Quote Originally Posted by Saefinn View Post

I played SCH in XI as our static's main healer, that job was plenty complicated and had a LOT and I mean an awful lot to do in its downtime and had a lot of DPS abilities and probably the biggest ability pool in the game. Whilst XI is a wholly different game, I love that they retained the philosophy of giving you more to do in your downtime when you're not healing. And now it's dull as heck.
It's interesting that you bring up XI. While I did not play SCH in that game, I did spend an enormous amount of time healing on my WHM and RDM. Red Mage in particular I would like to focus on because it is an example that SE has a history of taking away engaging gameplay for healers and dumbing them down gradually over time to only needing to execute a few skills in order to contribute to a party. It is also a job that in its prime, I felt played very closely to SCH in XIV during its prime back in 3.0, which was a huge reason why it is my first and still my go to job for all content. As such, I am more inclined to compare the gameplay of RDM in XI to SCH in XIV; while from what I know about SCH in XI seems more like a distant cousin to BLM in this game.

While RDM didn't have its skills pruned per say, it did suffer from a large part of its skillset becoming redundant, and its simplification is what ultimately caused me to leave the game. I think this is a big reason why I haven't been affected as greatly as other SCH mains because I have already been conditioned and come to expect this kind of treatment from SE towards its healers.

I have a greater amount of history and investment towards XIV now, but I would take healing in XIV over healing in XI any day of the week with the last impression that game left me with. Encounter design in XI is far different that XIV though, so while I do know where you are coming from, it is a difficult comparison to make. Ultimately, I know your point is you would like for more engaging gameplay as a healer, but just find it odd that you seem to prefer XI healing over XIV when I found the former to be even more dull.