Yoshi-P: "If you want more engaging content, go play Ultimate"

[Semirhage]

-snip-

I completely understand this position, and I know that's likely where the role would head if healers went in a good direction. I think it's total bullshit that WHM should be sacrificed on the Sylphie altar of bad, boring gameplay because Won't Somebody Think Of The People Who Refuse To Ever Improve, but I know that's where it's always gonna stay.

I've just also always taken umbrage at these two opinions when stated together, because it's nakedly hypocritical. If you're going to complain that current healer design is boring and insulting, and then turn around and say "oh but WHM should be left in the state I just spent the last twenty minutes bitching was boring and insulting", well. Awesome. So boring and awful WHM is how things *should* be then, I suppose.

I also object to this because this state of affairs is exactly where we were before all this bullshit started. WHM was the boring crap baby healer with zero complexity, and the other two were overpowered good-at-everything monsters clowning all over it in strength (if not popularity). Unfortunately, Square seems to think they can have their cake and eat it too- they want healers accessible and power-balanced, and that need to power balance them is going to bite the role in the butt if you have a designated paste-eater healer. In that case, you're either going to get the jobs power-balanced, in which case the "smart" jobs are going to piss and whine and kick and scream that they "deserve" to be stronger because they're better, or you're going to end up with WHM both garbage to play and with garbage output. And Square will see that, and perhaps think it's time to lobotomize the other healers yet again... I think the role needs a redesign, whether Square is too lazy to do it or not. The healers are going to suck until it does.

TL;DR I think giving all four healers good design with a high skill ceiling should be possible, and wanting to dumpstercan WHM so the other three can rise to their glory days again is a common opinion I oppose utterly. No, the Sylphies don't "need" a Glaremage. They weren't doing any damage anyway.

I like WHM's aesthetic, and I'm allowed to like it. It started with some promise in ARR and, despite some design choices I thought were BS, continued that into Heavensward. It's been constantly nerfed, lobotomized, and spat on ever since then. It's my baby, and I'm so, so tired of hearing the community think leaving it behind in the crap pile is a good idea as some sort of compromise for making the other three fun again.