A few ideas to improve the WHM from a SCH player

[sharazisspecial]

Parsers or at least ingame data based parser are completely inaccurate for healing.



This is cure 2 done on a full hp target. There is no overheal data shown at all.

My Wolves den arena healing numbers are ridiculous. Because it counts regen overhealing as actual healing.

[Eriane]

I don't agree with any points. Having regen off GCD and adding more mana regen just means that WHMs will keep regen up on 8 people. I don't want to become a regen machine. Part of the challenge of being whm is MP management... choosing when to use cure 1 vs 2, cure 3 vs medica, etc. WHMs who need constant ballad are just bad at their job.

I agree with you on the whm points, choosing the correct spell for the occasion to avoid overhealing and saving mana.
But consider that the sch does not have to. You can aldo a full target for the shield if you want, the threat is barely there and you still won't have mana issues.

I'm not saying I want my whm to heal like my sch, but why is one class limited by mana and threat while the other is not.

I think that my whm heals fine, but I'm also ilvl 90. I can heal better on my lower ilvl sch simply because I have access to a greater toolkit.

While I wouldn't mind a regen off the gcd, even if it had a cd for balance, I would rather they fix benediction.

Lustrate outclasses benediction as a lvl 50 job skill so far and beyond its insane. It doesn't matter if my sch heals for less when I have an instant heal three times a minute. Benediction often just "fails" and is overkill when it does work. It doesn't need to be 100%

I would take a heal that was half the healing of benediction with half the cd over what it is now.

[Avette]

There are plenty of ways to adjust Regen without making it extremely OP. One way to do this is to give it a short cooldown. If Regen was on a 6-second cooldown but was free and off the GCD it would require the WHM to make a choice as to who deserves it most, but at the same time taking too long to decide would have high opportunity cost. This would also help with some of the overhealing threat risked by having it on too many targets.

[Tzain]

I'd actually be more inclined to take Stoneskin off the GCD than Regen. For Regen, I'd like to extend the duration to 30 or 40 seconds.

If Stoneskin was fast and off GCD I could use it to extend the amount of time I stay in Cleric Stance before having to drop to spot heal/refresh regen.

I'll walk through a basic "Cleric Cycle" that I like to use.

Stoneskin, Regen, Cleric Stance, Aero II, Aero I, Stone II, ....., Cleric stance, Repeat.

Now the maximum amount of time I can stay in the Cleric Cycle is the duration of Regen. The limiting factor is how much damage the target is taking and whether Regen can keep up with it. Stoneskin can extend this by buying Regen more recovery time. Stoneskin is the only choice because it is unaffected by Cleric Stance.

So if Stoneskin was faster, more easily cast on the target to extend Regen, then I would have to "break cycle" less often. What this means is that I have essentially bought myself additional GCDs with which to perform other tasks. Regardless of what those tasks are, the gain is not limited to just Cleric Stance, it also allows you to buy GCDs to cast anything, Cure spells, Raise, Esuna, and Medica included.

Thus, my recommendation.
Stoneskin, in all forms, no longer triggers the GCD. but now has a 6 second cooldown.
Granite skin, in addition to it's current use, removes the cast time of Stoneskin.
Regen has it's duration extended to 31 seconds.

[Niroken]

All I would ever need is an added bonus to Enhanced Shroud of Saints that doubles the duration or drops the cooldown lower.

[LiadansWhisper]

But consider that the sch does not have to. You can aldo a full target for the shield if you want, the threat is barely there and you still won't have mana issues.

I'm not saying I want my whm to heal like my sch, but why is one class limited by mana and threat while the other is not.

But that's not the point. They are different classes. They are supposed to function differently because their roles in a raid are different.

I think that my whm heals fine, but I'm also ilvl 90. I can heal better on my lower ilvl sch simply because I have access to a greater toolkit.

No, I think that the issue here is that you don't have to actually watch your mana and be thoughtful about your choices. You feel you can heal "better" because you can lean on a fairy and spam whatever you want. But that doesn't make what you're doing "better." It just means that you're not particularly skilled a WHM. Which is fine - I consider myself less skilled at SCH, and more comfortable with WHM (outside of a few strats). That doesn't mean that SCH needs a buff.

