Is it okay to not DPS?

Dont start DPSing really until you are comfortable with your ALL your healing tools (ie. its probably best not to start till you're level 50).

Gauge the damage the tank is receiving - if he is getting knocked down to 75% in a single blow, chances are you are safer not stance dancing and focus on supporting the tank. Also watch how your DPS are - are they moving out of unnecessary damage? Minimising avoidable damage as much as possible? If they are and the tank is not taking a massive hit in HP, stance dance away.

Healer DPS should be viewed as nothing more than a bonus - NO content in FFXIV is tuned with healer DPS in mind.

Some people actually look down on healers that DPS. Not on the forums, but you'll find them in other places.

I think everyone can agree with this: Get comfortable with the counters and healing first. Healing is always your first responsibility.

Then, once you're not worried you'll lose someone, and you find you have some spare time in fights... then, if you want to, DPS ：) (I encourage it though!). As another poster mentioned... Have benediction at the ready just in case you misjudge.

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Originally Posted by Shivavishnu

Hi, I'm fairly new to this game but am fairly old to healing/support in other MMORPGs. I was just wondering if PUGs look poorly at a healer who doesn't DPS? I've tried stance dancing and DPSing in between heals, but I seem to fudge things up. That usually ends up with a death or a wipe.

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Oh dear, this again. And so soon!

Speaking as a major proponent for responsible healer DPS, this is my input:

- If you want to be the best at your role, you will learn how and when to incorporate DPS. This does mean that there may be fights, especially those you haven't learned yet, where you do minimal or no DPS, and that's ok as long as you are otherwise performing your job.

- The average PUG probably won't be too concerned if you don't DPS as long as you aren't plainly standing around watching them fight for you while you have minimal or no healing to do. Good players will recognize and appreciate DPS contribution from the healer(s) as long as it doesn't cause inconvenience or death to the party (which it doesn't if you are doing it correctly).

- As a general rule, if your party has to adjust its behavior to accommodate your penchant for DPS, you are probably doing it wrong; good healer DPS complements the party's actions.

- As SCH you have the easiest time DPSing since the fairy will do a lot for you (even more if you are manually casting Embraces from her as you DPS so as to keep targets, usually the tank, topped off).

- Learning fights is the key to doing all of this correctly, including the actual healing portion. If you know when the damage is coming and who it is going to hit, you can plan for your DPS windows as well as what you will do if a party member makes a mistake.

I really think it depends on the situation and your comfort level with your party members HP, but when there is some down time can you not be cute and make your character sit down or jump around like a crazy person waiting for the tank and DPS to kill the enemy? When leveling Monk I've been getting a lot of healers like that and that's what might make people think that you're lazy for not contributing.

Unless you are doing bleeding edge content at low item levels you likely won't /have/ to dps. It is a bonus to your team. First priority is always heals. Doing dps will make you a more valuable commodity as a healer but it isn't necessary, just helpful. However if your team dies while you dps then that's obviously no bueno. So do what you are comfortable with.

For me I'd always DPS from 1-50 (or I guess 15-50 technically!), just to make it go faster because the dungeons are pretty easy there requiring minimal heals. At minimum what I do is pop CS, cast Aero II and usually Virus if it's a boss, and then drop CS. Every little bit helps, and even if you're not comfortable full on DPSing back and forth, you can easily fill the gaps between heals by just doing an Aero II while in CS. I do this especially at the start of a boss, when the tank has done his first attack on it, as usually no one takes major damage for at least 20-30 seconds so you have plenty of time to do this. I tend to DPS on adds vs the boss. I can't think of how many times it's been an instance where it's easy adds (the kind that a single DPS can take them out) where it's been me the WHM killing at least a few of them while the DPS's are still so focused on the boss they don't even notice them.

I always appreciate dps from the healer in leveling dungeons. I've never asked a healer to dps because people are at various comfort levels with their role. In raid content, particularly FCoB, I absolutely look down on a scholar who doesn't dps even a little.

As whm:

Step 1) Stone skin before contact/pull
Step 2) Divine seal
Step 3) Medica 2 + Regen Tank
Step 2.5-4) Presence of Mind (up to you when)
Step 5) Top off tank while positioning for holy...
Step 6-14 or something) Holy, though this may change in heavensward. 3 usually gets you the full stun cycle... Maybe 4 due to PoM.

If tank gets low... Benediction. This is like sub 30%. If he's like 30-60, drop cleric and start cure 1-2, whichever feels right. May need to end with Shroud of Saints to recover a little MP to keep the pace up and shed threat.

Scholar is quite literally macro embrace to every button and almost never drop cleric stance. It is a bit more technical than that, but that's the gist of what they do.

Also: your function as a healer is to provide the party with enough time to finish the conflict. The path you choose to get there is up to you.

I personally like stretching my abilities further to become better at my craft, but I also raid. :\

as a healer, and a level 50 WHM who wiped on several boss fights all the way due to lag and youtube guides that didn't work well for me. i learned to, by the third try, sometimes the second, predict a bosses patterns for that specific group and prioritize who needed healing, based on that specific group and that specific encounter. as well as formulate a strategy unique to that group and encounter, not based on class composition alone, but based on playstyle, experience and player as well in addition to the player's challenges with that boss. a clock can only function when all the pieces truly understand each other. so i use the unintended wipes as a means to understand that specific group. so for you, i recommend learning to understand each group you join because we are all human behind those avatars and we all have shortcomings. even myself.

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Originally Posted by 416to305

On the flip side though, there was no greater satisfaction in one of those dungeons when you can pop a Regen on the tank and pretty much take out the group of mobs yourself spamming Holy. :D

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Fixed that for you.