I'm not talking about healer DPS! Click me!

Hi all, this my unabashed attempt to take a moment away from the rather "spirited" discussions regarding healer DPS and talk about something else. I just want to share my inspirations for becoming a healer. I invite others to share their tales as well!

Whether in standard RPG's (even D&D) or MMOs, I have always favored support characters. My first healer inspiration was Rosa from FFIV, and without a doubt, the fact that it was the first digital RPG I played significantly increased the impact her class and character had on me. I was drawn in by the simple, yet heartfelt storyline, and after playing FFIV, I always created a narrative about my characters, almost all of whom were healers.

Another strong inspiration for me was Etoh, the cleric from Record of Lodoss War - a classic anime series. (SPOILER) I would replay his standoff with the undead creature at the end, gape-jawed at his power despite his mostly subdued role throughout the rest of the series.

We are often the unsung heroes, patching up wounds, and defending our allies - not on the front lines, but on the sidelines. But when we get those moments - our moments (AST limit break 3! Sorry you needed it!), others view us with awe.

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Originally Posted by Valmaxian

We are often the unsung heroes

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No. Healers are commendation magnets that get all the credit whenever things go right. The good DPS are the unsung heroes.

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Originally Posted by Valmaxian

But when we get those moments - our moments (AST limit break 3! Sorry you needed it!), others view us with awe.

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I get griped at when I have to use the limit break. Um...you died so? But I wouldn't exactly call that awe...

So long as they dps too then go for it :rolleyes:

Run away from this role and save yourself. Unless you want to be controlled and blamed when something goes wrong. lol

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Originally Posted by Ragology

No. Healers are commendation magnets that get all the credit whenever things go right. The good DPS are the unsung heroes.

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You are absolutely correct, and I'm sorry for misrepresenting this. Personally, I always try to award commendations as fairly as I can, and often consider DPS first if I'm having a difficult time deciding.

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Originally Posted by KaitlanKela

I get griped at when I have to use the limit break. Um...you died so? But I wouldn't exactly call that awe...

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I've only gotten to use it twice, and didn't get any gripes - perhaps I was lucky!

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Originally Posted by Seoulstar

Run away from this role and save yourself. Unless you want to be controlled and blamed when something goes wrong. lol

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I hope this hasn't been your experience! <3

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Originally Posted by Ragology

No. Healers are commendation magnets that get all the credit whenever things go right. The good DPS are the unsung heroes.

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It balances itself out, though. When we have to work hard just to keep everyone alive and actually end up saving the entire party, we get nothing.

I literally have never gotten to use it, except during a premade Ifrit Extreme specifically so I -could- use it and see it and it's gorgeous.

Tanking & Healing will forever be under appreciated roles in MMORPGs. You can be exceptional at either, won't matter, you did your job, everyone got their shinies, forgotten 5mins later. If not, flame them, everything wrong with life is their fault.

I have a soft spot for classes in MMORPGs that have a particular (non-DPS centric) role but can perform in alternative capacities anyway (the more the better), and loathe when being a Healer means being resigned to spamming heals-only and needing someone else to do everything else for you, or compensated for with mechanics that are unviable when it comes to end-game or certain content (ie. you can only actually do non-role stuffs outside of raids).

RoI: Priest
WoW: Priest
FFXIV: Conj/WHM
Allods Online: Summoner

They've been my go-to since as long as I can remember, role wise, and I'll be damned if anyone tells me I shouldn't DPS when I've already ensured you're healthy, safe and sound (part of the appeal).

I started a Healer because I was bored with BLM. But I didn't get very far even though it seemed fun (grind is real).
Then when I finished leveling NIN (my new main), I started to really look at Healing.
I'm level 46 SCH but plan on leveling all the Healers to 60 shortly. The reason for this is that IF I have to do a Duty, I'd rather do the healing myself because I'm sick and tired of bad healers.

Healer has arguably the highest skill cap which has the highest potential to affect a Dungeon/Raid run. And the skill floor is so ridiculously low it also disproportionately affects the Dungeon/Raid run when they do the bare minimum as compared to other classes.

