WHM Divine Benison

[VanilleFang]

...if you're willing to spend 1200 MP overhealing for it...

Uh, what? I'm not defending the lillies. All I'm saying is that 100% proc rate on Cure II != RNG.

[QooEr]

...if you're willing to spend 1200 MP overhealing for it...

why overheal then? just use cure 2 and slap a benison after using it every time you need to however sporadic it is. the cooldown reduction aspect isnt that impactful anyways but get this: whm's gauge is literally the only beneficial gauge healers have. scholar's gauge is just a marker for how many aetherflow stacks you have (useless) and the fairy gauge is tied to 1 action so it might as well just be considered part of aetherpact. ast's gauge is straight up detrimental to the job compared to the old buff system for cards. i really dont see what the big deal is

[AlphaSonic]

why overheal then? just use cure 2 and slap a benison after using it every time you need to however sporadic it is. the cooldown reduction aspect isnt that impactful anyways but get this: whm's gauge is literally the only beneficial gauge healers have. scholar's gauge is just a marker for how many aetherflow stacks you have (useless) and the fairy gauge is tied to 1 action so it might as well just be considered part of aetherpact. ast's gauge is straight up detrimental to the job compared to the old buff system for cards. i really dont see what the big deal is

Cure => Not overheal but only 50% chance of lily.
Cure II => Overheal but always lily.

[KikodeYusaku]

it's actually beneficial to overheal.

I can't believe I had to read this sentence with my own two eyes

[EaMett]

I can't believe I had to read this sentence with my own two eyes

I can't tell if this is a statement against my argument or the current state of WHM. Also a little taken out of context ;p
But yeah, given infinite mana you should always use your most potent skills. Regardless of overhealing. Use cure II instead of cure I. Even if Cure I is already overheal, and regardless of Cure II procs. Not doing so just wouldn't make any sense. Your overhealing might clip a mechanic or a player mistake.

[NamoNanamo]

Use cure II instead of cure I. Even if Cure I is already overheal, and regardless of Cure II procs. Not doing so just wouldn't make any sense.

If you are already overhealing with cure I, don't heal and dps ! But yeah, I understand your point.

My main prob is PI atm. I'm still not used to it and I forget about it while healing

[Ghishlain]

I'd like to think WHM play has gotten a lot less straight forward and individual White Mages will need to think more on their feet about what's optimal while continuing to understand the flow of the fight to maximize efficiency.

Cure now has a chance to proc three things
(1) Freecure
(2) Lily [Divine Benison]
(3) Confession

If you get Freecure, that gives the WHM more windows to DPS and then use their Freecure proc a bit later than normal or when it's about to expire and on top of that get them a Lily for Divine Benison immediately afterwards.
If you get the Lily just pop Divine Benison and keep DPSing
If you get the confession treat it like another free Cure and pop it appropriately while you keep DPSing

I feel it's non-optimal to save Benison for tankbusters. If the opportunity presents itself to allow you to shield a tank buster, go for it but having the ability to use Divine Benison and not doing so is just neglecting another excellent source of free healing from the WHM kit.

While I won't disagree that it would be nice for Benison to have additional benefits past one lily or only consume one lily, making good use of Benison doesn't require a White Mage to play non-optimally or ineffectively if the player understands the flow of the fight and the nuances of how their abilities interact with each other.

[Cynfael]

Ghishlain, good points as always, but I'd emphasize the chance part when it comes to Cure I procs.

Personally I think Benison is fine aside from consuming all Lilies without so much as a CD reduction; my concerns have more to do with how Lily generation currently works and how it disproportionately rewards Cure 2 usage.

[Ghishlain]

I consider it in a different way - the 100% chance on Cure II means I get even more benefit out of my Freecures. I think it's important for White Mages of all stripes to consider the fact that you're not actively fishing for lilies but you should make opportunities to use Cure more often - especially now that Cleric Stance has gone the way of the dodo. Spend one GCD to DPS, while you're casting determine if your next GCD should be a Cure, make use of Cure when the HP windows are appropriate to minimize overheal and use any gained procs appropriately in your next decision making step. The chance part doesn't personally bug me in the slightest, to be honest. It just means I have to show a level of flexibility to adapt to the situations given to me. Given the rigidity of the healing game to date (make sure to save X CD for Y tank/raid buster, repeat ad nausea), this chance to flex in such a manner is a breath of fresh air for healing.

I feel a lot of players get hung up on the "chance" part of the Lilies and it just shows a incredibly massive level if inflexibility towards the White Mage kit. I will argue that White Mages might have a low skill floor because you could easily be effective without worrying about the RNG aspects of your kit but also has the highest skill ceiling now because of the level of knowledge the player must have of both the fight and the kit to properly manage all the RNG procs without losing effectiveness or efficiency. WHM is the healer to play if you don't want to repeat the same fight over and over again. Regardless if the encounter is the same the flow at which the WHM kit operates will always change.

I actually kinda wish 3.X MCH was still a thing. If the opportunity presented itself, I would've actively encouraged any aspiring Stormblood White Mage to play the 3.X MCH toolkit because the core optimization concepts of the MCH kit is the same. In fact when I reflect on, the fact that I played MCH for Creator (Savage) and deal with the RNG proc rates and mobility issues that come with it probably help me optimize for WHM even further.

[VanilleFang]

Ghislain: always a breathe of fresh air. Everything you said I agree with completely.