Is It Even Possible To Have A New Healer Job?

[Ilyrian]

All of this

I'm on month 7 of my little WoW holiday and recently logged back in to do a bit of housekeeping. Running a quick LFR was the most jarring experience ever (and not only because it's an LFR) - obviously my muscle memory has totally shifted but trying to heal on a Holy Priest (vs WHM) confirmed everything you are saying.
I'm not going to start a WoW vs FFXIV war - but healing is basically night and day different and whilst I'm in no rush to go back to WoW I have to say I find the GCD in FFXIV really inhibiting when dynamic healing is concerned. The pay-off (being able/required to dps) I quite enjoy though, so it's not all bad.

[RichardButte]

I'm on month 7 of my little WoW holiday and recently logged back in to do a bit of housekeeping. Running a quick LFR was the most jarring experience ever (and not only because it's an LFR) - obviously my muscle memory has totally shifted but trying to heal on a Holy Priest (vs WHM) confirmed everything you are saying.
I'm not going to start a WoW vs FFXIV war - but healing is basically night and day different and whilst I'm in no rush to go back to WoW I have to say I find the GCD in FFXIV really inhibiting when dynamic healing is concerned. The pay-off (being able/required to dps) I quite enjoy though, so it's not all bad.

Yeah, it all comes down to preference and there's nothing wrong with that at all.

I just feel like it's a shame because the complexity of most of XIV's DPS classes is leaps and bounds ahead of WoW's: I can't think of any class in WoW that's even close to on par with MCH or NIN.

It's both tragic and jarring that XIV, with its deep and involved DPS rotations, has left its healers with a flowchart that barely even branches.

It's also a shame because it's going to severely limit future healing classes, especially when we already see it happening as AST (which I leveled to 70) has most of its kit stolen from SCH and WHM.

Then there was that patch when they just gave up and put AST's potencies on par with SCH and WHM's because it's not possible to deviate on healing potencies when damage is as bursty as it is.

AST was destined to be either too weak or too powerful because, when every healer NEEDS to have the same general potency because of the pace of the game, additional utility will nearly always be overpowered.