3.0 Adjustments to Existing Actions for WHM & SCH

You might be right about the PoM part. We don't really know how strong the new sksp/spsp buffs will be yet, in terms of affecting dots and hots. It is likely to be a good skill still, yes, or otherwise they wouldn't've brought down the percentage that much.

Still, a 0.5s faster Stoneskin is completely useless next to 8% more of someone's HP mitigated - unless mechanics very heavily change in HW. The tanking meta so far has been gravitating towards inconsequental fluff and big tank hits. Also, all the extra mitigation you can have helps when someone has weakness etc., and now we no longer have that extra 8% from the WHM. Coupled by mdef going global on Protect, it stings a lot.

They did get their MP issues fixed, but for off-DPSing, accuracy issues can be very real. I don't really wanna talk shit about WHM, but I was expecting something else. If you're happy, that's great.

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Originally Posted by Tranquil

and they will have their MP issues fixed with some of this stuff (with Assize mainly)

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shroud gives 1000 mana, thats around 20% of max mp (with around 5000 mana) every 120 secs. so 10% every 90 seconds plus 1000 mana every 2 mins...? when you have around 20k mana? don't know how many mana you will actually have, but i don't think the mana problems are solved.

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Originally Posted by Tint

shroud gives 1000 mana, thats around 20% of max mp (with around 5000 mana) every 120 secs. so 10% every 90 seconds plus 1000 mana every 2 mins...? when you have around 20k mana? don't know how many mana you will actually have, but i don't think the mana problems are solved.

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If Shroud follows its current scaling trend, it will be in the 1500s at level 60. I forgot the exact formula, but Lyrica has it for sure.

Also, it was shown that at i170, an AST had roughly 13k MP, IIRC. So yeah.

I'll have to wait really before I add my 2 cents in really.

AFAIK the most disappointing aspects were the changes to stoneskin and it's traits. So this probably will result in SS being considered not important and lead to more tanks just running off as a result. Changes to protect... meh, had to be done otherwise players would prioritize WHM over SCH/AST on progression content.

Tetragrammatron is basically Cure IV, you'd use it like you'd use Cure II.

On the SCH side, Indomitability = Cure III, Lustrate = Cure II.

Keep in mind that the Fairy already acts like a co-healer, so casting Psysick and having the fairy cast embrace on the same target was closer to Cure II already at the cost of Cure I.

The damage chain on Holy is disappointing, because there are AOE-centric fights (eg two Alexandrite map fights that have adds spawn) where Holy was the only option to actually clear those adds. Looks like it gets pushed to Assize. Wait and see I guess.

Oh, I don't think stoneskin won't hurt at all. That's nasty, but I imagine it's part of their design of no longer being able to design a fight where they're sure someone's gonna have the good stoneskin. I'm pretty bummed about that, and I know that's really what you're worried about since it's no longer a unique thing a White Mage brings to a group. But considering Selene's spellspeed buff got taken down to 3%, Scholars losing HP% restore abilities, and the Astrologian's spells that are analogues to ours being weaker than ours I think the white mage is gonna be OK in the role is has now, cause no one's gonna be able to touch it in pure output; unless I've totally misread something.

(the issue with Graniteskin being removed is that Stoneskin can then be cast by someone else, like a scholar or an astrologian or even a paladin)
(Also the Garlean Tools site says that Ast shields can't stack with Scholar shields)

I understand Stoneskin has been nerfed to the ground, but this does not affect WHMs viability in any shape or form.
WHMs will still need to precast stoneskin for tank busters, there's no other replacement for it. (Somebody stated on reddit AST shields does not stack with SCH shields, if they stack, then completely different story.)

In conclusion, yes SS has been nerfed, but the usage stays completely the same, you cast it before a big hit, end of story.

With the way Emergency Tactics is worded, it seems like it'll work with Succor. So Succor + Indomitably = 700 potency of raw curing power within 3.5 seconds. I like this.

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Originally Posted by Verdan

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Well, similarly to the "PoM nerf", I suspect part of the reason Selene was brought down so hard was because these changes (to spsp/sksp) will affect the relevant stats in such good ways it had to be balanced. Also, the new 3% Selene Haste will be that - a Haste, so it will also speed up autoattacks. How well that plays out is yet to be seen.

At any rate, what they did to Lustrate isn't really a nerf except in contexts you have stuff like Infirmity up; which I guess will not be often, as WHM is the only job that can reliably deal with that and bypass it now, and even then only with a skill that is on a 5m CD. Both the new insta-heals (for WHM and AST) got potencies to them, and Lustrate also got altered so that it'd follow suit. So yeah.

SCH did get some pretty serious healing throughput uppers in this patch, though. For example, the wording on Emergency Tactics is a bit ambiguous, but it can technically mean Adlo will have crit-synergy even in that pure-healing state, with normal heals being 600 potency and crits being 1350 potency. (Instead of 900). There's also Indomitability, Dissipation and the occassional AOE-Adloquium.

I am not trying to rally against WHMs or anything, and I am interested to see how you guys see it playing out, but on the paper I am a bit surprised with how this is turning out.

Yeah, SCH gets some amazing wide-area burst heal power with proper CD usage.

Naturally WHM will still fill that niche more easily and without such dependence on CDs, but having the option for SCH to do this is pretty cool.

I don't particularly like the SS nerf, but I think we'll have to wait and see. It could be that the (Total HP)/(Heal capability per second) ratio is changing, which could make an 18% SS completely ridiculous (or still not enough, dunno). Either way, I'll reserve final judgement until level 60 dungeons and raids.