Should Cleric Stance be disabled during Dungeons and Raids?

[LalaRu]

"I don't like something optional, so please disable it entirely so I am sure to not see it again."

Lolwut? NO.

[Snootles]

For the love of all that is pew pew. No. Just, no. Every single fight in this game is about a dance. Stance dance is just a small part of it.

Let's cha-cha.

[RichardButte]

I'd love to have a "heal through DPS" ability of some kind.

When there's only light healing to do, this would be a good way to go about doing it.

[SummonerSenah]

This idea would cause more problems than it would solve. If you took away Cleric Stance, healers would still have downtime where they don't need to heal and they would still DPS. But without the added damage from CS, they would take longer and use more mana to DPS. You'd have to take away healer dps spells altogether to never be "forced" to DPS but then how would you do anything SOLO? The better solution to your problem is just to communicate with your team that you aren't comfortable with stance dancing yet. In the meantime, maybe get some practice at it.

[Sebazy]

You kinda just stuck your foot in your mouth mate. If Healers are geared enough to solo Heal those turns, then that means by that point DPS should be geared enough to take down the content without "needing" DPS from Healers.

Or rather, you ignored the point he was trying to make.

Turns 12 and 13 get quite significantly easier as your DPS improves, T12's phase 3 goes from requiring both healers to throw everything they have right down to being outright trivial for a single SCH. In effect, by increasing your raid's DPS, you are massively dropping the amount of healing required. Far more so than you might expect.

Whilst I agree that a healer shouldn't be required to DPS in Turns 1-9 now, if you want to progress at the pointy end, you really need fully grasp every last little niche of your spell book. If you can't handle that then I can only say that progression raiding isn't for you.

[Greven]

I'd quit my main healing role. Nerfed Holy, locked Cleric Stance in Frontlines.. due to whiners and lazy players is already pretty sad. I'm not saying a healer must DPS, if he/she keeps the party alive it's good enough already but if someone can manage to throw in some DPS well that's just a plus I thank FFXIV for.
I do DPS as a healer--it's fun-but I don't like parties that force their hand on healers to do DPS as well just cause they can't do their job properly. The solution is not simple but please don't ask something that would ruin the fun of many others players.

[braneri1]

oh yeah that and the lag!
I have a macro that changes hotbar when I change stance. Except sometimes the stance doesn't change but the hotbar does.
Praying that they'll fix all the lag issues with the expansion!

It's not actually a lag issue. I use a macro for that as well. Just wait until your last action's animation is done, then use it. If you use it during something's animation, it only changes the hotbar.

As for the topic, yeah, removing it is a horrible idea. I dps while healing in most content, but not to the detriment of the group's safety, and since I'm not in a static, most of the time for ex primals and second coil I am more careful, though I hate standing around being idle or spamming stoneskin on people who really don't need it (ie no incoming tank buster, nobody with weakness, etc.). It really comes down to how comfortable you and your group is. If things go smoothly, there is no reason not to dps as a healer (aside from crappy accuracy, but there are exceptions to that). The same goes for, for example, main tanking in sword oath or with defiance off if you have str/vit crafted accessories during times where you're mostly just taking fluff damage. Pushing your job to its limits is something that only more experienced/geared people should do. It should not always be expected in order to clear content, but if your whole team is doing that and doing it well, it can really make a difference.

[Saseal]

No.... not at all....

If your group is asking/demanding you DPS in cleric when you're not comfortable with switching into Cleric, then tell them so. If they don't like it and won't give you the chance to become more comfortable/non-DPS practice in the raid, then it may not be the group for you. It's not a problem of the skill, but a problem with the players. Taking the skill away won't solve your problem with your raid group - that's just running away from the problem by banishing it just so you don't have to deal with the group's demand.


Honestly, my opinion is healing first, DPS second, when on healer - and I've seen those that seem to make this the opposite. If I don't feel comfortable switching into Cleric (exception is DPS races such as AK HM, Xande, Odin's end) but certainly have some space to toss some DPS in, I WILL DPS or plod DoTs on in between without Cleric. Yes, I know, it's not optimal DPS and the DoT damage would be insignificant, but I'd rather be able to suddenly step-cast cancel and immediately cure/medica/whatever without pause than get that bit of extra DPS in. My job is to heal first.
If my tank in a dungeon is squishy and needs a CureII every two StoneIIs, I won't switch but I will DPS between cures.
If my tank, with regen, can hold their own for a bunch of hits, I will switch to Cleric and help DPS.
When I Holy for mob deaths, I will switch to Cleric. If I holy for the sheer sake of just stunning so I can focus on cures/esunas in a chaotic situation, I won't.
If I'm (or another squishy) being smacked hard by trash ADDs not being picked off in a raid, I'll SC a non-Cleric'd HOly to stun it and run off to heal (or continue healing that person).

Cleric stance is a useful tool when used int he right situations, but you need to feel you won't get locked in the Cleric stance cool down (IE, feel comfortable). Disabling it in raids/dungeons is not a good thing. If a DPS dies or leaves or AFKs and shit hits the fans, I can pick up the DPS that's missing. it was super handy in AK HM's last boss. Kill the ADDs or you wipe. it goes too fast to do tiny damage to them.
I <3 my 1k+ Holy crits in huge mobs. Don't take them away from me D:

I had a person in a DF'ed ST get on my case, after a while, as to why I'm not in Cleric - or why I'm not holying. I ignored them. The DPS is not my priority (though, I was Holying in the beginning of a trash mob after prompted by the co-healer to go for it - before the secondaries appeared... but found myself needing to be healing anyway). But after seeing so many people needing heals, regardless my healing partner being there, I opted not to, because I was not comfortable with it. I like healthy HP bars, not partially healthy HP bars, with strain on one healer, nor mostly dead-looking Alliance HP bars. The person can deal with it /shrug. Priorities.

[sydh]

Kindly gtfo out with this idea please. I'll use it or not if I care to but I'll not have any of my skills disabled in non-pvp content.

[Shinji2787]

I hope this proposal is a joke.

(referring to OP)