Glare and Glare III aren't as impactful as they should be.

[Doragan]

Yeah, I said it already on multiple occasions, but I wanted to elaborate a bit more.

First of all, let's talk a bit about the past.

White Mage, during the transition from HW to SB, unfortunately, didn't receive much. It had it's mana sorta fixed with Thin Air, a Secret of the Lily (No clue what's that about still to this day, I'm afraid). A few removals as well (RIP Shroud of Saints and Aero), and its overall rotation didn't improve too much. Less dot uptime, more nuke spam. However, in my opinion, it got 2, pretty significant things.

A new PC animation for WHM casts. Its first half was first introduced with Holy in ARR, then was used for Aeroga during HW.



and, more importantly, Stone IV.



Until then, the WHM casting animations that you would often interact with were either the exact same. Cure, Stone, Aero, Esuna, Protect casts.. all the same. Sure, the way you send away the spell was different, but it was very, very samey.
But now, you got a rather active animation specific to your nuke filler. Hands moving towards your target with strengh. Refreshingly straightforward animation for a powerful spell. Stone IV is impactful. Very, even, compared to the other ones. Huge flat slab of stone crushed to dust. Cracks on the floor. Crushing sound, like you broke stone off the enemy's back. Dust particles. Very memorable when you get to cast it. The best spell feedback from WHM, imo, still to this day.

Now, let's compare it to what followed it.






Glare, and Glare III.

They use the same PC animations, however the spells effects are moved from Stone to Light.
The sound design is very different however. Rather than a crush, it emits a twinkling, swift sound. It fits the Light element yes, however.. it doesn't match with the PC animation at that much. The cast animation is meant to be impactful, for an equally impactful spell being thrown. Yet.. it's just light. It's literally just pretty lights. I thought it was a shield cast at first, but no. It's a nuke. The sound is very faint, the animation is nothing special, and basically no feedback. No weight coming from the animation. How is this stronger than the spell that came before? Conveniently, no lore explaination either. You do light now, deal with it. I'll say this though, I don't believe the element is the issue here. It's how it's used in conjunction with the animations for WHM.

"Okay Doragan. Twinkle lights bad. Big stone goes boom good. Did you really need to make a thread for a single spell?"

The important part is that this is the effect and spell that you're going to see and cast, like 95% of the time. That wasn't so much the case in SB when Stone IV was introduced, even if it was a huge amount of time, you still had variety. You had Aero II and Aero III to keep up. But for the amount of time you had to press that wretched button, it was very satisfying to use for what it was. Now, not only there's a clear disconnect with the animation, the effect, the theme and the SFX used, but it just isn't as satisfying as the spells that came before. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if we didn't have to press that damn Glare button all the time.

"But it's just an animation though? Your rotation won't change if they change it!"

Yes. That's very true, but it's an animation that you get to see 95% of the time. If the animation is more satisfying to use, if it feels better to use, and if you get some meaty feedback from it, you will feel more engaged with the action.
I've said it a lot before, but how an action feels to use is almost as important as what the action does in itself. If it feels bad, it could deal 7000 potency, I still wouldn't be happy about it at all. It's an MMORPG, not a real time action one.. we are bound to press buttons a lot. If those buttons feel bad, or in this case, the singular one feels bad, the whole thing is even worse. My prime objective is having skills and spells that feel good to use, especially if you're going to force me to press it over and over and over. If it feels bad to use, PLUS it isn't too fun to begin with... hell yeah I'm gonna say something about it.
Yes, WHM rotation is a balance problem. There is no denying that from me.
However, I don't believe that this current ordeal has to feel as bad as it currently does right now.

"Again, it's just an effect.. it's not that important"

I believe it is. Remember when EW was released, the reaction to Broil IV was? People thought it sounded really weird. Some players even thought it sounded like a lalafell in the background. I really didn't enjoy it, and it impacted me whenever i went to do a duty for the story. It was important back then, and it is important whenever I use this spell, which is practically all the time. It's not just a gameplay issue for WHM -- it's a complete design issue, from gameplay to visuals, to sound design and its overall feedback. A complete package that you get to experience whenever you pick up that job. And I would say, it's maybe even worse in PvP because you need to get more feedback than PvE, imo.

My personal suggestion? Light and white magic has shown that it can be just as oppressive as any other element. Give me some of that ShB's soul cracking sound effect. Overwhelm your enemy with light. Let me cast a freaking light pillar. Shatter their soul in crystalline cracks. Give me some Light Rampant feedback. Let me feel that enemy aether freaking break within my grasp.
No twinkling. Brute force that stuff. Show me some power goddammit.


NB: Stone IV and Glare footage are from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX6adKlGXNc

[Elesh]

I personally really like the glare 3 animation. But I can certainly appreciate why you might disagree. Just a difference in preference, here. I prefer the subtle, more understated impact of Glare 3's orbs and quick explosion to the more brute force feel of stone 3.

[elioaiko]

Honestly Stone IV hit different. You can FEEL it. Idk how to describe it, but I don't care for Glare and III's sfx, they're just meh.

