Differentiating healer identities

[ForsakenRoe]

The idea isn't simply to give whm more heals or to make its heals have a higher potency, but instead to reiterate how its abilities interact with one another in such a way that using its gcd to heal isn't a dps loss like it is for other healers. Astro for instance has some nuts ogcd healing available, but that also comes at the expense of weaving it in, or waiting on a cooldown. In the case of white mage however, it could be designed in such a way that allows or even incentivises the use of its gcd to heal. Using a healing gcd perhaps empowering follow up damage gcds so that healing is net neutral rather than a dps loss like it is for other healers. Make it a mirror to blm where the healing and dps are both a mutually inclusive dichotomy that feeds into itself, so that doing damage empowers its healing just like how its healing empowers its dps. It already dips a toe into this idea with the lily system, and how they (finally) made afflatus misery net neutral.

Damn, a healer that is nice and simple for casual players to get into, yet has a nice satisfying cycle of 'healing feeds damage' and 'damage feeds healing'? Wow, someone ought to make that into a proper idea. /s

[KarmaYraeon]

Damn, a healer that is nice and simple for casual players to get into, yet has a nice satisfying cycle of 'healing feeds damage' and 'damage feeds healing'? Wow, someone ought to make that into a proper idea. /s

I saw. I could make a longer post discussing various concepts as a potential rework like you have in yours, since I have different ideas than what you have presented. But in general, I feel like whm doesn't necessarily need more buttons (though additional tools would be nice and everyone likes a flashy new button) but instead a revision of its already existing tools to revisit the idea that it is the powerhouse GCD healer. To give it the same sort of power as what other healers do with ogcds. To make it more reliable when doing so without losing out on damage like the others would.

[AmiableApkallu]

Also my original point was that whm should be a job based on its consistency, whereas the ideas you have shown seem more to just be giving it more tools to use. While not terrible, it isn't what I was originally implying. Additional tools to supplement an idea is always welcome, but my original comment wasn't looking for more tools, just to adjust what is already there.

So, here's where I might start with job design: A job needs an "identity" and a "gimmick."

Identity answers the question, "If you had to make a cutscene where this job gets its badass moment in the spotlight, what does it do?" SE's answers are something like:

• SGE: Haima
• AST: Cards/fate/time

Gimmick answers the questions, "What's my unique gameplay? What fun buttons do I get to push?" Answers here might be, or ought to be, something like:

• SGE: Kardia, Eukrasia
• AST: Cards/fate/time

My problem, then, with "consistency" is that it's neither an identity nor a gimick. It can be a feature of a job's design, but by itself, it's not enough to build a job.

[KarmaYraeon]

My problem, then, with "consistency" is that it's neither an identity nor a gimick. It can be a feature of a job's design, but by itself, it's not enough to build a job.

As it stands, that is the problem with current white mage to be honest. In terms of identity, I feel it should be a mirror to BLM in in the sense that its identity is to be the healer with long cast times and powerful gcds as a consequence. Its output per gcd is better rewarded and/or less punishing than it would be on other healers. To take it to the same extreme as blm, you could outright make it the turret healer that spends most of its time standing still, with a few tools to help with its mobilty. Or perhaps you could set it up in such a way that its a matter of balancing healing and dps in similar fashion to redmage with its black and white mana. For example;

Cure, Cure II, Cure III, Medica, Medica II:
Additional effect: Grants two Touch of Earth or removes one Touch of Light, to a maximum of 6.
Touch of Earth effect: Increases damage dealt by certain spells by 50%.

Glare III, Dia, Holy, Afflatus Misery:
Additional effect: Grants two Touch of Light or removes one Touch of Earth, to a maximum of 6.
Touch of Light effect: Increases healing magic potency of certain spells by 20%.

