Class Involvement

So I used to main white mage but soon after, I focused on black mage and found that to be a little less involving than white mage so I switched to summoner to see if I could get the fulfillment out of being a dps that also has to manage a pet. I thought that was fun and allowed me to be a little more involved in fights which seemed fun at the time until that too didn't really seem exciting anymore. Then I went to tank and I said "sorry this is a little too much involvement" and promptly stopped tanking things. Though, after running a few dungeons, I've seen more people as Scholars than white mages. So, is white mage still fun these days?

Not exactly sure what you mean by "involvement" but...there are tons of people who like WHM still.

I'm not one of them but hey, not that it's not fun I just don't...like it. Also, I see tons of WHM in dungeons and trials, etc. So people still definitely play the job.

Well, my WHM is Lv60 while my SCH is 40-something. Coming from FFXI as a WHM, I wanted to be WHM here. However, a few months into FFXIV and I wanted to be a DPS, which I then became BRD.

I recently tried meddling with WHM, which was why I leveled her from 50 to 60 about two weeks ago. I like being on her, but I never stepped foot in Alexander N/S as her. I think once I learned to heal there, I'll probably play as her more. I remember doing T10 as WHM. This made me NOT want to focus on maining her due to the mechanics. But as time went on, healing T10, and moving to heal T11, wasn't that big of a deal once I learned it.

I'll need to just put some time into a learning group, which I may do tonight or tomorrow before reset.

I main whm and i lvled all 3 healers and I personally play Whm and Astro I really don't like to play sch. If you mean by involment it depends on the player. Learn to stance dance. In my opion sch might be a bit to easy with stance dancing as fairy picks up the slack when u not Healing so is a bit more forgiving. Why mage is next on the line as all u have to do is spam your HoTs on the target or raid and dps away. Astro may be what u looking for as there is a lot of going on with the cards, dps, and healing. So timming everything may be the challenge that u looking.

I used to play as WHM a lot right up until around 3.1 when I decided to give SCH a go for a while.

WHM is a play style that forgoes utility for strong healing output and HoTs. Medica 2 and Regen and Asylum stacking is what allows me to stance dance without worrying too much about the tank HP dropping too quickly. This is further supplemented by Assize and Tetragrammaton and Benediction to use during OH SHIT moments.

It was a great healing class to start with and I still enjoy it from time to time. Although I play SCH and WAR more nowadays, I still have an affection for my white mage...its just a shame that for savage I mainly tank as I enjoy healing much more xD.

According to the latest Eorzea Census, which was in September, WHMs make up 48% of healers, SCHs are 37% and ASTs 15%. While these figures may have changed slightly since, I wouldn't be surprised if WHMs are still most popular. It could vary by server but I see WHMs all the time, there's definitely no shortage of them.

If you want to see all the stats, here's the link!

You should probably take BLM to 60 before stating it's less involved. It's involved, just in a very different way from WHM.

Thanks for the replies. I'm definitely going back to WHM for the time being and I'll see about leveling up AST.

im playing all 3 healers as well and i like all of them in a different way. i started with a lvl 60 sch cause my main is smn. i learned how to support people directly at the ex-dailies without stepping in low lvl inis as healer at all... therefor sch was pretty nice getting used to all the aspects of playing healer at all. after getting a pretty descent healer i took focus on whm playing nothing else for about uhm... 3-4 month - i rly fall in love with it. atm ill try to finish Ast (current lvl 56). Like i said i like all of them but in different ways... whm have the strongest burst/heavy heals + regen its a perfect cls for taking the main-healer role in any 8+ content. whm is also the best bet for solo stuff, farming, fates etc. imo other would say sch cause your pet backs you up but i still think whm is better for solo tasks - cause of holy and assize. sch becomes more and more a hybrid healer... though doting and dpsing maybe fun, i just dont like the opinion sch "must" play as hybrids for dps checks or faster progress in lvl dngs. Ast is the most complex healer for me - giving you the chance to change your playstyle whenever you want it to. playing with instant shield or reg + mastering the cards is kinda fun. i know Ast and Sch could make a good look at main healers too, but like i said earlier if i wanna go main heal ill take my staff, if i want to be a part on dps support ill take my faery for a walk, if im on pure supporter mood ill take the Ast most likely in shield stance throwing my cards like Marvels Gambit on crack ; P

you should try them all - they'll all be handy in different situations ^^

White mage is definitely still fun. Though it all really depends on your personal preference.

White mage is "involved" mainly with direct healing output, Scholar is involved with additional damage (considered the best of the three in terms of DPS) and pet handling, and Astrologian is involved with versatile party buffs through card management.

And you should try to tank again. It's only hard if you get a relentless group that may chide you over mistakes. Though I know tanking isn't for everyone, for some it's the hardest to do and for others it's just the easiest thing in the world. First time I tanked I had the knee jerk "NOPE" reaction after a somewhat rough time due to overgeared people, but eventually I gave it another shot. I got comfortable tanking pretty quickly and learned it's pretty easy if you can handle being the de facto leader of a group. I now main DRK and PLD on my alt character. http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...acter/4034915/

definitely more white mages. see over 200 white mages nightly when I do a scan. normally about half for scholars with astro on par or slightly below scholar in numbers.

WHM is my main healer class and while it's true I can run stuff effectively with it even half asleep, it's more due me knowing how it works than it being boring at all. I found my challenge with dipping in as much damage I can while still maintaining good party health without playing chicken with tank health bar. I have tried about everything thought and at least yet, mnk is the only class I don't quite like one way or another.

Yes WHM is still fun but it depends what you mean about fun. The thing with WHM in a raid capacity you are always the primary Healer since you output a lot of HoT so your DPS up time is a lot less than a SCH or AST which put out more buffs and mitigation utility and SCH has a pet that heals so it depends if that is fun for you. In most content though your heals are so ridiculously strong that you can remain in cleric stance most of the time and just throw out some DoT's,and use holy and assize for group damage and stuns or just stone III on a boss and DoT's. You probably want to use holy less with a DRK though they like things to hit them so they recharge mana XD.

WHM the question to ask is "Do you want to be a Healer?" but with any class in the game it's about learning how to play it and learning content so then you can start thinking outside the box like "What can I do here to contribute to the fight" outside of just going through the motions.

I think the 50-60 toolkit made WHM a lot more fun than it had been previously. I didn't love WHM at 50 but I find myself playing it all the time at 60 and it even took over for AST as my second healer (SCH main).

I think some of the things that make it more fun are that stance dancing is a bit easier and you have another instant heal to help you out in panic moments. Honestly I feel like I see more people playing WHM than ever before now.

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Originally Posted by MXMoondoggie

The thing with WHM in a raid capacity you are always the primary Healer since you output a lot of HoT so your DPS up time is a lot less than a SCH or AST

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That's not entirely true, you can still spend the majority of many fights in Cleric as a WHM, especially because you have so many HoTs - that is, if you know the fights well enough. I've stopped counting the situations where you can just throw a Medica II on the group after raidwide damage happens, and immediately switch back into Cleric because there's enough time for MII to top off the group until the next mechanic happens that requires your attention as a healer. There's also a lot of situations where you can get away with turning on Cleric Stance for 2-3 casts in between two mechanics, though this often requires extremely good timing. Optimizing fights like this is part of why healing in general and WHM specifically is so much fun for me in this game.