Thread: WHM wishlist for 5.0

I want to see more Conjury. A lot more. It's fine if the new effects of that span only 1-50, but WHM feels short of ground-work for anything more interesting than an identity of "most straightforward (barebone), obvious healer caricature". From there, White magic can start shaping towards more classically "WHM" things, sourced by those new CNJ skills and mechanics. Introduce Soulfont, a way to coalesce elemental magics into White magic, at level 50, and steadily make more off of that over level 52-60, ending in Soulfont phase now compounding towards some extreme strength hits. From 62-80, extra as much utility as from that as possible without stepping into any territory of raidwide %stat or %effect buffs.

[I'm not sure if it's ok to compare XIV stuff to other games in these forums, so sorry beforehand].

When I first heard about the WHM lilies I thought it was cool, because at the time I still played WoW and holy priests had a similar trait where certain spells would lower the cd of the big spells. Difference is...the spells in question were actually a normal part of their rotation, not that one basic spell you kinda ignore unless everything else is on cd.

To put a better comparison, or even potential rework, think of this:

Each Stone cast and Aero II/III tick lowers the cd of Presence of Mind
Each Medica, Medica II, Cure III, or Holy cast lowers the cd of Asylum and Assize
Each Cure and Cure II cast, or Regen ticks lowers the cd of Benediction, Tetragrammaton, and Divine Benison.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a cd reduction, it could be a potency increase, a cd reset if crit, etc, but TL;DR, just make the job more dynamic and incentivize WHMs to use their whole kit. NO ONE spends most of their time casting exclusively Cure and Cure II.

Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

I want to see more Conjury. A lot more..

Also this. I'm aware that traditionally speaking, WHM are more of a cleric theme, but since it's also a CNJ (aka totally not a druid) it makes sense to have more nature oriented spells.

Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

I want to see more Conjury. A lot more. It's fine if the new effects of that span only 1-50, but WHM feels short of ground-work for anything more interesting than an identity of "most straightforward (barebone), obvious healer caricature". From there, White magic can start shaping towards more. Introduce Soulfont, a way to coalesce elemental magics into White magic, at level 50, and steadily make more off of that over level 52-60, ending in Soulfont phase now compounding towards some extreme strength hits. From 62-80, extra as much utility as from that as possible without stepping into any territory of raidwide %stat or %effect buffs.

That.

And I'd like to add some Aether-themed action. And about lillies, for me the soluion for them is:

Scrap lillies. Seriously. Just delete healing bar, SoTL and SoTL II. It won't make any difference for us.

But if S-E likes to add another thing for WHM, then add a Elemental Aether Gauge. It can measure how much aether you've drawn from the elementals. It fills everytime you use a GCD (Cure, Medica, Regen, Stone, Aero, etc). It'll be more straightforward than RDM's, since it'll be just one bar. It'll enhance the oGCDs, adding an bonus damage/heal while you have the buff added when you choose to release the mana using an action learned at level 73 (maybe Elemental Release?).

I want them to bring back Stoneskin I and Stoneskin II for WHM. The emphasis on healer diversity needs to be de-emphasized when there's only 3 (possibly 4th incoming in 5.0) healers. With DPS you can have dupes, because who cares? But nobody wants 2 WHMs or 2 SCHs in their comp. So either give all healers the basic kit of shield/regen/heals/AoE/oGCDs, or give each healer a stance like AST to augment their skills to favor either shielding or healing. I'd like them to retool Cleric's Stance and make it WHM only again but make it shift between adding shields on Cures vs more potent cures (and re-add another +5% damage DPS buff to cross-role, but under a new name since the current CS is not even a "stance" anymore). For Scholar, have it tied to the fairy. Eos=bonus potency to Physick/Regens, Selene=Bonus potency to shields

So, what I would like for WHM

Imo, WHM lacks practical ogcd skill heals, Asylum is strong but hard to use effectively due to its size and positional requirement, Assize is mostly used as a dps skill so I have an issue considering this one as a proper AoE heal in its current state(it's still the best we got), Devine Benison is fine... I suppose and Tetragramation just has too long of a CD for its effect.
Plenary Indulgence is now in a great position I believe.

Therefor what I would like

Improvement to current set

Freecure : Grants a 10% chance that after casting any spell, the MP cost for your next Cure II will be 0 and instant.
Duration: 20s

StoneIV : Cast time reduced to 1.5s, recast unchanged
Just let them weave....

