Cure and it's Equivalents need to be axed

[Sebazy]

There's a handful of niche skills and abilities in the game though. I don't think being niche should mean removal. Just because you're not spamming something doesn't mean it doesn't deserve to exist.

Are you misreading my initial point perhaps? To be clear, I didn't say that Esuna had no point, rather I'd like to give it more of a point. Likewise, I'm not suggesting it's removed at all, quite the opposite in fact, I was working on the assumption that it would still be called Esuna since it's an iconic spell name and it still fits well with WHM's current light biased theme and that we'd simply be taking Cure 1's potency and slapping it on Esuna alongside the cleanse.

This is one of those situations where the game doesn't need to change, the players need to change. Put your buttons on your bars. I play with a controller using 3 sets of cross hotbars. If I can do it, anyone can.

Unfortunately I don't think the players will change without the game itself ushering that in first. Who's to say they don't have it hot keyed? I suspect they simply don't remember to use it or more likely don't even spot the cleanseable doom debuff because it's something the average player is only ever going to see once in a blue moon in certain circumstances within a tiny number of very specific encounters.

The game could absolutely do a better job of highlighting cleanses and it could also absolutely do a better job of actually rewarding that play. Imagine if Esuna gave us an actual noteworthy buff for getting that cleanse. It's also an easy way to break the current tick tock cadence that healers suffer so badly with at the moment. I'll absolutely take ANYTHING to break up the glare monotony in mainstream content at this point and this is just another option on that list.

Ruling it out simply because you don't think the bar should be lower is misguided IMO, the bar hit the floor long ago already.

Healer abilities are a clusterfuq of nonsense that is essentially like having a tool box full of flat head and Philips screwdrivers: Some might be more efficient than others, but they all do the same thing. Healer engagement has nearly zero to do with their kits, and everything to do with the encounter and the performance of other players.

I'll add that some of those screwdrivers make it REALLY hard for SE to tune any real healer engagement into content and it gets exponentially worse the more casual and mainstream you go. I've mathed it up a few times in various threads, but the amount of sustained incoming damage you need to pressure a capable healer into spending 30-50% of their GCDs on healing is pretty insane, especially if you're not throwing EX/Savage tier movement pressure into the mix as well, and then immediately run into the problem of our MP economy not being able to sustain this sort of GCD pressure and of course all the old support abilities from the past that solved this issue are long consigned to the bin.

It really is remarkable how deep a hole SE have dug themselves into with regards to healer/healing design.