RIP WHM

[Alistaire]

the only thing I'm upset about is how blatantly obvious it is that square has literally actually zero idea about what makes scholar good. what they really ought to do is trash noct all together and just work on balancing durinal and whm instead of chasing around the scholar that they will never ever catch up to.

Completely disagree. Regardless of how SCH does what it does it all boils down to how much healing they can do, how much dps they can do, whether or not its their own dps or raid dps thru buffs.

These changes don't make noct AST a SCH; it makes these things add up to what SCH provides (or at least that's the goal; we'll see if these buffs accomplish this in practical situations). Better shields means more free time to dps the same way a fairy helps in that respect, and better buffs makes up for their own lesser dps.

[Sanghelios]

Cure III, Assize, Asylum, Benediction.
It's like some people in this thread forgot that these skills still exist and are the reason why WHM remains a superior healer able to answer to more situations than the AST.

And Divine Seal.

[Velthice]

Completely disagree. Regardless of how SCH does what it does it all boils down to how much healing they can do, how much dps they can do, whether or not its their own dps or raid dps thru buffs.

These changes don't make noct AST a SCH; it makes these things add up to what SCH provides (or at least that's the goal; we'll see if these buffs accomplish this in practical situations). Better shields means more free time to dps the same way a fairy helps in that respect, and better buffs makes up for their own lesser dps.

you can disagree, but you're wrong. shields absolutely do not make up for a fairy, that isn't even debatable. both the fairies are utility powerhouses that do so much more than cast embrace. indom is a stupid powerful ogcd and astro doesn't have an answer to it in either stance and then of course there's the glaring fact that not only do scholars have an easier time dpsing, they can dps forever because they have mana positive dps. that means they can stop whenever at any point in the fight, no matter how long, and be in excellent shape to do any healing or raising that needs done.

noct astro would make an absolutely fine main healer, maybe better than durinal, but that's almost never going to be an option because astro shields will overwrite scholar shields regardless of if they're better or not. It's a bad stance, and unless we get a bunch of diverse healers that can fill the off healer role like scholar can, it's always going to be a bad stance. the only real benefit of the noct sect changes is that it's no longer a red flag to abandon a dungeon immediately when you see an astro spawn in with it on

[tjw]

And Divine Seal.

ASTs just shit all over Divine Seal now though with 30 second Synastry, not to mention absolutely disgusting MP regeneration and mobility healing. And all the extra HPS output WHM has doesn't count the fact there's only so much HPS in a given fight to do, and that the devs have already confirmed this tier of raid being easier than Gordias or Midas. Unless their way of making things easier is making constant and spike AoE damage that a AST and SCH can't handle with Indomitability, Emergency, Light speed and Whispering Dawn, I don't see how WHM can't compete with the sheer quantity of utility and mitigation an AST/SCH composition will bring.

[Tint]

i think at this point they can WHM give the proshell exclusiveness and the 18% stoneskin back. SCH has anywy a mdef buff (from eos) and supervirus. and AST also has enough defense tools even when not in shield stance (and AST + AST is the only way there is no mdef buff available, so who cares xD).

[HyperiusUltima]

To be honest as a WHM main I don't feel like AST is going to be ridiculous in 3.4. Though I do agree that from what I've seen in the thread AST does pose a threat to WHM in the terms of mitigation and cards they can draw(again, RNG). With Redraw buffed up to 30s along with +15s extra card holding time, AST can wait out the CD to keep drawing other cards if they're looking for that specific Royal Road card for AoE or anything else since it's the same CD as drawing.

As for heals, I still think that WHM has the better output, but AST still threatens WHM's identity as the main healer due to AST's Synastry, Increased Buff Time from Celestial Opposition, and the new Guaranteed Crit Benefic II(which has the same proc rate as WHM Free Cure II) trait. The only thing discerning this is probably how AST handles its MP compared to WHM, where AST has to rely on Lumineferous Aether(24s 80 potency MP Tick) and Ewer(by drawing), while WHM has Assize(+10% MP and a choice of 300 pot Damage or Free Medica on a 90s CD), Benediction(100% HP Recovery. Best Instant Heal in the game), Tetragrammaton(Free Cure II with a high potency on a 60s CD), and I fail to understand why nobody even mentions Asylum.

Asylum is definitely better than Collective Unconscious in terms of being able to do other actions while your healing bubble ticks. AST has to stop whatever its doing and not do a thing for the duration of CU(or until they move) for 10% Mitigation plus a HoT, whereas WHM can continue doing other actions such as DPSing or something.

Honestly I can see the raid groups taking WHM over AST for safety due to Cure III. However everything can shift to AST once raid groups have had experience and they can feel free to DPS more or gain more from AST's Cards and Buffs(especially Celestial Opposition the way it's going to be soon). SCH no longer is the top contender as always due to said Fairy Heals and being the only class with reliable shields pre-3.4, so honestly I can see the dream of X/X Healer Compositions happening at the very least.

The only thing that SE needs to keep in check is WHM's Identity and AST's power. Again, they did say they were going to keep a check on it and adjust it in 4.0, but at least the healer balance is a lot better in 3.4 than it once was.

[basketofseals]

ASTs just shit all over Divine Seal now though with 30 second Synastry, not to mention absolutely disgusting MP regeneration and mobility healing. And all the extra HPS output WHM has doesn't count the fact there's only so much HPS in a given fight to do, and that the devs have already confirmed this tier of raid being easier than Gordias or Midas. Unless their way of making things easier is making constant and spike AoE damage that a AST and SCH can't handle with Indomitability, Emergency, Light speed and Whispering Dawn, I don't see how WHM can't compete with the sheer quantity of utility and mitigation an AST/SCH composition will bring.

Divine Seal also comes up much quicker and is better for AoE healing, which as the main healer, is probably a good point.

Also just because a fight is easier doesn't necessarily mean the damage level will go down sharply. It can also mean more lax mechanics via less instant wipe or laxer dps checks.

[KDSilver]

....

I don't think Asylium is really that much better than CU.
On one hand,it is because WHM can use this and keep healing right after, but you don't always stand here just doing nothing as an AST until the end of the duration of CU.
You usely put it to get the regen then go back to what you were doing.
But what's wonderful with CU is that the regen stick on you once you entered CU area PLUS, it's really super strong! 150 of potency during 15s (even probably 25 with CO !).

So they are both great on their own way (even if i personnaly think that CU is really stronger).

[xjia]

No other healer class beats White mage's pure healing power. Cure III, assize, Benediction...etc.
There is actually a comparison btw Scholar and Astrologian (3.4patch ), turns out that new AST healing + shield is much powerful than a scholar , but that doesn't mean theres no place for a scholar in Raid.

The reason for picking a scholar not only for his shield, but his utility- eye for eye/adlo spread, indomitabilty, and others, last but not least , his faery which is really hard to balance by just adjusting the numbers (Yoshi did mentioned before).

What i really dissapointed was not whether they buffing/nerfing one class, its the "laziness" in balancing a class by just adjusting numbers.
Eg: Draw- 60 reduced to 30secs, this skill increased from X-to Y, reduced from Y to Z
"extended from 15 to 20y, 120% of HP restored to 150%"

[Anchored0wl]

Yall need to spend less time crying about white mage being replaced by diurnal and start preparing to learn how to heal without being carried by embrace :^)
Winter is coming.