After 1 (arguably 2) expansions what is square trying to achieve with WAR (and PLD)?

[Arkdra]

As for why tank healing is so out of whack, I could only hazard a guess. What I would imagine is that they have internal data that shows that failing casual content is a significant driver of sub cancels. Throwing some extra healing at tanks is a way to add a bit of a failsafe to that. If the tank is good and the healer is bad, they can muddle through. If the tank is mid and the healer is mid, the extra tank healing probably helps. If the tank is good and the healer is good, the healer dies of boredom but that healer probably ditches healing instead of cancelling. Or maybe ditches dungeon queues.

Which is bad, but is a less bad outcome than a cancelled sub. This also assumes that the bored healers actually quit, or even exist as a significant plurality. For all we know, their internal data shows that the shb healer changes have led to a positive uptick in the percentage of the games population playing healers, which could be why complaints have fallen on deaf-ish ears.

[TheOperator3712]

Why do we even talk about temp HP ruining white hole mechanics when white hole has basically been MIA from the game for nearly half its cumulative lifespan

The last fight with a focus on white hole that isn’t just a “fail a mechanic and get a white hole doom” is as kefka, kefka was 7 tiers ago

Crit healing has always been a bigger bane on white hole than temp HP especially since these days there is almost no distinction between single target and AOE healing because of how free it is

We just had a doom mechanic in 5.3, and possibly more since then I haven't touched EW High-End content so I don't know. Boss nukes everyone to 1 HP and the healers have to heal everyone to full. Sure the tank shouldn't cast a theoretical SIO that buffs everyone's HP for that mech, but I don't trust casual pug tanks not to do it in Duty Roulette.

As for why tank healing is so out of whack, I could only hazard a guess. What I would imagine is that they have internal data that shows that failing casual content is a significant driver of sub cancels. Throwing some extra healing at tanks is a way to add a bit of a failsafe to that. If the tank is good and the healer is bad, they can muddle through. If the tank is mid and the healer is mid, the extra tank healing probably helps. If the tank is good and the healer is good, the healer dies of boredom but that healer probably ditches healing instead of cancelling. Or maybe ditches dungeon queues.

Which is bad, but is a less bad outcome than a cancelled sub. This also assumes that the bored healers actually quit, or even exist as a significant plurality. For all we know, their internal data shows that the shb healer changes have led to a positive uptick in the percentage of the games population playing healers, which could be why complaints have fallen on deaf-ish ears.

I think this is sadly the case for both tanks and healers. As bad as ShB and EW were, it was probably only wins on the data side of things.