Why does White Mage feel so bland?

[Verdan]

WHM has good AoE dps. That also is not a mechanic. There are two classes in the whole game that can be said to not have a mechanic now, and the other one has unique equipment post heavensward and access to types of abilities no other member of its role has. And honestly, if you squint, you can see that it's kinda got one, it's just not all that interesting of one.


This whole thread has been people saying "yeah but that's not a mechanic" and other people saying "but they play totally different" and yet nothing managing to come about from any of it because no one's actually listening to anything.
You got a ton of WHMs start going "hey, but what am I now" after the AST buffs that got turned into nothing but stupid class sniping, but it happened because the AST has a lot of skills that the WHM had because it's built from the ground up as a healer instead of splitting off into one post 30. Not all the skills, but keep in mind that pre heavensward the WHM had exclusive access to things like "a bigger, more expensive version of the starting heal" and "a spammable group wide heal" and "an instant cast HoT," which are crazy things for a healer to have unique but that's how it went. With AST coming in, lots of stuff that the WHM had unique to it(because they're basic ass healing tools) became shared except the AST had shitty versions of them. And when that didn't fuckin' work cause how could it fuckin' work, the AST ended up with versions of basic healing tools that are just as good as the White Mage's, but they also have two mechanics on top of it. Which I'm sure to someone sounds like class envy, but it's just pointing out that the WHM went from "the class that actually has, you know, healing spells" to "It's got cure3 and divine seal guys" which isn't enough of a difference for white mages to have going forward.

I'm not gonna type out descriptions of every class' mechanic here, but I'm sure people posting on this forum played enough of the other ones to know that everyone's got something, and it shapes and defines their play. Some of them it completely dominates(like black mages and warriors), while for some it supplements(like ninjas and bards), but everyone's got something that is more than just the decisions they make while casting spells and using cooldowns. White Mages ain't got nothin' like that, and it's exactly why bringing up the Astrologian spells to where they can be a real healer made forum WHMs nervous and made them ask what the class even was.

[Kinseykinz]

stuff about mechanics

The point of WHM, much like the point of PLD to be honest, is to be very very good at it's MAIN purpose. In WHM's case, is RAW Healing OUTPUT, and in it's dps stance RAW AoE DPS output.

WHM, like PLD for example has 2 stances. In WHM's case it's Healer or DPS, in PLD's it's Tanking or DPS.

Does this mean that both jobs sometimes seem more 'simple' or less shiny than other roles? Yes.
Does it mean that there are times where other roles might outclass them because they offer different 'unique' mechanics? Yes, PLD's are suffering now, and there might be a day (My guess is over-geared speed run times), when AST+SCH is a more popular combo.

But it doesn't negate WHM's raw power...and that is what the role is supposed to be. RAW.

SCH is supposed to be more complex due to it springing off a DPS/pet class.
AST is supposed to be more complex due to being a Healer/Buffer hybrid.

WHM is just supposed to park and bark. Whether it be healing or DPSing, it's supposed to be a loud, flashy aggro generating machine...the real 'skill curve' on whm is the ability to balance your hate+mp+healing+ when applicable, DPS without pulling hate, OOMing or having someone die. Now I realize, that people will go 'other healers have the same thing going on...' But not in the same ways/same balance.

SE took the level 1-50 WHM skill set, and basically doubled-down on it. THAT is it's specialty....but also why, to some folk, it feels less 'fresh'... unlike the brand new AST, which feels fresh because it IS, or the SCH with it's more utility post 50, WHM simply got bigger, stronger versions of the stuff they already had....but the stuff they already had, was already, pretty stellar.

When in a REAL crunch, no other Healer role can pump out as much RAW heal or RAW dps as fast or as big or as often as a WHM. Still, that doesn't mean that WHM will outshine the other healers over the course of a raid or time...but rather, they do what they do. Nor does it mean that ther other healers can't do similar things some of the time or are less or more valuable.


I know this: If you're LEARNING something, nothing provides a safety net like a White Mage. Nothing.
Now, once you have it on farm, and Speed is king, then it's whichever healer(s) option works best...and it's not always WHM.

But since everybody has to learn the content sometime, White Mage will always be relevant.