If Healers had Tank rotations, what would they be?

[Renathras]

As far as the ideas themselves: It's really hard to compare the two. As much as people call Tanks and Healers "The Supports", they really are fundamentally different, depending on encounter design. Outside of ARPGs, there's no "useable at any time standard defense" for Tanks. ARPGs have "raise shield" (e.g. Oblivion) that you can do at any time, but tab-targeting MMOs tend...not to. Instead, they have various defensive abilities with different CDs that they cycle between.

Healers, by contrast...don't quite work like that. While they CAN (FFXIV high end healing is oGCD weave based using CD heals), it often isn't (lots of MMO healing is using "spamable" heals based on need; in FFXIV terms, it would be if you used Cure 1, Cure 2, and Medica for your baseline healing). Encounter design in FFXIV doesn't require that as much anymore because damage has changed (since ARR) and healers have so many oGCDs with CDs. But regardless, the simplest form would be a 1-2-3 combo with an upkeep buff instead of a DoT (basically WAR), an oGCD to weave, and a CD to use, oGCD heals to weave, and probably some "backup" GCD heal baseline.

So for the sake of argument, it would looks something like (for WHM):

Stone-Aero-Water (1-2-3 combo) + Dia (-4 self-buff, stackable to 60 sec); Holy-Glare(?) (1-2 AOE combo); about a half dozen oGCD heals (WAR in this case having Vengeance, Holmgang, Raw Intuition/Bloodwhetting/Nacent, Bulwark, and Shake would be similar in effect to something like Lilybell, Benediction, Benison, Tetra, and Assize/Asylum); some 1 min output CD (Presence of Mind), something that builds to a big strike (Afflatus), the big strike itself, triggered by using the 1 min CD (Misery), and then probably have Cure 1 and Medica 1 (and Raise) as their backup stuff.

A not 1:1 similar thing would probably be...well, similar. Remove glare, remove Dia, Cure/Medica already have no parallel. But in effect, WHM being "more like tanks" (just using WAR as "the other easiest Job") would essentially look something like that. Basically, WHM as it is today, but with a 1-2-3 combo, Dia not being a DoT, and probably something like Fell Cleave to burn gauge on.

.

So I guess my point is:

Do you guys want healers to be more like tanks (the above) or more like DPS?

Because those are not the same things. WHM as "more like DPS" would be more like probably SMN (which you guys dislike but might accept on a healer) or maybe RDM. I know some people fantasize it being more like BLM, but that wouldn't work well on a healer in general, and if it as used on any healer, it would be the hardest, most complex one (which...would sound more like SCH?)

[AmiableApkallu]

Do you guys want healers to be more like tanks (the above) or more like DPS?

How about: None of the above. (Unless I'm not included in "you guys." I have no idea who all that's actually supposed to refer to. It's not as if there's a Gnath hive mind hanging around these forums...)

I want healers to have engaging damage options for the stretches of time when no healing is required.

I want dungeons and trials and raids to dial up the damage and mechanics a notch or two, to better remind healers that they are, well, healers. (I mean, ARR normal mode content has a certain feeling of "dangerousness" that more recent content does not. /two cents)