Why does White Mage feel so bland?

[Tyla_Esmeraude]

It's really ever since the introduction of AST as a class that I've realized that there just ... isn't much that will attract people to the class. In the HW teaser trailer, we were shown Tetragrammaton. So flashy, right?

Heh yeah, I wasn't too excited about the new WHM abilities either, which influenced my decision to switch to AST. At first I was like meh Tetragrammaton, but in the end it became one of my most useful tools as WHM and probably one of my favourite ones.

[Verdan]

They gave all our cool things to other classes in order to make those classes work.

Cleric stance is our ability, remember.

[AlexanderThorolund]

I don't think many people will switch based on usefulness. Look at the numbers of who have gone into savage. People play based on aesthetics, I myself don't like the WHM cast and spell animations (sorry WHMs). I played SCH up to 50 then switched to AST. I played SCH because it was my only option, I never really liked the aesthetics of SCH (SORRY SCHs!!!!)

This is not the end of WHM.

[BroodingFicus]

While I don't agree with the OP about WHM dying out due to these patches and I /do/ think AST needed a buff to make them competitive with the other healers, I admit I don't necessarily agree with how it was done. At launch they were more or less played off as a class that could chose to be a watered down WHM or a water down SCH depending on the needs of the party and the cards would be their main differentiating quality. Unfortunately the RNG and other issues with the cards sorta didn't play out and make it significant enough to encourage anyone to pick them over the other two established healers. I feel as if buffs to AST should be to make their cards viable enough to the party that they are chosen on that basis. As it stands it feels like they buffed the WHM aspect of them and more or less put them on par or close to with WHM in healing capacity.

Will it kill the class? No. Do I feel like WHM should have something of their own? Yes. That is the point of balance. As said above, a lot of our best qualities and moves are given away. I don't necessarily feel that saying our dps is higher should be the defining trait of a healer. It should be secondary. Even the mana regen is...well frankly I hardly need it unless the party is inflicted with the dreaded 'WHAT MEAN DODGE' and constantly makes me raise/heal them. Its nice to be able to carry people through like that but I'm not even sure we are the undisputed AoE healers now since what I understand from the patch notes seems like they more or less have medica II. Cure III is highly situational and while Assize is nice I don't know that its enough to call it 'our thing'.

Long story short, healers should be different. Scholar should be best at mitigation, WHM should be best at raw healing and AST should be best at buffs and it should be by a noticeable margin. They should be buffing what is unique about AST and if they need more heals, adding that capacity to their cards in some fashion. Not making their WHM stance more powerful. If this is the direction its going, WHM sorta feels like they are slowly losing ground on their niche market. We aren't dead but we are becoming the short kid in the marching band. Are we doing our job? Yes. Will you take notice of us? Probably not. Just my piece on this going by the initial look over. I'm going to level my AST now to see how I feel after that.

[Alahra]

As it stands it feels like they buffed the WHM aspect of them and more or less put them on par or close to with WHM in healing capacity.

Close to, yes. But not equal. WHM still has the edge in total potencies for some key spells.

Asp. Benefic 1030
Regen 1050

Asp. Helios 600
Medica II 700 (plus 20y range)

In particular, the difference between Aspected Helios and Medica II is quite significant. 100 potency is nothing to scoff at, nor is the additional 5y range that Medica II has.

Benefic and Benefic II are now equally as powerful as their WHM counterparts (and slightly faster thanks to the Diurnal buff), but given that WHM's other two core healing spells are better, this is six of one and half a dozen of the other.

WHM also has three oGCD healing options as opposed to AST's one (Assize, Benediction, Tetragrammaton vs. Essential Dignity), which gives WHM more ability to respond rapidly to situations and a better ability to regain control when things go poorly or when DPS is required.

Divine Seal and Synastry are now comparable--one is usable more often for a slightly smaller healing boost, and the other has a longer cooldown but is more powerful. That's a trade-off.

They're still different in some notable ways. I think anyone that's concerned that WHM is losing identity to AST is having a bit of a kneejerk reaction.

Edit: It's also important to note that in any situation where an AST is replacing a WHM, the group has no MND bonus, which further lowers the effective potency of the AST's healing. When replacing a SCH this isn't the case, but that means there's already a WHM in the party, so there's no issue there. (There are still plenty of good reasons to take a SCH over an AST as well, but that's for another thread).

[Rin_Kuroi]

Whm dps is pretty damn good tbh. Its easy and effective. A bit rough on the mana pool but properly timed dps from the whm can be a hugh asset.

[Seraphyna]

Will it kill the class? No. Do I feel like WHM should have something of their own? Yes. That is the point of balance. As said above, a lot of our best qualities and moves are given away.

You're right. Everything that made WHM unique has been given away while SCH and AST have abilities that make them unique. AST have their cards. SCH have their pet. What does WHM have now? Absolutely nothing.

WHM is SE's bitch job that they just keep beating like a dead horse asking "is it dead yet"? I just keep getting flashbacks of playing Ranger on Guild Wars 2 and all the buffs that were needed to make Ranger not broken, going to Warrior, the favored pet class of ANET that ALWAYS got all the buffs. Well, that's how I feel anyways.

[Cynfael]

You're right. Everything that made WHM unique has been given away.

I don't get how people can make this assertion with a straight face. If you play them all at 60, you will understand that WHM retains its own unique feel and capability.

All healers have strengths, but none can utterly replace the others in their respective bailiwicks.

[Noira]

Whm only feels bland because you think WHm is supposed to be this press 1 to heal the party to full.

You want WHM to be the jack of all trades master of all type class.

You want migitiation decent dps and burst heals.

Okay so WHM is a pure healer what is the problem ?

[Rin_Kuroi]

You're right. Everything that made WHM unique has been given away while SCH and AST have abilities that make them unique. AST have their cards. SCH have their pet. What does WHM have now? Absolutely nothing.

WHM is SE's bitch job that they just keep beating like a dead horse asking "is it dead yet"? I just keep getting flashbacks of playing Ranger on Guild Wars 2 and all the buffs that were needed to make Ranger not broken, going to Warrior, the favored pet class of ANET that ALWAYS got all the buffs. Well, that's how I feel anyways.

What? Whm still has the best healing toolkit even with the ast buffs. Our dps also can't be matched even by sch. The only reason we don't put up sch dps numbers is because we're busy being amazing at healing. That doesn't sound like a ~bitch to me.