A summary of healer issues

[Shurrikhan]

So the problem is three parts:

1) FFXIV Healer Jobs are designed to be, and feel like, Healers.
2) FFXIV encounter design seems to be based on having DPS and Support (even many mechanics are executed this way), not DPS, Healers, and (often) Tanks.
3) ...but FFXIV's rigid combat system doesn't really even allow for Support, it just allows for "things that are worse at DPS" but required (sometimes) by some encounter specific mechanic.

(1) isn't inherently a problem, but for the fact (2) exists; but (2) is also its own problem because of (3).

Aye, this hits the nail on the head.

Related food for thought, though:

Is it even possible to have difficulty enough to allow for an environment that can allow for Support (and for that matter, Healers and Tanks being worthwhile beyond a mere 'composition check' mechanic) for more than just Ultimates and the highest tier of the most recent content... if we keep allowing players to so badly overgear said content?

On that note... do we even need content to be allowed a maximum item level (more than slightly) above the item level that content itself grants?

(Assume for this question that we're free to proportionately reduce grind times via increased rewards or whatnot to compensate for the added time these activities would take by not making them increasingly a joke [e.g., from 4 Savage BiS raiders streaming through The Aetherfront at i550+ to being capped at the dungeon's i525 or the previous tier's BiS of i530].)

* 'Difficulty' here being what allows for short-term DPS checks and CC value, AoE damage that'd actually be punishing and might need a speed boost to be avoided enough [think linear fall-off / proximity-based AoEs] not to use up healer GCDs (for costs contextually significant in more ways than just the lost offensive-ppgcd of that uptime expended), etc., etc.