Why White-mage's lot spells bad game design

[Sedalia]

this highly situational ability has very niche. i am sighing when i write this cause i expect more much more from this ability. but it only really shines in raiding or some 4 man boss fights. be frankly its major heal spell that has very minor uses. and it makes me mad

players dont actually learn how to use this ability until 65-80 doesn't give you enough time practices this also depends actions of your teammates. and cant count how often my dps and -

I gonna be honest when say this. wish didn't have say this heart-breaking to say this but cure sucks. free-cure sucks. whole cure design currently sucks

Medica should be medica II can currently no one uses medica anymore. unless under the effects planetary delverance watch mind is unnessercy extra button to press just make these two spells and some others strongers. just so can double the power of your aoes.


1-49 whites mages have "no ogcds" and you will feel the effects of this when tanks pull wall to wall. only thing keepin them alive is one button spam for 49 levels. and only reason you cast "holy" is for it stun cause that damage it deal sucks its like hitting monsters wet noodle makes matters worse its 45 spell pbaoe and fire II hits harder

"But hey healers not so post do damage. tell that to scholar who has art of war that bloody murders stuff"

"But you have assize and blood lily .. yah you get blood lily 76 and assize upper 50 when your queueing for leveling rolate or dailies you have joy to use it. if you forced into a dungeon that is below 50 it is torture to play whm"

"but white mages have utility they have fluid aura. "Hiss" you listen here we don't talk about this ability here . its is highest decree of every white-mages frustration's healer job with no buffs. we lost aero III, White Mage Stable -Protect Stone skin had are spell nerfed to hit like wet noodle. sheer mention of this abilities bring sadness and rage to all white mage mains and if this ability is still in game by end walker. then say every healer or white mage start a riot get mad start refusing to heal. dont care if that made this ability make your white mage fart rainbows. if it named fluid aura its bad. lvl15 is where protect should be. but someone in squire enix thought protect was overpowered or bad game design must worser then fluid aura

I tell you what thou I better not see fluid aura II upcoming expansion. or never white mage again

Role Skills - Lets talk about bad game design

Rescue - this looks great on paper guys. but its junk . doesn't save anyone. in fact try save someone its so slow they still manage get hit by aoe becomes meme this point healers use this ability is flat out trolling don't get offending . its just bad

Repose - some reason healer single target sleep only really castable if you swiftcast cause of its massive cast time. its not aoe. frankly not helping you not helping anyones

seems like only good healer role skills you have is swiftcast, surecast. mana regenation ability rest of it garbage should not go on hotbar never used

this shows how much devs do not care

[Adeacia]

As a WHM main, I have to disagree.

I've been going though the story again on a new character from the beginning. Did the first 3 dungeons as a CNJ and didn't have any problems. They went by really quickly and in Copperbell the tank even did really big pulls, which I wasn't expecting at that level but it wasn't an issue in the least. I could only heal with cure 1 sure, but I was also doing dps the whole time.

Also, holy does more damage than you think. Packs die much faster with than without. The only thing I feel is wrong with WHM is the lack of an AOE dot. I miss aero 3.

[Sedalia]

As a WHM main, I have to disagree.

I've been going though the story again on a new character from the beginning. Did the first 3 dungeons as a CNJ and didn't have any problems. They went by really quickly and in Copperbell the tank even did really big pulls, which I wasn't expecting at that level but it wasn't an issue in the least. I could only heal with cure 1 sure l, but I was also doing dps the whole time.

Also, holy does more damage than you think. Packs die much faster with than without. The only thing I feel is wrong with WHM is the lack of an AOE dot. I miss aero 3.

