Should WHM get a personal damage buff?

[EaMett]

The WHM identity issue lies in the fact that it conflicts directly with the game design. They give the WHM the biggest HPS weiner and then design encounters that can be done with the lowest HPS healer around. It's like bringing a bulldozer to destroy a sand castle.
The result is that the only time a WHM gets to express it's identity is when people screw up (progression).

This doesn't mean that WHM isn't balanced or that it needs some sort of buff. It just means SE views WHM as a beginner healer with an easy to use skill set and a lot of HPS padding to help beginners and not so skilled healers tackle all the content.
It just turns out that this sucks for the WHMs that don't identify with that demographic. (not to mention WHM's absence from the meta)

[Seraphor]

The WHM identity issue lies in the fact that it conflicts directly with the game design. They give the WHM the biggest HPS weiner and then design encounters that can be done with the lowest HPS healer around. It's like bringing a bulldozer to destroy a sand castle.
The result is that the only time a WHM gets to express it's identity is when people screw up (progression).

This doesn't mean that WHM isn't balanced or that it needs some sort of buff. It just means SE views WHM as a beginner healer with an easy to use skill set and a lot of HPS padding to help beginners and not so skilled healers tackle all the content.
It just turns out that this sucks for the WHMs that don't identify with that demographic. (not to mention WHM's absence from the meta)

This would be solved with my proposed change/reintroduction of Protect and Shell as WHM exclusives.

Protect
Becomes a WHM exclusive spell again.
Instant cast AoE 10% Physical Damage reduction on a 5m duration and 10s cooldown. Overrides Shell.

Shell
Becomes a WHM exclusive spell again.
Instant cast AoE 10% Magical Damage reduction on a 5m duration and 10s cooldown. Overrides Protect.

This gives WHM an oGCD to weave between heals, and a unique ‘damage type dancing’ mechanic, whereby you can anticipate the damage type you’ll most likely need to block and use the mitigation spell suitable for it. Could replace Fluid Aura and Repose.
How to balance the lack of Protect as a role skill? Increase SCH and AST’s basic mitigation spells by 5-10% depending on how accessible they are.
Balanced against SCH/AST mitigation? Well it’s less potent (only 10%) and only protects against one type of damage at a time. I don’t see how it’s encroaching on either of their territories. Both SCH and AST can already do both HoT and Mitigation, and AST isn’t solely limited to its Sects, it has Bole and Collective Unconscious (which does both). Besides, Nocturnal is almost always for effective than Diurnal. I only ever use Diurnal when I’m paired with a SCH in a dungeon/raid.

[VanilleFang]

Protect
Becomes a WHM exclusive spell again.
Instant cast AoE 10% Physical Damage reduction on a 5m duration and 10s cooldown. Overrides Shell.

Shell
Becomes a WHM exclusive spell again.
Instant cast AoE 10% Magical Damage reduction on a 5m duration and 10s cooldown. Overrides Protect.

5 minute duration and 10 second CD? So basically free mitigation forever?

[EaMett]

Also it really doesn't address the issue. You're basically just giving WHM more healing power through mitigation. Not really what is currently needed.

[NobleWinter]

I love the idea of Shell being an actual WHM ability but I would rather rename Divine Benison as Shell. Protect would be neat if it was a group buff that still lasted 30 minutes but only reduced the damage from the next incoming attack by 5 percent and had a cool down around 120 Sec or so. It could be applied before raid wide damage and used between pulls in dungeons. It wouldn't be strictly necessary but nice to work into your play style and could still be a role action for everyone. It would also mean Protect wasn't a permanent icon in the Party List taking up space for no reason.

[Seraphor]

5 minute duration and 10 second CD? So basically free mitigation forever?

As opposed to the 30m duration, 3s cooldown it currently is?
It's actually a reduction in duration, making it a little more 'hands on' so it's only fair that it gets a very slight buff, for all those who might not notice it dropping off.

Because they're mutually exclusive, you either have Protect OR Shell, you can only mitigate half of all damage, on average, making it an effective 5% damage mitigation.
Compared to current Protect which is roughly 3% of all damage (more if you're overgeared, less if you're undergeared, maybe a 2%-6% range because you're not going to be THAT undergeared) that's not much of a difference.
In addition, you could just stick out a Protect and not bother with Shell, if you weren't playing optimally, and if you happened to be fighting enemies who deal a lot of Magical damage, then your effective mitigation drops below that 5%.

[VanilleFang]

As opposed to a 30m duration it currently is?

No, because they're mutually exclusive, you can only mitigate half of all damage, on average.

Protect doesn't reduce Physical and Magical damage received 10%. It increases Defense and Magic Defense by 15% which equates to like ~3% reduction. You are asking for free mitigation that lasts 5 minutes with a 10 second cooldown. Everyone would literally just keep Protect up until Shell is needed for AoE/Tank Buster and than instantly change back to Protect. It fixes nothing and just grants more mitigation for free.

Why would it last 5 minutes and only have a 10 second CD? It would function the same if the CD didn't even exist.

[Seraphor]

As opposed to the 30m duration, 3s cooldown it currently is?
It's actually a reduction in duration, making it a little more 'hands on' so it's only fair that it gets a very slight buff, for all those who might not notice it dropping off.

Because they're mutually exclusive, you either have Protect OR Shell, you can only mitigate half of all damage, on average, making it an effective 5% damage mitigation.
Compared to current Protect which is roughly 3% of all damage (more if you're overgeared, less if you're undergeared, maybe a 2%-6% range because you're not going to be THAT undergeared) that's not much of a difference.
In addition, you could just stick out a Protect and not bother with Shell, if you weren't playing optimally, and if you happened to be fighting enemies who deal a lot of Magical damage, then your effective mitigation drops below that 5%.

Why would it last 5 minutes and only have a 10 second CD? It would function the same if the CD didn't even exist.

So that you can just use it and leave it if you're not playing optimally, but otherwise it's a 10s CD skill that you dance between based on the incoming damage.

It fixes nothing and just grants more mitigation for free.

It fixes the "WHM is healing for dummies" issue.
It doesn't effect the floor too much but it raises the ceiling enough.

Further edit:
In addition, you're never going to hit that full 10% mitigation no matter how optimally you pay, because you're never going to hit all physical damage with Protect or all Magical damage with Shell, that 10s window is still a significant amount of time.

[Seraphor]

Also it really doesn't address the issue. You're basically just giving WHM more healing power through mitigation. Not really what is currently needed.

What is "needed" and what do you personally want?

The comment I was replying to was that WHM is too simple a job and is basically healing for dummies. This would give WHM a unique mechanic to keep on top of at all times, and ogcd to weave between spells. But not so mandatory that you couldn't just throw out one Protect every 5m, just like AST's cards are 'somewhat' optional (at least you can get away with not playing them optimally) and you can get away with just leaving Eos on autopilot.

[EaMett]

What is "needed" and what do you personally want?

The comment I was replying to was that WHM is too simple a job and is basically healing for dummies. This would give WHM a unique mechanic to keep on top of at all times, and ogcd to weave between spells. But not so mandatory that you couldn't just throw out one Protect every 5m, just like AST's cards are 'somewhat' optional (at least you can get away with not playing them optimally) and you can get away with just leaving Eos on autopilot.

Well I personally don't care that much. WHM needs a bit more dps though for 8 man content. Maybe an aero 2 potency buff or something? I also would like to see some mechanic surrounding the gauge. Maybe convert your hots to gauge points for example would be nice. And the gauge would allow you to use some nice potency dps skill.