What makes WHM special? Nothing anymore.

I have been reading this thread with great interest, as I just got my first class to 60 yesterday (WHM). My AST is 51. And I am truly unsure as to which class I want to focus my eventual esoterics on.

From what I've gathered, the WHM has cooldowns that allow it to push its healing beyond that of the AST, and to have a bit more DPS and mana longevity.
But the AST has this entirely additional unique Cards system, while replicating most of the WHM's AE healing toolkit. It just seems that the AST can do most of what the WHM can do, but can also explore this entirely additional Cards-based system, or switch to shields. It just seems like the AST offers more variety? It seems that the White Mage has slightly stronger AE heals, but the AST has AE heals and an entirely different realm of gameplay. When I hit Assize on my WHM, it doesn't really feel like I'm engaging a unique system, but I do get that sense when I'm flipping through Cards on my AST.

Oh I didn't realize that posts have a 1000 char limit. In any case, if someone recently made a similar decision as to which class (WHM or AST) to focus their esoterics on, after the 3.07 buff, I would appreciate the advice. Thank you!

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Originally Posted by Proteus6

I have been reading this thread with great interest, as I just got my first class to 60 yesterday (WHM). My AST is 51. And I am truly unsure as to which class I want to focus my eventual esoterics on.

From what I've gathered, the WHM has cooldowns that allow it to push its healing beyond that of the AST, and to have a bit more DPS and mana longevity.
But the AST has this entirely additional unique Cards system, while replicating most of the WHM's AE healing toolkit. It just seems that the AST can do most of what the WHM can do, but can also explore this entirely additional Cards-based system, or switch to shields. It just seems like the AST offers more variety? It seems that the White Mage has slightly stronger AE heals, but the AST has AE heals and an entirely different realm of gameplay. When I hit Assize on my WHM, it doesn't really feel like I'm engaging a unique system, but I do get that sense when I'm flipping through Cards on my AST.

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Doing A1S and A2S as a WHM an Astro (post buff) I can say Astrologian is better for those fights by far. MP was actually better on my astro than my white mage due to less mp costs of heals and get an ewer card or two with 20 second duration AE compared to 15 seconds Shroud (Spear card lowers these cds too). I could solo heal any harsh mechanic like double prey + tank buster thanks to synastry + 40 second cooldown OGCD healing ability with only benefic 1's and no 2's. Synastry allows some hardcore burst healing.

Then you are buffing the group and kill fights faster...yeah I'd go with Astro if you want to be the better healer in the group assuming you play it to its max.

If you aren't hardcore raiding and want to enjoy the job you enjoyed the most getting to level 60, then do that. White Mage and Astro are both viable healers for end game. Do what you enjoy then.

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Originally Posted by Fevelle

WHM is lacking identity, and no, Assize alone is no identity to a class.

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Having mained WHM since 1.0 to now...I don't get where you are coming from with this. WHM still is and was the classic FF healer. The powerful protector/healer of the party. They weren't nerfed just because AST was buffed. Nothing on WHM changed.

Does it have room for growth yes, all the healers do, but it is not lacking identity imo. It seems your opinion is the minority.

I have all three healers leveled and I know how to play them..they all have their unique play styles and thought processes in order to play them correctly. This is an MMO so they have to cater to a lot of different kinds of players so this is my personal opinion of them based on my learning how to play them...


WHM - The classic healer from FF. Easiest to understand. Level 1 learning curve. It is easier to pick up and play and learn it. Strong and straightforward healing, CDs, and master of AoE healing. Player doesn't need a high skill cap to play it to high potential.

SCH - The pet healer. Managing pets makes this job a bit harder to understand. Pets can cause many a headache due to placement/damage/trying to command it. Also their healing is meant to mitigate dmg so it requires more content knowledge to be proactive. Level 2 learning curve. Takes a bit longer to learn it and play it properly. Player needs a bit higher skill cap to play it to full potential.

AST - The RNG buff healer. Managing the cards makes this job harder to understand. They also have two different healing styles you have to learn. Diurnal and Nocturnal which play very differently just like WHM and SCH play differently (powerful heals vs. mitigation). Level 3 learning curve (Although it isn't really necessarily harder than SCH but can be depending on the person). Memorizing cards and what utility they bring based on buff and Royal Road makes this job more complex. Also the best action to take with cards needs more content awareness. Player would need a pretty high skill cap to play it to its full potential.

Again this is just my opinion on learning each one. It seems to me though they need a healer that is a bit more simple for more laid back people to learn. If they make WHM more complex then it removes there being an easier tier of healer to learn. Also a stepping stone sort of system to work your way up tiers of complexity.

So people who find WHM to be bland or boring or too simple really should try another healer instead because imo they were never meant to be complex. This doesn't mean they lack identity though. They lack complexity. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are options if you want to have a more complex healing job.

