[Question\Discussion] White Mage's Damage Role

While I know I'll run the risk of getting flamed, I've been wondering for awhile why this was designed as it was.
Please don't misunderstand the questions as complaints, I don't have damage numbers I'm merely curious about design decisions and about what the job's actual role is.
See this more as a White Mage role existential question ^^


Let's start with an assumption based on the dev info so far.
Healers are supposed contribute to DPS in Heavensward.

Cleric Stance
Now with this in mind, let's take another assumption, Conjurer is the base class for White Mage job.
Cleric Stance is a CNJ ability.
Does it then make sense that the Job that needs to spend the longest in Cleric Stance in order to provide any meaningful contribution for the DPS is the White Mage?
I don't mean this to complaint about White Mage DPS as I really don't have the "average" numbers to draw any conclusion compared to the other healers.
But I'm rather curious about why was this the design decision?
Since White Mage is the "pure healer" shouldn't White Mages then be the class spending the least amount of time in Cleric?
Am I thinking about this wrong?

Accuracy dependency
Considering all 3 of the White Mage dots are accuracy dependent, and that a big slice of the white mage damage comes from Stone 3, is it fair to say that out of all 3 healers, White Mage is also the most accuracy dependent?
A missed dot forces the White Mage to stay in Cleric Stance for a bit longer to reapply and hopefully hit this time.
Again, I'm confused by this design decision.

Aero 2
This dot has an odd duration of only 12 seconds.
Isn't this duration a bit too short for a dot?
In order to keep it up, White mages have to constantly switch to Cleric Stance, adding further to the Cleric Stance uptime.
It's simply not as easy to keep up this dot as consistently as others.
What is the reasoning behind this odd design decision for a dot?


So with all that said, if healers have to contribute to DPS in raids, is White Mage providing a good enough contribution as is? Is White Mage DPS high enough to make up for the accuracy dependency. And being the pure healer why is it that White Mage has to stay the longest in Cleric Stance in order to keep dots up and maintain constant damage? Is the "burst" damage high enough to make up for this?

Or is it simply that White Mage as a role isn't supposed to be contributing as much as other healers towards raid damage?

While I'm not the most progressed whm (we still can't fill our static D: ) here's my take.

Our role as damage dealers is to find the lull in the fight where we can burst dps or put our dots up. For Faust this includes the beginning and end of the fight where I spam stone 3 like mad. For oppressors this includes phase changes and a bit during phase 1 where I put up my dots.

Having a bard is a huge boon. Not only for mana (opp jump phase - helps refund the cost of our dps spells) but for Rain of Death which reduces target's evasion by 10%. My bard times his RoD for when I dps.

Hopefully someone else can speak to the other fights in savage.

In general, these things probably feel weird mainly because the developers (at least originally) didn't put a lot of focus on the DPS "rotations" and parity when it comes to the healers. Their damage dealing abilities were meant to assist primarily in soloing or as a "bonus" during down time and things like that. There's some indication that their view of healer DPS is changing judging by the harsh DPS checks in Alexander Savage (even at high gear levels, it seems like both healer and tank DPS is still going to be highly encouraged, if not borderline mandatory).

With that being the case, I could see them making more systematic changes in 4.0 (but honestly probably not before then) so that things "feel" better.

Well if you followed the lore of the Conjurer story, about doing more than just healing, it makes perfect sense why we get Cleric Stance.

WHM's forte is burst DPS, such as savage faust from the get-go like the poster above mentioned. With Presence of Mind, and getting the dots up that is a lot of burst in a short amount of time on that dummy. I like to burn it on the Oppressor pull as well and get the rotation up.

As for accuracy, in A1S for-example we have a limited amount of GCDs before having to heal the tank(s) and/or the raid as it's typically the WHM/AST that would also get solo healing responsibilities of the first phase. It's not just as simple as saying if Aero II doesn't hit stay longer so it does hit. Great if it does, if it doesn't not going to sweat. Aero II potency also went up by 10 per-tick (50/12s) in Heavensward.

Thanks for the replies so far.
It helps me understand better in a way.

I understand that aero 2 got buffed but, the duration bothers me a little. I guess the concept of a dot being "burst-y" rather than being "upkeep oriented" is a bit confusing to me (not sure how I can phrase this one better).

Give me Aero 2 as a sch any day. @.@ <3 Yes. It has a low duration, but that is realllly good. Its a 250 potency skill that you can use every 12 seconds. As opposed to say Bio, that is 240, and can only be used every 18 seconds to be effective.

Aero II is a really weird duration. And it has a cast time. If it didn't have a cast time, I think it'd be easier to deal with.