What makes WHM special? Nothing anymore.

[Verdan]

White Mages are asking: What's our Aetherflow and Pet? What's our Cards and Aspects? They get the back the answer Cure 3 and Assize.

This is an unsatisfactory answer.

[Kosmos992k]

Eh? Umm base healing and DPS between WHM and AST is exactly the same with most stuff gotten on the same levels with the exception of AST's ED is learned at level 4 and WHM's tetra is learned at 60 and Gravity is learned at 52 instead of 50 thus can't be used in 50 hard dungeons.

And I mean exactly the same, you get good at a WHM to 60 you can use all the same keybinds for AST's equivalent spells perfectly.

All very educational, but so what? I didn't mention any of that. I know as well as everyone else here does that in basic story content a fully leveled WHM or AST is perfectly viable and great for healing 4-man content, just as SCH is. I never suggested otherwise, so what's your point?

What I said relates to the look and feel, or flavor of the WHM job as you play it. But you know, I realize that there is very little point trying to discuss that aspect of anything in this game with people who can only see things in terms of the numbers and mechanics. In other words, we're not talking about the same things.

White Mages are asking: What's our Aetherflow and Pet? What's our Cards and Aspects? They get the back the answer Cure 3 and Assize.

This is an unsatisfactory answer.

Indeed, but the trouble is that most responses will start analyzing specific skill comparisons and end-game utility and not address the obvious issue you're referring to.

Oh, and don't forget that they took our wand and shield away and left us with a big stick to fight with...

My statement wasn't exclusive to raids. By "raid healing" I am referring to AE healing/getting multiple people healed up quickly.

You said raid, I responded appropriately.

So if you liked it then, there is no reason to not like it now. If you don't like it now, then it's not the class for you.

I played whm a lot in ARR and prefered it's playstyle over sch's by a lot. It's role in groups and its identity in general are exactly the same now as it was then, save two minor changes and 5 new tools to help do what we did before even better.

I disagree with your assessment and opinion, and I doubt we will agree.

[Eudyptes]

I don't know how many times. But since you've completely avoided the fact that I wasn't talking about end-game, I guess it will be at least once more.

How a job plays out in end-game, what it's numbers are, may be of great interest to you and raiders/end-gamers in general, but it's not to me. What is interesting to me is how the role looks and feels during mainstream story content, NOT end-game content.

My statement wasn't exclusive to raids. By "raid healing" I am referring to AE healing/getting multiple people healed up quickly. The other points I made didn't even have anything to do with endgame at all. So I didn't "avoid" anything. That's their identity. If you don't like that identity, level another class. It's really as simple as that. Whm is the same it was in ARR as it is now, save the loss to protect (which was a must change anyway), and stoneskin (which I personally don't think was necessary to change). So if you liked it then, there is no reason to not like it now. If you don't like it now, then it's not the class for you.

I played whm a lot in ARR and prefered it's playstyle over sch's by a lot. It's role in groups and its identity in general are exactly the same now as it was then, save two minor changes and 5 new tools to help do what we did before even better.

[Eudyptes]

See where WHM is coming from on this?

No, because what you're saying is extremely misrepresenting the current situation to make it look much worse than it is.

[GideonHighmourn]

My statement wasn't exclusive to raids. By "raid healing" I am referring to AE healing/getting multiple people healed up quickly. The other points I made didn't even have anything to do with endgame at all. So I didn't "avoid" anything. That's their identity. If you don't like that identity, level another class. It's really as simple as that. Whm is the same it was in ARR as it is now, save the loss to protect (which was a must change anyway), and stoneskin (which I personally don't think was necessary to change). So if you liked it then, there is no reason to not like it now. If you don't like it now, then it's not the class for you.

I played whm a lot in ARR and prefered it's playstyle over sch's by a lot. It's role in groups and its identity in general are exactly the same now as it was then, save two minor changes and 5 new tools to help do what we did before even better.

