RIP WHM

[Alistaire]

the only thing I'm upset about is how blatantly obvious it is that square has literally actually zero idea about what makes scholar good. what they really ought to do is trash noct all together and just work on balancing durinal and whm instead of chasing around the scholar that they will never ever catch up to.

Completely disagree. Regardless of how SCH does what it does it all boils down to how much healing they can do, how much dps they can do, whether or not its their own dps or raid dps thru buffs.

These changes don't make noct AST a SCH; it makes these things add up to what SCH provides (or at least that's the goal; we'll see if these buffs accomplish this in practical situations). Better shields means more free time to dps the same way a fairy helps in that respect, and better buffs makes up for their own lesser dps.

[Velthice]

Completely disagree. Regardless of how SCH does what it does it all boils down to how much healing they can do, how much dps they can do, whether or not its their own dps or raid dps thru buffs.

These changes don't make noct AST a SCH; it makes these things add up to what SCH provides (or at least that's the goal; we'll see if these buffs accomplish this in practical situations). Better shields means more free time to dps the same way a fairy helps in that respect, and better buffs makes up for their own lesser dps.

you can disagree, but you're wrong. shields absolutely do not make up for a fairy, that isn't even debatable. both the fairies are utility powerhouses that do so much more than cast embrace. indom is a stupid powerful ogcd and astro doesn't have an answer to it in either stance and then of course there's the glaring fact that not only do scholars have an easier time dpsing, they can dps forever because they have mana positive dps. that means they can stop whenever at any point in the fight, no matter how long, and be in excellent shape to do any healing or raising that needs done.

noct astro would make an absolutely fine main healer, maybe better than durinal, but that's almost never going to be an option because astro shields will overwrite scholar shields regardless of if they're better or not. It's a bad stance, and unless we get a bunch of diverse healers that can fill the off healer role like scholar can, it's always going to be a bad stance. the only real benefit of the noct sect changes is that it's no longer a red flag to abandon a dungeon immediately when you see an astro spawn in with it on

[winsock]

Why do WHM mains get so upset whenever one of the other healing jobs AST gets buffed?

SE decided they were going to make 2 classes with nearly identical playstyles, and make duplicates/near duplicates of almost all WHM skills.
WHM also lost proshell...

The numbers attached to those healing skills and mp management are really the only things separating the classes' healing end. Given that AST has the card system, increases to AST numbers make WHMs worried about AST powercreeping its way to "WHM with cards" status.

SE should distance these jobs/playstyles further from each other. Give WHMs a few more truely unique bells and whistles to set it a little further apart and you'll see these threads become almost non-existent

EDIT:
I remembered something I wanted to add:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post3128545

Q16. In regards to the effect of Protect and Stoneskin, can you add some type of advantage, similar to pre-patch 3.0, for white mages?

A16. As I mentioned previously, we made adjustments to actions that were largely based on stat percentages, and due to this the identity of each job was lost when using these abilities as additional actions. I apologize for this.

However, to compensate for this, we've added in a great deal of healing power.

The devs literally apologized for this and gave WHMs a stat lead to compensate... and since then that "healing power" advantage has been steadily declining

[ToasterMan]

I just finished my WHM relic. I don't want to play AST.....

[FoxyAreku]

World first creator clear will still probably have a white mage just because it's way safer in progression.

Lol see the content first before judging. People also forget AST has and will always have the same issue, the cards are useless unless you draw them just when you need them.

There is literally never a time when a balance or arrow is bad.

Unless like, the boss is in a phase where they are invulnerable. But that's what 'Spread' is for.

Everything else can be royal road fodder if its drawn at a bad time for no real loss, so that's not really an issue.

AST's only real problems is it has less throughput than white mage and can't offheal as effectively as scholar.

[Rai_Takara]

World first creator clear will still probably have a white mage just because it's way safer in progression.

I think WHM/AST might be the safer comp unless there is a part that requires extreme mitigation from something like a crit deploy.

Other than that, in regards to world first. It could be WHM/SCH just due to the fact that there aren't that many good AST mains in comparison to WHM mains. Unless the top groups have had WHMs that play as good on ASTs that could swap out, then they will be running WHM regardless of whether it's better or not.

[Yona87]

I think WHM/AST might be the safer comp unless there is a part that requires extreme mitigation from something like a crit deploy.

Other than that, in regards to world first. It could be WHM/SCH just due to the fact that there aren't that many good AST mains in comparison to WHM mains. Unless the top groups have had WHMs that play as good on ASTs that could swap out, then they will be running WHM regardless of whether it's better or not.

Even with a AST buff, I still prefer having a SCH on my WHM.

[Fyce]

Cure III, Assize, Asylum, Benediction.
It's like some people in this thread forgot that these skills still exist and are the reason why WHM remains a superior healer able to answer to more situations than the AST.

[Sanghelios]

Cure III, Assize, Asylum, Benediction.
It's like some people in this thread forgot that these skills still exist and are the reason why WHM remains a superior healer able to answer to more situations than the AST.

And Divine Seal.

[tjw]

And Divine Seal.

ASTs just shit all over Divine Seal now though with 30 second Synastry, not to mention absolutely disgusting MP regeneration and mobility healing. And all the extra HPS output WHM has doesn't count the fact there's only so much HPS in a given fight to do, and that the devs have already confirmed this tier of raid being easier than Gordias or Midas. Unless their way of making things easier is making constant and spike AoE damage that a AST and SCH can't handle with Indomitability, Emergency, Light speed and Whispering Dawn, I don't see how WHM can't compete with the sheer quantity of utility and mitigation an AST/SCH composition will bring.