Divine Benison and Plenary Indulgence question

Having recently got my WHM to 70, I now have access to these two skills, but after taking the WHM through the story dungeons from 66 to 70, I find that Divine Benison and PI never seem to be available when it was natural to use them.

Also, is DB's amount absorbed dependent on how many Lilies are available?

I'm wondering if any WHMs out there actually actively try to accumulate 3 Lilies for DB and try to proc Confessions before boss AOE attacks in order to use PI. Or do you mostly just go about your own business and only use DB/PI when they happen to be up?

Maybe I'm just not used to these new skills, but dealing with Lilies and Confession feels even more of a hassle than managing the card RNG on my AST.

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Originally Posted by Zfz

Maybe I'm just not used to these new skills, but dealing with Lilies and Confession feels even more of a hassle than managing the card RNG on my AST.

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It's not you, the system sucks.

DB mitigation doesn't depend on the number of lilies, so to me it feels like a waste to use it unless there's only 1 lily (and even then only if the shield is actually useful for something, like a tank buster). PI is useful for some free, additional raid AoE healing, since it's instant. I don't fish for lilies of confession stacks for anything, but I don't really play WHM in raid content (have only done OS1 and OS2 on WHM) so someone with more WHM raid experience may give better advice. :)

Divine Benison is a fixed barrier totalling 15% of the targets max HP irrespective of if you have 1 or 3 lilies at the time.

It's a little more useful and usable than I think people give it credit for IMHO, on a tank it's an instant cast oGCD 7.5k-10k barrier depending on the situation, that's a good amount of HP and a useful emergency button or as a low agro filler during a long dungeon pull. It's downfall of course is that you need to spend a GCD to charge it, lily generation in the likes of O4S is almost non existent and it's also fighting for lilies with Tetra/Assize and Asylum which will often be used mostly on cooldown so you need to be a little mindful there as well.

PI is an unashamed raid ability that can make Ex primals a little easier too. Pretty much any situation where you've got multiple AoEs coming it, PI gets progressively more powerful the more sustained the AoEs are. Whilst Benison is unwieldy in O4S, PI absolutely shines here. As for dungeon use, pretty much any boss that does a couple of back to back AoEs will bring PI into to play even if it's not strictly 'necessary'. A saved GCD is still an extra Stone IV if nothing else!

My problem with DB is that I always have assize on CD and since it always eats any Lillie’s for the lower CD time, I never pay attention to how many Lillie’s I actually have.

To add to all the above posts, you only generate a Lily or PI stack when you're in combat and the requisite heal actually heals HP. You can't heal someone who's already at 100% HP and generate a Lily or Confession Stack.

Also, even though the potency of DB doesn't go up when it consumes more Lily's, the ability itself still gains the CDR bonus from consuming X lilies from the Secret of the Lilies trait.

Typically speaking, you just want to use PI and DB when you have the necessary resources and the effect is meaningful. This is much more straight forward for DB but for PI, sometimes there isn't a follow up AoE so the additional healing feels kinda pointless at times. I know there have also been some suggestions to use PI as a topper for your MT even if it generates overheal from the rest of the party and I don't see anything wrong with this logic either outside of you, as the WHM, is closely trailing the tank in enmity.

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Originally Posted by BorisDaBlade

My problem with DB is that I always have assize on CD and since it always eats any Lillie’s for the lower CD time, I never pay attention to how many Lillie’s I actually have.

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In extreme and savage content, it can pay to remember when you can generate a lilly to have DB up for the tank. (Well, gear levels are higher now so maybe not as much). Since lillies are no longer RNG you can do this with 100% consistency.

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Originally Posted by Ghishlain

Also, even though the potency of DB doesn't go up when it consumes more Lily's, the ability itself still gains the CDR bonus from consuming X lilies from the Secret of the Lilies trait.

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But, let's be real.... CDR on DB is never useful. It's a 15% shield and you can guarantee you can use it for 600 MP, and worth using for this alone. DB's useful, but the CDR isn't.

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Anyways, I wouldn't worry about "wasting" extra lillies. Just use your abilities when they make sense.

To the OP: Both these abilities are things that shine more in hard content. Regular dungeons just don't have enough outgoing damage (especially party damage) to get much mileage out of them.

I feel like PI gets infinitely more use in 8man+ content, outside of Savage it is more just a little potency bump on top of your existing AoE heal. I see a lot of use out of it in EX primals, it's wonderful on Ukehi and Stotram to let your cohealer continue DPSing while you bring the party up solo.

Even looking at Medica versus Cure III the potency difference is reduced to only 100 from 350 with only one stack of PI while retaining Medica's great range. It's kind of like an alternative when groups can't be relied upon to properly stack for your Cure III.

Also in Rabanastre I've used DB on myself a couple times to make sure I survive a mechanic so that I can get people back up.

I think the way they currently exist these abilities enhance the WHM kit without forcing you to revolve your playatyle around them which is what I want from these sort of skills.

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Originally Posted by MoroMurasaki

Even looking at Medica versus Cure III the potency difference is reduced to only 100 from 350 with only one stack of PI while retaining Medica's great range. It's kind of like an alternative when groups can't be relied upon to properly stack for your Cure III.

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Or even when they are stacked. Take that one part where Halicarnassus spams Dimensional Wave, for example. I C3 through the first ones. But when the adds are dead and the party's moving out for the next mechanic... Hali casts one more Dimensional Wave, and PI is perfect there for healing it (and it's thanks to C3 that I have the confession stacks). Never mind all the movement when you move up to the next fight.

Same for basically any other mechanic/boss phase that forces a spread, or lots of movement generally.

But in dungeons, even if there is a party AoE hit... there's no followup damage, so your medica or whatever heals it up, and then you have 1 confession stack with no real use for it...

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

But, let's be real.... CDR on DB is never useful. It's a 15% shield and you can guarantee you can use it for 600 MP, and worth using for this alone. DB's useful, but the CDR isn't.

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My comment was more about how the trait does still affect DB since there seems to be a misconception that DB consuming more than one Lily has no effect - though admittedly no effect and very minimal effect can be pretty similar too.

Thank you for all the replies! They do make a lot more sense when considering harder content with more party-wide AOE and constant incoming damage. Perhaps after I get my WHM geared up with Verity and got more practice with my RDM in Rabanastre, I'll try healing it on my WHM.

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Originally Posted by Zfz

Thank you for all the replies! They do make a lot more sense when considering harder content with more party-wide AOE and constant incoming damage. Perhaps after I get my WHM geared up with Verity and got more practice with my RDM in Rabanastre, I'll try healing it on my WHM.

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Rabanastre on WHM is tons of fun, though at this point if I can offer a bit of advice; be extra cautious about tunnel visioning on the boss some of the mechanics can sneak up on you and give you some trouble. Bosses there don't have hard enrages so if your personal DPS isn't sky high and you focus on keeping everyone up it's not the end of the world.

Plus if your cohealers are anything like most of mine you'll find yourself on rez duty anyways - best way to avoid that is refusing to let them all die in the first place.

Interesting topic with lots of informative posts. How can I request this thread be stickied?

The way I usually use Divine Benison is on the Tank or myself or any DPS that happen to be at risk from a mechanic or near death, but usually only if I have 1 lily because I try to save 3 lilies for Tetragrammation, Assize, and Asylum.
The way I use Plenary Indulgence is after a Medica II if the party took an AoE. I also use it as a double party heal if need be after using Medica.