How To Improve White Mage In Stormblood

I realize there's already WHM fatigue on the forums but I wanted to get my thoughts on how to salvage WHM for Stormblood on the forums in the hopes that the devs see them. I know that's not likely but at least I can say I tried to offer feedback.

1) Give back Stoneskin II. As a preemptive party shield with a nice long duration, it offers WHM some minor utility. It won't step on SCH/AST toes with shielding since it can't be used in combat.

2) Make Confession stack on the WHM and have no duration. Currently, with a 20% chance to proc, WHM's will have to waste inordinate amounts of GCD's and MP trying to get stacks of confession on all their group members, especially in 8 mans. Stacking Confession on just the WHM would make Confession stacks work much like Aetherflow stacks do and make Plenary Indulgence a much more reliable skill to use.

3) Give WHM an actual group buff utility. One simple idea could be to give WHM a higher level trait that makes Presence of Mind affect the whole party instead of just the WHM. This would address WHM pleas for utility that isn't just another heal they don't need and this idea doesn't add another action button to the bar.

I agree on all of your points. Bump in hopes the devs will see this. This would give WHM at least some viability, though there is so much else to balance as well (lol Earthly Star).

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Originally Posted by Yuyuka3

I agree on all of your points. Bump in hopes the devs will see this. This would give WHM at least some viability, though there is so much else to balance as well (lol Earthly Star).

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I'll let the devs sort out balancing numbers and potencies. I'm just hoping they will rethink some of the mechanical implementations (confession stacks), and lack of utility (stoneskin removal, no group/raid buff)

Ultimately I tried to keep my suggestions relatively simple and easy to implement code-wise. Since Confession was already implemented as a buff, it would likely not be too much of a change to make it apply to the WHM rather than his cure target and remove the duration so it works like aetherflow. Giving Stoneskinn II back is also relatively simple since the skill exists in the game code already. Making Presence of Mind apply to the WHM's whole group via a trait should also be a relatively simple thing to implement.

Basically, making suggestions within the changes the devs already made, is at least somewhat easier to implement and therefore a tiny bit more likely to be considered.

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Originally Posted by Nicodemus_Mercy

I'll let the devs sort out balancing numbers and potencies. I'm just hoping they will rethink some of the mechanical implementations (confession stacks), and lack of utility (stoneskin removal, no group/raid buff)

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i have to agree with this...the..3 Lily...shield thing doesn't...seem to balance it out.

I think they got the Lillies backwards, they should reduce cooldowns (Or decrease cast times) when you have them. Then they should be expended on something else (Like an emergency spell like benediction).

Confession stacks should be generated by HoTs. I can see them actually working if Medica II has been ticking and a few party members have built up stacks. You could then tweak Planery Indugence to give a party-wide heal only on the people with stacks based on the number of stacks (probz up to a Tetra at full stacks). Cause as it is now it seems like a mini medica I centred on the tank that you get as a reward for overhealing a tank.

I'm less concerned about the Lily mechanic. It requires us to use Cure/Cure II to accrue, but ultimately its not bad. It's more of a little perk to shorten cooldown abilities and requires little if any management. Frankly I don't mind that. I don't really want to have micromanage a secondary resource and the Lilies can basically be ignored and you just sometimes go "hey my tetra came up a bit faster woo!" and its all good. If you want to try to game it you can and get those cooldowns up quicker sure but it doesn't make or break the gameplay which is good. It could have been far and away worse and more complex.

I agree the white mage needs tweaking a little. I find i don't bother with confessions as they rarely proc for me. If i see the skill light up and a few needs healing ill pop it. I also hated the lilies until they fixed them a bit, so they actually accumulate more now.
Though they are still useless under lvl 60 (i think 60), making the white mage even less useful in earlier dungeons as they have no shields when the other healers do. I am happy they gave the other healers the nice mana/enmity skill white mages had and the heal increase skill, however we don't really get anything in return it feels like we lost skills and gained some rng buttons and thats that.

