Consolidated White Mage 4.0 Feedback Thread

[Quor]

Well WHM isn't supposed to be a shielder really. At least they haven't been at all.

I gotta call BS on this one. WHM has had Stoneskin, which is a fancy name for "single target shield based on the targets max HP" since 2.0 dropped. They had Graniteskin, which made the WHM version of SS stronger than the version SCH could slot, and this gave WHM niche; SCH was the "main" shielder, with the potential for more common shields via Succor and Adlo, while WHM was the "conditional" shielder. I remember back in the day, as a WAR tanking Titan Hard pre-IB change. If I had a good WHM/SCH combination with me, I didn't have to fear Mountain Buster. The Graniteskin from a good WHM and a SCH who was on point with Adlo made all the difference. And it felt nice, seeing that kind of coordination give the result that it did.

So, no, I wouldn't say WHM has *never* been the shielder. They weren't the primary shielder, but they sure as hell had a shield that every healer (and PLD too!) slots on their bar 100% of the time at level cap.

And now that's gone. For a mechanic on a much longer cooldown, gated behind a mostly-RNG based system that rewards suboptimal play.

[fantasticm]

snip

Very well said. Stoneskin is a boon, always has been, even after it was nerfed in 3.0. Sure, that sucked pretty bad, but I don't know a single good WHM that stopped relying on it altogether.

There is no foreseeable reason as to why it was removed. None, whatsoever. I'm sure new content won't require it, because the chance that the damage in Stormblood will be consistently higher than it was in Heavensward is slim. And yet, the complete removal of it affects low level content as well. WHM will bring less to the table compared to SCH and AST at level 70, no one can deny that. And now in level-synced content, they'll bring even less. The lackluster skills in 4.0, the lily system, the donation of a huge part of our kit to cross role... All of these are pretty god damn bad, but it's the axing of Stoneskin that really makes me go 'what the hell were they thinking?'

[Reiryuu]

All of these are pretty god damn bad, but it's the axing of Stoneskin that really makes me go 'what the hell were they thinking?'

Not only that, but with stoneskin gone and all the abilities we have lost in sheer numbers, look back to our 1-50 kit. There is a lot there that is now missing or restricted for new players. Can you imagine running Brayflox, Qarn, Cutter's Cry, Stone Vigil, Darkhold and everyone's favorite: Aurum Vale without stoneskin and having to choose between 3 of: Cleric Stance, Protect, Esuna, Lucid Dreaming and Swiftcast for the first three? A new player is probably not going to think to switch them out on the fly... if they even know that they're there and can use them.