How can we really define Healers?

[ty_taurus]

I think jobs having a fixed tool kit in general is a bad thing personally, I understand your argument and we're at a point where it would be hard to even design one different spec for each job, I prefer more diversity and ways to play the game Instead of "1 job 1 way to play". Of course you can choose a different job but even then a lot of jobs in the same category pretty much play the same with minor differences at this point.

Healer design I feel like suffers the most from it, with no real major designs that "shake up" the healer role, I guess regens vs barriers are good, but that's why I liked how Astro could have the choice between two instead of being stuck as one type of healer, it gives jobs more breathing room for diversity, I generally think Healers haven't been well thought out for a long time

Casual Content healer design is laughable and I don't think healer design should purely be around only the hard content either, even adding some more incoming damage and maybe small rotations would generally help make healers feel a bit more different, they played sage so safely it pretty much shows they have no idea on how they would make a new unique healer have it's own niche (of course theirs differences but sage/sch are very borrowed, ast and white mage feel different enough from each other)

Obviously what I want from the game is going to be different from others and I don't expect people to agree, but I want design that is more flexible.

I think the concept of fixed vs specked toolkits is too broad of a concept to say that one is objectively a negative. It can definitely be a point of preference of course, but for me, I also feel like designing jobs with specs can also lead to one spec being objectively worse than the other and thus feeling like a punishment to those that chose the lesser option. That said I do think there is room for subtle choice to exist within healer kits. Diurnal vs Nocturnal in your example was fine. Nocturnal was largely inferior, but it was also something that was different rather than just being less damage, for example, so there were nuances that could give it an edge. Eos vs Selene as well is something that I think we should go back to. I think old Selene was always a bit problematic, but we can do something different with that in a more balanced way, such as choosing between more raw healing and defensive utility rather than offensive where the pressure to increase DPS contribution is too important in this game.