What makes WHM special? Nothing anymore.

[Eudyptes]

so yeah, benediction on its 5 min cd is the only thing really special to WHM now

You're conveniently ignoring that that is all on top of skills similar to the other classes. That's the point of whm. It's the entire healer package, and is a pure healer that can heal circles around the other two.

I think everyone would have prefered ast to be designed as a completely unique class from the ground up. But it wasn't, and it's way too late to do anything about that now. We knew this since HW launch and we knew the direction ast would have to go in order for it to perform in this game.

This is a big reason I think these threads are really dumb (beside the fact most are filled to the brim with misinformation from players who having even experienced what they are complaining about). It's far, far too late to redesign the class, making these threads completely pointless. Best case scenario, next expansion both classes get 5 skills that pull the two away from each other.

[UlricCraft]

Breakdown:

Single Heals: Equal
AoE Heals: Equal
Power Heals: Equal/Comparable
Fast Heals: Comparable
Instant Heals: WHM
Party Buffs: AST
DPS Contribution: AST
MP Management: AST

• Single Heals - Arguably AST due to the way Synastry works, also Time Dilation on HoTs effectively adds 1.5 the potency to Aspected Benefic.
  1030 Potency 18s, +(140*5=700) = 1730. Do the same with all the HoTs.
• AoE Heals: WHM
• Power Heals: WHM
• Fast Heals: Equal (Not PoM vs LS!)
• Instant Heals: WHM
• Party Buffs: AST
• DPS cont.: AST
• MP Manage: WHM

OP's post is stupid and wrong.
I hope he edits.
Doesn't include

• Mitigation
• Raw DPS/Dungeon&AoE DPS
• Accuracy of DPS (Yes this is important)
• Ease of use

[Gist]

to be honest, i would love to at least see some cooldowns reduced. if SE wants WHM to keep beeing the raw healing class, why not reduce cd of assize to 60 sec and tetragrammaton to 40 sec? also i would love to have graniteskin back, but i dont think this will happen >_>

3 minute Benediction wouldn't be terrible...!

/tencharacters

[Eudyptes]

-snip-

It's also important to keep in mind that the areas you listed that ast beats whm in are areas sch has always beaten whm in too. So it's not like ast is suddenly doing something unheard of.

Edit: And to the two suggesting whm get lowered CDs; No. Whm and sch are already borderline OP. SE needed to lift ast to their level because no one was taking ast to anything. If your solution is to make whm more even more powerful, we are just going to be back in the exact same spot we were in two days ago.

[UlricCraft]

words

Agreed.
Though this topic seemed to be about AST replacing WHM's functionality and role.

Noct AST is still, in my opinion, behind the capabilities of the SCH and also loses the raw healing throughput of HoTs from Diurnal vs Eos.

This argument is a valid argument though... The balancing still isn't quite right.

SCH has a place and clearly outperforms AST at that designated role.
Mitigation.

Diurnal AST may well have 3% less potent healing than a WHM, but provides much more raid utility and DPS comparatively.

Compare this argument to the three tanks.

1. One tank gets slightly better offensive capabilities - Strong physical tanking
2. One tank has slightly stronger defensive capabilities - Strong AoE tanking
3. The 3rd is a hybrid between both and compliments them well - Strong magical tanking

The healers:

1. One gets more healing potency
2. One gets more offensive capability
3. One gets the same healing potency AND more offensive capability

[Trixxy]

High healing numbers, cute /cpose.

[Muahbec]

• Single Heals - Arguably AST due to the way Synastry works, also Time Dilation on HoTs effectively adds 1.5 the potency to Aspected Benefic.
  1030 Potency 18s, +(140*5=700) = 1730. Do the same with all the HoTs.
• AoE Heals: WHM
• Power Heals: WHM
• Fast Heals: Equal (Not PoM vs LS!)
• Instant Heals: WHM
• Party Buffs: AST
• DPS cont.: AST
• MP Manage: WHM

OP's post is stupid and wrong.
I hope he edits.
Doesn't include

• Mitigation
• Raw DPS/Dungeon&AoE DPS
• Accuracy of DPS (Yes this is important)
• Ease of use

THANK YOU
AND AGAIN
THANK YOU!

[Parawill]

White Mages still have the best bounce back from wipe situations as their raw healing power is consistent and tied to their GCDs. It is important to note that in the event a White Mage does use a Cure III, it is on a shorter cast time thus making it the best upfront AoE heal in the game. Of course there will be situations where you wont be able to Cure III, but there currently isn't much content that requires it. I think T13 synced is the only content that favours WHM over all the other classes simply because no other healer has the speed of WHM in terms of up front healing. And since I mentioned T13, I do think it's relevant when comparing classes despite it being "outdated" content (emphasis on quotations). I don't think I would ever bring an Astrologian even if held gunpoint to T13 unsynced--even if the AST had access to all skills from 51 ~ 60.

[Jerichai]

Tldr: don't take people's word for it level the class for yourself and make your own opinion. Which is contrary to what he's been saying that you don't need to have a job leveled to have an opinion.

But, you can have an opinion on something, albeit an uninformed one, with having experience. The reality is, though, that even if we prefer those opinions don't exist, they can still have an impact on overall perception. Next time try not putting words in people's mouths.

[Jerichai]

But, you can have an opinion on something, albeit an uninformed one, with having experience. The reality is, though, that even if we prefer those opinions don't exist, they can still have an impact on overall perception. Next time try not putting words in people's mouths.

That should be without having experience, but the mobile app for the forums doesn't seem to allow edits.