Lets all take a deep breath

[Satarn]

Calling it now: you'll still be perfectly fine with any healer comp because nothing will hit hard enough to require shields(especially with whatever new busted mitigation skills we get in EW) and the "barrier healers" will still have enough regular healing to get by because "what about dungeons or when your co-healer dies, hm???" - however the DF and (community enforced)PF split into 2 healer "roles" will make the waiting times for healers even more shit than they are now. Please look forward to it~

[Saefinn]

Calling it now: you'll still be perfectly fine with any healer comp because nothing will hit hard enough to require shields(especially with whatever new busted mitigation skills we get in EW) and the "barrier healers" will still have enough regular healing to get by because "what about dungeons or when your co-healer dies, hm???" - however the DF and (community enforced)PF split into 2 healer "roles" will make the waiting times for healers even more shit than they are now. Please look forward to it~

The "what about dungeons or when your co-healer dies, hm???" is a mentality I don't like when people think about shield healers, because I guess there's this misconception that it makes them weaker or are a niche, which is closer to how the concept is played at the moment, but isn't the case when there is a shield focus because it changes how you interact with a person's health pool and this was a concept I really liked. I had a similar conversation with a WHM with such concerns and pointed out it wasn't an issue in ARR and really it just needs to evolve the concept to current content. Given for current content they still consider SCH a shield healer of course is concerning of course because current design means its not. It's a pure healer with shields.

But I think back to my proudest carries in A Realm Reborn on SCH without a cohealer to help me because they were dead or knocked off. I also think back when SCH had much more of a barrier focus where it was plenty capable. In dungeons I'd do speed runs competently as a SCH, my record for Wanderers' Palace when it was on content was 10 minutes (I think the set record was 8 at the time), I'd manage to pull off the full pull version of Brayflox Hard So I'd argue it did just fine and I don't think of myself of a hardcore healer, competent yes, but I'm probably a low parse. I feel the reason SCH was OP in Heavensward was because they patched something up about SCH that didn't need patching, possibly due to this perception that shield healing is weaker or at least doesn't account for these scenarios.

SCH had the tools it needed, I just wish they evolved the shield focus as it grew instead of patching its weaker heals. And if they did that, I feel they'd be in a better position now to achieve their balance goal for Endwalker. I never felt disadvantaged as a SCH because I didn't use the same mentality I used when playing WHM, but SCH now, I use a much closer mentality to WHM...not helped by the fact that Lilies are basically reverse Aetherflow mechanics too.

[Satarn]

The "what about dungeons or when your co-healer dies, hm???" is a mentality I don't like when people think about shield healers, because I guess there's this misconception that it makes them weaker or are a niche, which is closer to how the concept is played at the moment, but isn't the case when there is a shield focus because it changes how you interact with a person's health pool and this was a concept I really liked.

Oh totally, but go back to what Yoshi P has said back before SHB about reworking the healers for 5.0 and how they "had to" give SCH more direct heals(again), because they'd supposedly "struggled", while SB SCH was already an ogcd healing powerhouse that barely used shields at all. I'm not myself saying that shields can't be good for solo healing(when done properly of course) - just that SE is apparently convinced of that.

Really the biggest misconception is whatever the devs themselves believe about how healing works in this game.