Ummm

[Claire_Pendragon]

please correct me on this if I'm wrong, it's been almost 10yrs lol)

Youre half wrong.
WAR had it 1st in 1.23 When Inner Beast used to heal a butt load, and wasnt a mitigation skill until 2.1 (when they added holmgang, so ppl would inv WAR back into savage (coils normal))
But yes, abyssal drain spam was nice, though blood weapon + overpower+zerk was even better than abyssal drain. since abyssal drain wouldnt heal you w/o using dark arts, so that was 60% of your MP gone unless you had blood price up, and your WHM didnt stun lock mobs, and you werent relying on blindness or evasion increases for mitigation.
In general, WAR was still better at it, even if it was mostly locked to long cool downs. Sometimes DRK was better.

EDIT: forgot it was Steel Cyclone, though inner beast had potent single target healing in 2.0
EDIT#2: Steel Cyclone was nearly spammable in 1.23, which made it the tank of choice for almost all content. (also didnt help that PLD had to do its 123 combo for threat, but couldnt continue the chain if they didnt hit the mob from its flank)