Thread: Consolidated White Mage 4.0 Feedback Thread

As an Astrologian main since the day it was released (I jumped out of the Monk ship and never looked back), I think it's interesting to see White Mages up in arms over Earthly Star. Personally speaking, let's create a strange situation of equivalency: since everyone's equating this to Assize, let's make it so that Assize has this potency (200 Attack, 900 Heal max), and we'll just flip it for the Astrologian (900 Attack, 200 Heal max) and make it the devastating landmine it could be. *sigh* If only...

Dreamy sighs aside and complete seriousness applied:
With regards to Confession and Plenary Indulgence, the way it was worded in the preview I had seen (via MTQCapture), I had assumed that the ability would heal all nearby party members with a potency that increased as more confession stacks were gathered. So, as long as the primary target had (a) confession, nearby party members would be healed instantaneously for at least 400 potency. I feel like this might have been the idea you were going for originally, but at the last minute, decided it was too much and tried to reign it in and require that the individual required confessions in order to get the heal. In fact, I feel like that's what I saw inside the Benchmark...
Even if this scenario isn't quite true, I think that would be a way to fix the Confession and Plenary Indulgence situation: simply require that someone have the Confession(s) to create the free AOE heal, and, suddenly, you have RNG stacks that would be acceptable because the reward has an impact (even more so, since the idea was to keep the White Mage as the "pure healer") that would be appropriate for an ability granted as the penultimate, current max level ability for the White Mage.

As for the Lilies, cooldown reduction is nice, but, I would say, not as important for the skills that the Lilies affect. I suppose if you applied this to Benediction, then it might be more worthwhile.. however, rather than applying a simple cooldown effect to a few abilities, Lilies were described as providing various effects to spellcasts, at least from what I remember of the Live Letter, and I believe providing various effects based on what ability is used would be a good compromise. Once 3 lilies are accumulated, perhaps the next 3 abilities used could provide bonus effects, and lilies could no longer be accumulated until the current lilies were used up. Perhaps, using the lilies with Divine Benison would provide the same effect as an AoE effect (or a cooldown reduction, here, could suffice I guess), while Tetragammaton could provide a Haste-like buff to the target (or, considering the etymology, perhaps makes the next spell cast by the White Mage instant cast (which would be a great added side effect and give the White Mage an identity that allows them an advantage with the Role Ability slots)), and Assize could have its potency altered (or you could go all the way and simply make it a better Retrogradation and add in a debuff/buff removal).

Anyway, that's what I would do with both implemented systems that would, hopefully, not compromise their integrity while providing the benefits that would make players happy.

Edit:
I suppose it would be worth taking a moment to reconsider the requirements for Divine Benison's cast, with regards to what I've proposed here. Even if what I've written isn't "acceptable" for use, the decision to make this ability utilize all lilies without any gains for the amount of lilies used makes it a cheap sink rather than a cool ability that an elementally-inclined Conjurer would use. Either use all lilies with an added effect for each lily used, or use 1 lily maximum (but that wouldn't coincide well with idea I had).

Originally Posted by MintnHoney

As an Astrologian main since the day it was released (I jumped out of the Monk ship and never looked back), I think it's interesting to see White Mages up in arms over Earthly Star. Personally speaking, let's create a strange situation of equivalency: since everyone's equating this to Assize, let's make it so that Assize has this potency (200 Attack, 900 Heal max), and we'll just flip it for the Astrologian (900 Attack, 200 Heal max) and make it the devastating landmine it could be. *sigh* If only...

While we're making stuff up, let's make AST's new Sleeve Draw and Minor Arcana abilities work on a 20% chance proc from Benefic or Benefic 2, give WHM and SCH access to Bole, Ewer, Balance, Spire and Arrow. And just for kicks and giggles, WHM's version of the balance is 25% instead of 20%.

Oh. While we're at it, let's move Nocturnal stance to level 66... just because we can. Congratulations! ASTs are now WHMs.

Originally Posted by fantasticm

Don't forget that Aspected Benefic has a 1 minute cooldown while in Noct.

