Quote Originally Posted by Exiled_Tonberry View Post
I understand the reasoning of not wanting WHM to be more like AST and SCH, but at this point giving them more aoe for dungeon running and more variations on healing and reviving isn't going to do the trick anymore.

Raiders are going to look at one thing. Can AST heal it? If the answer is yes, they'll bring AST. And they're never going to make content that can't be healed by AST since that would be imbalance.

We're up against a full arsenal of utility and their crazy powered 20% damage up buff. A few more healing spells and a auto revive isn't going to hold WHMs position in anything. And even if it does, only until progression is over.
To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if those buffs get entirely reworked a second time come Stormblood. My working theory has always been the buffs to Astro were never intended to be a permanent fixture, but a means of incentivizing people to give it a try. Frankly, I hope they focus more on de-homogenizing jobs. By supplying White Mage with a slew of new mitigation tools, they effective make it a slightly varied Scholar or Astro. It's among the reasons I advocate Monk getting a flat potency increase over utility buffs. Let them all have a somewhat unique niche.

On that note, they could actually weaken Astro's healing. The idea being a Scholar/Astro comp can handle healing, but will severely struggle-- perhaps even forcing the use of properly timed Mantra, Second Wind and other DPS self heals. Comparatively, bringing a White Mage will ease healing considerably, but you'll give up the DPS and mitigation buffs. That is more the direction I want to see them go. It gives each job a proper identity.