Consolidated White Mage 4.0 Feedback Thread

[BlueMageQuina]

I know most of the long posts are 100 pages ago now, but I had to do math so you're going to take my post and you're gonna like it.

Issue #1: What it receives with changes is impractical
I find that most people's issues with WHM changes are with its lack of utility, but something that really defines that class and which I feel it is losing is its identity--sure, WHM, the "pure healer" still has by far the most heals, but it is also by a wide margin no longer the most powerful healer, a point I will delve into later.

With what WHM received: the concept of the Lilies and Confessions are sort of, well, bizarre. Both these mechanics require amounts of healing which would likely lead to excessive, unnecessary healing in order to proc RNG benefits that either:

• Permit additional healing at 0 MP cost through Plenary Indulgence when we already have 5 free heals: Benediction, Asylum, Assize, Tetragrammaton and proc'ed Cure II -- and we are receiving a 0 MP cost cooldown. Furthermore, leaving cooldown out of consideration, even if a player is willing to wait for full stacks of Confession on a target Assize is the only free heal in WHM's toolkit that does not heal more than Plenary Indulgence.
• Permit AOE healing through Plenary Indulgence on targets when we already have 5 AOE heals: Medica, Medica II, Cure III, Asylum and Assize. Yes, Plenary would heal more than Assize, Medica and Cure III -- but only to targets who have 3 stacks of Confession. It is not a likely situation that all members in a party would have 3 stacks of Confession regardless of content.
• Permit the lowering of cooldown durations of oGCD heals (other than Benediction) which may be the only benefit of actual use.

So To be more specific:

Secret of the Lily:

A trait learned at 52 and upgraded at 68.

The Lily gauge has a 20% chance to fill as you cast Cure I or II, up to three Lilies. The Lilies themselves grant lowered cooldown duration of Assize, Asylum, Divine Benison and Tetragrammaton, the more Lilies, the more the duration is lowered, and it expends all Lilies.

The problem with this is that we're spamming Cure I or II in order to cast one of the spells listed. At 20% proc rate, this will happen 1 out of every 5 casts. If a WHM has casted Cure I or II 5 times, its target will more often than not no longer need healing. Even if the target or another party member did need healing the reward is not worth it;

A cooldown reduction on WHM oGCD heals does not negate the fact that it can still use Cure I and II and that it has Regen, the third strongest heal in game by potency, on the GCD and the most used heal by WHM by a wide margin.

Confessions, Plenary Indulgence:

Works the same, but only available at level 70 when Plenary Indulgence is learned.

Casting Cure I or II once again gives a 20% chance to proc something, this time a stack of a buff on the target. The buff stacks 3 times as well. The buff has one sole purpose, to be dissipated through use of the oGCD heal Plenary Indulgence. Don't get me wrong, the 15s cooldowns on a 600 potency free heal is amazing. It's just not needed, especially when the previous mechanic used the same two spells to proc something at the same RNG rate. The spell itself is able to heal a massive potency over a period of time because of its cooldown, however as it is RNG, you may use this spell a lot in one fight while it is entirely possible to never proc it at all in another--20% chance to proc still means 80% chance not to.

Another truth of Confession is that as a mechanic introduced to us as WHM loses so many other skills, this mechanic could have been easily worked to do much more than proc a single spell.

Divine Benison:

WHM loses Stoneskin and Stoneskin II--one of which is castable on any party member at any time--and it gains a stronger version (more useful) that is only castable on one player at a time as it dissipates all Lilies in effect which will have to be proc'ed again before it can be cast again. Oh, don't forget that Stoneskin was on the GCD and that Divine Benison has a 60s cooldown.

So, in short. You may cast Divine Benison on a player and proc another Lily immediately, but who's to say that the Lilies proc'ed won't be preferred on one of the other cooldowns it affects (Assize, Asylum, Tetragrammaton) while Divine Benison is on cooldown.

Lastly, Divine Benison is oddly placed as well. It seems like it was intended to be a tank buster mitigation type spell where WHM, the reactive healer, already has Benediction, Tetragrammaton, Largesse+Anything and now Plenary Indulgence.

Issue #2: What it loses with (cross role) changes is detrimental, not helpful
The above combined with the loss of so much from the job -- 2 skills (Stoneskin and Stoneskin II), 5 to cross role (Protect, Esuna, Shroud of Saints, Divine Seal, Cleric Stance) which now compete for old cross class abilities now in cross role (Swiftcast, Surecast, Eye for an Eye) is a detriment to the WHM. No other class loses as much to cross role as WHM. Sadly, not a single skill slot is being replaced with a new skill.

To reiterate a point I made in another post, WHM is also losing its MP management faculty nearly completely. Yes, it will have cross role Lucid Dreaming (Shroud of Saints) like the other healers, but its own job-specific MP restoration cooldowns are at a much higher level than the other two--and both after the completion of ARR--Assize at level 56 and Thin Air at level 62. In the meantime, SCH gets Aetherflow at level 6 and Energy Drain at level 8 and AST gets Draw (Ewer) at level 30. This means that one cross role spot is no less than a requirement for WHM--who has had MP issues the entire span of the game thus far--until it learns Assize at 56. This multiplies exponentially WHM's losses to the cross role system.

Take this also into consideration with this point. Think of new players or players otherwise inexperienced with WHM and how healing up as far as "The Aery" will be, especially when someone derps and forgets, neglects or isn't educated enough to cross role Lucid Dreaming.

