White Mage - an analysis on the upcoming meta

[Meowneko]

Lets just hope that WHM will be viable for end-game raid content. I for one think that WHM is the coolest out of the three healers.

[chesnaught]

Cure2 has a 100% chance to generate a lily.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...lily_with_100/

Ok? Most posts about math in here have been about Confession...

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

Lets just hope that WHM will be viable for end-game raid content. I for one think that WHM is the coolest out of the three healers.

There's no doubt WHM will be viable. The doubt is whether WHM will be desired by groups.

WHM will have no problem healing any content in Stormblood... but neither will AST and SCH. So when it comes down to all three healers being equally capable of healing all content (and they are), then people start looking at what else those three healers offer besides healing (and dps). AST has Balance (20% more damage for the whole raid), SCH has Chain Strategem (20% more crit for the whole raid vs the boss), and WHM has... nothing.

People need to stop worrying about WHM being capable of healing the content. That was never an issue. WHM's could completely ignore Confession, Lilies and Plenary Indulgence and still heal all SB content without issue. The worry is that groups will generally look for the most advantageous comp, and WHM just doesn't compare to AST and SCH because they offer nothing that amplifies the entire raid's performance.

SE should really give WHM a higher level trait that makes Presence of Mind affect the whole group/raid. Just this small change would give WHM the capability of boosting raid performance, while also not adding a new button to press.

[LegoTechnic]

SE should really give WHM a higher level trait that makes Presence of Mind affect the whole group/raid. Just this small change would give WHM the capability of boost raid performance, while also not adding a new button to press.

Not against the idea of giving WHMs raid synergy, but maybe don't tie it to a useful ability in such a way that DPS will demand its use to most benefit them and not your healing needs. Something separate is best.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

Not against the idea of giving WHMs raid synergy, but maybe don't tie it to a useful ability in such a way that DPS will demand its use to most benefit them and not your healing needs. Something separate is best.

I'm not opposed either way. I simply suggested it in that manner to avoid adding another button (not that WHM couldn't do with another button since they lost the most skills of all three healers). A separate aoe version of Presence of Mind would work just as well as raid utility.

[Sebazy]

Making PoM a raidwide aoe isn't a bad idea actually. It's unlikely to return to the glory days of FCOB (Massive amounts of SS were all but unavoidable that tier which greatly amplified PoM) and it's typically best used as a DPS cooldown these days anyhow.

I like.

[AlphaSonic]

Let's play the probability game for the confession mechanic:

Cure/Cure II have a 20% of giving a confession stack:

That means that if you cast 5 times Cure/Cure II the probability of NOT getting a confession stack is:

Casting 5 cure/cure II in a row

0.8^5*100 = 26.21% -> Probability of not getting a Confession Stack.
73.79% -> Probability of getting a Confession Stack

Casting 10 cure/cure II in a row

0.8^10*100 = 10.74% -> Probability of not getting a Confession Stack.
89,26% -> Probability of getting a Confession Stack

That's the thing. Even if you cast 10 Cures there's still more than 10% chance of you not getting a confession stack. It's really unreliable.

[Cynfael]

Lets just hope that WHM will be viable for end-game raid content. I for one think that WHM is the coolest out of the three healers.

Viability is almost never the issue. The last time we had a serious debate about healer viability, AST was in its somewhat undertuned state circa 3.0 (and even then technically viable even in Savage, though far from preferable).

I don't think anyone here doubts that WHM will get the job done almost no matter what happens in 4.0; it's more about what will be fun and desirable to play.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Lets just hope that WHM will be viable for end-game raid content. I for one think that WHM is the coolest out of the three healers.

They undoubtedly will be viable. Paladin was absolute trash in A12S due to its lack of magic mitigation yet it could clear it just fine. It simply put more work on the Warrior. Very doable though, and Hallowed Ground let the healers DPS more easily. Just definitely not ideal. It's more the lack of utility that gives people pause. Why bring a White Mage when they can't do anything better than Astro? As it stands currently, White Mage offers literally nothing to the raid. Even Monk now at least brings Mantra. That's the issue.

[Entilper]

Nothing said in this thread changes the fact that lilies and especially confession mechanics are un-fun and don't bring anything new to WHM besides CD reduction.

For a job design to be good it needs four key things:
- Be engaging.
- Be fun.
- Be viable.
- Be desirable.

The fact that WHM is viable and desirable in a party composition doesn't make it fun or engaging to play. While all other jobs got new and exciting mechanics, WHMs got a confession stack to manage (anyone remember when they said that they wanted to reduce the emphasis on monitoring buff icons? Yet here we are, a buff icon to keep track on ALL party members!) and a lily mechanic that doesn't actively affect your gameplay strategies (most if not all WHMs will use their cooldown in the same time and manner they already did, lilies will just... be there).