Consolidated White Mage 4.0 Feedback Thread

[Brae]

State and Functionality in Stromblood

Every Healer has lost and gained during the Reworks, some more or less than the others.

The most significant and questionable changes were made to Whitemage in the upcoming expansion. This Job was practically harvested for cross role skills, which makes it look like WHM can take none of the new crossroles because all he can do is get his lost skills back.

Whitemages greatest strength in Stormblood are his MP and his MP regeneration capabilities. During 2.0 and 3.0, a 100% healing/damage uptime as Whitemage was barely possible because of the weak mp regeneration capabilities of this Job. We had shroud of saints with a 15 second duration (and 2 min CD.) and assize on a 90 second cooldown.

Now we have a crossed Version of SoS, which has the same regeneration potency, but gets us 3 bonus Ticks more. Assizes cooldown has been reduced to 60 seconds, which makes it equal to Aetherflow. And the last, and best MP cooldown WHM gets, is thin Air. Reducing the MP cost of all spells to 0 for 12 seconds can save a lot of MP during a cure 3 or holy spam phase. And during the 12 seconds you still get 3 to 4 MP ticks, which is probably enough for 2 Stone IVs. So MP wont be an issue anymore in SB. With that much MP, we can fuel a very efficient and simultaneously aggressive playstyle involving a lot of dps contribution in the form of Holy bombs while we cast cheap Regens on the tank.

And then we get System changes. Confession Stacks and Healing lilys! These require you to cast Cure 1 and 2 directly on your Party, so you can get cooldown reduction on your 60 sec. CDs and More healing from our lv 70 ability. Wait. Something is off here. Didn’t I just say that our Awesome MP pool allows us to Spam Holy and stuff? Or cure3?
So the problem with WHM is not that rng is envolved in this system, its that the Whitemage doesn’t even synergize with itself if you aim for an efficient playstyle.

Given the requirements to stack lilys, the job of WHM is to stand and wait until someone takes damage, and then heal them using one of our basic heal spells. Using a characteristic Regen Spell doesn’t contribute to this system at all.
Given his new system, every WHM has the choice to either give up and adapt to the new given playstyle, or plain ignore it and make use of the new Flexibility in MP management.

Ideas for solutions

Secrets of the Lily I:
25% Chance on each Cure I or II cast to obtain a lily
Obtain a Lily every time a Regen ticks critically
Rest of the trait unchanged

This change should allow the Whitemage to build up lilys more reliably while no longer forcing him to spam cure 1 or 2 to make use of his new system

Replacement for the lv 40 Job skill: Enduring Regeneration (trait)
Casting Cure on a target increases the remaining duration of Regen on that target by 2 second
Casting Cure II on a target increases the remaining duration of Regen on that Target by 3 seconds

This trait adds more flow to generating healing lilys and gives the WHM more time to help with dps (and replaces the Divine Seal we lost, RiP our lord and savior)

Replacement for SotL II: Secrets of the Rose I (trait)
Everytime one of your Wind dots ticks critically on a target, you obtain a Wind rose (up to 3)
You can only obtain one wind Rose every 5 sceonds
On 3 wind roses, you can cast Wind Petal, a ogcd 200 Pot. Skill.

Instead of flat reducing the cast time of assize to spam it, weaving in damage spells (at least Dots) into your rotation should be rewarded. This trait would also add to the WHM philosophy. The WHM doesnt increases the partys Damage, he brings the damage himself.
On the Job UI, this trait would be a mirrored Version of the current UI added to the lilys, but with green flowers. (Lack of Photoshop/Paint skills doesnt allow visual demonstration)

Alone these 3 tweaks would fix WHM to a level where he can really compete with AST and SCH and make him a lot more flexible in Dungeon and Raid

I know this would force WHM to stack crit, but these trait could also be rewritten to math a more general Idea

Additional thoughts and ideas:

Plenary indulgence
When Plenary Indulgence hits a Target without a confession stack, that target gains a confession stack. When Assize is casted, every target hit has a 50% chance to gain a confession stack

Since PI is pretty much nothing else than an additional tetra on the tank available every 15 seconds, this little change would also include a bit of tactics in the WHM gameplay. (Even though this change could replace medica if I messed up here, that’s why its under additional stuff)

A Trait called „Tears of the Amdapori“
Everytime one type of your flowers reaches 3 Stacks, you obtain one (of five) petals of the Lunar Tear
When the Lunar Tear is complete, you can use either decay of the Amdapori or Mercy of the Amdapori.
When the lunar tear blooms, your potencies are increased by 5%. The lunar tear fades after 15 seconds.

Decay of the Amdapori
Increases the targets damage taken by 5% for 10 seconds (2min CD)

Mercy of the Amdapori
The next time the targeted ally would die, he is revived with 50% HP and MP. The target still loses its enmity, but doesnt gain a Weakness stack.
This Effect lasts 10 seconds with a 30 second cooldown.

These 4 Ideas would fit if the Goal would be to bring more utility to WHM. The basic idea would be that the WHM doesnt use all of his lunar tears, but combines them with Cleric to generate damage spikes on his own. All 2 mins, he adds a bit to boss damage, and is also able to save Party members from being weakened.
The UI for this trait would be located on top of the WHM Job UI.
And yes, the Lunar Tear was straight up stolen from NieR Automata.

Just my 2 Gil to this topic. We'll see what Square will do to save the Whitemage. Sorry for the long Post ^^'

[CyrilLucifer]

Feedback:

Right now, Cures are generally the last spells an experienced WHM uses for healing. I know I use Regen, Asylum, Tetragrammation and Medica (II) more often. You are trying to make WHM more powerful by making them spam skills (especially since it's RNG) they probably won't be using as much in the first place. This does not make WHM fun for anyone who takes the role seriously. For example, I generally go through entire Expert Roulettes only casting Cure 2-3 times. The Lily system is worthless to me in that content.

