What's more difficult to use end game? SCH or WHM

I've played both, end game, t5 and SCH is hands down a billion times easier. Instant heals, near infinite mana, much less stressful preemptive healing, I would argue it's too easy to play.

However, I bring this up because many people I've encountered say whm so much easier, just spam cure~. That would be true if our mana was infinite.

What do other people think?

Wait, if people say WHM is easier by just spamming Cure, wouldn't SCH *still* be easier for the same reason, with addition MP-free healing via the fairy?

I haven't played a WHM in T5 but I can't imagine it being more difficult than SCH. You have no Faerie to watch over, no Aetherflow to watch over, Adloquium needs to be up before a Death Sentence hits. Putting Sacred Soil and try to Succor before Fireballs. I believe the WHM is an "after-care" job while SCH is a "preventive" one.

I find WHM easier to play (playing both in all content including T5) in new content that I might not be familiar with, mostly due to mechanics.
Both are doing their job really well and I enjoy playing both.

I only say "easier" because you have less skills to choose from for any given situation and no fairy to control.

With that said, once you know a fight both are getting quite straight forward to play. You know when to use which skill and where and when to place your fairy.

While MP management is definitely easier on SCH that doesn't mean the job as a whole is easier to play than WHM, btw.

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Originally Posted by Ilenya

Wait, if people say WHM is easier by just spamming Cure, wouldn't SCH *still* be easier for the same reason, with addition MP-free healing via the fairy?

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No, because a WHM gets away with "only" casting Heals because they are very strong. While a SCH has to combine mitigation skills, fairy and direct heals to achieve full potential.

I haven't played SCH, but I got the impression it'd be tougher. Sure, there's MP-free heals with the Fairy and supposedly "half" of your job is filled in with your fairy...but surely managing a pet is an additional complication? That intimidates me a little at the idea of playing SCH. I find WHM quite easy, really. That could be because I've healed a lot in past MMOs and also played a WHM in FFXI, but still, it feels comfortable and quite simple.

I think WHM is "easier" to play because they have less meaningful tools but harder to achieve good result with while SCH has more tools and things to look for but SCH's tools are so powerful you can achieve good results as long as you have a basic understanding of their use.

EDIT : Like a basic car is easier to drive than a race car but it's harder to win a race with it.

Having played both, WHM is by far easier. I do not have mana issues on either so that just really isn't a factor to me, but when utilizing all your SCH tools there is a lot more to do and decide on the fly than on a WHM. I guess if you don't manual your fairy than it makes scholar easier, but you lose a lot of potential that way in return.

Granted healing in this game is not exactly challenging regardless of class choice.

It depends on your definition of easy. As a sch i need to push more buttons. In that sense whm is easier. Less choices, less buttons. Less buttons also means less control however. Less actions per gcd.

So overall I think sch is easier if you can handle buttons. Pet management is easy, macros make it easier, mana is a joke to manage and having lustrate means you can respond to things much faster. On a single target there is no question sch is easier to keep a tank up with. Aoe is a little more complicated on a sch but just because a whm CAN spam aoe heals doesn't mean its easy, you'll destroy your mana and generate threat.

Both healers must be proactive, just differently.

The Sch version of proactive is preshield, mitigation, and if somehow the tank still gets hit too hard they have lustrate.

Whm proactive is timing heals to land as or right after damage lands, that means you need to understand the fight enough to start casts before scripted moves and understand autoattack timers. Tank gets a bad hit, hope your tank doesn't die in the next gcd.

WHM is easier only because the class is simpler. PS3! PS3! Woop.
SCH is easier only because insta-cures 25% and constant Cure I / Embraces.

T1 - SCH
T2 - WHM
T4 - SCH
T5 - SCH

Garuda - SCH
Titan - WHM
Ifrit - WHM

L50 Dungeons - WHM (Holy spam for speed)

Anything which requires healing more than 3 players at a time regularly is preferred for WHM. Anything that doesn't, SCH is better with slightly higher single target heals.

