Funny thing is, my recent conversation with Waxsw pretty much already supports your C.S. Lewis point, Renathras. Seeing the posts as they were, I was reiterating what I was trying to decipher to ensure we understood each other completely. At that point, I did ask how he would fix the Sage class, so I wasn't going to let him down by running away. I do agree that the 4 healer classes we have should be differentiated enough to feel like a new style each. Some might go so far as to say we might as well only have 2 if the differences aren't enough.

I accidentally did miss Sebazy's point on what their melee healer would be. Also looks interesting that it borrows the RDM idea of transitioning between melee and range. Except it works the opposite way. The healer prefers to stay in melee range and builds up a finisher that can be used at range if they wish. I may not have been in the current raid settings in Normal very much, but I definitely understand the huge melee box from our 7th box. Only something like half the back circle is out of melee range with about 80 - 90% of the total arena being in melee range >.> Even one of the FC members attending a static commented on the devs just not trying anymore with the melee vs. range balance.

@ForsakenRoe

As for the "unique" shield breaking mechanic, Yoshida probably just meant when you compare against the other 3 healers. It kind of works has a small difference from DRK TBN being more spammable. However, I am not trying to white knight the devs and Yoshida either. If we have indeed put our hearts into reaching out to them already, the onus does then switch to them to communicate back. Especially if they seem to know we are unhappy with the similar DPS models and are working on it. I have noticed the news for them re-working AST at least. The interview kind of looks like it says they are dipping their toes in the water with the implementation of the Sage class. He seems concerned that he may accidentally "bully" new players into using the DPS spells, but I don't know where that came from. If the majority of the players want the old Heavensward DoT Mage Scholar back that actually used to exist ... I don't remember new Scholars back then feeling forced by Yoshida to use those spells ... unless I am missing something here ... There are already no enrage timers in about 90% of the mandatory story content and the rest of the 10% tends to be an intermission phase that usually doesn't hit that point unless players aren't even trying to respect the mechanics. cough Titania comes to mind. It's pretty much just Savage and Ultimate where the enrage timers are tight enough to actually encourage everyone to optimally use their DPS buttons and not die. More of the latter of course.