What should WHM 4.0 have been?

[Shurrikhan]

1. What, exactly are the problems that WHM 3.x faces?

2. How could these be fixed in 4.0?

3. How could these fixes create a cohesive and entertaining version of the job?

Your cents.

[Shurrikhan]

Reserved for example.

[Metsonm]

1. We don't bring anything to the party besides over-healing. The closest we get to any form of utility is stoneskin and a stun that costs an arm and a leg in a game where everything outside of dungeons is immune to stun. Related: our mp management is significantly weaker than other healers.

2. MP management has been dealt with adequately from initial impressions. "Shroud" has been buffed for WHM, although at a cost of a cross-role slot. Our 'Thin Air' also massively helps, by the looks of it. As for utility, first: keep stoneskin. There is literally no reason to remove it, and it's not like they want to remove WHM shielding, as they gave us SS back with a different, shoddier coat of paint. Keep SCH and AST as the shield healers, sure, but at least some decent form of mitigation would be great. Then provide a party buff of some kind. Anything. Like, make it wind based and say there's a tailwind increasing action speed. Or cast Enstone on the party for a mild damage buff. Maybe if the confessional stacks actually did something natively that would be a step in the right direction. AST can still be the big buffs on RNG, while WHM is more consistent but only throwing out 15% buffs or so.

3. It will be more or less the same as what we have with a couple of oGCDs thrown in. Nobody is complaining about the 3.0 WHM playstyle, just the toolkit it has. Instead of popping Shroud between those Stone IV casts you would pop Tailwind, for example. If you need a gimmick then go with what I initially thought the lily system would be and have it be more like the arrow rather than the spear so the job itself speeds up rather than just a couple of oGCDs. Just literally ANYTHING.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

Simply giving WHM a trait to make Presence of Mind apply to the whole party would give WHM at least some party-wide utility that isn't just "moar healz!". That alone would be something. Maybe not as nice as 20% more damage to party or 20% more crit to the party vs a boss, but it would still be seen as some way a WHM can benefit their group that isn't just another way to restore hp.

[Acidblood]

1. Zero ability to contribute to the group beyond healing, and healing is limited in it's usefulness (i.e. to the amount of damage a boss puts out), and to a lesser extent, MP issues and a lack of mitigation (even Benediction does nothing against a 1-shot).

2. Any sort of utility would help, the more unique the better, but even a straight up 'Balance' clone on a longer CD would be something. Also, WHM do NOT need gimmicky mechanics, and should remain the 'simple healer'.

3. Personally I would love to see WHM synergise with the other healers a lot more effectively (i.e. stronger as combo than solo / two of the same healers). Two ideas would be:

- The ability to share their current buffs among the party; e.g. share Divine Seal when heavy healing is required, share Presence of Mind for a nice caster / healer boost, share Adloquium (cast on them by a SCH) for a nice party shield, share Extended Balance (cast on them by an AST) for an awesome party DPS boost, share the new PLD mitigation ability FTW, etc. Balance for this would be achieved by a long cooldown, prossibly linked to the cooldown of the buff(s) shared (e.g. share DS = 60s CD, share Adlo = 120s CD, share Adlo+DS = 120+(60/2) = 150s CD, share PoM+Adlo+DS = 150+(120/2)+(60/3) = 230s CD).

- An ability that makes the WHMs next heal temporarily increase the targets hit-points based on the amount over-healed (thinking somewhere around 70%, but numbers are easy to adjust later). This is kind of like a shield, but broken into 2 steps (buff+heal), a bit more versatile (works with any healing spell), and on 30-45 second cooldown. It would also stack with shields, and it's main use, like a shield, would be as a pro-active heal vs. hard hitting abilities and / or to buy the WHM a bit more time before needing to cast the next heal.

Edit: Better clarity.
Edit2: Adjusted 'share buffs' cooldown calculation so that sharing multiple buffs isn't quite as savage, but still a long CD for powerful buffs.

[xieathe]

If they want WHM to be the "pure healer" then it would be nice to not lock our abilities behind RNG. But I think giving the party RNG bonuses based on overhealing would both give us more utility and keep our core identity. Maybe an HP extension based on a percentage of our overheal, or a damage modifier. We have more healing than we need, so turn that extra healing into something that benefits the party as a whole, rather than just wasted potential and extra hate generation.

I'd also love more abilities that follow the Assize model of healing + damage. In the older games, WHM always used a hammer. I like the idea of us just healing so hard we punch the mobs at the same time. If nothing else, it would give us a bit more personal DPS to bring to the group.

Or, you know, just give us Reraise.

[Satyre]

Honestly, they shouldn't have taken away Divine Seal and "given it back" to us in the form of a cross class ability. No. If anything they should've cross classed light speed from AST and should've buffed divine seal to really boost our heals compared to AST which would've put us in a much, much better position than we're about to be in for Stormblood..

[DuskTS]

I always thought we would get good utility things like:
reraise - target is revived without weakness (as long as the whm isn't dead? to prevent too much cheese)
aoe esuna - just add raid content that throws out a lot of party wide bleeds which would only make our regens more desirable
stone apply vuln up - 1% on first hit, 3% on second consecutive hit, stacks up to 5% and lasts say 12s before the enemy gains resistance for a period of time
faith/bravery - targets physical/magic damage gets a big boost

We definitely got excellent mp management.

I didn't expect RNG procs reliant on conservatively used heal spells so that you can maybe have slightly quicker usage of OGCDs OR so you can apply graniteskin. The Lily system is painfully underwhelming.
I kind of did expect moar healz but confession stacks has to be the worst way to possibly implement this.

[Sebazy]

It should have been thought out a little better in the grand scheme of things.

In the context of early progression the job is absolutely fine and personally I think these 'I'm quitting WHM' threads over it are pretty funny.

However, in fairness, if your not throwing HPS at a tank, the bulk of the SB kit simply isn't going to amount to anything, the lily mechanic is shortsighted and PI isn't going to be dependable. RNG ontop of RNG to reduce Assize? Yeah ok thanks for that SE.

The way SCH's gameplay got absolutely axed coupled with WHM's narrowly focused kit reinforces my views that SE's class design team really don't understand or actively play healers. Other than Earthly Star's strange 1 yalm radius, AST looks absolutely sweet though =(

[KingFrost]

Someone already previous stated it, but temporary HP would be a perfectly elegant solution.

Overheal converts into temporary hit points. Have it a Job trait called Bubble that replaces a job skill that's now cross role. The amount allowed is either HP bases or potency based (I prefer the latter. The former could get a little crazy with War), with each lily added raising the ceiling on temporary HP allowed. Have Crits proc lilys as well as random Cures. PI should be based on percentage of health healed (That is including overheal and temp HP) and last the duration of a fight.

There. WHM HoT and mega heals (Leading to overcure) isn't such a burden, but actually a benefit. This effectively makes the "pure healer" so much of a healer, it turns overheal into real healing. Perhaps Medica 2 would be a bit too strong, but if it's identity is supposed to be the pure healer, then so be it. Let it be strong as hell.