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Originally Posted by UlricCraft

WHM is easier only because the class is simpler. PS3! PS3! Woop.
SCH is easier only because insta-cures 25% and constant Cure I / Embraces.

T1 - SCH
T2 - WHM
T4 - SCH
T5 - SCH

Garuda - SCH
Titan - WHM
Ifrit - WHM

L50 Dungeons - WHM (Holy spam for speed)

Anything which requires healing more than 3 players at a time regularly is preferred for WHM. Anything that doesn't, SCH is better with slightly higher single target heals.

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Totally agree! I never have mana issues on my WHM. Never. I understand a fresh 50 needing to cast cure 2 more to bring up the raid, and having slower mana regen, but when I see WHM in turn 4 spamming cure 2 with an item level of 85+, then asking for mana song, I just cringe.

Scholar for Titan though. Much more fun to me.

So I just wanted to weigh in on this as I've only recently started healing in FF legitimately on my SCH. Initially in my eyes the WHM was a "better" healer due to the fact that they can drop bigger heals. For me as a Cleric in EQ, and a Priest in WoW those big heals were what I was accustomed to. That said getting more comfortable with my SCH, and now controlling the fairy by macroing Embrace to Physick, and AOE regens I'd say they are on par, BUT <- big but. They do the job quite differently. Also in my experience where a WHM, and a WHM can gel together well. Most often when I see SCH/SCH in 8 mans I know I'm in for a workout. It simply takes A LOT more effort to get a whole group topped up when you aren't synergizing with a WHM. Also the fact that Galvanize doesn't stack also plays a part here.

So the result here at least from my observation is this: WHM drops bigger heals, and has a legitimate "OH SH**" button with Benediction. SCH is great for mitigating damage, and in dishing some DPS(not in 8 mans) when able, and is also quite mobile thanks to instant Lustrate. Also MP is easier to manage typically on a SCH than a WHM. Together they are a phenomenal team, but you'll have to get used double casting Succor, and/or burning Rouse, and Whispering Dawn on the big AOE's when teaming with another SCH. As always YMMV.

I play both SCH and WHM in endgame and I find the SCH to be muuuuuch easier to play than WHM. With WHM I have to watch out my MP constantly and I need to HEAL al the damage incoming instead of simply prevent it with shields (Adloqiuoum, Succor, Sacred Soil etc.). This makes the WHM a reactive healer, more frustrating to play than SCH, which is a proactive healer instead. The shield from Adloquium or Succor and the fairy's cures, besides, help a lot in managing aggro, while WHM sometimes can take too much hate due to big heals like Cure II or Cure III. Yes, WHM has SoS, which actually helps, but sometimes you need to watch out both aggro and your MP in the same fight, making your use of SoS pretty much ponderous.

I play both WHM and SCH but haven't quite reached "endgame" yet. That being said, I find WHM "easier" in the sense that if there's a lot of AoE or multi-target damage going out, Regen, Medica II, or even Cure III lets you be somewhat lazy - prime example is CT, where I can use Medica II on half the fights and ignore everyone until the regen wears off, whereas SCH has to work harder with single target or spam Adloquium. SCH felt harder to pick up and learn, but it feels much more forgiving once mastered than WHM.

Both jobs near enough best in slot with everything cleared etcetc. Whm and Sch achieve a similar result in a very different manner and as such, the difficulty of either is rather subjective...

Whm is more about exercising control and restraint, the difficulty comes not from 'healing all the things' but rather, knowing when you can hold back for efficiencies sake. Do you really need to cure 2 that DPS or is it safe to simply let regen do it's work. The other aspect is timing heals to land with big boss hits as well as having sufficient spatial awareness to get the most out of Cure III. All told, whm is quite a slow paced job that requires less actions per minute and a little bit more thought.

