White Mage Attraction

[Isilien]

As you know White mage still sorely falls behind Astrologian and even the other healers. One way to solve this is by giving some identity back to White mage which was heals, heal over time and elemental buffs.

I would start by removing the hots from the other healers, especially from the barrier healers., their niche are shields. If you must give Astro a hot, put it on a 5 sec cd, but 50% stronger than their current hot.

Return mass Esuna that leaves a hot on the party.

For support a single target buff to a single player that is almost equal if more to divination 6%, for 10 secs, on a 60/120 sec cd.

Return stone skin and let it heal upon dmg break with 5 charges or so.

Fluid Aura needs to come back. Just because players didn’t use it, doesn’t mean it wasn’t used. Utility should never be removed. I used it plenty on target that the tanks missed or to leave behind an annoying mob that hits too hard to give me more time to heal the tank back up.

White mage is the healer know for damage, so return aero IV for AoE dotting. Any target that has a dot could then take increased elemental/aspected dmg from the party and self.

Or Afflatus Misery could leave a dot behind on any target it hits or increase the damage of the party for 5 secs.

I believe this would make White mage more attractive, while not making it more convoluted.

[Semirhage]

I'd like WHM to be more complex. It's a drum I'll beat until it either happens or I quit this game. ARR WHM, Cleric Stance warts and all, was so much less engaging than ARR Scholar and it only survived due to higher/more frequent outgoing damage, and Scholar's lack of on-demand burst AOE healing. And that version of WHM was leagues more engaging than its Endwalker version. I don't want to give Square an inch on this- their healer design for the last several expansions has been embarrassing and awful, and it doesn't magically become less embarrassing and awful just because the words "White Mage" enter the same sentence.

Make Healers Engaging Again.

[Isilien]

I agree fully. I started back in HW on another account and loved it in.

what about the points I brought up?

[Semirhage]

I agree fully. I started back in HW on another account and loved it in.

what about the points I brought up?

I think it'd make WHM a more attractive pick in the current healer landscape, as it would fill in several gaps that WHM mains have been begging for years (damage buffs, more damage spells, etc). Given my preference though, the entire healer landscape would see a revamp that would change how we'd look at adjusting abilities entirely.

It feels like rather than giving White mage more attractability, you're making other classes less desirable. I'd love to see something that makes white mage desirable without taking away other classes utilities and functions.

Now this is a debate I've been having for years too. What exactly could WHM have that gives it attractibility that doesn't take away from other classes' functions? WHM is painted into a corner where it's not allowed buffs, not allowed debuffs, not allowed utility, not allowed highly available mitigation, because all of that is the "identity" of the other healers. But the rub here is, that (damage buffs especially) is what FFXIV's combat system tests you on. That was the crux of my arguments that Scholar and Astrologian were overpowered in Heavensward and Stormblood. It's a venn diagram of situations that don't spell disaster on their own, but in their overlap it means you're stuck. It's the question that needs an answer: when you have other classes in the rest of the role whose "identities" are "being good at everything the combat system wants a healer to be good at" i.e. high personal damage, high party damage buff contribution, great free healing tools, mobility, and mitigation, and you have a healer that needs brain surgery because it's only okay at one or two of those things, then how can you improve it in a way that isn't either worthless bloat that the combat system doesn't care about or isn't "stepping on the other healers' toes"?.

[AnotherPerson]

Now this is a debate I've been having for years too. What exactly could WHM have that gives it attractibility that doesn't take away from other classes' functions? WHM is painted into a corner where it's not allowed buffs, not allowed debuffs, not allowed utility, not allowed highly available mitigation, because all of that is the "identity" of the other healers. But the rub here is, that (damage buffs especially) is what FFXIV's combat system tests you on. That was the crux of my arguments that Scholar and Astrologian were overpowered in Heavensward and Stormblood. It's a venn diagram of situations that don't spell disaster on their own, but in their overlap it means you're stuck. It's the question that needs an answer: when you have other classes in the rest of the role whose "identities" are "being good at everything the combat system wants a healer to be good at" i.e. high personal damage, high party damage buff contribution, great free healing tools, mobility, and mitigation, and you have a healer that needs brain surgery because it's only okay at one or two of those things, then how can you improve it in a way that isn't either worthless bloat that the combat system doesn't care about or isn't "stepping on the other healers' toes"?.

