White Mage - Skill Acquisition Changes

[Semirhage]

I don't exactly miss Stoneskin for all the reasons stated, but I do have a small issue with Benison: it is Stoneskin. It's a version of Stoneskin fixed for usability. And that's great! So why is it not obtained at level 34? And why did fixing one ability go into the job's 60-70 new skill budget? It's not new. Minor Arcana and Chain Strategem are actual new level 66 abilities. Fixing Stoneskin and moving it 32 levels higher is not. If they'd fixed Stoneskin and given a new ability to the healer that already has the most gutted kit, then I'd be totally on board.

[Atlantasia]

Eh.... I really can't understand how people can be so excited about that trash spell.
I mean, we're talking about a 10% max hp shield unusable in combat. How is that even remotely interesting?
Utterly trash in a raiding environnement (I mean, it wouldn't have any impact in any boss from os1 to 12, because 10% max hp on the very first AoE is just barely noticeable)
Barely useful in dungeon, since only the tank is actually being hit... 10% max hp for a swiftcast, what is it? One regen tick saved? (technically you got Divine Benison which does the same, is ogcd and usable in battle)

And instead (not sure "instead" is appropriate... not like they serve the same purpose) we have Plenary Indulgence, an ogcd that can reach 450 potency heal, and you're trying to figure out "when it has a purpose"?

Easy, anytime you can weave, even if only for the 150 on the tank, it's still better than a 10% max hp shield that will be soaked by the first explosion the boss will deal (which is, in most scenario, not the one people care about)
Ofc, if the hardest fight you've done is o9s or o10s, ok fine maybe you might have an issue finding a use of PI, after all, these fight (especially o9s) require so little healing, 2 fairy could heal the fight. (Beside Earthphase and ArkMorn)

Original Stone Skin was an 18% shield with Granite Skin Trait at level 36 by the way, not just 10%. :3 Prior to Heavenward when it was nerfed to 10% it was a much better and more useful spell. Better than Divine Benison currently is because it could be casted on the entire party throughout the fight as a GCD spell and Benison is only 15%.

XD So I will completely miss my Stoneskin as it originally was, because it was extremely helpful for mechanics back in the day, especially for raid content.

[Sylvain]

This is technically an issue for everyjob.
New job have their core kit available early whereas older job don't (most of the time)

For healer, we could follow with
SCH get Bane and Miasma2 at 30 and 46, WHM get Holy at 45 or Aero3 at 58 and AST get Gravity at 52 (somehow Synastry is apparently more useful at lv 50)

Giving healer access to AoE early on would make dungeon much more enjoyable. SCH being obviously golden with Bane super early.

Perhaps giving both WHM and AST a weaker version of their current AoE toolkit would help. I know leveling ARR dungeon as WHM and AST was really dull. Tab dot tab dot tab dot

However, this issue isn't only with healer.
Mainly, dps not having access to essential tools to unlock their potential in dungeon makes some job very good (usually the new one, and BLM) and some other utterly inneficient (old job, but BLM)

Regarding core rotation:
DRG learn their second melee combo at lv50, Blood of the Dragon makes no sens until lv58 and Mirage Dive+Nastrond, the core of SB new mechanic, are learned litterally 2 lv before the end.
BLM is fine in ARR, but the whole HW skill order makes no sens. FireIV being the bread of butter of BLM, it's learned super late. lv 52 should have been Enochan and 54 FireIV.
NIN + DRG : Throwing Daguer + Piercing Talon are learned at lv15, when they are not needed, while DoomSpike and DeathBlossom are learned at lv 40-42, when they would be needed in the very first dungeon. (or second at least)

Those are just a few things, but the level at which these spells are learned are pretty flawed. You want every job to have access to their core kit early on. Then you add up fluff skills to spice up and complexify the rotation as they level up.
not the other way around.
Usually newer job don't suffer these issue as their core spells are learned quite early on.
For instance, RDM litterally all his 4 element + jolt and his AoE at lv30 making them enjoyable to play at any level. (And they get their aoe at 18! how nice)


It'd be nice if for ShB, every job get some rework in that regard. So that by lv30 they are functional and have most of the core part of their gameplay available for the player to learn. (1-2 basic combo, AoE, etc)

[Ceasaria]

The cost of Divine Benison was originally at least 1 Lily and you unlock Lilies lvl 52 (with Asylum).

[Rilifane]

The cost of Divine Benison was originally at least 1 Lily and you unlock Lilies lvl 52 (with Asylum).

True, but it was a flawed design from the start.
Let's rework SS and add a clunky req to it, WHM will love it!

Now that the lily req is gone (good riddance!) it could and should be moved down. With an oGCD shield at mid 30, WHM wouldn't only feel more rounded at lower levels but it's also a good way of teaching people early on the usefulness of oGCDs and how it frees up gcd time for dpsing and adds mobility. Between 35 and 50 you get nothing relevant in terms of healing. It's exactly the same.
The only thing that changes between 16 (when you get MedI) and 50 is basically pushing one button every 18sec when you get Regen, because CureII simply replaces CureI in most situations unless you are really tight on mp.

[Noitems]

WHM is so friggin strong at raw healing it makes any dungeon from Satasha to Aurum Vale a joke.

I'd say AST needs those skills early on to balance(Yes I have jokes) the card mechanics as it's supplying raid buffs mainly and needs tools to heal efficiently. While WHM is absolute raw healing and doesn't need to worry about anything past keeping every healed and the occasional esuna.

Also WHM is generally advertised as the first healer job most people will play in the game, and having those skills gated for later levels does reinforce the idea that you're in charge of healing your party. By 35-50 you start getting skills like Refresh and Medica II which allows for HoT which does take part of the load off (which in turn means more dps but new healers may be foreign to this idea), but the early levels prime yourself for when you need to take charge in healing if stuff goes wrong.

SCH and AST have so many other things going on that they need the earlier high potency heals to make up for their locked out toolkit early on and don't really blossom until 60.

[Kabooa]

WHM is so friggin strong at raw healing it makes any dungeon from Satasha to Aurum Vale a joke.

Back when we could cross class into the healing spells proper, literally any of the Caster DPS jobs could heal them too.

I don't think White mage is the problem.

[Grimoire-M]

Back when we could cross class into the healing spells proper, literally any of the Caster DPS jobs could heal them too.

I don't think White mage is the problem.

One of my fondest memories as a new player back in ARR was playing on a 8-12 FPS laptop and healing the tank through 2/3rds of the last boss on Keeper of the Lake as a BLM, because the healer had died to some random AoE in the first phase. The other DPS kept themselves alive via bloodbath while I used manaward and the garbage Physicks were enough to keep the tank alive the entire time. Plus I sometimes used Physick in A4N in order to ensure I could soak two orbs when that instance was new.

Mind you it wasn't all that interesting in retrospect, but it's proof that those instances were pretty weak compared to what people talk about for balance.

[Cheremia]

I didn't read much but i do feel sad when i don't have Tetra but have Bene.

But i usually don't need either in those types of dungeons either even if i heavily prefer using Tetra over Cures but what can you do.

For Ast on the other hand, they heavily suffer from "i have no aoe" syndrome for a WHILE and that is what really gets to me.

[Seraphor]

For Ast on the other hand, they heavily suffer from "i have no aoe" syndrome for a WHILE and that is what really gets to me.

SCH isn’t much better.
With SCH you technically have AoE, but it requires you to apply two DoTs and Bane, that’s 3 GCD’s to set up an AoE DoT. By that point, everything is half dead and a DoT isn’t the most efficient method you could use.
But at least it has Shadowflare by 50.