Healer identity in 5.0

[Feidam]

That's the point actually. SCH and AST just prove that other ways of healing are just better (in terms of potency, mobility and mana cost). That's why WHM is in this precarious spot, what used to be its "identity" is no longer relevant to the general and efficient way of healing in the current gameplay.

Only because the power of those heals are currently skewed and could be easily rectified with some rebalancing of potencies or cooldowns. Guess we find out in May what the new vision is for healers.

[Mansion]

Only because the power of those heals are currently skewed and could be easily rectified with some rebalancing of potencies or cooldowns. Guess we find out in May what the new vision is for healers.

In terms of value yes, but oGCD are still free and easy to weave so they will still be a priority. That's just the point of them existing. And I guess their potency is already balanced by a little "side effect", like timing the Earthly Star right or the Essential Dignty without killing your target, consuming Aether stacks or preventing the faery from doing anything else but Fae Union etc.
They would need to nerf these to the ground to make them worse than a full GCD spell cast.

Although we already know that Assize was only buffed as a patch up, we expect it to get nerfed back to a lower potency. But WHM has been confirmed as a job being reworked.
I don't see them breaking something that works rather well (namely SCH and AST) is both casual and high-end content just for the sake of it, rather than reworking WHM to bring it to that level.
Just like Yoshi P seem to indicate it's more about rethinking healing outside of Shield vs Regen (which is fairly easier to implement) rather than re-designing the whole functioning of healing in the game, which implies a lot of rework on the three healers plus every single fight that is to be implemented shoudl follow that new system, and it obviously impacts the way Tanks (and DPS to some degree) would need to use their cooldowns and mitigation tools.
When you put it like that, that's far much work than creating a fourth healer job for instance, or reworking WHM with slight tweaks to SCH and AST.

[Feidam]

In terms of value yes, but oGCD are still free and easy to weave so they will still be a priority. That's just the point of them existing. And I guess their potency is already balanced by a little "side effect", like timing the Earthly Star right or the Essential Dignty without killing your target, consuming Aether stacks or preventing the faery from doing anything else but Fae Union etc.
They would need to nerf these to the ground to make them worse than a full GCD spell cast.

Although we already know that Assize was only buffed as a patch up, we expect it to get nerfed back to a lower potency. But WHM has been confirmed as a job being reworked.
I don't see them breaking something that works rather well (namely SCH and AST) is both casual and high-end content just for the sake of it, rather than reworking WHM to bring it to that level.
Just like Yoshi P seem to indicate it's more about rethinking healing outside of Shield vs Regen (which is fairly easier to implement) rather than re-designing the whole functioning of healing in the game, which implies a lot of rework on the three healers plus every single fight that is to be implemented shoudl follow that new system, and it obviously impacts the way Tanks (and DPS to some degree) would need to use their cooldowns and mitigation tools.
When you put it like that, that's far much work than creating a fourth healer job for instance, or reworking WHM with slight tweaks to SCH and AST.

Really depends on what their vision is for balanced healers. We know shield vs heals is an issue. Do they consider ogcds as they are currently an issue? Or that healers try to rarely use their gcd heals? Are healers having to much time to dps? Has their stance changed on utility? Because ogcds are the primary heal source do they want healers to have a different dps rotation? So many possible questions. Hopefully there will be good answers come May.

[Mansion]

Really depends on what their vision is for balanced healers. We know shield vs heals is an issue. Do they consider ogcds as they are currently an issue? Or that healers try to rarely use their gcd heals? Are healers having to much time to dps? Has their stance changed on utility? Because ogcds are the primary heal source do they want healers to have a different dps rotation? So many possible questions. Hopefully there will be good answers come May.

Of course, all my rambling is mostly what I assume is the logical path.
But seeing how they made SCH pet abilities instead of spells (thus making them less clunky and more reactive), addressed clipping on AST (thus making oGCD use easier), added more and more oGCD since Heavensward and no new GCD spells (just upgrades of the older ones) : I assume they are going that way for 5.0
Now the buffing component is another discussion, but based on the same assumptions we now have more ways to use them without clipping, they are highly valued in endgame content, they work well in synergies... I'd also assume it's a logical progression to go on that way.

That does not mean WHM has to become a buffer, but it definitely needs to see its clunkiness addressed. It could still rely on GCD, but they would need to add a tweak so that GCD use is more valuable for the job than oGCDs.