Has anyone quit healing?

[ty_taurus]

I think Ren's come to the conclusion that we cannot have more than one healer per spice level, despite there being multiple curries per spice level. Like, you've got madras, jalfrezi, dopiaza, rogan josh, and they're all around a 3/5 spice level from most places

I don't really see a reason to fight for the "Indian hot" or "extra Indian hot" categories because, in my head, I'm looking at that as HW level complexity (which it isn't really in contrast to some other MMOs, but as far as FFXIV is concerned, it may as well be. FFXIV is the Indian takeout in suburban America levels, shall we say, where the spice levels are skewed toward more gentle). And that's not to say that those levels of challenge aren't wanted or worth investing in, but rather, SE has already state they have no intention of returning to that. Now, opinions are allowed to change of course, but we still need to get through the first threshold of allowing healers to have more offensive tools and complexity at all.

All that said though, it's not illogical to advocate for a healer of each difficulty threshold, not because two medium difficulty healers is a bad thing, but just because we only have 4, and the more varied their playstyles are, the better theoretically. Who knows when or if we'll get a 5th healer, so covering as much ground with the 4 we have does make sense, but since we don't really need to reach beyond the higher end of the threshold, having a mild, a hot, and a couple mediums seems perfectly reasonable to me. And these are all general difficulty overviews.

Breaking it down into ease of gameplay in different categories is a valid way to further identify expectations with each healer. You could take it even further. How mild or how hot is each healer's capability in categories like:
- Burst Healing
- Sustained Healing
- Mitigation
- Utility (non-DPS)
- Buff Management
- MP Management
- Direct DPS

The list goes on. If I were a combat designer, that's probably something I'd outline in great detail to discuss with the other team members on how to approach a healer role rework. My dream reality is just to see the landscape for healers look like:
- The forgiving healer, simple at face value but allowed room to improve and has niche value (WHM)
- The balanced healer that has subtle complexity while still being fairly forgiving (SCH)
- The healer that feels like a DPS and is more challenging to perform (SGE)
- The healer that appeals to the audience of players that doesn't like healer DPS, and disguises their DPS as support to stay competitive (AST)

To compare them to other jobs in other roles:
- WHM is like WAR or BLM - Relatively straightforward, but perhaps offers room for development in terms of things like timing or mobility like with BLM.
- SCH is like PLD or RDM - Easy to comprehend, but a little more technical and a bit methodical or rhythmic.
- AST is like DRK or perhaps DRG - Seems more complex than it is, but isn't difficult to learn.
- SGE is like GNB or BRD - Modestly complex and feels more fast-paced.