What I love about Healers is the pure DPS potential, as well as the hecticness of it in a hard fight (how long can I be in Cleric Stance before someone dies? do I have to time to rez the guy who stepped in the poop? more DOTS!). It's like being a BLM but with more to manage. It's rewarding when you do it right, regardless of whether people recognize it or not.

I started healing for the faster que times. Then enjoyed it and got really good at it. Being able to kill crap and heal crap at the same time feels amazing. There isn't much more satisfying then throwing out some DoTs and Stone 3s then switching out of Clerics, throw a Regen, tetra, and a perfectly placed Asylum and going back to Clerics, at the cost of 1 GCD.

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Originally Posted by Genaxx

So long as they dps too then go for it :rolleyes:

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http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/...t4eWCDKcMu.jpg

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Originally Posted by Lunaxia

It balances itself out, though. When we have to work hard just to keep everyone alive and actually end up saving the entire party, we get nothing.

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The only time you will know which DPS is good is if you use the illegal software lol.

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Originally Posted by CookieMonsta

The only time you will know which DPS is good is if you use the illegal software lol.

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Not exactly. You can tell who's doing what DPS wise if you know the jobs at all. There are enough tools and numbers floating around on-screen to see who is pushing and who isn't if you know what you're looking at. Emnity bar, party list, all the numbers and skills flying around next to the target. The info is there. I promise it is. You won't get exact numbers but you can get a good idea of what the numbers would be. A BLM sitting idle in Flaming damage booster stance with no mp isn't doing any good dps and you don't need any illegal software to know that.

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Originally Posted by gehrtalert

Not exactly. .

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Emnity bar is terrible because it has the precision and responsiveness of a laden shopping trolley. Buff watching only tells you that the person is at least doing the minimum required of their role, e.g. a DRG with no HT, Disembowel and Phleb is not a bare minimum but the presence of each is not indicative of performance. Again its a question of precision, the presence of key buffs hint at performance but it does not tell you the effectiveness of the damage application. Its like observing an Olympic sharpshooter by only watching their form, position, sights and execution without watching/caring about their bullet impact.

Your methods can only tell the difference between a person not playing the job vs one who is, it cannot distinguish between the vast gulf between bare minimum and optimal.

but I'm getting sidetracked, this is not a discussion about parsers.

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Originally Posted by CookieMonsta

Emnity bar is terrible because it has the precision and responsiveness of a laden shopping trolley. Buff watching only tells you that the person is at least doing the minimum required of their role, e.g. a DRG with no HT, Disembowel and Phleb is not a bare minimum but the presence of each is not indicative of performance. Again its a question of precision, the presence of key buffs hint at performance but it does not tell you the effectiveness of the damage application. Its like observing an Olympic sharpshooter by only watching their form, position, sights and execution without watching/caring about their bullet impact.

Your methods can only tell the difference between a person not playing the job vs one who is, it cannot distinguish between the vast gulf between bare minimum and optimal.

but I'm getting sidetracked, this is not a discussion about parsers.

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If you're good you can tell if other people are good.
With casters it's easier. I can tell if a BLM is good by watching their rotation.
But watching debuffs and buffs should give you a pretty accurate descriptor of competent or not.
Buffs and debuffs are most of NIN for example.
Or watching when/if they AoE (it's pretty obvious when a DPS is bad when they don't AoE on 3+ mobs).
Or watching if the tank is derping around and single targeting a mob to kill it when you have 3+ mobs in the group.
Or seeing how fast the mobs are dying compared to how fast you normally kill them.

I don't have a parser because I play on PS4, but I can still tell if someone is doing their job well or bare minimum.

3 mobs isn't optimal to AoE with Quick Knock or Fire II half the time.
At low levels, you have low MP/no blizzard III and can only put in a few at a time. Sure you are doing 140% DPS on three mobs, 46.6% of Fire I x 3 but.
A healer has to heal more often; you're trading the marginal damage of a healer doing equivalent to 86% damage of Fire I. A tank has to manage enmity more (more flashes or whatever). The melee DPS/tank have to play tetris dodging if the third mob has a cone splash mechanic or an AoE circle silence mechanic. With 3 mobs and below, it's almost always better to have all 4 players focus DPSing a target down at a time and one player tab-targeting out to the next one when the mob is low HP to not waste that extra DMG.

