I had played SCH all through HW and have played AST through all of SB thus far, but I've come to a saddening realization...

I hate the way players take damage in this game.

Damage happens in one of two ways, particularly from bosses in dungeons/raids:

1. Auto attacking, which barely tickles all but the poorest-geared tanks.

2. Abilities, which typically knock 50-75% of the HP off of either the tank or the entire party.

This means that, as a healer, I either have no healing to do or TONS of healing to do, and the end result is that, yes, healers get pestered about doing DPS, which I don't mind doing, except that healer DPS is boring AF.

There's a discussion on the general forums right now about healing in XIV vs. healing in WoW, and the key difference is that damage in WoW goes out at a more gradual, but steady pace, meaning that healers almost always spend all of their time healing.

I think the 2.5sec GCD is partially to blame, here, as the pacing of healing can't be THAT quick because healers can't cast often enough to maintain such a pace.

In the end, it makes healing feel more "whack-a-mole" like than fun because you need to watch like a hawk for when someone takes damage, as the next hit could very well kill them, but it's boring downtime between those "OH SHI-" moments.

Maybe if healer DPS was all around more interesting to do it wouldn't be as bad, but I'd rather the game just balance out damage so that it comes more gradually instead of massive spikes between periods of downtime.