Isn't it about time for WHM to get an AOE mitigation tool?

[Risvertasashi]

So was 3.0 Paladin. At least these two jobs got changed for the better. I wanna see Drk and Whm get changed for the better as well.

But it's not mitigation that's holding WHM back.

For as long as 2 of the 3 healers can increase raid DPS... people are always going to want to use those 2 as soon as they (comfortably) can.

Give WHM more mitigation... you make the job a little stronger in progression content. Perhaps guaranteeing a slot on next tier's progression wave (is that the goal?). But, the above will always be lingering over the job...

[Exiled_Tonberry]

capable of clearing any content. Discussion done.

Everything can clear content in the game. 3.0 AST could, 4.0 SCH could. Did that mean they should have been left alone?
Why do people keep making this pointless strawman argument?

@Gemina: WHM is useful when it comes to healing high raid damage, yes. But they're completely useless in situations where you'll simply die without mitigation, like the second phase of Shinryu. You simply can't survive that without mitigation. I've ran the content, I've seen the amount of damage that goes. You need mitigation.
I mean, I don't get it. SCH has an answer to high raid damage. So does AST. Why can't WHM have an answer to raid mitigation?

[Sebazy]

I'm not really sure why you feel this is a thing now? It's been the same way going right back to Burning Coil in 2.0.

[MoroMurasaki]

Everything can clear content in the game. 3.0 AST could, 4.0 SCH could. Did that mean they should have been left alone?
Why do people keep making this pointless strawman argument?

@Gemina: WHM is useful when it comes to healing high raid damage, yes. But they're completely useless in situations where you'll simply die without mitigation, like the second phase of Shinryu. You simply can't survive that without mitigation. I've ran the content, I've seen the amount of damage that goes. You need mitigation.
I mean, I don't get it. SCH has an answer to high raid damage. So does AST. Why can't WHM have an answer to raid mitigation?

This is an easily avoidable situation though - don't run Shinryu as double WHM.

The bigger issue for WHM is clearly the lack of a raid dps boost and I feel like the reason people are opposed to the idea of a mitigation tool being added to WHM is not that they don't want that for WHM but rather that they feel the dps boost is a much higher priority.

[Risvertasashi]

I'm not really sure why you feel this is a thing now? It's been the same way going right back to Burning Coil in 2.0.

in 2.x, there were only 2 healers and each had a distinct role. WHM for raw healing and AoE healing, SCH for shields and mitigation. SCH did not have Emergency Tactics, Indom, and all those other things -- so if you needed more AoE healing than WD could provide, you really felt it. But on the flipside, with raidbusters like Kaliya's, you needed every onze of mitigation you could get from SCH -- forget supervirus? wipe. Forget fey covenant? wipe. Forget sacred soil? wipe. etc. But you still wanted WHM there to heal back the damage when it was done.

HW leveled the healers in a lot of ways. Now everyone gets protect, SCH has good AoE healing, WHM has instants, and so on. But... only SCH got supervirus and AST got disable, so WHM was still left out of getting a mitigation ability for raid buster. Well, now both those are gone, but WHM is still the odd healer out.

Asking for WHM to have parity with the other 2 here is not unreasonable. I personally don't particular care about this and don't think it addresses core issues. But the request is reasonable enough. The game has changed, afterall.

[Sebazy]

Indeed, that's a pretty legitimate assessment.

SE have always been against encouraging stacking any job and rightfully so (I ran with 3 bards in BCOB at one point), much like that other thread that seemed to want a direct clone of Medica II for SCH (Alongside WD I can only assume), this isn't something that's going to happen either.

Totally agreed on your earlier point, some form of raid DPS utility or such would be far more valuable to WHM in the grand scheme of things.

[Ghishlain]

I'm in agreement with comments about WHM needing more DPS utility than Mitigation utility. Damage will naturally go up as content is released but higher ilvl gear also becomes more accessible / available in the same patch as well, thus making the healers stronger as well to deal with the content. The easier ilvl jumps will also increase the HP pools of the players in the process, thus reducing further the need for mitigation.

[Kabzy]

It's to the point where tanks are mitigating the party more than we are, which is actually pretty sad. A warrior mitigating the party more than a WHM. That is, by all means, a ridiculous thing to say.

The jobs that are designed to mitigate damage have party utility that... mitigates damage. How unbecoming!!

On a more serious note, I don't think WHM needs anything as it is. A fix to their crit trait is about all that is needed imo. If we really want to give them utility on top of that, then I agree with the rest of the guys who say a DPS based utility would be much more beneficial.

That being said, the reason I don't think they need it is because they have found a 'decent' spot in being the best progression healers while still maintaining their spot in most teams by bringing the power. Lets be real, the majority of teams out there won't be speed running anyway, they just do their weeklies. And if WHM gets raid DPS utility, that will create an imbalance with AST, and then we're stuck with SE buffing AST every other week again. As it stands, all three healers are in a decent spot. WHM has not reached irrelevance even remotely yet.

[Gemina]

@Gemina: WHM is useful when it comes to healing high raid damage, yes. But they're completely useless in situations where you'll simply die without mitigation, like the second phase of Shinryu. You simply can't survive that without mitigation. I've ran the content, I've seen the amount of damage that goes. You need mitigation.
I mean, I don't get it. SCH has an answer to high raid damage. So does AST. Why can't WHM have an answer to raid mitigation?

I understand that. The mitigation comes from the tanks and other healer, assuming the other healer is a SCH or AST. WHM's have always had very limited ability in the way of mitigating damage, and reduced further with the loss of stoneskin. It's pretty clear to me the devs don't want this job to revolve around damage mitigation.

WHM is in an iffy place right now. Giving them AoE dmg mitigation, or the ability to increase raid damage and it will instantly leapfrog over the other two healers, perpetuating the teeter-totter effect we currently have with the healers. I don't think WHM needs AoE mitigation, or raid utility. I think they need something unique that is favorable.

[Kabooa]

Everything can clear content in the game. 3.0 AST could, 4.0 SCH could. Did that mean they should have been left alone?
Why do people keep making this pointless strawman argument?

Because the only thing a baiting hypothetical should get is an unpopular fact.