Delete rescue from the game.

[Renathras]

...

Oh, brainstorming is fine. I'm just saying that's something SCH has that a lot of people don't like, so spreading it to others who are actively choosing not to play SCH because they don't like it seems ill advised. Moreover, one of the complaints about Healers right now is that they feel too much alike. So "solutions" that make them feel even more alike also seem ill advised. That said, there's plenty of feedback to the Devs on what they do and don't want changed. I suspect one of the reasons the Devs are "resisting" changing Healers is because the people that don't frequent forums are telling them in various ways they like them. Apparently AST is the Healer where this is resoundingly not true, given they planned a rework already but have pushed it off to 7.0. I could be wrong, but I bet the Devs have a better handle on what the majority want than these forums do.

Indeed, the survey results on Reddit already indicate these forums have a significantly more negative view towards Healers than the overall playerbase does.

The problem with a melee Healer is it would necessitate a 2 Caster 8 man comp. So even if 2 Caster was considered viable or equal with 2 Melee (the former is debateable but the latter is not), the melee Healer Job would ONLY be viable in that specific comp, or would be doing the equivalent to chain casting Tomahawk during various mechanics, relying on a higher DPS output from their team to make up for them. This is even worse if it was like a WoW Holy Paladin where some of its healing kit REQUIRES it to be in melee, making it lose access to some of its healing if forced to disengage.

I think the key there is that the combat system/encounter design has to be made less rigid before that can be an option.

I think part of the trick is seeing that Healer Jobs should be different. Having a Job like WHM isn't a problem. Having all Healer Jobs in the game be like WHM is a problem. Likewise, having a Healer Job like SB SCH isn't a problem. Making all Healer Jobs into SB SCH is a problem. Substituting one "they're all the same" for another "they're all the same" won't make things better, it will just shift around who is pissed off and who is happy. It's why I've long advocated for changing up some of the Healers but not all of them.

There's literally zero excuse at this point to not have a melee healer though, as the hitboxes on bosses are so large you have 100% melee uptime in every fight anyway.

Lol, fair point, but only for EW bosses. And still ignoring that there are forced disengage or "4 ranged spots" mechanics during which you'd be doing the equivalent of spamming Tomahawk for a big DPS loss. I guess it'd be more like spamming Scathe?