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

[Miles_Maelstrom]

You have a regen, it's called whispering dawn, you have a healing power tool it's called fey illumination. They may not be as effective as WHM or ASTs tools but you have them.

WHM can't say the same. It has no mitigation tools, nothing to compensate for the lack of a SCH or AST, if they just got stoneskin 2 back as an exclusive, usable in combat, party mitigation tool that would be enough. It wouldn't be as effective as having a SCH or AST but it would be something.

I can also use poor reading comprehension and respond to arguments not in your post to make you look bad as well.

No mitigation? Whm have Divine Benson. Sure it's not as effective as ast and sch tools but you do have it available to you.

[Ametrine]

I feel like OP just wants Stoneskin back.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

the main argument I'm seeing for this mitigation tool is the lack of it in double WHM parties. The answer? Don't form a double WHM party when you know it will be an issue.

In DF or RF you have no idea what you'll be getting. This is where the problem appears, and it's made even worse since more casual players will run into this issue rather than hardcore raiders who handpicks their members.

Sure, tanks have mitigation. But is the answer really to just give everyone but WHM AOE mitigation? All this is going to do is make one composition vastly stronger because now they'll mitigate even more damage and healers can dps even longer.

[Ghishlain]

The only time Mitigation is critical to a clear content is if Mitigation would prevent someone or the group from dying. With the removal of Cleric Stance as a DPS toggle, mitigation doesn't suddenly allow for more DPS from healers - it just means healers have to heal differently to manage the oncoming damage and their windows for DPS change.

A 700 potency Medica II versus a 375 eHP potency Succor / Aspected Helios will mean you need to spend less GCDs topping people off and thus be able to spend more GCDs DPSing.

[Miles_Maelstrom]

In DF or RF you have no idea what you'll be getting. This is where the problem appears, and it's made even worse since more casual players will run into this issue rather than hardcore raiders who handpicks their members.
...

No content that you would be using a roulette finder for has anything that warrants Healer mitigation as mandatory.

And any content where not having aoe mitagation is severely detrimental is not one where you can even use a roulette. It's a non issue.

And if you want to talk healers not being able to play with a second of the same class. HELLO, scholar. Your little whm hots stack all day, even your confession stacks don't have issues with other whm. Sch have to deal with half our identity being negated with another scholar.

[Erakir]

I get it. I do. At least I think I do, to some extent. Bear with me, I'm going somewhere with this (past the bold)-

When I see how Square has been making healer adjustments, I'm getting similar feelings as I had in 3.0 and 3.1. It's hard not to. For example:

We've gained MP economy in this expansion that's led to Cure 3 being much more usable overall, and I very much appreciate that, but Cure 3's "oomph" feels like less and less these days after the introduction of Earthly Star on a minute cooldown and Indom being buffed to 500 potency. It's lost strength relative to others' toolkits even though the spell itself has not changed one bit. Hell, it's lost strength relative to WHM technically simply by virtue of Cure and Cure 2 getting buffed while 3's potency was untouched.

Go back to ARR and the 550 potency boom of Cure 3 was something pretty much unmatched. It was limited in practical use for the MP cost, but the burst of it was very nice, especially in dual tank scenarios if you wanted to be very safe (And with an overcure proc, oh so sweet~). Now, while it's more spammable and that certainly comes into play, I haven't been in too many scenarios where I've though "Man thank god I have Cure 3 for this" outside of struggling groups in non-savage content. Others can get by without it, and it's still got a good bit of thought with its small radius that no one can see before its cast (unlike standing inside ground effects like ES or Asylum).

I see a spell that has had its own niche carved away a little more with each update. And if you get to fall back on Medica due to the range issues?

Your Largesse'd medica is doing less than a SCH's base succor, now. Feels good.

