Korean fan fest translation says ast changes balanced healers, do you agree?

[Yuyuka3]

I'm not sure why people were playing WHM in the first place. All it's ever done is vanilla heals. What did you expect? Furthermore, that's like getting mad at parties for wanting to recruit certain DPS classes. Healers don't get a privilege not offered to others in the same raid group just because of their class.

It would have been fine had they just handled AST differently. Besides, you know, some people, like me for example, actually like playing WHM over, say, SCH, something that's apparently inconceivable for some people here.

Besides, it looks like you didn't really read what I wrote, since I said I'm mad that they apparently just stick their heads in the sand and their fingers in their ears and think everything is fine while they created a huge mess. Because apparently they think 'vanilla heals', as you call it, is still enough now. That's what makes me angry.

And to your comment about other classes. It shouldn't matter, either, if you get a new BLM, SMN, MCH or whatever, except if you already got that class since class stacking is meh (oh, wait, some groups doublestack AST for buffs to tweak parses, hmmm...). That's not the case here. There is a lot to do in that regard, too, I won't deny it. But yeah, whatever, right.

[Feyona]

I'm not sure why people were playing WHM in the first place. All it's ever done is vanilla heals. What did you expect? Furthermore, that's like getting mad at parties for wanting to recruit certain DPS classes. Healers don't get a privilege not offered to others in the same raid group just because of their class.

well actually thats not a fair argument unless there are some dps that never get in any groups

[Bourne_Endeavor]

And I said, keep off of my cards. Nerf the heals, buff the other cards up to match Balance.

In return, I won't ask for WHM Identity nerfs or SCH Identity nerfs. I understand it's 1/6 of my cards, but it's my identifying toolkit you're talking about. Not happening.

And in doing so, Astro becomes the only healer. It's already borderline OP due to Balance and your approach would cause double Astro to be the new meta. The irony is were this to happen, it only shines a beacon on the unchecked potential of Astro, making it far more likely to receive substantial nerf later on. You cannot keep buffing abilities. The devs attempted this with Bard and Machinist only to push Black Mage and Summoner down. Sometimes, a nerf or overhaul is necessary. Balance simply has no drawbacks while providing an immense utility.

Furthermore, you do not have to ask for White Mage's identity to be nerfed because it doesn't have. It's literally an inferior Astro. Hence the problem.

[Cyrocco]

A mod? Sorry, but a mod doesn't really see more of what happens in a game than someone who plays the game daily.

The entire problem with this movement is the fact that everyone thinks Astrologian is the problem because it does too much, Astrologian does too much, Scholar does too much. White Mage does far too little. White Mage doesn't measure up. And so the White Mage community wants to bring the other healers down to their level so they're acceptable again.

Maybe instead of putting all this energy into coming up with nerf ideas and redesign ideas for the jobs you aren't playing, or the jobs you don't like, you should be putting in ideas for making White Mage better. I don't play White Mage, never have, never will, so I won't try and redesign them, I'm not going to try and force my ideas on people who genuinely play the job. Maybe you should all be trying to give White Mage a real identity instead of getting mad at everyone that already has one.

[Yuyuka3]

snip

lol...
All I see in this thread are people wanting WHM to get something unique in 4.0, at least for the most part... there are always those who would rather see the others burn. As I said, just try to read carefully instead of jumping to conclusions and accusing people, some of which were among the ones who actually lobbied for AST to be buffed back in 3.0, btw, of crying nerf.
The problem is that Square outright admitted to having purposefully overbuffed AST so that people play it, so people, rightfully, assumed that would be toned down in 4.0, making WHM competitive again. 20% Balance is just plain ridiculous and completely uncalled for, no other class has such a blatantly OP buff, not even SCH. Sorry if we feel threatened now that it seems apparent they won't bring AST down to a reasonable level. But you know, I would be totally contented with them just giving WHM unique buffs of their own (back, since they had it once and were stripped of them, something you don't seem to know or consider, either), but they will have to be really careful doing so.

[SaitoHikari]

Maybe instead of putting all this energy into coming up with nerf ideas and redesign ideas for the jobs you aren't playing, or the jobs you don't like, you should be putting in ideas for making White Mage better. I don't play White Mage, never have, never will, so I won't try and redesign them, I'm not going to try and force my ideas on people who genuinely play the job. Maybe you should all be trying to give White Mage a real identity instead of getting mad at everyone that already has one.

This explains a lot.

For your information, I have all three healers maxed out, and I main Bard anyway, so I'm about as impartial as you could get. The reason people are focusing on AST (and SCH beforehand) so much is that people HAVE tried to focus on ideas to buff WHM only to match AST and SCH, but most attempts generally resulted in nothing more than WHM taking tools from SCH rather than going in its own direction (perhaps why we aren't getting another healer in SB?). That also becomes complicated when one healer has an overpowering damage buff for god knows what reason. Once again - NOBODY even expected Balance to be buffed when it did, ASTs lobbied for buffs to Noct and every other card instead.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ries-and-Cards.

