QoL suggestions for WHM.

[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.

[inhaledcorn]

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.

I don't think Fluid Aura should have the AoE effect in low-level content. I'm more suggesting something like how PLD's Spirits Within is getting upgraded to an AoE version in EW. That's what I was suggesting with Fluid Aura -> Pearl (as well as dropping the damage portion from Assize). I realize this really drops WHM's AoE damage potential, but I also hope the MP and return of Assize as a healing tool will make up for it elsewhere.

[Silver-Strider]

I don't think Fluid Aura should have the AoE effect in low-level content. I'm more suggesting something like how PLD's Spirits Within is getting upgraded to an AoE version in EW. That's what I was suggesting with Fluid Aura -> Pearl (as well as dropping the damage portion from Assize). I realize this really drops WHM's AoE damage potential, but I also hope the MP and return of Assize as a healing tool will make up for it elsewhere.

What about a compromise of letting Thin Air be unlocked at 50 with 1 charge and we unlock the 2nd charge at the current level we learn it at? Not a perfect solution but it maintains Assize while still addressing low level MP issues somewhat.

[inhaledcorn]

What about a compromise of letting Thin Air be unlocked at 50 with 1 charge and we unlock the 2nd charge at the current level we learn it at? Not a perfect solution but it maintains Assize while still addressing low level MP issues somewhat.

Allow me to offer a counter proposal for Assize. If we want to keep Assize the way it is, I would like to see it more useful as a healing tool.

Assize

Type: Ability

Recast: 60s

Effect: Deals unaspected damage to all nearby enemies with a potency of 400 as well as restoring 8% of MP to self.

Additional effect: Places "Confession" on self and all near-by party members. Changes "Assize" to "Plenary Indulgence".

Confession duration: 30s

Confession effect: For each 10s that pass while "Confession" is active on a player, gain one "Confession" stack (max 3). When "Plenary Indulgence" is activated, or when the duration of "Confession" ends, a heal is triggered equaling 200 potency for each Confession stack.

Honestly, I don't think Rein_eon_Osborne had a bad idea. I just think it was executed poorly. This should hopefully let Plenary and Assize be better utilized as they're intended. I got the idea since I was looking at what made Earthly Star and Horoscope so effective as healing tools and why Assize and Plenary aren't. The main difference is control. Earthly Star could be placed early, but it's mainly used at the 11s-20s mark. Horoscope can either be a small heal, or a big heal later when used in conjunction with AST's Asp./Helios. This follows a similar idea while still keeping Assize's identity of being a damage and healing tool but putting more control back in the player's hands. You're still pressing it on cooldown, but now you can really take advantage of the healing aspect it brings.

[Silver-Strider]

Putting Assize on a longer CD would further hamper WHM's MP economy.
Also, WHM needs more oGCDs, not less, so merging Assize and PI just takes away from WHM's toolkit as a whole instead of expanding on them.
Finally, this version of Assize/PI would be a nerf because you would have to wait a minimum of 10 seconds just to match Assize's current Healing potency while also removing the AoE buffer that PI currently is, just for a 200 potency gain after 20 seconds.

I understand the desire to make Assize more useful as a Healing tool, however, this is not how you do it. Personally, I honestly don't think there is a good way to make current Assize into a Healing Tool because it has MP restore attached to it and that alone makes it much more important than the actual heal, while the damage component just compounds that issue even further. That isn't to say it can't be made into a useful tool for WHM but I don't think making it heal is the way to go about it. If it offered a Shield effect or reduced the damage enemies did, it would still be a useful tool for WHM to utilize but there are times when the heal on Assize is actually useful so even that idea isn't without its flaws.. The buff suggestion could work also, so that you could manually trigger the heal as needed but building stacks in order for it to heal just as much as it currently does isn't the greatest suggestions cause there will be instances when you need the heal immediately and you'd get less out of it as a result. It would need to heal for a flat amount that is equal to, or more than, what Assize currently heals for while the buff is active for it to see usage as a healing tool but since the MP restore and Damage components are still there, it's not guaranteed that you'll need the heal during that time either so even that idea, while probably the best compromise, has its limits too.

Either the Damage/MP restore on Assize need to be placed on an alternative skill or the healing component needs to be changed because Assize just has too much going on with it to be effective as a healing skill.

[inhaledcorn]

Putting Assize on a longer CD would further hamper WHM's MP economy.

I tried to make up for that with a greater increase on the MP gain (8% instead of 5%, but I admit I might be a bit conservative in my adjustment). I just think a 45s timer is a bit awkward to work with in the current iteration of the skill since it doesn't sit cleanly in the 60s buff timer window, which is generally when you want to use it for the damage aspect (since it will line up with major and minor buff windows). And the 45s timer makes it weird for the healing aspect since this is a skill that wants to be used generally on cooldown because of the damage and MP restore.

Either the Damage/MP restore on Assize need to be placed on an alternative skill or the healing component needs to be changed because Assize just has too much going on with it to be effective as a healing skill.

This I agree with. I only suggested Confession stacks because I just remember how Confession used to work in Stormblood. I also feel like, if you're getting a person to confess for longer, they're going to confess more and more sins. Just my two cents on the matter. If we bump up the base heal to 400, it would match the current Assize heal at 1 stack, but I think it would get kinda absurd the more stacks you get. I avoided the shield aspect since WHM isn't really a barrier healer, at least it isn't supposed to be. Or, we just don't bother with the stacks and just have it be a delayed 400 pot heal.