Loss of drain on Blm...really?!

[Cynfael]

So far for this topic I've largely seen two very distinct positions:

1) The group that is considering Drain as it was in its form as a role action, and doesn't care to see it return to BLM because of how pathetic its output was compared to the damage loss.
2) The group that would like to see BLMs get some form of self-sustain for crisis scenarios and questing, and think an iteration of Drain would be a thematic backup to Manaward.

What puzzles me is that most of what I've seen of Group 1 thinks itself mutually exclusive with Group 2, even though both positions can be simultaneously satisfied by just not giving BLM an 80 potency attack with 80% damage-as-healing.
In all honesty, I expect half the reason it was so weak to start with was having to balance it against Ruin.
Heck, make it 200 potency and give it 150% healing, that at least would be semi-worthwhile healing without replacing a healer. Sure the damage would be pathetic but it's not like the intent is to be part of the main rotation. Not like you use Sleep in raids either.

A long-cooldown Drain that heals for more sounds fine to me. I still don't think anyone would really use it, but it wouldn't be unbalancing, so it's whatever.

It's not that there isn't room for common ground in this odd discussion; it's more that some of us don't care about Drain at all. We didn't use it while it was there, and we don't miss it now that it's gone. It's not going to hurt any of us in that camp to have some kind of Drain restored, but it's hard to understand why people ask for it when you already regarded it as unnecessary.

[Archwizard]

It's not that there isn't room for common ground in this odd discussion; it's more that some of us don't care about Drain at all. We didn't use it while it was there, and we don't miss it now that it's gone. It's not going to hurt any of us in that camp to have some kind of Drain restored, but it's hard to understand why people ask for it when you already regarded it as unnecessary.

Sure, but that's in large part because of how impotent it was. Give it enough of a healing bump and it'll be worth a bar space, even if only for rare circumstances from a raiding standpoint.

I mean don't get me wrong, even when I was using Drain it was exhausting to cast it 4-5 times in a row to get to a mild amount of HP, and that was only possible with Manaward. I can totally see why Camp 1 players would write it off. But, if Camp 2 players found reason to use even that much, that's just as valid.