Consolidated White Mage 4.0 Feedback Thread

[kaellok]

The thing is, no, all classes should not be the same. They shouldn't give WHM some party dps boost or some other healers utility to bring them current. They need to give them their own identity, which has been a complaint since HW dropped. The issue is, Yoshi and Square seem hell bent on making that identity 'pure healer' and that is not healthy for the job or the game. .

Given 3 healers, if one of them is a pure healer and the other 2 are not, then the pure healer will either be mandatory or irrelevant. This is bad game design.

Then figure that AST has very nearly the same healing throughput (effective heal per second) as a WHM, and even that flawed intention of identity for WHM is shown to be false. It is incredibly ironic that the one thing the 'pure healer' can legitimately do better than the other healers is higher/longer sustained DPS.

If WHM had an actual identity now, then much could be forgiven or looked over, at least by me. But there isn't one.

[Kethic]

They need to give [WHM] their own identity, which has been a complaint since HW dropped. The issue is, Yoshi and Square seem hell bent on making that identity 'pure healer' and that is not healthy for the job or the game. You can't make content where so much healing is required that only a WHM can manage because that would obviously be ridiculous. Every healer has to be able to heal all content to a reasonable degree so bigger heal numbers is superfluous.

I think this is where the community and dev team mentality diverge. The assumption always becomes 'Pure Healer' = 'Bigger Heals', and nobody is willing to think about other direct-path solutions.

And that's what they're delivering. Look at what they've presented with WHM so far. More oGCD heals with no MP cost. Lower cooldowns on oGCD heals. We've kept our existing passive heals. Potential healing bonuses on party members that are actively taking damage more often than their counterparts (confessions).

They're giving us the tools to spend fewer real and virtual resources on healing. WHM is efficient with it's MP. Efficient with it's GCDs. Efficient with the players attention. Efficient with it's commitment to whatever task it's performing at that exact moment. We get the job done, then move on to doing something else.

It's not as clever or powerful as some SCH and AST abilities, but I'm not entirely convinced it won't be satisfying or effective.

[Yuyuka3]

I think this is where the community and dev team mentality diverge. The assumption always becomes 'Pure Healer' = 'Bigger Heals', and nobody is willing to think about other direct-path solutions.

And that's what they're delivering. Look at what they've presented with WHM so far. More oGCD heals with no MP cost. Lower cooldowns on oGCD heals. We've kept our existing passive heals. Potential healing bonuses on party members that are actively taking damage more often than their counterparts (confessions).

They're giving us the tools to spend fewer real and virtual resources on healing. WHM is efficient with it's MP. Efficient with it's GCDs. Efficient with the players attention. Efficient with it's commitment to whatever task it's performing at that exact moment. We get the job done, then move on to doing something else.

It's not as clever or powerful as some SCH and AST abilities, but I'm not entirely convinced it won't be satisfying or effective.

Where is the point in this if the other two healers can get the job done just as well, if not better, but also bring something else on top of it? There is none. Efficiency won't get you anywhere when somebody else can do your job even while NOT being efficient. Also, I wouldn't really call what they showed super efficient, either... too much RNG, too much usage of skills required I most definitely DON'T want to spam. Efficiency looks different to me, sorry.

Thank you. You don't understand.

Fixed that for you.

[Kethic]

Where is the point in this if the other two healers can get the job done just as well, if not better, but also bring something else on top of it? There is none.

That is the question and the assumption, now, isn't it? Why would a healer want more flexibility or efficiency? Are we really sure the other two healers bring more, or just different? I've read almost every page of this thread, and even the crunchiest posts come back to 'I guess we will see'.

The point in this, as you put it, is that we can't analyze something correctly if we don't understand the problem they're trying to solve. I AM convinced that we have no idea of their performance metrics at the moment.

[xNewbx]

Because the other two healers have lower self DPS. It's as simple as that.

[Kethic]

If we get the job done faster and/or by spending fewer resources, I would call that efficient, especially if our 'other activities' are also reasonably effective, which they are.

It'll be interesting. I'm hoping something will shake out of this that makes up for the poor design, and I'm seeing hints that we're thinking about this wrong.

[VanilleFang]

I can see the Confess stacks being a useful heal for keeping tanks topped up for free, but it's the RNG that kills it. It'd also be far more useful if it would be applies with an AoE like Cure III/Medica/Medica II.

If they gave Cure III a 100% chance to apply Confession you might actually see some use out of it... maybe. For example: if a stack mechanic does a lot of damage to the group they could allow WHM to go Cure III > P.Indulgence.

But eeehh.. For some reason they are dead set on only using Cure/Cure II for every WHM mechanic. It's kind of weird.

[Kethic]

The Cure and Cure II focus implies that the data they've collected says we use Cure and Cure II more than we think we do. C2 -> DB -> Regen -> dps rotation with mostly HoT and oGCD heal maintenance isn't a terrible cycle.