Easy. The real main problem is how healers in general have terrible flexibility in DPS options and utility options to be honest. They have little to no variability other than healing -- which is why WHM is currently stuck. Having ways to branch out of that will fix WHM's issues. If THAT problem gets solved, then WHM will get a niche.

Have more shield-type skills that can immediately become a DPS skill following after - becoming DPS neutral or even possibly DPS positive under boss-downtime.

Ex: Stoneskin returns as a GCD AoE Shield skill, but has a longer cast time than recast time (3 to 4 seconds). Under the effect of Asylum, Stoneskin can be instantly cast once, but still on the GCD. After using stoneskin, the skill will turn it into the second GCD skill on the same hotbar - Earth Rupture -> AoE damage on target.
This way, the skill acts like Reaper's Soulsow -> Harvest Moon and gives WHM a way to place barriers. However, the barrier is inefficient due to the longer GCD cast time, but doesn't take away the identity of the barrier healers. At the same time, it doubles down on WHM's identity of a Conjurer and manipulates the elements while simultaneously shoring up its lack of shielding and having a more varied GCD gameplay depending on how Asylum and Stoneskin is used for optimization.

The main problem for healers is that there isn't any complex decision making. Because we have SO MUCH healing power, a lot of the skills can never be used at their full potential unless it's content in Savage or Ultimate. You can just go through content while rarely using the skills. In that case, what really needs to happen is for healers to manually have to make decisions on trading healing or having options for more DPS or more buffs -- but not in the straightforward manner.

Healers needs more depth in decision making, whether for DPS or healing. Healers also need a way to fallback in case the plan doesn't work out by being able to change to a more defensive / recoverable gameplay if DPS is not an option and recovery is the priority. This is what the healing kit should contain.

The problem is that we have ways to fallback. Too many of them in fact, that there is no depth in decision making. So that just makes defensive and recoverable gameplay completely dependent on the player's comfort level themselves rather than being part of the toolkit. In this regard, SCH has a semblance of good gameplay through Energy Drain (albeit it's still lacking depth).

Edit: Before someone calls this similar to Lily system before the DPS-neutral lily update, NO, that's not similar at all. You're literally comparing a core job mechanic to individual skills. THAT is bad game design - being decentivized to use your constantly-charging heal skills. Having decisions outside of your core healing is GOOD game design. This example is a more niche esoteric example, but to set this up, we must have a GOOD and functional game design. Otherwise, you would be left with expecting RPR to spam Soulsow -> Harvest Moon as its core gameplay loop and ignoring their Enshroud gauge .

We still lack more core gameplay decisions - while DoTs are good, SCH should get a more DoT oriented gameplay imo. Other jobs like WHM should get a more spreadout variety of DPS skills that can charge healing skills to create their own version of a rotation.

Ex: PvP Seraph Strike on a 60 sec cd, but retrofitted into PvE WHM. Using Seraph Strike grants 1 charge of instant Cure III (Holding up to a maximum of 3 indefinitely). To incentivize Cure III and not become a DPS loss, using these Free Cure III charges will act similarly to charging the Blood lily. However, because your core job gauge already does that (Lily gauge healing), it's not a loss to hold and use Free Cure III for healing. Throwing away excess healing is also an option for Afflatus Misery, but the gains are not worth it since you already can do that with your regular Lily charges on a 20 second cooldown.


And if you really want to get crazy, for utility sake -- we can have a Wind-themed skill like 'Fetter's road' or something -- become an AoE line Totem skill. Any allies who run on the 'Fetter's Road' Totem gains increased {Movement Speed} while any enemies in the path will gain a {Slow / Windburn / Heavy} debuff. This is in direct contrast to SCH's Expedient - which is not bound by location and range and applies a mitigation buff as well.

Fluid Aura can be a self-buff status effect skill that enables WHM to have certain situational skills gain an additional effect for more versatility {Thin Air lasts for a set duration of time, Stoneskin becomes instant cast, Presence of Mind reduces the cast time of healing spells by another 25%, etc.}

If you really want to play into the WHM utility gameplay, give it a Beacon skill.
After placing a Beacon, party members who attack the Beacon will be marked with a status buff. When the WHM uses the skill again, the Beacon will automatically activate and pull all allies toward them. You can think of it like a specialized version of Rescue.

