QoL suggestions for WHM.

[Silver-Strider]

These suggestions are mostly for QoL changes in a similar vein as the BLM changes coming in EW to give WHM a better leveling experience as well as make it so that the class feels more complete at lower levels, with some mild buffs added to account for the changes to WHM in EW. I have revised some of the suggestions further based on ideas acquired from the Healer suggestion videos as well.

Cost and Cast Time Adjustments:

Cure 2
1k MP -> 700 MP
2s -> 1.5s

Medica
900 MP -> 700 MP
2s -> 1.5s

Medica 2
1k MP -> 900 MP
2s - 1.5s

Cure 3
1500 MP -> 1200 MP
2s -> 1.5s

Regen
500 MP -> 400 MP

Skill Adjustments:

Aero
Deals wind damage with a potency of 40.
Additional Effect: Wind damage over time
Potency: 20
Duration: 30s
Only one Aero spell-induced damage over time effect per caster can be inflicted upon a single target.

Fluid Aura - Deals Water Damage with a Potency of 200.
Additional Effect: Restore 5% of Maximum MP
Unlock at level 15.
Level 56: Enhanced Fluid Aura. Upgrades into Assize

Protect - Reduces damage taken by a party member or self by 8%
Duration: 8s
Unlock at level 20.
Level 86: Enhanced Protect. Upgrades into Aqua Veil

Stoneskin - Creates a barrier around self or target party member that absorbs damage equivalent to a heal of 300 potency.
Duration: 15s
Unlocks at level 25.
Level 66: Enhanced Stoneskin. Upgrades into Divine Benison

Afflatus Solace
Unlocks at level 30

Afflatus Rapture
Unlocks at level 30

Regen
Aeolus Additional Effect: 10% chance after each tick that the next Aero spell of any grade will add its full damage over time amount to its initial damage and cost no MP
Duration: 40s

Divine Seal - Increases healing magic potency by 10%, while reducing damage taken by self and all party members within a radius of 30 yalms by 5%.
Duration: 20s
Unlock at level 40.
Level 80: Enhanced Divine Seal. Upgrades into Temperance.

Cure 3
6y -> 20y

Graniteskin
Creates a barrier around self and nearby party members that absorbs damage equivalent to a heal of 250 potency.
Duration: 15s
Unlock at level 45.
Level 70: Enhanced Graniteskin. Upgrades into Plenary Indulgence

Aero 2
Deals wind damage with a potency of 40 to target and all enemies nearby it.
Additional Effect: Wind damage over time
Potency: 15
Duration: 30s
Only one Aero spell-induced damage over time effect per caster can be inflicted upon a single target.
Unlocks at level 46.

Medica 2
Aeolus Additional Effect: 3% chance after each tick that the next Aero spell of any grade will add its full damage over time amount to its initial damage and cost no MP
Duration: 40s

Benediction
180s CD -> 120s CD

Asylum
90s CD -> 60s CD

Assize
MP Restore 5% -> 8%

Thin Air
Next 2 actions are executed without MP cost.
Duration: 15s
Maximum Charges: 2

Tetragrammaton
Additional Effect: Grants 1 Lily

Aero 3
Deals wind damage with a potency of 50.
Additional Effect: Wind damage over time
Potency: 40
Duration: 30s
Only one Aero spell-induced damage over time effect per caster can be inflicted upon a single target.
Unlocks at level 62.

Aero 4
Deals wind damage with a potency of 50 to target and all enemies nearby it.
Additional Effect: Wind damage over time
Potency: 30
Duration: 30s
Only one Aero spell-induced damage over time effect per caster can be inflicted upon a single target.
Unlocks at level 62.

Plenary Indulgence
Shield Potency upgraded to 400

Dia 2
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 60.
Additional Effect: Unaspected damage over time
Potency: 45
Duration: 30s
Unlocks at level 72

Afflatus Misery
900 potency -> 950 potency

Liturgy of the Bell
Duration: 15 -> 30s
180s CD -> 120s CD

Trait Adjustments:

Freecure
Unlocks at level 28. Upgrades Cure into Cure 2

Aero Mastery
Unlocks at level 62. Upgrades Aero and Aero 2 into Aero 3 and Aero 4

Secret of the Lilies 2
Unlocks at level 68. Restore 5% MP upon use of a Lily

Aero Mastery 2
Unlocks at level 72. Upgrades Aero 3 and Aero 4 into Dia and Dia 2

Enhanced Tetragrammaton
Allows the accumulation of charges for consecutive uses of Tetragrammaton.
Maximum Charges: 2
Unlocks at level 76.

