
This action can only be used when the Light Gauge is full.

Presence of Mind tooltip:

Grants Plenary Indulgence while also increasing healing action potency by 10%, and rendering the cast times of all Light actions instant.
While under this effect, Light actions do not consume MP nor Healing Lilies, but instead cost 10 Light Gauge.
If the Light Gauge reaches 0 while under this effect, all actions revert to Elemental actions for the remaining duration of the effect.
When this effect ends, the Light Gauge is reset to 0.
Duration: 20s.
Plenary Indulgence Effect: All Earth-, Water-, and Wind-aspected actions change to their Light-aspected counterparts.
Duration 20s
This action can only be used when the Light Gauge is full.

Level 100 Temperance tooltip :

Grants Plenary Indulgence while also increasing healing action potency by 20%, and rendering the cast times of all Light actions instant.
While under this effect, Light actions do not consume MP nor Healing Lilies, but instead cost 10 Light Gauge.
If the Light Gauge reaches 0 while under this effect, all actions revert to Elemental actions for the remaining duration of the effect.
When this effect ends, the Light Gauge is reset to 0.
Duration: 20s.
Plenary Indulgence Effect: All Earth-, Water-, and Wind-aspected actions change to their Light-aspected counterparts.
Duration 20s
This action can only be used when the Light Gauge is full.
※ This action changes to Divine Caress when requirements of execution have been met.

GLARE

The devs’ action was Glare + Glare combo. This action is Stone, Quake, Aero, Dia and Glare.

Stone combos into Quake. Glare combos into Dia. Aero is alone.

Glare and Dia are only visual animation upgrades to Stone and Quake with no potency or mechanical differences.

The priority logic is:

1. This action changes to Aero series spells on any target without your Aero DOT effect on them.
2. This action changes to the Light combo (Glare series -> Dia series combo action) spells during Plenary Indulgence.
3. This action remains the Elemental Earth combo (Stone series -> Quake series combo action) if neither of the above conditions are met. This is the action placeable on the hotbar.

The purpose of this consolidation is to keep Wind-magic (Aero was implicitly gone with no Dia) and reduce its cognitive load in the rotation (it is now autoapplied by priority) while still maintaining the newcoming combo actions and the 16-button kit limitation.


Tooltips:

Aero tooltip :

Deals wind damage with a potency of XX.
Additional Effect: Wind damage over time
Potency: XX
Duration: XX
This action can only be cast on targets who are not yet affected by your Aero.
This action’s conditions can be met regardless of the effect of Plenary Indulgence and costs no Light Gauge.
※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

Dia tooltip :

Deals unaspected damage with a potency of XXX.
Combo action: Glare series actions
Light Gauge cost: 10
This action is only available while under the effect of Plenary Indulgence.
※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

Glare tooltip :

Deals unaspected damage with a potency of XXX.
Light Gauge cost: 10
This action replaces your Stone series actions while under the effect of Plenary Indulgence.
※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

Quake tooltip :

Deals earth damage with a potency of XXX.
Combo action: Stone series actions
※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

Stone tooltip :

Deals earth damage with a potenct of XXX.
※This action changes to Aero, Quake, Glare or Dia when requirements for execution are met.

HOLY

The devs’ action was Holy. This action is Flood and Holy.

Holy is only a visual animation upgrade to Flood with no potency or mechanical differences.

The priority logic is:

1. This action changes to Holy series spells during Plenary Indulgence.
2. This action remains the Elemental action Flood series spells if the above condition is not met. This is the action placeable on the hotbar.

TETRAGRAMMATON

This action is Fluid Aura and Tetragrammaton.

Fluid Aura is now a single target oGCD heal that shares charges with Tetragrammaton, rather than its previous knockback form.

Tetragrammaton is only a visual animation upgrade to Fluid Aura with no potency or mechanical differences.

The priority logic is:

1. This action changes to Tetragrammaton spells during Plenary Indulgence.
2. This action remains the Elemental action Fluid Aura if the above condition is not met. This is the action placeable on the hotbar.

AQUAVEIL

The devs’ action was Aquaveil(+Divine Benison). This action is Stoneskin, Aquaveil, Afflatus Benison and Afflatus Protect.

The themes have been mismatched for a while for some reason. Aquaveil is Water, but Divine Benison is Light and they exist as a pair. Stoneskin and Protect are both gone in Dawntrail but were Earth and Light as a pair. This build has simply brought them back and reorganized them.

