Quote Originally Posted by Belhi View Post
Then realistically why bother with healing classes at all and instead just go with support dps with healing support options? If healers are designed around healing but spend a large portion of their time not healing then most of the Job design goes to waste.

Personally I think healing gameplay is underdeveloped in FF14 and the healing potency of spells is too high. That is the reason healers get so much down time. They have too many fire and forget spells and to few mechanics which require constant maintenance.
Many games have moved away from the pure healer model. The games I remember playing with dedicated healers who couldn't so much as solo a field mob had extremely small healer populations, most of which were boxed since a live healer was necessary only for PvP and maybe the odd raid. Healers who only heal in these games are either playing whack-a-mole nonstop while everyone else takes it easy or they are bored off their asses because they barely need to heal and can't damage anything.

FFXIV at least has a viable hybrid model where healers have useful actions to perform when healing requirements are low or intermittent. Increasing the damage inflicted on players would not make the game more engaging or fun from a healing perspective since the game itself is extremely choreographed. If the mob damage output were increased to the point where healers truly needed to heal heavily and frequently, fatigue would set in; hitting Cure twice as often is not any more enjoyable than weaving it with DPS.

SE could provide further options for healers by introducing a larger variety of powerful support skills, provided that they are at least comparable in benefit to the DPS option. I do agree that there is opportunity in deepening the gameplay from a supporting role perspective.