Sch is the polar opposite, I find myself hammering away at my hotkeys significantly faster than on whm for a multitude of reasons. Micromanaging the fairy requires the most work with most stuff boiling down to either mashing two keys at a time or a combination of hotkey and mouse work for <mo>, macros simplify things a little but due to the difference in cast/recast on embrace and physick, key mashing is still the order of the day. A far more liberal sprinkling of abilities that are off the GCD only serves to heighten the APM count. The other noteworthy facet of SCH is that it is much more cooldown centric than WHM, with Selene out you've got 3 cool downs to keep on the boil as well as trying to ensure you get the most out of your Aetherflow charges. Lastly, understanding boss patterns and being able to pre-empt damage spikes with galvanize is the difference between a good and great sch.

So TLDR version, whm is more of a thinker, sch is more of a doer. My personal opinion is that Sch is mildly more difficult due to the added depth to the job. It's pretty hard to be a bad whm (and most bad whms still usually heal ok, they just waste mp or pull more enmity than they should), whereas sch is rather more intricate to play and hence substantially easier to play at a significantly sub par level.

SCH has an easier time healing in general in my opinion, outside of heavy AoE-fests like Ifrit EX. The entry barrier to the job itself is a bit more daunting compared to WHM though.

Experienced SCH > Experienced WHM > so-so WHM >> so-so SCH

I play both, and I find them about equal.

SCH has more to manage with pets and tracking aetherflow, but they can play a lot more freely with their MP, and lustrate has fantastic utility.

The cure spam comparison is silly. Both jobs can do this, and are at nowhere near their potential if they do so.

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Originally Posted by Loam

I play both SCH and WHM in endgame and I find the SCH to be muuuuuch easier to play than WHM. With WHM I have to watch out my MP constantly and I need to HEAL al the damage incoming instead of simply prevent it with shields (Adloqiuoum, Succor, Sacred Soil etc.). This makes the WHM a reactive healer, more frustrating to play than SCH, which is a proactive healer instead. The shield from Adloquium or Succor and the fairy's cures, besides, help a lot in managing aggro, while WHM sometimes can take too much hate due to big heals like Cure II or Cure III. Yes, WHM has SoS, which actually helps, but sometimes you need to watch out both aggro and your MP in the same fight, making your use of SoS pretty much ponderous.

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^ this xoxoxo

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Originally Posted by BunnyChain

I haven't played a WHM in T5 but I can't imagine it being more difficult than SCH. You have no Faerie to watch over, no Aetherflow to watch over, Adloquium needs to be up before a Death Sentence hits. Putting Sacred Soil and try to Succor before Fireballs. I believe the WHM is an "after-care" job while SCH is a "preventive" one.

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not true, as a whm also needs to stoneskin tanks prior to death sentence, and timing has to be spot on too early means plummet will take it off, too late means it wont proc even though its on the tank during ds. Also whm has a lot of utility to use, like cleric stancing to help out in important areas, and aoe healing the whole party, keeping regen on tank, keeping an eye on procs to not run out of mana, proper management of mana and cds, and lots more.

I'll certainly agree that it's harder to time stoneskin between the plummet and death sentence, and then follow up with a cure 2 + regen before infirmity hits. Adloq is easier at this stage due to it's faster cast and healing element.

Sebazy has summarized everything quite nicely, IMHO, BY THEMSELVES, WHM will be harder to play compared to SCH, mainly due to mana management.

But with the existence of bards, semi-competent healers can just go nuts with their MP, and yell at the bard for Mage's Ballad when they run dry, thus completely annihilating the challenge of Mana Managing as a WHM.

Thus as there's tons of bards running around (9/10 DF for 8-mans will have a bard for me), the difficulty of playing a WHM is somewhat diminished.

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Originally Posted by wildgalax

not true, as a whm also needs to stoneskin tanks prior to death sentence, and timing has to be spot on too early means plummet will take it off, too late means it wont proc even though its on the tank during ds. Also whm has a lot of utility to use, like cleric stancing to help out in important areas, and aoe healing the whole party, keeping regen on tank, keeping an eye on procs to not run out of mana, proper management of mana and cds, and lots more.