The Elemental action is Stoneskin(+Aquaveil), and is the equivalent of the devs’ version, Aquaveil(+Divine Benison).

Divine Benison(+Protect) is the first of two Light actions I suggest to have a specific effect different from it the Elemental counterpart. With the loss of Dawntrail’s Plenary Indulgence which was an damage AOE mitigation on a 60s recast, I decided to also remove Temperance’s 120s damage mitigation. They have both been replaced by Divine Benison(+Protect), a 60s AOE damage mitigation and shield. To make this Light action accessible at the 60s intervals, it now consumes a Healing Lily and has changed its name to Afflatus Benison(+Afflatus Protect). This will allow it to align to be accessed at 20s intervals through Partial Indulgence (Lilyweaving) and 120s intervals Plenary Indulgence (Temperance). Afflatus Benison and Stoneskin share charges and a charge timer, while Affaltus Benison incurs a 60s charge when used, but Stoneskin only a 30s charge.

The priority logic of this action is:

1. This action changes to Afflatus Benison(+Afflatus Protect) during Plenary Indulgence or Partial Indulgence.
2. This action remains the Elemental action Stoneskin(+Aquaveil) if the above conditions are not met. This is the action placeable on the hotbar.

Stoneskin tooltip :

Creates a barrier around self or target party member that absorbs damage equivalent to a heal of XXX potency and grants the target Aquaveil.
Duration: XXs
Aquaveil effect: Reduces damage taken by a party member or self by XX%.
Duration: XXs
Maximum Charges: 2 (Charge time: 30)
This action shares charges with Afflatus Benison.
※This action changes to Afflatus Benison when requirements for execution are met.

Afflatus Benison tooltip :

Creates a barrier around self and nearby party member that absorbs damage equivalent to a heal of XXX potency and grants self and nearby party members Protect.
Duration: XXs
Protect effect: Reduces damage taken by a party member or self by XX%.
Duration: XXs
Maximum Charges: 2 (Charge time: 60)
This action shares charges with Stoneskin.
This action replaces Stoneskin while under the effect of Partial Indulgence or Plenary Indulgence.
※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

AFFLATUS LITURGY

The devs’ action was Liturgy of the Bell. This action is Asylum and Afflatus Liturgy.

Both Asylum and Afflatus Liturgy function the same as the Dawntrail actions.

Liturgy of the Bell has been moved to the Light actions because its name is technically Holy/Light/religious-themed. It has been renamed to Afflatus Liturgy both because its name was a mouthful and because it now costs a Healing Lily—(all Lily Gauge spenders have Afflatus in their name to remain thematic for cognitive ease). Its move to Light actions has allowed the restoration of Asylum as its Elemental counterpart.

These actions do not share a cooldown, and are only available during their appropriate phases. Elemental state only shows the availability/recast of Asylum, and the Light states only show the availability/recast of Afflatus Liturgy. Because Partial Indulgence can be accessed often to check on Afflatus heals, I don’t quite find it necessary for Afflatus Liturgy’s 180s recast to always be visible, however, a recast timer for this action as an addendum to the Lily Gauge may serve to address this issue.

Afflatus Liturgy, like all Afflatus heals, is available to cast during both Partial or Plenary Indulgences, and costs a Healing Lily.

The priority logic of this action is:

1. This action changes to Afflatus Liturgy during Plenary Indulgence or Partial Indulgence.
2. This action remains the Elemental action Asylum if the above condition is not met. This is the action placeable on the hotbar.

AFFLATUS MISERY

The devs’ action was Holy Sanctity. This action is Afflatus Misery.

Afflatus Misery name has been kept over Holy Sanctity for the cognitive ease that all Lily Gauge spenders have Afflatus in their names.

This action is the Fan Fest Holy Sanctity reworked to approximate the effects of itself, Afflatus Misery, Assize, and Thin Air into a single action. It provides all the effects at once.

This action has a vague intention of making up for the loss of Lucid Dreaming.

A tooltip may best explain:

Afflatus Misery tooltip:

Consumes up to 3 Blood Lily charges to deal unaspected damage on a target and all nearby enemies with a potency of XXX per Blood Lily charge consumed on the first enemy, and 50% less on all remaining enemies.
Additional Effect: Restores HP to nearby party members:
Cure Potency: XXX when 1 charge is consumed
Cure Potency: XXX when 2 charges are consumed
Cure Potency: XXX when 3 charges are consumed
Additional Effect: Restores own MP
MP restored: XXXX when 1 charge is consumed
MP restored: XXXX when 2 charges are consumed
Additional Effect when 3 charges are consumed: grants Grants Thin Air
Thin Air effect: The next three actions are executed without MP cost.
Duration: 6s (or 9s?)

