WHM stoneskin II and virus

[Cabalabob]

So lately I've noticed that WHM is severely lacking in the mitigation front. Yes it has the best healing power of all 3 healers but what good is healing when you get 1 shot for your max hp?

Where an AST can use nocturnal sect shields, the bole and collective unconscious. And a SCH can use succor, adlo + deployment tactics and sacred soil. All WHM has is stoneskin, everything else is healing in their kit.

So would it be so overpowered to allow stoneskin II to be used in combat? Maybe even give it the old enhanced stoneskin potency to make it a little better as mitigation. I've seen situations where any healer combo except double WHM would survive a mechanic. For example thordan or sephirot where their LB gauge gets just a little too high and SCH or AST shields makes the difference between a 1 shot and barely surviving.

And while we're on the topic of things WHM does the worst. Virus.

SCH has supervirus, AST has disable. WHM only has plain old virus. Maybe change virus so it has the STR and INT down naturally and make supervirus do something else, like not have the immunity maybe. This way, the same as eye for an eye, WHM gets an equally strong ability that's just slightly less usable.

Im not saying WHM is the worst or unplayable or useless, I've just noticed that this is an area where it is significantly lacking and in a double WHM setup it's the only composition where there is no way to make up for the loss.

[Rawrz]

In a WHM/WHM comp, the raw healing should easily over come the Damage taken in most content. In Sophia EX, SS should be enough to help the weakened. If you're with a pally, you can always proc his divine veil.

WHM isn't supposed to mitigate anymore. 10% every 2.5 seconds is it's designated limited, not that it could ever AOE mitigate. The only area WHM needs improved upon is MP limitations.

[KinnisonArc]

Yeah, I notice this myself too. For example, I sometimes get that WHM/WHM setup in Sophia EX Raid Finder where chances are her scales of wisdom can kill someone whose health isn't top completely or under weakness and the rest down to about 30-20%. This rarely happens in a party with a Noct AST or SCH where they can maximize mitigation to prevent one-shots from the attack. Also, a well-timed shield can actually stop the party from getting knockback by Gnosis.

I think just allowing Stoneskin II in combat won't make WHM overpowered since it has a long cast where you might as well just medica twice in most situations.

[ChiiSoSeriouz]

I think it's worth considering ssII being able to cast in combat. I've thought about this recently, and i feel the one thing whm is lacking is not utility but mitigation. There are threads that have been popping up that have been requesting all types of changes to whm in lieu of how strong ast is right now, most of which are game breaking or just bad idea, i don't think this is either. There is a precedence for this, as you could spread ss in 1.0, back when there was no sch. Now however, times have changed and n my opinion i'd like to see ssII available in combat. Having the long cast time implies having to use swiftcast on it's 1 minute cd, (so you wouldn't just spam it), or hard casting it before a boss's 2h attack. At 10% it's very reasonable, like a divine veil.
As far as virus goes, i think it's fine as it is. There are hard hitting physical attacks in this game, or adds that simply do physical damage, you should identify that damage and use virus at those times.

[Culfinrandir]

Given that it's almost unheard of for a WHM to use Stoneskin II in dual healer content anyway I can't see them using it during a fight. My evidence - being a SCH & almost always having to manually select & Stoneskin everyone individually. It's like Stoneskin II is a sacred incantation only available once per Blue Moon. >_>

[Watachy]

Another thread from a WHM since the 3.4 AST buff.
WHM is good the way it is, you ain't suppose to mitigate damage since you're supposed to have team mates doing it (SMN/SCH/AST).

[ChiiSoSeriouz]

You just listed smn. And first even...

[MahoSenshi]

manually select & Stoneskin everyone individually

You can macro this.

[Cabalabob]

Another thread from a WHM since the 3.4 AST buff.
WHM is good the way it is, you ain't suppose to mitigate damage since you're supposed to have team mates doing it (SMN/SCH/AST).

Except I'm not a WHM. My main is PLD and my main healer is SCH, this is simply something I've noticed running in DF and getting double WHMs

[ToasterMan]

These threads are going to keep popping up as long as AST stays broken like it is right now.