WHM getting progressively more unnecessary in content?

[Cynfael]

But it would be impossible to maintain 100% on medica and regen and still dps spam. Any fool who tried that would find herself at the top of the enmity list and without mp.

This is where your faith in the average fool is misplaced. You can bet your ass that WHMs everywhere would be fighting tanks for enmity even more than the really bad ones are now. Besides, a strong WHM already produces a great deal of enmity between Shroud uses if they are keeping up DPS while healing responsibly. A 10 or 15% buff to their damage output connected to a high-enmity skill like Medica II would almost be a tease of sorts ("Enjoy this great DPS buff, but have fun managing your enmity against a crappy tank with your regens and your even higher DPS.")

I don't disagree with the idea that WHM needs a little something, but I'd prefer not to risk training up-and-coming WHMs to develop more bad healing habits. For example, I'd rather that a DPS buff be attached to the use of an offensive skill or at least to a comparatively minor healing effect without a regen attached.

[Warr_of_Lint]

This is where your faith in the average fool is misplaced..

I suppose you're right. I've been walking around this game for over a year, thinking its strange there are so many nice things that we ought to have (butt size slider). And I don't single out healers as the reason we don't have them.

Still #makeWHMsgreatagain

[Exiled_Tonberry]

But it would be impossible to maintain 100% on medica and regen and still dps spam. Any fool who tried that would find herself at the top of the enmity list and without mp.

Ohhhhh buddy, do I have news for you.

In a raid scenario, a WHM that can gain a buff from keeping regens up will no doubt 100% absolutely keep them up for that buff. Even if it means stealing aggro. All they'll do is blame tank aggro, and tanks will ask for aggro buffs they don't actually need, and Ninjas will become even more prominent for their aggro utility.

Not to mention WHM will go from a healer to a regen spammer that slaps on regens and watches everyone die to deal dmg.
Of we're going to add dmg utility to WHM, it's can't be tied to it's heals. It either had to play off of Cleric Stance or the DPS skills themselves (ex Aero ticks have a chance of making Fluid Aura reset).

[Warr_of_Lint]

(ex Aero ticks have a chance of making Fluid Aura reset).

I see where you're going with this. An interesting example, I'm more interested in a dps bonus though. I would prefer a lowering of wind & earth resistance just because random OCD recharges are going to be impossible to maximize with cleric stance cycles.

#makeWHMsgreatagain

[Rappy-baba]

The usage of massive healing become invalid when almost anything in savage content one hit kill anything non tank.
Pretty sad but its the truth. Can't Cure, Cure II or Cure III dead peoples. Sad life. My internal White Mage cried. WHM is my first class healer now i barely use WHM but in solo content (Beast Tribe/FATE).

[AlphaSonic]

If I would buff WHM I would give a trait to Cleric
Traited Cleric: Every time you switch into Cleric your next damage spell costs half mana and deals 30% more damage. Every time you switch out of Cleric your next healing spell costs half mana and heals 30% more.
I think it would give them their niche as the best raw healer and best raw damage dealer. (Technically WHM are the ones that do the most damage out of all the healers, their problem is that it's unsustainable)

[Exiled_Tonberry]

A new patch, a new raid, new dungeons, and even more content that favors high DPS over stronger healing.

Sigh.
For those who don't know, Zurvan has a mildly annoying mechanic called Soar which you can skip if you have a certain amount of DPS. With an AST, reaching this number is not too difficult.
As far as healing goes, there's, once again, nothing that requires the use of Cure III or heavy healing in general.

I don't know how long this trend of fights that are easy to heal and congratulates higher DPS is going to continue, but I sure hope it's over soon because this is becoming very annoying and off-putting to play as WHM.

[seekified]

As a WAR who has tanked Dun Scaith a few times over the past few days, I can say that WHMs are amazing in there. There's so much consistent, heavy damage going on the tanks in there (and everyone else if they don't know what they're doing), and I love me some Divine Seal'd Regens and Cures. I'm a SCH myself when I heal, but for damage that comes in multiple hits in short periods of time I feel a lot safer with WHMs.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

To be fair, that is more due to people still getting a feel for Dun Scaith. The problem with White Mage isn't that it can't handle fights effectively. Scholar and Astro simply do it all better because both offer immense amount of utility on top of consistent healing. Divine Seal + Regen or Cure III is nice; Aspected Benefic + party wide balance is better.