At 8+ mobs, it is just as sub-optimal to be doing large pulls. There's a limit to how much AoE radius the skills can hit the mobs, the tank is busy spamming enmity moves with low damage / positionals to optimize AoEs / prevent party from taking damage and the healer can only put out the highest heals / regens / shields. Moderate pulls of 6 mobs seems to be the best for AoE.

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Originally Posted by KitomiSaitichi

3 mobs isn't optimal to AoE with Quick Knock or Fire II half the time.
At low levels, you have low MP/no blizzard III and can only put in a few at a time. Sure you are doing 140% DPS on three mobs, 46.6% of Fire I x 3 but.
A healer has to heal more often; you're trading the marginal damage of a healer doing equivalent to 86% damage of Fire I. A tank has to manage enmity more (more flashes or whatever). The melee DPS/tank have to play tetris dodging if the third mob has a cone splash mechanic or an AoE circle silence mechanic. With 3 mobs and below, it's almost always better to have all 4 players focus DPSing a target down at a time and one player tab-targeting out to the next one when the mob is low HP to not waste that extra DMG.

At 8+ mobs, it is just as sub-optimal to be doing large pulls. There's a limit to how much AoE radius the skills can hit the mobs, the tank is busy spamming enmity moves with low damage / positionals to optimize AoEs / prevent party from taking damage and the healer can only put out the highest heals / regens / shields. Moderate pulls of 6 mobs seems to be the best for AoE.

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It was a general example.
Yes of course there are certain situations where it's not correct (however, it's always correct to F2 instead of F1 on 3+ mobs even at low levels unless the tank can't keep the hate up or unless you need to burst down a Final Sting or something).

While it may not ALWAYS be optimal DPS wise for every class at 3+ mobs, it's almost always optimal group wise at 3+ mobs. And there's no class in the game it's not optimal at 4+ mobs.
People always seem to forget that every mob you kill early you rob potency from the AoE. So unless you're constantly changing to highest health targets with a single target rotation, it's better to AoE even in the instances you mentioned.

And especially on larger pulls a Healer can DPS even easier because the Tank (also everyone) should be using their cooldowns. Holy+stun X 3 times= profit.
That's when I use Internal Release or Raging Strikes or other cooldowns to burst them all down quicker.

I vehemently disagree.
At low levels, you can pull off 2 or 3 Fire IIs max. If you are paired with an archer, they might also run out of TP. The mobs have such a large amount of HP that you're just better off killing a mob there and then. If you're swapping into ice mode, and the mobs are still at 77% HP, then it's just slower. I personally find my dungeons 20-25% longer as a healer when my group has a tank that only pulls 3 mobs or less each time and the group AoEs than if we all single target for low level dungeons. I also find a lot of people really really slow at tab targeting, so that's a counterarguement against me (even though it's just a 1.5 second delay).

This lets me put in more Stone IIs than Cure IIs if the tank is just same-level geared even with regen on.

In addition, if there's a melee class in the party already, chances are they will be single target DPSing, decreasing the "AoE" benefit as by the time you fit in 3 gCDs, you'll be out of mana and having to transpose (pre-blizzard 3) or the mob just outright dying and the mobs being reduced to 2 leaving you with an 'empty' target bar and cancelling your target cast. You can fit more Fire Is in that same period and tab target when the HP is 16% preventing a DPS loss, scathe also works pretty fine with 10%< HP thrash mob HP.

I had a dungeon where this was an issue where the tank couldn't kept aggro decently because of a lack of flash spam. Even flash only merely sustains aggro pre-cyclone, requiring at least a savage blade or so. If they're spamming flash just to barely maintain aggro, then that means more downtime recovering mana (if the run intervals are short, or after a pull and just before the boss)- they can't start riot blading since the DPS are trigger happy usually more often than not. This is less of a problem for warriors and dark knights since they also damage AoE.

