White Mage's 6.1 changes fail to address a core issue I have with the job.

[LiddyGhu]

Hello, I'm Renyci L'fay (Behemoth). I've been a hardcore raider for several years now, clearing some savage content in the first week, and if not, early second week since Sigmascape. I've cleared all three ultimates on healers, and my goal with contributing to the party is and has always been to produce as much combined damage from healers as possible. While I have never reached number 1 in this regard, I believe my perspective is still valuable.
With this in mind, what I am about to detail does not impact the gameplay of most players of this game. But I wanted to air some of my grievances about white mage anyway that have persisted since the launch of 5.0, and will be exacerbated by the changes in 6.1.

With the launch of Shadowbringers, White Mage was given the new lily system, designed around using three lilies to heal on the global cool-down, and then getting a damage refund with the use of Afflatus Misery. However, during all of 5.x, and continuing through 6.1, there is a flaw in the design with regards to phase downtime when it comes to playing as a pair with other healers. This flaw is that, when you cannot target the boss, you may expend lilies to store up your Afflatus Misery, and then use it to nuke the boss when it comes back. This does not have sweeping effects on the current tier of savage, as there are not many times where you may not target the boss or additional enemies. However, this has a major effect on the healer balance in Ultimate encounters, which leads to the White Mage almost never using lilies to heal, even when it is technically "damage neutral" to do so.

The reason for this is quite simple; the value of a white mage's lily is directly tied to the amount of Glares they could otherwise be casting, which is, I believe, the reason for the increase in potency to Afflatus Misery in 6.1. But what this also means is that you get the full damage value whenever you cannot cast another spell. With the new potency being 1240, each Lily you burn during downtime even if you do not need to heal is now worth one-third of 930 potency- or, 310. ((1,240 minus a glare for the cast of Misery itself), divided by 3) This value is above both Astrologian and Scholar's abilities Fall Malefic and Broil IV at endgame. The value of using Lilies during downtime rises even further if you can use Afflatus Misery for necessary movement, or under buffs received from other players and tinctures of mind. This leads to it being more worth it for the other healer, in my case a Scholar, to cast Succor over the white mage using lilies to heal, if and when there is downtime available in a fight.

Even when working alone, it is better for a white mage to burn lilies during downtime and use Medica II instead during uptime if absolutely required, since you lose the same GCD damage value but gain significantly in healing value. Illustration of this:
[Post 1/2...]

[LiddyGhu]

Situation 1: During uptime, you use a Lily to heal with Afflatus Rapture.
Result 1: You charge 1/3 of misery, losing a 310 potency Glare III, and healing for 400 potency.

Situation 2: During a time the boss is not targetable, you burn a lily which does not heal. When the boss comes back and uses a raidwide damage attack, you cast medica II.
Result 2 : You charge a lily for free, but lose a 310 potency Glare while casting Medica II, and heal for a total of 1,000 potency.

Even though the reasons for changing white mage's Afflatus Misery come from the right place- trying to make it neutral to use Lilies in full-uptime scenarios- the adjustment to getting one every 60 seconds instead of 90 seconds and heavily increasing the potency will likely have a major impact on the Ultimate content for healers of FFXIV, because that content often has short windows to deal damage to bosses and long periods of mechanics without anything to hit. I do believe that white mage deserves to have its power increased to feel on the level of the other healers currently, but the amount of damage that Afflatus Misery used in this way and could potentially deal in Ultimate is way too much to ignore, and is for now making me quit the idea of playing Scholar, since White Mage does not seem to be designed for working together with other healers, and more for being selfish about DPS at the expense of another healer player.

As an addendum to this post, I would like to thank anyone reading and request that everyone remain civil and understanding about my perspective as someone who tries very hard to contribute the most that I can.
I do believe that White Mage needed to get a boost right now, I just very much dislike the way it feels to play together with a White Mage while optimizing the usage of Afflatus Misery. You are all welcome to agree or disagree or even choose not to have an opinion on this matter. I have no idea how Afflatus Misery should be changed to avoid this detailed situation, but I just don't enjoy it being the way it is currently. And I cannot rightly tell my white mage main friends to stop playing their favourite job. The only thing I can do is deliver my personal feedback to the developers here on the official forum. [Post 2/2]

[Semirhage]

This is in line with the problems I have with the lily system. They reward several things:

• Overhealing
• Blowing resources to build a damage burst, without regard for how useful that resource was
• Blowing resource-based healing spells outside combat
• Blowing a healing spell to move, whether that spell restored any HP or not
• In Shadowbringers, being jank with oGCDs that buff your GCD heals, when you're supposed to use said GCD heals to open the weave windows for the buffs that you need to cast BEFORE you use them

Note that nowhere on that list is "creating an intuitive reward for playing the game skillfully". The lilies reward thoughtless resource dumping and overhealing far, far more than that. They're godawful stupid game design, and have been so in every single incarnation and I'll die on that hill. I know a lot of players loved them when they were changed for Shadowbringers. I think they were just as dumb for different reasons.

