5.3 Wishlist

[IllyaPrisma]

Flat out saying that SCH + AST has superior DPS is wrong though, as it fails to beat AST + WHM at the most efficient play level. And as for AST, it is the most unpopular choice among healers by quite a large percentage. Whenever AST is considered undesirable by the community, SE has historically buffed the job to the point of ruining healer balance for the remainder of that Expansion. This happened with 20% Balance, and again with the reduced cast time of Malefic. There will be some unnecessary buff to AST in an attempt to make it more appealing, and the vicious cycle will continue.

[Risvertasashi]

Flat out saying that SCH + AST has superior DPS is wrong though, as it fails to beat AST + WHM at the most efficient play level

You mean... It fails to beat AST+WHM in two specific log files.

Generally, AST+SCH does have the edge in DPS. It is small, but it is there and perceptible and applicable to tens of thousands of people instead of 2 statics/16 people.

However, nitpicking this isn't the point. If you say things like SCH and AST and healers generally need some QoL, more interesting DPS rotations, AST needs card usability QoL - all of that, I will somewhat agree with you.

In terms of power/strength, however, the healers are relatively balanced. We're in a meta where you can play any healer and not get locked out of the vast, vast majority of statics nor virtually any PF.

SCH+AST does have the slight edge outside of those 2 logs, but even if you want to argue this point, SCH+AST and WHM+AST are very, very close and this is a good thing - it enables the aforementioned "play any healer" meta. If SE messes with that by hard buffing SCH/AST (And they might, due to lower player counts and that we're at the point in the patch cycle when they traditionally do) - the "play any healer" meta will be toast.