Post-cyclone/shield oath non-paladin, or higher levels 40+ I would agree with you that Fire II is always efficient in group-play and pre-40 I would agree if everyone was down ilvl-synced and everyone had AoE skills with high damage and unlimited MP/TP/perfect aggro holding. I also agree if we're talking about the flame thrash thrash mobs in Satasha. However, some tanks are inexperienced, some tanks are undergeared (I had to heal one that was taking 50% damage per boss strike in Brayflox), some DPS just AoE on 2 mobs too or don't even rotate correctly, and I can contribute as .4 to .75 of a DPS when I have more uptime in cleric stance thereby trading higher marginal gains in reducing mob clear times in the specific case of 3 mobs per pull - therefore fire IIing on 2 mobs is not always optimal DPS wise in group play when these factors are considered.

I'm not really talking about Holy, Fire IV or dungeons of those sorts since I haven't experienced it yet, but gear-wise, enmity is much easier to keep, heals are less needed and crowd control is much stronger, so fire II isn't as much of an issue for tanks.

Personally I haven't had issue holding aggro on fire II happy thaus but it's less of a relaxing dungeon when I have to tab target to savage blade a single DPSer target and rotate flash at the same time. Maybe I'm just biased because I want to DPS as a healer instead of just having this awkward 1.8 second delay before I cure I to not overheal or having to ram some cure IIs after 2 hits of ticks, leaving no time for cleric stance - unless I want to see the tank panic at 10% HP everytime or maybe I just experience time dilation when I see the mobs HP dropping sooo slowwwwwwwwwwwwwww and correlating it to meaning the dungeon experience being wantonly unbearable and wondering why we can't just kill 1,1,1 in 9 cooldowns instead of AoE-AoE-AoE-AoE-out of mana-single target-target-Fire III-AoE-AoE-oh a target died already- woops lost target- tab single target-single target-single target-single target-single target- single target (on a BLM)

Anyhow my experience more often than not. 1 mob will die faster because of a HP difference even if everyone did AoE, but its just usually to someone puting DoTs on one target first, or the tank focus targeting one first, so really, I vouch for single-target for 3 mobs. Everytime. Just simpler, less stress, and perceives to be faster for me. Pre-holy, pre-shield oath, pre-nice moves. 4-10 mobs, AoE away. Although, do factor in the mana recovery downtime if the run interval if short. Also, the DPS better not start single-targeting DPS/AoEing on the first shield lob/axe throw, or the tank has to run back and provoke it off - requires a patient and nice DPS that understands when the pull ends (usually when DK does his/her circle or paladin flash while in position). If the AoE is supremely slow cause of bad DPS gear or because we're playing dancing chairs avoiding AoE cones and having our casts interrupted, then big pulls in low level dungeons with a lack of decent skills are not really beneficial in the time department.

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Originally Posted by KitomiSaitichi

I vehemently disagree.
At low levels, you can pull off 2 or 3 Fire IIs max. If you are paired with an archer, they might also run out of TP. The mobs have such a large amount of HP that you're just better off killing a mob there and then. If you're swapping into ice mode, and the mobs are still at 77% HP, then it's just slower.

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You can always pull off 4 Fire IIs minimum (before you get F3) unless you're terribly, terribly undergeared.
And it may not seem like you're killing them faster, but you are. There is no way it is ever faster to do F1.
You will always be able to cast AT MOST one more F1 than F2, no less, because F1 is 80% the cost of F2 at every level and because there's never a time you could cast 10 F2's.
180 potency vs 300 potency
180x5 is 25% less than 300x4
Even if you're only getting 3 F2's you're still doing 900 potency vs 720 potency with 4 F1s.

This doesn't count the fact that with F2 you have 3 times the crit opportunities per cast.

If the mobs are dying at different rates, it's because the players aren't properly rotating their targets which is not the AoE players fault. And the AoE player should switch to single target at 2 mobs. (unless they're a dragoon and then they should be DoomSpiking still anyway)

I love how this thread basically turned into an argument about DPS anyway, even if it's not about healer DPS.

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Originally Posted by loreleidiangelo

I love how this thread basically turned into an argument about DPS anyway, even if it's not about healer DPS.

