You don't need a decade to come up with a mechanic paradigm more interesting than "Spamable Single Target Heal, AoE Heal, Bigger version of those, Debuff Dispel."
What I will say in defense of the system is that it works. It's not the most interesting system ever, but the lack of complexities have its advantages (for example, encounters are easier to balance). The problem is that healing is mindnumbing unless you are fighting a boss with interesting mechanics. But if there are no interesting mechanics during that combat encounter, like most fights against trash mobs, then spamming your class' spammable heal is sometimes the only thing you are required to do.
What you are saying here is: "If you are healing properly, you are playing your class wrong!"
I agree that you should CC the mobs if there is no Thaumaturge or Summoner to do that (and assuming your tank can survive the burst damage while you sleep the targets), but once you do? It's back to casting Cure 1 over and over again. DPS as a White Mage is not significant enough to be worth the trouble, not to mention they don't have a mana recovery mechanic, so every damaging spell you are casting is one less healing spell you might need.
You can take risks when you are confident in the tank or when you know you won't run out of mana mid-battle. But otherwise? Better safe than sorry: don't waste your mana for damage dealing. You can never be sure that your teammates aren't going to take big hits (because of whatever reason: maybe positional lag or their cat jumped to their face for a hug).
What I will say in defense of the system is that it works. It's not the most interesting system ever, but the lack of complexities have its advantages (for example, encounters are easier to balance). The problem is that healing is mindnumbing unless you are fighting a boss with interesting mechanics. But if there are no interesting mechanics during that combat encounter, like most fights against trash mobs, then spamming your class' spammable heal is sometimes the only thing you are required to do.
TheCurls Wrote:CNJ/WHM isn't a boring class. You're just not doing enough things in that case. If you're finding it easy to heal and keep your team topped up, go cleric stance and DPS between heals. CC some mobs to prevent more damage being done. Don't just sit there and say it's boring when all you do is cast Cure 1 over and over. If that's how you're playing, you're playing it wrong.
What you are saying here is: "If you are healing properly, you are playing your class wrong!"
I agree that you should CC the mobs if there is no Thaumaturge or Summoner to do that (and assuming your tank can survive the burst damage while you sleep the targets), but once you do? It's back to casting Cure 1 over and over again. DPS as a White Mage is not significant enough to be worth the trouble, not to mention they don't have a mana recovery mechanic, so every damaging spell you are casting is one less healing spell you might need.
You can take risks when you are confident in the tank or when you know you won't run out of mana mid-battle. But otherwise? Better safe than sorry: don't waste your mana for damage dealing. You can never be sure that your teammates aren't going to take big hits (because of whatever reason: maybe positional lag or their cat jumped to their face for a hug).