Quote Originally Posted by BungleBear View Post
I think you're underestimating the diversity in our healing toolkit. It seems like you're saying "every healing ability is either single-target or AOE, so there are only two kinds of healing ability". But surely there are other relevant differences between healing abilities besides the number of targets they heal.

Take SCH, for example. Sure, Indom and Whispering Dawn are both AOE heals. But Indom has lower potency and heals instantly, whereas WD has higher potency and heals over time. So Indom is preferable when raidwide damage is imminent, but WD is preferable otherwise. WD and Sacred Soil are both HOTs with roughly the same potency. But SS has the added benefit of damage reduction, whereas WD doesn't require your party to remain in a tightly circumscribed location. So SS is preferable in situations where your party stacks for multiple raidwide hits. It's not rocket science, but working out which healing ability to use in which situation still requires some thought and planning.

I don't understand why you say that reducing the healing abilities to only four would be "not much difference" but also that it would be "infinitely easier". That seems like a big difference.
I mean, I admit that I was exaggerating, with SS being the most glaring example. But in reality, HOTs don't last long enough to really be much of an issue when it comes to AOE healing. The raid-wides often don't come quick enough in significant enough damage that the AOE HOTs don't just end up doing the same work as normal AOE heals.

In the context of FF, most of the time the more deciding factor is the potency of the heal and whether it's a GCD or oGCD heal. And due to what all our DPS actions are, we always pick the oGCD when possible. Even the potency isn't that big of a deal a lot of the time since aside from a few specific examples, they don't vary that significantly.