Tips for new (and some not-so-new) healers

[Raeanya]

but yes, healers, dps if u are confident enough to do it

This. When I was just starting out, it was a lot to keep track of between healing and cleansing. There were a few times that I was asked (sometimes politely, sometimes not) to DPS and I would throw an Aero out every now and then. Now that I have more experience playing the game, I spend much more time stance dancing. People need to realize that some players just haven't gotten used to recognizing when they have a window where they can provide some DPS yet. Even now, there are times where I throw some DPS, just to realize that my tank is super squishy and I need to spam cure to keep him up.

[ariaandkia]

but yes, healers, dps if u are confident enough to do it

I definitely will DPS if I see a chance to, but... there are two factors that make me not DPS.

1) Party can't handle losing cure for a second. When I don't have time to cast regen, I don't have time to DPS. (Generally, if I'm not spamming cure 2, I'll throw on a regen and use a cure 2 to make up for the lost time as a quick patch up and then I can cure 1 or dps or both. If I'm spamming cure 2 just to keep the tank from dying, I don't have time to do anything else. Don't even say "Why not swiftcast regen?" or "Why not swiftcast cure 2?"

2) I'm saving some MP for in case something goes wrong. It has saved the party more than once when I had that extra MP for when something went really bad all of a sudden (tank dc'ed, main DPS dc'ed, etc.).

3) As I mentioned before, aggro control. When my DPSing will end in all the enemies killing me as one, I'm not going to add to my enmity.

[LalaLeChat]

I'll DPS when I'm familiar enough with the fight and the party is not taking too much damage and I know I can spare the MP. But when I'm new to the dungeon or the party is taking a lot of damage then I rather err on the side of caution and focus on heals than risk a wipe. I'd be quite upset if I got kicked for that. You wouldn't kick a dps for not healing.

[Kelya]

You wouldn't kick a dps for not healing.

Completly agree.

Though I'm part of the healers DPS'ing side, healers don't have to DPS in a common situation with correct conditions. Here is my personal analysis :

Why ? Because as said before, they save MP first : begining to spam DPS really consumes a lot of MP if you aren't aware. And if you're not spamming, the 2 or 3 spells you'll land are just DPS'ing nothing. Then, DPS jobs are here to DPS and if the party needs some extra dps, there is a problem with one or all of them. When healers got some troubles and the situation is tense, do we ask our DPS to help healing ? No, because unless few skills (Mantra, Eye for an Eye, Virus...) they haven't the ressources to heal.

Then you will say "yep but healers have ressources to DPS". Exactly, but they have because they just need to up lvl50, to be able to do some FATES and some solo quests, atma book ect. These ressources are MAINLY here to help the healer himself on his SOLO fights.

However, I'm the first one to help DPS when I can but don't forget it's only depends on the situation, because even if you spam your DPS spells, you won't ever do 50% of the dps a DPS job would do. So your help would still be negligible. Again, its depends on the situation, the fight, the duration of the fight, the duration of your dps rotation ect....

Ofc, it doesn't apply on low level dungeons when you will spend most of your time DPSing instead of healing (Regen / Fairy is enough) and on SPEED RUNS where you can spam Holy after having prepared your tank. I love Holy and I love doing Speed runs, but you can't do it on HL content where your DPS gonna be very weak for the reasons I explained. Thus, this will be more efficient to keep your MP.

[Madeiner]

Something is wrong here guys.
I only recentely turned 50.
In most story dungeons, and in about 50% of bosses, i'm second dps as a scholar. I don't heal almost at all in trash mobs, and when i do, its ONE adloquiom after my DPS rotation (4 dots, ruin2+energy drain; added shadowflare and miasma2 now that i'm 50).
On pulls that have 3-4 mobs, i'm usually first dps above everyone else.
Now that i'm 50, i use lustrate for healing through trash so i dont even need to remove cleric stance.
8 man content, i have never removed cleric stance unless in desperate situations. The WHM can heal solo very fine, and my dps is on par with the others.

[DarkerOrange]

that is all well and good, but we are HEALERS. If I wanted to spam my dots etc, I would queue as my SMN. I queue as a healer because I like healing: sure I will throw out some dots when my Adlo has crit on the tank, but I won't make it a priority.
As others have said, dots from a healer is a nice bonus, but if people are needing to do it then you have other, more serious issues in your team.

[Cynfael]

There's no excuse for healers not to contribute to DPS when they have the opportunity.

DPS aren't expected to heal because the content cannot be cleared by healing alone. Besides, DPS healing tools are both weak and almost always unnecessary, while more DPS from other roles is always welcome when possible.

Sometimes it isn't practical for a healer to DPS much because they can't safely blow their GCDs due to demand for heals, but few things are more irritating than being the proactive healer who is buffing, healing, DPSing, and basket-weaving with his toes while the other healer sees that all is good and takes power naps during pulls and between major fight mechanics.

[Aurora-Pendragon]

I DPS when I can. As a WHM, cleric stance > Holy if the tank is geared enough. If DPS can't avoid simple mechanics and take a lot of damage for nothing, I just heal. If tank is made of paper or pull more than he can tank, I spam healing.
Anyway, I chose WHM and SCH for a reason = healing. I rather play with a tank who pulls like crazy ( and even sometimes lose aggro) than a lazy one who allows me to DPS. I want healing challenge, not DPS.

[SummonerSenah]

Especially in low level dungeons, if you find yourself as a healer with downtime, you can always ask if the tank will pull more mobs at once so that you actually need to keep healing. I think one of my favorite runs of Tam Tara normal on scholar was when the tank pulled pretty much everything up to each boss. That last room right before the final boss was pretty hectic but I managed to keep everyone alive the whole time. It was a good way to make the run exciting even though you've ran the dungeon a million times.

[Noni]

I'll DPS when I'm familiar enough with the fight and the party is not taking too much damage and I know I can spare the MP. But when I'm new to the dungeon or the party is taking a lot of damage then I rather err on the side of caution and focus on heals than risk a wipe. I'd be quite upset if I got kicked for that. You wouldn't kick a dps for not healing.

Agreed. I have the problem now that because I am WHM all other healers think it is fine to let me solo heal without even asking....They stay in cleric the whole time. When people sometimes wipe I am blamed : ( So I too wish healers would know when to dps and when not to.