Quote Originally Posted by Renathras View Post
As for Final Fantasy history - historically, WHM's get VERY few damage spells.
That is true, but a lot of Final Fantasy history is single player RPGs where you, as the player, are (1) controlling an entire party, in a combat system that features (2) plenty of randomized outgoing damage and (3) plenty of status effects and elemental affinities.

Point (1) means that you, as the player, don't notice the repetitiveness of any one job as much. Points (2) and (3) mesh well with kits heavy on addressing HP and status effects.

None of those points are true in FFXIV. The actual mechanics of "white mage", and of "healer" in general, need to fit the combat model as it actually exists. (I'd love for the combat model to change, but my gut says that's less likely to happen than changes to job design.)

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WHM is my preferred healer, but after playing FFXIV for a year, it's too simple. Temperance on a 2min cooldown effectively means my only solution to a healing problem is "hope no one dies and fix HP bars after the damage hits." The lily heals and Tetragrammaton are much too close to the bread-and-butter Cure/Medica spells. The DPS kit, maybe also the healing kit, could lean more heavily into CNJ's elemental roots.

If I had to pick a specific play style to aim for, I'd model WHM as a healer after what BLM is as a DPS.