As a healer, is it my job to DPS? A new perspective.

I partied with a healer earlier today. They were jumping around in place instead of helping out with the damage during the fights. It was a low level dungeon and the group wasn't in any danger of failing, but watching the healer jump in place instead of pressing a different button that'd help them effortlessly contribute to group damage sorta rubbed me the wrong way.

I understand when its a fight where healing is a priority, or not feeling comfortable enough to weave in dots in cleric stance. What that healer did was just poor in my opinion.

Huh, I didn't realize this was such a debated issue (just started lvling heals to help FC mates. Decided to read up some guides and forum posts for help). Figure I'd throw my 2 cents in to give a more outside perspective. :)

Tbh as a caster main, I have problems reminding myself to get out of Cleric Stance and keep people alive lmao. And I've been with more experienced healers that do the same. I can honestly say I prefer a healer that does no DPS, over a healer that does only DPS. XD It's about as fun as running with tanks that think their DPS stance is going to keep aggro off a BLM/SMN combo. :P

(darn 1000 character limit.... sorry, you're getting multiple replies ^^; ).

I totally get it, more damage = enemies dies faster = tank lives longer, and that's pretty much what my DPS mind decided to do when I started on healer, but I also get that not everyone is skilled or confident enough in later content to really run with the DPS when they're nervous about having a gimp tank, or... or whatever it is healers worry about (everything?). I know in later floors of PotD, I keep cleric stance firmly OFF, because we've hit traps, or mobs, and literally that 1.5 seconds it took to switch stance and fire off some Cure 2/3's made the difference between a wipe and a save. D: The bosses I'm more confident with stance-dancing because I got to learn the fights, and by then you sort have an idea of what to expect from the rest of your party.

ANYWAY, sorry, I'm getting side-tracked. My main point is, I think it's okay to be in-the-middle about this issue. ^_^ Is it nice when healers DPS? damn straight, and I intend to be one of them (when I suck at it less).

I've seen some pull it off flawlessly, but I've also seen a lot of healers fumble it too, and it often makes the dungeon take a hell of a lot longer than if they'd just left the DPSing to the casters and melee. :P Really, so long as their healer game is good, I've never worried about if the healer in my party is DPSing (probably because that's MY job. If I need my tanks and healers to help me pull out the deeps, I am a very sad addition to the party and we might as well just run with WARs and WHMs all around! LOL).

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Originally Posted by SeriousxSarcasm

ANYWAY, sorry, I'm getting side-tracked. My main point is, I think it's okay to be in-the-middle about this issue. ^_^ Is it nice when healers DPS? damn straight, and I intend to be one of them (when I suck at it less).

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The thing is, DPSing as a healer IS the correct way to play. Your argument is how harshly treated players who play incorrect are. Nobody can make the argument that only healing is the right way to play, because it isn't, and it neglects half of a healers toolkit (hell, SCH is a DPS for the first 30 levels). I do feel that players who struggle with healer DPS be helped and not shunned, but lazy players should not be supported when all they want to do is heal and idle. It's gotten to the point where there are threads asking for cleric stance to be disabled in group content, and that is not ok.

I do not actually mind dpsing as scholar when there is a space between healing, and this in my opinion is how it should be viewed. Ive seen parses of sophie ex showing scholars doing 1k dps in fights. This, I would say, reies on other factos, such as member's gear the other healer's output, etc. Lately, I have had bad experiences of feeling bullied and kicked out of static because I couldnt dps enough. I did feel this to be unfair, and I almost left the game over it. This is where the expectations put on healers gets out of hand,and should not be encouraged, for the sake of people being allowed to play their roles in the way they feel they are most comfortabe with and what they feel most comfortable doing. I know that content can still be cleared whether the healer does a little or alot of dps.Im feeling increasingly more stressed and pressured to perform two roles that I find difficult in the new content anywy

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Originally Posted by Lambdafish

The thing is, DPSing as a healer IS the correct way to play. Your argument is how harshly treated players who play incorrect are. Nobody can make the argument that only healing is the right way to play......

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I don't believe I said anywhere that it is not the correct way to play? :P Just that there are likely reasons why some people do not, or if they try are not good at it (lack of skill, lack of confidence, unfamiliarity with the content). Absolutely, when you encounter a situation like Ragology mentioned above, that is unacceptable, but when I see people lose their minds because the healer isn't helping us shave off a whole 20 seconds from an easy mob is kind of infantile (and especially when the tank is a dud, and DPS are fluffing AOE dodges). To be more clear: I think healers should aspire to learn the balance between heals and DPS, but I think other players need to be more tolerant when it just doesn't happen sometimes. (1/2)

(2/2) I know my DPS just plummets when I have to break out res and physic (sometimes titan-egi) to help my healer prop up a bad party, that doesn't mean I'm a shit DPS, just that the situation means I don't have a good set up for it, does that make any sense? I've never gotten hate when my DPS took a back seat to keeping people alive. I think it's ridiculous when we see healers getting that hate instead.

And I've encountered those anti-Cleric Stance threads (I was trying to find advice on how to not screw it up at critical moments. The general consensus is = you WILL screw up eventually. Pray to Nophica for blessings LOL). From my understanding, they don't want to lose CS because they hate DPSing. They want the DPS to scale off of MND so there isn't a switch mechanic to flub (note, this does not mean I support the idea, that's just what I've read).

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Originally Posted by SeriousxSarcasm

To be more clear: I think healers should aspire to learn the balance between heals and DPS, but I think other players need to be more tolerant when it just doesn't happen sometimes.

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I know you're probably not a member of the development team but I must ask- like water your average player takes the path of least resistance, how do you promote players to aspire to find that balance while at the same time tolerating (I think this is a loaded word, but I'll use it :P) the mediocrity of "it just doesn't happen sometimes."?

At what point is the healer who's spent 60 levels healing, has a lot of modern gear from dungeons and extremes subject to not having 90% overheaing/ standing still for 20 seconds expected to try/find that balance?

This is actually a serious question, not meant to berate you.

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Originally Posted by Greedalox

This is actually a serious question, not meant to berate you.

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That's fine, I'd prefer if someone ask clarification instead of putting words in my mouth. :) I think Someone with healing experience and gear, standing around wasting time has no excuse. My thoughts are of times when I have seen a healer chewed out when that is NOT the case. They're under-geared and/or newish (happens in Satasha a lot), maybe they have a squishy tank and can't take the risk of DPS because they need a cure every 4 seconds (my first run of Aetherial Chemical Research Facility was like this. :S ). It's sad when I see they're trying, but the only thing the tank seems to care about is they haven't seen a Stone cast yet. :P And I just think the blanket statement of "DPS or GTFO" in these threads encourages these people. Haven't seen many people cautioning players to not be dicks to people who are trying, but aren't necessarily up to the challenge yet.