Healers, then and now:

[Renathras]

...

The irony is, as discussed, EW made it even worse by making Broil IV a 1.5 sec cast, negating the need for Ruin 2 in almost all situations. I think the analysis is clear that SCH has lost a lot and the game's Healer options and diversity has suffered because of it - it's SCH that needs the next rework, maybe even more than AST (though SE's track record on reworks has not tended to be "make more complex"...). But this is also part of the cursed 2 min meta. Having things like Quickened Aetherflow doesn't make sense when you want everything to clockwork line up with 120 second burst windows.

For all the flack people give it for being braindead, SMN actually allows (for the brave) people to deviate from that since high spell speed SMN can break away from burst windows as Demi-Bahamut/Phoenix actually IS affected by spell speed and not locked at 60 seconds...

Though one minor correction: Bio II was a 30 sec duration in SB. So it did have a 30 second DoT, it just had...a 12 second AOE one and an 18 second one and an ability to spread them in SB that it lost all of in ShB.

For SGE, ... I think it'd be 100% justifiable to keep the DPS options for the class relatively similar, since the 'complexity' would be from juggling when to PanKardia/Zoe/Krasis/Soteria, and what combination of those you'd need to use to deal with the healing requirement. And with the basic kit's two halves boiling down to 'Dosis/E.Dosis/Phlegma for damage' and 'Diagnosis/Prognosis/Eukrasian versions to shield' for healing, it'd remain very 'new to healer' friendly, especially if all of what I suggested was implemented, as it'd mean Prognosis (the regular version) spam would cost zero MP, so there'd be no need to panic about MP economy in a pinch.

Honestly, that's not a bad idea, though I wasn't expecting you'd say that that form of complexity would be suitable. (Not trying to start a fight, just a bit surprised). I'm a really big fan of modifier abilities. Back in SB and ShB, I said my favorite abilities on SCH were Emergency Tactics and Deployment Tactics, and I just wished they were up more often (Deploy especially given its longish CD). PvP SCH has Deploy on a 20 sec CD so you're using it all the time and it's loads of fun to do so. Modifiers cut down on hotbar bloat, but that's more a side benefit. The real value of frequently available ones is that they allow intelligent modification of abilities to suit the needs of the circumstance, which creates a lot of choice in how to approach healing situations/problems, personal agency, skill expression, and players can engage with them more or less depending on their desired level of play with them. SCH doesn't NEED Emergency or Deployment Tactics, but they're useful tools (Deploy more than Emergency, but both have their place) when used well.

As long as the healing behind it is interesting enough.

It is odd to me to see you say this, since you're often one to point out that healing only matters early on and becomes less engaging and interesting as a tier goes on, gear goes up, and average player fight execution increases. I'm curious how it would stay fresh, but will be reading your link later.

I think SGE does need 'some' changes, because it's based on 'the current state of SCH'. If SCH changes, SGE is left behind, and that's not good.

I don't quite understand this logic, though. If SGE is good, and something else is changed to be better, SGE would still be..."good". "good" is still good, regardless what else happens. I guess I just don't really follow that thinking. To me, changing SCH to make it NOT BAD also makes it and SGE more distinct, giving different playstyles for players. Extra bonus points are that people playing SGE are probably happier with it than long-time SCH players are with SCH, because SGE has always been this way (that's its expectation, basically) and that it's already more complex than SCH to the point of being "good". SCH going from "BAD" to "great" doesn't mean that SGE has to change from "good" to something else, since it's already "good".

I'm not...arguing against changing SGE here (as I've proposed changes myself), more that I don't understand the argument of "all Jobs must be great, even the ones that are already good", especially given how easy it is to "break" a good Job when trying to "fix" it and how there is an argument for "if it ain't broke" and "if this is what people are used to and like...maybe it should stay with that" sorts of things.

and how often does SE make a raid fight with 2 targets?

They do periodically, but even when they do, it doesn't much matter. 2nd Eophro fight is 2 targets, but it does the thing SE loves doing for multi-target fights - you have to separate the targets to where you can't hit them both anyway. You just apply DoT to both then single target focus one or the other. I'm trying to think of any cases they've ever made where the two bosses have to be kept close TOGETHER and where moving them APART is what buffs them. I can't think of a single instance of that offhand. I can think of several instances of the keep away, though. Eophro aside, Hansel and Gretel from Paradigm's Breach, Garudia's daughters/twins/sisters/whatevers from Garuda Ex, and so on. They aren't common, but they do happen, but never where you want to keep them close such that AOEs can hit them both.

Oh yeh and before anyone goes 'oh but then you HAVE to do the augment gameplay to clear stuff,

My general rule is that an individual choice ability's difference (in damage) vs optimal should never be more than about 5%. My Holy Spirit vs Atonement is honestly pushing it at around 10%, but it's close enough that doing it now and again won't impact your overall output too much. A gap can exist, but it should be small enough to not impact much. Though my ideal is that you don't trade damage, you trade utility, as there are times that a heal or movement is actually optimal, such as ShB Ruin 2 weaves.