[MilkieTea]

It feels like rather than giving White mage more attractability, you're making other classes less desirable. I'd love to see something that makes white mage desirable without taking away other classes utilities and functions.

[Supersnow845]

You cannot remove regens from the barrier healers, All you’ll do is create a nocturnal AST situation where the class is functionally useless in 1 healer content and relies far to heavily on the regen healer in 2 healer content

Honestly WHM needs to lean into lily’s more, revert glare to stone and dia to aero, bring back aero 3 and make it worth casting on single target, return fluid aura as a damage oGCD, add a third lily spender that is a small upfront heal and a powerful regen, change plenary to be on a 4 charge system of “affects the next spell” 20 seconds per charge and don’t be afraid to buff stones potency mid expansion to keep it in line with AST’s scaling buffs

That would honestly make WHM close to perfect

[AmiableApkallu]

You cannot remove regens from the barrier healers, All you’ll do is create a nocturnal AST situation where the class is functionally useless in 1 healer content and relies far to heavily on the regen healer in 2 healer content

Honestly WHM needs to lean into lily’s more, revert glare to stone and dia to aero, bring back aero 3 and make it worth casting on single target, return fluid aura as a damage oGCD, add a third lily spender that is a small upfront heal and a powerful regen, change plenary to be on a 4 charge system of “affects the next spell” 20 seconds per charge and don’t be afraid to buff stones potency mid expansion to keep it in line with AST’s scaling buffs

That would honestly make WHM close to perfect

I like how you think.

[Semirhage]

Easy. The real main problem is how healers in general have terrible flexibility in DPS options and utility options to be honest. They have little to no variability other than healing -- which is why WHM is currently stuck. Having ways to branch out of that will fix WHM's issues. If THAT problem gets solved, then WHM will get a niche.

Have more shield-type skills that can immediately become a DPS skill following after - becoming DPS neutral or even possibly DPS positive under boss-downtime.

Ex: Stoneskin returns as a GCD AoE Shield skill, but has a longer cast time than recast time (3 to 4 seconds). Under the effect of Asylum, Stoneskin can be instantly cast once, but still on the GCD. After using stoneskin, the skill will turn it into the second GCD skill on the same hotbar - Earth Rupture -> AoE damage on target.
This way, the skill acts like Reaper's Soulsow -> Harvest Moon and gives WHM a way to place barriers. However, the barrier is inefficient due to the longer GCD cast time, but doesn't take away the identity of the barrier healers. At the same time, it doubles down on WHM's identity of a Conjurer and manipulates the elements while simultaneously shoring up its lack of shielding and having a more varied GCD gameplay depending on how Asylum and Stoneskin is used for optimization.

I like the direction of this, but it raises another question: how does this solve the problem of WHM bringing unique strengths to the table? Giving WHM access to weaker, inefficient versions of what the other healers have shores up the gaping holes in its kit, and that's important. What at that point does it have that elevates it from "crappier, less efficient version of the other three healers" if we're still stuck in that design rut where giving it anything useful needs to come with tradeoffs because otherwise it steps on "has an answer to literally everything" toes? As we've seen from past expansions, raw healing throughput isn't an identity; it's a one way ticket to being the weakest healer in the role, a spot it's occupied with few breaks for four expansions now.

[AnotherPerson]

I like the direction of this, but it raises another question: how does this solve the problem of WHM bringing unique strengths to the table? Giving WHM access to weaker, inefficient versions of what the other healers have shores up the gaping holes in its kit, and that's important. What at that point does it have that elevates it from "crappier, less efficient version of the other three healers" if we're still stuck in that design rut where giving it anything useful needs to come with tradeoffs because otherwise it steps on "has an answer to literally everything" toes? As we've seen from past expansions, raw healing throughput isn't an identity; it's a one way ticket to being the weakest healer in the role, a spot it's occupied with few breaks for four expansions now.

