Please bring casting depth back to White Mage.

[BabyYoda]

I understand that White Mage is supposed to be the simple and approachable healer, and I think that is fine. Not every job needs to be complicated. However, simple should not mean empty.

White Mage is still a mage. Casting should matter.

In my opinion, White Mage should feel like the heavy caster of healers. It can still have instant tools for movement, recovery, and emergency healing, but its main identity should be built around powerful hard-cast spells, good timing, and smart positioning.

A good example is Black Mage. Black Mage is not complicated because it has too many buttons. Its depth comes from planning, positioning, cast timing, and knowing when to commit. The idea is simple, but the execution has depth.

I think White Mage could follow a similar philosophy for healers.

It should remain easy to understand, but rewarding to master. Its healing should feel powerful because the player planned the cast correctly, positioned well, and committed to the right spell at the right time.

That would fit White Mage’s fantasy much better than making it a healer with fewer buttons and bigger numbers.

High potency alone is not enough. A job can have strong numbers and still feel mechanically empty.

White Mage should be simple, direct, and powerful, but it should also have depth through casting, healing decisions, and spell commitment.

Please let White Mage feel like a real mage again.

[Carighan]

I mean in a way the new design would be that, if I imagine it has say, 3.5s GCD as a base thing (so 1s slower than everybody else), and also 3s casts on at least the main nuke and the main heals, in return for obscene numbers as you frequently have to skip casts whole. But I suspect most would find that more boring, see old BLM.

[BabyYoda]

...

I have been thinking about Evolved Mode in a different way.

What if Evolved Mode should not simply be the easier or more simplified version of a job?

What if Evolved Mode should be the version that pushes the job’s identity to its strongest form?

To me, that would make much more sense.

Reborn Mode could remain the more familiar, simple, and approachable version of the job. If someone wants to play White Mage in a more traditional and simple way, they can stay with Reborn Mode.

But Evolved Mode should be where the job fantasy is pushed further.

For example, White Mage in Reborn Mode could remain the simple healer that many players already understand.

But White Mage in Evolved Mode could become the heavy caster healer: stronger hard-cast spells, deeper healing decisions, more emphasis on timing, positioning, and committing to powerful casts.

That would make Evolved Mode feel like an actual evolution of the job, not just a cleaner or more simplified control scheme.

The same idea could apply to other jobs as well.

Evolved Mode should ask: “What is the strongest version of this job’s identity?”

Not only: “How do we reduce buttons?”

Reducing button bloat is good, but if Evolved Mode loses depth or identity in the process, then it is not really evolving the job. It is just simplifying it.

To me, the ideal structure would be:

Reborn Mode = familiar, accessible, traditional gameplay.

Evolved Mode = stronger job fantasy, deeper identity, more expressive gameplay.

That would make both modes meaningful, instead of making Evolved Mode feel like the “easy mode” and Reborn Mode feel like the “old mode.”