Asylum : Potency increase to 200 (100% bonus) duration reduced to 12s (halved) - extra: Increase radius to Sacred Soil size
Goal: Making that skill more suited for AoE heal when people can't just stay put for 24s. It shouldn't be strickly inferior to Collective Unconscious, it should be a good alternative.

Tetragrammation : Cooldown reduced to 45s.
Base cooldown is just too long compared to Essential Dignity. Making it strickly inferior in most situation.

Plenary Indulgence : Assize and Asile refresh the duration

New skill set
First, I won't wish for any "utility" because I believe we won't receive any. I think SE wants to keep the whm the most straightforward it can possibly be, therefor let's make it straighforwardly good (yes yes that's a word...)


Beacon of Light : Increase healing received by the WHM spells by 15%. Additionally, Regen reapply itself after fading. Last 2min. Recast 60s
Only one target can be a beacon of light at a time.

Goal : Currently, WHM/AST combo struggle with AA compared to anything/SCH because of the lack of a fairy (which is a free unlimited HoT). With this change, a 15% stronger and permanent Regen a WHM/AST combo would spend less time healing boss's AA. (So more dpsss)
This should hopefully free enough gcd for a substantial dps boost. With this a WHM/SCH combo would definitely make tank healing trivial (more than it currently is I suppose)

Stone Wall the return : Apply a shield absorbing 10% of the player total hp - Ability - Recast : 90s. Last 30s.
Goal : Grant WHM some much needed mitigation for the heaviest attack. Most high tier boss always have that one attack hitting like a truck making Dome / CI a must.
90s should be enough to cover most big attack or allow for rotation with other similar abilities.

AeroIV (because we obviously need a new spell rank) :
Deals wind damage with a potency of 150.
Additional Effect: Wind damage over time
Potency: 80
Duration: 12s
Additional Effect: StoneIV refresh AeroIV duration to 12s.
Goal : That should free up enough gcd to substantially increase WHM damage (if played properly). The 150 initial potency would also help WHM deal damage while moving the need arise.

Two next spell related to new lilie mechanic

Wishlist for the Lilie mechanic


Secret of the Lily
Adds a Lily to your Healing Gauge[U], while in combat, Regen tick starts blossoming a lily, Lily blossom after 6 Regen tick. Lilies are consummed by "Lily Strenght". Entering combat always grant one lily
Only one regen at a time grants a blossom.
The idea would be to have a visual aid for the lily timer. Every 3s a Lily on the gauge grow a bit bigger. A lily is available after 6 ticks (so 18s)

Lily Strenght Instant - Ability : Recast 5s.
Enhance your next spell with additional effect

CureI : Increase chance to gain Freecure to 100%
CureII : Heals an additional injured player within 15yalm, prioritize lower hp player.
CureIII : Increase healing potency to 1500. Heal only one target.
Medica : Increase Potency to 500 and reduce cast time to 1.5s.
MedicaII : initial Cure Potency removed, Regen effect cure potency increased to 100.
Regen : Regen also increase your healing done to the player by 20% for its duration.
StoneI-IV : If target is below 20% hp, kills it. Does not work on stronger ennemies (boss). note: StoneI-IV only consume the lily if the additional effect is triggered.

Goal : Lilies works similarly to a Eatherflux, except that you generate them over time (and not 3 every 60s) and are used to enhance the next gcd.
I purposely didn't make something like "Stone: Increase damage done by 50%" because I have the feeling Y.P will specifically want to avoid whm spending all their lilies on DPS.
On the otherhand, I felt like healer leveling needed a small push, so now WHM can finish off low hp target in a pinch ^^.
As a side note: Specifically because Y.P recently said he doesn't like the current state of healers in the game (spending too much time dpsing) I somewhat assume we'll be less OP in ShB. So by definition all this extra heal should be seen as "welcomed" and not "useless because boss don't hurt enough".

Secret of the Lily II : Lily Strength can now be used on Assize, Asylum or Tetragrammation. Doing so reduce the recast time by 10s, 25s and 10s respectively.

Secret of the Lily III : Lily Strength can now be used on Raise.
Additional Effect - Wither - Cannot use Lily Strenght with Raise. Last 60s.