A big thing to note is that to improve healer gameplay to develop unique strengths: in terms of healing, we're not talking about inefficiency, but rather versatility. Because at this point, what every healer need is NOT more upfront healing power (besides, tanks already take a large portion of the healing away). And that's another issue with healers and encounter design in general. Due to the scripted nature of encounter design, there is only a certain amount of unavoidable damage that all healers must be able to heal through. Players can have a large amount of time not using some of their skills. Because of how much of the mechanics are scripted, healers start to measure their healing throughput through the total effective raw healing value they contribute to the team. All that does is force the healer to press Glare / Dosis / Malefic / Broil more. A lack of DPS skills is a problem, but an overabundance of healing for all jobs is another problem in itself, because then it becomes a numbers comparison game and only "one real way to play healers using their healing rotation" rather than having a wide breadth of versatility to adapt to the needs of the situation and the needs of the team -- which is what the healing toolkit is originally designed to be for.

When your healing numbers are so high that versatility no longer matter, then there's no talk about unique strengths because the reality is that people are talking about just being weaker numerically rather than talking about wanting a unique strength. Healer toolkits have been too overpowered exactly due to this that the changes can't be made in a vacuum for each individual healer purely for healing numbers. The other healers currently have 'stronger and straightforward healing tools', but they don't feel as much of an improvement because their versatility gets overshadowed by bigger healing numbers, resulting in the remaining time all spent on just 500+ actions of Dosis, Glare, Broil, and Malefic by the end of an encounter instead. Unique strengths can only exist when each healer toolkit is unique enough to stand apart from each other, but the freedom of choice to adapt is what makes the gameplay feel fun rather than mind-numbingly boring and the same.

To develop unique strengths, we want a couple of pre-requisites:
-All healers must be able to heal at a similar level to be able to clear content (MP/Healing core foundation with initial job gauge, total free healing should not exceed each other by very much for unavoidable damage)
-All healers must have a different gameplay design that is fun and engaging in its own way

Then we can develop different versatility for strengths that would work for an encounter.


With the introduction of DPS-neutral lilies, WHM gained their equivalent of oGCD healing but with a different playstyle. With GCD-support oriented abilities like Plenary and Temperance, WHM gained support skills towards their core gameplay loop, solidifying the core healing fundamentals that every job needs. All jobs already now possess the ability to heal solidly.

Now, WHM needs ways to highlight their GCD gameplay by bringing additional unique strengths that other jobs don't have for support. This can be done with unique effects or more unique playstyles.

AST has been buffed to insane amounts - they gained lots of MP regeneration, have divination utility, have tons of healing, and ways to create a delayed healing effect. This isn't an identity, but an overtuned toolkit... However, healing delay and card effects is their highlight and what sets them apart from normal raw healing.
SCH did not get any ridiculously powerful healing potency skill this expansion, but they are still a priority pick as a healer -- this is exactly because they offer stronger shields and most importantly - the versatility of having group mobility buff / mitigation when possible. They are incredibly stable to use and adjust.
SGE is still picked because it can mitigate without issues and has strength in its unique flexibility (Kerachole being a very strong highlight), but it's shields are weaker. In contrast to SCH, it does not suffer from any limitations of their toolkit (Dissipation and Seraph creating locking other skills). It does exceedingly well to multi-hit encounters with Panhaima, Haima, and Kardion. It also has mobility for itself with Icarus.
WHM has Free GCD DPS-neutral healing -- which means all they did was be able to compete with other healers at a similar level for visible healing values in content. However, they did not yet develop a very strong gameplay design other than using GCDs as their priority. They are lacking additions to set them apart from a standard healer whereas other jobs have more layers of utility to play around.

There is a strategy game I play -- Arknights -- and it has a clear example of how each character in the game have a different rarity and different skills. Usually, the higher the rarity, the stronger the character is. However, even lower rarities may outperform higher-rarities due to their niche in what they can contribute based on how the encounters are designed for a battle. Perhaps some healers heal 500 HP per attack interval (GCD) and others heal 370 HP, but some can use their skill to gain absurdly fast burst healing (Reduce GCD cast and recast time) or grant crowd control or moves the enemies, which exceeds the potential of what other healers can perform at that level or under a given moment in time to survive in a pinch. This is something I think needs to be translated well for the healing design in particular. Because FFXIV have 4 healers + many skills + the design philosophy is to make a pair of healers able to clear any content together, healing output should not be a 1-to-1 comparison, but instead a series of strengths and weaknesses that certain healers can handle better than others based on their unique playstyle. Encounter design should then reflect that change afterwards.

