My thoughts on 4.0 WHM

[Sanghelios]

Just to note, the Diurnal Sect buff is roughly in line with the extra 50 potency WHM have gotten on Cure and Cure II as well as the 10 potency advantage WHMs have on Regen. SCH got a potency buff to Embrace as well.

Its not unfortunately. Keep in mind Divine Seal is only 20% now, so thats a straight 10% nerf that we got back through the cure buffs.

[Risvertasashi]

Just to note, the Diurnal Sect buff is roughly in line with the extra 50 potency WHM have gotten on Cure and Cure II as well as the 10 potency advantage WHMs have on Regen. SCH got a potency buff to Embrace as well.

No, it's not. 15% of 650 is 97.5 potency. That's almost twice as much as the 50 potency buff WHM got to cure II.

Its not unfortunately. Keep in mind Divine Seal is only 20% now, so thats a straight 10% nerf that we got back through the cure buffs.

And shared with AST & SCH.

[Yorumi]

I know there's a lot of hate going on for the WHM, but I still think they will be the Kings and Queens at running dungeons.

The amount of Holy spam that can be used thanks to Thin Air. Jesus.

Thanks to assize I've never really had a big problem spamming holy. It can get hard if the two dps are severely under performing, forcing me to spam holy more. Other than that assize, shroud, and the ticks I get out of combat between pulls are enough to spam holy for all the pulls. So yeah it helps I guess but not nearly as much as some people think. Also keep in mind it's easier for brds to give mp, and other casters(specially blm) will be able to transfer mp which will be a lot easier in dungeons than in a long boss fight.

[Eisenhower]

Role Actions
Among the role actions, Esuna, Lucid Dreaming and Swiftcast seems like the abilities that will see most use. In most cases E4E and Protect only need to go on one healer in a raid environment. Break can end up on the magic DPS if the Heavy effect is needed. Surecast is probably more useful as a faux Tempered Will so you don't get knocked around and Rescue is for that one super-niche situation where the encounter requires it. Largrasse depends on 4.X damage levels and healer throughput. It'll be useful but I don't think it's a 100% pick.

Lily stacks and cooldown reduction
The Secret of the Lily and it's upgrade at L68 that grants CDR for Asylum and Assize on C1 or C2 critheals seem to push WHM towards a more "flexible" playstyle where constant use of C1/C2 results in the WHM being able to use their abilities more often and perhaps require players to use some of the abilities interchangeably as they come off cooldown. Seeing Assize down to 60s from the current 90s adds to this impression.

Adding to this, I don't think it's worthwhile to consider the lily CDR extensively when playing and trying to fish for stacks and burn abilities with -20% cooldown, but rather just see the lilies as a bonus in the background. I'm sure that the very top WHM players can utilize the lily and critheal CDR on some next level, but I personally don't think it's worth the mental stress.

I'm uncertain if the current proc-rates are good enough for this supposed playstyle, but I guess we'll find out in two weeks.

Plenary Indulgence
To quote a reply I wrote earlier: I'm getting a strong suspicion that PI isn't meant to be a AoE healing tool, despite the fact that it can function as such. Considering how Confession is generated and consumed, along with the cooldown on PI, it may be the case that PI serves as a healing supplement for your primary target (e. g. the MT) after something nasty gets them. You basically healbomb with Cure/Cure II + Tetra/PI. Alternatively, you could spend PI when healing something other than your primary target and still for a moment restore health for your primary.

Any healing directed at other allies with Confession is merely a bonus (or punishment if you consider potential overhealing), and a result of how PI triggers Confession. I suspect the AoE component is there because Squeenix didn't want a WHM to have to target and then trigger the healing effect, instead allowing for a quick healing effect the moment the action is used. I'd have to play around with it to know for sure.

[Yuyuka3]

I know there's a lot of hate going on for the WHM, but I still think they will be the Kings and Queens at running dungeons.

The amount of Holy spam that can be used thanks to Thin Air. Jesus.

Who even gives a single f**k about regular dungeons? lol...

Thank you for that great analysis, OT. Hopefully, SE reads this and overthinks their desicions, but today basically crushed the last remaining drop of hope I surpringly still had.

Lily stacks and cooldown reduction
The Secret of the Lily and it's upgrade at L68 that grants CDR for Asylum and Assize on C1 or C2 critheals seem to push WHM towards a more "flexible" playstyle where constant use of C1/C2 results in the WHM being able to use their abilities more often and perhaps require players to use some of the abilities interchangeably as they come off cooldown. Seeing Assize down to 60s from the current 90s adds to this impression.