It's hard not to feel stingy and slighted about these sorts of things, and for me it always comes back to the same thing. Wanting to feel like you bring something the party really benefits from. I'm still not seeing it when it comes to the "raw, progression HPS" healer. I have great MP economy but it's not as if I've seen others struggling anywhere near WHM levels of the past, and that's probably due in part to refresh being as strong as it is from BRD and mana shifts readily available. There's nothing that really says "WHM power mode GO save all the things" either outside of cure 3 if people happen to be stacked for it. PoM is planned and often used with DPS since we're stone hurling machines now. You can say PI if it's also not on CD and there's life long enough to get 2-3 stacks, but it's really really hard to compete with the immediate stabilizing effects of an instant reactionary Indom; you are not encouraged to hit indom on cooldown like you are with assize, so while it might be unavailable, I find it's up to react with way more often.

Yet, as I've said and as others have said, things are probably the most balanced all in all that we've seen in a long time.

That doesn't mean I'm particularly happy. I have watched both shielding healers, Noct and SCH, get more abilities to keep up with Diurnal and WHM while keeping the benefits of shields - and make no mistake, shields are a massive benefit, especially in this game that is pretty much centered around burst damage.

Do you know what I really haven't seen?

Square designing in ways to showcase the benefits of HoTs. And that's what's really sad to me. HoTs often have two main benefits to them, and it feels like we only see one of them showcased.

One is raw strength/efficiency per cast, due to their slower HPS per-target and tendency to overheal. A lot. We see this - it's always encouraged to let HoTs tick people back up IF there's enough time between mechanics, and that requires coordination but it also leaves people in a danger state. There's a tradeoff, there, and you're trusting people not to screw up in the meantime while those HoTs do their job. Don't underestimate that extra danger, too - it's a real concern if people can screw up another mechanic and take an extra 15k.

That is NOT the only benefit of HoTs, though.

The other benefit is the one we rarely seem to see outside of auto attacks. HoTs can be cast in advance of damage over time, used to offset/buffer it since you have the GCD to spare now but might not later, and the tank doesn't need a 700 potency blast in the face yet. I can't understand why we haven't seen more damage like this to heal up, aside from people deciding it's not 'fun' damage to heal since it's sort of a maintenance healing. It's healing DURING the damage rather than "After the fact, let everyone tick back up."

There's also a third that ties in with the second (though shields do this as well). Simply put if you're about to be incapacitated, loading someone up on HoTs is a good way to increase their TTL, moreso than a shield if the HoTs get to actually tick for awhile.

We've got one ability in particular that really suffers from this. It's one of my favorite simple little abilities, too, but I also feel it ends up as something that feels underwhelming in a lot of practical use. Good ol Asylum.

Asylum has never been bad - but the reality is it's often used as a free extra tank HoT or as a desperate hope to get a couple of ticks in on people that are running around during other mechanics. Those times the raid is actually able to keep stacked, it's just a way to get out of casting another AoE heal, which is useful, sure. It's been a long time, though, since I got to use it in a way that felt fitting for a HoT zone. I very much remember being grabby-handed in A3S and dropping an Asylum ahead of time, conveniently where the entire raid was about to be while moderate damage would be going out - over time - letting the HoT ticks buffer TTL while I literally could not be casting anything else.

I'd really like to see things like this more often, where the HoT component is beneficial specifically because you cast it in advance and not just because it frees up another GCD for you to throw another stone. I'd love to have more of a reason to regen targets other than the main tank, OT, and that ranged who just HAS to stand 21 yalms away from you. Where are the DoTs that don't come from mechanic-failures and aren't better to dispel or ignore?

Want a mechanic that's better to HoT than just wait-and-heal-when-critical? DoT someone. Triggers an additional debuff if target goes below 70% hp. High desire to keep target topped off, best done with a HoT over less efficient shielding or spending more GCDs to continuously keep him above 70%. There. Now you're done with the only thing being "It's more healing over time if you have the time till the next raid-wham-o." I'd be glad I had a WHM or Diurnal in that case.