I personal want see holy do more damage in upper 70-90s cause at that point barely see the monsters hp move at all. after 5-6 casts only take about 10-15% with other dps and tank hitting it was well. trash pulls seem take alot longer or tank pulls so big that you cant fully cast holy without them taking ogcd. or losing 60-80% of there health. at this point have put happy healers cap on and go brr. cause dps isn't opinion anymore

we also need talk about holy animation. how slow that is its bit junk upon casting holy white ball also takes a second before it explodes so actually casting time of holy 3.50 cause of the sheer junk of it

it changes when get higher there brief case where you get cure II realise hey dont need case cure 1 anymore. copperhell mines isnt really were that happens. it starts get 60 gets higher. compared to how holy used to be compared to it is now. sometimes even see there hp bars move. only times start seeing major dents . thing is what trying say is they no longer have be different buttons

cure should have trait that makes it cure 1 and cure II to cure III. simpler to your stone skill. this isn't really removing buttons. its just compressing it into one. depending what level you are. currently kinda sucks get to point were no reason to use cure 1 or free cure for that matter cause have so many ogcds . only really using cure II spam as a last resort when all other opinions are spent.

any white mage main knows holy has aoe jank! most aoe animations you do damage then then animation. holy is different. moment you finish casting you get this lag or 1.50 wait for it explosion before it actually does anything. on that note. look at it from that prospective then you can actually see why holy can be seen as bad all for holy animation change just so get deal its damage quicker so dont have wait for big white ball to explode

[Adeacia]

Cure 1 becomes Cure 2 I can agree with. Cure 2 becoming Cure 3 is a no. They have different uses plus Cure 3 costs a lot of mp.

Cure 2 can be used for basic heals when you don't have an ogcd or Lilly ready, but I like to use Cure 3 on stack mechanics since it's a close range aoe and everyone is grouped up. Which is the only time I ever use Cure 3 but it still has a use.

[Sedalia]

Cure 1 becomes Cure 2 I can agree with. Cure 2 becoming Cure 3 is a no. They have different uses plus Cure 3 costs a lot of mp.

Cure 2 can be used for basic heals when you don't have an ogcd or Lilly ready, but I like to use Cure 3 on stack mechanics since it's a close range aoe and everyone is grouped up. Which is the only time I ever use Cure 3 but it still has a use.

reasons i have issue with cure III boils down to game designs and boss mechanics. there countless times where everyone takes damage or we have aoe that compresses everyone together. i began cast cure III and everyone scatters before cure III is off. and they miss that big bulky heal. don't lie say this never happen to you. if white mage you experience this at least once in your life cycle. stack mechanics was added because this was a problem. cure III had lot controversial issues. so thought they could patch it by adding mechanic. however did not patch it very well. have situations where still people scatter to quickly alot time risk was not worth the reward. only few boss fights in game i can name of head where cure III is dominate

think is cure III needs be buffed mostly ranged. think its way to punishing to white mages upon casting it. specially for its mana cost. not saying change what it does. if cure II changes to cure III cure III still be what it is now it probably cost 1000 have more radius its area of a effect and have higher potency and be more forgiving to the white-mage so not missing much there. cure III can be very unforgiving special if used wrong currently sometimes that cant be helped you only try cast it. and if team isn't it range it misses. you have relay other opinions to keep them alive. while trying keep up

Higher level this makes sense cause hard casting cure that often . unless tanks are complete trolling you refusing to use cooldowns upon big pulls not saying there wont be issues not saying that there wont be times where you wont be hardcasting same button to keep tank alive just major changes and adjustiments but still feel same as they do

[Deceptus]

think is cure III needs be buffed mostly ranged. think its way to punishing to white mages upon casting it. specially for its mana cost. not saying change what it does. if cure II changes to cure III cure III still be what it is now it probably cost 1000 have more radius its area of a effect and have higher potency and be more forgiving to the white-mage so not missing much there. cure III can be very unforgiving special if used wrong currently sometimes that cant be helped you only try cast it. and if team isn't it range it misses. you have relay other opinions to keep them alive. while trying keep up

Cure III is a simple fix.

1) Change it to Medica 3. Trait Medica 1 into Medica 3. Give Medica 3 the range of Medica 1. Medica 1 is useless in higher levels.
2) This frees up Cure 3 to be the next big single target heal.
3) It also gives consistency. Medica line is aoe, Cure line is single target. Zero chance for confusion.