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Well, our Paladin puts Stoneskin on himself often, so that (at least) can be a shared responsibility.

So, we have:

• Adloquium (faster cast time but only on SCH) vs. Stoneskin (longer cast time but shared responsibility)
• Aetherflow (restore MP plus Sacred Soil) vs. Shroud of Saints (restore MP and decrease hate)
• Lustrate (up to 3 in a minute, instant) vs. Benediction (once every 5 minutes, delayed)?
• Faerie (placement and 4 or 3 different spells, excluding Selene's Silent Dawn but have to cycle her CDs) vs. Divine Seal & Presence of Mind?
• Succor (preemptive) vs. Mediaca I or II (reactive)
• Sacred Soil (pre Fireball) vs. Cure III (right after)?

They seem pretty much the same, tbh.

Whoever made this 1000 characters limit...

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Originally Posted by BunnyChain

Well, our Paladin puts Stoneskin on himself often, so that (at least) can be a shared responsibility.

. Mediaca I or II (reactive)[*]Sacred Soil (pre Fireball) vs. Cure III (right after)?[/LIST]
They seem pretty much the same, tbh.

.

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i havnt played scholar, and if i would have to guess id say they are a bit harder to play considering they have to manage pet as well. I just dont agree with people who make it out like whm are a lot easier to play and carry less responsibility.

I play both, main scholar though due to my healing partner liking white mage better, but I like both classes alot and find they shine in different ways.

Scholar can be a little more difficult to master I guess, if the player is willing to max out the potential that their fairy offers. If they just want to leave their faries on auto and not deal with the micro management then the class is a lot easier but you lose a lot of potential too. I don't seem to have mana issues on either class now that my mana pools are so big, but it is true that mp management is a lot easier for scholars.

White mages shine where you need to heal more than 3+ people. They make for great aoe heals and keeping other raid members topped off while scholars are throwing their shields around the tank. Of course a scholar and white mage team is the best around ^.^

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Originally Posted by wildgalax

i havnt played scholar, and if i would have to guess id say they are a bit harder to play considering they have to manage pet as well. I just dont agree with people who make it out like whm are a lot easier to play and carry less responsibility.

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See, the only thing I said is that SCH is not easier than WHM. :P

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Originally Posted by BunnyChain

but I can't imagine it being more difficult than SCH.

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From my experience sch role is much easier if there is a whm to mainheal; if sch is the main healer - it is very hard. WHM can easily main or offheal and most of dungeons do not require sch-exclusive spells.

WHM is hard to pickup and very hard to master. SCH is easy to pickup and hard to master. As a SCH, don't even have to worry about mana management. You have 6 Lustrates readily available right at the start of a fight. They are instant cast and virtually no cooldown. Your fairy acts almost as a second healer. With EoS out, gameover. What makes a good SCH is a sch who is not only very good at healing, keeping shields up, and microing their fairy. They need to know when to DPS and do good DPS during that time. A SCH can do amazing DPS while keeping the whole party alive at the same time. As a well respected and revered WHM myself, I can say that I personally believe, and many World Class players I've talked to agree, that WHM is the harder of the two to play masterfully. Many of the supposed "top teir healers" on my server and FC (which dominates our server) have absolutely horrid mana management and quite simply they have one dimensional healing.

There have been numerous people that have asked me to teach them how to WHM. You can spam your heals all you want, but at the end of the day, mana management, timing of your heals, and the small minute details that no one except other healers will ever notice are what set WHM apart. A crappy WHM can get by w/ bards and tanks carrying them through w/ CDs and Mana song. A really good WHM such as myself will never, ever, require mana song. I will revive 2 or 3 people and solo heal portions of fights and still not need it. You don't instant heal butt clench savers except Benediction. You don't have a fairy healing everyone while you do your thing. It's an art.

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Originally Posted by Eriane

It depends on your definition of easy. As a sch i need to push more buttons. In that sense whm is easier. Less choices, less buttons. Less buttons also means less control however. Less actions per gcd.