The idea behind the Thin Air effect is that Thin Air is used often(/mostly) for Raise, and Raise itself is a situational mechanic. Allowing Thin Air a duration for more than one spell opens the opportunity to catch some Raises with Thin Air. A 6s duration on what is essentially a 60s cooldown is 10% uptime, which is more than fair than enough, however a 9s duration which is 15% uptime is more likely to use all 3 casts. This allows Thin Air to be reasonably kept in the kit whereas it seemed to be missing from the Fan Fest kit.

CURE, MEDICA

Implicit throughout but worth mentioning, Cure and Afflatus Solace are the same button; Medica and Afflatus Rapture are the same button. Cure upgrades to Afflatus Solace whenever Light actions are available (Partial or Plenary Indulgence), and likewise Medica to Afflatus Rapture. The Afflatus actions are just Cure and Medica plus a Regen.

Just a thought, but it really is something that could be applied to all jobs. Things like Medica and Cure strengthen over time through traits and upgrades. Things like Rapture and Solace that compete with Cure and Medica do not improve over time this way. With the thought of Rapture and Solace being just “Medica and Cure but make them Regens,” a tooltip for Rapture (and by association, Solace) crossed my mind:

Afflatus Rapture tooltip:

Consumes a Healing Lily to instantly cast the current Medica series spell on self and nearby party members at XX% of its potency, and add a Regen healing over time effect.
Current Variable Potency: XXX
Regen Potency: XXX
Regen Duration: XXs
Healing Lily cost: 1
This action costs Light instead of a Healing Lily while under Plenary Indulgence.
Light Gauge cost under Plenary Indulgence: 10
This action is only available while under the effect of Partial Indulgence or Plenary Indulgence.
※ The initial healing received through this action is named Afflatus Rapture.
※ This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

By functions like these, only your base kit need eventual potency upgrades and your expanded kit is future-proofed.

LEVELING:

The leveling experience of this build would be something like this:

1. Stone (level 1) > Stone II (18) > Stone III (54) > Stone IV (64) > Hi Stone (72) > Hi Stone II (82) > Hi Stone III (92)
   Quake (72) > Quake II (82) > Quake III (92)
   Aero (4) > Aero II (46) > Aero III (72) > Aero IV (94)
   Glare (54) > Glare II (64) > Glare III (72) > Glare IV (82) > Hi Glare (l92)
   Dia (72) > Dia II (82) > Dia III (92)
2. Cure (2) > Cure II (30) > Cure III (64) > Cure IV (85) > Hi Cure (???)
   Afflatus Solace (level 30)
3. Medica (10) > Medica II (50) > Medica III (85) > Medica IV (96)
   Afflatus Rapture (50)
4. Esuna (10)
5. Raise (12)
6. Swiftcast (18)
7. Flood (20) > Flood III (74)
   Holy (45) > Holy III (82)
8. Aquaveil (24) > Stoneskin (+Aquaveil) (66)
   Afflatus Protect (70) > Afflatus Benison (+Afflatus Protect) (86)
9. Lilyweaving (30)
10. Fluid Aura (35)
    Tetragrammaton (52)
11. Cleric Stance (40) > Presence of Mind (60) > Temperance (80)
    Divine Caress (100)
12. Aetherial Shift (40)
13. Surecast (44)
14. Asylum (45)
    Afflatus Liturgy (90)
15. Benediction (level 50)
16. Afflatus Misery (with MP effects charges 1 and2 ) (50)
    (> adds Thin Air at charge 3 (58) > adds Assize scaled healing on all charges (74))

• Lily Gauge: Healing Lilies (30)
• Light Gauge (40)
• Lily Gauge: Blood Lily (50)

The capstone experience of this build would feel something like this:

• Level 30: Stone II/Aero, Cure II/Solace, Medica, Esuna, Raise, Swiftcast, Flood, Aquaveil, Lilyweaving ; Lily Gauge: Healing Lilies
  Early learning. Lily Gauge and Lilyweaving introduced as primary short-buff mechanic.
  
