Developers : Healer design mentality needs to change

[Saefinn]

That being said, DPS and Healing are not the only ways a Job/Class can support their group. They can apply CC, they can cast buffs on allies, debuffs on enemies and shield from or remove ailments. In that sense, I think AST is the most interesting at this point (And a big part of disinfranchised healers would seem to agree with me, even with the streamlining of the card system.)-

I'll concur on this. This is the exact reason I went from SCH to AST in ShB for my healing needs. Yes I didn't like the streamlining of the card system, BUT, it was a question of, do I Broil/Ruin II ad infinitum or do I Malefic with occasional Earthly Stars and weave in card mechanics?

Plus, you are absolutely right, DPS isn't the only way.

Going back to A Realm Reborn's SCH their DPS abilities applied debuffs. Not just that but you had Virus, whilst it was a cross class ability (and has now been moved into 'Addle'), SCH got a trait to make their version better.

Your 2.0 SCH could do the following:
- Silence
- Slow
- Slow Movement Speed
- Blind
- Reduce Healing Taken
- Reduced stats through Virus

Because Miasma II applied a disease effect (slow movement speed + lower healing taken) I used to use this on big pulls so the tank would have slower enemies and take less damage on that pull.

Although the implementation wasn't that potent, say, compared to BLU's equivalents (it was a more "every little helps"). I think this laid some groundwork for something they could have explored better with SCH. Especially as these are all debuffs thematic to Final Fantasy.

One of the SCH change suggestions I had was to bring these back but not have to tag the DPS aspect and just make them a little more useful. I mentioned earlier in the thread about my idea of a Selene version of the Seraph, this would be the kind of thing I would have in mind for such a Seraph (and for Selene's other abilities). I liked a suggestion I saw from a previous poster about "Libra" for Scholar, which would take to your idea of collecting tactical data and applying debuffs - me I'd probably make that the Selene version of Seraph maybe. I think there's so many ways we can play with this TBF.