Yeah, and technically the WHM balance should be GTAoE of 1 yalm and jump to 75% after 10 seconds. =/

Originally Posted by MintnHoney

Incidentally, you forgot about the Spear. If you're going to get cynical, do include everything. After all, you seem to need all the help you can get.

You can keep the Spear. And you forget, Minor Arcana and Sleeve Draw are going help you a lot when it comes to your RNG mechanics. But you're right... WHM in its proposed state does need all the help it can get. That's what this thread is for... hopefully. And while I'm sure many of us wouldn't mind constructive criticism to our plight, cynically made up crap certainly isn't going to help anyone.

Edit: You also missed my point. WHM has had many of its abilities given to both AST and SCH and now AST is getting abilities very similar to our own, (Assize/Earthly Star), but... actually better. The only drawback to Earthly Star is the small radius, but since many mechanics require you to group up and stack on one spot in raids, it shouldn't be too big a deal. Plop down Earthly Star while everyone is running to the spot, and by the time everyone's there, you got a nice 990/1035 potency heal waiting for everyone depending on your stance.

IF YOU'RE NOT OVERHEALING THEN YOU'RE UNDER PERFORMING...

Current meta forces decent healers to prioritize GCD time at the EXPENSE of eHPS and MP. I will explain why this is the case.

Cleric stance- Swaps current INT and MND attribute ratings, while increasing damage dealt by attack magic by 10% and reducing spell-based HP restoration by 20%. Effect ends upon reuse. Cannot be used in PvP areas.
Affinity CNJ WHM SCH AST. RECAST TIMER: 5 SEC!!!


B/c of the way that Healer dps using cleric stance NOW, we, healers, are unable to cast the most optimal eHPS at the precise time it is needed b/c we'll often be LOCKED in a 5 sec window where all our oGCD & GCD heals will be shitty. So what we do instead is front load the majority of our cures, switch into dps mode, then switch back and play catch-up!! Again in this META this IS the most effective way to heal/dps. All more Potency/GCD efficient healing methods in this CURRENT patch would be at a cost of DPS.


HOwever!!! moving forward into SB! There will be a new META! A meta that doesn't sacrifice eHPS and MP* to prioritize GCD time!!! Let me explain why NOT by way of examples:

Using the above description of front loading our HPS, and using some of the stats from my previous post, lets imagine while in a fight (not pre-pull, but actually in the fight) we cast a 1050 potency over time REGEN; then we switch into cleric and dps... What some of the stats I provided suggest is 30% of that regen is WASTED!! Meaning that regen is effectively 735 potency (SB ~Cure II or < Benefic II F*#k U AST). Even though that regen is effectively 735 potency, however in our CURRENT system we're unable to cast the proper cure II*/Benefic II* at the exact GCD time it would most optimally be needed WITHOUT sitting there waiting out of cleric stance (either casting non-cleric dmg).... or JUST sitting there... [checking the floor texture designs SE gave us, "...is this suppose to be marble"]

But in SB, we'll no longer (during actual up-time in the fight) have to sacrifice eHPS, MP, nor up-time in order to effectively replace the CURRENT system's wasteful use of regen's potency GCD with the more optimal cure II potency GCD!! This is especially true for oGCDs---we'll be able to execute a PI or a Tetragram , while in the middle of a cleric stance+PoM+Thin Air combo and have the Heals potency/gcd contribute more efficiently!!

(This next statements are absolutely true for AST, but will not be true for WHM unless regen's wasted potency is in excess of 46%+ or they rework MP costs to match AST's regen to cure MP costs)

In SB it will be more MP cost-effective to use less REGENS throughout a fight by comparison to current META. Which means, more Cure I & a Cure II (or benefic and benefic II). Which means more procs of Confession and Lilies!!



CONFESSIONS
This new utility will make WHM the MOST cost effective healer! B/c on avg casting 3 cures (1s & 2s) will net you one Confession 48.8% of the time!! More plainly every 7.5 cure GCD seconds, you're ~ 50% of the gonna get a 30 sec buff that can be executed once obtained on 15 secs intervals!!