Healers need an overhaul

[KDSilver]

If only you guys were around for the Cleric Stance Dance phase of 14, you'd likely change your tune and understand why we healer mains aren't thirsting to return to those days. requiring us to do DPS is fine asking us to DPS with 8 buttons dedicated to just DPS is ridiculous.

I was there.
I liked it.

Do I think it was healthy for tha game ? I don't.
Stormblood was a good standing point for healer imo. Just had to adjust and fix some things here and there.
Shb hurt healer the most.

I think one of the issues is people don't realize most healing jobs do more than just heal dump, Healing, Shielding, Buffing, and DPS is something the best healer job does.

No.
I had a friend of mine who was new to the game. She started really quickly to throw rocks (whm) during downtime because her class and the healing design had nothing else to offer.
She was not that great of a player because she had everything to learn.

Healing has to be done every 20 to 30s at best most of the time. It's very scripted.
Once you start playing the same content over and over again, your brain memorize when damage appaear. And you start realizing you have plenty of time to do something else.
Healing kit are really strong and we are bloated with a lot of healing skills.

However, Heavensward still had some engagement that was fun to keep.
At least shielding had some meaning since we had less oGCD and we were to one in charge. Less party mitigation.

HW Scholar had that feeling. You needeed to shield properly, safely using the few oGCD you had otherwise you were left spamming succor which barely restored anything.
You had to be careful with your mana and aetherflow usage. Aetheflow used to be a real mechanic because it was better the spend a stack healing to save the other healer a GCD than using it on energy drain.
You could micro manage your fairy and forcing her embrace on dedicated target with macro or manually.
You had diversity with eye for an eye or virus to reduce damage taken.

So yes, I played during that time.
I would not say we should return to these days.
But a lot of interesting interaction have been taken away and nothing to replace them to the point that. What used to be engaging and fun to learn and get better at has become one of the most boring and interesting role of the game.

[Selvokaz]

Wait, you just said they had more to learn, so the game needs to put the healers full kit in the first 10 levels or your friend and people like them will get bored? I hate to say it but who's fault is that? The Black mage starts out equally as slow, fire or ice, fire or ice.
Also, did this friend have invincibility? Cause I still remember being a low-level conjurer and when I wasn't casting stone or protect back then I was healing myself because I was getting pummeled and had I not been cast healing spells I'd be dead. This brings me back to what I was saying earlier, people do take damage few abilities in most healing jobs kits can bring a target from 10% to 100% with one use, if the entire team is getting that low often you as the healer are in for a rough time, unless again somethings changed and GCD heals always crit and if you are in content where you find yourself not needing to heal anyone, shield anyone, then enjoy the stroll in the park, cause there is definitely more often than not going to be times where you are going to be doing your role as healer more than dps. I would say only sign up for harder content then, but everyone is so amazing at that content I just assume its all what other healers do anyway.