At least let Regen proc the Lillies. Or even Medica II at an extremely decreased rate (~2% per tick?).

For me it is much less about the use of cross-class skills and more that you're requiring me use spells that I don't use often in the first place, which is especially irritating because not using them does not hinder my healing capabilities in most content.

In its current state I will just hide this Lily UI and play WHM as I did in 3.0, because it's not worth it for me to wait for my Assize CD just in case I possibly get a Lily proc.

[Bill_Murray]

I really hope that SE is listening to the community's feedback regarding our unhappiness with WHM. No use making an iconic FF job that wont be fun to play.

[Risvertasashi]

I really hope that SE is listening to the community's feedback regarding our unhappiness with WHM. No use making an iconic FF job that wont be fun to play.

As Zhexos's post shows, they're at least reading. Now actually acting on that, in a timeframe that isn't a half year or longer... that's where I'm worrying.

[dark494]

I really hope that SE is listening to the community's feedback regarding our unhappiness with WHM. No use making an iconic FF job that wont be fun to play.

That depends heavily on how the JP side of the board feels.

Edit: And from what I can tell, they don't have many issue with it.

[javid]

[b]snip

I know ppl like all these big numbers.... but both option 1 and option 2 would make WHM on lilies and confession and recast reductions be all but absolutely guaranteed which leaves no RNG element in this system, which is clearly the direction SE wants to go with WHM gauge system.

Let's just run a few scenarios so you get the idea of how NON-RNG it would become with both options.

Option 1: 50% procs on confession and 50% procs on lilies and the 15,20,30% reduction on cds...

lets say in the spam of 30 sec you cast just 3 cures. That's a total of 3*gcd(assume a gcd of 2.4s)= 7.2 sec of instant healing gcds. What is the chances that you'll proc a lily? and what are the chances you'll proc a confession? (assume each proc is independent of each other; meaning if one happens it doesn't preclude the other from also happening)
CHANCE 1&2 : 87.5% that each proc would occur at least 1 from just 3 measly cures ....you basically just guaranteed proc at the rates you suggested! which would result in a 400 potency free ogcd & a 15%!!! reduction on your next Assize, Asylum, Divine Ben, or Tetragram (so 9- 13.5 sec reductions on your 60-90sec recast timers)....

Mind you that was just 7.2 sec of curing...... 3 GCDs.... Let's be a bit more realistic. In progression raid over a span of 60 sec without overhealing you could easily be required to cast 7 cure I/IIs in that 60 sec between both healers; lets for the sake of argument allow all these cures belong to the one whm. So still considering option 1 proc rates and reductions, let's figure out the likelihood of getting at least 3 lilies over a span of 60 sec at the cost of 7 gcds. And likewise the possibility of getting at least 3 confessions in the same time frame.

CHANCE 3&4: 77.3% chance that you'll get at least 3 lilies that results in 30% reduction to your next cd( 18-27 sec reduction of your 60-90sec recast).....77.3% chance that you'll get at least 3 confessions for a free 600 potency ogcd.....

At those rates you might as well scrap the whole lily RNG system and reduce all the cd by a flat rate which would be completely opposite of the RNG system they want WHM to be locked behind.

Option 2: HoTs proc at 30% rate....

Lulz.....let me just tell you now that Option 2 is even moooooooooooooore broken than option 1...... just in 30 sec of casting 1 medica II ......and just 1 regen (2 GCDs)..... you have a virutally 100% chance of getting 3 lilies and a 97% chances that everyone will have at least 1 confession stack...

30 sec....??? Where is the range in this system that you'll be using for a 8-10min fight??!

A better idea is for them to implement a system liken to our crafting system which is locked behind RNG however it rewards skilled crafters more so than the avg crafter. SE needs to find the sweet spot that places some control in proficient WHM hands yet still has a RNG aspect to it so it feels rewarding when you're optimizing your WHM you are SOMETIMES decently rewarded. While at the same time throw the avg WHM a sweet lil bone every now and then.

[Vaelin]

I sincerely hope SE takes note of this. White Mage REALLY needs more love at this point. There's no doubt about it.

[Bill_Murray]

Greetings,

As some of you may have noticed, we have consolidated the white mage feedback threads into one location, so we can keep track and collect valuable information to relay to the development team.

We appreciate your understanding, and please continue to share your feedback on this thread.

Thank you.

Thanks for listening to us! We hope that our feedback will persuade the devs to reexamine WHM and make some needed improvements. Thank you!

[Exiled_Tonberry]

I know it's already said, but I just wanted to just stress the fact that the lily system is not only extremely gated by RNG, but it's tied way too heavily on such an extremely small portion of our kit.
Cure and Cure II is hardly used with such strong OGCDs and regens, so why tie everything to such underused spells? Lilies, or at the very least confessions, should have chances to stack with uses of regens, AOE heals, and even DPS spells like Holy, Stone IV and Aero III.

20% is also way too low of a proc chance. If WHM is to function as a pure healer, the one thing they absolutely NEED immediate access to is their healing spells. If you feel the need to absolutely tie is down with RNG, at least give us chances to increase that chance, or even guarantee it.
For instance, a CRIT should at least be a guaranteed confession or a guaranteed CD reduction, not a CHANCE at a CF reduction.

[Elamys]

Ugh, the whining is ridiculous. The numbers could be adjusted, but WHM is far from being "literally unplayable" or "you can't do cutting edge content" with. All I see is that people want the same abilities on every healer, every healer should have a spammable shield, every healer should have a party damage boost...it's just boring.

Note: I do think Balance needs a small nerf.