Suggestions to Buff/Change WHM

[Muziko]

So with all the WHM gloom and doom right now I thought it might be a better idea to start a thread on suggestions to fix issues. One rule : focus on whm. It's easy to point out why other things are better but let's take a second to see what whm could have had to do better. One thing I would like to see is to have damage resistance added to medica 2/regen or on top of the conviction stacks.

What would you add or change to help it have a thematic niche?

-Keyo Reinhart

[Snat]

If they want to make us a pure healer then at least make us have quite a lot higher DPS to make up for the buffs Ast can provide a raid. But things needs to be able to proc from regen or Medica II - even if its only a far smaller chance for those skills.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but two simple things they can do is:

1) add a higher level trait that makes Presence of Mind apply its effect to the whole group.

and

2) Make Confession stack on the WHM and without a duration much like Aetherflow.

Those two very simple changes address the lack of group/raid utility and make Plenary Indulgence not suck.

[Muziko]

Another thought, what if asylum gave stacks of confession or damage resistance.

What if the mp bonus from assize was given to the entire party and not just the whm?

-Keyo Reinhart

[Muziko]

If they want to make us a pure healer then at least make us have quite a lot higher DPS to make up for the buffs Ast can provide a raid. But things needs to be able to proc from regen or Medica II - even if its only a far smaller chance for those skills.

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but two simple things they can do is:

1) add a higher level trait that makes Presence of Mind apply its effect to the whole group.

and

2) Make Confession stack on the WHM and without a duration much like Aetherflow.

Those two very simple changes address the lack of group/raid utility and make Plenary Indulgence not suck.

I love both of these suggestions!

-Keyo Reinhart

[Keridwyn]

Well at this point we'd have to play around with our existing abilities. Staring at our newly spare toolkit, there are two abilities that were highly situational for their use in the first place and seem to remain behind for the illusion of utility.

Keep them but improve their functions:
1) Make Repose an AoE similar to BLM. Situational group sleep might be effective now and again.
2) Make Fluid Aura an AoE Bind and remove the knockback from it.

Remove them for a more important skill:
1) Swap Repose for Stoneskin I.
2) Swap Fluid Aura for Stoneskin II and give it a secondary that allows us to cast it in combat tied to the new Lilly system.

Keep the two but totally change the functions:
1) Repose is now 'Serene Repose' an instant cast that puts an Auto-Raise buff on the target with a likely short timer.
2) Fluid Aura is now a group reflect buff that reflects a capped % of damage back at mobs.

That's without touching the RNG mechanics or adjusting potency and costs.

[Valmaxian]

Just a couple of my ideas, not sure if they've come up in other threads...

1. Scrap the lilies in favor of a Divine Intervention gauge that increases with all direct heals, Assize, and Holy. When the gauge reaches 50%, you can either activate it to ready all OGD abilities (perhaps with a 60-90 second recast to keep in from being op?), OR use it at 100% to cast Divine Intervention, 300 potency heal/AoE damage, and places a HoT on all party members in range and/or perhaps grants damage reduction of 10-20% for 15s.

2. Add a trait to Medica/Medica II to allow a 15% chance to proc a free and/or instant cast Medica/Medica II.

3. Give WHM a single-target ability to ready all OCG abilities for target.

[ty_taurus]

Here are my ideas...

Flood (Replaces Fluid Aura)
Cast time: Instant
Recast time: 60s
Single-target damage (Potency: 400)
Effect: for 15 seconds, any ally that attacks this target with actions that cause damage has a 15% chance of gaining a Confession stack for each attack.
Flood is also affected by Secret of the Lilies, and Secret of the Lilies II

Secret of the Lilies - Chance to gain a lily
Single Target healing: 30%
Single Target damage: 15%
Multi-Target healing: 3% Per ally healed
Multi-Target damage: 3% per enemy hit
DoT and HoT ticks do not count.

New effect:
Each lily adds 5% attack speed boost while in bloom.

Regen and Medica II no longer consume Lilies

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Two main things, that are ESSENTIAL for a job focusing on healing and no support.
-Extremely high healing.
-Extremely high DPS.

You can't have a healer that specializes in healing heal for LESS than a healer that specializes in support in every spell. You also can't give the support Healer the biggest healing bomb in the game while giving WHM essentially what Indom already was, but with huge limitations. This is just stupid design choices, to be blunt about it.

The high DPS on the other hand can offset the lack of raid utility with some really decent damage.
Those are just two simple thing. That's not even getting into lilies being restored by regens and AOE healing, confessions being accumulated with regens as well and as a permanent buff until exhausted. And a better mitigation tool than a single target Stoneskin...

Also, unless things drastically change in 4.0 raiding, high raid damage and tank busters are things that you can predict ahead of time and act accordingly to it. It's all in a set rotation or at a specific time in the fight that they happen, so good healers will prepare CDs in advance to take care of it. The way WHM lilies work, you can't prepare in advance without losing the lilies you worked so hard to build up in the first place. You can't use any emergency heals or Asylum because as soon as you do, you've lost your one and only mitigation tool. If anything, the barrier shouldn't even be tied to lilies. Lilies should only be used to lower CDs. Exhausting it for barriers just seems tacked on (as does the whole system).
Hell, you could have at least increased the barrier power depending on how many lilies you had, I mean come on.

I gotta say SE. The idea of a pure healer can work, truly. Just not YOUR idea of a pure healer. You see them as healers that should spam healing spells constantly for benefits, and that's just so stupid and wrong

[BloodPact]

It's honestly too late for 4.0. If after Stormblood goes live then the state of WHM in the endgame scene is as bad as it looks hopefully they either make drastic changes to it in the form of buffs or tone down the other two healers to compensate.
I think moving forward they should start introducing the elementals to the White Mage job, in the form of temporary pets and have them bring the support White Mage needs. For example, an ability that summons an earth elemental to the field that reduces damage taken for players within range for x amount of seconds. An ability that summons a thunder elemental to the field that boosts that new critical-like hit rate by X percent for DPS.