Honest question for people dissatisfied with WHM:

[Leonerdo]

(Unpopular opinion disclaimer: I guess I'm just a broken player who likes "broken" designs. It doesn't mean y'all are wrong though. I just want something different.)

I think I figured out why I like WHMs current kit (so I only want tiny buffs). It's the only healer actually playing a resource management game.

All the other healers just have so many free cooldowns, they barely even need to keep track of which ones are up. In Savage you plan what to do with your 2-/3-minute CDs and the rest is easily filled just by alternating Earthly Star and CO, or Physis and Kerchole. SCH at least loses damage if they're spamming Sacred Soil/Indom, and Whispering Dawn/Fey Blessing isn't quite enough in some situations.

WHM has slightly fewer cooldowns so they need to pay attention to them more. Burning a lily just for movement, or panic healing with lilies/medica 2 when Assize/Asylum could handle it if you planned ahead -- those lazy things will cost you in the long run. You pay in MP, and you pay in damage. WHM actually has to pay attention to MP efficiency (somewhat) and cooldown efficiency to manage the costs. And that optimization is fun.

The only semblance of difficulty on the other healers is keeping track of a larger number of abilities. But that's not really interesting if you aren't forced to use them all. For example, healing TEA on AST was fun cause my cooldowns were actually stretched thin. But that's the exception that proves the rule.

On the other hand, in P2S, I switched to SGE for one reclear and was able to heal it easily, first-time, forgetting to use Holos/Panhaima/Pnuema in several spots. Physis and Kerachole just cover way too much healing on their own. P3S and P4S would probably take a bit more experience/planning, but I know once I figure out where to use Panhaima/Pnuema the rest would fall easily into place. And I would pay nothing for it. There's no room for growth there.

On WHM, I'm trying to squeeze out every use of my cooldowns as possible, and taking inventory of every point of cure potency to avoid wasting anything, while still using Medica II on harder mechanics. Eventually my static (sorta casual) will all have BiS and we'll get more optimized, and I might be able to drop some more Medica II casts.

And to me, that's not a weakness or a punishment, it's a challenge and a reward. Every other healer getting everything for free just sounds cheap and boring.

Maybe Dragonsong Ultimate will shift the balance enough, so that WHM struggles too much, and the other healers struggle adequately.

[Risvertasashi]

I think I figured out why I like WHMs current kit (so I only want tiny buffs). It's the only healer actually playing a resource management game.

I might've bought this before the Thin Air nerf.

As is, there's not really much management - you are MP negative and will run out of MP doing nothing but spamming a 400 mp spell. Even using assize and lucid on CD. And gods forbid if you need to use an area healing spell that costs MP.

Unless, of course, you make a piety build. But that's not interactive, so can you really call that management?

But even then, you also have much less ability to rez and thus much less recovery ability if anything goes less than perfect in a run. Which... if you really like that more power to you but I can't say I would.

[LuciaMirain]

There is so little healing needed in the fights that the only place I use Medica 2 once is at the end of p4s curtain call and honestly not needed there either. In p1s I run out of mp at the end because I am mindlessly pressing glare and the few ogcds I have to heal while my team heals the rest, I need to use my thin air stacks or else I am completely out earlier. I used to use asylum before but....our ranged switched to dancer that has curing waltz and shields and regens and now not even asylum is needed in the first two fights.....
There is no managing with WHM. It is braindead and now that I have picked up sage it boggles my mind that WHM is left in this state.

[Liam_Harper]

On WHM, I'm trying to squeeze out every use of my cooldowns as possible, and taking inventory of every point of cure potency to avoid wasting anything, while still using Medica II on harder mechanics. Eventually my static (sorta casual) will all have BiS and we'll get more optimized, and I might be able to drop some more Medica II casts.

Like you mentioned, that's a symptom of content being to easy, not WHM being engaging. WHM just gets to experience the need to optimize oGCD's a bit earlier because it has limited tools. This gives an illusion of engagement and planning, but in reality you're just trying to stretch a handful of buttons to cover some mild damage.

Using Medica II on WHM usually isn't a smart decision, it's "I had no choice, I have no tools". You simply had to use it because Lilybell, Asylum and Rapture were on cd. Mapping well doesn't reward you either. The co-heal needs to do the work for WHM to shine and WHM provides the worst healer dps in the game in return. That's not a reward.

For example, healing TEA on AST was fun cause my cooldowns were actually stretched thin. But that's the exception that proves the rule.

Exactly. Healing TEA on AST was fun because you had that wide toolkit, but you had to put the entire thing to use. Much more thought and planning and more rewarding for the good player. Suddenly all those cooldowns aren't free or overkill, they're tools that can go much further in the hands of a skilled player.
Yes, it's the exception, but it shouldn't be the exception. All endgame content from EX upwards should be that fun.