[WHM] [Proposed] Improvement in the face of competition

[Keridwyn]

No damage buff thanks, I would rather see us get some protective ability. What about adding a Reflect effect to Asylum and bounce a little damage back if they're in the bubble? Or add an Esuna effect to it and cleanse people who walk in?

Maybe just give us AoE Esuna?

Maybe upgrade DB a little bit and give it the ability to spread to multiple targets or make it stronger depending on how many lilies it eats?

Anyof those are way better than a damage buff.

[basketofseals]

I'd definitely have a damage buff over getting a shield. Given WHM damage reduction seems like unnecessary homogenization.

That said, WHM REALLY doesn't need buffs.

[Semirhage]

WHM is okay power-wise at the moment, but the lilies are still boring and non-interactive and they still have the fewest abilities of all the healers by a noticeable margin. While a damage buff would feed into current job desirability, I don't think flat damage up buffs are a healthy design choice (see Ninja being basically mandatory since release).

Either that or abandon this weird fixation on bigger numbers = zero utility, because that ends up being true for about half a patch until the utility jobs get their numbers buffed again.

[Brandedblade]

Personally i think they should just change Secret of the Lillies II to "When you cast Stone, you have an X% chance (possibly 20-30%) and when you successfully restore HP with Regen you have a Y% (probably 15-20%) and a Z% chance with Medica II (4-6%, which would bring the chance to around 32-48% in 8 mans and 16-24% in 4 mans)

The idea for me would be that if you play optimally (eg Regens and DPS) you would have a steady generation of lillies, ofc the Regen and Medica II hots would NOT generate on overheals. And if the odds are too much, you can always invoke a hidden cooldown similar to certain procs in wow to keep the flow steady, and if you really REALLY need a lilly you would simply jusf cast Cure for the guaranteed proc

[Jxnibbles]

*Snip*

This is a change to the awful trait I can get behind. Added onto this I would like if Stone 4 automatically generated 1 lily if you had zero lilies. Just so you can use DB if a Tank has full Hp and you needed the lily for a TB.

The only part about your trait I hate is Cdr I absolutely hate Cdr and still feel like it offers nothing with how scripted encounters are.

[Brandedblade]

I'm not as bothered by the cooldown reduction myself, when I went into this idea I was thinking about Divine Benison and making it to where whms could be able to keep a steady generation of lilies for it or if they really want the cdr. But expanding upon it, i do think an addendum of "You can only add a Lilly to the Healing Gauge through Secrets of the Lilly II every 6-10 seconds" I think the goal I'm trying to go for is to have a steady stream of lillies available for either ever DB or to use for CDR if thats what you go for, but without a limiter you'd definitely would run the risk of just instantly getting a full stack of lillies with nothing to use it on. But however, the cooldown would not affect Secret of the Lillies I so you can still force proc with Cure if you prefer

I both love the idea of the first Stone being 100% but with the internal cooldown idea I have some worries of conflict.

[Phileas]

I would love to see Asylum have it's lackluster HP regeneration removed altogether and instead have any party member within the AoE be unable to have their HP dip below 1. It would be a cool safety net and function more like the sanctuary it's named after. Of course it would need its CD increased and duration reduced since it would make barriers unnecessary for certain mechanics but it would assure that no one doubts the usefulness of a pure healer ever again.

This sounds really broken no matter how long the CD or duration. I can imagine this be used to cheese through mechanics and would be even more broken if the white mage can continue casting healing spells while its up...

Would be nice I think if Asylum could reduce magic damage...kind of like a "Shell" type effect.

[EaMett]

Personally, I have a couple of issues with whm that I would like to see addressed:

1) Lilies suck, they aren't any fun... I just ignore lilies past the first stack. In choreographed encounters like FFXIV has, you really aren't holding onto your assize, asylum, and/or other skills in order to use them with lilies. Instead you use them at a specific time regardless of your lily stacks.
There's nothing fun about them, you just really care that you have at least one and that's where it ends. (And even then, you won't throw away a gcd just to get a stack if you don't have one)

Somehow that needs to be addresses. I'm not sure what the best way of going about this is. I suspect it will be hard to find a way to make it work because lilies, from the very start, felt like a tacky add on to give us some kind of a gauge rather than a thought out mechanic.

2) The damage output from bosses is such that it's not that common to be able to leverage your aoe hots properly. It takes a good amount of coordination between healers, trust in your fellow party members (ie: that they don't need to be topped off in case they screw up the next mechanic), and knowledge of fights to leverage them properly. And that's when you -can- afford to let things tick, which isn't always.
The fact that the PI changes go more in the direction of topping people off also hurts.

At the moment medica II HoTs just feel like extra "insurance" that will most likely overheal and sometimes might help top a random party member up. If you compare this to the effective healing/shielding of succor and noct helios II, it's a little weak and/or hard to work with.
I would love to hear what other whm's think of this.

Maybe having lillies affect the duration or potency of medica II HoTs could be an option that wouldn't shift the balance of healers.

Other than that I think the balance between healers is pretty good. I don't think whm needs shields or anything else. It flows well, has high sustainable hps. It's good.

[RylaBee]

Have to agree that Lilies are somehow "meh". I too find myself caring about them only when I need DB (or when I have nothing better to do).

Otherwise WHM feels fine.

[basketofseals]

As weird as it sounds, I kinda like how lillies are "meh." If I wanted a more mechanically intensive healer, SCH and AST are available to me any time.