It is preferable, currently. In fact, it's mandatory, currently, which was my point and you seem to agree with it. It's not dynamic, it requires no timing or judgement. If the cooldown is refreshed, cast it divine. Repeat every time during a boss fight. You might hold off for a second or two because a boss just threw your…
Very mature response, impressive. Except that you know as well as I do that the class is all about the Astral Shield in pve. Any other viable builds without it that can clear most, if not all, of the T2 content? Didn't think so. It's a boring spell that promotes boring gameplay and rewards boring skill choices, and the…
I don't think that nerfing AS was really the problem, and the more I play the more I wish they'd nerf it further, or completely rework it. The problem is the lack of other viable options to replace it in some encounters. So, I hope they nerf it again. Maybe 1/2 of what it is now. Then the rest of the class healing/defense…
In every pvp game, the healer is always an early target. Your job is to survive, and toss heals when you can. If you expect to be blowing people up you're playing the wrong class. It's been this way in pretty much every mmo with pvp ever (with the possible exception of GW2, with their "we don't believe in healers" gimmick).
AFAIK every class has a means of ignoring control effects if you spec for it. You might have just had a bad run of going against people with a brain who spec for it. I'm not sure what happened with it not sticking when nobody was around though, that might be a valid bug. Can you reproduce it? I've never had that happen…
It's possible that they were using an ability that prevented them from being rooted. For example, from the GWF: Useable at 50% or more Determination With grim resolve you break free from control effects, and steel yourself for the challenge ahead. While active, you are immune to control effects, your At-Will attacks are…
I find that the easiest way to resolve the problem you're having is to speak up. First thing in the instance say something like "I heal better if I'm not swarmed by a bizillion adds all the time". Then, when you die on the first or second boss due to adds, be sure to hit the help a few times when you go down, then watch…