[Saraphin]

I did savage back during Alexander on WHM.

I guess i'm Semi-glad that Misery is More DPS Neutral. I think we are going the right way. When you figure that Sages have a way to set up which is...what boils down to a Party wide Bene...i'm feeling that WHM does need some adjustments. They're getting there. White Mage doesn't necessarily Play Nice with the other healers, but it can pull out some stuff when needed. Not going to lie? there are a lot of times i don't touch my Lilies. not because they're not useful, they are...but...I get no benefit, so i let them charge up OR i use them just to have a Misery in the wings. I've done many a Dungeon going into a boss with a misery and 3 lilies waiting.

It's..wasteful and counter intuitive and just for lack of a better word: "boring". i'm not giving up my WHM, but there's a difference between a "White Mage", "A Glare Mage" and "A Salt Mage" ...

Back when Zodiark was new, it could be solo healed. With everything Sage and SCH bring to the table, a WHM with one of them? they're a DPS bot, with a Medica 2 thrown in...or a lily bell through the bleeds in Extreme. HydEx was a bit rougher at the time, but that's because the tanks were getting wailed on and taking half their HP in DMG every GCD.

I feel that there are a lot more changes that could be made to WHM that would make it more competitive/on par with the others, but to that End, it is overall SE's choice.

AST and WHM have the same Potency for healing Spells, but AST uses less MP.

This has been a constant since the Heavensward. I'm not badmouthing any other healer, but when they're all..able to do more than the "Healer that does the Most Healing and DPS" on all fronts, that's an issue. You cannot say that this is their Identity and then not give them that Identity.

At this point? I want an emote where i throw a bouquet of flowers at someone...I feel like a glorified Florist somedays. I don't want any of the other healers to be nerfed to Emet Selch and back, but White Mage has gotten so many nerfs over the years it semi feels like their the redheaded step child of the healers.

[StrongWilled]

*not a WHM main*, but aren't lily heals still based upon GCD? I mean, i get they are instant cast, so generate some mobility, but I thought they were still on the GCD and thus granting that larger problem.

It seems like making lilies off-global and with 1/60 sec recast would be better here so the heals could be weaved. Similar to lustrate/indo or other heals with other classes. I guess i dont understand the need to have majority of WHM heals be GCD.

[Reiryuu]

*not a WHM main*, but aren't lily heals still based upon GCD? I mean, i get they are instant cast, so generate some mobility, but I thought they were still on the GCD and thus granting that larger problem.

It seems like making lilies off-global and with 1/60 sec recast would be better here so the heals could be weaved. Similar to lustrate/indo or other heals with other classes. I guess i dont understand the need to have majority of WHM heals be GCD.

They are on GCD.

We don't get why either.

[VerdeLuck]

*not a WHM main*, but aren't lily heals still based upon GCD? I mean, i get they are instant cast, so generate some mobility, but I thought they were still on the GCD and thus granting that larger problem.

It seems like making lilies off-global and with 1/60 sec recast would be better here so the heals could be weaved. Similar to lustrate/indo or other heals with other classes. I guess i dont understand the need to have majority of WHM heals be GCD.

After the changes to Glare you are able to slidecast and weave while using glare so it's not as important to use Dia or Lilies for movement, you can just prepare in advance and slowly slide over while casting until you get there.
White Mage heals seem to be a majority GCD because that's the flavor of the job, it's heavily reliant on GCD but has higher potencies to compensate. Honestly, I wouldn't want them to be OGCD, it just feels nice the way it is.

[Irenia]

I like them on the GCD.

But obviously I am in the minority on these forums.

That said, lilies should be stronger than the emergency GCD spells of WHM, and yes, this is still a problem.

As far as generation goes, I don't think the math is that simple. It really depends on the timings of things, since a capped lily is healing potency left on the table, and if you are forcing succors while capping your lilies during uptime, I think there is something wrong with you. If Ultimate truly has less than 60secs of action at a time, I may actually stop looking into running ultimate; that sounds less fun than savage.

Blowing everything during downtime will still happen, though. Please buff lily heals.

[Cheremia]

To add to aproblem that was brought up, too:

Aero II is a better Dia now.

They made it 30 seconds, which is a godsend, but they are both 60 potency.
Dia just costs 200 mp more and does nothing else that Aero II doesn't...

So Dia is the only skill that is actually a direct downgrade now.

[Semirhage]

White Mage heals seem to be a majority GCD because that's the flavor of the job, it's heavily reliant on GCD but has higher potencies to compensate. Honestly, I wouldn't want them to be OGCD, it just feels nice the way it is.

They're not stronger to compensate; the other three healers can fluidly cast damage and healing spells at the same time, while WHM has to halt dealing damage to heal, and sooner than they do, for spells that are the same potency and cost more MP.