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

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:
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