WHM getting progressively more unnecessary in content?

[Cynfael]

Not every job in this game must have utility.

True, but since utility is in demand, the trade-off needs to be excellence in another area.

WHM's potential issue is that not only do we not really need more of what the job is really good at (straight-up HPS), it doesn't come with many bells and whistles compared to its peers aside from impressive AoE burst damage, which is more of a nice bonus for dungeon trash than anything else.

Just being a good healer isn't really enough to distinguish WHM anymore. I think it will continue to be perfectly functional for all content, but it would be disappointing to see it fall into its own vanilla healer ghetto now that the other two healing jobs encroach on what used to be its unique strengths. The dynamic between SCH and WHM in 2.x was more clearly defined IMO, with WHM being desirable for the ease of burst raid healing that the SCH could not provide, but with the addition of a third healing job, SE is now going with the approach that all three should be viable for all healing needs. I think that was a good idea in general, but WHM being great at healing doesn't seem to be as strong a selling point as it used to be.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Exactly this. The only thing WHM actually has going for it right now in raids is being easy to handle. Which is in no way an identity to distinguish itself from the other healers, let alone stand up against them.

Basically, WHM can't just stick to only heals. It needs something else that's unique to them to even stand a chance against the other two. Either that or SE bumps WHM healing up to a borderline broken level to the point where not even a 10% 40 second damage up buff would sound appealing. And that would be just stupid.

Frankly, I think they need to bring down the potency of Scholar and Astro. There really isn't much they could give White Mage without changing the whole job from what it's always been: a healer specialist.

Just being a good healer isn't really enough to distinguish WHM anymore. I think it will continue to be perfectly functional for all content, but it would be disappointing to see it fall into its own vanilla healer ghetto now that the other two healing jobs encroach on what used to be its unique strengths. The dynamic between SCH and WHM in 2.x was more clearly defined IMO, with WHM being desirable for the ease of burst raid healing that the SCH could not provide, but with the addition of a third healing job, SE is now going with the approach that all three should be viable for all healing needs. I think that was a good idea in general, but WHM being great at healing doesn't seem to be as strong a selling point as it used to be.

See, this is where I wonder if that philosophy has caused more bad than good. A common complaint is how similar jobs are to one another. I think they need to redefine the unique aspects of each job, not just the role itself. At the moment, it seems the devs really want to have a few "simple" jobs. Unfortunately, they seem to stay that way even at max level. That's partly why Paladin has suffered throughout Heavensward.