Raid DPS Contribution is IMPORTANT

[LarcSekaya]

If the leaks are true, AST has cards for around 6% individual DPS increase and a buff based on the number of different cards active that is max 6% too. (Plus access to both sects on an ability and a strong mono target ability that uses the other sect aspect. New AoE heals free of MP cost.
WHM has a 10 % defensive buff, that's it. The rest is pure healing (single target or party wide), a big nuke every 90seconds. There is still one unknown skill in its kit that seems tied to the lilies though.

IMO, WHM is not competitive at all, because it always boils down to DPS up rather than Defense up.

Neutral sect (CD for both at once) will actually be pretty useless in most encounters. Rarely will you be in a fight where you need to constantly reapply shields every 3 seconds and when the HoT lasts for 18 seconds, you only need to apply it twice within the CD. It sounds like a really strong ability, but if you’re diurnal sect, the scholar probably already has the shields covered and you already have access to he HoT.

The single target ability that does the opposite sect effect helps fill in the gaps, but at a potency of 100, I wouldn’t say it’s strong. The potency will definitely need to be upped.

[Stabby-Chan]

White Mage is my main, so I am here to defend it. ^_^

WHM is the pure raw healer of the three.
The other two can not come close to the raw healing power and MP Recovery that whm brings.
A great WHM within a seasoned group can solo-heal a run and put the other healers into DPS mode.
In tight-healing, the WHM can save the MP of the other healer by having the group stack together and Cure III (or Assize).

Sure, you can talk to me about those special skills scholar and ast have for recovery, but those are just "Special" and not "Standard" and so here is where we hit the great divide.

Developers have stated that all content is designed so all healers can get through it. This means they will not make a boss that requires super massive WHM level AoE healing to the point AST/SCH wont be able to keep up without spending too much MP. However, they won't make a boss that has SUCH an extremely powerful attack that without shields, the entire party will be wiped on a single hit (outside of failed mechanics).

This means the shields won't ever be greater than whm's raw healing.
Still, all three healers are "Doing it wrong"

The purpose of shields are to TAKE THE HIT in that 30 second time frame and finish your combos, not AVOID taking the hit.
So when the shield is applied, but the players do not take the hit, its just wasted MP. However, white mages do not use cure iii enough. You know, you can save the other healer MP and also increase group DPS by simply saying "Oh just stack at that one attack, take the hit deliberately and ill Cure III" instead of always doing that at mechanics-only.

[Yuyuka3]

White Mage is my main, so I am here to defend it. ^_^

WHM is the pure raw healer of the three.
The other two can not come close to the raw healing power and MP Recovery that whm brings.
A great WHM within a seasoned group can solo-heal a run and put the other healers into DPS mode.
In tight-healing, the WHM can save the MP of the other healer by having the group stack together and Cure III (or Assize).

Sure, you can talk to me about those special skills scholar and ast have for recovery, but those are just "Special" and not "Standard" and so here is where we hit the great divide.

Developers have stated that all content is designed so all healers can get through it. This means they will not make a boss that requires super massive WHM level AoE healing to the point AST/SCH wont be able to keep up without spending too much MP. However, they won't make a boss that has SUCH an extremely powerful attack that without shields, the entire party will be wiped on a single hit (outside of failed mechanics).

This means the shields won't ever be greater than whm's raw healing.
Still, all three healers are "Doing it wrong"

The purpose of shields are to TAKE THE HIT in that 30 second time frame and finish your combos, not AVOID taking the hit.
So when the shield is applied, but the players do not take the hit, its just wasted MP. However, white mages do not use cure iii enough. You know, you can save the other healer MP and also increase group DPS by simply saying "Oh just stack at that one attack, take the hit deliberately and ill Cure III" instead of always doing that at mechanics-only.

I cannot understand how you can literally name the flaw in the 'pure healer with greatest HPS' schtick they keep sticking on WHM and in the very same post defend it!
You said it yourself, they will never release content that will demand super-big WHM heals, so all that healing is

W-O-R-T-H-L-E-S-S!!!

And since they STILL refuse to give us any meaningful way to make ourselves useful outside of healing, which is only necessary until a certain value of healing is reached, we will still be benched for another two years!

[RyuDragnier]

I cannot understand how you can literally name the flaw in the 'pure healer with greatest HPS' schtick they keep sticking on WHM and in the very same post defend it!
You said it yourself, they will never release content that will demand super-big WHM heals, so all that healing is

W-O-R-T-H-L-E-S-S!!!

