WHM 5.0 First Impressions

[Sebazy]

Maybe give us divine seal back and just have it morph into Temperance at 80.

This

I'm surprised how much this is bothering me even in the level grind and dungeons tbh.

[DiznypKC]

I’m still maiming my White Mage because they didn’t wreck it.

But they also didn’t fix it.

Frankly, it’s dull, and using Afflatus Solace feels forced. And while we’re on the subject of AS...it makes Cure/Cure II obsolete for anything other than prog or when with players who make several mistakes. Honestly, using the Afflatus skills feels more like a chore than anything.

[Trunks]

I’m still maiming my White Mage because they didn’t wreck it.

But they also didn’t fix it.

Frankly, it’s dull, and using Afflatus Solace feels forced. And while we’re on the subject of AS...it makes Cure/Cure II obsolete for anything other than prog or when with players who make several mistakes. Honestly, using the Afflatus skills feels more like a chore than anything.

It's the same thing Scholars are complaining about with Aetherflow sans Energy Drain (Lilies are just discount Aetherflow). You stand around all the time with Lilies, and no reason to use them.

There is just nothing to do. I keep trying to hit Cleric Stance or Largesse... it's awful. It'll be fine to play during raid progression, which is a month away and accounts for 6-8 hours a week, tops, for most people.

[Atlantasia]

I haven't hit a new dungeon yet, but what I think WHM needs from the hours I've played it today to get it to 71:
#1.) Give us back our Divine Seal at level 40 and upgrade it into Temperance at 80.
#2.) Lilies need a DPS drain for them, because they spend a lot of time sitting pretty until they're needed heal wise, especially at lower levels.

My friend says that WHM Lilies are playing a LOT like SCH's aetherflows right now, same glaring problem too. And I'll fully agree, I'm noticing this myself. :/ As is, seeing three lilies all the time irks me on some level, not hugely, but it's low level cringe.

Also... I'm really missing Cleric Stance an awful lot.

[Kuurei]

I haven't hit a new dungeon yet, but what I think WHM needs from the hours I've played it today to get it to 71:
#1.) Give us back our Divine Seal at level 40 and upgrade it into Temperance at 80.
#2.) Lilies need a DPS drain for them, because they spend a lot of time sitting pretty until they're needed heal wise, especially at lower levels.

My friend says that WHM Lilies are playing a LOT like SCH's aetherflows right now, same glaring problem too. And I'll fully agree, I'm noticing this myself. :/ As is, seeing three lilies all the time irks me on some level, not hugely, but it's low level cringe.

Also... I'm really missing Cleric Stance an awful lot.

Hm. I've been using my Lillies mostly to substitute Cure/C2 during AoE phases or boss fights, to be able to weave a little bit of damage in on top of my healing. I think part of the problem with some people having lillies too often is that they aren't adjusting to using them as a free heal instead of going for that Cure/C2 you really don't need to waste the MP or the hardcast on. Keeping Lillies for HPS is allowing WHMs to focus on DPSing while everyone's topped off. This will be the case even more so with the additional healing Afflatus closer to cap, which is an AoE healing.

Largesse/Seal is already baked into Temperance. At levels lower than 60, I never find myself having too many moments of do-or-die healing that exactly need a 30%/20% Healing increase at any given point, so I'm not sure about giving it back. If anything, it would break low level dungeon scaling beyond what it already is at. And even when I was newer to the game, I didn't start feeling challenged as a healer till the 60s.

[Ilyrian]

I really really don't like Afflatus on the GCD.
It just doesn't feel good to use.
I hope all things will become apparent in 80 content.

Just to add - it reminds me constantly about how jarring healing is in this game. The GCD is too high, the animation lock is too much. I don't like using it currently.

I might be missing something, I probably am.

[Lynesse]

For SCH, we sit on Aetherflow now, but sitting on it is no longer a DPS loss -- so it's mostly inconsequential and basically just an indirect buff to our healing.

Sacred Soil is helping to use up some of that excess Aetherflow, but it arguably breaks even with the old Bane.

If you don't use Lilies, you miss out on Afflatus Misery, don't you? That can be a problem. I haven't tried the new WHM, but I feel like I'd be tempted to overheal, and I absolutely understand how using Afflatus Solace and managing lilies would feel like a chore because of this.

