Pure/Barrier Split is a failure

[Kreyd]

To go along with the ancient thread I made like a year ago where I outlined a possible idea of a 'spectrum' of Pure vs Barrier, rather than the current 'you are a Pure, or you are a Barrier'...

Honestly I like this idea of a healing 'spectrum' you are mentioning. Not only would it make comps more flexible, it could also possibly give each healer an own unique identity again. My personal take on this would be: (from more pure heal to more shield oriented)

WHM - focus on HoT management.
SCH - abilities summon small entities of fairies who heal allied by themself for a short period before vanishing again.
AST - 'reactive' healer where abilities leave buffs on allies that heal them when they fall under X% of max hp or after a time period (like GNB's heart of corundum or SCH's excog).
SGE - mostly focussed on actual barriers.

[Deceptus]

Honestly I like this idea of a healing 'spectrum' you are mentioning. Not only would it make comps more flexible, it could also possibly give each healer an own unique identity again. My personal take on this would be: (from more pure heal to more shield oriented)

WHM - focus on HoT management.
SCH - abilities summon small entities of fairies who heal allied by themself for a short period before vanishing again.
AST - 'reactive' healer where abilities leave buffs on allies that heal them when they fall under X% of max hp or after a time period (like GNB's heart of corundum or SCH's excog).
SGE - mostly focussed on actual barriers.

The CBU3 devs can't even balance 2 types of roles. They couldn't properly balance the MT/OT duality so they just gave up. They can't properly balance the Regen / Shield duality so they just gave up and gave everything to all the healers.

I have zero confidence in them attempting 4 different styles for healers (just like they couldn't design 4 different tank styles)

They literally can't do it and have the track record to prove that.

[Kreyd]

The CBU3 devs can't even balance 2 types of roles. They couldn't properly balance the MT/OT duality so they just gave up. They can't properly balance the Regen / Shield duality so they just gave up and gave everything to all the healers.

I have zero confidence in them attempting 4 different styles for healers (just like they couldn't design 4 different tank styles)

They literally can't do it and have the track record to prove that.

Balancing isn't the big problem. (aside from cheating mechanics with heavy shielding, which could be countered with more stuff like heal checks or mechanics that straight out ignore shields)
But yeah. Designing 4 different healer styles seems to be something they can't or don't want to do. Right now we don't even have 1 healing style.