I would be very happy with the OP's change proposals and i feel they would balance the white mage out a bit more and not be left behind. I hope this gets looked at :)

We don't need stoneskin2 or old stones in Bension has the potential to be better just make Bension not crap

Also yes I want utility but idk if I want throw away mind just for sake of boosting my party's dps. Can we just get brave and faith? But make them like 5% or somthing with a low duration but low cd? I'll gladly trade PI and my 68 trait for that

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Originally Posted by Sclair0

I think they got the Lillies backwards, they should reduce cooldowns (Or decrease cast times) when you have them. Then they should be expended on something else (Like an emergency spell like benediction).

Confession stacks should be generated by HoTs. I can see them actually working if Medica II has been ticking and a few party members have built up stacks. You could then tweak Planery Indugence to give a party-wide heal only on the people with stacks based on the number of stacks (probz up to a Tetra at full stacks). Cause as it is now it seems like a mini medica I centred on the tank that you get as a reward for overhealing a tank.

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This, 100%. Woohoo! You gave us a new ability at 70! Wait, it is purely based on rng.....wait, it is only up for 30 seconds.....Well that does not sound too bad. Goes through entire boss fight with only 1 proc. Okay, this needs to be augmented. I agree 100% they should proc off of the regen ticks. It will alow for more chances of it to proc. Along with more potential healing when people refuse to get out of the fire. (99.9% PUG PF player here)

I don't feel like WHM needs nearly this level of buffing. Yes, it's toolkit is a bit disjointed and many parts unsatisfying, but it is nonetheless powerful on the whole. While I think revision would be worthwhile, it would need to be careful not to be an outright buff by any huge degree. Confession stacks, especially, need revision, but I'm wary of redundancy.

1) If you wouldn't Succor/Aspected Helix the start of every encounter, there isn't even the slightest need for WHM to have Stoneskin II back. Stoneskin itself, however, may be worthwhile in order to create further balance through necessary functionality in solo healing. Should it be returned, however, I would hope it would do so through a new mechanic.

2) This would make Confession stacks redundant with Lilies. I actually don't have a problem with that, per se, but would prefer the WHM instead gain something passive having to do with chain-casting direct heals across different party members. I suspect a Water motif may work well with this.

3) This is the one I actually take issue with. A raid-wide Presence of Mind would be nearly as strong as AST's supportive toolkit. A no-RNG 15% Attack Speed boost for 15 seconds per 3 minutes is a huge tool.

Personally, what I would like to see from White Mage would simply be for:
: Its mana regeneration to be toned back in exchange for...
- More reliable and bankable use of Freecure, Overcure, and Confession by removing or inflating (such as through "normalized" ppm) RNG from these systems
- Faster conditional casting that de-emphasizes the need for Medica II, but still makes use of and offers the full strength of it (and Regen)
- Slightly enhanced mobility and further DPS (even if or even preferably indirectly, such as through offensive casts having procs beneficial to later supportive casts)
: which should altogether have the effect of returning the current mana efficiency, but with more flexible spell use (offensive casts no longer absent of efficiency-improving procs) and a higher skill cap

Final Notes:
- Lilies need to be more flexible. Personally, I'd like to be able to "double-dip" their benefit, so to speak. For instance, let's say Lilies could not only decrease the recast time on the next use of a given ability, but also could allow you to rush the completion of an ability still on cooldown, creating a secondary radial recast timer within each affectable ability upon reaching, say, 33% from its completion time, with tick marks shown for each Lily you possess. Once the skill gains a blue hue, that means you can activate it early, consuming the Lilies to use it then and there (with whatever remainder percentage of its recast time then being trimmed from its next cooldown). That said, I'd also prefer that it increase the strength of already cooled abilities, rather than decreasing recast time—that function being instead moved only to the consumption of Lilies on skills that have yet to refresh. I'd find that increase in power much more likely to mesh well with any given fight than the current concept. Finally, I would actually suggest a hard buff to the skill, increasing its effect to 7/14/21% power or 10/20/30% recast. They also need to be able to be generated for a brief time following combat.