What makes WHM special? Nothing anymore.

[Cynfael]

You forgot lightspeed and proc'd bene II

The former is front-loaded with no GCD reduction. The only healing spell that you can cast under the influence of Lightspeed and gain any time at all is Aspected Helios, which isn't something you that you spam regardless.

The latter is RNG, not oGCD, and not free. One of the worst healing procs in the game.

[Tarta]

Don't worry guys, I'll settle this dispute. I will personally level an AST to 60 and a SCH to 60 and omit getting class specific WHM gear for the time being. Then I will try all 3 in some BS fight like RavEX or BisEX and see what performs better. I will then announce my results. May take me 6 months.
Please look forward to it.

[Blood-Aki]

The former is front-loaded with no GCD reduction. The only healing spell that you can cast under the influence of Lightspeed and gain any time at all is Aspected Helios, which isn't something you that you spam regardless.

The latter is RNG, not oGCD, and not free. One of the worst healing procs in the game.

It may not have GCD reduction, but being able to spam any heals instantly can work in certain situations where you have to move a lot, and even then, being able to instantly cast the helios spells also works. with the mp reduction, such as heavy aoe damage situations, haven't met a single time lightspeed didn't save arses, You simply have to know what you are doing.

[GideonHighmourn]

It may not have GCD reduction, but being able to spam any heals instantly can work in certain situations where you have to move a lot, and even then, being able to instantly cast the helios spells also works. with the mp reduction, such as heavy aoe damage situations, haven't met a single time lightspeed didn't save arses, You simply have to know what you are doing.

No one is saying Lightspeed doesn't have uses, just that it has no place in a conversation about comparing oGCD heals, an area which WHM still has more options and availability than AST.

[Cynfael]

It may not have GCD reduction, but being able to spam any heals instantly can work in certain situations where you have to move a lot, and even then, being able to instantly cast the helios spells also works. with the mp reduction, such as heavy aoe damage situations, haven't met a single time lightspeed didn't save arses, You simply have to know what you are doing.

If you truly know what you're doing, you rarely benefit from this mobility to save arses.

About the only time you should be saving anything other than MP with it is if derpy party members are failing at a series of dodge mechanics, and even then you usually have other options up your sleeve that work as well.

Lightspeed has uses, yes; but it's not any kind of amazing healing CD. More for resource management than anything else.

[J-Dax]

About the rest, solo healing is a viable solution, however the issue lies on party setup.

AST+WHM seems to be the problematic combo, both are literally the same but ast wasn't built to dps outside of card buffing and their combust dots due to mp issues, meanwhile whm was but lacks the accuracy to dps efficiently.

They are not "literally" the same. When paired with a WHM the AST should be in Noc Sect, supporting WHM with mitigation, (A. Benefic and A. Helios would have shields instead of HOT) and buffing the party. AST and WHM are fully capable of working with each other with WHM being the "main healer" and AST supporting.

As far as the rest of us quibbling over and comparing individual spells and which are better is beside the point. The WHM isn't just a handful of spells, its an entire Job full of spells and traits that work together in different ways with each other to get the desired result. The same is true for an AST. Neither is the better healer. They both have advantages and disadvantages. This is also beside the point.

The point of this thread is that some players feel that WHM has nothing special or class defining. What defines the AST is its ability to support its party including its healing partner by use of cards and sects. It loses the personal DPS potential in order to increase the effectiveness of its team. SCH is great with supporting the rest of the team by mitigating and dealing damage. It has a fairy to buff and support the party including the other healer. What it loses in sustained healing potential is made up with DPS and emergency capability. The White Mage is THE healer, everything from its basic kit to its cool downs is designed for healing output to keep the party going through almost anything. What it lacks in buff and mitigation it makes up for in healing and damage potential.

Three capable healing classes in three defined roles.

Can we please get back to ideas for how to improve the WHM experience and stop bickering over spell numbers? I feel like there could be some constructive or interesting ideas even if I don't agree they are needed.

[mp-please]

They are not "literally" the same.

How about you do yourself and everyone a favor and level both healers and go raid with them before you write walls of text defending a topic you have no experience on?

Would be nice.

[Gist]

How about you do yourself and everyone a favor and level both healers and go raid with them before you write walls of text defending a topic you have no experience on?

Would be nice.

How about you do yourself and everyone a favor and stop trying to silence people on an internet forum? You're not going to succeed as people can have uneducated opinion all they'd like and they're free to share.

Would be nice.

[J-Dax]

How about you do yourself and everyone a favor and level both healers and go raid with them before you write walls of text defending a topic you have no experience on?

Would be nice.

How about you do us all a favor and provide a complete contextual comparison before complaining?

Would be nice.

I don't need to level anything to read tool tips and forums to form an educated reasonable opinion.

It also doesn't take reason, education or experience to ad hominem, nor does it strengthen your position.

[Rewind]

How about you do yourself and everyone a favor and level both healers and go raid with them before you write walls of text defending a topic you have no experience on?

Would be nice.

They are not the same - can confirm playing all three healers.

AST plays very differently to WHM even though they have similar spells. AST plays very differently from SCH even though they have similar spells.

AST has it's advantages - it is a bit more mobile than the other two, it can offer support to other classes, it's light to play and very face paced.

AST also has it's disadvantages - it can lose control quite quickly especially when you've already used synastry & lightspeed for another mechanic, support is very rng and not consistent enough to replace a brd/mch in raid, cards won't compensate for stupid play no matter how your rng is, has less healing utility than WHM/SCH, and very little DPS utility.

Personally I believe that AST has a higher skill cap because a) it's less forgiving to mistakes and b) the cards are a very big distraction for minimal benefit