So I was going to post this on the tank forum but I decided the question is as much a healer question as it is a tank question

Regardless looking back on EW genuinely what is square enix’s design decision around the current balance of the tanks and how this affects the wider game as a whole?

WAR started the expansion as the most popular tank with the strongest overall mitigation kit given its ability to empower its raidwide mitigation, it’s cracked invuln and bloodwhetting/nascent glint which allows it to heal another member to full every 30 seconds and allows it to be functionally immortal in cleave content. In exchange its one weakness is that its damage was lower than GNB or DRK. Now it has since been buffed above DRK and almost reaches GNB

On top of this GNB received a second charge of aurora and “excog but better”, and PLD got holy Shelton, the heal on intervention and the heal on the magical combo and while tanks and healers up till EW retained rough parity in damage in EW tanks are unequivocally stronger (in unoptimisied environments a tanks damage now sits closer to a DPS’s than a healers)

So my question is genuinely what is square enix trying to achieve with this. We are at the point that tanks are approaching all three roles in one, healers are near vestigial in casual content and excess tank healing is facilitating 0 and 1 healer clears of the hardest content in the patch it’s released. Does square really think this is sustainable? What do they intend to do with this warped design going forward? How far can they reasonably push this before you start kicking people for being a healer or buffing tanks till they are fighting for DPS spots