  
• Level 40: Stone II /Aero, Cure II/Solace, Medica, Esuna, Raise, Swiftcast, Flood, Aquaveil, Lilyweaving, Fluid Aura, Cleric Stance, Aetherial Shift ; Lily Gauge: Healing Lilies, Light Gauge
  Feels like you’re still learning and things are being introduced to you slowly by level. You got your first oGCD ST heal and an oGCD AOE regen. Light Gauge and Cleric Stance are introduced as a long-buff mechanic. You may now dash with Aetherial Shift.
  
  
• Level 50: Stone II /Aero II, Cure II/Solace, Medica II/Rapture, Esuna, Raise, Swiftcast, Flood/Holy, Aquaveil, Lilyweaving, Fluid Aura, Cleric Stance, Aetherial Shift, Surecast, Asylum, Benediction, Afflatus Misery; Lily Gauge: Blood Lily, Light Gauge.
  The whole mechanical cycle is present, including Afflatus Misery. You have learned to use Lilyweaving and Cleric Stance. Your AOE healing is supported by Asylum, Rapture and an upgrade to Medica II. Benediction is also welcome. Holy is a Light upgrade for Flood.
  
  
• Level 60: Stone III/Aero II/Glare, Cure II/Solace, Medica II/Rapture, Esuna, Raise, Swiftcast, Flood/Holy, Aquaveil, Lilyweaving, Fluid Aura/Tetra, Presence of Mind, Aetherial Shift, Surecast, Asylum, Benediction, Afflatus Misery; Lily Gauge: Blood Lily, Light Gauge.
  Minor damage upgrades. Light has upgrades for Stone and Fluid Aura now with Glare and Tetra. Thin Air now present on Afflatus Misery. The biggest change is that Cleric Stance has upgraded to Presence of Mind, making all your Light actions instant cast during its duration.
  
  
• Level 70: Stone IV/Aero II/Glare II, Cure III(single target)/Solace, Medica II/Rapture, Esuna, Raise, Swiftcast, Flood/Holy, Stoneskin(+Aquaveil)/Protect, Lilyweaving, Fluid Aura/Tetra, Presence of Mind, Aetherial Shift, Surecast, Asylum, Benediction, Afflatus Misery; Lily Gauge: Blood Lily, Light Gauge.
  Minor damage upgrades again. Cure II has become Cure III (single target). The significant upgrades are all mitigation-related: Aquaveil has transformed into Stoneskin(+Aquaveil) and an AOE Aquaveil named Afflatus Protect is now available under Partial and Plenary Indulgences.
  
  
• Level 80: Hi Stone/Quake/Aero III/Glare III/Dia, Cure III(single target)/Solace, Medica II/Rapture, Esuna, Raise, Swiftcast, Flood III/Holy, Stoneskin(+Aquaveil)/Protect, Lilyweaving, Fluid Aura/Tetra, Temperance, Aetherial Shift, Surecast, Asylum, Benediction, Afflatus Misery; Lily Gauge: Blood Lily, Light Gauge.
  Major upgrades. Stone and Glare have combo actions. Aero II and Flood finally upgrade. Presence of Mind upgrades to Temperance. Afflatus Misery now heals as well.
  
  
• Level 90: Hi Stone II/Quake II/Aero III/Glare IV/Dia II, Cure IV/Solace, Medica III/Rapture, Esuna, Raise, Swiftcast, Flood III/Holy III, Stoneskin(+Aquaveil)/Afflatus Benison(+Protect), Lilyweaving, Fluid Aura/Tetra, Temperance, Aetherial Shift, Surecast, Asylum/Liturgy, Benediction, Afflatus Misery; Lily Gauge: Blood Lily, Light Gauge.
  The attacks upgrade as normal, Holy also upgrades at last. The major upgrades here are Protect adding a shield to its aoe mitigation, Medica II upgrading, and the addition of Liturgy to the kit.
  
  
• Level 100: Hi Stone III/Quake III/Aero IV/Hi Glare/Dia III, Cure IV/Solace, Medica IV/Rapture, Esuna, Raise, Swiftcast, Flood III/Holy, Stoneskin(+Aquaveil)/Afflatus Benison(+Protect), Lilyweaving, Fluid Aura/Tetra, Temperance/Divine Caress, Aetherial Shift, Surecast, Asylum/Liturgy, Benediction, Afflatus Misery; Lily Gauge: Blood Lily, Light Gauge.
  All ST attacks update as usual. Medica IV and Divine Caress are the real news here.

