Endwalker White Mage has Issues

[FoxCh40s]

I sincerely hope they take a good, hard look at WHM come 6.1. I was trying to level it tonight while I was working on my mother's laptop, and oh boy, does it feel so BAD to play, compared to Sage. If I were to describe it, I would say playing Sage is like sailing on a motor boat on the open water, while WHM feels like you're running through mud while you have ankle weights around your legs. Holy being 2.5 still, only 1 charge of Tetra, Lilies feeling underwhelming in general. Not even mentioning MP issues, among other things.

I'm sure there's more I could say, but I think everyone already has beaten me to the punch already.

I WANT to like White Mage, but right now, it's absolutely tedious to play.

You and I both know healers aren't going to get anything truly meaningful come 6.1; mark my words.

[Silver-Strider]

Let me regal you with a recent tale of Aurum Hell with a newbie WHM. I want to preface this and just say that I don't fault the WHM in this but moreso the Tank but whatever. I'm only saying this to just say how bad WHM has it at low levels.

So, leveling roulette lands me in Aurum Vale the other day because ofc it does. It's a GNB, MNK, WHM and myself as BLM. The first area and boss are uneventful. It was the pull just before the 2nd boss that things go south. The Tank decides to grab everything right before the boss and that didn't go so well. The WHM had Regen going and was spamming Cure 2 until they got dangerously low and had to use Cure 1. The Tank was popping mitigation but we still ended up wiping (think they stepped into a puddle and took too much damage IDK). We try again but the tank is insistent on pulling everything again. It was slightly easier since some enemies had died but the WHM was low again on MP by the end. 2nd boss was uneventful but afterwards the Tank once again decides to pull everything up to the wall. We miraculously didn't wipe this time but only because the WHM ended up using rescue on the tank to pull him out of range of all the enemies for a moment but still, their MP was strained. The WHM and MNK ended up dying to the last boss due to getting hit by bad breath at 20% or so but the GNB and I were able to survive long enough to kill it.

Now, the WHM did EVERYTHING in their power. They used PoM, they kept Regen up, they used Cure 2, everything but it came at being bottomed out on MP every time. Now, obviously low level content, especially dungeons, isn't really cause for alarm because its irrelevant now but what do you think that WHM player felt like going thru all that? They were in level appropriate gear, having gotten every pieces of the 1st WHM artifact gear (minus the shirt obviously), using jewelry that ranged anywhere between 28-47 with a level 41 weapon. They had used what few CDs they had available and was actually able to hold it together for that 2nd pull but only by the skin of their teeth. That couldn't have been fun to experience, especially for a 1st timer in arguably the worst dungeon in the game. I felt terrible for them having to endure that. Sure, we can blame the tank for it but like, it would be disheartening to say the least if you did everything right and still had a hard time.

I really wish that WHM (and healers in general) got a small overhaul to their starting toolkits so that experiences like that wouldn't really be so difficult for new players.

[Rilifane]

Now, the WHM did EVERYTHING in their power. They used PoM, they kept Regen up, they used Cure 2, everything but it came at being bottomed out on MP every time. Now, obviously low level content, especially dungeons, isn't really cause for alarm because its irrelevant now but what do you think that WHM player felt like going thru all that? They were in level appropriate gear, having gotten every pieces of the 1st WHM artifact gear (minus the shirt obviously), using jewelry that ranged anywhere between 28-47 with a level 41 weapon. They had used what few CDs they had available and was actually able to hold it together for that 2nd pull but only by the skin of their teeth. That couldn't have been fun to experience, especially for a 1st timer in arguably the worst dungeon in the game. I felt terrible for them having to endure that. Sure, we can blame the tank for it but like, it would be disheartening to say the least if you did everything right and still had a hard time.

I really wish that WHM (and healers in general) got a small overhaul to their starting toolkits so that experiences like that wouldn't really be so difficult for new players.

