White-mage is doomed - and why

[Shurrikhan]

one, it would be better then just spamming glare glare glare all the time and be meaningful to keep not only people alive but actually reduce the damage taken which means less healing needed from you = more time to support and dps making it much more meaningful.

Let's not forget that the "it" there is merely having to reapply basic M. Defense, Phys. Defense, status-effect-specific immunity buffs, or element-specific resistance buffs. And if we're already so reluctant to spend a GCD on Lily casts that ultimately recoup three-quarters of their would-be offensive value, how fond do you really think WHMs are going to be of having to recast Protect once per 30 seconds, etc.?

It's not like the devs are going to allow a permanently maintainable buff to be powerful enough to be significant; at best, like Regen, it will merely save you a bit more than a GCD of healing per its duration, making it a slightly more efficient use of that GCD (but likely without Regen's instant-cast mobility or its ability to see significant use for apart from whichever will be MTing over Protect's duration).

you can still have the same spell or effect either of them can apply or their core effect be used while still remaining true.

...What is this supposed to mean? The spell, for all intents and purposes, is its effect. We, as a community, wouldn't call it Protect, still, if its effect was instead to provide a flat HP barrier. The devs could steal the name and even put it on an offensive weaponskill, theoretically, but it wouldn't be what the community knows as Protect.

have protect as a trait for a defensive spell or maybe a trait for a healing spell or have a condition where it triggers and its an aura around you. you have different possibilites to make protect work in such a way that it stay true to its spell original purpose only executed differently.

This sounds more feasible and interesting. Creating a Defense Up aura around yourself or your heal target would likely be a less broadly applicable (but also more interesting) version of WHM's old tendency to just having outright additional healing potency compared to other healers. That no longer sounds like Protect so much as Galvanize or Fluid Aura, but I can appreciate the theme.

as for why not just call them diffferent names, the answer is simple if you call them something different ,they are different.

...No. They're different when they work differently. The only thing different about Raise and Resurrection, for instance, aren't the skills themselves, but merely that Thin Air exists in the same kit as WHM-Raise and greater MP gen per minute exists in the one with SCH-Raise.