Healing Direction - is the current design balanced?

[Belial]

I'd liken it more to Chicken Little.

Pre-patch - "The sky is falling!"
Shortly after patch - "The sky is falling!"
Post-patch - "What were we complaining about, again?"

Touché salesman...

[Danavia]

I've used Curaga once. After I came back from the Aetheryte, party leader told me to never use it again. Heal who you can, raise the rest later.

Exactly haha

[Zigirus_Essan]

I don't see the lack of more cures up to a point as much of a problem for several reasons.

First being that most all classes have some sort of self healing that they can use in order to help themselves out. Aegis Boon, Blood bath, Second wind and so on. The only person that should require lots of heals early in the game aside from possible dungeon scenarios would be a tank.

Second point is that much like the rest of the game from previous changes, I have the mind to think that the abilities potency in terms of scaling based on level will work the same way as the equipment stat increments and stat progression. As an example:
Bronze War Axe at level 5 offers a damage rating of 16

Elmlords Tusk at level 30 offers a damage rating of 59. all in all that's a 43 damage increase.

However after level 30 weapon damage shoots up considerably.

Demilune Bhuj at level 48 Has a damage rating of 141. That's a huge 82 point increase just over 18 levels from the Elmlords tusk.

Stats follow suit with this as well, as I'm sure everyone knows. After level 30 base HP and all other stats start shooting up at large rates to ultimately lead to your cap stats at 50 designed for endgame content.

I honestly don't think with the new game play mechanics you'll need any really big heals until level 30. Which, not to anyones surprise, is when we get Cura.

And that's assuming that all you'll be doing as a CNJ is healing. It's not even until the 30's that classes really start to fit into their role molds and really start to excel at one thing. All the way up to CNJ 30(and beyond) you'll probably be buffing, nuking and curing all at the same time.

I just feel that fussing over 1 cure until level 30 undermines the real point of the classes and early XIV game play, and that's versatility. If all CNJ had was the role of healer and buffer from 1-50 I'd probably be with you. But looking at the bigger picture, every class has so much to offer to the table that in the grand scope of things it's not even an issue until endgame when things become more serious.

I find it no coincidence either that Jobs will be unlocked at class level 30 either. The same point in which role definition becomes more and more important for game content.