Now, here's the big thing I want to show to you guys for comparison sake in a vacuum.

Holy.
An absolutely fantastic mitigation skill. When used against mobs, it essentially provides roughly 7 seconds of stun per encounter. This can be treated like 7 seconds of Hallowed Ground for mobs. This is what made WHM very amazing when fighting in dungeons at lower levels whereas other healers simply had more free healing.
The problem is that this skill is only usable for [Mobs]. It has no effect on [Bosses]. This creates a disparity between healers because originally, WHM lacked free healing, but had Holy to replace the amount of healing it required via Crowd Control effects. In a game where both [Mobs] and [Bosses] are equally relevant, Holy should have been made in a way where it still had some form of reduced effect on [Bosses] because most boss encounters doesn't give any benefit to having this skill. This tradeoff for utility to healing power is very clear-cut in a Vacuum. Now, if [Mobs] actually hit significantly harder? Would Holy be seen in a better light? Perhaps, but we don't encounter [Mobs] frequently for 8-man content, nor do they target everyone in the party consistently. It has very limited value otherwise, which makes it seem like a weakness rather than a strength.

Likewise, SCH's Expedient.

A great [Boss] skill, it allows players to quickly move and dodge mechanics. It also provides a 10% mitigation buff. Against [Mobs], the effect is reduced because you don't really need to move after the tank finishes pulling the enemies. Instead, it just becomes a 10% damage reduction. However, damage reduction is still *useful* regardless. The difference is the degree of versatility.

Likewise, SGE's Panhaima.

A great [Mob] skill and a [Boss] skill - it shields all allies in multi-layer shields. Each shield mitigates a portion of the damage. For large groups of mobs, there will be many auto-attacks and few weak hits, this is an amazing skill. However, [Bosses] usually have 1 heavy-hitting tankbuster. This skill does not nearly get as much value against a tankbuster, and also has a delay before the excess barriers expire and refund half the remaining shields' potency into a heal. There are clear drawbacks. However, it doesn't mean the skill is weak to all [Bosses]. For example, you have multi-stack mechanics in Endwalker Trials. In those fights, suddenly, Sage's Panhaima becomes very powerful because it can attain full value. This is an example where the Encounter fits the design of the skill.

Now... imagine if Expedient lasts for 25 seconds, has 120 second cooldown ... and there's a mechanic in the background that lasts for 30 seconds that requires you to move around the map a lot every 120 seconds... Expedient will be very useful here.
Now... imagine if 'Fetters Road' lasts for 8 seconds, has a 60 second cooldown with 2 charges, and there's a mechanic that lasts for 10 seconds and requires you to move around the map a lot to avoid big damage ... BUT this is mechanic happens twice between 30 second intervals from the each cast, before the boss repeats a different set of mechanics. Suddenly, 'Fetters Road' becomes much more comfy even though Expedient has a niche there. This is inherently due to the design choice of a "weaker but faster activation skill" versus a "longer but bigger cooldown skill", which ultimates drives different usages and utility of the same skill.
Now... imagine if the boss doesn't really have a mechanic that forces you to run everywhere, but there are still mechanics that require movement. 'Fetter's Road' has a shorter cooldown and can be placed for more ideal burst mobility windows, but not everyone may be able to take advantage of it based on the mechanic. In contrast, Expedient has a longer duration and can be guaranteed to hit everyone while providing mitigation. Different case usages, different effects.

These skills are all designed to improve "versatility" for a job and give it unique strengths. However, it's not going to do much for the gameplay if encounter doesn't change and if we still have to use Glare x 300 in a fight when you have so much healing that the need for versatility directly gets invalidated. Likewise, even if healing doesn't invalidate versatility, you would still have to use Glare over 300x in a fight like SCH/SGE/AST without any extra DPS skills in the gameplay to make some decision making. Once you memorize the encounter, the gameplay will still get boring as a result without an additional way to engage the player.