Quote Originally Posted by Kosmos992k View Post
Considering that the damage being taken by players scales up also, a flat % mitigation caused by Protect, or a % of HP mitigation such as with StoneSkin hardly seems OP - even with Pro-shell and Granite Skin traits. Removing those traits substantially decreases the potency of those moves for WHM. Given that we are supposed to see WHM as a raw power healer (apparently), it would make more sense to me for he WHM ability with SS and Protect to be more powerful than when SCH or AST cross skill it. Instead though, WHM loses those exclusive traits.
Think about it - if the damage is scaled down so that you don't need the 18% mitigation from Graniteskin, then it ends up being overpowered as compared to the content. If the damage is scaled up to take into account the extra 8% mitigation provided by Graniteskin, suddenly WHM is absolutely indispensible. The same thing goes for the magic defense on Protect. With how much magic damage is being slung around in A1S (that's as far as I've gotten so far, can't personally attest to later floors), WHM would be absolutely necessary. They don't want it to end up that the meta is WHM + AST/SCH. The whole point of adding more classes was so that people have choices and the world has more variety. Right now AST needs some help so the meta is WHM + SCH but hopefully with some adjustments to AST that relaxes somewhat and people are more willing to experiment. They have to be careful though, so that the meta doesn't end up being AST + AST with the other two healers left out in the cold.

I don't envy them the task, honestly.