So overall I think sch is easier if you can handle buttons. Pet management is easy, macros make it easier, mana is a joke to manage and having lustrate means you can respond to things much faster. On a single target there is no question sch is easier to keep a tank up with. Aoe is a little more complicated on a sch but just because a whm CAN spam aoe heals doesn't mean its easy, you'll destroy your mana and generate threat.

Both healers must be proactive, just differently.

The Sch version of proactive is preshield, mitigation, and if somehow the tank still gets hit too hard they have lustrate.

Whm proactive is timing heals to land as or right after damage lands, that means you need to understand the fight enough to start casts before scripted moves and understand autoattack timers. Tank gets a bad hit, hope your tank doesn't die in the next gcd.

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I pretty much am on the same page as you. I find that all the things SCH has to manage are so easy, pet management and extra skills are not even worth mentioning in my book (seriously, I say this so often, if you think pet management for SCH is hard, then SMN is a billion times more frustrating, though it's slightly better since the most recent patch). The difference between WHM and SCH to me is that SCH by themselves have excellent utilities already. People say pet is doing half your healing but that's not even true. A SCH without their pet can heal just 95% as good as a WHM but the main thing that makes them much easier than others is the lustrates. Three 25 % instant heals t hat cost no mana every 60 seconds pretty much means if you have the reaction time you don't have to fully understand a fight and still be able to heal fine. WHM on the other hand, if they heal from a big hit when they see the damage, it's too late. The pre-emptive nature and high mana management upkeep is what makes WHM harder overall in end game.

I always agree this, WHM is easier to pick up, they have less things to manage (less skills) and generally a more straight forward class to understand but they are also way harder to master. SCH on the other hand, anyone who has a tiny amount of macro/micro ability (you're essentially only controlling 2 units anyways and half the time you don't have to move it more than once or twice, pet skills can be easily manage by anyone if they are macroed properly).

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Originally Posted by Poosammich

So I just wanted to weigh in on this as I've only recently started healing in FF legitimately on my SCH. Initially in my eyes the WHM was a "better" healer due to the fact that they can drop bigger heals. For me as a Cleric in EQ, and a Priest in WoW those big heals were what I was accustomed to. That said getting more comfortable with my SCH, and now controlling the fairy by macroing Embrace to Physick, and AOE regens I'd say they are on par, BUT <- big but. They do the job quite differently. Also in my experience where a WHM, and a WHM can gel together well. Most often when I see SCH/SCH in 8 mans I know I'm in for a workout. It simply takes A LOT more effort to get a whole group topped up when you aren't synergizing with a WHM. Also the fact that Galvanize doesn't stack also plays a part here.

So the result here at least from my observation is this: WHM drops bigger heals, and has a legitimate "OH SH**" button with Benediction. SCH is great for mitigating damage, and in dishing some DPS(not in 8 mans) when able, and is also quite mobile thanks to instant Lustrate. Also MP is easier to manage typically on a SCH than a WHM. Together they are a phenomenal team, but you'll have to get used double casting Succor, and/or burning Rouse, and Whispering Dawn on the big AOE's when teaming with another SCH. As always YMMV.