Ok, bare with me because I changed quite a few things from my original suggestions as well as added some suggestions from the Healer videos so I'll try to explain everything.

The Cost and Cast Time adjustments are mere QoL improvements to have WHM's spells be more in line with its counterpart AST. While Medica 2 is still slightly more costly than Aspected Helios, that is simply to account for the extra range on Medica 2.

The adjustments to the Aero spells and the interaction they have with Regen and Medica 2 is to create synergy within WHM's toolkit to encourage the use of our Regen GCDs and minimize their impact upon WHM's DPS to utilize. The inclusion of AoE versions of Aero is also to mirror BLM's Thunder Spells on WHM.

The return of Fluid Aura, Protect, Divine Seal, Stoneskin and Graniteskin (formly Stoneskin 2) where all reintroduced as low level skills of WHM's current toolkit to both give WHM a proper leveling experience so that its level 50 gameplay is much smoother and to teach good habits for new players early on. Afflatus Rapture and Solace were moved down to level 30 for similar reasons.

While potentially controversial, I feel Benediction could really be lowered to a 2 minute CD simply because of the state in which the game is in, namely that healers are so absurdly powerful that Benediction just feels lackluster. With something like Macrocosmos healing potentially 8 people to full in a similar fashion to Benediction, the 3 minute CD just doesn't feel warranted anymore. Asylum is in a similar boat in that, while the skill heals for a good amount, the long CD no longer feels justified. Lilybell (Liturgy of the Bell) also received a duration increase and CD reduction due to its heavy restrictions.

Tetragrammaton getting 2 charges is something I had originally suggested but also decided to include the Healer Video's suggestion to also have it grant a Lily upon use. With its lower cure potency as well as longer CD, Tetragrammaton is simply inferior to similar tools on other healers that granting an additional benefit to the skill that synergizes with the rest of WHM's toolkit just feels like a natural progression for the class. It also allowed me to reevaluate my original suggestion for the Secret of the Lily 2 trait that originally added would have reduced the time of accumulation of Lilies down to 20s and instead added an MP tool for WHM to further help with their MP economy.

Plenary Indulgence becoming a full on Shield Abilities vs a Heal boost for our GCD AoE heals is something that I largely found myself agreeing with in the Healer videos and while I do see value in its original purpose of boosting, the buff to Cure 3's Radius should more or less invalidate the need for PI's old effect.

The Thin Air adjustment is a minor one, allowing for 2 skills to be executed for free per stack instead of just 1. This was done to prevent the need for Double Weaving it with Swiftcast for Reviving and to help with their MP economy a little more.

I did adjust Afflatus Misery a little bit. It's not a huge buff, being only slightly better than 3 glare casts, and as much as I would like to see it be DPS neutral, with consideration that Regens are now potential DPS gains and that our oGCD toolkit is receiving so many improvements, I do feel a more tempered approach is warranted just to test the waters a bit.

[inhaledcorn]

I agree with many of these ideas, honestly, except for Fluid Aura. I think Fluid Aura should have the damage and MP regeneration aspect of Assize. In ARR content, WHM can struggle with MP generation. Returning Fluid Aura in this way (and maybe upgrading it to something like Pearl and make it AoE at a higher level) would help alleviate that problem. It can also let Assize be a healing tool since that's currently not how it's used. (Assize was an interesting idea when it was first released since we had Cleric Stance, but I don't think it works like that anymore).

I do have a question about this Lilybell change: Is the buff a heal on one player if that one player gets hit, or if one player gets hit, everyone gets healed? I just wanna see if I understand this skill proposal change.

Question 2: Is the return of Stoneskin also oGCD like Benison or is it GCD like it was originally?

[Silver-Strider]

I agree with many of these ideas, honestly, except for Fluid Aura. I think Fluid Aura should have the damage and MP regeneration aspect of Assize. In ARR content, WHM can struggle with MP generation. Returning Fluid Aura in this way (and maybe upgrading it to something like Pearl and make it AoE at a higher level) would help alleviate that problem. It can also let Assize be a healing tool since that's currently not how it's used. (Assize was an interesting idea when it was first released since we had Cleric Stance, but I don't think it works like that anymore).

I do have a question about this Lilybell change: Is the buff a heal on one player if that one player gets hit, or if one player gets hit, everyone gets healed? I just wanna see if I understand this skill proposal change.

Question 2: Is the return of Stoneskin also oGCD like Benison or is it GCD like it was originally?