The really sad part about this is that the very same pulls are quite easy to heal on all other healers, even if the tank is somewhat squishy or whupsies happen like a dps getting kicked into a frog in the first room or eating an aoe. I had tanks leeroying the first room and it was actually okay. They dropped really low but we survived.
SCH has Whispering Dawn and 3 AF stacks for Lustrate per pull plus Fey Illumination for stronger Adlos and constant fairy auto heals.
AST has much cheaper Benefic II and ED.
SGE has Physis, Druochole, Soteria, slightly cheaper EDiag and at least Kardia heals while they use Physis & Druo.
WHM just has nothing outside Regen and the expensive PoM Cure II spam. Everything in their power is two buttons while being close to finishing ARR.

That's why WHM is a horrible starter healer and I wish people would stop recommending it for people that want to try healer.
SCH starts decently low, has a lot of auto heal through the fairy, gets oGCDs at a good pace and is also available before reaching HW; they start with 3 heal buttons and a fairy, that doesn't exactly require an infinity stone brain to manage. AST is great with ED as long as the player doesn't put too much emphasis on nailing cards at first. Even Sage can be a good starter healer as long as the player does some low level dungeons first like Halatali (Physis) - Haukke (EDiag/ EDosis) - Qarn or Cutter's Cry (Soteria) - Dzemael or AV (Druochole) etc. to have done at least one dungeon per new skill to get used to it.
But WHM just teaches you bad habits for over 50 levels. No healing oGCDs until level 50 and the first one you get is a 3min full HP heal, baiting the player into thinking oGCDs are for emergencies.
MP economy is awful and tempts players to fish for Freecure procs.

[RinaShinomiya]

*snip*

Still baffles me WHM is the only healer who doesn't learn their main gimmick at level 30 and for some reason has higher level requirements for basic Healing spells.

White Mage has no essential Dignity equivalent (if you can even call it that) till level 60
Cure II is learned 4 levels after Benefic II for... reasons...
Regen delayed by 1 level compared to Aspected Benefic
Medica II delayed by 8 levels compared to Aspected Helios... How is Medica II Conjurers level 50 Capstone... what

Does Square seriously believe giving WHM afflatus and oGCD heals prior to HW would be too complicated for new healers...?

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Still baffles me WHM is the only healer who doesn't learn their main gimmick at level 30 and for some reason has higher level requirements for basic Healing spells.

White Mage has no essential Dignity equivalent (if you can even call it that) till level 60
Cure II is learned 4 levels after Benefic II for... reasons...
Regen delayed by 1 level compared to Aspected Benefic
Medica II delayed by 8 levels compared to Aspected Helios... How is Medica II Conjurers level 50 Capstone... what

Does Square seriously believe giving WHM afflatus and oGCD heals prior to HW would be too complicated for new healers...?

To add to the list, all of those mentioned spells also have higher MP cost for no good reasons (No, extra 5y radius is not a good reason for that) + MP economy solely dependent on Lucid Dreaming whereas other healers have -something else-.

Moving at least Solace to lv30 or 35 would go a long way but I guess they just have to keep it SiMpLe AnD tErRiBaD cAuSe It’S wHm.

[Silver-Strider]

Snip

Snip

And it doesn't have to be that way.
WHM has had a plethora of skills removed from it over the years that could easily be reworked and returned to give WHM a much better leveling experience.
Stoneskin, Protect, Divine Seal, Fluid Aura and even Cleric Stance could all be reworked in some fashion to make the experience so much better and considering that they reworked BLM and SMN from the ground up this expansion, with a soft rework for MNK, it baffles me that similar reworks haven't been done for healers, especially WHM with how barebones it is at lower levels compared to every other healer.

[Sarim]

In that situation, IMO WHM actually has the best chances of dealing with such a pull. Why? Holy. I don't know if the WHM used it, but it is what makes WHM the best (easiest) dungeon healer by far.

