How would you feel if shields had no upfront healing?

[Dearche]

I would have thought that there's a correlation between being challenging and being engaging. More challenging content requires you to think more, to pay closer attention, to be more engaged.

First, I don't believe it's true for all players that healing is only engaging in ultimate.

As the famous saying goes: correlation does not equate causation.

Candy Crush isn't challenging, but it's still engaging to many people. Harvest moon isn't challenging at all, but it's hella engaging for a large percentage of gamers. You do not need to be challenged to feel engaged. Challenge helps for sure, but it's not neccessary.

Second, I don't believe that DPS jobs are equally engaging at all levels of difficulty.

This is a strawman. I never suggested that they're equally engaging at all. Just look at the DPS boards and you'll see all the complaints regarding certain DPS jobs. But unlike here, I don't see a single thread talking about how it sucks to be your favourite role.

Perhaps this is because you're not a very experienced DRG?

I won't deny that. I spend more than 90% of my ingame time as a healer, so naturally I won't be as good as a DPS even if I've been playing it since ARR (in fact, I was a DRG before I even picked up a healer job)

The solution is to do harder content (or switch to another job on which you're less experienced).

This is another strawman.

The issue is that playing a healer (any healer)isn't engaging without jumping right into the hardest content. Frankly speaking, that says more about the content than the role, as healing high end raids isn't fun. It's the running around doing mechanics that's fun.

And when all the healers are so simplified, there isn't another healer job I can switch to that I can feel engaged playing.