I want the game designers to show us WHM-s how to play optimally without clipping

[Semirhage]

Some thoughts on clipping your GCD.

In my opinion, it adds interest to the game if the optimal thing to do in some situations is something which is generally suboptimal. Sometimes you have to break rules.

Some examples. In general, it's optimal to use raid buffs like Trick Attack on cooldown, to maximise the number of uses during an encounter. But given fight timings, it is sometimes better to delay raid buffs. In general, it's optimal not to clip your dots by refreshing them early. But sometimes it's better to clip your dot, e.g. to snapshot within raid buffs. In general, it's inefficient to use AoE heals to heal a single target. But this can be efficient during extended periods with no AoE damage (e.g. fighting dungeon mobs). I'm sure there must be other examples.

I think it would be less interesting if optimal play could be reduced to rigid adherence to a set of simple rules ("use raid buffs on cooldown", "never clip your dot", etc.) without any exceptions. The exceptional cases where the right thing to do is break the rules provide opportunities for creative optimisation.

Now, it seems to me that clipping your GCD is another example of this. Although as a general rule, you shouldn't clip your GCD, as this may result in fewer GCDs used over the course of the encounter, there are exceptions when it's optimal to clip. But this isn't a bad thing. As with the other examples, having exceptions to the rules makes things more interesting.

I agree in theory, but I've also seen this done more elegantly on a DPS class.

Reprise is a fantastically designed ability. Hats off to that one. I *really* hope the design team leaves it alone in Endwalker. It allows you to move if you're stuck in Dualcast stutter step hell, which is great. At the low, low cost of 5 black and white mana. But it's also a damage gain. Yes, that's right, the math on its potency to recast ratio makes it a gain over using your spells. So why not use it constantly? Because compared to the melee burst combo, it's a loss. So you have to be careful, because if you use it so many times that it loses you a melee combo over the course of the fight, then you've actually lost damage for it.

It's a solution that encourages greed for the right reasons. Gives you a tempting, rewarding solution to a problem, but punishes you for indulging that temptation too much. And best of all, it doesn't require you to craptastically clip your GCD like a neanderthal White Mage, because playing smoothly is for classes with actual design behind them.