WHM getting progressively more unnecessary in content?

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Let me guess, you'd want a mechanic that allows you to keep healing after dying for a while.

Umm, no?
Just an identity for WHM is all. Just heals is really not cutting it anymore.

[Zojha]

Just heals is really not cutting it anymore.

There's no "anymore", it just can't cut it as identity. That's like making "mitigation" an identity, doesn't work either.

Healers and Tanks are artificial roles with no purpose other than to deal with unavoidable damage. That damage is set. It's coming at you no matter what. As a consequence, you only need to be able to deal with a set amount of damage - not more, not less. And unless you want to crowd out classes, you need to give every tank and healer the tools to deal with that damage - remember, the damage comes no matter what, so if you can't deal with it by design, you're not viable in your role. You do not need to mitigate or heal more than necessary either however, because all other damage is avoidable, so you just need to git gut there and at best, the purpose can be to feather bad groups. Hence, both of those do not work as "identity".

WHM and PLD will need a new identity in the long run - or, fall into obscurity.