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ikr?

Anyway, I haven't played as a healer extensively but in a party situation, it feels hectic and kind of nerve-wracking as I have to keep track of my party's HP, especially the tank, it seems.

That's not a bad thing, though. It's a unique experience in this game.

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Originally Posted by loreleidiangelo

I love how this thread basically turned into an argument about DPS anyway, even if it's not about healer DPS.

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Ooops. /10char

Healing isn't my first choice - that'd be tanking - but I figured I should at least take it up, just to see what it's like. I thought it would also come in handy if I wanted to run with a group, or do a FATE, but they already have a tank. At least with healing I could still contribute without having to follow the herd (of DPSers).

I had no certain "inspirations" per se, like the OP. In games where I controlled the whole party, I always thought of the healers as necessary but lame.
In hindsight, I really wonder whyever I picked healer in my first MMO :rolleyes:
Probably because I started together with a friend and wanted to be able to support her..^^°

Well, the typical healer horrors followed - being poor as hell because all loot went to the one who killed the mob, which was NEVER the healer; getting blamed for any and all f*ck-ups, but never getting thanked for keeping everyone alive and well even through the craziest of fights; having to rely on the help of others to get ANYTHING done because solo was not an option, etc..^^

I'm pretty sure I was healer mostly just out of stubborness for quite a while..xD

It wasn't until FFXIV and the patch that introduced jobs came along that I actually started to ENJOY getting through the hardest content and being able to say to myself "I pulled that off. I kept them alive."
I LIKE how busy I am on healer. As DPS, I can ignore pretty much everything except looking out for a few mechanics. As tank, it helps to have a look at your party from time to time, but you mostly just care about your enmity and cooldowns and some tank-specific mechanics.
As healer, you need to have your eyes everywhere.
Party, mechanics, special tank-related mechanics, own cooldowns, tank cooldowns, DPSing and generally fixing any little thing that might come up. As AST, I get the special joy to also look out for the rotations of my DPS players to see when it's best to give them buffs :D

...and it's FUN D:

My main character has White Mage, Summoner, Scholar, Bard and Warrior at 60, so I can play any role I like. As a kind of casual player (I don't do Savage) I like to play White Mage. I find it more interesting than DPS or tanking.

Instead of a boring rotation, I have to do single-target heals and hots, group heals/hots against unavoidable AoE, MP management, threat management, pro (Virus) and con (status ailments that need Esuma) debuff management, position management (ranged DPS, yes, you CAN stand at your max range, but you don't have to!) and yes, contributing DPS when no one needs a heal.

That's far more variety than a tank or DPS gets, in my experience.

Actually i act like the OP but with a different cls - every new (j)rpg i start i look for a range cls like archer/hunter/sniper/bard whatever.

talking about healers confession i played Ragnarok Online for more than 6 years with different Healer Builds (pure support pve, mvp (like trials in ff), war of emperium (mass-pvp atking and defending the own fc castle) and pvp). There you have to build different builds for different content - joining FF14 was a disappointment at first... at the time i started there only were whms for pure support and hybrid sch who thought they were more like dds than a healer. getting in touch with hw and ast i started to change my opinion and raised all 3 up to the max.

Nowadays i love to play all 3 healer cls equally - but im still missing support skills/cls like time mages or mediators. ff-healing is sadly still basic compared to other mmo support cls. : /

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Originally Posted by Neela

Nowadays i love to play all 3 healer cls equally - but im still missing support skills/cls like time mages or mediators. ff-healing is sadly still basic compared to other mmo support cls. : /

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Agreed! I also hoped that WHM (my original toon upon release) was going to be a support/healer with more of the skills I had come to love from classic FF White Mages - Haste, Slow, Blink, Quick, Mute, Life 3, etc. There is still SO much untapped potential. I main AST so I can feel like I'm more of a support healer, but those types of (support) skills should be a bigger part of other classes as well, and not just healers - just my two cents. I've really enjoyed MMO's (RIFT comes to mind) that incorporate support classes that have their unique roles in parties apart from the T/D/H trinity. Personally, I play FFXIV for the polish, the lore, and the storyline.