WHM is much better now

[Molucca]

I hit 70 a few days ago, and for the most part it plays well. WHM has always felt good to play, and the changes don't stop you from playing the way you did at lv. 60.

The problem comes in 3 forms. The first is that we lost 7 skills that were appropriated to the cross role system, so by default we lose functionality.

Secondly, the lily system. At best, it's a passive benefit you can mostly ignore (apart from timing your benison usage). At worst, it's a poorly implemented mechanic that incentivizes inefficient healing.

Third is the confession system. Tying your lv. 70 skill to something that is so situational seems like a complete waste.

Despite the glaring problems, it's not all doom & gloom. Our mp management issue has been completely rectified. Lowering our cooldowns on assize and bene give you more burst healing versatility, and the upgraded holy spamming makes us extremely viable in dungeon content.

WHM is definitely not as bad as people were afraid of it being.

[Keramory]

I'd agree that whm isn't the living nightmare we made it out to be... but the changes are annoying.

The lillies are annoying. Being a manly man in healer gear was annoying enough but.. ew... lillies. A nearly completely useless ui taking up my screen, and I could careless about it.

As many mentioned, the role actions are a needless annoyance. I had this all already. Stone skin, the one thing different from all my heal spells got chewed up and spat out as this benson nonsense, a needlessly more complicated version of it.

Haven't dealt with the confessions yet but it seems annoying too. Honestly like the lillies I'm probably going to ignore it for the most part.

[Yuyuka3]

At first i was afraid of the enormous amouth of changes to the only job that i can really play well but despite stoneskin missing Whm became a lot smoother in dungeons. No need to mess with cleric stance, dps feels better and assize is now a real tactical move. Like a quick medica. Good job SE. Finally a class without endless rotations~

- Juliana. Lv. 62 Whm.

DPS is smoother, agreed. The rest, however...
Lillies could just as well not be there at all. They are ignorable at best, annoying at worst. Devinie Benison uses all Lillies but gains nothing from 2+. Couldn't test out Confessions, but all I hear is that's really, really awful.
Loosing Stoneskin hurts a lot. Loosing all those skills to the stupid job action system even more. I'm not even able to use Esuna because other skills are more useful, so I kinda feel castrated for that alone.

That's why people complain, because one change to the better doesn't make all the ones to the worse non-existent. And they far outweight the benefits.
Oh, and it's by no means more strategical, because I barely ever can blow those Lillies on the skills I want, mainly Assize because it returns the most. I also don't gain anything from a CD I already planned on using at a specific time being off-CD 4 seconds earlier...

[Elamys]

I am still not sure why everyone is complaining about losing Stoneskin, when it was almost never used beyond a precast at the start of the pull.

[LegoTechnic]

I am still not sure why everyone is complaining about losing Stoneskin, when it was almost never used beyond a precast at the start of the pull.

1. Because no one likes to lose abilities.
2. Because it wasn't lost, it was reworked into an awkward version that consumes lilies with a different usage design.

[tinythinker]

I agree that the CS and mp management changes are good and that having to take old class skills as role skills is not so great.

I think Lilies and Confessions are fine as part a gauge concept but need tweaking to be useful. I use a good deal of Cure and Cure II but I get why many players feel limited in earning and using Lilies and Confessions.

Divine Benison could be stronger (from what I've read, seen, and heard) and/or apply to multiple party members. Have the duration, strength, and/or number of targets affected scale with the number of Lilies stacked and that could balance out the RNG factor.

[Gemina]

My WHM is still 60 and will be for some time because I'm not installing SB until I finish HW. But as of now, WHM at worst plays exactly like it did in 3.0. I don't see this as a bad thing, especially considering WHM MP issues are now a thing of the past. So it is improved no matter how you look at it.

I'm not the least bit upset about the role skills because my perspective is much different than most WHM mains. I was hurt about losing divine seal, but I'm over it. I loved my stoneskin as well, but losing it also frees up a gcd, so will fling rocks at the enemy in its place. I won't lie though, they should have taken away repose, not stoneskin. The casting animation to the role skill is also really pretty. A definite bonus.

The reduced CDs on tetra, bene, and assize are not given enough credit. They all contribute to a greater MP pool and increased dps potential. It makes WHM better at what they were already good at.
No longer having to stance really benefits the WHM here. It definitely feels more fluid now, though it took me a bit to get used to it.

As for the lilies, it's actually nice as a passive ability. I'm not going to frown at something that shaves off cooldown timers, even the negligible 4%, which I see as an additional reduction to the BS changes to CD reductions. I actually worry that any changes might make WHM OP. I believe it's the confession mechanic that needs to be reworked from the ground up. Going off of what players who have PL are saying, it's every bit as bad as it looks in paper.

[XenabelleS]

Our mp management issue has been completely rectified.

Can I ask how? I ran Qarn last night on my level 44 WHM (not that that matters) but I noticed I was often scrapping the barrel of MP. On the 2nd boss, I completely went OOM at maybe 25% of boss health but fortunately, noone died.

I think mp has become a much bigger problem than it was post 4.0 but granted my experience with healing is mostly sub 40 content thus far.

[Molucca]

I am still not sure why everyone is complaining about losing Stoneskin, when it was almost never used beyond a precast at the start of the pull.

To be fair, it helped a ton with mitigation. Despite it having a cast time, if you know the fight you can pre-cast it to line up with any tankbusters, and it wasn't gated behind casting cure/cure II. You could also us it with Swiftcast, which improved its versatility. Versatility is the important word, because being able to use your toolkit to better adapt to changing situations is one of the best parts of playing a healer. Restricting spell usage hinders your ability to act on the fly.

[Nobuyuki_Sanada]

To the people struggling to use Divine Benison. This is not a shield your looking to use when your target is almost full health. Most times the best time to use this skill is when healing your tank below 50% health. This to me is the danger zone, cast cure 2 then immediately cast Benison. This combo gives you a cushion to top off your tank and reapply those HoTs. If your having trouble healing as a whm your probably conserving your lilies too much. Think of it this way am i going to save more time waiting for those 1-2 extra lillies than i would if i just used the skill now? Use Benison off of cooldown, its a 15s skill that = 15% of your tanks health. Play like you have no idea the lilies exist you will notice your gameplay improve.