Isn't it about time for WHM to get an AOE mitigation tool?

[Erakir]

WHM has significantly better personal DPS than AST [and before you argue RAID UTILITY - a good WHM's personal DPS will outshine a decent AST's personal and raid DPS contribution; refer to comments regarding comfort level and how it allows players to play at a higher level versus non-comfortable jobs].

I'm not sure what relevance this has to the discussion, aside to say that comfort level plays a role in one's performance. It's not a particularly strong argument for balance unless you're simply trying to emphasize that things aren't awful. A good X is better than a decent Y only points out that Y is not ridiculously overpowered, and it would be an even bigger cause for concern if that were the case. I mean, it's a general point I agree with that people should play what they're most comfortable with (and like the most, hopefully), but that's never going to be the end point of the discussion.

You also still talk about massive WHM throughput. I've yet to see people really prove this. It usually ends up talking about spamming cure 3 and timely PIs. When looking at logs with standard comps for healing, often only super high on bad attempts where everything is going wrong and healing throughput is really shown or normal comps that are pretty much 'solo healing,' WHM appears the most often but it is far from dominating the lists. Everything I've seen shows an advantage to WHM, but to this day I've yet to see "Massive WHM throughput" outside of Cure 3 spam despite it being thrown around all the time. Massive implies it absolutely stomps the competition. It does not appear to. AST appears quite capable here though WHM seems to have an easier time putting those numbers up. If WHM truly dwarfed when it came to throughput I'd expect those highest numbers to be nigh unmatched.

I don't think it's a big problem, either, as I dig through some of them, the ASTs matching the healing output are putting out less personal damage and probably matching the overall raid damage contribution as the WHMs. I do, however, tire of this idea that WHM can just utterly decimate on the healing side when I've never personally found that to be the case.

I'd like to derail a little and mention that Shinryu EX, despite some people not really enjoying the healing adds portion, has some interesting mechanics at play with those adds.

-Benediction is obvious. I have to gleefully mention how I'm about to delete one of them each time they spawn with benediction available.
-An easy time to use dissipation without hating the world is another option.
-I feel like you can safely regen 1-3 of the adds too and get pretty effective healing out of them.
- Scratch this, details below. I'd also have to do more testing and actually watch out for it, but I believe Assize hits the healing adds as well (and heals them) since it targets friends and foe alike. Indom wouldn't, as it's group only (I tried to Cure 3 them once, too, and I assume Medica 2 wouldn't land also). I believe earthly star would act similarly to assize, but the adds are often spread out to negate that potential use on more than 1-2.
- Nevermind here, too. Thanks for the info, Sebazy! I would think (haven't run with an AST) that Synastry might be welcome here too since tanks are still taking damage from the wings.

I've talked a lot in the past about people wanting to feel like they bring something unique and welcome to a fight, or have scenarios where certain abilities feel good to use. This may not be the most interesting healing check, but I like some of what's come as a result.
Edit: Oh well, some of these are a no-no. Pity. Still, getting to delete adds is fun.