Potential Era of Survivalists

So this post is looking at Stormblood mechanics. One part looking at what we know and can take away from it, and one part hopeful fantasy.

Firstly I'd like to throw out there that they mentioned bringing in new people to help design content mechanics, including some who played a role in developing FF Tactics. Unfortunately I never played this game (though I played one that was apparently based on its mechanics), so I wonder if people who played it might have more insight into what types of mechanics we might encounter in Stormblood?

Secondly, Rescue was introduced. This enables us to drag a player towards a healer and it opens up the door for new mechanics. Such an example might be a tank baiting a nuke to one end of the arena while we all stack in the furthest corner, with the tank then running towards us when the bomb is dropped with not enough time to make the trip, so Rescue might be used to get him to safety. Another is, perhaps, types of floors in the arena that you don't want to step over, but can be dragged past with Rescue—I think broken and twisted arenas could potentially add depth to content mechanically. I like to think about these things now so that when I see the mechanics I'll be able to put 2 and 2 together quickly. There's a part of me that wonders if these sort of things existed in FF Tactics?

Thirdly, Sprint is now more conveniently accessible to all players with the loss of its TP cost. This could mean more movement will be required in certain raids and other instances.

Fourth, I'd like to point out that we gained a ton of power with regards to survivability. As an AST Main in 3.x I know how powerful and capable we were as healers when weighed against the content itself, and we now have that power + increased healing potency across the board and new phenomenal healing utility being added. SCH and WHM also got that sort of treatment (lets not discuss the comparative levels of that treatment between healers though... just the fact that it happened XD). Additionally, survivability utility was added to or improved upon for several jobs, such as PLD's increased party-survival support on several fronts, and smaller things like the adjustments to MNK's Fists of Earth buffs (which I'm only vaguely aware of).

This bit leads me to wonder if survival will just be stupidly easy by comparison, or if Stormblood intends to hit us like a truck—as a healer I'm praying for the ladder. I'm hoping the healing skill cap will increase and the focus on Damage output that we had in Heavensward will be eased a bit (note that I said HEALING skill cap, not HEALER skill cap because the changes to Cleric will no doubt make our role easier if the healing process doesn't adjust accordingly). Another point I'd like to bring up here is that more focus on incoming damage management could help with some concerns we had in Heavensward, such as the neglect of WHM, PLD, and even to some degree, MNK.

MNK's Mantra to support the party and Fists of Earth adjustments to potentially assist with dangerous mechanics could leave it feeling like more of a vital member of the team. Though we all know they really just wanted to hit faster and harder, sorry guys!

PLD was made more capable of assisting with heals, mitigating party or individual player damage, and keeping itself alive

WHM, despite the changes feeling lacklustre atm which I personally believe will be adjusted, is the potency healer (working as intended). You might laugh at the idea because you've seen that AST went Super Saiyan God in 4.0, meanwhile SCH got stronger as a healer and maintains its DPS spot, but with some buffs to WHM and added benefit to Noct AST (dependable 300% instant-cast shields on top of the flat potency increase) in the new content, WHM's value is likely to rise. Imo what WHM needs here is something to make it work especially well with shields from other healers. E.g; a skill where for every point of damage negated, healing received will be increased (more likely), or DPS output will be increased (less likely) making it a more synergistic healer with both Noct AST and SCH. Or alternatively have shields benefit from regens...

So what do you guys think/forsee about new mechanics in Stormblood? Do you think they'll push more focus on survivability? Any insight into what sort of mechanics we'll face, given what we already know?