On the one hand, it's cool that SE wants us to heal to do damage. On the other, there needs to be a way for WHM to get its damage without unnecessary healing.

[Arixtotle]

I'm loving WHM. I have no issue with what they got rid of and what I've gotten so far as a lvl 73 is great. I'm able to DPS so much more now verses what I used to be able to.

PS. Just something I noticed, seems people play WHM very differently than I do. I rely on Cure1 for base healing and I use Cure2 only when it gets procced for no mana or I'm all out of instant cast spells. The fact that some people play with Cure2 as their base healing spell is interesting. With the changes that have occurred I have to say I think the way I play is the way SE is expecting WHM to play honestly.

[Atlantasia]

Hm. I've been using my Lillies mostly to substitute Cure/C2 during AoE phases or boss fights, to be able to weave a little bit of damage in on top of my healing. I think part of the problem with some people having lillies too often is that they aren't adjusting to using them as a free heal instead of going for that Cure/C2 you really don't need to waste the MP or the hardcast on. Keeping Lillies for HPS is allowing WHMs to focus on DPSing while everyone's topped off. This will be the case even more so with the additional healing Afflatus closer to cap, which is an AoE healing.

Largesse/Seal is already baked into Temperance. At levels lower than 60, I never find myself having too many moments of do-or-die healing that exactly need a 30%/20% Healing increase at any given point, so I'm not sure about giving it back. If anything, it would break low level dungeon scaling beyond what it already is at. And even when I was newer to the game, I didn't start feeling challenged as a healer till the 60s.

And I'm looking at all levels. There are times when a Largesse/Divine Seal would be helpful. Less healing if you're healing more, that's extremely useful in a pinch or even just min maxing what you do. Not every party is going to be good or efficient, I wish. I do not like a level 40 skill that was originally WHM's and ONLY WHM's, being taken from us last expansion and then given back to us at level 80 with an even longer cd and a pitty mitigation skill compared to AST and SCH. As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather have our original level 40 Divine Seal with the 30% healing potency buff and a 60 second cd back. Back in the day, it was extremely useful as a low level healer in Stone Vigil when people pulled too many mobs, in Aurum Vale, in The Vault, etc. And it's extremely useful if you're level syncing raids for the challenge... ARR and HW both had Divine Seal without it being overpowered, it's not going to break things.

As for lilies, until level 74, you have nothing to shoot for with lilies, even if you get them at 52, that's 22 levels of little help. It'd be one thing if you could spam Afflatus Solace like you can a SCH's Lustrate, but it's like a worse Lustrate currently, even if it has 100 more healing potency. I stand by this, WHM is currently a discount SCH. No fairy, worse abilities, slower in giving them usage points to use them...

It's meh to me so far.

[Kuurei]

I'm loving WHM. I have no issue with what they got rid of and what I've gotten so far as a lvl 73 is great. I'm able to DPS so much more now verses what I used to be able to.

PS. Just something I noticed, seems people play WHM very differently than I do. I rely on Cure1 for base healing and I use Cure2 only when it gets procced for no mana or I'm all out of instant cast spells. The fact that some people play with Cure2 as their base healing spell is interesting. With the changes that have occurred I have to say I think the way I play is the way SE is expecting WHM to play honestly.

Normally, C2 was prioritized because it was much more efficient in terms of both mpotency ratio and in regards to cast times since you could weave with Tetra in an emergency. Cure however got a potency buff to 450 -- C2's 700 Pot is only an additional 250 over and C2 costs a good deal more mp than Cure. We have a smaller but more permanent MP pool to work with now, making Cure much more effective in 5.0 than C2 without the proc. Afflatus Solace also gives us a 700 pot GCD while we have lillies which is generally better than a C2 since it's not a hardcast and has a relatively short refresh.

Assize also still continues to keep us from having to bother with C2 too often, and the 5% MP restored gives us 500 mp back -- enough for a Cure but not Cure 2.

Regen and Cure are our baseline now while we stave off emergency situations to generate lillies, Cure 2 is our big patch for when we can't rely on the baseline but we need to hold onto cooldowns or lillies, and Solace/Tetra are for recovering from actual emergency situations. Plenary has its niche too.

Admittedly, haven't gotten a chance to play with the other two Afflatus abilities yet. lol. But you may be right to a degree.