Quote Originally Posted by Zoralink View Post
Not really. SE currently designs fights so that you only ever deal with one or two mechanics at once, but failing to do those mechanics properly will almost always result in something catastrophic. Most MMOs have many mechanics in tandem, but one mechanic being done improperly is just very bad, rather than a nearly guaranteed death/wipe. Because of this, they can make mechanics for healers to deal with healing-wise, rather than healers just playing the role of an extended health bar. It's why so many people struggle on the Vault final boss, it has multiple mechanics happening in tandem with semi-randomized damage. Many healers aren't used to this in FFXIV, and they simply can't handle it.
There's nothing truly random about the Vault final boss: you know which mechanics are coming and when to expect them. Variables such as not knowing for sure which pair of players will get hit by chains are commonly implemented degrees of "randomness" already present in many encounters in the game.

The most random fight I can think of off the top of my head is Mog EX, and all you need is to be able to identify each mechanic and be ready to handle it once you identify that it is happening.

Boss fights in virtually all games come down to a flow chart with a certain number of branches. It's true that mechanics in FFXIV tend to be both highly scripted and extremely punishing, but they've come out and stated that this is their design choice to encourage (read: enforce) learning and to cut down failure due to random elements.

On the other hand, I think the recent fights with more environmental effects (e.g. tornadoes err'where in Bismarck EX and in Neverreap) are their attempt to increase the requirement for incidental healing so as to keep healers busier with actual healing.