Protect should be changed into an "aura" Job Trait

[The_Promised]

Nah. Paladins can be the only ones allowed to use auras like on every RPG/MMO.

[NobleWinter]

Protect has always been awkward but the Developers seem to have a really narrow minded view of how and what Protect should do. It really feels like a waste of a Role Skill but Role Skills as a whole feel like a wasted opportunity. I would be happy if Protect didn't last 30 minutes. If it was only 5 minutes or less it would actually force you to apply it more but even then it barely does anything in terms of defense. I believe it's only like a 3 percent damage reduction. It's really just a visual reminder that your healer isn't AFK at the start of a duty now.

[LeoLupinos]

Change Protect to be similar to PVP Protect version and not a 30 min buff.

New Role Skills: Protect, Shell, Protect II and Shell II.

Protect: Duration 10s, CD 60s. Increases 25% physical defense of target. Shares cooldown with Shell, Shell II and Protect II.
Shell: Duration 10s, CD 60s. Increases 25% magical defense of target. Shares cooldown with Protect, Protect II and Shell II.

Protect II: Duration 10s, CD 60s. Increases 10% physical defense of nearby party members. Shares cooldown with Shell, Shell II and Protect.
Shell II: Duration 10s, CD 60s. Increases 10% magical defense of nearby party members. Shares cooldown with Protect, Protect II and Shell.

Healer must chose 1 from 4.

[Riyshn]

New Role Skills: Protect, Shell, Protect II and Shell II.

Or, instead of making the problems around Healer role actions even worse, just make it a WHM skill and keep the effect of the PvP version.
"Reduces targe's damage taken by 25%. Duration: 10s"

Fixes the problem of one of your healers being forced to waste a slot on it, is no longer a pointless busywork action, and gives WHM a strong single target mitigation to compete with SCH/AST's AoE mitigations (Soil/Covenant/CU).

[Seraphor]

Why exactly do healers need this "perk" though? It's not like they're going to get excluded from content (except maybe in a fraction-of-a-percent of cases) if Protect doesn't exist. There's plenty of reason to party up with healers already.

You know, like getting heals.

Protect, as it currently stands, is a GCD tax for a passive effect. Making it an aura just makes it entirely passive. Passive auras are the most boring thing in game design.

It's already boring. This 'aura' version is just the same as deleting protect but doesn't require a major overhaul of enemy damage potencies to balance it.

But I'd rather it returned to a WHM skill.

[NobleWinter]

I would love to see Protect and Shell both exist together and also be engaging. Personally I would make Protect an Instant cast spell with the same defense boosting effect except it's duration would be limited by having at least one party member engaged in battle. As soon as the battle ended the buff would wear off. So while running through a dungeon you would always cast Protect first as soon as the tank drew aggro making it more engaging than set it once and done. In a long trial you would only have to reapply after a death which isn't much different from the current version. Shell would be an ability with a 180 second cool down that would reduce magic damage received by 15 percent for 20 seconds. I would prefer Shell to be White Mage specific to give them some group shielding with the longest cool down as trade off for being the powerhouse healer.

[Sebazy]

What sort of raiding experience do you have if you don’t mind me asking? Having to use protect as part of our opener would be clunky, whilst having it wear between trash packs would frankly have me not bothering to cast it at all unless the group damage was particularly slow. Not gonna pretend that protect in it’s current form is perfect, but that suggestion would be a step back in terms of QoL

[KokonoeAiyoko]

Well I got what I wanted. I no longer have to cast this spell. Thank you!

[MorbolvampireQueen6]

fully agree or a cd that effects all party members like regen does for a short time