Like they obviously want to go for the holy whm route which is fine but they could have at least tried to make it nicer? Like it's all the same white, blue color scheme aside from Misery.

I've seen some mods on YouTube that make really pretty, fitting versions of WHM abilities.

[GrimGale]

From WHM I feel the animation for Afflatus Misery is the one deserving a re-design. Its a 1230 potency spell, an extremely powerful spell and the animation feels so flimsy and weak. You twirl and a red flower sorta fizzles in place on your target. No snappy explosion, no screenshake, the sound effect reminds me of someone hitting a windchime. Probably the worst offender in terms of translating the actual potency of the spell on screen.

[Doragan]

I personally really like the glare 3 animation. But I can certainly appreciate why you might disagree. Just a difference in preference, here. I prefer the subtle, more understated impact of Glare 3's orbs and quick explosion to the more brute force feel of stone 3.

Honestly, I get that. The animation isn't ugly or anything, but I feel that there's a bit of a disconnect between the casting animation and the result, if that makes sense? I thought the same about Stone 3, too, but I don't think I've played WHM enough in HW to really judge it. It looks a bit weird compared to 2 and 4.
Regardless, I do think it's good that people also enjoy this one then. I'll be frank, I wish they would let us use the old animations just by upgrading the old actions to current potency. That way, we would be able to pick if we have a favorite one.
Do you think the PC animation could be improved, or do you enjoy them both?

Honestly Stone IV hit different. You can FEEL it. Idk how to describe it, but I don't care for Glare and III's sfx, they're just meh.

I wish they would be a bit more impactful really. It was such a wide contrast between Stone 4 and Glare though. They could've eased up on the transition a bit more? I wouldn't have minded crystal based skills.

From WHM I feel the animation for Afflatus Misery is the one deserving a re-design. Its a 1230 potency spell, an extremely powerful spell and the animation feels so flimsy and weak. You twirl and a red flower sorta fizzles in place on your target. No snappy explosion, no screenshake, the sound effect reminds me of someone hitting a windchime. Probably the worst offender in terms of translating the actual potency of the spell on screen.

I agree. The PC animation for that one though, I think they really nailed it. It feels like a finisher for sure. The flower motif is cool, but it doesn't feel very weighty for such a strong spell that you see not too often. Except in PvP I guess, but that's probably even worse since it has very little feedback. Or is it okay because the potency isn't that strong there? I'm on the fence. pvp whm lb feels strong, so surely it was taken into consideration, right?

[Semirhage]

I agree. None of WHM's DPS abilities have much "oomph" to them. Now, I personally thought Stone 3 looked cooler than the ugly cube rendered on a PS1 that was Stone 4, but that's also down to preference. All of level 90 WHM's damage abilities look and sound like you're gently shaking a chandelier in the enemy's direction.

[Allegor]

To me, WHM is the literal definition of "all flash, no substance".

It's sad that the "powerhouse" has the least impressive and impactful animations across the board, both for dps and healing.

Agreed. Some people would be something something 'WHM is the gentle job, you can't make a flower look badass', meanwhile, in Fate:



Imagine if WHM had Passage of Arms instead, idk, call it Afflatus Sanctuary lol

[Rilifane]

My favourite nuke animation is Stone III. It felt impactful and the WHM stayed on the ground and had a nice wide stance instead of doing this awkward hip dangle thing I came to despise. Aero 3 and Holy looked nice, I loved the magical girl staff twirl of Aero 3 and I like the animation in the air much better than we currently have.
The new animations are all random sparkles and that's it. No impact behind it, I dislike the casting animation itself and then there's the flimsy little flower with the windchime sound for Misery.

Afflatus Purgation on the other hand... now that is an animation that makes you feel the impact and would've been much better for Misery then what we ended up getting. The flower motif with a giant laser shooting out and the WHM doing this "In your face!" spread is perfect.

It's sad that the "powerhouse" has the least impressive and impactful animations across the board, both for dps and healing.

[Absimiliard]

They make tremendous impact when the tank that hasn't been healed in almost a minute finally dies to a tankbuster because the WHM just had to finish that last Glare cast.

[AnotherPerson]

To me, WHM is the literal definition of "all flash, no substance".



Agreed. Some people would be something something 'WHM is the gentle job, you can't make a flower look badass', meanwhile, in Fate:



Imagine if WHM had Passage of Arms instead, idk, call it Afflatus Sanctuary lol

That animation looks more like Sage's Haima and Panhaima now, lol. Haima and Panhaima is basically what that stacked shield does, except instead of breaking individually and renewing as a uniform shield, that one amplifies & reinforces itself based on stacks. A more "dynamic" interlocking shield. Each shield that breaks will weaken the structure rather than crumbling entirely.

Ex:
1st stack = 300 potency.
2nd stack = 300 potency * 1.2 amplification = 360 potency
3rd stacks = 300 potency * 1.3 amplification = 390 potency
4th stacks= 300 potency * 1.4 amplification = 420 potency
5th stacks = 300 potency *1.5 amplification = 450 potency
Total potency = 1920 potency

Versus Haima which is just 6 stacks of 300 potency for 1.8k potency.