I feel exactly the same.

Tank healing traditionally resembled a dps priority rotation. Outside of just making everyone heal only tanks how would you make healing more like dpsing?

Monk healing is going to take a stab at it. It'll be using some form of stances and marking to direct DPS to specific groups.

The major difference in handling between tanks/DPS and healers is that the former can learn the keys and focus on the screen, while healers ALSO have to juggle their raid frames. Tanks and DPS (with minor exceptions such as intervention and rescues) only have to watch the boss.

I think there's a lot of opportunity to improve the game by taking out the whack-a-mole (slash untargeted spray). Consider if Disc Priests played by building up various barriers to protect positions and reduce damage taken. Holy Paladins could soak damage into themselves (and focus on healing that away), while Restoration Druids could grow gardens of localized healing. None of these would take raid frames, and (with the exception of the tank healer) healing responsibility would be split between smart placement of effects by healers and DPS taking proper advantage of them.

Personally, if they made everyone identical at tank healing, and then gave us such differentiated approaches, I'd be perfectly happy to be rotated in/out of tank healing vs. area effects based on what's strongest on the particular fight.

@Homeschool

I think that the addition of Monk is going to throw off the healing model. The only difference between dps and healing at this point in time is instead of looking at the boss while you dps, you heal and pay attention to the life of raid members. If you don't want to raid and heal with the meters in front of you, you don't have to use any of the UI available and can go back to healing like it was in Vanilla. But somehow I think that you won't like that either.

The game is going to have a huge balance that will need to be overcorrected and then adjusted continuously for this new 'style' of healing. All I can say is that I don't think it is going to be a good change, there will be more bickering of balance for other classes. This expansion looks like its going to cater to the new class, the balance will be based on this class and nothing else.

As a druid healer, I don't love the huge nerf in our main AoE heal either. It seems almost all the raid mechanics are AoE based requiring lots of AoE healing too.

Not that it is that huge. My team has been 8/8 on Dragonsoul for a while and we are working through heroic modes now. Since the nerf, I definitely feel like the weakest healer on the team. I suppose as long as we are progressing, it's ok.

I suppose at some point we will be boosted back to the top of the healing charts. It does seem like Druids go from underpowered to overpowered and back down all through an expansion. Feral/Cat even more over-to-under as we gear up. The problem with the ever-balacing stat race.