White Mage has always been my favourite job since ARR but it's gotten progressively more dull as expansions have stripped them of all its flare and fun abilities.
This is what I'd like to see to double down on its identity as the simple big heals, big damage but little utility healer, with a focus on MP management and cast times/CGD (more than the others anyway). I also want to see stances back and since turret-style gameplay is dead, I focused on making it zone-based with Asylum so it feels less like a worse version of Sacred Soil.
Button compression:
Cure => Cure II / Afflatus Solace (when a Lily is available)
Medica / Afflatus Rapture (when a Lily is available)
Holy III / Afflatus Misery (when a Blood Lily is available)
Glare III / Glare IV (with Sacred Sight stack)
Presence of Mind / Banish (follow up attack)
Removed Traits:
Freecure (how is this still a thing)
Removed Abilities:
Plenary Indulgence
Thin Air
Updated Abilities:
Aquaveil is now AoE (to make up for the loss AoE mitigation from Plenary)
Asylum now acts as a stance and it'll drain MP as long as it's up (overall MP regeneration is still positive but much less). It also automatically cancels if you step way too far from it (this is just in case you forget it in dungeons/overworld). Range is increased.
New Traits:
Enhanced Divine Benison II: gives Reflect to DB's shield, reflecting a portion of the damage absorbed to the enemies when broken.
Enhanced Asylum II: Grants an extra 200 potency cure to every party member under Asylum whenever Medica, Medica III, Cure III, or Afflatus Rapture are used.
Generosity of the Lily: Adds a Verdant Lily to your Healing Gauge every 30 seconds, up to a maximum of 2. Verdant Lilies negate the MP cost and cast times of Raise and Banish and are automatically consumed if available.
Enhanced Assize: under Asylum, cooldown is reduced to 20 seconds.
Enhanced Aetherial Shift: under Asylum, leaves a flower trail behind for 5 seconds, granting a small cure to anyone who steps on it (this is mostly for flavor but I thought it'd be fun to see)
New Abilities:
Largesse: consumes a Verdant Lily to restore 2000MP
Banish: the actual follow up to Presence of Mind, a powerful AoE light attack with a 8s cast time and 2400 MP cost. It is a spell on the GCD so you can use Swiftcast if out of Verdant Lilies. Under Asylum, the entire ground under the dome pulses with light, damaging any enemy standing on it with an extra (much weaker) attack.
Divine Seal: This is a stance. It increases the MP cost of Glare and Holy for more damage.
Reraise: an upgrade to Benediction. Grants Re-raise for 3 seconds: When HP is reduced to 0 while under the effect of Reraise, instead of becoming KO'd, full HP is restored and Reraise is consumed. If Reraise is not consumed, full HP is restored and the end of its duration. (You can make it not work on certain tankbusters not to mess with Savage/Ultimate fights.)
Regen is still boring and useless but I've got no idea how to fix that. I left out potency numbers because I'm super bad at that, but ideally WHM would be the king of both personal damage and pure healing on GCD but with little mitigation, no utility and very precarious MP balance that can snowball into OOM quick if you're not careful, especially trying to maximize both Asylum and Divine Seal uptime.
Continue reading...
This is what I'd like to see to double down on its identity as the simple big heals, big damage but little utility healer, with a focus on MP management and cast times/CGD (more than the others anyway). I also want to see stances back and since turret-style gameplay is dead, I focused on making it zone-based with Asylum so it feels less like a worse version of Sacred Soil.
Button compression:
Cure => Cure II / Afflatus Solace (when a Lily is available)
Medica / Afflatus Rapture (when a Lily is available)
Holy III / Afflatus Misery (when a Blood Lily is available)
Glare III / Glare IV (with Sacred Sight stack)
Presence of Mind / Banish (follow up attack)
Removed Traits:
Freecure (how is this still a thing)
Removed Abilities:
Plenary Indulgence
Thin Air
Updated Abilities:
Aquaveil is now AoE (to make up for the loss AoE mitigation from Plenary)
Asylum now acts as a stance and it'll drain MP as long as it's up (overall MP regeneration is still positive but much less). It also automatically cancels if you step way too far from it (this is just in case you forget it in dungeons/overworld). Range is increased.
New Traits:
Enhanced Divine Benison II: gives Reflect to DB's shield, reflecting a portion of the damage absorbed to the enemies when broken.
Enhanced Asylum II: Grants an extra 200 potency cure to every party member under Asylum whenever Medica, Medica III, Cure III, or Afflatus Rapture are used.
Generosity of the Lily: Adds a Verdant Lily to your Healing Gauge every 30 seconds, up to a maximum of 2. Verdant Lilies negate the MP cost and cast times of Raise and Banish and are automatically consumed if available.
Enhanced Assize: under Asylum, cooldown is reduced to 20 seconds.
Enhanced Aetherial Shift: under Asylum, leaves a flower trail behind for 5 seconds, granting a small cure to anyone who steps on it (this is mostly for flavor but I thought it'd be fun to see)
New Abilities:
Largesse: consumes a Verdant Lily to restore 2000MP
Banish: the actual follow up to Presence of Mind, a powerful AoE light attack with a 8s cast time and 2400 MP cost. It is a spell on the GCD so you can use Swiftcast if out of Verdant Lilies. Under Asylum, the entire ground under the dome pulses with light, damaging any enemy standing on it with an extra (much weaker) attack.
Divine Seal: This is a stance. It increases the MP cost of Glare and Holy for more damage.
Reraise: an upgrade to Benediction. Grants Re-raise for 3 seconds: When HP is reduced to 0 while under the effect of Reraise, instead of becoming KO'd, full HP is restored and Reraise is consumed. If Reraise is not consumed, full HP is restored and the end of its duration. (You can make it not work on certain tankbusters not to mess with Savage/Ultimate fights.)
Regen is still boring and useless but I've got no idea how to fix that. I left out potency numbers because I'm super bad at that, but ideally WHM would be the king of both personal damage and pure healing on GCD but with little mitigation, no utility and very precarious MP balance that can snowball into OOM quick if you're not careful, especially trying to maximize both Asylum and Divine Seal uptime.
Continue reading...