I kind of got a strange feeling about the Healer changes in 5.0. And this is admittedly a bit conspiratorial. So I'm going to put in a disclaimer that this is most likely not accurate or anything, and is just a curious observation. Now that we all have our tin foil hats on, let's discuss the idea!

It's commonly thought that the healer changes were made without even looking at or considering player feedback. To me, it seems that SE actually did look at player feedback when considering the changes made to 'fix' healers this expansion. However, they were looking at feedback from non-healer players. When looked at in this lens, a lot of the changes suddenly make sense. After all, consider the types of problems that they tried to fix with their changes.

"Ugg, it's annoying that I have to wait for the SCH to cast Aetherflow out of combat." Fixed! They can't do it outside of combat! Now you don't have to wait for that silly Scholar!

"Blugh. Why did that Scholar cast Energy Drain for MP Rather than heal me! They shouldn't be able to do that!" Fixed! Now they can't use them on anything but healing abilities!

"Ergh. Why did that AST give the tank a Bole rather than giving me a balance?" Fixed! Now all they can give out is balance!

"Healers should be healing not DPSing!" Fixed! We'll try to limit that as much as possible through making their rotations simpler!

Now, if this is compared to the problems that healers were generally looking for like more advanced healing mechanics, deeper DPS rotations, a bigger focus on support during downtime, or the myriad other changes, it becomes clear what were emphasized. If you take the idea that the 5.0 Healer changes were made for non-healers they suddenly make a lot more sense.

That being said, it doesn't make them any less boring or terrible. So what do you guys think? Is my tin foil hat simply ripping at the seams? Or is there some logic to the idea?