Why I'll be quitting WHM; the once simple healer

[RopeDrink]

Whm has never been interesting in this game, how fun is spamming medicas ? it's boring as hell, why pay a sub to be bored ? just give me the money instead. Glad you're quitting whm, pick a fun job this time.

Nice comment. What's next, an argument over who has a better favourite colour?

As for OP, WHM is a pure-healer -- you've perceived this to mean 'simple healer' due to said pure-healing being achieved through simple means. This doesn't magically give it a new identity, so don't play the identity card as many people perceive X or Y in different ways - the one constant is the pure side of it - and yet they could randomly decide to change even that on a whim.

As for Repose, we have it for levelling, dungeons, PvP etc. People can say they never use it - the reality is it has situational uses (and a hell of a lot of uses in PvP). I've had plenty of uses for it when levelling up (world & dungeons), and this will likely re-apply when levelling in Stormblood, which (hopefully) will involve enemies that hit hard enough to dissuade this 'pull everything' nonsense. That will come with time by itself anyway. In short, it's situationally useful but falls out of the meta very quickly due to ease of killing vs worth of control.

[LadyKairi]

Snip

Actually I don't think it'll even be used in PvP come SB, considering the changes they're making to the PvP system. If I remember correctly, we will have completely separate actions in PvP than in PvE.

[Nathair]

PvP it's getting its own actions anyway.

On the other hand, while every healer except AST is taking a hit (SCH is getting a nerfed Aetherflow, losing every aoe dps it had and AST is getting better shields except for a crit adlo spread, which CD makes it not that worth it anyway), I do agree WHM, no pun intended, got the shaft.
The lilies system is unreliable, which means no one will plan heals around it, the confession stacks, nor the lower cooldown the flowers would give.
Which basically means that most of the new whm kit is going to be, while not ignored, not included in raid healing planning. Which is really close to ignoring truth to be told.

[Acidblood]

As for OP, WHM is a pure-healer -- you've perceived this to mean 'simple healer' due to said pure-healing being achieved through simple means. This doesn't magically give it a new identity, so don't play the identity card as many people perceive X or Y in different ways - the one constant is the pure side of it - and yet they could randomly decide to change even that on a whim.

No, 'pure healer' is nothing but a label they have decided to slap on WHM, and my point is that WHM, to me at least, has never been about being 'pure', and I wouldn't care at all (in fact, I, and a lot of other people from the sounds of these forums, would love it) if they took the 'pure' label off and gave it some useful utility.

Being (relatively) 'simple' on the other hand, is the playstyle that WHM has always had (even throughout FF history), and to suddenly change that now, by tacking on some needless RNG gate mechanics no less, will do far more to ruin WHM than any reasonable amount of utility ever would.

As for Repose, we have it for levelling, dungeons, PvP etc. People can say they never use it - the reality is it has situational uses (and a hell of a lot of uses in PvP). I've had plenty of uses for it when levelling up (world & dungeons), and this will likely re-apply when levelling in Stormblood, which (hopefully) will involve enemies that hit hard enough to dissuade this 'pull everything' nonsense. That will come with time by itself anyway. In short, it's situationally useful but falls out of the meta very quickly due to ease of killing vs worth of control.

As others have said, PvP has its own actions in 4.0, so WHM can still have it there. As for PvE, in the last 2 years I've never even found a single use for the AoE sleep that BLM has, let alone a use for a single target version on a job that has many times the survivability (even more so now that Cleric Stance is gone) ... if crowd control is making a solid comeback though, then yes, it would be nice to have.

[Alkimi]

The Confession mechanic is arguably worse, as far from giving you a nice bonus, it is not only RNG based, but also a gate on even being able to make proper use of certain abilities. Again, this is the antithesis of simple, and simply not fun.

I'd argue that the confessions mechanic is a lot better than the lillies. However it will depend a lot on how much damage tanks will be taking in 4.0 raids.

Remember that Plenury doesn't remove the confession stacks of the healed target. So if you are able to maintain it because the tank needs frequent cures then it's a free up to 600 potency heal every 15 seconds. I just wish it was higher than 20% proc rate because stacks can too easily fall off just because you're unlucky.

[Reivya]

Does Plenary not remove stacks? I thought I saw them get consumed from one of the media event videos, I think it was near the end of the gamer escape one.

[RopeDrink]

to suddenly change that now, by tacking on some needless RNG gate mechanics no less, will do far more to ruin WHM than any reasonable amount of utility ever would.

There's very little complexity about the mechanic at all. RNG in itself doesn't really add any need for thought. I've just been watching a vid of the first dungeon in SB that has a WHM healer and it's essentially unchanged // not far from what I suspected it'd be in the first place - complete freedom to lob Stone IV, while the cure-lily mechanic being something to enforce oh-crap moments, especially when you can PoM and cast spells for 0 MP costs (forget its name) and thus fish for opportunities to finish phases with X or Y skill and lower its cooldown in the process to make further Stone IV'ing later even easier. I don't feel the need to be casting non-heals or non-DPS spells to feel useful, especially not as an aggressive-minded player who's all too happy to throw stones for days. It's simple to play and gives you only a handful of layers to consider - otherwise it remains the simple 'pure' Healer, or whatever fancy word you want to tack onto how it plays in its current incarnation.


I have no doubt things will be balanced out in someway, beit WHM being pushed forward in healing power while others take a step back to make up for it in utility or whatever, but if they haven't given the job utility by now (and clearly show no desire to do so for the upcoming expansion) then it's safe to assume it won't get one any time soon.

As for the PvP/Repose, people asked what the point was - not what the point will be. I was referring to it in the present, where its usefulness, like some other spells, naturally falls off the planet as the meta shifts. There's no reason to use it now when everyone is pulling everything into AoE (at least not outside of levelling in low-dungeons or world), yet you would use it plenty in PvP while it is not a shared/PvP action. I don't much care how that'll change as PvP is something I believe most people avoid, at least so long as we're not forced to participate in it (eg. world PvP objectives or other nonsense) - but at the end of the day, I'd still prefer to have it on my bar than off it.

[Katryn]

I'm slightly concerned about how well I'll be able to keep track of confession stacks--if the way healing ends up working even leads to my party getting them--since my vision isn't perfect. I really love how white mage is currently and I hope that the changes will not result in me needing to find a new job that I can play properly.

[Lovescake]

Like the WHM of 2.X and 3.X, (once in a stance) AST is free to deploy their full healing kit at any time, and nothing has changed in this regard for 4.0. Also, with the changes to Cleric Stance, it makes Gravity far easier to use than Holy, and frees up mental space to pay more attention to the RNG based card mechanics.

what?

It's the exact same executional outcome, except an astro can press draw....

[Tint]

this mechanic doesn't make WHM any more complex than it is now. you just heal and dps like always and this whole lilly mechanic and stuff is working in the background completely on it's own. you can basically ignore the whole thing, it's RNG anyway so you can't plan around it.

so what does the lilly system do then?

it increases your heal output when you are already healing a lot - completely automatically. you just have to heal like you do it already, press off-gcd heals when ready and necesseray, otherwise use your GCD heals. the only thing wich you have to look out for are the confession stacks. you don't have to healspam to get them - you will get them automatically while healing or not, it doesn't matter, since you have enough options to heal. you don't need the confession stacks, but if you have some on the tank you can use them for another basically free heal.