Thread: Buffs to WHM on 4.5 patch

Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

We weren't asking for a huge shakeup before 5.0. We were asking for potency bumps to stone and maybe the aeros. It would have taken almost no development effort to change the numbers a la MCH and MNK in this very same patch, and would have made WHM more competitive in the raid scene.

Of course the changes we got are still nice in terms of general playability/making WHM more pleasant, but they're not changes that change WHM's standing.

Riiiight... and I was explaining that prior to the patch, Yoshi had stated that those kind of changes to WHM weren't going to happen until 5.0. And people should realize that.

My understanding was that throughout 4.X, WHM was planned to be a pure healer and they decided to keep it that way for the rest of 4.X. Boosting it's core damaging skills is not part of that vision. The changes help us heal better, which is what our class is currently designed to do. Just like MCH and MNK got buffs for what their classes are designed to do.

There's only 5-ish months left before the new expansion drops and the class gets revamped anyway. The last thing that the Dev. team is probably focused on is trying to change our place in a soon to be obsolete meta. They're likely too busy making sure we have a place in the new meta.

Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

We weren't asking for a huge shakeup before 5.0. We were asking for potency bumps to stone and maybe the aeros. It would have taken almost no development effort to change the numbers a la MCH and MNK in this very same patch, and would have made WHM more competitive in the raid scene.

Of course the changes we got are still nice in terms of general playability/making WHM more pleasant, but they're not changes that change WHM's standing.

WHM's are already the best DPS of any healer. Why would bumps to Stone and Aero be justified? . . . Their aggro was the biggest problem (other than the lily system) and it's now fixed. Lilies will require a redesign.

While MP economy definitely wasn't a problem before it is interesting to note that the changes to both Assize and Plenary were still a huge boon to MP regulation. Assize added more dps potential, MP generation, and healing all in one fell swoop. It was a really interesting change to me since the awkward trait for WHM still allows them to reduce the Assize cool down further. It makes me wonder if future content is going to allow this intentional wellspirng of MP to be useful. I definitely enjoy the fact that Plenary and Assive are going to replace Medica in a way they couldn't before. It means a lot less hard casting heals and MP free healing means more Holy Spam on add phases. I actually think reworking Holy so that it was 300 Potency if only one enemy was affected, but 200 and diminishing for multiple enemies, would be neat so that it warranted using Holy on a single enemy for the dps increase at a massive cost to your MP giving you a way to utilise all your extra resource.

Originally Posted by Deceptus

WHM's are already the best DPS of any healer. Why would bumps to Stone and Aero be justified? . . . Their aggro was the biggest problem (other than the lily system) and it's now fixed. Lilies will require a redesign.

No, WHM is not the best DPS of any healer. Not in practice.

This whole thing has been about how WHM is intended to have the most personal DPS, but WHM falls BEHIND the other healers in raid encounters due to several factors, especially since AST cast times were adjusted. This is not just at the top end of speedkills. WHM is and has been behind both healers since the AST changes, and if I recall correctly has been behind SCH the entire expansion. At best, WHM pulls equal personal numbers than jobs that also offer massive raid damage boosts. The Assize and PI changes will push it up, I'm estimating slightly above other healers in a typical, non-speedrun group, which still makes the job fall incredibly short. Our healing doesn't make up for it - SCH/AST have absolutely no problem since the encounters are designed around not needing a WHM. Our healing potencies aren't particularly high or anything either.

WHM doesn't even particularly shine in dungeons when it comes to damage output. Scholars have been doing quite fine for themselves there. The fairy does a boatload of legwork.

We DO have the most single target damage on a dummy fight. The Stone Sea Sky dummies DO say WHM should be doing the most damage. But we don't in actual fights. Across the board. And that's...*one* of the problems with a job that is intended to be the BLM/SAM of healers. I can point you to numerous threads detailing WHY WHM falls behind, but if you want the cliff notes version - Tons of clipping, lack of mobility, DPS lost due to needing to hardcast more spells. Encounter design plays a big role too. Its healing is fine but does not really outshine others and the game is not designed to warrant Cure III spam every 30s since it has to account for groups that have SCH/AST.

In short, WHM loses far more of its damage potential in practical settings and does not achieve its 'highest healer dps' crown. It's fallen dead last this whole tier. And that's why potency buffs would have been justified.

Edit: I don't love being in this position. I want every healer in this game to be fun, to flow well, and to be desirable. I don't love having to look at every good quality of life change for other jobs while thinking to myself "What does that mean for the job I love the most in this game?" But that is where we are. The developers have decided not to make WHM healing anything superly powerful or necessary, so all we have for what we bring to a group is damage potential. There's nothing else we really do that says "Hey that's cool, since we have a WHM we can do it this way instead of that way." If you're a summoner and black mage gets buffed - well, you still have your mobility, you still have your raise. You still have things to sell yourself. If you're a black mage and summoner/red mage get buffed, you start to sweat. It's an oversimplification, but it's how it feels.

Originally Posted by Erakir

Edit: I don't love being in this position. I want every healer in this game to be fun, to flow well, and to be desirable. I don't love having to look at every good quality of life change for other jobs while thinking to myself "What does that mean for the job I love the most in this game?" But that is where we are. The developers have decided not to make WHM healing anything superly powerful or necessary, so all we have for what we bring to a group is damage potential. There's nothing else we really do that says "Hey that's cool, since we have a WHM we can do it this way instead of that way." If you're a summoner and black mage gets buffed - well, you still have your mobility, you still have your raise. You still have things to sell yourself. If you're a black mage and summoner/red mage get buffed, you start to sweat. It's an oversimplification, but it's how it feels.

Our healing is very powerful. We just don't have content for it to shine, except maybe Ultimate? I can't personally say on that one, but all raid heal checks are deigned so that each healer can meet them. I am quite sure when the devs are creating content, WHM is the least of their worries when it comes to this. They can literally design high-end content with only SCH and AST used for testing and can deductively determine that WHM will pass the heal checks as well. Just because AST and SCH can meet the heal checks, doesn't necessarily make them better at it. So much of AST and SCH burst heal AoE kits are tied to ogcds. WHM has those too, but they can also keep up raid damage through the use of their gcds. But there is currently no content that I am aware of that requires this.

WHM remains my favorite job in the whole game despite its drawbacks. I think the reason why this is, is because the devs vision of the job matches my own. The only reason why I want it to be the SAM/BLM of healers is because it rightfully should be. It would be fair; and that's what I ultimately want with the healers. It is still really fun to play even though I know we're at the bottom of the totem pole. I wouldn't be happy if 5.0 WHM leapfrogs over all the healers and becomes #1 everything. It would need utility that trumps what's already out there, which would totally change the job. I don't think that's the direction the devs want to go at all.

The job can still use a lot of improvement, and the lily mechanic can be redesigned to make it more useful without making it another gimmick that needs to be micromanaged. We need to understand that the lily mechanic is intended to be passive. But I still don't know what they were thinking with SoTL2. I know the QoL changes have favored SCH and AST, but WHM QoL isn't really that bad if just looking at WHM alone and not compare it to SCH and AST. As soon as you do that though, then the unfairness comes out and I can definitely understand how that can leave WHM mains with a bitter taste.

Here's to hoping for good things come 5.0 WHM.