[AnotherPerson]

reasons i have issue with cure III boils down to game designs and boss mechanics. there countless times where everyone takes damage or we have aoe that compresses everyone together. i began cast cure III and everyone scatters before cure III is off. and they miss that big bulky heal. don't lie say this never happen to you. if white mage you experience this at least once in your life cycle. stack mechanics was added because this was a problem. cure III had lot controversial issues. so thought they could patch it by adding mechanic. however did not patch it very well. have situations where still people scatter to quickly alot time risk was not worth the reward. only few boss fights in game i can name of head where cure III is dominate

think is cure III needs be buffed mostly ranged. think its way to punishing to white mages upon casting it. specially for its mana cost. not saying change what it does. if cure II changes to cure III cure III still be what it is now it probably cost 1000 have more radius its area of a effect and have higher potency and be more forgiving to the white-mage so not missing much there. cure III can be very unforgiving special if used wrong currently sometimes that cant be helped you only try cast it. and if team isn't it range it misses. you have relay other opinions to keep them alive. while trying keep up

If you're using Cure III and people spread out immediately after, the immediate incoming damage after the mechanic is probably not lethal enough to warrant a Cure III and a Medica II would've sufficed as the total HoT potency would be greater than a Cure III.

A Cure III is mainly used for on-demand raw potency healing, where the next hit would kill your party unless you had that raw HP buffer because your other tools cannot heal that much in the next GCD. The best example here would be Min ILV Coils and Akh Morn's consecutive blasts. It's the same concept of why Cure II heals for 700 potency but is less MP efficient as Cure I (450 potency) vs Regen (1200 potency but only if you have 18 seconds to spare).

If you run into a situation where you do need Cure III to survive the next incoming blast but everyone spread apart and dies, you just have bad teammates. There's nothing wrong with the skill's intended purpose or range. Your teammates just need to play better...

If anything, I'd say Dancer's Curing Waltz needs a radius buff... 3 yalms is much smaller than 6 yalms.

As for Medica, it's in a weird place currently at 300 potency. If it was buffed, it would directly become a better Succor. It's in a very niche situation where you need 100 more potency upfront healing while having Medica II ticking in the background.

1-49 whites mages have "no ogcds" and you will feel the effects of this when tanks pull wall to wall. only thing keepin them alive is one button spam for 49 levels. and only reason you cast "holy" is for it stun cause that damage it deal sucks its like hitting monsters wet noodle makes matters worse its 45 spell pbaoe and fire II hits harder

Holy is still a useful skill and isn't weak just because it's 20 potency weaker than Art of War. Just because Fire II does more 4 potency more in Astral Fire III, doesn't mean it's stronger than Holy due to the MP cost associated with Fire II. It's not sustainable with its 3000 MP cost, and swapping over to Freeze is a potency loss (Astral Fire to Umbral Ice is a 0.7x penalty and vice versa), which stacks up overtime when you're spamming both skills in a rotation.

The thing Holy has compared to the other two healer's AOE is the 4 second stun. Even with diminishing returns, the stun component enables WHM to not have to hardcast another heal when the enemies aren't hitting the team, which saves up an extra GCD or 3 from casting another Cure II / allowing to let regen run its course. This translates to an additional 2-3 Holy casts(280 to 420 additional potency per target). That's a huge difference in the early game since enemies generally die much earlier than 1 minute, so it becomes a free invuln every pull. I'd say it only sucks midgame (61-70) since you start feeling the lack of weave slots and start having excess lilies doing nothing when you're playing well thanks to how effective Holy works as a mitigation tool. After you get the Afflatus Misery though, you can pretty much get DPS back via throwing away your excess lilies while running to the next pull, thereby making Holy indirectly giving us a huge DPS increase again.

