What exactly IS a White Mage?

[Lyth]

I don't think that difficulty is the issue. For one, it's extremely subjective. If you read the forums and reddit at the start of this expansion, you'd think that WAR was the most difficult job ever created in an MMO. But that's just because they shouted the loudest.

Actually, it's less an issue of easy vs. difficult as it is straightforward vs. complex. If you wanted to make AST more complex, you'd have to explore ideas like making them using time to reverse damage à la Tracer. But that doesn't mean that the less weird jobs aren't entitled to their own identity.

The problem with a lot of the new systems in Stormblood is that they were added purely for the sake of introducing a job-specific gauge. It makes sense for something like WAR, which never really used MP to begin with. Sure, give them a gauge. Give NIN a gauge for tracking Huton. WHM has always had a gauge, even dating back to ARR. It's called an MP bar. Resource management is a thing they've always done. Lilies feel superfluous because they're there to be there.

Every job deserves to excel at least at one thing. On a job like WAR, for example, Fell Cleave is sacrosanct. You aren't allowed to out cleave Fell Cleave. There would be riots. You can't let a job deal out a better buff than Balance. You can't out trick Trick Attack. So what's WHM's schtick?

Ordinarily, I'd look at something like Benediction and say, there. Instant cast, max HP. It doesn't get better than that. But everyone and their dog has oGCD instant cast heals. I might look at regens and say, there. But SCH has Eos, which is the very best regen that ever was. And they have better shields. Why heal something when you can toss up a shield as a preemptive heal? It doesn't decay over time. You don't even have to be particularly clever about the timing. Sometimes, party-wide shields last most of the way through to the next boss jump, at which point you can just reapply them again.

What does WHM offer your group that no other job does? If you don't have a clear and immediate answer to the question, that's an identity problem. And chances are, it's because there are two or three extremely bloated jobs out there that are stifling everyone else's shot at having a unique identity.