While I wouldn't mind a regen off the gcd, even if it had a cd for balance, I would rather they fix benediction.

Lustrate outclasses benediction as a lvl 50 job skill so far and beyond its insane. It doesn't matter if my sch heals for less when I have an instant heal three times a minute. Benediction often just "fails" and is overkill when it does work. It doesn't need to be 100%

The issue with Benediction really has nothing to do with its CD, although I would agree that I think it is a bit overlong - I think a 3 min or 4 min CD would be better than a 5 min CD. Benediction "fails" not because it is a bad spell, but because of how the combat log is handling healing actions vs. damage actions, and the fact that the heal is applied at the end of the animation, and not at the moment you hit the button. This is a problem with the way the spell is functioning, not the CD. And I have saved many a tank from 1-2% health to full in my time as a WHM - Benediction was not an overkill at all, and I would be very upset if it stopped being 100% heal.

I would take a heal that was half the healing of benediction with half the cd over what it is now.

No, thank you. I like having a meaningful tank CD. Do I think the CD is a bit long? Sure. But so is Lay on Hands in WoW, and Paladins have been surviving for years with a 10 minute CD on that spell, and have been just fine. And Lay on Hands isn't near as powerful as Benediction is (it just doesn't suffer from the animation bullshit that Benediction suffers from).

[Eriane]

No, I think that the issue here is that you don't have to actually watch your mana and be thoughtful about your choices. You feel you can heal "better" because you can lean on a fairy and spam whatever you want. But that doesn't make what you're doing "better." It just means that you're not particularly skilled a WHM. Which is fine - I consider myself less skilled at SCH, and more comfortable with WHM (outside of a few strats). That doesn't mean that SCH needs a buff.

Player skill has nothing to do with a toolset. If two players take damage at the same time on a whm my choice is to heal target A then heal target B. In a sticky situation I may try a swiftcast or bene if it is up.

As a sch I can heal target A with adlo or physick and at the same time heal target B with embrace. If the damage is extreme I can put both heals on target A and lustrate target B as its off the gcd and has a far less severe cd than bene.

The reason why I'm able to better heal on a sch in lower ilvl is when dealing with st dmg it doesn't matter if my whm heals for 1100 a cure, my sch heals for 1000 with a 600 embrace with the option to instantly heal for 25%.

And benediction is overkill. I time my heals to land quickly after autoattacks or scripted attacks, (mountain buster, ds etc.) so very rarely will a tank fall low enough that I'm getting more than a 70%-80% heal with bene barring t5. Rather I would say if you need a 100% heal you should be questioning your healing ability.

One thing I can agree with is the benediction animation/combat log issue. Regardless of whether or not the spell needs improvement.

[Avette]

Thus, my recommendation.
Stoneskin, in all forms, no longer triggers the GCD. but now has a 6 second cooldown.
Granite skin, in addition to it's current use, removes the cast time of Stoneskin.
Regen has it's duration extended to 31 seconds.

I hesitate to focus improvements on your absorb potential, because at that point you should just play a scholar. I do like the idea of shortening stoneskin's cast time with a trait, which would prevent scholars from benefiting as readily for using it.

[Alindra]

Player skill has nothing to do with a toolset. If two players take damage at the same time on a whm my choice is to heal target A then heal target B. In a sticky situation I may try a swiftcast or bene if it is up.

Though the only place this would really be an issue is 4-man content, cos in 8-man you would have a SCH or another WHM to heal the 2nd person. And in 4-man, it's probably ok to let the dps wait for a heal (since it was probably their fault they took damage anyways). If not, you have 3 AoE heals to pick from.

[Avette]

Though the only place this would really be an issue is 4-man content, cos in 8-man you would have a SCH or another WHM to heal the 2nd person. And in 4-man, it's probably ok to let the dps wait for a heal (since it was probably their fault they took damage anyways). If not, you have 3 AoE heals to pick from.

Regarding "letting the other guy deal with it" as a solution, I think it would be better to focus on improving the individual toolkit to have better actions per minute. The point of the original argument was that scholars already have a diverse toolkit, whereas the white mage struggles to respond in time due to constraints on their activity caused by being singularly responsible for all their own healing output. In other words, you're still finishing your original cast, and so am I, but I put the fairy on the other guy at the same time so I win.