For the other healers, I think SCH and AST could probably survive that situation as well, but with more effort needed (and I'm not sure if SCH would make it mana-wise). SGE would have (IMO) no chance in hell with the limited spells they have at that level (Kardia, Soteria, (E) Diagnosis, Physis, Druochole).

WHM has issues, definitely. But there's no need to downplay it's strengths either.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

In that situation, IMO WHM actually has the best chances of dealing with such a pull. Why? Holy. I don't know if the WHM used it, but it is what makes WHM the best (easiest) dungeon healer by far.

For the other healers, I think SCH and AST could probably survive that situation as well, but with more effort needed (and I'm not sure if SCH would make it mana-wise). SGE would have (IMO) no chance in hell with the limited spells they have at that level (Kardia, Soteria, (E) Diagnosis, Physis, Druochole).

WHM has issues, definitely. But there's no need to downplay it's strengths either.

In those situations:
SCH has

• Constant embraces
• Whispering Dawn
• Illumination, boosts fairy's Embrace & SCH's Adlos when needed.
• Obviously Adlo itself and its critlo probability.
• Three Lustrates. They heal great deal of health at that level range. Aetherflow is also keeping their MP healthy alongside Lucid.
• Save when needing to Adlo, SCH can constantly slap the ground, helping the party to melt the mobs faster.

AST has

• Essential Dignity. This heals tanks to almost, if not full at that level range when used properly.
• Asp Benefic.
• Asp Helios, which can be stacked on tank with Asp Benefic for the beefy regen, prolonging the 'safe period' where you can keep spamming Gravities.
• Cards to buff DPSes & keeps their MP healthy if they need to start spamming Benefic II. If that's even needed at all.
• Obviously Benefic II itself.

SGE has

• Constant Kardion heals.
• Soteria
• Physis
• Three Druochole, same deal with SCH's Lustrates. They will also very likely to gain the 4th in the same pull.
• Their addersgall usage keeps their MP healthy.
• Phlegma. Two strong AoE to help melt the enemies & is entirely mobile like their spammable AoE shower.
• E.Diagnosis and its crit chance.

WHM has

• Holy, coupled with PoM possibly.
• Regen
• Cure II
• Freecure...?
• MP? Just Lucid, nothing else.

Nobody's really "downplaying" WHM's capabilities, it's just how noticeable the stark disadvantage WHM have in that specific level range. No matter how you put it, WHM will always be the first healer who has to lose something sooner when compared to other healers.

[Azurarok]

Also tanks have to watch when to use short cooldowns like Arm's Length or TBN, and them and melee won't be able to use Low Blow/Leg Sweep to stop an AoE once the mob's immune to stun

[Silver-Strider]

In that situation, IMO WHM actually has the best chances of dealing with such a pull. Why? Holy. I don't know if the WHM used it, but it is what makes WHM the best (easiest) dungeon healer by far.

For the other healers, I think SCH and AST could probably survive that situation as well, but with more effort needed (and I'm not sure if SCH would make it mana-wise). SGE would have (IMO) no chance in hell with the limited spells they have at that level (Kardia, Soteria, (E) Diagnosis, Physis, Druochole).

WHM has issues, definitely. But there's no need to downplay it's strengths either.

Holy is a band-aid and doesn't solve the issue, it only helps to cover up the flaw that low level WHM has nothing to help it heal with when crap hits the fan. Yes, it's a great skill but the fact was that I doubt the tank would've survived if the WHM stopped to use Holy at all. I did see they had to burn Swiftcast on Cure 2 just to keep the Tank alive mid transit on the pull after the 2nd boss and there wasn't really time to cast holy with the volume of enemies. The 1st pull they might have been able to use a Swiftcast holy but I don't expect a new player to really pull off something like that. One of the most common pieces of advice new players receive for Healers is to not DPS until you feel comfortable doing so, so I can't fault them for not using Holy.

As for the other healers, SCH has Aetherflow at that level so they'd have less MP issues then WHM.
SGE can heal on the go so it kind of comes down to how much the SGE can switch between rotating DPS and heals