[FFXIV Endwalker 6.0.5] How Do You Solve a Problem Like White Mage?



#finalfantasy #ffxiv #endwalker
[FFXIV Endwalker 6.0.5] How Do You Solve a Problem Like White Mage?

Many players are unhappy with the state WHM is currently in with Endwalker, and as someone who mained WHM throughout all of Shadowbringers, I thought I would take a look at my own feelings and the feedback of others and see why people might be feeling this way! As always, its very important to note that WHM is definately NOT doomed, and this is merely a look at the feedback WHM has had, and how it could be addressed! Let me know if you would like to see more videos like this in the future!

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Music: Elpis Day Theme (Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker)

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17 thoughts on “[FFXIV Endwalker 6.0.5] How Do You Solve a Problem Like White Mage?”

  1. I love white mage, but I do agree it has some issues right now, but I don't think it's quite as bad as people are saying. I main healer and have since arr and have always liked white mage. My one big complaint is wtf is with holy and glare we skipped holy and glare 2 and holy 2 only got a 10 pot increase. My hot take is I hate sage. I think it's terrible as a non raid healer. In dungeons I feel like I constantly lose control of every pull with them. For being dps healers their heal pot on their dps is not high enough, and requires a bit too many buttons to do anything any other healer can do better anyway. It's only thing only it can do is too weak and it's base healing and shielding doesn't make.up for that.

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  2. As a rather novice healer, I actually prefer playing white mage, mostly just because it's got a lot of buttons that let me cover up mistakes I make in my own ability to keep the party up, unlike the other healing jobs which require more player skill. So to that end, as an entry to healing job, I think it's great.

    That said, I can 100% sympathize with people who are more skilled healers feeling like the job just isn't performing as you'd like. I have similar feelings about the rework to monk having been a monk main since 3.3, and feeling like the job just hasn't gotten any real love from the developers for almost a decade now, and the current rework making the job feel dumbed down.

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  3. I've mained WHM since I started in ARR and I agree with all of your points Joe. Thin air-Lucid dreaming was my go-to combo after dying and being raised to recover MP fast. Although with thin air now I can raise people for free, the MP management has seen better days.

    Aside from potency increase for misery, tweaking the lily system a bit to make them more encouraging to use (like being oGCD) would be appreciated, but I'm not sure how it will be balanced with the other healers.

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  4. The Afflatus/Lily system needs a buff. Refunding MP back to WHM similar to AST's cards like 800MP back from using a Lily, perhaps offering some kind of damage buff to the WHM after using a Lily or after Misery itself, or having an active Dia on the enemy can contribute to the gauge to get lilies a bit faster. As for the bell I think the 3min cooldown is to stringent for what it currently does even just trimming it to 2min40seconds would greatly help, or perhaps if when the bell pulses it could also damages the enemies around it or even at the end of its duration it did one strong aoe attack then it could better justify that 3min cooldown.

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  5. Good analysis of WHM. You've heard my every complaint with DRK and reasoning. if you want to make one on that class, I'd be more then happy to chat with you with it, give points where they are lacking, where they could be improved, suggestions on changes that I feel could make it better/fix the issues.

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  6. I really appreciate the disclaimer. White Mage is still perfectly fine to play and clear things with. Some people take logs and statistics a bit too strict.
    Like you said human error is the biggest factor and we're spoiled cause class balance in XIV tends to be really good compared to what I've experienced in other MMOs.

    But it's definitely important to give feedback, so adjustments can be made, if necessary.
    I think the Lily system is in the biggest need for a change. Putting it off the GCD might be a bit too strong. Both SCH and SGE heals, that are tied to their OGCD Ressource system (addersgall and aetherflow respectively) have a cooldown on their AoE heal. White Mage does not.
    And changing that to be in line with SCH and SGE just makes the healers feel more same-y, which I personally don't really like.

    My ideas would be to either:

    Have every Lily Action give you access to a one-time use of a new damage ability, that's either oGCD or strong enough to make using a Lily not feel bad and give the WHM a button other than Glare to press fairly often.

    or

    Make it so whenever you use a Lily Action you get a buff (with long duration) that makes your next Lily spell an oGCD. So in a full cycle of 3 Lily into Misery, only 2 of those would eat a GCD and Misery would basically always be off the GCD then.

    or

    Reduce the amount of Lily uses required to get access to Misery to 2 and/or put Misery off the GCD in general.

    or

    Change it so the Lily Heals and ONLY the Lily Heals have an 'overheal' mechanic. That kinda works like a shield but only gives the value that's healed over max HP and decays very rapidly on its own. That would make it unique enough to not interfere too much with the dedicated shield healers imo [might be OP not sure]
    (Healing someone at full HP = full Shield/ Healing someone that's almost full HP = heals the HP and gives the remaining potency as a shield)

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  7. To be perfectly Frank a lot of jobs feel off, and it's not just a matter of balance (I'm aware there's another balance pass incoming)

    Yoshida is getting ready to announce more sweeping changes to the game in the future, and it's been strongly rumored that they are planning more reworks like what we saw with SMN and MNK.

