WAR isn't losing the WAR "flavor". The WAR flavor was *never* "self healing tank", "soak tank", or whatever else people seem to think that its flavor was. The only "soak tank" thing about it is the higher hp, which, as has been pointed out time and time again, doesn't actually provide a benefit over the 20% damage mitigation that PLD gets where eHP is concerned. WAR was never a "self-healing tank" either because self-healing was a *tiny* portion of total mitigation; actual damage reduction and the +healing/+hp from Defiance made up a *whole* lot more.
The only reason people get hung up on the idea that WAR is a "self healing" or "soak" tank (and then proceed to whine that WAR is suddenly losing its flavor and just becoming more like PLD) is because they're enthralled by big numbers: people see high hp and immediately think "soak tank" even if "soak tank" is a completely empty descriptor and they see big flashy heals from Inner Beast (and the paltry little bits of healing from Storm's Path and Bloodbath) and think "self healing" even if you could ignore the self healing completely with no real difference in healing required.
WAR is defined by Wrath stack generation and expenditure. As it stands, because Inner Beast doesn't scale and comes at the cost of the +healing that WAR needs to stay competitive with PLD, there's next to no reason to actually use your Wrath stacks. The changes the devs are making WAR *less* like PLD because you're going to have a reason to use your Wrath stacks on a regular basis, even if they are shifting the *mechanisms* that WAR uses for its mitigation away from self-healing *because self-healing is a terrible, terrible mechanism for a tank to rely upon*. WAR is going to actually play like it's *supposed* to. If you're upset because you don't get to see big flashy self-healing numbers from Inner Beast any more, it's only because you have no idea what WAR is actually about.
As to the OP, the only way that any kind of self-healing or shield mechanic is going to work as a mechanic that a tank can rely upon is if it scales with incoming damage rather than outgoing damage or max hp because those values scale at very different rates and the devs have no direct control over them such that, in low damage scenarios, they're horribly overpowered (overgeared WAR in AK) and, in high damage scenarios, they're effectively worthless (WAR in pretty much any 8-man content when measured against a PLD).