Quote Originally Posted by Gnaeus View Post
A cleric focused on healing beats a healer focused on healing.

The cleric can DMM Persist Mass Lesser Vigor, for free, 100% out of combat healing all day. The Healer has no turn attempts, and doesn't have the vigor line unless you houserule it.
It should probably carry a little more weight than a houserule, considering that the Spell Compendium explicitly tells you to add healing spells to the Healer's list, but I'll allow it's not RAW. Considering that we're discussing the applications of the Healer in play, and it's an entirely reasonable call, I think it's fair to include it, but it's not really necessary.

Out-of-combat healing is effectively trivial. Persisted Lesser Vigor is one of the better ways, but a wand of cure light wounds is practically as good. So is a healing belt. Arguably, the gold cost of those things is more negligible than the Turn costs of Persisting Mass Lesser Vigor, which could be better spent on a more useful buff.

The Healer has almost nothing to do with his spells except heal. Healing isn't useful, beyond a certain point; if you're all at full health, you don't need healing. I'd be surprised to see a party that needed more healing, in a standard day of adventuring, than a Healer can provide using all his spell slots (and maybe a magic item or two). So, no, I don't think the Healer is worse at healing just because there are other ways to get to full health out of combat, since he still provides all the healing the party could ever need.

The cleric can take Healing domain, for +1 healing caster level, + Imbued Healing metamagic (which healers can't take because they have no domains.) That gives temporary HP = to the targets level or HD to the target of any heals. That means that at level 9, the Healers Mass CLW heals 1d8+9+Cha Mod, and the Cleric's Mass CLW effectively heals 1d8+10+Average Party level. Assuming APL 9, that means that at level 9 the cleric has an advantage unless the healer has a 30 charisma.
True, although worth caveating in that the Healer can access domains through, say, Contemplative. It'll take a bit longer to get Imbued Healing online, but once you do you've got the temporary hit points and the charisma bonus. The Healer goes back to being best at in-combat healing (which, admittedly, isn't a hugely useful niche).

Again, the Cleric is a far, far better class than the Healer, but that's because the Cleric has better things to do with his spell slots than burn them all on healing. The Healer really doesn't, but if you want someone to just heal, all day, then the Healer is a fine choice.