Raise - Resurrects target to a normal state with full health and mana. Instant.

Call of the element : Call forth the spirit of the element, enhancing your next offensive spell into a greater form. Ability 120s - Consume all Lilies
Additional effect : Cooldown reduced by 10s per Lily Consummed when used.

StoneIV : Becomes Earthquack - Deals earth damage to all nearby enemies with a potency of 350.
AeroIV : Becomes Hurricane - Inflict wind damage to all nearby enemies affected by AeroIII and AeroIV. One effect : 250 potency Two effect : 500 potency
Additional effect : Refresh AeroIII and IV.
Holy : Becomes Water Spirit - Summon a Water Spirit to help you in battle. Last 30s

Water spirit abilities :
Refresh : Restores target's HP. 3s cast Cure Potency: 400
Healing Mist : Place a Healing Mist on self gradually restoring HP of all party members within the mist. Potency 180 last 18s
Flood : Deals water damage to all nearby enemies with a potency of 200.
Additional effect: Reduce damage done by 5% for 6s.
Additional effect : Dismiss the Water Elemental

WHM has been my main for most of FFXIV, and still is. I've seen a lot of great suggestions over the various expansions on how the class could be made better; some really great ones in this thread. Tying the class more closely with it's main-line heritage while enhancing it's current quirks would be a great way to reinvigorate the class.

Here's my wishlist:

Add Wall
WHM should always have protect in one form or another. Protect was almost removed from the game entirely with Stormblood because you can just rebalance content around it not being there. Yoshi-P insisted that it stay however since it's such a core spell of Final Fantasy. I agree. In the same vein, Shell should also be in the game. The classic White Magic "Wall" spell delivers both Shell and Protect in FF. Let WHM reclaim protect, add shell, and give it a drastically shorter duration and increased benefits. Make it a spell you insta-cast at the start of each pull or during battle, just like a real FF game. But keep it group based! An individual cast version, like in pvp, doesn't appeal to me. Oh, and of course, give it a new animation.

Add Berserk
Looking for a way to buff the DPS? You got it. Many may forget that Berserk is traditionally White Magic. Now, I'm not suggesting it lock DPS out of their skills like actual berserk, but I'd propose that casting it doubles Auto-Attack speed and increases Auto-Attack damage by %50. Or something. I'm not a numbers person, whatever amount makes it worthwhile. That can be a huge increase in DPS for one player. Then put it on a cooldown that's also balanced. Maybe once every two pulls? Cheers. (Also rename the WAR lvl 6 skill)

Water Damage Spell... Deluge?
Please. PLEASE. I know I'm going to get a Stone upgrade already, it's fine, I accept that! But god damn it please break up the monotony of Wind and Stone. Give me flashy water effects to drown my enemies with! And better yet, add some synergy between it and Aero. Let this skill add a "Drenched" DoT leading to...

Typhoon
A trait that upgrades the damage on your Aero II cast if the target is suffering from a "Drenched" status effect, turning Aero II/III into Typhoon. This releases the rest of the DoT ticks from drenched as well as all the DoT damage of an Aero II/III all at once in a flurry of wind and water.

You could throw out Deluge on multiple targets for prep and activate Typhoon on them all at once with an Aero III cast, or you can focus one target and do Deluge > Aero II over and over, replacing stone maybe as our bread and butter?

New Stone
After forever and a day of turret casting stone, our new stone ability is the clipping DPS skill we've been looking for. Typhoon becomes our new bread and butter.

Trait: SOtL III
Time to rework Lillies. Instead of lilies being a gauge that you build up, use, build up, use, etc. Lets keep it passive... hear me out. Each Lilly gives WHM a passive AoE Regen (think Lucio). Stand near me and you get a VERY low, auto applied, passive regen. Not enough to negate consistent damage, but say a DPS goofed and took a hit, then didn't get hit for the next 30 seconds? Should be great for that. SOtL 1 & 2 are reworked into "You can have 1 Lilly, you can build 2 lilies, etc". Passive regen potency increases with each lily.

Basically you're such a badass as a lvl 80 White Mage that you're able to charge the Aether in the air around you into a persistent state of healing energy.

As for how you generate lilies? Mh... Crit regen ticks? Perhaps synergize it with "Wall" where when party members take x amount of damage it generates a lily, similar to Brotherhood for MNK but with taking damage instead of giving it.