Thread: In defense of WHM 4.0

It's not just the playstyle:

* AST's mp regen/heal buff aren't gone, it's just crossclass now. There's a cost but compared to the costs WHM faces, they're minor.
* AST now gets 15% buff in both stances, making its heals flat out higher potency than all WHM counterparts, while costing less MP. Aspected Benefic also received a base potency buff.
* Divine Seal was nerfed pretty hard, and this was a significant part of the WHM kit. 20% instead of 30%, and the cooldown is longer. And now it eats a crossclass slot, yes.
* Example crossclass setup for WHM: protect, esuna, shroud, divine seal, swiftcast. Well, their crossclass equivalents. This is just to keep what WHM has now, but you're locked out of new toys like Rescue. You can swap some of these situationally, but all in all, SCH and AST gain the most from this new system, while WHM loses a fair bit.

And that's basically the core problem. SCH and AST got the most love, but were already meta. Oh WHM has instant heals? ...Then you didn't really look at the new AST stuff, did you? And PI requires you to spam cure/cure II, which means you aren't DPSing. SCH's damage nerf is only to AoE, but they received significant buffs to single target (more relevant in the raid scene). And so on.

Originally Posted by Levy9

The question is, how much endgame content in Stormblood will call for heavy/fast AoE damage? This is one of the reasons why I won't make a definitive call on WHM. I have no idea what kind of content or scenarios are planned for endgame in Stormblood.

I'm pretty confident I can answer you this question, based on what HW had: none. And even it, what use is it when AST has Earthly Star, Gravity, AND group DPS buffs on top of that? None. Which is exactly what we tried to explain to you this entire time... WHM "utility", or the sorry excuse it has in that regard (and even that runs towards 0), won't do anything to keep the class relevant in the face of AST and SCH who offer just so. much. more.

Originally Posted by Fernosaur

Just to clarify, SCH also lost the lvl 40 job skill, since it was Leeches. It's still a better quality of life option for SCH, tho, since now they can actually heal through Totorak or Cutter's Cry. I'm not sure about SCH's DPS being higher than WHM's, though.

WHM still has the highest potencies in everything. SCH's DPS in single target is kinda middle ground, while AoE is hilariously bad. AST has some pretty mediocre single target DPS, but I don't know how The Lord card will affect it.

I have to make it clear, tho. I agree with you on everything, just bringing more "neutral" information with the post.

AST has powercreeped way too much into WHM's shoes, even into SCH's now. The game is completely broken now.

Okay, thank you for your input in this. I thought SCH single target DPS was a little higher. I revise my opinion on this topic, then, but as you yourself said, it won't exactly save WHM at all...

Originally Posted by Levy9

Fighting groups of enemies, and by association, 4 man dungeons or raids that feature groups of mobs as a core obstacle to overcome. With the Scholar's reduction in AoE damage and the WHM's new instant cast abilities and reduced recast times, you should be able to do the highest personal AoE damage among all healers while popping instant abilities like Benediction, Tetra, Assize and Indulgence to keep your party healed. Presence of Mind -> Thin Air will be a good buff combination for pumping out Holy AoE DPS at no cost to your mp. You should be able to put out more DPS in any sustained AoE encounter without bankrupting your mp supply.

Throw in a lily procced (3) Assize while Presence of Mind is still up and I believe you'll get a 36 second reduction in recast time for Assize. (Assuming that PoM's recast reduction will stack with the lilies recast reduction). Holy already has built-in damage mitigation in the form of a stun and now Assize gives you the full AoE damage while contributing to your regen on the tank. Not forgetting Aero III dots on top of all of this, the WHM should be a monster in AoE encounters. The question is, how much endgame content in Stormblood will call for heavy/fast AoE damage? This is one of the reasons why I won't make a definitive call on WHM. I have no idea what kind of content or scenarios are planned for endgame in Stormblood.

Here's the thing...without party utility personal damage is just not enough, this is why monk has been sitting on the shelf in almost every premade group. Someone mentioned earlier that we need content that must be healed through and an argument was made that it would be unfair to ast/sch, this just isn't true. There are plenty of situations that need to be healed through, but depending on your playstyle you had a choice. You can either heal through it (reactive), or you could mitigate through it (proactive). We had a choice between whm and sch for this and it's why meta had both in raid content. Enter Astrlogian.....now players can play both styles on 1 job GREAT!!!! The problem is that not only can ast heal through all of the damage that a whm can but they bring a ton of party utility with them. This is why whm has become what it is, The personal damage done in the windows that a healer can dps isn't even close to the gains from the utility ast brings to the table. Unless whm gets some real utility for parties and raids it's going to be left on the shelf, hell evolve it into a geomancer or something and give it some nature utility buffs to keep it in lore I don't care what, but something need to be done to keep it viable.

Originally Posted by Tsubaki75

snip

Exactly.

Let's paint a scenario where neither healer uses a single damage only ability. Would you rather White Mage or Astro? The answer is fairly obvious, which is the whole issue. Even in an idealized healing situation, Astro and Scholar are simply better at literally everything.