[Saefinn]

Holy vs Art of War, as a SCH lover if I had a choice I'd prefer holy. Art of War has no flavour of its own and shouldn't have replaced Miasma II, but it seems the wanted to give SCH a Holy/Gravity equivalent, but with a lack luster animation and nothing that really offers a benefit. Gravity can be cast from afar and free-cast thanks to Lightspeed. Holy can stun. Art of War is cast from the same place as Holy and you're left dodging AoE's on trash pulls a WHM can stun and the end result doesn't feel that satisfactory. Sure Miasma II was satisfactory, but it was a part of a bigger mix of abilities and didn't need that big AoE mentality of WHM and AST because each had their own way.

That said, I do agree that Holy should do more damage. IMO: WHM should feel powerful, SCH should feel tactical and AST should feel technical. One thing that bugs me about the evolution of healers is that over time they just kept nerfing Holy for balance reasons, and then come ShB, SCH & AST get their rDPS aspects watered down and I think, "couldn't we have just kept Holy at a higher potency then and let SCH & AST have their thing?" Now they all feel unsubstantial.

Cure III does seem highly situational, but most of the time Medica & Medica II are your best bet over Cure III (And Plenary Indulgence on top). I think it probably get more raid usage when people stack together, but I think maybe oGCD's have made this less used?

Then 1-49 level climb is the old healing experience. I think it's still valuable to learn. 1-49 teaches you how to heal well when you're in a tight spot you might experience when your oGCD's are all on cooldown but without putting you in one. Levelling is the ideal place for the game to teach you how to play your job.

Rescue works, I've successfully rescued people and have been rescued. The problem is that some mechanics can be quick and you've got to be quick and you're not always going to be. I don't think it's a flaw in the ability, just the nature of encounter design meaning if you're wanting to use it you got to be quick to react.

Fluid Aura I agree isn't great, but some spells can be situational. Cure I I think should upgrade into Cure II after a certain level. On WHM I have Cure I removed from my crossbar, on AST I have Benefic I remove from it and Physick from my SCH's.

I think there's certainly things to complain about WHM and healers in general, but WHM is probably the most fluid of the healers and has a healing kit that makes more sense.

[Aword3213]

1-49 whites mages have "no ogcds" and you will feel the effects of this when tanks pull wall to wall. only thing keepin them alive is one button spam for 49 levels. and only reason you cast "holy" is for it stun cause that damage it deal sucks its like hitting monsters wet noodle makes matters worse its 45 spell pbaoe and fire II hits harder

"But hey healers not so post do damage. tell that to scholar who has art of war that bloody murders stuff"

"But you have assize and blood lily .. yah you get blood lily 76 and assize upper 50 when your queueing for leveling rolate or dailies you have joy to use it. if you forced into a dungeon that is below 50 it is torture to play whm"

Even with no Ogcds, white mage is doing fine below 50. Low level dungeons are filled with locked rooms or mechanisms that require you to interact. Brayflox Longstop can do wall to wall pulls, but even SCH has hard time handling it due to not having aetherflow yet. However, Cure II spam can still handle it just fine. if not, maybe the problem lies on other roles such as tank or DPS. killing things too slow or DPS not having aoe skills yet still doing pulls for example.
Once Regen and Holy are acquired, WHM can handle pulls well. 3 healers have different
ways to handle pulls. I don't think WHM is as miserable as you stated it is.
Don't even bother mentioning Aurum Vale. Doing big pulls in that dungeon is basically suicide

That said, low level dungeon is never fun to any jobs. This is not an issue unique to white mages

I tell you what thou I better not see fluid aura II upcoming expansion. or never white mage again

Sadly, such healer design are well received by bigger audience. Many angry healers in this forums claim ShB healers are so bad that healer numbers are few, but in fact, the number of healers, especially White Mages, grow exceedingly large.

Despite not having utility, not enough weaving window, less efficient than Diurnal Astro, it seems to me that the majority of player base just don't care.

One can even say ShB white mage is now at the best position it could ever be by just looking at the statistics

While I disagree on the issue WHM has in leveling experience, I do agree that WHM traits need some rework. Free cure fishing is stupid and not practical. Repose and Fluid Aura have their use but are way limited to certain situations

[FusionSamurai]

Rescue is one of the best skills in the entire game, what are you on???