This isn't a new thing either, as we've seen mechanics in coil that were "Shield or suffer debuff" - we're just swinging the optimal way to deal with them the other direction while not preventing others to have a way to heal through it.

It's easy to feel a little annoyed when the game continues to be designed around surviving huge hits and (often) bursting them back up when you've got tools that could specifically be used in other ways, but never really are. I'm ultimately not satisfied with HoT design in FFXIV.

Edit: To add to this, there are some times where PI feels really great, and it's helping out in these cases of "I'm glad to have a WHM for this." I could still argue for tweaks to it in various ways to make it feel better or fit into more scenarios without overpowering it, but it's something that does get showcased, particularly when heavy movement is involved and more stuff is coming out NOW. I don't intend to say WHM is in a bad spot performance-wise. It's not. I do think there's a lot they could do to make it feel better, though.

[MoroMurasaki]

Erakir I think your post was really interesting and I surprised myself by reading through the whole thing. It made me think about some things I otherwise might not have. I feel like the answer to there not being content designed to feature HoTs is a simple one; there is, dungeons.

I know this isn't the same thing as EX primals and Savage but there is no denying that in a dungeon run HoTs reign supreme. WHM isn't the undisputed dungeon crawl healer just because of Holy spam (though that helps keep them out in front of Diurnal AST) but because the 1k+ potency of Regen for a measly MP cost means spending almost no GCDs on healing and hardly any MP in many scenarios.

Also, in response to the concept of "you might get two WHMs in DF" I feel like any content you aren't going to want double WHM in you should be making a PF for. PF gives you complete control of who joins. It's the same thing as wanting a RDM and a BRD for progression in a new instance, you make a PF so you don't find yourself with BLM/MNK/SAM/MCH as your DPS and recieve almost no support. Can you clear new content that way? Sure, probably. Is it harder than having a backup Rez buddy and Foes? Yes, undoubtably.

[Erakir]

Erakir I think your post was really interesting and I surprised myself by reading through the whole thing. It made me think about some things I otherwise might not have. I feel like the answer to there not being content designed to feature HoTs is a simple one; there is, dungeons.

I know this isn't the same thing as EX primals and Savage but there is no denying that in a dungeon run HoTs reign supreme. WHM isn't the undisputed dungeon crawl healer just because of Holy spam (though that helps keep them out in front of Diurnal AST) but because the 1k+ potency of Regen for a measly MP cost means spending almost no GCDs on healing and hardly any MP in many scenarios.

Oh I can certainly agree with you there. There are definitely things like that moreso in dungeons. I mean, we only have to look at the most annoying archetype of enemy in the game - any freaking stupid DoT spamming archer mob that is often pulled with 2 other archers that DoT the party up to high heaven and make you hate life~ There are plenty of poisoning mobs or ones that glance in your general direction and give you a quick love tap that'll happen throughout the fight. It should come as no surprise that I find good use for Asylum in these pulls, too!

I should iterate, as you expected, that I was talking more in terms of EX and Savage content, but you're definitely right that we see things like this in dungeons much more often. Ideally, I'd like to see mechanics that showcase different types of healing in all content. And of course, have to make sure that everyone can handle it in a reasonable way even if one is better than the other for a mechanic.

[Ghishlain]

I'd also be a fan of different types of healer's versus more of the same. As a Druid healer in BC WoW era, a HoT-centric healer would definitely pique my interest. This way we'd also try to shift away from homogenization and more towards unique aspects of each healer and how they compare to others.

[MoroMurasaki]

Ideally, I'd like to see mechanics that showcase different types of healing in all content. And of course, have to make sure that everyone can handle it in a reasonable way even if one is better than the other for a mechanic.

In this sense I am 100% with you. I will be the first to admit I haven't the slightest idea how that can happen and I see a lot of potential balancing issues there but just because I don't envy the devs their workload doesn't mean I'm not in favor of a greater diverity of content.