Soothing Mist / Battle Presence
Because classes aren’t supposed to be compared 1 to 1.
Why do Guardians get to wear heavy armor despite being a low-HP class when Elementalists, also a low-HP class, do not?
(If you now want to start “But elementalists do have…”, then consider the same answer to your original question)
Simply put, classes are the sum of their parts, in a given context. Looking at a part individually should only ever happen against the context of the class, never against that of another one. If you’re too weak, you are so in a vacuum as much as against someone specifically. If you’re only weak against one specific class, chances are that class needs a nerf instead (it is too strong in a vacuum).
The strength of heart to face oneself has been made manifest. The persona Carighan has appeared.
Even if you compare the two skills side by side…
Soothing Mist heals for 800 every 10 seconds, that’s 80 hps
Battle Presence heals for 315 every 3 seconds, that’s 105 hps
So Battle Presence heals for more overall health.
Also, Battle Presence is affected by Absolute Resolution, which removes 3 conditions from party members and Purity of Body, which gives +15% Endurance regeneration to allies, so Battle Presence can be enhanced with Traits to work better, Soothing Mist doesn’t have any trait support.
In addition Soothing Mist is only available when the Elementalist is in Water Attunment, which even you stay at attunements for 1/4 of the time, is a 25% uptime. In reality it’s far less because Elementalists rarely stay in Water Attunement for long. On the other hand Battle Presence is always available, unless activated, but when activated the allies also get the Burst healing of it.
In the end Battle Presence heals for more, has more trait support, has a burst heal, it’s always available while Soothing Mist just has higher range. Want to trade?
^ Soothing Mists does linger after you leave WA, so if you rotate through attunements constantly, it has 100% uptime.