I really, really want to love FFXIV healing. WHM really brings that fantasy archetype to life: the animations, spells, outfits, everything. I want to stride in wearing white robes and save my party from peril. It looks and feels so good to use my kit...

But nope, instead I'm spamming glare over and over and over, even when I beg groups to let me solo heal 8-man content. Incoming damage is choreographed and often completely avoided by people staying out of the fire. Incoming tank hits are minimal outside of a few scripted abilities. Party damage is completely blown away by my many massive AoE buttons and mitigation cooldowns.

I have faint memories from other MMOs about doing things like cast-cancelling big heals to keep ahead of huge tank spikes, blowing my mitigation cooldowns to keep tanks alive, and rationing mana just to survive encounters. But those are just faded impressions. Now I keep the dance going and glare glare glare glare glare glare dia glare glare glare...

I've been bouncing back and forth between BRD and WHM on the same content and it's night and day how much more DPS keeps me on my toes. With BRD, the skill ceiling is high to optimize my DPS during the dance, and I can always pick out moments where I could do a bit better next time. On WHM? Unless I literally die in the fire I'm just doing maintenance on my party.

As much as I want to be a healer, I'm likely going to hang up my hood and cane for Endwalker, as I want to be active more than I want to be immersed in my class.