I'm bored when I heal because I need more complex DPS rotations

[Renathras]

A more thoughtful reaction would be: why not? Just as DPS jobs offer both SMN (simple) and BLM (complex), maybe there should be a single healer job that adds that complexity for players who want something more involved to diddle with between heals.

If you ever visit the healer forums, I pitch this argument all the time. I call it the "4 Healers Model", which in a nutshell is "We have 4 healer Jobs, so why not make them play differently so they can appeal to different types? Leave one as it is, change 3 to variations so that people who want more complexity have options?" The typical way I pitch this is "Leave WHM as it is today, give SCH its SB damage kit back, give AST it's SB/HW Cards and extra effects (Time Dilation, etc) back and more party buffs to make it a buffer support, and give SGE a Caster-esque rotation like SMN or RDM have where Kardia procs for more and their gameplay is about efficiently using Kardia while properly performing its damage rotation. This way, every type of player would have a healer Job they can main and enjoy."

I get called LOTS of names in there and am the subject of near constant dogpiles - to the point the common Healer forum posters will dogpile on me in any other part of the forum now, such as General or the Tank or DPS forums - since they don't like the idea of a compromise that has even one healer Job still appealing to people that like healing as it is today.

They're inflexible and uncompromising and don't realize it, but I genuinely think that would be the best solution. And yeah, I use both Caster and Ranged and Tanks as examples - SMN vs RDM vs BLM, DNC vs BRD vs MCH, WAR vs PLD vs DRK vs GNB. They insist that ALL healers must be more complex or no deal. And when I point out "no deal" means the status quo and we stay with what we have now, they go ballistic.

They also like insisting that their complexity won't affect people that don't like complexity...but we all know that isn't true, as you said well here:

I see what you're saying, and if this were a single-player game, I'd agree with you 100%. Unfortunately, it's an MMO where plenty of players feel entitled to expect other players to not just do good enough, but to excel (or at least be trying to excel). Which is to say, if you aren't using all of your DPS buttons, you can expect a certain kind of player to get on your case. As a designer, you can largely mitigate this kind of conflict by providing options to players that align with their play preferences; because if you only have one DPS button, nobody can reasonably to criticize you for not using two DPS buttons.

In short - I agree with you. Why not? Why not have a healer Job (or even two or three) that add complexity for those players that want it? As long as at least one is still enjoyable to the people that like current healing, this shouldn't' be a problem and everyone wins. (Except the people that want ALL healers to be more complex and won't be satisfied until people that don't like complex DPS on a HEALER class are out in the cold.)