I'm not against the idea of Fluid Aura restoring MP and becoming Pearl, I was merely trying to limit Button Bloat as much as possible with my suggestion. I believe the combination of Fluid Aura, Stoneskin, Divine Benison and the lowered cost of Cure 2, Medica 2 and Cure 3 would be enough to alleviate MP problems at low levels but your suggestion also works too.

1) The Lilybell change would only heal the player that took damage and each individual has their own stack of this buff; I don't think doing that much AoE Healing would be healthy because it would potentially cause problems with aggro if each stack was an AoE heal that procced individually. So if a Tank is hit 5 times, Lilybell would heal them for the full 2k as it currently would, while the Healer that hasn't gotten hit would still have all their stacks and would them convert them into a shielding effect after the duration expires.

2) Stoneskin would be an oGCD to match current Benison.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Interesting read. I like most of them, but I’d like to ask more:

Fluid Aura
I personally like to see Fluid Aura staying because removing that in EW feels like as good as deleting CNJ’s lv15 quest. Perhaps an 8% damage reduction fares better to not make it too powerful that early? What do you think? inhaledcorn also made a good point on slapping in MP regeneration component, especially when WHM’s EW MP economy is shafted hard.

Afflatus Misery
I was under impression that WHMs shouldn’t feel bad on losing dps by using their lilies. What is the reason for you to not bumping up Misery’s potency to neuter the dps loss from using lilies? I’m genuinely curious

Assize
Here, this. I believe this is my favorite ability from WHM’s arsenal. I had a bit of healer discussion with my FC cohealer. We agreed to one thing about WHM: bumping up the MP restoration component to ease up their terribly MP economy in EW, just like you did here. But we also thought about tweaking how the ability functions as well. It’s as follow:

Assize - Changed into instant GCD with 2 charges while retaining their 45s timer.
Deals unaspected damage of 400 potency to all nearby enemies while granting nearby party members with ‘Confession’.
Confession: Upon receiving any hp restoration, triggers an additional healing effect. Stacks up to 3 times.
Cure potency: 350p
Duration: X seconds
Maximum Charges: 2
Additional Effect: Restores MP up to Y% of Max MP.
Can only be executed in combat.

What do you think?

”But wait, what about Plenary Indulgence?”
Frankly we never really liked the ability given how clunky it is to utilize it AND the fact there are very few instances where we get to utilize all those additional healing potency to its full potential. So we thought about removing lv70 capstone by combining it to Assize and to replace it with something else… which we still have 0 idea about what XD preferably some utility…perhaps?

[baklava151]

I like these. I'd also say at least one instacast heal would be nice by 50, SCH has Lustrate, AST has ED. Tetra would fit though I honestly can't remember how tied that is to the level 60 WHM quest.

[inhaledcorn]

I like these. I'd also say at least one instacast heal would be nice by 50, SCH has Lustrate, AST has ED. Tetra would fit though I honestly can't remember how tied that is to the level 60 WHM quest.

Benediction: Am I a joke to you?

[baklava151]

Benediction: Am I a joke to you?

Kinda . I need something with a slightly shorter CD when I'm trying to salvage a WoD run

[Brandedblade]

Snip.

Fluid Aura: I agree with the point that Fluid Aura should be baby Assize instead of baby Aquaveil, but honestly both are equally valid options. Perhaps baby Assize can be in conjunction with another ability that we can shove somewhere on the leveling process.

Stoneskin: I'd honestly make the potency a drop lower, like 300-350, but otherwise no complaints.

Divine Seal: No comment

Healing Spell MP reductions: No comment

Assize: If we have Fluid Aura/(insert other baby Assize spell here), then that spell should absolutely have 5% MP, to make the upgrade to Assize feel more potent across the board.

Afflatus Rapture: No comments here, I'd imagine this would be nice for Ucob/Uwu for sure tho.

Afflatus Misery: You've basically stated my concern in your commentary.

Secret of the Lilies II: hmmm....lining up Misery to approx 1min would be an interesting prospect if it was set up to be neutral/gain....

Enhanced Tetragrammaton: Why isn't this already in the game?

Lilybell: I'm conflicted between liking the pretty flower you place down and agreeing that this is a more effective use of the cooldown. the 150 sec cooldown rubs me the wrong way tho, either keep it 180 or make it 120.

[Silver-Strider]

Fluid Aura: I agree with the point that Fluid Aura should be baby Assize instead of baby Aquaveil, but honestly both are equally valid options. Perhaps baby Assize can be in conjunction with another ability that we can shove somewhere on the leveling process.

