idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
You are approaching endgame like you would WoW, and you probably shouldn't. Yes, on the hardest fights you are going to be primarily healing. But if you forget everything else in your bag of tools, then you aren't playing properly.
Troopers have a very limited resource called ammo. Your two major heals take 2/3 of those points, and you only have something like 12 of them (and I don't remember the rate they regenerate at). You get a passive mode that lets your basic, non-ammo shot regenerate ammo. And it also becomes a heal when used. But it's a very weak heal. Most players I've talked to who have tried the later content have reported that spamming it on the tank while using a heal on him every few CDs, spot healing the rest of the group (or using a grenade) and then using their CC damage abilities the rest of the time (I know of two--a grenade that knocks everyone around the target it sticks to down, unless they are too powerful, and a mortar-like ability that will also knock enemies down when it hits. Wait, 3, there's also a freezing grenade).
Only in burst periods do they spam healing abilities (which means using ammo-recovering cooldowns, since you CAN'T spam your real heals). But they also said that they tended to overheal the tank a decent amount, and that they could afford to spend more time doing damage if they were willing to sacrifice some security.
Trooper's ammo recharge rate is faster the more ammo they have. Above 9, it's really fast; below 3, it's really slow. I played all the classes at least enough to get a feel for their mechanics, but I didn't want to go too far so I can play through the story when the game actually comes out. Looking at the skill trees, they seem to be pretty standard: lots of reasons to go 31 points in for the last talent, and very few reasons to go past the second tier in any other tree.
Don't get me wrong, when I played FFXI, I kept my Enfeebling as close to capped as I could on my WHM (unless there was a NIN or RDM in the party) on the theory that, if Slow/Para/Blind prevent even 1 hit, they were worth the mana cost. I would also sub BLM and ES+Sleep and adds that we got, MB with Holy/Banish when I could, and nuke when I could do it without wasting my mana or putting the tank at risk. Same thing in WoW, minus the enfeebling; I smite with my priest, throw lightning bolts with my (resto) shaman, and use MW procs for Chain Heal/Healing Rains when needed. My feral druid uses Tranquility fairly often, and my tankadin used HR on CD before they made it a cast-time spell.
What you're describing seems more like the developers saying "we don't expect healers to spend every GCD healing." That's fine, as long as the healing is still meaningful. If it becomes something where an enhance shaman can heal the whole group just by using his MW procs for heals, they might as well scrap the healing trees.
TL;DR, healers should use every tool in their tool box to prevent damage and keep people alive, whether that's by making fights shorter, using CC to limit the number of mobs dealing damage, or by being a heal-bot. If dedicated healers aren't needed, there's 0 reason to have them as a hybrid will do more damage and still keep people alive. If they are needed, hybrids probably won't work.
Also, I do plan on playing ToR at some point, although I'll probably skip launch month. The stories for each class have been interesting enough to make for a good semi-single-player game, even if I might not like the group dynamics at later levels or the end game. I also like what they did with crafting.