What this would mean is that, assuming you used 3 gcds to heal, you would then get 6 gcd's of bonus damage on glare, dia, holy or afflatus misery to gradually compensate the damage you would have lost. In terms of minmaxing for end content, you could go so far as to make sure you get at least one use of Touch of Earth on afflatus misery or dia (assuming it applies to more than just the initial damage) for the extra dps overall, which in turn also makes the lilies a net positive rather than just neutral. Alternatively rather than stacks you could simply make it some kind of linear gauge that just gradually increases to a fixed amount, and you spend portions at a time, like sch's faerie gauge. In either case, you are compensating for the dps otherwise lost because of gcd healing, without making it a forced aspect of the class' rotation or functionality, except for the singular case of using it to empower Aff. Misery.

Another idea is that you could focus more on the lilies instead, and give white mage a soft rotation as mentioned here.

As for its gimmick, I would assume that would be its lilies, unless you imagined something else?

[ForsakenRoe]

I saw. I could make a longer post discussing various concepts as a potential rework like you have in yours, since I have different ideas than what you have presented. But in general, I feel like whm doesn't necessarily need more buttons (though additional tools would be nice and everyone likes a flashy new button) but instead a revision of its already existing tools to revisit the idea that it is the powerhouse GCD healer. To give it the same sort of power as what other healers do with ogcds. To make it more reliable when doing so without losing out on damage like the others would.

The idea I linked adds 4 buttons, two of which are to give WHM the ability to spend it's lilies on shielding instead of healing (because healing isnt always needed, and it'd give WHM a way to actually mitigate things more often than once per 2min), but they can be left out if absolutely needed. For the sake of argument, lets say they are, and we just add the other two buttons, a GCD damage skill, and a GCD AOE heal that is damage neutral. Those two buttons already fit easily onto my hotbars on account of WHM having less buttons than a lot of other classes in the game, but even then if we really need to have more space to add them, we can make Cure 2 an upgrade to Cure 1, and Medica 2 an upgrade to Medica 1. Revision of it's existing tools isn't going to cut it here, because the main problem with not just WHM, but healers in general, is that their damage kits are just too barren as is. We cant do much to 'revise' Glare and Dia into something more interesting, if it's only those two skills we're working with. We could change Dia to be 12 seconds duration like my suggestion, but that on it's own isn't really going to do much to help. It just changes us from 2111111111112111 to 2111121111211112.

Adding one extra button would also not really do much on it's own. The reason it works better when you put them together is the idea that the 'extra button' generates more gauge than a Glare cast does. It gets the player to the new powerful healing tool faster, meaning damage feeds healing, like you suggested. WHM already can push a lot of burst healing power when needed, with Plenary Indulgence > Rapture, or PI>Cure3 if we really need to. PI-Rapture is 600 potency per GCD and it's damage neutral now that Misery got buffed. Outside of condensing Cure1/2 and Medica1/2 in the way I suggested, I don't really see what else we could do to change up what it's other skills do. Plenary combined with Thin Air? Only thing that comes to mind is not changes to the effect, but just QOL changes like 'Assize has 2 charges, so you can hold one for healing if needed' (cough UCOB) or 'Tetra has 2 charges'. I'm rambling, but my point is, we don't need to revise the tools WHM has to let it compete better against the other healers, because it doesn't have as many tools as they do to begin with. It's a tale as old as time, when we ask 'how does AST handle J-Waves or Curtain Call, constant waves of damage', they can say 'Celestial Opposition, Collective Unconscious, Earthly Star, Horoscope, Macrocosmos, Neutral Sect shielding'. WHM has Temperance, Asylum, Assize if it lines up, Lilybell, 3 Raptures and then it's out, and has to spam Medica or Cure3. Giving it the changes I suggested would at least give it 2 more GCDs of healing from the gauge spender, which might not be 'enough' but it's at least a start. Changing what other stuff does won't help enough I think, since it's already 'behind' in number of tools. Unless you're thinking of adding the PVP style regen to Temperance as an additional effect, which sure I'd take that