Feedback: White Mage (7.05) Needs Some Major Love

[Sarixis]

Yeah, it's true... their words don't necessarily seem to be aligning with their current actions. I have a small inkling of hope that we might see something more on an 7.X patch since a friend has told me that they tend to do avoid making larger changes on .05 patches. I do think your skepticism is warranted, especially when looking Black Mage and the new Viper changes. :cry: But sounds like your game is a really cool forum for you to flex your creative muscles! Do feel free to share any cool ideas you happen to cook whiile working on it!

I have a healthy respect for the hope and optimism that people like you have for things to eventually get better.

If you want to befriend me on Discord or something like that so work in progress pre-production ideas aren't public, I'm more than happy to share! It looks like we're on the same DC to at least get the ball rolling, according to your at-a-glance profile. I have a (incredibly useless) bachelor's in game dev but it's still a passion of mine and eventually I want to pull together rag-tag team of indies together so we can make a polished demo of a single level that could start a serious crowdfunding process. But that's still a long ways away atm.

[Mansion]

I don't have a lot of experience playing WHM at level 100, but I tried one Valigarmanda ext and I felt SO powerless sometimes compared to AST.In the several instances of close damage (raid wide, raid wide, light party stack), I can spread Earthly Star / Horoscope / Queen / Celestial Opposition (without even thinking about touching Neutral Sect and Macrocosmos)

With White Mage, I HAD to hard cast some GCDs when my Lilies where gone because I used a Solace for a single player mistake, which is less powerful than AST heals being free as they are oGCDs, without even mentioning the DPS loss of having to cast Cure III or Medicas.

So in my point of view, WHM used to be the strong single target oGCD healer with Tetra, Bene, and bits of mitig with Benison and Aquaveil. But this niche has lost its use when the tanks can now sustain themselves so well. And the party wide healing is just better in AST hands.
That leaves WHM is this spot of not being the best in anything.

Also I'm not a fan of Glare 4 being tied to Presence of Mind, I would prefer Glare 4 being a Phlegma clone as a spell on its own CD. Or a second Lily gauge being the reverse of the current one, with a DPS GCD Lily every 20 seconds, and a big party wide healing Lily after 3 uses.
Agree that the dash should be closer to a 20-30 seconds CD, and Presence of Mind should be 20 seconds long or a 60 seconds CD. I would also untie Temperance and the party shield as two separate mitigation tools.

[Pyth]

I think WHM could have more heal give damage mechanics like blood lily.
The regular heals can give a chance to proc sacred sight for example, including ability heals make it around a 25% chance to proc but have a lot heals have that chance.
I think WHM should also have one extra damaging spell that has a cast time and like a 40 second CD.

Besides that yeah replacing the shields with damage reduction is fine, only reason its okay on Astro is because everyone just wants old astro back and this is cope. The lily being a stance could maybe work but you could also just make the lily a strong aoe heal and normal heal on one button like cure 3 or something.
Also yeah the dash needs to be 30 seconds, it's absurd that it's not when PCT has one at 20 seconds with a free sprint too

Yes, more damage would be so nice! I think Sacred Sight proccing off of heals would be such a cool and flavorful add. And you're so right, the WHM dash really does pale when you look at equivalent abilities.

[Pyth]

I have a healthy respect for the hope and optimism that people like you have for things to eventually get better.

If you want to befriend me on Discord or something like that so work in progress pre-production ideas aren't public, I'm more than happy to share! It looks like we're on the same DC to at least get the ball rolling, according to your at-a-glance profile. I have a (incredibly useless) bachelor's in game dev but it's still a passion of mine and eventually I want to pull together rag-tag team of indies together so we can make a polished demo of a single level that could start a serious crowdfunding process. But that's still a long ways away atm.

Haha I hope in this case it is optimism and not just naivete! I'd love to add you on Discord! Unsure on how we'd want to go about the process but open to anything!

[Pyth]

I don't have a lot of experience playing WHM at level 100, but I tried one Valigarmanda ext and I felt SO powerless sometimes compared to AST.In the several instances of close damage (raid wide, raid wide, light party stack), I can spread Earthly Star / Horoscope / Queen / Celestial Opposition (without even thinking about touching Neutral Sect and Macrocosmos)

With White Mage, I HAD to hard cast some GCDs when my Lilies where gone because I used a Solace for a single player mistake, which is less powerful than AST heals being free as they are oGCDs, without even mentioning the DPS loss of having to cast Cure III or Medicas.

So in my point of view, WHM used to be the strong single target oGCD healer with Tetra, Bene, and bits of mitig with Benison and Aquaveil. But this niche has lost its use when the tanks can now sustain themselves so well. And the party wide healing is just better in AST hands.
That leaves WHM is this spot of not being the best in anything.

Also I'm not a fan of Glare 4 being tied to Presence of Mind, I would prefer Glare 4 being a Phlegma clone as a spell on its own CD. Or a second Lily gauge being the reverse of the current one, with a DPS GCD Lily every 20 seconds, and a big party wide healing Lily after 3 uses.
Agree that the dash should be closer to a 20-30 seconds CD, and Presence of Mind should be 20 seconds long or a 60 seconds CD. I would also untie Temperance and the party shield as two separate mitigation tools.

This is a really big one for me as well! Playing AST in Valigarmanda, I was shocked at just how many tools I had access to. It felt nigh endless. And with the new interation of Lightspeed, much of the difficulty of mechanics seemed to fly out the window as well. I'm a big fan of all the changes that you've menionted and I do hope that WHM is able to carve out a niche for itself. Hopefully sooner than later.

[Sarixis]

Haha I hope in this case it is optimism and not just naivete! I'd love to add you on Discord! Unsure on how we'd want to go about the process but open to anything!

I use the same name as on here, Discord, and in game, and if you youtube search my tiny little channel of the same name, you can match my avatar there with my Discord profile pic for confirmation.

[Lyth]

If you want a better comparison for Aetherial Shift than En Avant, have a look at Smudge, which like Aetherial Shift was also released in Dawntrail.

Smudge: 15 yalm forward dash, 5 seconds of sprint per use, 20 second recast.
Aetherial Shift: 15 yalm forward dash, 60 second recast.

[Pyth]

If you want a better comparison for Aetherial Shift than En Avant, have a look at Smudge, which like Aetherial Shift was also released in Dawntrail.

Smudge: 15 yalm forward dash, 5 seconds of sprint per use, 20 second recast.
Aetherial Shift: 15 yalm forward dash, 60 second recast.

Oh this is egregious. Pitco getting the favorite child treatment rn. I understand not giving WHM a sprint but mayhaps the recast time can be closer.

[Connor]

I think Aetherial Shift’s cool-down wouldn’t be so bad if it got two charges. If not that then I’d say a 30s cool-down would feel much more appropriate.

[Pyth]

I think Aetherial Shift’s cool-down wouldn’t be so bad if it got two charges. If not that then I’d say a 30s cool-down would feel much more appropriate.

Yeah I agree. The dash itself is nice in a vacuum, but when compared to other comparable movement abilities, it loses a bit of its sparkle. Especially when AST gets 2 charges of Lightspeed.