A Message For Yoshi-P

[Valesken]

Yoshida-san,

Tonight, for the first time ever in a Final Fantasy online game, I had absolutely no fun—no fun at all—playing as a White Mage. I don’t understand what your plan was for healers in Shadowbringers, but I’m bitterly disappointed with all the changes that you’ve made for that role. I am now seriously considering cancelling my account (which has been active since version 1.0). I was already disappointed when you decided to remove Stoneskin and nerf Fluid Aura, but I think you completely lost me with the White Mage changes in Shadowbringers. Hopefully, you’ll make some adjustments soon, otherwise, good luck managing queues without healers...

Thank you,
Nelly Arcane, WHM main in FFXIV (Gilgamesh)
Valesken, WHM main in FFXI (Quetzalcoatl)

[Wilford111]

Weird cuz I'm at level 74 in the msq, playing as WHM, and I'm having loads of fun

I actually really like the lily heal, instacast but also still part of your Global Cooldown. The fights seem designed (so far) to require more healing, though I'm gonna hold off on saying that for sure until we're a few months into the expansion. But yeah so far WHM is looking great.

It's AST that needs attention. Please let us have seals when we throw cards as soon as the tank pulls. Why this isn't already in the game is beyond me. Haven't tried SCH yet.

[Valesken]

Yeah, from what I’ve seen so far, WHM looks in a better state than other healers, but still... Boring as heal compared to what it used to be... Just look at the number of abilities that we have now (including Fluid Aura & Repose). Anyway, good for you if you're enjoying.

[Wilford111]

Yeah, from what I’ve seen so far, WHM looks in a better state than other healers, but still... Boring as heal compared to what it used to be... Just look at the number of abilities that we have now (including Fluid Aura & Repose). Anyway, good for you if you're enjoying.

I mean what did we really lose? Aero III? You could count Protect, Largesse, and Cleric Stance, but since they either have a long cooldown or literally have a 30min effect timer, it doesn't feel like we're losing much in that regard.

[Valesken]

I’m sorry, but with each expansion WHM is loosing some abilities... I don’t see the point, shouldn’t we get more? Just check other jobs’ Hotbars & Rotation. And yeah, I miss Aero III big time, Stoneskin I & II, Protect and Cleric Stance, Eye for an Eye, I’d get Shell and Haste while we’re at it. And Fluid Aura used to be useful too (CC + free DPS since off cooldown). Maybe I got too much buttons on my mouse or I’m used to have no downtime...

[Zeromon]

I would understand your disappointment better if you had a problem with anything but White Mage. It plays near identical to how it did before. We did lose Aero 3 but that doesn't change the way we play unlike SCH losing ED for example. Fluid Aura and Stoneskin has been gone for 2 years so I don't know why it's a knock on ShB White Mage.

Still, old problems with WHM still persist and it's strengths have stayed. If you didn't like SB WHM the current one won't change your mind.

[Valesken]

You’re right, I have a problem with the direction they went with all healers in Shadowbringers, but I just tried WHM today. All 3 healers jobs were fine in SB if you ask me (individually + good synergy between all three). Why remove Aero III anyway, you just use it if you want to... plus it’s not like I’ll leave a party member die to throw in a quick DoT...

[Warkupo]

It feels almost exactly the same.
Instead of casting my two dots I cast one dot.
Instead of casting my aoe I cast my other AOE.
Then I cast broil until my dot is done cooking and I put another dot in the oven.

The biggest adjustment is that you need to use aetherflow to cast heals so you have more juice for damage.

It's exactly as boring as it was before.

[Trunks]

I like how you can remove a third of the buttons we need to press for most of our playtime and the white knights say, "it's exactly the same!"

While we're at it, let's just remove DOTs. It feels exactly the same - just one less button. Just one less button. Every expansion it's just one less button. (Except for the new buttons that you don't ever need to press.)

And no, it does not feel the same. Having to manage two DOTs on separate timers, one with a cast time and one without, is not the same as managing one instant DOT of a longer duration. And then there was Cleric Stance, and lining it up with other raid buffs. It wasn't much, but it was something we could do to be try-hards when the content was not hard.

For a lot of us, White Mage was already on the cusp of being too boring. We said as much when SB came out, and for two years we've been shushed and told to wait for the next expansion, hoping against hope that they'd do something to make up for the disasters of SB-launch WHM and SCH. Here we are. With ShB, they gave both Jobs a good, hard shove off the cliff.

[Warkupo]

I like how you can remove a third of the buttons we need to press for most of our playtime and the white knights say, "it's exactly the same!"

While we're at it, let's just remove DOTs. It feels exactly the same - just one less button. Just one less button. Every expansion it's just one less button. (Except for the new buttons that you don't ever need to press.)

And no, it does not feel the same. Having to manage two DOTs on separate timers, one with a cast time and one without, is not the same as managing one instant DOT of a longer duration. And then there was Cleric Stance, and lining it up with other raid buffs. It wasn't much, but it was something we could do to be try-hards when the content was not hard.

For a lot of us, White Mage was already on the cusp of being too boring. We said as much when SB came out, and for two years we've been shushed and told to wait for the next expansion, hoping against hope that they'd do something to make up for the disasters of SB-launch WHM and SCH. Here we are. With ShB, they gave both Jobs a good, hard shove off the cliff.

I'm not surprised you're using "White Knight" as an insult. Scholar has always been the low effort class, so it's not shocking that you're trying to defend it with a low-effort insult.

I don't disagree with your logic as to why healers are boring, but I disagree that this expansion is what made healers boring to DPS; Healers have ALWAYS been boring to DPS. Scholar, more than any other healer, is full of redundant abilities that do near identical things to each other, and it has been amusingly stupid to watch this community try to defend how two buttons with the exact same functionality and near identical duration is somehow more mentally engaging than one button with the exact same functionality and near identical duration.

The biggest adjustment is that Aetherflow can't be used for crappy DPS moves, and you must spend them on healing instead, which is what I assume Scholar is really upset about since they're used to just smashing their forehead on the 1 key and then hitting 2 and 3 every 25ish seconds to justify letting their co-healer and fairy do all the work because they're busy with their complex DPS rotation of three (SOMETIMES FOUR) buttons.

Scholar/Healers are exactly as boring as they always have been and this expansion didn't change that. If nothing else I hope the incessant whining convinces Yoshi-P that healers want a DPS rotation that is slightly more complex than "apply dot(s), shoot magic, repeat"

Since we're on the subject, a pbAOE that applies its full damage immediately is vastly superior to an AOE dot in terms of DPS, and is generally more engaging as well. You have to contend with enemy attacks you normally wouldn't interact with by moving and then staying in melee range, and you're always doing all of your damage for the trash pull instead of losing some percentage of it because the DPS wiped out the group before your piddly DoT could apply its full strength. Nobody is willing to mention this in the sea of "Se ruined mah job!", but it's definitely more interesting and useful than what we had previously.