Why isn't there a shortage of healers?

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Originally Posted by Cynfael

Personally I find playing DPS to be relaxing by comparison.

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That usually does it for me, you are given the tools to heal and DPS, but you have people whom are not comfortable in using them. Saving their swiftcast for a death that is likely not going to happen on a trash pull when they could use it on the holy to stun the mobs to not only do less damage to the tank but also eliminate the trash quicker.

The best mitigation in the game is actually more damage. The sooner the trash dies, the less you have to heal or deal with.

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Originally Posted by technole

The best mitigation in the game is actually more damage. The sooner the trash dies, the less you have to heal or deal with.

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Lies. The best mitigation in this game is Hallowed Ground, and everyone should be using it on every pull.

That aside, while healing is easy in earlygame content like other said, in endgame content, healing is only easier than DPS if you're a bad healer. Healers have to dodge and handle mechanics just as much as DPS do, and they can DPS at the same time, all on top of healing, precast-healing, and shielding. In other words, a good healer does all the same stuff a DPS does, and then heals on top of that, which by definition isn't easier.

People consider DPS to be the easiest and or the most fun way of playing. How can you tell? DPS queues are the longest despite there being at least twice as many DPS slots as any other role on any given duty. Compared to DPS, there IS a shortage of healers. But, tanking is even less liked than healing, because tanks have to guide the group and set the pace, and often get blamed for overpulling or for underpulling. Other classes can just follow the tank and do their thing (DPS, or Heal+DPS) when things aggro. When there's a wipe and people are throwing blame around, there's a 50% chance they'll blame the tank and a 49% chance they'll blame the healer, but if the run takes too long, there's a 100% chance they'll blame the tank.

If you are a healer and don't know the dungeon (or don't remember it very well), you just follow along and heal (and maybe DPS). If you're a DPS and don't know the dungeon (or don't remember it very well), you just follow along and DPS. If you're a tank and don't know the dungeon (or don't remember it very well, or aren't paying attention, or are falling asleep), well, you're kinda screwed.

this.

people love to blame to free themselves from the guilt. countless times, i have seen dps trying to finish what they're casting or comboing under a red zone then blame healers for letting them die. sometimes, they needed to be reminded not to go far away fromthe group.

the second point is also true when trying to do content you're not familiar with. guides spreading over the internet makes it even worse for the new tanks as despite watching them, you still need to personally get attuned to the flow of the fight which takes time and practice whereas when you're a dps, you just do damage, stay away from red zones, and follow. heck even in a raid, a slacking dps isn't that noticed compared to slacking tanks or healers.

Playing over a year and half on Faerie server, which is a part of Aether Data Centre .

From the time the roulette system introduced, the 'Adventurer in need' was 9/10 of the time is the Healer Role (with occasional Tank) for both Low level, High level and Guildhests.

This was the usual pattern, Healer had insta-queue for Patch 2.1 dungeons (CoB H. - HM H. - PS). As for Patch 2.2 dungeons (LCoA - Hal H. - BryF H.) more 'Adventerur in need' was Healer dominating but Tank was more visible say a ratio fo 7:3 as Healer/Tank. At that time most players started to multi-role, especially Tanks. I've seen most tanks level up thier CNJ/WHM to Lv.50 due to the SpiritBond issue and that tendency to farm Brayflox Hard.

That was the turning point, the Following Patches 2.3, 2.4, and 2.5 all have Tank role as 'Adventurer in Need' was 99% dominating in Low level, High level, Expert level and Guildhests. With exceptions for Healer in need for Guildhests occasionally, that was when I switched from Healing to Tanking.

Healer and Tanks are not the most popular roles in the first place in any MMO. Both require more attention span in certain areas like the party/aggro list along with in-game elements. Not to mention everything both roles do is pretty much "on-the-line" for everyone to see. So criticism and stress may come with the job when other roles don't perform up-to-par. Some people don't like that. Final Coil of Bahamut has the biggest tank and healer checks in the game where the choices each role makes during every global cooldown matters.

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Originally Posted by Kuwaitum

That was the turning point, the Following Patches 2.3, 2.4, and 2.5 all have Tank role as 'Adventurer in Need' was 99% dominating in Low level, High level, Expert level and Guildhests. With exceptions for Healer in need for Guildhests occasionally, that was when I switched from Healing to Tanking.

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Healer shows in-need a lot in the mornings on Primal. Not that it matters. I got both healer zodiacs done in a pretty good amount of time because of hardly any waiting for any instance, and RNG luck too I guess.

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Originally Posted by technole

Healer shows in-need a lot in the mornings on Primal. Not that it matters. I got both healer zodiacs done in a pretty good amount of time because of hardly any waiting for any instance, and RNG luck too I guess.

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That's been my experience as well. I almost never see healer show up as in need (But I'm not online in the mornings), but the queues are still short. With the census showing 24% of players as healers, this seems about right. It will be interesting to see if things have changed much in the 2015 census.

Healing is the easiest role in the game now so it's no wonder. When the game first came out healing was harder but healers scale so well it's become a snore feat. Tanking still can be a bit more work.