The quote you gave doesn't read as "optional". It reads as "know your priorities".
So, according to you, the quote is saying having downtime is optional and it's up to the healer to decide if they want to have time where they don't need to heal?
Also, I'm not sure why whm is being singled out in the topic. Playing any tank or healer optimally goes against what SE wants them to be.
I gotta disagree here. Shaman/Archmage was, in almost all ways, inferior to Warrior Priest / Disciple of Khaine, while Runepriest / Whatevertheotheronewas were just not as good as WP/DoK.
And the 'melee' portion of that healer (DoK/WP) was significantly weaker than just chalice heal spamming.
Unique.
But not effective.
No, it's saying that in that time you aren't healing, you can choose to weave in offensive magics. It does not say that you have to. This is exactly the same as Yoshi-P always says. In fact, in his interview with Mr Happy he went out of his way to say that he thinks healers should never feel required to DPS. We can do it if we want to, but we should remember our main role.
XIV has been going for 7 years, with the current dev team working on it for 4-5 of them.
Between working on the same project for that long and having to listen to a company that wants to monetize the game as much as possible and a demanding playerbase that is extremely scattered in opinion, can you honestly say that the dev team has the same passion for the game as when they started?
You said
May be time to dps =/= may dps.
You're right, Yoshida has always said healers shouldn't have to dps. People quote that a lot, but for some reason those same people don't say anything about how Yoshida has never said healers should choose whether or not they want to waste time overhealing or standing idle.
No one is saying you shouldn't remember your main role. And if we go back to
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it sounds like, in the current situation being addressed, no healing is required. So if no healing is required, why exactly do you need to remember your main role is to heal?
I think it just needs to be stated that one of the top MMORPGs still around has monetized hotbar space. FFXIV is the least-monetized high-end MMO on the market. WoW lets you buy and sell sub-time. In GW2 you can buy legendary weapons. And SWTOR... just, lol.
To a remarkable degree, SE has resisted market forces which are pushing all games in that direction (in the most recent Total War title, you had to buy blood and gore effects as "DLC"). In western markets, disposable income is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands, and eventually all games will go all-in on the cash cow model. The fact that FFXIV has not moved much to monetize is a testament to the devs' commitment to keep this game as egalitarian as possible, I feel.
Warhammer had balance issues all over my play stint, which as from release to a few months in. It wasn't unique to Rune Priest in that regard. Warrior Priest/ DoKhaine were oddly the most balanced of the counterparts, but also the clear best choice for the healers. Far reaching AoE heals spammable with chalice offhands mean t they didn't do damage, but nothing could kill their party.
I'd point towards Guild Wars 1 and its expansions for healing variety done well, between Healing and Protection monks, Ritualists, and the various skills thrown in across Warriors, Paragons, Rangers, Necromancers, and Mesmers, which were limited but all had their own little niches of use.