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Lol actually, two SCH in most fights are easier for me than 2 WHM. Double the amount of lustrates, good mitigation, 2 fairies healing there is really no beating it. 2 WHm on the other hand is much harder to sync together since all heals are pre-emptive and any healing that goes above 100 % is essentially wasted. THere is almost no fight that and I actually can't think of any that 2 SCHs cant heal just as easy as WHM. For example, let's take titan ex, healing through stomps are easy, if everyone is at max hp, even if you don't do any succors during the stomps no one will die. There is plenty of time to heal the players afterwards but usually if both schs spam succor as a WHM would cast medica, there is essentiall no difference. Healing confs in t5, not a problem, pop 1-3 succors and everyone is full again, got bad RNG on the fireball conf? not a problem, assuming you know the fight and always manage to cast 1 succor after a fireball and have placed your pet outside, then by the time you're out the pet will have healed most of the members to full already. If not immediately do another succor and all full again. Ifrit ex, easy, just same as WHM, the sch without searring wind goes in and does a few succors, manage pet for aoe healing etc. Pretty much every situation is better to use 2 SCHs than 2 WHM. The difference between succor and medica is roughly medica heals for 900 ish while succor is 300 ish + shield (making it 600 ish). Also not to mention, if you save the pet aoe heal for that bit, it's on par and arguely even better than medica. I usually go with 1 sch 1 whm combo as best of course but if i had to choose 2 WHM over 2 SCH for any fight, i'll go for the 2 SCH.

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Originally Posted by lxSch

From my experience sch role is much easier if there is a whm to mainheal; if sch is the main healer - it is very hard. WHM can easily main or offheal and most of dungeons do not require sch-exclusive spells.

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Wait when you say main heal, you mean main tank healing? SCH are KINGS of single target healing. We have all sorts of tools which make us better main tank healers than WHMs. If I place my fairy at the MTs ass so she only heals the MT while on obey and I spam a mix of physick, adlo and lustrate on the MT, unless he gets one shot, it's almost impossible for him to die. Especially since I can aetherflow to keep this cycle going for a long time. WHMs, on the other hand, only have divine seal, presence of mind (long CD), benediction (another long ass CD) and cure 2 to keep an MT up with for an extended fight. Cure 2 notoriously drains a WHMs mana very fast unless the WHM is mixing in cures to proc free cure. Even with shroud, they can't keep up MT healing on a long fight the same way an SCH can.

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Originally Posted by WLotus

There have been numerous people that have asked me to teach them how to WHM. You can spam your heals all you want, but at the end of the day, mana management, timing of your heals, and the small minute details that no one except other healers will ever notice are what set WHM apart. A crappy WHM can get by w/ bards and tanks carrying them through w/ CDs and Mana song. A really good WHM such as myself will never, ever, require mana song. I will revive 2 or 3 people and solo heal portions of fights and still not need it. You don't instant heal butt clench savers except Benediction. You don't have a fairy healing everyone while you do your thing. It's an art.

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lets be honest im the only world class gayer you know

I say they are equal. Whm it is easier to spam cures, but they have to watch out for their hate, and whm can steal hate very easily if they are stupid and just go in and spam big cures, being a whm is more about knowing when not to cure.

Being a sch you should know when to negate vs when to cure, that is maybe a tad harder than whm, but its nearly impossible for a sch to steal hate from a tank who has established hate, so we don't have to worry as much about spamming.

Its not about ease or difficulty at end game, its about which one you are better at playing/enjoy playing more, XIV doesn't need more crappy healers who rushed into leveling the class just because "they or they're fc needed" one, we need good healers. (Just DF for a while you'll see what I mean, there are more crappy healers than good ones, more crappy tanks than good ones, and more crappy dds than good ones, so we need people who can actually care just slightly enough to the point where I don't want to kick them for being so bad, i get it...its a game, but how to people have fun knowing they suck?)

Also as a SCH I see a lot of crappy sch, they are giving sch a bad name in general I think, like when I meet new people and they see my sch they aren't expecting a good healer, but then they get one and are shocked to see its not sch are bad, its people are stupid. Please micro manage your fairy, if you let your fairy blow their load in the first 10 secs, (no excuse with new patch changes) I'm hoping I never see you again. Macro your pet's cure into your cure, so when you physick someone, they are also embracing that person, etc, it makes up for the fact we don't have fat cures like whm.

