Thread: Consolidated White Mage 4.0 Feedback Thread

Robbing us of an always-present option of Stoneskin at earlier levels (where it is actually helpful!) in return for an iffy shield late in the game is not real improvement, even if we have a better chance to get it with 100% lily for cure 2.

It's still clear as rain: The devs (still) have zero idea about what WHM does/needs -- despite the community having told them these things for YEARS. With PLD at least -- after years of everyone telling them about the few changes that are needed to turn this into something decent -- they started listening now, while with WHM they went into exactly the opposite direction and made things WORSE. I massively doubt the story of "we the devs listen to you" by now. Good story to sell subscriptions, though, esp. if plenty of gamers so much want to believe it... (I once belonged to that group).

Polishing a turd now, as someone said earlier, is a correct metaphor for this epic fail and the info now "oh cure 2 gives you a lily". Still completely wrong, no-fun system that addresses none of the needs and functions of WHM.

There is no easy quick fix for the screw-up that happened here. Rework WHM 4.0 from the ground up or you lose one healer here, 'cause I tried AST and sorry, their RNG drives me nuts despite being OP -- I am just not a gambler -- and SCH is not my style of healing.... and with it you lose one subscription more (if you care about that at all...), cause tanking/dpsing won't keep me interested long-term.

There is a TON of fantastic ideas by now in this thread on how to turn WHM 4.0 into something fun, balanced and it's not even that hard to re-design/code from these ideas. Do your work, devs, or lose healers (all the dedicated WHMs who just don't like the RNG of AST and the proactive style of SCH). It's that simple.

I give this time til 4.1 or so, to see if for once the devs can fix massive failures faster than "every expansion or two".

And dear devs: From now on if you want to re-design something, maybe place a thread in here and ask for input from the community. If you would have done that a couple of months ago and gotten the kind of great ideas we see now in this thread all of this failure could have been prevented (if you then would have taken the good ideas we give you for free, essentially doing your job).

(Am I bitter by now? Yes. I love what FFXIV used to be and could be, I love WHM to pieces. I just don't have much faith in the devs anymore after all the fails I witnessed over the years, and their responses and response times to their own failures...)

Originally Posted by Elamys

Also, realistically, how often was Stoneskin used during a fight with its long cast time and high MP cost?

When it was 18% it was used for many tank busters

I too share in the disquiet over the upcoming WHM changes.

I relate with the idea that the lilies are tacked on. That they don't feel rewarding. That they don't promote good gameplay.

I haven't seen the job quests from level 60 to 70 so I cannot make grand claims on how much the Lilies belong on the White Mage. But based on what I remember, the lilies are meant to be a pre-60 mechanic, so they have no relationship with whatever story stuff may happen relating to the WHM job quests.

Which leads me to the following impression: I don't see how it has anything to do with the White Mage, except that the UI element kind of looks like the crook atop some of our staves.

I see Yoshi-P stress on the pure healer angle for White Mage and I don't know how to feel about that. In Final Fantasy, White Mages were the best users of White Magic. The distinction eventually got muddled with the introduction of other jobs, which eventually saw the White Mage set out as holy, saintly. A lot of things could fall under that portmanteau, but unfortunately, the other 2 FF14 healer classes have drawn from some of that.

It doesn't change that I think the pure healer approach is shortsighted. Being the 'saintly' healer still feels like the perception that ought to matter more. as for spells that are missing; Float, Reflect and re-Raise come to mind. do those have a place, considering what I know of FF14 encounter design? Maybe not.

Which then has me delve on what I do know of FF14's conjurer/white mage... and one of the most important story fixtures for them is their connection with the elementals. That they have a prime responsibility in diffusing what angers the elementals. That most of everything we see that's tied to magic in Adampor has some connection to White Mages. That they draw from the aether of their environment and can tap into the Lifestream. That the lifestream can blind (in relation to Y'shtola).

If I would have devised mechanics for the White Mage in 4.0, I would have oriented it towards that connection between Elementals and the Lifestream. Say that a WHM has two gauges representing each, and that they are filled out at the start of a fight. then, if I start healing, my connection with the Lifestream is strong so while I tap into it, the casts of everyone of my healing spells are improved (the way SquareEnix has it set up, this could be spell speed *shrug* ). when my connection to the lifestream petters out, I lose my bonus, but then, I could start using my attack spells like Aero and Stone, tapping into the elemental power instead and enjoying the benefits of a full gauge while my connection to the lifestream rests and improves in the meantime.

I like this idea, because it's incentive to use everyone of your tools. It doesn't mimic other job gimmicks too closely, and actually incentivizes you not just to heal (though nothing stops you from doing just that) but also to DPS. It's an echo of the stance-dancing gameplay that's been centric to White Mages, but without the restrictions of it; only positive reinforcement. Even better: it's strongly thematic.

I also would replace the Repose spell the Conjurer has with Blind to have some form of utility/damage mitigation, while relating to repercussions of contact with the lifestream seen in the Heavensward MSQ.

I suppose having a high elemental or lifestream gauge could be used as currency to cast some of the stronger spells White Mage could have, though I personally would have steered clear of it because I think positive reinforcement of things the WHM could do before is better than adding restrictions. If the gauges are used as fuel, it better be for newly introduced level 60+ abilities (I could totally relate with something as powerful as a Re-Raise drawing a lot from my connection with the lifestream; and it'd be neat to see a powerful connection with the elementals enabling things like Quake or Tornado).