Quote Originally Posted by ty_taurus View Post
But in FFXIV, the character you control is the only character you control. So while the labelled White Mage of older games may have been limited offensively, you as the player were not, unless you played FFI, FFIII, or FFV with a party of only White Mages. Meanwhile here, your gameplay is entirely dictated by your job. And even if we want to bring up that same criticism for FFXI which did have very limited offensive options as well, FFXI featured the sub job system, and you know what seems to be listed as one of if not the best sub jobs for White Mage? Black Mage. It gave White Mage greater offensive capabilities, more debuffs, better MP management, and spikes for passive damage.
And in FF9 Garnet and Eiko both have access to Summons, and in FF10 Yuna had access to Summons (and if you played on Expert Sphere Grid, anyone could be the 'WHM'. Wakka WHM lets go), and in FF5 you could choose anyone to be a WHM but also give them any other job's actions once you'd levelled it, to complement what the WHM lacks, list probably goes on but those were the extra that immediately came to mind