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Originally Posted by SulwynCaliope

Wait when you say main heal, you mean main tank healing? SCH are KINGS of single target healing. We have all sorts of tools which make us better main tank healers than WHMs. If I place my fairy at the MTs ass so she only heals the MT while on obey and I spam a mix of physick, adlo and lustrate on the MT, unless he gets one shot, it's almost impossible for him to die. Especially since I can aetherflow to keep this cycle going for a long time. WHMs, on the other hand, only have divine seal, presence of mind (long CD), benediction (another long ass CD) and cure 2 to keep an MT up with for an extended fight. Cure 2 notoriously drains a WHMs mana very fast unless the WHM is mixing in cures to proc free cure. Even with shroud, they can't keep up MT healing on a long fight the same way an SCH can.

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most fights keeping up regen and cure I is enough and timing free cure II with the occasional non free cure II. MP isnt much of an issue as a whm.

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Originally Posted by vpc

lets be honest im the only world class gayer you know

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Come into my bed Pls.

WHM is easier to play imho.

Have played both in end game, but I greatly prefer SCH. I find myself getting easily bored playing WHM now :'(
So much more enjoyable micro managing fairy and Aether stacks etc.

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Originally Posted by SulwynCaliope

Wait when you say main heal, you mean main tank healing? SCH are KINGS of single target healing. We have all sorts of tools which make us better main tank healers than WHMs. If I place my fairy at the MTs ass so she only heals the MT while on obey and I spam a mix of physick, adlo and lustrate on the MT, unless he gets one shot, it's almost impossible for him to die. Especially since I can aetherflow to keep this cycle going for a long time. WHMs, on the other hand, only have divine seal, presence of mind (long CD), benediction (another long ass CD) and cure 2 to keep an MT up with for an extended fight. Cure 2 notoriously drains a WHMs mana very fast unless the WHM is mixing in cures to proc free cure. Even with shroud, they can't keep up MT healing on a long fight the same way an SCH can.

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I meant main healer = raid healer.
I would not say WHM is that bad at long time tanker healing: divine seal, regen and cure/freecure are similar to rouse, physick and embrace.

I'd say at the average player skill level, Scholar is easier. It's easier to be a crappy/mediocre Scholar and still do alright than it is as a crappy/mediocre White Mage, largely because you have that fairy pumping out almost a quarter of your heals and no real mana concerns to worry about.

At the high-end, though, I think it's the opposite. It's a bit more difficult to be a really good SCH than it is to be a really good WHM, for a number of reasons. You're playing more proactively instead of reactively (so you generally need to be more familiar with a fight or be able to read a situation better), you have quite a few more skills and keybinds to keep track of (I have almost four full hotbars worth of abilities on SCH, a little over two on WHM), and you have a pet to micromanage (which requires you to be conscientious of where she is in relation to your primary heal target, fight mechanics, and party members she needs to hit with her AoE buffs).

Now, you do have a much easier time of managing mana and a really good instant cast heal on a very short cooldown, both of which WHM lacks. So in the end it kind of balances out. Even though WHM has fewer buttons to press at the high-end, they need to be much more careful about MP management and making sure they pick their heal targets and spells properly, because with the exception of Benediction they have absolutely no way to get someone's health up quickly without casting for two seconds or waiting for a HoT tick. I still feel like SCH is a bit more engaging but they're both pretty close, I would say.

They're both fine/about the same difficulty imo. I mean if you know some hits are coming that'll hit the tank hard u adlo and/or stoneskin. Both use E4E and Virus (albeit different CD times and one having an additional bonus for Int). If you need a bigger heal you C2/ EmPhysick. No WHM doesnt have lustrate, but the whole point is to never need a lustrate with the power a whm has w/ regen/ med2 regen (assuming tank is in range)/ C2 / increased magic def protect/ 18% stoneskin etc.

And plz stop saying WHM is reactive. You have to be proactive on that as well, less you want to cause wipes with untimely heals. Best WHMs start a heal b4 the big hit so it can land within a second of the big hit landing, cast SS pre-emptively at opportune moments in battle, and routinely use E4E and Virus. That's a lot of proactiveness right there. Yes they have the tools to help recover faster but to say WHM is reactive is misleading to those who may be new to the game or class IMO.