Interesting read. I like most of them, but I’d like to ask more:

Fluid Aura
I personally like to see Fluid Aura staying because removing that in EW feels like as good as deleting CNJ’s lv15 quest. Perhaps an 8% damage reduction fares better to not make it too powerful that early? What do you think? inhaledcorn also made a good point on slapping in MP regeneration component, especially when WHM’s EW MP economy is shafted hard.

I'm not opposed to Fluid Aura being changed to include a MP restore to help out with MP management in low level content and the only real reason I selected Aqua Veil was for thematics as both are Water based spells. However, I do feel that a low level Assize would be a fairly overloaded ability considering that you would unlock this skill at level 15. An AoE damage spell that heals and restores MP that you use on CD vs the fresh level 15 Tank running Sastasha for the 1st time and having a heart attack because the CNJ just pulled the whole room by mistake. I don't imagine that going over well lol. While most of us would have no real problem with it since it's just Sastasha, I'm trying to play Devil's Advocate and say that a new player might not be as understanding.

Having said that, I'm not opposed to a low level version of Assize being added for Level 50 content but since I'm basing my suggestion on past skills that were removed, I'm sort of at a loss on what to name it or what level to introduce it at.

Afflatus Misery
I was under impression that WHMs shouldn’t feel bad on losing dps by using their lilies. What is the reason for you to not bumping up Misery’s potency to neuter the dps loss from using lilies? I’m genuinely curious.

I have a number of reasons I specifically chose not to make Misery a DPS neutral skill.

Despite the fact that Misery is a DPS loss for WHM, I'm looking at its exact DPS numbers in relation to SCH and AST; WHM is behind, yes but not by a huge margin. If Misery was to be made into a DPS neutral skill for WHM, how would that effect the balance between WHM/SCH/AST and now SGE? WHM is getting a potency increase with Glare 3 while Fall Malefic will remain the same potency as Malefic 4 right now (Tentatively since potency adjustments can happen from the media tour to EW). With Misery being up more frequently now on top of the increase in potency, how would it remain balanced in relation to AST, that has its damage stay more or less the same but with some RNG spikes with Lord of Crowns and Astrodyne? Also, with the introduction of Secret of the Lily 2, Misery can now be up in potential 60 second burst widows instead of 90 seconds, which can align with Raid Buffs more frequently so that could further widen the gap in balance. Finally, since we don't know how encounters in EW will look, we also have to account for possible Cleave Damage that Misery can be utilized in that would put it at an even greater advantage. The small potency increase from 900 to 1k would be merely to account for the RNG of Lord of Crowns/Astrodyne while also lessening the DPS loss Lilies are suffering going into EW and to see how Secret of the Lilies 2 would play out in a real encounter.

[Silver-Strider]

Assize
Here, this. I believe this is my favorite ability from WHM’s arsenal. I had a bit of healer discussion with my FC cohealer. We agreed to one thing about WHM: bumping up the MP restoration component to ease up their terribly MP economy in EW, just like you did here. But we also thought about tweaking how the ability functions as well. It’s as follow:

Assize - Changed into instant GCD with 2 charges while retaining their 45s timer.
Deals unaspected damage of 400 potency to all nearby enemies while granting nearby party members with ‘Confession’.
Confession: Upon receiving any hp restoration, triggers an additional healing effect. Stacks up to 3 times.
Cure potency: 350p
Duration: X seconds
Maximum Charges: 2
Additional Effect: Restores MP up to Y% of Max MP.
Can only be executed in combat.

What do you think?

”But wait, what about Plenary Indulgence?”
Frankly we never really liked the ability given how clunky it is to utilize it AND the fact there are very few instances where we get to utilize all those additional healing potency to its full potential. So we thought about removing lv70 capstone by combining it to Assize and to replace it with something else… which we still have 0 idea about what XD preferably some utility…perhaps?

I'll be honest here, this version of Assize would be arguably too powerful. At 400 potency, it would be used as a DPS gain over Glare 3, making the built in PI a secondary benefit that might also not be utilized effectively, which would defeat the purpose of the skill replacing PI.

I do understand that PI can be clunky and feels wasted most of the time so how about an alternative instead?

Plenary Indulgence
Place 3 Confession stacks to self and nearby allies
Upon receiving HP recovery via Medica, Medica II, Cure III, or Afflatus Rapture cast by self, uses a Confession to trigger an additional healing effect. Upon the duration finishing, Heal for 200 Potency per remaining Confession Stacks.
Cure Potency: 200
Duration: 15 seconds

With this increase to duration, it allows some level of flexibility to the skill while also allowing for it to function as a pseudo-oGCD heal. This way, the skill offers something outside of just a fluff potency increase to our AoE skills and further increases WHM's oGCD toolkit a bit.