And since they STILL refuse to give us any meaningful way to make ourselves useful outside of healing, which is only necessary until a certain value of healing is reached, we will still be benched for another two years!

I wouldn't say never...considering they just gave SCH access to Regen on Sacred Soil, a burst AoE heal on the fairy that uses up 10 gauge, and Seraph who can do the fairy stuff, but at a stronger level. AST has been consistently able to reach WHM levels of healing, and with this possibly bringing up SCH, it's very possible we may see more super heals needed. That's of course assuming SE wants that sort of thing added and implements it, no telling these days with their decisions (good and bad).

[Manuka]

... it's very possible we may see more super heals needed. That's of course assuming SE wants that sort of thing added and implements it, no telling these days with their decisions (good and bad).

Unfortunately I can almost guarantee that wont be the case if past decisions are anything to go by. It looks to me that SE's goal is to make it so the below-average to average healers out there have a greater likelihood of clearing content (which looking at clear rates for SB I can see where they're coming from). It's probably for that reason alone healers are getting dumbed down and given far more instant healing tools than necessary, while also giving tanks/dps heals, raises, mitigation and utility to better diffuse the healing responsibility. Cause if there's one thing I've noticed is that you can carry a bad dps, sometimes a bad tank, but it's really difficult to carry a bad healer. So maybe this is their solution to that problem, I just wish they didn't remove every level of complexity in the process.

[DotsNnots]

White Mage is my main, so I am here to defend it. ^_^

WHM is the pure raw healer of the three.
The other two can not come close to the raw healing power and MP Recovery that whm brings.
A great WHM within a seasoned group can solo-heal a run and put the other healers into DPS mode.
In tight-healing, the WHM can save the MP of the other healer by having the group stack together and Cure III (or Assize).

Sure, you can talk to me about those special skills scholar and ast have for recovery, but those are just "Special" and not "Standard" and so here is where we hit the great divide.

Developers have stated that all content is designed so all healers can get through it. This means they will not make a boss that requires super massive WHM level AoE healing to the point AST/SCH wont be able to keep up without spending too much MP. However, they won't make a boss that has SUCH an extremely powerful attack that without shields, the entire party will be wiped on a single hit (outside of failed mechanics).

This means the shields won't ever be greater than whm's raw healing.
Still, all three healers are "Doing it wrong"

The purpose of shields are to TAKE THE HIT in that 30 second time frame and finish your combos, not AVOID taking the hit.
So when the shield is applied, but the players do not take the hit, its just wasted MP. However, white mages do not use cure iii enough. You know, you can save the other healer MP and also increase group DPS by simply saying "Oh just stack at that one attack, take the hit deliberately and ill Cure III" instead of always doing that at mechanics-only.

This... this is so out of touch and incorrect I don't even know where to begin to constructively deconstruct it...

[EaMett]

WHM not having utility isn't really the issue IMO. They're cutting down on synergies and whatnot, both SCH and AST are seeing their utility slightly nerfed. It's really fine if WHM have heavy pDPS. It's just that it's never been the case outside of dummy scenarios and ultimate coils. It's hard to tell where they currently stand just looking at released potencies but the lack of an ogcd dps skill is still very telling.

[Josco]

WHM not having utility isn't really the issue IMO. They're cutting down on synergies and whatnot, both SCH and AST are seeing their utility slightly nerfed. It's really fine if WHM have heavy pDPS. It's just that it's never been the case outside of dummy scenarios and ultimate coils. It's hard to tell where they currently stand just looking at released potencies but the lack of an ogcd dps skill is still very telling.

Except it does make that big a difference. It is huge. Check out pre-echo parses from Alpha:


Compare it to post-echo (after WHM got a pDPS buff):


This is personal DPS. The raid buffs from AST/SCH together are so huge they blow WHM's personal dps out of the water. Now add to this what those buffs are doing for the party, and it's not even almost close. This is why WHM needs a party buff--no matter what you say, people know the truth. Noone wants to walk into already difficult content basically starting off with a party debuff.

[EaMett]

I'm not sure what you're expecting from post echo? Since it buffs all healers equally. The current issue is that pDPS doesn't make up for the added rDPS of other classes. (not to mention pDPS for WHMis already lower than others in non dummy scenarios). But my initial post took all of this into account, maybe it wasn't clear?