The Confession mechanic really baffles, to be sure. I just don't know what the hell to do with the Confessions yet. We need Assize or Medica (or as you said, C3) to also trigger Confessions or something.

[CaeliaCat]

I have been fairly outspoken on this thread, so I'm going to post my final contribution before riding into the sunset(sunrise?) of Stormblood.

The Good (yes, there is some good)

• Thin Air looks great.
• Assize is now on a 60 second cooldown. It also heals AND deals damage at maximum potency each use.
• Lucid Dreaming ticks slightly longer than Shroud of Saints, even if we have to get it back through the cross role system.
• Removal of prior Cleric Stance functionality makes DPS slightly safer and more readily accessible to all healers.
• Divine Benison has been changed to a 30 second recast oGCD skill. Weaving this skill into a healing "pattern" could prove interesting.
• The higher Lily proc rate is leaps ahead of the build shown during the media tour.
• Weakness / Brink of Death appears to no longer lower Vitality (HP), so shielding a freshly risen player may not be necessary.

TLDR: WHM received better MP sustain which coupled with a semi-spamable oGCD shield and the dramatic change to Cleric Stance, could lead to more DPS uptime on during a fight. WHM also retains the ability to deal meaningful AOE damage in dungeons or "add-style" fights like A2 or T4. WHM should still "feel" similarly to how the job played in HW, aside from a few notable absences below.

The Bad (quite a lot of bad as well)

• Lily system is still really clunky, even with the higher proc rate. We have no control over how lilies are spent, other than the order in which skills are used.
• The benefit of Lilies, aside from gating Divine Benison, is rather weak. Cooldown reduction is very difficult to take advantage of in scripted encounters, where certain abilities need to be saved for specific mechanics in a fight. I would personally ignore the Lily UI altogether, if not for Benison.
• Goodbye Fluid Aura damage. The oGCD damage ability made WHM DPS slightly more fun than say, AST.
• Longer sprint cooldown. No more waiting until the last second for a spell to finish casting and ALWAYS having sprint up to save your bacon.
• Loss of exclusivity to MIND party bonus. AST and SCH now both bring a MIND party bonus to the party. Conversely, WHM will lose out on the PIE party bonus usually brought by a cohealer.
• Loss of Virus. Even physical-only virus was useful in some encounters.
• Loss of Stoneskin. Previously available to cast "on demand", this spell was useful in shielding weakened players, tank busters, or even squeezing out a few extra seconds of DPS at the start of a fight by shielding the full party. Weakness may no longer be an issue, and Divine Benison does at least attempt to fill the void left by Stoneskin, even if gated behind a Lily. Rest in Paissa.

TLDR: The Lily system for WHM is rather boring and feels extremely forced, just to make sure every job in XIV had a new UI going into Stormblood. WHM also took a small step backward in raid utility with the loss of Stoneskin, and non-traited Virus.

The Ugly (Whyyyyyy?!)

• Incredible nerf to Divine seal. Not only was one WHM's best and most iconic cooldowns given to the cross-role system, its potency was lowered by 33% and recast time increased by 50%. Granted, the duration was extended from 15s to 20s, but overall a significant nerf to our healing ability worth mentioning.
• Plenary Indulgence is horribly unreliable. I understand that confession stacks are intended as a gimmick to compete with say, Synastry, but in 1 out of every 3 pulls a WHM can spam cure 5 times in a row and not proc a confession stack. Or worse, 1 out of every 5 pulls, cure will be spammed 7 times in a row without leading to a confession stack. Because reliability is sooooo low, other cooldowns will likely need to be held in reserve, rather than counting on plenary to do much of anything.
• Cure III removed?? Hopefully Cure III has not been removed from the game. We do know that the trait Overcure no longer exists but are anxiously awaiting confirmation. Yes, the skill is situational, but so is SCH Deploy and AST Collective Unconscious. WHM is already going to struggle with having an identity in 4.0. Removing our highest healing throughput spell definitely would be a mistake.

TLDR: Not only did WHM identity take a step backward, losing several exclusive iconic spells to the cross-role system or from the game altogether, but WHM did not receive anything to address the loudest complaint, the lack of raid utility. Plenary Indulgence is incredibly unreliable for a HEALING ability and a lackluster ability in general. Unfortunately, jobs do not exist in a vacuum, but rather in Eorzea with all others. Time will tell how WHM functions IN RELATION for the other two healers competing for party spots.

[fantasticm]

I feel like Confessions should just have a chance to proc from every heal, and actually DO something other than be 'okay you can use this skill now.' Maybe like Echo of Light like holy priests from WoW, or a skill speed buff, SOMETHING.

As for the focus on Cure/Cure II, I guess it makes sense... if you consider that maybe WHM changes and PvP adjustments were being worked on at the same time? :^) At least I can look forward to WHM in PvP, I am actually excited for that.