Healer design is still terrible and I'm tired of apologizing for it.

[Leigaon]

...I would like to see more healer checks in the game in general that required me to flex my knowledge of the kit. Or barring that, something more engaging in my kit then simply a clone of whm where I'm just spamming 1 nuke...

What would be a situation either that exists in the game or that you can make up yourself that would be fun for everyone as a healer and get them to use more of what is in their kit. Or would that require some refurbishing of current skills to get it right? What would you have the offensive spells do, if anything, to assist with the defensive side of a scholars toolkit?

Either up the CD timers of abilities or increase raid wide/unavoidable damage so I am not using the same CD for everything.

Ex: I stated earlier I can use Exaltation 100% over Celestial Intersection for tank busters in just dungeon content alone because they come ~ every 60. If Exaltation was every 90s I'd instead use CI. Conversely if another tank specific attack happened in the same fight in under 60s that would make better use of Exalt (perhaps a short heavy bleed) I'd use Exalt there and cover the next TB with CI because the shielding was better.

- Prune redundant abilities by making them into upgrades at higher levels while still keeping them at lower levels.

Ex: There is no better example than Benefic and Cure 1 to Benefic and Cure 2. The trait for it would be hard to place, because I believe WHM has some issues with Cure 2 straight up overriding Cure 1 in some situations... but that is something that better skill leveling touches imo.

- Allow parts of our kit to play more with one another than just X

Ex: Good one for AST is Synastry. I love the ability. It only works for Benefic why? Instead of two CI charges Synastry can be used for it to place CI on both Tank/other target along with ED, A.Benefic and pretty much anything but the cards if its single target (unless you want it to also work with cards and/or Astrodyne and deal with the rebalancing headache that can cause)...

I want to make sure I'm seeing this correctly so I can understand where you're coming from.

1. Reduce/Adjust the time of some of the higher cooldowns on certain jobs so you have the option to use the best action for your healer depending on the situation. In this case Exaltation (120s) vs Celestial Intersection (60s, 2 charges.).

For this example, would you be okay with reducing CI's cooldown to say 30/45/60 seconds and in return reduce the healed potency?

2. Condense spells and instead give them upgrades of previous spells. In this case Cure/Benefic 1 & 2. I'm not sure about having issues with Cure 2 override Cure 1, I rarely am using Cure 2 though outside of Ex's. But that's just me. I think upgrading them at the same level as Ast (26) would be fine. To you, would this be to help reduce bloating with actions or just the fact that having them as separate spells seems redundant?

3. Have actions / abilities / buffs interact more with each other like Synergy but expanded through other abilities. So instead of Synergy just healing target B while you heal target A you could do other moves that would heal or maybe even enhance other players.

Actually, I'm sure I need to think on it more. I wonder if someone can tell us why having Synergy for instance is only limited to single target cures. Would having a boost from other abilities such as Earthly Star or Collective Unconscious cause unbalance. More than just saying "you'd have to balance other healers..." I'm looking for some specifics. Not saying you have them, but it's a good question. What would it break?