What makes WHM special? Nothing anymore.

[EinherjarLucian]

Here's the question I pose to people who think there's no identity crisis.... and I want you to take a moment to imagine this scenario before making a gut reply to it.

*snip*

See where WHM is coming from on this?

...but neither is going to happen. And AST still doesn't do quite the same job as either WHM or SCH. I hear a lot of calls from WHMs that WHM needs an "identity" to make it feel competitive. Okay, sure, but... leaving healing potency buffs to WHMs off the table, what would make you happy otherwise, then? What would work for you as a "WHM Identity", if "Strongest Heals" wasn't a thing?

[Muahbec]

Hi, I play main SCH, and I'm okay with Supervirus getting rolled into Virus for all jobs that can use it. Also I'm okay with the Nocturnal buffs. Why? Because I don't feel insecure about my identity as an SCH by the AST changes. Also, like Cedane said, I look forward to all of my Healer teammates to be awesome together. If WHM or AST is a little more awesome than me, I guess this means people get healed better. Sounds like a win to me.

SCH is my main and i feel the same way.
/highfive o/

[Muahbec]

...The amount of nonsense that has been written...

Neither is going to happen.

The scenario 2 is ridiculous.
There are simple ways to solve the RNG problems, don't be ignorant.

The scenario 1 ...omg....how old are you?
All i see is a kid whining and moaning because they don't want the other kid playing with toys similar to the ones they have.
grow up.

[zuzu-bq]

Mind party buff.
Sprints away

[EinherjarLucian]

And another thing. I think the thing about "do I have a unique ability?" should be completely subordinate to "are we contributing to the party win?". Our job, as Healers, is to go into a dungeon, raid, guildhest, FATE, or even PvP and keep the blue bars full. If we can do it better/more efficiently, or do a little more DPS ourselves, or buff our fellow party members, that's icing on the cake.

What matters, at the end of the day, is "did the tanks stay alive for the whole fight? Did the DPSers stay alive the whole fight?" If we're answering "no" to either of those questions, then we're not doing our jobs and we have a serious problem. And AST was in a position where it was answering "no" to those questions, so they got a buff.

WHM are the best/most-efficient healers, hands down.
SCH brings shields, a semi-autonomous healing pet, and damage/debuff utility.

AST brings their cards (which someone mentioned earlier, are a huge distraction if incoming damage is so high that you're focused on your job which is keeping the blue bars full...), but they bring something else: the chance to make sure that the regen/shield balance in a party is still present. An AST in the same party as the WHM should never compete with the WHM in the same way because that AST better damn well be in Nocturnal stance providing shields. An AST in the same party as a SCH should never compete with the SCH because that AST better damn well be in Diurnal providing regen.

Just keep the damn blue bars full! The ones on the left. The ones on the right we'll let our NIN/BRD/MCH pals take care of.

[EinherjarLucian]

Mind party buff.
Sprints away

Stoneskin II /micdrop

[Kosmos992k]

Hi, I play main SCH, and I'm okay with Supervirus getting rolled into Virus for all jobs that can use it. Also I'm okay with the Nocturnal buffs. Why? Because I don't feel insecure about my identity as an SCH by the AST changes. Also, like Cedane said, I look forward to all of my Healer teammates to be awesome together. If WHM or AST is a little more awesome than me, I guess this means people get healed better. Sounds like a win to me.

Someone take one of this player's faeries away...

[Kosmos992k]

And another thing. I think the thing about "do I have a unique ability?" should be completely subordinate to "are we contributing to the party win?". Our job, as Healers, is to go into a dungeon, raid, guildhest, FATE, or even PvP and keep the blue bars full. If we can do it better/more efficiently, or do a little more DPS ourselves, or buff our fellow party members, that's icing on the cake.

Well, that's a revelation...In truth we need no special anything. ASTs put down your disco ball and Deck O'Wonder, SCHs, take your pets of their leash and return your book to the library, all either of you need is a bigstick, because as EinherjarLucian just pointed out, our job is to "keep the blue bars full" everything else is icing on the cake.

I think I have come to the conclusion that there is a large group of players who treat this game as some version of The Matrix were they see the numbers but not the people, the algorithms but not the trees, and there is nothing we can do to help you see beyond that. I also think that one of the things I miss most with playing my WHM is my wand and shield. So I think that where AST has it's disco ball and Deck O'Wonder and SCH has it's grimoire and Faerie, WHM should have it's wand and shield. In closing, give me my bloody shield back!

[UlricCraft]

A2S Chat
Our comp is WAR/PLD/MNK/DRG/BLM/SCH & Me + MCH/BRD in the Gobwalker. I've got the logs so I'll have to take another look.

Huh, I always avoid giving Balance to the MNK, since I tend to throw Arrow & Spire their way.
More speed = more gcds = less time worrying about GL3! He seems to love it anyway, since nobody else wants their resources annihilated by 13-18% SS (Selene/Card)

But yeah, seems we have the same issue as you regarding either kill order or ability cooldown timing for DPS.

I feel like AST really shines in this turn mainly due to the limit downtime for TP regen more than anything.

[ckc22]

SCH is my main and i feel the same way.
/highfive o/

If everyone has the same toolkit with different names what's the point in having jobs at all?

Homogenization is killing this game and it has gotten orders of magnitude worse since heavensward.