How does SE plan to restore White Mage's identity as a healer?

[Ghishlain]

I will have to disagree with the opening post. WHM isn't lacking identity in the slightest if you look at the number of tools direct towards raw healing:

AST Tools - 7 spells and abilities

SCH Tools - 5 6 spells and abilities (including fairy summon, 7 if you wish to include whispering dawn) [EDIT] Missed Succor in my initial count

WHM Tools - 10 spells and abilities

WHM has always been regarded as the raw no-frills healer and it shows.

What has happened is with all these AST buffs that have occurred, AST has stepped on one too many toes in the WHM kit (I'd argue it crushed the WHM's foot to be honest) and thus, for all intents and purposes, have regulated WHM to be "AST-without-cards".

I believe the better train of thought is "what can S-E do to differentiate AST from WHM (and SCH for that matter)" and I hope S-E thinks long and hard on that with their 4.0 tool set.