Consolidated White Mage 4.0 Feedback Thread

[Reiryuu]

snip

What are you even rambling about? Are there healers who just want to heal? Sure, I'm sure there are. There wouldn't be threads debating on the requirements of healers dpsing if there weren't. But why should any class be limited to just one basic thing especially since so many other jobs offer such variety? Are you honestly opposed to having a variety of things to do? I don't really understand why you are so hostile to the idea. WHM has been grossly oversimplified with the removal of the few buffs it had and the devs refusal to give us any. There are many people who would like that too, there's over 300 pages of suggestions in this thread. I don't understand how you could not understand who I am referring to by "we". Especially since it was explicitly stated in the quote you replied to; including myself among those WHMs who don't want to see our job turned into a heal bot.

Sylphie may have overcome her barriers and wanted to buff and cast shields, but now what? Stoneskin was taken, Protect isn't a whm/cnj ability anymore. The only non-healing buff (assuming you count regen as a buff) our job (emphasis because Protect is now a role ability) gets now that can be cast on others is Divine Benison and that comes at level 66 (it really does kinda suck, btw. Especially for soloing. It's meh for tanks). If SE wants to break down the gap and give healers more choices and make them willing to do more than just heal, they should give more variety, not take it away. If anything, I feel they have just widened the gap for white mages instead of narrowed it. You can really feel the difference in Susano and Lakshmi if you have 2WHM vs. WHM/AST or WHM/SCH. (I can't comment on AST/AST or AST/SCH as I have not been in said instances yet as those jobs) and let me tell you, those fights go amazingly better without the second white mage.

[xNewbx]

Okay Plenary Indulgence is complete trash lol. The main reason why is the proc chance is just way way too low.

All Confession Stacks get used upon use, and it's only on the party members that have the stacks. But in reality, good luck managing to even get 1 stack. I usually have to use 7+ heals to just get 1. Why even have a 3 stack option when getting 3 stacks on 1 person is practically impossible. Just insulting.

My one guess is, it refreshes the 30 second timer when a new stack is applied. but I have yet to achieve this.

[Tigore]

These were some ideas I was thinking of. Hopefully it will be able to cover AoE Healing and not just Single Target. I am also trying to cover the White Mage Damage to fit in with lilies.

- All DoT and HoT ticks from the White Mage's Spells will proc a lily with an internal cooldown of maybe 20 - 30 seconds
- All Direct Healing and Damage from the White Mage's Spells will proc a lily with an internal cooldown of maybe 10 - 15 seconds
- Add a new effect to a single target and AoE spell that spends 2 lilies. Raise the players' Original Maximum Health and increase the caster's healing done to them to match the same relative percent of maximum health the heals did before.
- Add a few damage spells that consume 2 lilies.
- Earthquake can behave like Ninja's Doton with debuffs like heavy and damage decreases of 1 - 5%.
- Tornado can do burst damage with a DoT on all enemies hit for 30 - 60 seconds.
- Tsunami can nuke to function as a "filler" with Tornado or adds that die too fast

[manamoppet]

Did some of the level 60 Heavensward dungeons now in Stormblood early access. It's nice with reduced cooldowns and such, but I'm noticing on a lot of the tank/party busters that the ability to shield people reliably would be very very helpful, and quite frankly I miss being able to do that.

[Snat]

One of the most annoying changes in Stormblood is as I expected - Divine Benison. You can not rely on it as much as you could Stoneskin. One of the changes I really hope they bring is to control WHEN we use the lilies. So many times have I used a skill that wasn't Divine Benison just for it to reset the stacks and then not being able to use Divine Benison.

Why the hell it also uses all the stacks while not providing any extra benefit I do not know. Would be nice to see higher percentages for the more amount of lilies we have. Dunno what other people think but I would like to see a skill like Chakra (for sake of debate I am going to call the skill Pray). Every time you get a Lilies you can use Pray which adds one stack. When you get another, you can use the skill again which will add another stack. Basically what it would do is convert a stack of lilies to a stack of pray.

Its only when you got a stack of pray does using the next skill lowers the cool down time. This at least allows us to use the benefits of Lilies when we want.

[Gemina]

What are you even rambling about? Are there healers who just want to heal? Sure, I'm sure there are. There wouldn't be threads debating on the requirements of healers dpsing if there weren't. But why should any class be limited to just one basic thing especially since so many other jobs offer such variety? Are you honestly opposed to having a variety of things to do? I don't really understand why you are so hostile to the idea. WHM has been grossly oversimplified with the removal of the few buffs it had and the devs refusal to give us any. There are many people who would like that too, there's over 300 pages of suggestions in this thread. I don't understand how you could not understand who I am referring to by "we". Especially since it was explicitly stated in the quote you replied to; including myself among those WHMs who don't want to see our job turned into a heal bot.

