Loss of drain on Blm...really?!

[Acidblood]

Just because you weren't aware of it doesn't inherently mean it was useless. :P

True, but Drain was useless; it didn't even heal an equal level mobs auto attack. Though I suspect that was by design...

The issue with any sort of decent healing skill on BLM is of course that BLM essentially has infinite MP. This makes them unique from RDM and the Healers, all of whom will eventually run dry and be unable to keep up with neither healing nor damage vs. a serious threat (and if not; i.e. they are ‘overpowered’ and able to solo things they shouldn't; it is a simple matter of adjusting costs). PLD can also heal themselves, but only in bursts, and with a long MP regen time in between; BLM MP regen in UI is, by comparison, incredibly fast.

So make the heal weak? Firstly, weak by what context (remembering that weak is relative and changes with gear as the game progresses). Secondly, if it is ‘weak’ it is likely to be useless, as Drain was, and little more than button bloat (and I for one would rather have a useful ability... like Mana Shift).

So what about a cooldown? BLM already has Manaward, the cooldown of which could simply be lowered, or a charge added, if extra survivability was warranted (which IMO it isn't).

Oh, and BLM also has AoE Sleep, which can be far more powerful than any healing skill if the issue is open world survivability.