Adding to this, I don't think it's worthwhile to consider the lily CDR extensively when playing and trying to fish for stacks and burn abilities with -20% cooldown, but rather just see the lilies as a bonus in the background. I'm sure that the very top WHM players can utilize the lily and critheal CDR on some next level, but I personally don't think it's worth the mental stress.

I'm uncertain if the current proc-rates are good enough for this supposed playstyle, but I guess we'll find out in two weeks.

Uhm. I'm sorry, but... what WHM even spammed C1/2 to begin with? This doesn't make it more flexible. This, if anything, pigeonholes the class into even more overheal than it already produces in the best case, and is utterly useless in the worst because you don't really need the Cure spam. CD reduction on Assize is nice on paper, but utterly worthless in the face of AST's 900(!) potency heal/200 potency damage spell. Sorry, there is nothing revealed that indicates WHM has any place in the raiding scene of 4.0. Literally nothing. I'm considering palying another class myself, and I never did so before in the past 4 years. I think that says something about the scale of this bulls**t.

[Eisenhower]

Uhm. I'm sorry, but... what WHM even spammed C1/2 to begin with? This doesn't make it more flexible. This, if anything, pigeonholes the class into even more overheal than it already produces in the best case [...]

I'm not saying that the current WHM playstyle consists of casting C1/C2 on repeat, but rather that the 4.0 changes seem to want the WHM playstyle to be a large portion of C1/C2 -> lily-abilities. Assuming that a WHM does primarily cast C1/C2 to counteract damage and spending lily-affected abilities on occasion will result in greater variance in when these abilities come off cooldown. Players would then have to be flexible in their decision-making as to when they would again use these abilities, should they want to make good use of the CDR. The flexibility is not tied to the usage of C1/C2. This is at least what I suspect is the intention of the changes we're seeing right now.

I did neither claim that the changes made to WHM in 4.0 were good ones (considering what the preferred playstyle of WHM is right now) nor comment on their place in raiding compared to AST/SCH - I merely highlighted the CDR mechanics and that stressing about optimal lily-ability use might be too much invested effort for what's given in return.

[Sanghelios]

An addition to the lilies. A possible shorter cooldown on a healing ability is just so pointless, because one single reason and thats it that you wont use healing skills right away after they are available again. Does it matter if your Tetragrammaton has 60 seconds or a unreliable 48 cooldown with 3 lilies? Absolutely no, because you will wait till the tank gets the next major hit to use it, making the whole reduction pointless to begin with. Now we have Assize that can be used on cooldown for more dps. Great! However you already lost 50 times more personal dps with 10 unecessary casted cures than you will ever gain by a 12 seconds faster cooldown for the next assize.

I do agree with Yukuka. I am a long time whm main, but this is really the biggest bullshit ive seen through all the years. AST gets further ahead while WHMs gets nothing and gets even worse than it is now. Thats so sad really. Those changes really killing whm in all possible ways for endgame and it was already quite hard to justify a whm in raid enviroment in the last patches of heavensward.

[Yuyuka3]

I'm not saying that the current WHM playstyle consists of casting C1/C2 on repeat, but rather that the 4.0 changes seem to want the WHM playstyle to be a large portion of C1/C2 -> lily-abilities. Assuming that a WHM does primarily cast C1/C2 to counteract damage and spending lily-affected abilities on occasion will result in greater variance in when these abilities come off cooldown.
Players would then have to be flexible in their decision-making as to when they would again use these abilities, should they want to make good use of the CDR. The flexibility is not tied to the usage of C1/C2. This is at least what I suspect is the intention of the changes we're seeing right now.

I did neither claim that the changes made to WHM in 4.0 were good ones (considering what the preferred playstyle of WHM is right now) nor comment on their place in raiding compared to AST/SCH - I merely highlighted the CDR mechanics and that stressing about optimal lily-ability use might be too much invested effort for what's given in return.

Why this is not the case is beautifully summed up by Sanghelios just one post below you.

[BlueMageQuina]

I can only speak for myself but I'm sure this is how I and a lot of other WHMs are feeling.