It's not that I don't understand who you refer to as "we", or that I oppose the idea of variety. It's this "we" that I feel has the problem with variety. It's this "we" that tunnel visions the entire game into endgame content as the only content that is relevant. It's this "we" who opposes any composition other than the most optimal. It's this "we" that lacks any kind of flexibility that would makes things loads easier on the devs who have the insurmountable challenge of keeping me, you, and everyone else happy in this game. Trust me, I don't feel like I'm the one being close-minded.

Sylphie may have overcome her barriers and wanted to buff and cast shields, but now what? Stoneskin was taken, Protect isn't a whm/cnj ability anymore. The only non-healing buff (assuming you count regen as a buff) our job (emphasis because Protect is now a role ability) gets now that can be cast on others is Divine Benison and that comes at level 66 (it really does kinda suck, btw. Especially for soloing. It's meh for tanks).

In the final instance with Sylphie, she finally starts casting stone 1, and aero as well iirc. She will also heal you. In the end, she sees the benefit of casting offensive magic as a means to protect those you care for. But why gripe about them taking away stoneskin in one breath, and then in your next you bring up Divine Benison and that it sucks and it's meh for tanks? Do you see what I'm getting at here?

If SE wants to break down the gap and give healers more choices and make them willing to do more than just heal, they should give more variety, not take it away. If anything, I feel they have just widened the gap for white mages instead of narrowed it. You can really feel the difference in Susano and Lakshmi if you have 2WHM vs. WHM/AST or WHM/SCH. (I can't comment on AST/AST or AST/SCH as I have not been in said instances yet as those jobs) and let me tell you, those fights go amazingly better without the second white mage.

I'm sure it does. There's no question that AST is currently on top of the hill. As much as they've been buffed, I'd be throwing all kinds of question marks at you if you said anything different.

[Kethic]

Well, I've tried, but the Lily mechanics are garbage. DB evaporates. Generating Lilys with another healer in the group is difficult at best, and completely distracts for doing useful things.

They could remove Lily's and Confessions and we wouldn't notice. We'd likely perform better as a result, too.

That's what they should do, frankly. Remove Lily's, Confessions, Divine Benison, and Plenary. Reduce the CDs on Assize, Tetra, and Asylum by 10%. Give Regen and Medica2 another tick or two. Give Aeros and Stone4 another 5 or 10 potency respectively. Now we're passive heals with oGCD top offs and a DPS focus... As they designed, intentionally or no.

[Gemina]

Well, I've tried, but the Lily mechanics are garbage. DB evaporates. Generating Lilys with another healer in the group is difficult at best, and completely distracts for doing useful things.

They could remove Lily's and Confessions and we wouldn't notice. We'd likely perform better as a result, too.

I strongly agree with the bold. I took my WHM into a couple lv 60 dungeons, but also went into the Aery and the Vault which have always had me healing more than other dungeons. While I didn't let trying to sync my ogcds with the lilies distract my gameplay, I could easily see how they could be if a WHM holds on to them trying to get lilies to stack. In its current state, it would actually almost be best if WHM removed their lily gauge entirely. However the audible cues also make it pretty obvious that you have just acquired a lily, especially all three.

I don't think the lily mechanic is garbage, but it needs more to bring it around, both in power given to the WHM, as well as adjustments to its current state. I think it has the potential to be really something, but it needs some reworking. I am still on the outside looking in when it comes to the confession mechanic, but from this view, I still don't see how it brings anything valuable to a WHM because of all the damn gates. There is just no way we will ever see it's full power even under the most optimal of circumstances because of the way it is set up.

[Darkplanet]

So after 3 days in the early access, I've had a chance to try whm out (whm is my main). Overall i've liked it, and still love whm. But i agree with much of what people are saying.

first of all, the spells really do look pretty gorgeous.

I've been thinking and reading all about what can be done. I'll first offer my suggestion than explain how this can hopefully relieve a lot of the issues with whm currently.

My suggestion: add 1 skill, that does 3 things.

1.) it instantly accumulates 3 lily stacks.
2.) adds 1 stack of confessions on each party memeber within range.
3.) increases attack speed (skill, spell, auto-attack) to all party members within range. i'm just throwing a percentage out there either 5% or 10% (probably more like 10%+)

it would be instant cast, and maybe have a cooldown of 2 mins or so. (i'm just throwing these numbers out there.)

reasons this helps whm: (the post was too long >.< so i'm posting the second half right after)

[Darkplanet]

1.) it allows players to strategically gain a stack of lilies without the need of using cure 1 or 2. Also, it allows a whm to prepare PRE-battle. I've found while playing its super frustrating not being able to get your stacks while not in battle. I find myself going out and getting hit by enemies just to add stacks. This would help a whm prepare before raid content. I find lilies for the most part fun to decide in the heat of battle which skill to use when and what i might need a quicker cooldown on. i feel this would help and even more strategy in how a whm plays.
2.) adding a confession stack of 1 to each player in the party relieves the need of whm healers constantly stressing about who has confessions and who doesn't. It allows plenary indulgence to be an accessible instant cast aoe heal without healers obsessively using cure 1 and cure 2 on all players. It retains the use of plenary indulgence, and making it more accessible while not making it overpowered.
(next post!)