What is WHM's true identity?

[Leogun]

So it's unique in that it has no interesting strengths... that sounds pretty lame.

Reliability isn't interesting? Say that the next morning you get up to go to work and go to turn on your car. Oh! Well it be out of gas? Will it take flight but explode after a count down? Will it even start at all?

[gumas]

The only bland thing I can come up with is just a high potency healer.

Its pretty much that WHM is powerfull healer, it may be bland but compare to other healer, the WHM are the best at doing what healer are supposed to do... Healing.

Think of them like food, WHM is XL size fried rice, it offer nothing else but the main course (healing), SCH is fried rice with drink combo (fairy), it Ease you up if you have trouble dealing with the "fried rice", while the AST is S size fried rice but has an omellete, fries and small chicken pieces on top of it (cards), you can mix and match between eating the main or the others.

At least.. Thats the way i imagine it =D

[Kerberon]

Reliability isn't interesting? Say that the next morning you get up to go to work and go to turn on your car. Oh! Well it be out of gas? Will it take flight but explode after a count down? Will it even start at all?

I think I've owned that car.

[Rennies]

Reliability isn't interesting? Say that the next morning you get up to go to work and go to turn on your car. Oh! Well it be out of gas? Will it take flight but explode after a count down? Will it even start at all?

What I'm saying is that the White Mage job feels dull because it feels like a bland burst mage mixed with a burst healer. It has the highest personal healing/damage numbers, sure, but... that's all. Scholar is way more interesting due to the interactions with the fairy and shields, and also by being one of few healers who actually uses and heavily relies on a pet (in my MMO experience, anyway). Astro is interesting because of the YUUUUUGE number of possibilities with the card system (even though many combinations look and feel underwhelming).

[Fernosaur]

If reliability isn't interesting for you doesn't mean WHM is an uninteresting job. WHM is a safety net, much like Paladin among the three tanks. It's a job that, due to its simplicity in job mechanics, allows for a main healer to be on top of everything and everyone and have a quick and easy tool that lets them react to any situation. And that's precisely where WHM's strenght lies, it can react to anything and still pull through.

I dropped WHM a loooong time ago in favor of Scholar because the later is much more interesting for me, but that doesn't mean WHM isn't well designed. It's made with simplicity in mind, and really imo there's nothing wrong with that. I do think they'll have to buff the class sooner or later, but the buffs, like Paladin's changes for 3.X, will probably still be very straightforward and powerful by themselves.

[Nekotee]

If i want to be harsh i would say that :

WHM identity is being the training ground before taking your sch book or ast globe and go healing

Then if i want to be more objective
His identity is having some over the top skill that fit some situation

Yololololodiction that can heal anyone to 100% with or without cleric the ultimate healing
And cure 3 that is stronger aoe heal hands down but... Only shine in particular situation (nidhogg akh morn are one)

Otherwise whl lack a lot in group support and mitigation

[Duelle]

Since WHM got their Stoneskin's 18% damage reduction and Proshell taken away to be spread across the entire healer spectrum, what is its true identity?

You seem to allude to the idea that Graniteskin and WHM having the only buff that reduced physical and magic damage defined the job. This is very far from the truth.

if I were to define WHM, it would be as a jack-of-all-trades type of healer. It has an answer for everything and does so adequately. I'd compare it to a Holy Priest in WoW, since it follows the same idea. While other healers focus on smart heals or HoTs, Holy Priests are all-rounder healers and are valuable because of that. This'll become more evident once SE starts to implement healers with more diverse healing styles (instead of stuff like AST that is designed to ape WHM in addition to SCH).

[lulunami]

WHM in FFXI: http://ffxiclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/White_Mage

I imagine they will copy a few of those spells over to this game as the level cap is increased. WHM is basically the strongest healer that also has some buffs/debuffs and the iconic Holy damage spell. WHM is a just a solid hammer that is straightforward, reliable, and never breaks.

[FeliAiko]

WHM is the tried and tested healer. Good variety of heals for various situations, generally has an answer to everything. The main area it's weak at is mitigation.

Meanwhile, the constant changes to AST merely highlight how much of a mess the Job has been as a whole. WHM's lack of adjustments during 3.x is a highlight of how solid the Job is, while the current AST buff is like SE desperately saying to players "please add AST to your parties now, we even made the Card you only cared about even better too!"

[ChaozK]

WHM is as you say, the high power healer. Its what BLM is for dps, big fat nukes, you dont really need more to have an identity. When it comes to desirability, it seems somewhat probable that WHM might fall out of favor for an AST+SCH pairing, however this can be somewhat easily fixed by just buffing WHMs personal dps (and maybe mp regen) to compensate for lack of cards (in case of AST) or lack of fairy and infinite MP (in case of SCH).

WHM is already very strong as a mainhealer, you cant really fix something thats not broken - Now you just need to make it more desirable as an offhealer in a WHM+AST pairing. And to stay in flavor, you do that by making it hit like a truck.