Let's be honest about SE's vision about the role of the healers. WHM is the regen and "pure" healer, SCH is the DPS and shield healer and AST is the hybrid and buff healer. But the vision they have for AST come Stormblood makes WHM even less relevant where it was already having issues finding its place and where it had been the staple healer of the series since day one. Had been.

AST stole the show.

AST already has Essential Dignity--a healing spell that scales to 1000 potency. Now AST gets its own version of Assize called Earthly Star. Earthly Star works in a way that if it is cast again within 10 seconds, it deals AOE damage of 150 pot and AOE healing of 675 potency. However, if you should wait until after that 10th second, it deals AOE damage of 300 potency and AOE healing of 900 potency. Not only does this make the AST have both the highest potency single target and AOE heals of any healer but by a margin of 300 potency each. To add salt to the wound, both these heals can not only be used under Diurnal/Nocturnal Sect which now grant 15% additional healing, but also under Largesse--the new name for Divine Seal which has been cross roled--and will grant an additional 20% healing. Do the math.

Furthermore, AST receives a new card that when cast heals with a potency of 500. That means if the card can be RR'd to enhanced potency, its 750 potency will be greater than both Cure II's new potency and Tetragrammaton, WHM's strongest single target potency heals. This places AST at three heals stronger than WHM--the so-called "pure healer"--before you even add the Sect and Largesse buffs.

Let's not forget that AST Aspected Benefic will now heal with 200 potency and have a 140 potency regen or erect a barrier totalling 300% of the original heal.

What WHM receives are two new mechanics based on serial-healing targets--something unnecessary and frowned upon because of the enmity it generates. The first mechanic, the Lily, seems mildly useful as it stacks to reduce the recast time of Assize, Asylum, Tetragrammaton or Divine Benison--DB of which is our level 66 answer to losing level 34 Stoneskin I and level 50 Stoneskin II. The second WHM mechanic added is Confession. Confession has a 20% chance to stack on a target who is the recipient of your Cure or Cure II. Ultimately, the purpose of Confession is to cast Plenary Indulgence, a new Medica (how "useful" it is to make another AOE heal for a class with now 6 of them), which caps at only 50 potency greater than the current Cure III--but wait, there's more--the spell quite possibly only heals party members with Confession stacks, however its utility is found wherein it is a 0MP cost insta-heal available every 15s. The design may prevent overhealing if only targets with Confession may be healed through Plenary Indulgence, but I can't help but feel the availability of a 0MP heal every 15s undercuts the purpose of Thin Air.

Thin Air is one of the two redeeming factors for WHM--a cooldown that negates all MP cost but only lasts 12s. This could be useful to heal while a refresh is up to ensure maximum MP restoration, to Raise multiple party members, or for a Holy spam, which just may return WHM to its former status as AOE king. The other redeeming factor is the fact that we don't know if or what the 7 skills WHM is losing (Cleric Stance, Esuna, Protect, Divine Seal, Shroud of Saints, Stoneskin, Stoneskin II) will be replaced with.

SCH is losing some things too but what it receives seems as if it was the most balanced from what can be seen. Like WHM Stone IV, SCH gets Broil II, a strong single target healer DPS spell and Excogitation, a heal placed on the target to recover from future damage and which might not have a duration. SCH also receives an ability that makes its pet focus all healing on a specific target. So set Eos to the tank and never have to leave Cleric Stance again... if it were still CS as we know it. Furthermore SCH gets a cooldown that increases a target's reception to critical hits. So brush off that Adlo, and then spread it with Deployment Tactics, like a boss to keep up with that new Aspected Benefic.

Lastly, looking at the cross role skills and assuming we're still slotted only 5, as a WHM, I have to take Protect, Swiftcast, Largesse (Divine Seal), Lucid Dreaming (Shroud of Saints) and either E4E or Esuna to be at all relevant.

Pffft, DPS thought they were gonna get Rescued but I can't afford that skill. They thought I was gonna Cleric Stance, but 5% isn't worth it. Got Doom? Blind? Heavy? Better pray for Fey Caress. Better ask the Bard. Better call a doctor.

But hey, we still get Repose. That's a plus, right?



Right!?!

[Eisenhower]

Why this is not the case is beautifully summed up by Sanghelios just one post below you.

Do you just not read? Explicitly the part where I rejected the notion that the current changes were good ones? I shared my suspicions regarding how Square Enix might have envisioned future gameplay, not giving a suggestion as to how WHM should be played.