WHM Skills. 2.0 vs. 4.0

Hey all,

I was recently motivated to look at how WHM skills have evolved and changed over the years. Its been a long time since 2.0 and memories fade and we forget, or never knew, what used to be.

The only real point of this post is to just have a nice chat while looking at the info; though I'm sure it will turn into an argument about something or other by page 4. Regardless, it's interesting to see how much the job has lost since its inception.

It was actually a real struggle to find information about WHM's original set of skills/traits, but I did manage to find them.

I was tempted to put together a Graphic for all of it, but I don't have that kind of time. (Someone else is definitely free to take a crack at it though, I'll include my sources.)

Without further ado:

2.0 - WHM 1-50 skill/trait progression

Level 1 - Stone
Level 2 - Cure
Level 4 - Aero
Level 6 - Cleric Stance
Level 8 - Protect & Trait: Enhanced Mind
Level 10 - Medica
Level 12 - Raise
Level 14 - Trait: Enhanced Mind II
Level 15 - Fluid Aura
Level 16 - Trait: Proshell
Level 18 - Esuna
Level 20 - Trait: Maim and Mend
Level 22 - Stone II
Level 24 - Trait: Enhanced Mind III
Level 26 - Repose
Level 28 - Trait: Enhanced Raise
Level 30 - Cure II & Presence of Mind
Level 32 - Trait: Freecure
Level 34 - Stoneskin
Level 35 - Regen
Level 36 - Trait: Enhanced Stoneskin
Level 38 - Shroud of Saints
Level 40 - Divine Seal & Trait: Maim and Mend II
Level 42 - Cure III
Level 44 - Trait: Overcure
Level 45 - Holy
Level 46 - Aero II
Level 48 - Trait: Enhanced Shroud of Saints
Level 50 - Benediction, Medica II

4.0 - WHM 1-50 skill/trait progression

Level 1 - Stone
Level 2 - Cure
Level 4 - Aero
Level 10 - Medica
Level 12 - Raise
Level 15 - Fluid Aura
Level 18 - STONE II (through Trait)
Level 20 - Trait: Maim and Mend & Enhanced Mind
Level 26 - Repose
Level 30 - Cure II & Presence of Mind
Level 32 - Trait: Freecure
Level 35 - Regen
Level 40 - Cure III & Trait: Maim and Mend II & Enhanced Mind II
Level 44 - Trait: Overcure
Level 45 - Holy
Level 46 - Aero II (through Trait)
Level 50 - Benediction, Medica II

Pretty "Big Oof" when you see the comparison... I personally never realized how big the gaps were for the class these days. It's no wonder I run into people who find early WHM to be such a slog.

For those interested in delving back into the past. The information was pulled from:
http://chrysaliswiki.com/jobs:conjurer-ff14
http://chrysaliswiki.com/jobs:white-mage-ff14
https://segmentnext.com/2013/09/03/f...ass-abilities/

Not a particularly fair comparison when you neglect to put in the Role Actions that many of the "Lost" skills became:

Level 8 - Cleric Stance
Level 12 - Break
Level 16 - Protect
Level 20 - Esuna
Level 24 - Lucid Dreaming
Level 32 - Swiftcast
Level 36 - Eye for an Eye
Level 40 - Largesse
Level 44 - Surecast
Level 48 - Rescue

Thus meaning the full 1-50 list for 4.0 would look like this:

Level 1 - Stone
Level 2 - Cure
Level 4 - Aero
Level 8 - Cleric Stance
Level 10 - Medica
Level 12 - Raise, Break
Level 15 - Fluid Aura
Level 16 - Protect
Level 18 - Stone II (Stone Mastery Trait)
Level 20 - Esuna, Maim and Mend, Enhanced Mind
Level 24 - Lucid Dreaming
Level 26 - Repose
Level 30 - Cure II, Presence of Mind
Level 32 - Swiftcast, Freecure
Level 35 - Regen
Level 36 - Eye for an Eye
Level 40 - Cure III, Largesse, Enhanced Mind II, Maim and Mend II
Level 44 - Surecast
Level 45 - Holy
Level 46 - Aero II (Aero Mastery Trait)
Level 48 - Rescue
Level 50 - Medica II, Benediction

Anyway, the reason why early WHM is such a slog is because Cleric Stance isn't as strong these days. So doing solo content is much slower. But it could be worse, it could be Scholar who's damage is absolute butt since it's stuck using crappy 100 potency Ruin until level 54! (Meanwhile WHM at least gets 200 potency Stone II at level 18) because it's balanced around Arcanist at levels 1-30 which has a Carbuncle dealing some DPS and then SE didn't bother putting a Broil upgrade in until HW... Though, on the plus side... You can just level as SMN and bypass how completely trash SCH's solo capability is until level 54 (Unless you only have healer gear for level 30+ or if you're syncing down as SCH for some reason, such as Relic quests...)

The only skill WHM truly lost was Stoneskin and everything associated with it.
The other skills were simply changed to Role Actions and made available to everyone. I think moving down SoS at 38 to LD at 24 was a nice change.
Cleric Stance change was neccessary with the heavy focus on oGCD healing. The old design was admittedly clunky (though I still enjoyed it) but easier to use considering the more strict line between dps and heal times. Now it's all about weaving in your oGCDs.

Ruin is the weakest filler ever but tbh I didn't find SCH to be that bad at soloing. Until I got MiasmaII I usually put dots on mob no1 and let the chocobo do the rest, put dots on mob no2, then on mob no3, went back to mob no2 with Ruin and if possible Energy Drain and then killed the last mob together with my chocobo. Past 46 it was dot spam + MiasmaII spam. It was really only the last level before Broil that felt slow.
The general solo capability of healers in FFXIV is pretty high anyway. WHM was a bit faster but also felt more boring. So not much of a gain imo.