Nobody Really Wants To Heal

[Sylve]

Er...but hitting the party frequently and unpredictably is what creates that (fun and engaging, in my experience) whack-a-mole effect? I’m confused how these two statements jive.

As a fellow Resto Shaman during LK progression, I fully agree that WOTLK was the last time healing was fun in WoW.
The whack-a-mole I refer to is present, BfA WoW (Though Legion and WoD wasn't much different). What I mean is that the entire party is taking taking damage at all times, it never stops. Theres nothing unpredictable about that, its just all of the damage, all of the time.

Also, the point of my post was that the frequent, unpredictable damage to the party is the better solution. Just don't go full whack-a-mole with it so I get the opportunity to consider which of my tools is best suited to the damage levels the party is currently at, rather than 'Medica is the best option to use always, for everything because the entire party never stops taking damage'

PS: I think XIV would benefit greatly from its own unique scaling of Dungeons.
Think reverse Level Sync. Syncing the Dungeon to the level of the party (requiring max level of course). Imagine doing your EX Roulette and having that Sastasha run scaled up to cap and dropping Aetherial versions of the base drops that were comparable, buyt not better, than the best obtainable gear from a standard max level EX dungeon.

If it was set up properly, we'd have 63 dungeons in the EX Roulettes as of now and then when we hit the new cap, the Syncing scales to the new cap and we have 63+ whatever number of dungeons the new expansion gave in the EX roulette. Alternative gearing methods via aetherial gear that scales to match the ilvl of current dungeon gear.
Give us the ability to push that Sync higher in premade parties to push up the difficulty and rewards.

Ideally, a company needs to figure out a system where Tanks and Healers have their own, dedicated, infinitely scaling way of gearing. That doesn't run into the issues of Tank defence vs Healer healing vs Encounter damage all working to make things really convoluted and often causing Tank and/or Healer item level increases to not have the same feel good impact that DPS get with their straightforward damage dealing capacity.

Damage to the Tank is a steady constant in raid content. Its party damage that usually causes wipes, as that party damage distracts the Healer and opens up opportunities for the tank to get KO'd. Which is why I advocate frequent unpredictable party damage. You don't need to worry about Tank scaling, since the Tank getting tankier would only lessen the effects of being distracted healing the party. Everyones HP naturally rises with better gear, so as long as the party damage was tuned properly, a Healer would be managing the health bars of the party and occasionally throwing in DPS if they're skilled enough to open a window to do so.
No need for reinventing the wheel as far as Tanking/healing gear/mechanics go.