CHASSIS OPTIONS

I made this build essentially to preserve all of WHM’s identity within the Evolved limitations, and purposefully without differentiating the Light and Elemental kits. As such, a lot of its Elemental and Light actions are just reskins. I talked about how this build being made this way should be considered more like a chassis or skeleton on which more can be built. Here are example options I thought of to fill that skeleton:

• Instant casts option 1: Healing and attack spells are opposed in Light and Elemental. Elemental attacks and Light heals are instant, Light attacks and Elemental heals have cast times. Something to that effect.
  
  
• Instant casts option 2: All Light damaging spells are instant cast AND have additional effects while all Elemental damaging spells have cast times AND have more potency.
  
  
• Complexity option: Cleric Stance, Presence of Mind and Temperance are not set cooldowns that grant Plenary Indulgence, but toggleable stances that grant it instead. This could function the same way concerning how Light is spent as a substitution for action cost, or the stance could simply drain Light while active and have no effect on action cost.
  
  
• Complexity option: Benediction is the only Light/Holy/religious-themed action blanketly available under the Elemental state. To address this break in the theme and tie it to the Light Gauge, it could indirectly gate its heal with a Light cost. Benediction could use up to 20 Light Gauge on every cast: it could heal 50% of maximum HP when it consumes 0 Light, 75% of maximum HP when it consumes 10 Light, and 100% of HP when it consumes 20 Light, or something to this effect.
  
  
• Elemental addition: Tornado added as an AOE action for Flood and Holy, acting as an equivalent to what Aero is for Stone and Glare; wind-aspected DoT fulfilling the first priority of conditions: your AOE attack button casts this action when targeting an enemy without any of your wind-aspect DoT effects.
  
  
• Elemental differences: Raise becomes Arise during Plenary Indulgence. Arise is a full HP Raise (still with weakness). This can be balanced several potential ways in conjunction with the implicity that it is only a Light action gated by Temperance’s cooldown—by having an increased cast time, by having an increased MP cost, by having a long cooldown independent of Temperance (180s-240s?), by consuming a Healing Lily or all Healing Lilies, etc.
  
  
• Elemental differences: Fluid works as normal, Tetragrammaton grants Reflect, a buff that acts like Vengeance, returning XXX potency of damage whenever the effect player is hit.
  
  
• Elemental differences: Glare and/or Dia have status effects: removing beneficial effects, Blind, Bind, Slow, etc—that are not present on their Stone/Quake counterparts.
  
  
• Elemental differences: Flood draws-in and Holy stuns. To adapt this correctly, Holy would be available during Partial Indulgence, Holy’s stuns would also have to extend Partial Indulgence by an interval, Flood’s draw-in would have a longer immunity than Holy’s stun, Flood’s draw-in would give the enemies the immunity on the first hit, and enemies that cannot be stunned cannot be drawn-in. Flood > Lilyweaving > Holy spam until the stun’s diminishing returns have no returns remaining > start again.
  
  
• Conditional utility: When an enemy becomes immune to Holy’s stun effect—(becomes immune, not immune by default)—the recast timer of Aetherial Shiftis reset, and the next Aetherial Shift is free and has no cooldown.
  
  
• Cure III return: A splash of AOE healing within 10y as an additional effect on a ST heal, as a means to replace Cure III. Perhaps this effect would be on Benediction, and it would have a potency scaling from the effective HP restored when you used Benediction.
  
  
• Purgation option 1: When all stacks of Afflatus Liturgy are proc’d by damage, it grants access to the attack Afflatus Purgation (from PVP) for 12s. This is just a line AOE without the buffs and heals it provide in PVP.
  
  
• Purgation option 2: When Afflatus Liturgy ends, it grants access to Afflatus Purgation for 12s, which deals increased damage per stack of Afflatus Liturgy which were consumed by taking damage. (Still a line AOE without buffs and heals).
  
  
• Etc, etc…

That is my WHM build for now. It has aimed to be more interesting and engaging that what we were shown at Fan Fest. It has aimed to keep the gameplay elements of all its previous iterations in tact while staying within the boundaries of the Evolved constraints: 16 buttons (including the allotted role actions), simplicity for WHM, more healing for healers (since the gameplay loop requires it, and I only brought back 1 additional heal: Asylum).

Let me know what you think!