now let me first start off by giving you my history. I play a level 70 inquisitor here, I played a friar/warden in DAOC and a Druid in WoW. so i have had my fair share of healing classes.

So the other day i got my gf to play EQ2 and she rolled a fury to combo with my SK(that i made just to level with her). at level 23 she got her a nuke that does 200+-400+ adept 1 300+-600+ mastered …. at level 23. I was shocked to be honest, i knew furies had GREAT damage attacks but i was floored, she asked me why? and i showed my “most powerful” nuke at level 70. her exact words were “wow thats “bs”".

at first i agreed, but then i thought about it and said no its not bs thats how a healer SHOULD BE. now i know i will have a few people tell me they love thier healer and they love being a support player, but lets be honest those people are in the minority. Most people want the “flash” the big numbers, thats why you see tons of DPS classes and not alot of healers. And please don’t give me the bs that “healers are difficult to play” because as my history shows i have played them, and even my first healer i never felt an overall difficulty to the class.

so what am i say? that all healers shouldn’t be just about sitting back throwing thier reactives and wards. Healers should be proactive and help with the dps of the group. I hate to say it but this is one thing that WoW got right, with the right spec a Priest, Druid or Paladin could take on not only a DPS role but another role all together, thus you see tons of healers in thier game.

Now don’t get me wrong i don’t think healers should be on par with DPS as say Wizards or Rangers or anything to that extent but they should be able to do more than just sit back and throw out the occasional heal/debuff.

So what can we do about it? i think broaden the spectrum of the Shaman and Cleric classes maybe via a revamp of thier AAs. I like what SOE did with the Inquisitors “Battle Cleric” line it made my Class actually playable to me, instead of me leaving  him to rot or begging SOE to allow me to pay for a character change (look at my post history). I’d like to see that line being offered to Templars too, however maybe give them more “tanking” attributes and give Inquisitors more “attacking” attributes.

As for Shamans one word - Beastmasters - give them lines that allow them to charm various animals(at the cost of concentration) and “train” them (IE give them special attacks). 

Now obviously these shouldn’t be “the only way to go” make these as optional AA lines (like the battle cleric) and also have more traditional “healing” lines for those few that actually enjoy sitting back and buffing/healing