    This is reinforced by comments Yoshida made in a recent radio interview comparing Reaper to the other jobs – specifically that the older jobs are much harder to work with because they have established identies whereas Reaper was made from scratch for this expansion.

    At least, it's my personal hope that they do take the time to overhaul the rest because lord knows a lot of them need it.

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  8. A damaging lily spell that grants mana is all whm needs imo. Nothing feels worse than sitting on 3 lilies and overcapping because no one is taking enough damage to warrant spending a lily when assize/asylum/tetra etc are more than sufficient between long damage occurrences.

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  9. Other than expected ff14 content, my dumb self was thinking this video was also going to mention something philosophical like how to tackle problems in your life like a white mage or something, lmao.

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  10. TLDR on my thoughts about healers; First of all, I would like to point out how Ironic it is that people memed about Expedient and that now Scholar is 1st within the meta exactly because of it. Everyone went "Scholar is dead lol" while any healer that's into savage content looked at it and went "This is gonna be so broken and powerful".

    Now let's take all the healers one by one. Im gonna start with Scholar since I believe it's the healer with the least issues other than it still not as fun to play as it was pre-Shadowbringers. That's it really. Scholar is about as solid as it has every been, if not even more. People memed about it, and they were dead wrong.

    2nd Let's talk Astro. While I know some people have issues with it losing Noct Sect…if you actually play Astro seriously and not just for the fancy stars, you SHOULD have been able to play both sect, therefore its practically a non-issue for me personally appart from dungeons where I did prefer Noct over Diurn but I can live with that. It's not like dungeons are particularly hard anyway. I would say the biggest issue with Astro is it's complexity, but for some that's actually a plus going for it. Your mileage may vary, but Astro is probably the most complex of all 4 healers with a lot of nuance to it and the strong offensive party buff makes it incredibly valuable, and Neutral sect shield stack with the other Shield healer which is pretty incredible.

    Now. White mage. While what you say is pretty spot on, the biggest issue with white mage is, and has always been, its complete lack of party utility vs Astrologian. White mage in itself is alright, but you just cant compare anything it has to offer vs Divination and cards. It would need a very significant attack buff to even start to make up for it, but at that point might as well just call it a green DPS. While I do think the lilies being OGCD wouldn't be too strong, it still wouldn't settle the problem. One of the problem imo is Assize. You don't use Assize to heal, let's be real here, you use Assize for DPS. I think one of the solution would straight up to divide the 2 effects of Assize into their own thing. 1 that's the attack ogcd (id personally give it 2 charges), and 1 that would be akin to Scholar's Indomitability. 2- Reduce the cooldown of Tetragrammaton to 45 secs and give it 2 charges. The reasoning for this is that Scholar can spam Lustrate 3x in a row (6 if you dissipate the fairy on top of it) and it has a potency of 600 vs 700 on Tetra but that you can only use every minute. Astrologian also has 2 charges of Essential Dignity, has both Celestial OGCDs, Earthly Star and Macrocosmos as ogcds…I dont think giving an extra charge on Tetra would break the game. Worse case Nerf the potency on Tetra a bit, but make it useable more often. 3- Revert Thin Air to what it was, very easy fix. Another thing I would personally give white mage is change plenary indulgence effect completely so that your next Cure 2, Medica, Afflatus Rapture or Afflatus Solace gives a shield of the potency of each respective healing spell and remove the healing on it complety and make that shield stackable with Scholars and Sages shields the same way Neutral Sect can do so that white mage can actually take a proactive role that doesnt feel as bad to use your healing buttons.

    Now Sage……..I thought I would love it, but I ended up not standing it at all. There's an incredible clunkyness and awkwardness to it that I just can't get over but also can't exactly pinpoint… It more like a bunch of little niggles that pile up and annoy me about it. 1- I don't like that Eukrasia isn't an OGDC you can weave. It sorta breaks the flow of the job whenever you wanna use your DoT and your Shields. 2- It has way too many buttons that end up feeling redundant and poorly consolidated. 3- I'm really not a fan of how you generate Addestings for Toxicon, this isn't The Blackest Night. While the complexity of Astro is what somewhat makes it fun to play, I find the complexity of Sage completely superficial and ends up making it feel clunky more than anything else. And it has the same problem when compared to Scholar that White Mage has compared to Astrologian: No party utility which while in casual content makes little to no difference, in savage, it actually does and it doesn't have the damage to make up for it either.