To go further into this .. I'd also say that WHM is the most "simple" (and I don't mean easy, just less complicated, mainly) healer compared to SCH/AST. A lot of people seem to enjoy that aspect, since there's not an extra resource, pet, or cards to manage. It's still the king of burst healing, which is what it was in ARR; nothing about WHM's identity has changed with the addition of AST or SCH's new skills. If you like the new toys that AST/SCH got, play them instead; nothing is stopping you. None of the healing classes are "better" but each fill a slightly different role with slightly different play styles, which is completely fine.

[Raso]

White Mages are asking: What's our Aetherflow and Pet? What's our Cards and Aspects? They get the back the answer Cure 3 and Assize.

This is an unsatisfactory answer.

The thing is those 'unique spells' are terrible. What is the point of a unique ability when they can't be used?

Cure III is weaker than Cure II and costs twice as much but AoE? Well that AoE is so small it can't even reach the melee DPS when you use it on the tank.

Assize has everything tacked onto it, so much so that you can't use it viably outside of mana return.

If they make the two spells useful throughput then maybe some uniqueness would be there without having to change other stuff.

Maybe make Cure III a bounce heal, heal the target and the lowest HP friendly target within 20y, that could be useful. Remove the mana Regen component on Assize and stick it on something else, an instant AoE heal is cool and all but it can't be used like that.

[Eudyptes]

You said raid, I responded appropriately..

I said "raid healing". It's an actual term that has been in mmo's to describe AE healing since, well, that's what you need to heal entire raids.

I disagree with your assessment and opinion, and I doubt we will agree.

Ok. Keep your fingers in your ear and "say la la la whm has no identity" all you want then. Doesn't make my statement any less true.

To go further into this .. I'd also say that WHM is the most "simple" (and I don't mean easy, just less complicated, mainly) healer compared to SCH/AST.

I agree and not sure why I didn't think of it adding that myself. It's like how blm was in ARR (idk about now since my blm is only 51 atm). I enjoyed playing blm in ARR cause you could go into a raid and be less stressed because you got to focus more on the actual fight/mechanics rather than in-depth/complex rotations as well as the fight mechanics.

[Risvertasashi]

Remove the mana Regen component on Assize and stick it on something else, an instant AoE heal is cool and all but it can't be used like that.

To be blunt... Any WHM not using it for its heal or damage is a bad WHM. A3S is a good example here. If you use Assize where you would have used Medica, you not only get 1300ish MP back directly, you also save another 1300 MP from not having used that medica. 2600 MP thereabouts. Furthermore, it's oGCD, so you can drop cleric, pop Assize, and be back in cleric in less than a second.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

The thing is those 'unique spells' are terrible. What is the point of a unique ability when they can't be used?

Cure III is weaker than Cure II but AoE? Well that AoE is so small it can't even reach the melee DPS when you use it on the tank.

Assize has everything tacked onto it, so much so that you can't use it viably outside of mana return.

If they make the two spells useful throughput then maybe some uniqueness would be there without having to change other stuff.

Maybe make Cure III a bounce heal, heal the target and the lowest HP friendly target within 20y, that could be useful. Remove the mana Regen component on Assize and stick it on something else, an instant AoE heal is cool and all but it can't be used like that.

Fun fact: Stacking is actually a common occurrence.
T5 for fireballs
T6 pre- and post spit
T8 in general
T9 after phase 2
T11 tanks stacking and stacking for missiles
T13 for Mega-, Giga- and Teraflare (also for Rage of Bahamut, but no sane healer would cure III after the first one)
A1(s) for jumps
A3(s) for hands phase
A4 for whatever that AoE is called

Plenty of opportunities to use Cure III from just the raid environment.

[Tyla_Esmeraude]

The thing is those 'unique spells' are terrible. What is the point of a unique ability when they can't be used?

Cure III is weaker than Cure II but AoE? Well that AoE is so small it can't even reach the melee DPS when you use it on the tank.

Assize has everything tacked onto it, so much so that you can't use it viably outside of mana return.

If they make the two spells useful throughput then maybe some uniqueness would be there without having to change other stuff.

What the actual flying chocobo? Cure III is terrible?! It's situational but absolutely NOT terrible. It's very useful in certain situations. I've used it in raids many times. Assize not useful? What?! What?! Insta AoE heal, MP return and AoE damage is not useful?! Do you even raid my friend? In raids these 2 tools are very very useful.