White Mage Rework Concept

[Raminax]

Overall, I kind of like the suggestions here, even if I personally find a rework a bit overkill. Personally I'd like to see Squeenix shift the White Mage identity from 'pure healer' to 'raw' or 'brute-force healer'. In other words, it's fine if White Mage is simple, but they'd be breaking enemies' spines across their knee with their DPS and grant practical immortality in the form of their heals. That said, I find this concept enjoyable and certainly wouldn't mind trying it. It benefits active healers that utilize their entire toolkit to allow them to use their cool stuff more often. It's one of the things that generally attract my interest; Clerics and Chanters in AION had great buffing and debuffing capability tied to their offensive skills. Similarly, Spellslingers in WildStar pretty much had the same shtick. Discipline Priests had the whole Atonement and Archangel toolkit to encourage DPS in exchange for additional healing later on, among other examples.

If I'd have to give some sort of criticism to the ideas here, it's that I personally dislike random procs, and I dislike them even more as a healer. Most of the Elemental Mastery traits would make me blow a fuse, to be frank. Not to mention, the procs don't feel particularly exciting either, only giving you a potency increase and higher elemental aether generation. That said, it's really just opinion, so I can't really fault you for it.

I also feel that elemental aether generation is a bit unbalanced. Water in particular would feel pretty slow if I base my fantasies on the current damage and healing rhythm of FFXIV encounters (and if it keeps up). It feels like I'd have to use niche skills like Aquaveil on cooldown purely just to keep up with the other two elements at a reasonable pace. Which kinda makes me feel half terrible, using abilities for their secondary benefits rather than primary. Although one could argue that building elemental aether is just as important as the usual shebang of dealing damage, healing and supporting.

Another thing are the Fervent element effects. They feel unbalanced as well. As an example, I'd feel like a moron wasting my Fervent Water on Aquaveil, compared to using a Fluid Image or doubling the duration on Asylum. Similarly, using Fervent Earth on Munificent Efflorescence would feel kinda wasteful, because you'll probably never need that long of a duration on its effect to handle upcoming spikes that an AoE Stoneskin or Field of Bliss can't handle. Fervent Wind feels overall alright, can't find anything that particularly bugs me there.

Overall, feels solid. Have a Crimson Cider, on the house.

[ty_taurus]

snip

I agree with some of the things you said and want to address those concerns. I'm thinking of a way to streamline the Mastery Traits in a way that feels satisfying as well as buffs/redesigns for Aquaveil and Munificent Efflorescence. It's taking me some time to come up with some solid solutions to all those, but I will update my post when it all comes together.

Stay tuned.