Also Fevelle you really should get WHM to 60 and experience the level 60 content as a WHM before you declare it has no identity. Stop worrying and just play the game.

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Originally Posted by Proteus6

Oh I didn't realize that posts have a 1000 char limit. In any case, if someone recently made a similar decision as to which class (WHM or AST) to focus their esoterics on, after the 3.07 buff, I would appreciate the advice. Thank you!

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I made a decision, I have all 3 healers leveled...raid group has a scholar already and as my post shows before, I found Astro better than White Mage...but I will still be playing White Mage because I enjoy that job the most. If anything, I'll do astro for fights I have on farm or random dungeons here and there, but Eso / raid progression wise I'll stick to WHM because I find it more fun.

The only thing lacking identity is an emo boy crying in his room about how meaningless his life is.

"But mom you don't understand me! Nobody does!"

While AST has some skills and utility getting close to WHM, they are absolutly not even similar in terms of gameplay feeling and feedback.

WHM has a great sense of being a healing job with a huge safety net allowing to recover very easily from any kind of emergency. Some people in this thread said that the high raw healing power wasn't a true benefit since SE would have to balance the encounters to the healing output of the worst healing output of the three jobs anyway... implying that the superior healing power was just a waste.
I beg to differ. This raw healing power is very useful to cover mistakes and allowing for a much smoother gameplay.
A WHM feels very safe. The job doesn't have any secondary stuff like the fairy pet or the cards to make up for anything else. It's heals heals heals and more heals while also having raw DPS tools.
That's his identity right here. And no, being a "raw healer job" doesn't make it tasteless.

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Originally Posted by Slib

I could solo heal any harsh mechanic like double prey + tank buster thanks to synastry + 40 second cooldown OGCD healing ability with only benefic 1's and no 2's. Synastry allows some hardcore burst healing.

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I know this isn't the place since everyone's busy bitching. But please tell me how you did this! There are four targets that take damage and even with synastry only one of those would be getting a constant stream of heals :S

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

Well, that's a revelation...In truth we need no special anything. ASTs put down your disco ball and Deck O'Wonder, SCHs, take your pets of their leash and return your book to the library, all either of you need is a bigstick, because as EinherjarLucian just pointed out, our job is to "keep the blue bars full" everything else is icing on the cake.

I think I have come to the conclusion that there is a large group of players who treat this game as some version of The Matrix were they see the numbers but not the people, the algorithms but not the trees, and there is nothing we can do to help you see beyond that. I also think that one of the things I miss most with playing my WHM is my wand and shield. So I think that where AST has it's disco ball and Deck O'Wonder and SCH has it's grimoire and Faerie, WHM should have it's wand and shield. In closing, give me my bloody shield back!

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So you want all three healing classes to be WHMs? Let's take ranged attacks away from BRD and MCH while we're at it, and seriously, why should some classes use magic attacks while others use physical damage? Get rid of THAT crap...

I have a better idea: just give Whine Mages a tiny summon called the "Whaaaaaambulance" that does nothing but make the "most annoying sound in the world" from Dumb and Dumber. Then, Whine Mages can summon it and have the "uniqueness" that they so badly need to apparently keep their little hearts from breaking...

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Originally Posted by ckc22

If everyone has the same toolkit with different names what's the point in having jobs at all?

Homogenization is killing this game and it has gotten orders of magnitude worse since heavensward.

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It's in every MMO. The simple fact is that there are only so many ways to DEAL DAMAGE to something or make the blue bars go back up.

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So you want all three healing classes to be WHMs?

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I've come to the conclusion that WHMs (at least the ones complaining here, to be specific) are just unaware, that if they want to play a class with more gimmicks, they can just switch to a class with more gimmicks. They'd rather complain that their red delicious apple isn't a granny smith apple, and are upset that they're apple can't change colors, rather than just picking up a different apple.

WHM was never intended to have gimmicks; it's designed for straight-forward healing, to be the simplest way to get from 1% HP to 100% HP. It's the least complex class but that doesn't mean it doesn't have an identity or that it's identity was suddenly taken away in 3.0.

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Originally Posted by RichardButte

It's in every MMO. The simple fact is that there are only so many ways to DEAL DAMAGE to something or make the blue bars go back up.

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Not really, there are plenty of ways to make healers different. A class can focus on HoTs, one can focus on shields and damage prevention, one can focus on speedy smaller heals, one can focus on single target heals, one can be a hybrid damage and healing, one can focus on big expensive heals but must spend time doing some another thing to get that mana back etc.

The only thing that is really required is they can put up a set heals per second number to clear content while excelling at something to make it unique.

AST's problem was it wasn't clearing that set heals per second number so it was buffed, but in doing so it duplicates WHM's spells and encroached on the one area it was excelling at thus not making it unique anymore while AST has a very unique mechanic that can not be matched.