Quote Originally Posted by ASkellington View Post
Moving all the heals onto the GCD doesn't fix anything.
  • It doesn't make healing more engaging.
  • It doesn't fix healers in solo content.
  • It doesn't fix the fact we have too many heals.
  • It doesn't fix the fact that the healers are too similar.
  • It doesn't fix the fact that some heals are on too short of a cool down.
  • It doesn't fix the fact that encounter design is trash and our kit doesn't reflect it.
  • It makes all healers feeling the same WORSE because everything is on the GCD and feels like WHM.
In isolation, perhaps, but there's no reason to assume it'd be in isolation. Removing free healing would be nerf unless it came with commensurate opportunity gains.

For instance, if that movement to GCD healing were to reduce a WHM's lv90 "free" (in reality: pre-allocated) healing output by 4000 free single-target potency and 2000 free AoE potency, then that's 8 GCDs each of Cure II and at least 2 AoE GCDs, which means that WHM's ppm would be due compensation across its GCDs, with a large portion of that (due to healing-per-moment bottlenecks and going from potentially zero opportunity cost to at least some 40+% of GCDs spent healing) ending up on healer attacks.

That in turn means you would see more deviation in healer throughput and gameplay according to their gear and familiarity with the given fight, even if not to the point of continuing never to touch a single GCD heal.

Moreover, that extra GCD involvement synergizes well with additional complexity added to offensive GCD actions, in that they create a combined cognitive load that is greater than the sum of its parts/halves when working together by having to make room for each other. The same goes also for MP management if we wanted to actually do something with that for a change (no, just bringing back its ARR presence/functionality wouldn't be much help).

Does SAM's 60s DoT give it skill expression?
Sorry to acktwally, but... kinda. Which is far more than can be said for anything permitted to stack its duration (e.g., Surging Tempest or Huton).

The fact that it's 60s means that it can allow for myriad GCD tiers. It's also the only thing salvaging SAM's minute-to-minute complexities now that TG and MKSS both have 2 charges and are therefore pooled into the 2-minute bursts and everything else of note was pushed to a 2-minute CD directly.

By not being stackable, Higanbana still has a very particular window of use, and one which can easily invite mistakes the surrounding rotation leading up to it is mis-managed, since it obliges a particular state (dropping all Sen, ideally via Midare) exactly 3-4 GCDs prior (which is just time enough to regenerate 1 and only 1 Sen). Whereas any stackable element... just degrades to a maintenance buff that you cap quickly to keep out of the way for when you want the bigger damage/gauge gen of your non-maintenance combo.

A maintenance skill with a bundled situational utility (like Dia's instant cast) wouldn't fall to as low a skill floor as the likes of Surging Tempest and Huton, but it would also fall from a higher ceiling, ultimately being slightly more shallowed out proportionately, even if not to such a pitiful result.