White mage vs. Scholar I need opinions

[Elusana_Celah]

I've been busying myself as of late at self improvement over my skills as a white mage. White mage is one of the most traditional classes in Final Fantasy as my absolute favorite.

However as I notice more and more scholars seem to greatly overshadow white mages in overall mana, damage reduction and that pet can be macrod to heal the tank while you cast your DPS spells.

White mages have a lot of heals to bring to the table all very powerful but all costing a butt ton of mana. Even using Shroud of Saints in serious healing situations a scholar's gonna chug along while a white mage is going to run out of gas and be found dead on the highway.

These are just my thoughts based on youtube videos I've watched of like Shiva being 4 manned of course the Scholar took charge there. Scholar's skillset of damage reduction makes solo tanking Shiva accomplishable much smoother as the tank isn't getting hit as badly. Less mana is required when something is taking less damage afterall.

I just want to restate that these are all my feelings and opinions. I'm hoping for community insight maybe some tips you've found or maybe I'm just right. I don't really know. Help a white mage who feels sad... My friends said "This is why I made a scholar instead lol" No, I'm not making a scholar. I want the class I like to be good too.

[QuCont]

if you want to do end game

  learn both

else

  play whatever you enjoy more

[Freyt]

They both bring things that the other doesn't.

White Mage puts out much more party healing. If the whole party is taking lots of damage for whatever reason, a scholar will likely fail, whereas a white mage would succeed. However Scholar's can heal 1 target way better.

[Silkerin]

if you really love white mage, play with it, in the end doing/using what you like is the most important thing, and if you want to bring more to end game stuff just start playing with other classes bit by bit

[Velox]

In current FFXIV, Scholar is a much stronger class when compared to White Mage. This does not mean that WHM has weaker heals, I'm talking about the total sum of the jobs' contributions to the fight and to the party. When it comes to AoE healing, WHM is untouchable. Sadly though, they are severely lackluster in all other aspects. They have very poor mana regeneration, build lots of hate easily, no instant heals or OGCD heals (other than the 5min Benediction), painfully long cast times, large skill MP cost, low DPS threshold over extended fights or difficult fights, no party-wide buffs, limited enemy debuffs, etc. In fact, WHM usefulness is strictly determined by the content itself. There are only 2 conditions in which WHM is at its best.
1. Learning a fight (lots of party mistakes being made)
2. Heavy AoE damage (would be unsurvivable without a WHM)
If a fight doesn't fit into either of these categories, a SCH will be the superior healer. Once a fight is on farm, SCH starts to shine because A) can trust DPS to not take excess damage, B) can aid in overall party DPS because the fairy and Lustrate ignore Cleric Stance which provides a nice healing buffer, and C) know when big damage IS coming and can mitigate it successfully. Funny enough, since there was a severe lack of AoE damage in the Binding Coil of Bahamut, most parties ran SCH/SCH pairing or SCH/5-DPS setups. Nothing in BCoB played to WHM's strengths. SE attempted to rectify this by adding it a lot more AoE healing situations in SCoB and FCoB. This is why I said that WHM usefulness is strictly a matter of what content is being done. They aren't a jack-of-all trades job like SCH (which is essentially part healer, part DPS, part buffer, and part debuffer), so they can really only fill a specific niche. They do fill that niche well though, so you can give the job credit there. Sadly though, they will need to undergo a huge overhaul for 3.0 if they are to remain competitive, especially when they will have to be competing against Astrologian for party spots. Things like allowing spell speed to influence HoT ticks, moving Regen to the OGCD, and scaling SoS would go a long way towards fixing WHM's deficiencies.

*NOTE: This is not a "I hate WHM, SCH FTW!" post. I play both jobs and these are just the things I've noticed from experience.

[Elusana_Celah]

Velox you have noted the same exact things I've been noticing too... I just would like some assurance that SE is going to look at the class cuz something is needed and the solution isn't to make more things do large AoE damage lol.

[Kiara1]

I love playing white mage, cause I like big numbers and lets just say I critted 7,4k today (mantra, convalescense, warrior, divine seal)
And whm in dungeon is nice cause of holy.
I have a scholar level 50 but I never enjoyed it like I enjoy white mage.

So it all depends on what kinda style you like, I think both are great and one whm and one sch is a perfect combination. For instance a white mage can easily aoe heal up a party without any help from the scholar who has that chance to put up some dots meanwhile

[Gallus]

While it is true a SCH cannot compete against the aoe heal bombs from a WHM, a SCH will outshine a WHM in pretty much every other aspect imo.

1 - Has almost infinite mana.
2 - Has superior mobility (can reliably heal while moving with things like lustrate or the fairy's embrace).
3 - Is much stronger against disruptions (A SCH gaoled, conflagrated, feared, frozen, devoured, etc. will still heal because of the fairy, a WHM won't).
4 - Can infinitely DPS without ever running out of mana (can get near 300 DPS and even more if it's a good one). A WHM can't do that or else runs out of mana very fast (stone II drains mana too hard). Also cleric does not affect fairy.
5 - What is more, even if you try to DPS with a WHM 90% of its DPS will come from Stone II, which is a hardcasted spell. A lot of the SCH spells on the other hand (such as bio, aero or ruin II) are instant.
6 - Can happily overheal without ever fearing of taking the aggro from anyone.
7 - Can DPS while fairy heals, the WHM can't heal while dpsing, you either do one or another (this is a big advantage considering how turning on/off cleric stance works).

[SilverwingsX2]

I'm a whm myself and all I can say is: every content that can be solo healed with a scholar, can be cleared with one whm as well.
Fact is, there are not that many people that can play a whm to it's limits. With the mana, yes. A whm has a bigger thirst than an scholar. But when played with skill, there is nothin a scholar can solo and a whm can't.
Just my 2 cents.

[Seryl199]

Both classes are capable of performing well in almost all scenarios. I enjoy playing both classes, and while I can't refute that scholar has a lot going for it, that doesn't make it the most fun all the time. I love the aoe burst damage that white mage has, and love the delicate balance of smashing mobs with holy while keeping the tank just healthy enough to not die.

For white mage you have one resource to manage, and that's mp. How you spend it, where you spend it and why you spent it is typically important. Shroud is vital, but it's not the only tool for your success. Divine seal, benediction, and eye for eye (if cross classed), are all completely free tools that offer more hps for your tank, or mitigation. Though they aren't mp management tools, they are essentially free heals that allow you to place your mp elsewhere. Holy's crowd control is also pretty strong, you can essentially mitigate 7 seconds worth of damage to the tank before diminishing returns run out, all while putting out respectable dps. Managing your mp outside of battle is also important. In dungeons, avoid aggro for as long as possible if you need mp, even if your party has already engaged in battle, though of course be sure to step in once the tank has taken a few licks.

Regen is an important spell that I typically see underutilized. It's extremely mp efficient and pairs well with divine seal. Always fish for that freecure proc unless you really just need to cast cure II to stop an imminent death. Most importantly, play what's most fun to you. There's no reason you can't play as white mage in any content you're looking to run.