Given the current “State” of the healing archetypes within the game systems ergo “Direct, Regen, and Shield” the very core of the healers displeasure has come down to that which may or may not be in the works for 6.0. After some reading through several hundred pages across DPS, TANK, Healer, and General Forums I have come to one of many conclusions. That in order to create Healer Job “Identity” that many in this forum want to see will require altering the foundation of healing itself. In a sense they will have to at this juncture create not one, but two new healers for 6.0 and change how half of the Job’s core mechanics operate.

Some critical points to note in my thought process before I go into details on my line of thinking and I will be going broad strokes here:
1. Healer DPS is not factored into Normal Duties, Raids, and Trials however it “IS” factored into EX, and Savage content.
2. Buffs provided by healers (if any) are factored in all content based on probability that such a buff may be there.
3. Job design overall is looked at what is “Fun” and how can we make it work within our system.
4. UI Implementation limits based on Cross Hotbar ~36 keys max.
5. Server strain from Data transfer limitations and Server Ping on Client side.

That out of the way here is my feedback on where I think Healing needs to head, and back to my original point give us five of them even though it would be a utter nightmare to balance. While using our current three overall Archetypes and divide the five healers into the following base ideas. Two Direct “Pure” Healers, Two “Shield/Regen” Healers, and a “Buffer Healer” with spells to round out how the overall Role operates. They of course would have some overlap in ability types and as a point of reference I am using the current 5.0 WHM setup 1 Shield Spell, 1 Regen Spell, 1 AoE Heal/Regen Combo, and the rest as Direct Heals as my “Pure Healer” example.