What makes WHM special? Nothing anymore.

[mp-please]

Range do make difference in various situations, and it's the best I can think without anyone screming "OVERPOWERED" to my face. But my post wasn't just about range, if you read it right, it's about going back to the root of a WHM and bring it to this game.

It doesn't make any difference because positionals are part of the game. While not too straightforward as melee dps positionals, a good healer needs to know where to stand and a good ranged dps needs to know where to stand to get healed, dps and possibly buff everyone (for example, bards).
Like i mentioned previously, conic aoes are getting bigger each patch to teach everyone to stand close to each other regardless arena size.

About overpowered, White mage is fine and is quite balanced, the issue is that SE wants us to burst heal and burst dps and then we have accuracy and SE giving other healers our exact same core healing toolkit and easier methods to dps. And like i mentioned previously on this thread, overgear kills the need for burst heal and with our dps being unreliable the class becomes rather useless while still viable for content.

[Fevelle]

It doesn't make any difference because positionals are part of the game. While not too straightforward as melee dps positionals, a good healer needs to know where to stand and a good ranged dps needs to know where to stand to get healed, dps and possibly buff everyone (for example, bards).
Like i mentioned previously, conic aoes are getting bigger each patch to teach everyone to stand close to each other regardless arena size.

And what's your idea for differentiating us more without other healer jobs feeling frightened?

[Alahra]

HoTs are no more the defining feature of WHM than Shields are the defining feature of SCH (as WHM always had a Shield in Stoneskin and SCH has always had a HoT in Whispering Dawn), but both of these being present are factored into healing checks when balancing content. Therefore, AST needed to have one or the other, and SE wanted a situation in which all three non-stacking healer combinations were viable. This means that when paired with a WHM, AST would need Shields and with a SCH, AST would need HoTs, which led to the implementation of the stance system.

WHM's identity is high healing thoroughput/burst healing in the same way that PLD's identity centers around greater defense than the other two tanks. It still has the highest output and the widest array of burst healing cooldowns--AST didn't touch any of that.

[Mutemutt]

Right, cause WHM doesnt deal with RNG in MP management. /sarcasm

Well, I'd say there is a very big difference in opportunity cost here. Every ewer or spear you actually use on yourself to deal with your own mp issues comes at the cost of the expand/extend buffs from royal road or just possibly another buff (most preferably one to increase the parties dps) through the use of shuffle. Whereas the only drawback to freecure, and the other cost reducing traits, is perhaps extra enmity. That enmity, by the way, will be continuously cut in half by shroud of saints so over the course of a long encounter it is negligible.

[GideonHighmourn]

Well, I'd say there is a very big difference in opportunity cost here. Every ewer or spear you actually use on yourself to deal with your own mp issues comes at the cost of the expand/extend buffs from royal road or just possibly another buff (most preferably one to increase the parties dps) through the use of shuffle. Whereas the only drawback to freecure, and the other cost reducing traits, is perhaps extra enmity. That enmity, by the way, will be continuously cut in half by shroud of saints so over the course of a long encounter it is negligible.

To be fair, WHM has more reliable MP recovery (Assize + Shroud) than AST anyways; freecure is just icing on the cake, and more comparable to Ewer being drawn. Assize is it's own little tool, and AST doesn't have anything similar.

[winsock]

Then I suppose that makes them equal?

Not really when taken into consideration a WHM has a % chance of a specific action causing a specific effect. Where as cards are a % chance of drawing one of 6 effects.

Lol
Ewer ~17% chance while cure II proc is 15% and requires you to be in a situation were it's is appropriate to cast cure I to get the proc. The effect of The Ewer is also greater, and can be further enhanced via double duration or increased effect.

Not only that, but Ewer isnt the only card that helps with MP. The Bole and The Spear can also help. 50% chance to get one of the 3 in your first draw, 75% chance you're willing to use shuffle.

[Alahra]

Lol
Ewer ~17% chance while cure II proc is 15% and requires you to be in a situation were it's is appropriate to cast cure I to get the proc. The effect of The Ewer is also greater, and can be further enhanced via double duration or increased effect.

Not only that, but Ewer isnt the only card that helps with MP. The Bole and The Spear can also help. 50% chance to get one of the 3 in your first draw, 75% chance you're willing to use shuffle.

Any card used for MP has a significant opportunity cost, which is equal to the DPS you lose by not using Royal Road with the card to buff the next one. Freecure's cost is part of your normal activity and so its opportunity cost is much lower.

[J-Dax]

To be fair, WHM has more reliable MP recovery (Assize + Shroud) than AST anyways; freecure is just icing on the cake, and more comparable to Ewer being drawn. Assize is it's own little tool, and AST doesn't have anything similar.

This

Lol
Ewer ~17% chance while cure II proc is 15% and requires you to be in a situation were it's is appropriate to cast cure I to get the proc. The effect of The Ewer is also greater, and can be further enhanced via double duration or increased effect.

Not only that, but Ewer isnt the only card that helps with MP. The Bole and The Spear can also help. 50% chance to get one of the 3 in your first draw, 75% chance you're willing to use shuffle.

How do you get 75% shuffle doesn't increase your chances of pulling a card anymore than buying multiple lottery tickets will increase your chances of winning.

Also this is beside the point of WHM still has its identity nothing was taken from WHM.

[Assirra]

Lol
Ewer ~17% chance while cure II proc is 15% and requires you to be in a situation were it's is appropriate to cast cure I to get the proc. The effect of The Ewer is also greater, and can be further enhanced via double duration or increased effect.

Not only that, but Ewer isnt the only card that helps with MP. The Bole and The Spear can also help. 50% chance to get one of the 3 in your first draw, 75% chance you're willing to use shuffle.

No idea why i am replying since your comparison is utterly retarded but here we go.
You can draw once every 15 max together with 1 time more every minute if you use shuffle on cd.
How many times can you proc freecure exactly? Oh yea about every cure possible.
I am also really curious how in the world spear helps with mana unless you draw it right before you use your LA.

[winsock]

Well, I'd say there is a very big difference in opportunity cost here. Every ewer or spear you actually use on yourself to deal with your own mp issues comes at the cost of the expand/extend buffs from royal road or just possibly another buff (most preferably one to increase the parties dps) through the use of shuffle. Whereas the only drawback to freecure, and the other cost reducing traits, is perhaps extra enmity. That enmity, by the way, will be continuously cut in half by shroud of saints so over the course of a long encounter it is negligible.

This is the beauty of AST class design. You can pull back party support for MP and vice versa.

Compare this with Assize: spam on gcd and lose healing efficiency, dont spam and lose MP restore efficiency. No tradeoff, just varying degrees of loss.

Compared with WHM RNG: WHM has little to no control when the proc hits. If what you're healing calls for cure I, using the cure II proc is a waste of potency, but while the its proc'd subsequent cure I's wont proc, you could wait a bit for your healing target, but if you cant wait at least a cleric stance cycle you're just idling. again, varying degrees of loss.