Quote Originally Posted by basketofseals View Post
There is no theoretical perfect middle to this situation. The two sides are literally on opposite ends, and they directly appose each other.

There's healers that don't like dealing damage and there's healers that do like dealing damage, and the devs are doing a disservice to both camps by telling one side that they're right while mechanically enforcing the other.

It's like bowmage. There's people that liked it, and there's people that hate it, but making half of their skills have cast times wouldn't make things better because it's a non black and white approach. It just makes both camps angry.
That's one camp dude, and it's also the approach that prevents circumventing this problem. That's why those two views directly oppose each other. The other camp are the healers who want to heal more. Within this camp you will find healers who do want more offensive skills in their kit, and don't mind doing damage during downtime; they just want less opportunity to use them during encounters due to an increased healing requirement.

Or are you not aware that these healers exist? Perhaps the devs don't either. Too focused on 'teh deeps'.

Bowmage is also a really bad example to use in this case. BRD needs that mobility, and cast times for them was simply a really stupid concept. That's why it is gone, and also redundant. Healers are casters, and you don't hear those same kind of complaints from BLM/RDM/SMN because they fully understand this aspect to their role. Yes, they have abilities to increase mobility as well, but that's not the point. The point is they don't complain all that much about having to cast abilities because their GCD usage is usually justified with high potency offensive skills. Taking away the need to cast anything with healers is a big part of the problem, as is demonizing any GCD that isn't used for damage. You would think that the healer role would be the one role where this is excused. Alas, it is not.

'GCD' should actually stand for 'Good Consistent Damage'. Not even kidding.