    So there you go. xD

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  11. I love this game, but I don't play it a lot, I'm not a social persona and there's a limit about you can do on your own, or it's way more difficult. Being a healer would terrify me having all that people depending on me, the only safe bet for someone insecure is ranged dps. My main is a Warrior Gladiator thou. Haven't played in like about a year but it's funny I reopened my subscription this month 🙂

    You say learning White Mage is not that hard right? Maybe I'm just scared of all those years playing WoW too…

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  12. That was very informative. I love seeing such overviews and ideas about jobs, so I'd be thrilled to have other ones ! Though I gotta say, I was kinda lost when you were saying skills' names, as my client is in french ^^'
    Haven't played a healer on Endwalker yet, but I see why people aren't so happy about that. My problem with WHM always was the fact that it seemed a bit too "dull" to play, so I clearly am not ready to change my opinion if what you're saying is true. Mine is still lvl62 (only my paladin is lower that him), to be fair, so I'm in no hurry at all. Aha.
    Again, great to see you passionate about XIV, giving us your opinion on specific things 🙂

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  13. I'd love to see a whole rework of the lily system. It's very jarring to me that WHM's job gauge is only unlocked at level 52, since almost every other job get's theirs in the ARR level range (DRK and the new DRG also being exceptions).
    It would be a great way to change them to oGCDs too, which to me it's a long overdue change.
    Firstly because it's a very dissonant experience playing WHM and other healers, exactly because of the lack of oGCDs, and secondly because it doesn't even make sense anymore for WHM to don't have acess to oGCDs.
    The reasoning for the lack of OGCDs it's the same as BLM: their GCDs are so powerful that they can't have oGCD, but that's not the case anymore, neither for damage nor healing.

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  14. First of all, I think this was a good overview of the problems the job is facing right now. I also like how you also provided the disclaimer that the job is in fact, still playable and usable. However, I would like to delve into some more details that I might personally disagree, or have different opinions on.

    Now, I do agree on changing both Afflatus Rapture, and Afflatus Solace to oGCDs. Some might think this is too strong of a change, but I do disagree. A change like that however, would necessitate changing Afflatus Misery's potency to compensate.

    Now, changing both lily heals to oGCD seems fine enough on paper, but it also introduces another problem. You are now forced to spend lilys when you do not need them. While I certainly prefer that to hoarding lily charges until a fight offers downtime, or you actually need to use them, I think introducing a spell that consumes a lily in exchange for damage would prove to be a more interesting solution. It should not be an OGCd, it should mostly serve as a "better Glare", but it would introduce a new element to the "dull" White Mage rotation, while providing a solution to both lily overflow and wasteful healing.

    If a change like this were to be implemented, I doubt Afflatus Misery could be maintained as it is. In such a case I would rather see it reduced to a 600 potency AoE nuke with no fall-off, or removed entirely in exchange for making the "lily damage spell" more meaningful.

    Now, onto the only actual disagreement I have with your opinions: Liturgy of the Bell.
    As it stands, I agree that the spell is strong, providing a bountiful amount of healing when the situation is right. That however, is the problem.

    As it stands, Liturgy is simply too limited, and too much of a gimmick. It is also, in my opinion, incredibly poorly designed, and with next to no thought put into it. Before anyone jumps at my throat for saying this, I want to explain myself:

    Liturgy lives or dies by the mechanics a boss has. If the raid designers do not introduce an Akh Morn style mechanic, a bleed, continuous ticking damage, or anything which could substitute those into an encounter… the spell is simply, not good. The spell lives or dies by the encounter, and that's something that is both limiting for the class, as it is for the designers themselves.
    Compared to the capstone spells for other healers… they have no such limitations or flaws. While micro/macrocosmos can shine much more in certain encounters, it always has a use, it never feels unrewarding to use, instead it has times where it is FAR too strong (P3S).
    Expedient might not be a heal, but 10% damage reduction is always welcome, and the raid-wide peloton is undoubtedly very strong, nothing to be scoffed at. (I will refrain from speaking about Sage's capstone skill, as I haven't had the time to test them fully).
    Liturgy simply either feels very strong, or feels completely useless. When an encounter doesn't have a mechanic which meets the requirements for it to shine, it is a dead 3 minute cooldown. It can surely be used as a heal in a pinch, but that's nothing Astrologian's Earhtly star can't do… on a third of the cooldown.
    Then comes the problem of using Liturgy in conjuction with shields. Liturgy simply does nothing if you take no damage, and thus an uncoordinated party ensures Liturgy has a huge risk of being completely useless if you run with a Scholar, something that… simply doesn't happen with other capstone spells.

    I know that the spell isn't going anywhere, I am no fool, but I think it does need a rework, and much sooner than anyone would like.

    Here are a few ideas on how to change Liturgy. These are of course, my opnion, and you are free to disagree on them. Do please know, that these are all separate ideas:
    1. Make charges expendable when using glare. While not incredibly creative, it allows us to use the full potency of the spell, regardless of us receiving damage. This does have some problems, so I would limit the charge consumption to the caster at least being damaged.
    2. Reduce it's cooldown dramatically. From 180 minutes to 120 seconds. I would try to toy with a 90 second cooldown, but that would certainly necessitate some tuning on its numbers.
    3. Have it automatically pulse every 2 seconds. Receiving damage would still proc the effect, and reset the pulse timer to 2 seconds again.

    Apologies for the wall of text, and, if somehow you managed to read it all Joesephyr, know that your well structured video and thoughts have earned you a subscriber. I am also open to discussion on any of these points (with anyone).

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