Issue #3: Its identity with changes will probably change (and in the opposite direction of what SE intended)
As for the WHM identity. The identity may change with 4.0 dramatically, but I'm sure, its not because SE envisioned: with Thin Air and Presence of Mind, it is no doubt that Holy spams will return WHM to the AOE powerhouse of ALL the classes, and Stone spams under the same buff will put the WHM in the personal DPS lead for the healers. This means that WHM has taken SCH's DPS-healer identity away (especially considering SCH's DPS nerfs) and that AST has taken WHM's power-healer identity away. (With the nerf to its DPS and with being left behind in healing by the other two healers, SCH may have come out worst of all in all this, but thats a story for a different thread.) However, while WHM has great personal DPS, it may still be the the healer left behind in the end game community as it contributes the least to raid DPS: SCH has Chain Stratagem and AST has Balance.

The one ability that should have been clearly gamebreakingly powerful between the healers was Earthly Star. Earthly Star is an AOE heal/attack alike Assize though it does not restore MP. However, the rub of the ability is its 900 potency AOE heal it has using a 30y radius and on a low 60s (70s) cooldown. So not only is this spell the most powerful AOE non-regen by a longshot, it is also the second most powerful non-regen spell of all.

To research this, I mathed out and compared the healing potencies of the three healers' spells/abilities as well as the potential net healing potencies on a single target for 1 minute. This brings me to:

Issue #4: How its healing strength has actually diminished
Labeled as the "pure healer," once upon a time the WHM was the most powerful of the healers at the cost of utility. There is still a belief that the WHM's identity and lore is that its healing potential would be the most powerful. This however is not true. The WHM may have the most heals, but it is not the most powerful healer.

Of all the healers' spells in the game, only four spells are stronger than Earthly Star mentioned before. Of those spells, two are the AST's own Essential Dignity (1000 potency) and Aspected Benefic (1040 potency). The other two are WHM Benediction which can't be compared properly (percentage heal is not directly comparable to a potency heal) and WHM Regen (1050 potency).

Healing potencies:

• Benediction, 100% maximum
• 1st place - Regen, 1050 potency
• 2nd - Aspected Benefic (Diurnal), 1040 potency as of 4.0
• 3rd - Essential Dignity, 1000 potency high limit
• 4th - Earthly Star, 900 potency Giant Dominance limit
• 5th - Asylum and all of its ticks, 800 potency

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• 6th - Collective Unconscious and all its ticks, 750 potency.
• 6th - Balanced or Boled Lady of Crowns, 750 potency
• 8th - Medica II and all its ticks, 700 potency
• 8th - Cure II, 700 potency as of 4.0
• 8th - Tetragrammaton, 700 potency
• 8th - Whispering Dawn and all its ticks, 700 potency

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• Benefic II, 650 potency
• Plenary Indulgence, 600 potency with full stacks
• Lustrate, 600 potency
• Adloquium and it's barrier, 600 potency
• ET Adloquium, 600 potency
• Aspected Helios and all its ticks, 600 potency
• Cure III, 550 potency
• Lady of Crowns, 500 potency
• Cure, 450 potency as of 4.0
• Physick, 400 potency
• Indomitability, 400 potency
• Benefic, 400 potency
• Medica, 300 potency
• Assize, 300 potency
• Succor and it's barrier, 300 potency
• Embrace, 300 potency
• Helios, 300 potency

So, barring Benediction, the top 5 strongest heals by potency before adding any healing benefits, AST has #2, #3 and #4 and WHM has #1 and #5.

Of the top 10, AST has #2, #3, #4, #6 and #7. Poor SCH's first heal only makes the list with its tie for #8-#11th place and the heal actually belongs to its pet and not the player character. (#LOLSCH)

Before we go any further, don't forget that these potencies for AST are given for the value BEFORE the AST even enters a Sect. Sects now give 15% bonus healing potency to all healing spells and abilities, and it is to be recognized that very rarely would any AST heal when not in either Sect. The more realistic and practical comparison of potencies is this:

Healing potencies:

• Benediction, 100% maximum
• 1st - Aspected Benefic (Diurnal), 1196 potency
• 2nd - Essential Dignity, 1150 potency high limit
• 3rd - Regen, 1050 potency
• 4th - Earthly Star, 1035 potency Giant Dominance limit
• 5th - Collective Unconscious and all its ticks, 862.5 potency
• 5th - Balanced or Boled Lady of Crowns, 862.5 potency

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• 6th - Asylum and all of its ticks, 800 potency
• 7th - Benefic II, 747.5 potency
• 8th - Medica II and all its ticks, 700 potency
• 8th - Cure II, 700 potency as of 4.0
• 8th - Tetragrammaton, 700 potency
• 8th - Whispering Dawn and all its ticks, 700 potency
• 9th - Aspected Helios and all its ticks, 690 potency
• 10th - Plenary Indulgence, 600 potency with full stacks
• 10th - Lustrate, 600 potency
• 10th - Adloquium and it's barrier, 600 potency
• 10th - ET Adloquium, 600 potency

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• Lady of Crowns, 575 potency
• Cure III, 550 potency
• Benefic, 460 potency
• Cure, 450 potency as of 4.0
• Physick, 400 potency
• Indomitability, 400 potency
• Helios, 345 potency
• Medica, 300 potency
• Assize, 300 potency
• Succor and it's barrier, 300 potency
• Embrace, 300 potency

Yes. You read right. AST's spells take 4 of the 5 strongest spells by potency, having two spells tie for 5th place, (so essentially you can read that as all top 5 healing potencies in game belong to AST with a single WHM spell tying in the top 5.)

Now add in Largesse to the mix, which each healer may now use and the issue with still calling WHM the "pure" or "strongest" healer becomes further self-evident.

The one thing that WHM has going for it is something it didn't need more of: it has many more instant/free heals than the other two, and is getting another.

Now to compare the total healing potencies over 1 minute: