Has anyone quit healing?

[Saefinn]

Talking of WoW, I decided to retry it again recently and thought I'd see how healing compares. WoW has watered down their classes a fair bit and have homogenised the experience. But two things to note that stopped me from being as bored as I am with healing here: healing was more frequent because damage was more frequent whilst healing was less effective. I had a few more DPS moves to weave in, whilst not a massive amount, it's more than I've got here. EG: On Shaman I've got Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Wind Shear, Flame Shock and Lava Burst. I can summon an earth elemental to do damage too and have Totems that give status effects. This immediately gives me more to do in my down time, but is not complicated at all - the spell count is only slightly higher, but each feels different to use and I weave them as and when and it feels like I have a rotation. Then Paladin: Crusader Strike, Judgment, Consecration, Holy Prism, Holy Shock and then boost my DPS through Avenging Crusader and then adds some stuns and buffs and again, we have something that's not complicated with more to do.

I realise of course it's a different game and honestly, there's a lot I feel WoW does wrong that this game does right and there's a reason I rarely play WoW. But they are similar sorts of MMOs that rely on similar principles when it comes to encounters, hence I felt the need for comparison. The great thing about FFXIV's healers is that arguably they have a great toolkit, and they aren't technically homogenised. However, how we end up using them feels homogenised because encounter design means we don't make full use of the toolkit. In ShB, the most fun I've had with healers is when everybody is undergeared and I'm pushed to use my full toolkit.

So IMO how healers are designed is actually good from a healing perspective. How they're utilised is not. I might even go as far as suggesting "nerf healing". It feels either that's needed, or they make our downtime fun (which is the option that's friendlier to less experienced healers & doesn't mess with the status quo)