That thread above was the AST idea thread from actual AST mains before 3.4 notes were released. Not a single person in the thread predicted a buff to Balance, or at least doubled potency. Not to mention every suggestion in the thread was aimed at buffing Nocturnal stance to compete with SCH, not WHM. Guess what happened instead?

We can try to give WHM Graniteskin back. That'd be a start, I suppose. Or, perhaps, let's go in an entirely different direction: Buff WHM offense (and MP regeneration to boot) so that that they're allowed to DPS as hard as they can heal, if given the opportunity. WHM burst damage is actually higher than the other two healers right now, the devs may want to emphasize that even further by literally giving them the power to demolish add phases compared to the other two healers. Though I'm not sure the devs in turn want to make it even more apparent that DPS healer meta is here to stay.

[Ghishlain]

A mod? Sorry, but a mod doesn't really see more of what happens in a game than someone who plays the game daily.

The entire problem with this movement is the fact that everyone thinks Astrologian is the problem because it does too much, Astrologian does too much, Scholar does too much. White Mage does far too little. White Mage doesn't measure up. And so the White Mage community wants to bring the other healers down to their level so they're acceptable again.

Maybe instead of putting all this energy into coming up with nerf ideas and redesign ideas for the jobs you aren't playing, or the jobs you don't like, you should be putting in ideas for making White Mage better. I don't play White Mage, never have, never will, so I won't try and redesign them, I'm not going to try and force my ideas on people who genuinely play the job. Maybe you should all be trying to give White Mage a real identity instead of getting mad at everyone that already has one.

Balance works in both directions though. Sometimes the easiest way to re-balance something is to both buff up one aspect and nerf a different aspect. In this case, don't be even remotely surprised if they give Balance a nerf while at the exact same time they give all the other cards a sizable buff to try to make the cards comparable to each other.

As for buffs WHM can get? I'm all for giving WHM enough healing power to match both AST and SCH combined and then telling people "Hey, go run 2 tanks 5 DPS and a single healer and have fun!" It most likely won't happen due to the current design philosophy but if you're gonna give WHM vanilla style heals, you need to give them a benefit to it. And what better benefit then giving the group the wiggle room to literally bring another DPS to the party.

[Cyrocco]

Sure, balance is a two way street, but not when the majority (AST and SCH) are just fine where they're at. It's more trouble to bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator, rather than bring up the "weakest" healer so that it is competitive.

[ToasterMan]

Sure, balance is a two way street, but not when the majority (AST and SCH) are just fine where they're at.

Incorrect. AST is ahead of SCH. The most optimal raid comp right now for healers is double AST.

[SaitoHikari]

Actually, fine. I'll take you up on your offer to design changes for WHM.

Defensive changes:
- Asylum: Now has an additional effect where HP healed over the maximum amount generates a 10 second shield, the shield's strength stacking with each successive healing tick over max HP.
- Quick Stoneskin: Renamed to Graniteskin, regains its former 18% of max HP barrier.
- Stoneskin II: Renamed to Stone Wall. Becomes an ability rather than a spell. Party-wide instant cast Graniteskin with no MP cost and can be used in battle. However, it also now has a 180 second cooldown.

Utility changes:
- Presence of Mind: Additionally lowers MP costs by 50% while active.
- Shroud of Saints: MP regeneration duration increased to 24 seconds.
- Assize: MP regeneration increased from 10% to 15%.
- Enhanced Raise: Removed. Effect now built into the base skill. (This also means PLDs get a raise too... If they can cast it.)

Offensive changes:
- Stone I/II/III: Now classified as magical blunt damage. Stone III lowers the target's blunt resistance by 10% for 20 seconds. Cannot be stacked with Dragon Kick. (Now WHMs have synergy with MNKs, although MNK's debuff comes with additional 10% INT debuff on top of that... Which would be covered by a DRK's Delirium anyway. Hm.)
- Aero I/II/III: Now classified as magical slashing damage.
- Fluid Aura: Now additionally inflicts a vulnerability up debuff that causes affected enemies to take 5% more damage for 10 seconds. Does not stack with Trick Attack.
- Cleric Stance: Gains a new trait, called 'Perfect Stance', which takes Enhanced Raise's former position. Now no longer has a cooldown to deactivate once activated.

Potential new ability idea:
- Shield of Thorns: Erects a barrier over a single party member that reflects 20% of damage taken to their original source for 15 seconds. Damage reflected cannot exceed 50% of the target's HP. Cooldown of 90 seconds.