Are healers lazy or do some really live by "I only heal"?

[Cynfael]

The background of Sylphies issue was completely different than "I don't want to DPS"

Not so different if you think about it, though (basically "I don't care if your way is more efficient and safer for everyone; let me do what I want to do!"). There are enough similarities to make her a highly amusing comparison

[WulfCall]

I understand that some players religiously believe in the phrase, "I'm a healer so I only heal." which is fine if that's what they believe. I guess I'm just looking for answers as to why players who play like that find it fun? I've started a healer and I find it so much fun having to balance watching when to heal and deal damage in between.

I remember back when I first started ohh about a year ago (I quit because LIFE SUCKS) that I was playing as a CNJ to get the paladin stone, and well I was switching from Cleric stance and to it relatively nicely, but I got this one tank, who was BITCHING at me for dpsing, It was kinda funny, Not so funny when I let him get squished though...

[mikecoby]

Are healers lazy because they don't dps? Is there a group of healers that have the mentality that they won't ever dps? I read that and thought, OK, this is a much bigger issue. Maybe OP is generally new to mmos or hasn't healed enough to get why that is. Grouping healers lazy because we don't always dps when it's possible isn't cool. There are bigger and practical reasons why this is common. Basically from what I've experienced and read in these pages is that it comes down to the responsibility healers have. It's also having expectations or standards on people you don't know which is another point you missed, the Duty Finder!

Duty Finder is great, but casual players use it the most and just because you had a healer that dpsed in a instance last week doesn't mean this next one will. So that sure doesn't make anyone lazy or a fabricated idea that healers have adapted this principle to not dps simply because it's not white mage like? XD. I can personally tell you I haven't met one healer yet that thinks that. I mean, yeah, overtime the whole player base can complete harder content and noticeable quicker and more efficient but that's after a good amount of time and gear, Titan HM for example. So possibly you'll get more healers in time that dps. Just don't hold a standard and be presumptuous of random people in a mmo, don't think there's this group of healers that have this anti-dpsing treaty, and don't group healers with the word lazy. It's why this rant is here. It's a hard freakin job, ok?! X(
/endrant

[Cynfael]

Are healers lazy because they don't dps? Is there a group of healers that have the mentality that they won't ever dps? I read that and thought, OK, this is a much bigger issue. Maybe OP is generally new to mmos or hasn't healed enough to get why that is. Grouping healers lazy because we don't always dps when it's possible isn't cool. There are bigger and practical reasons why this is common. Basically from what I've experienced and read in these pages is that it comes down to the responsibility healers have. It's also having expectations or standards on people you don't know which is another point you missed, the Duty Finder!

Duty Finder is great, but casual players use it the most and just because you had a healer that dpsed in a instance last week doesn't mean this next one will. So that sure doesn't make anyone lazy or a fabricated idea that healers have adapted this principle to not dps simply because it's not white mage like? XD. I can personally tell you I haven't met one healer yet that thinks that. I mean, yeah, overtime the whole player base can complete harder content and noticeable quicker and more efficient but that's after a good amount of time and gear, Titan HM for example. So possibly you'll get more healers in time that dps. Just don't hold a standard and be presumptuous of random people in a mmo, don't think there's this group of healers that have this anti-dpsing treaty, and don't group healers with the word lazy. It's why this rant is here. It's a hard freakin job, ok?! X(
/endrant

I appreciate the intent here, but if you read many of the healer-centric threads on these forums, you'll discover that there really are lazy healers who object to using damaging abilities in group play simply because they don't believe it to be in their job description.

I don't think that these players are the majority; rather, I think that most healers who don't attempt to DPS at all haven't learned that it's possible to use their full kit. They haven't learned to anticipate and are tunnel-visioned on healing as if some surprising event were prone to happen at any moment.

As for "casual" and DF, I can't say that I agree. Putting aside for the moment how little weight the term "casual" has in a game structured like FFXIV, virtually everyone uses DF. You also don't need to be a hardcore number-cruncher or min/maxer to grasp the basics of healing in FFXIV, because it boils down to a very simple job, albeit with a great deal of responsibility. When players stop reacting to everything and start planning ahead so that they can take advantage of (or even create) safe windows to DPS, they become truly good healers. It's just not a behavior that is universally intuitive; most have to learn it. It's also not required to overgear content to make this happen, though it certainly doesn't hurt.

[mikecoby]

I appreciate the intent here, but if you read many of the healer-centric threads on these forums, you'll discover that there really are lazy healers who object to using damaging abilities in group play simply because they don't believe it to be in their job description.

As for "casual" and DF, I can't say that I agree. Putting aside for the moment how little weight the term "casual" has in a game structured like FFXIV, virtually everyone uses DF. You also don't need to be a hardcore number-cruncher or min/maxer to grasp the basics of healing in FFXIV, because it boils down to a very simple job, albeit with a great deal of responsibility. When players stop reacting to everything and start planning ahead so that they can take advantage of (or even create) safe windows to DPS, they become truly good healers. It's just not a behavior that is universally intuitive; most have to learn it. It's also not required to overgear content to make this happen, though it certainly doesn't hurt.

I'm not surprised that there's forums like that when there's so many people playing this game, but when I said I have never or heard healers that won't dps, I meant it in my actual gaming experience, not forums with their opinions. I usually heal but I've had my bad case of heals with others jobs just like anyone else, I don't deny that. I just personally find it a harder job to do lazy while not suffering deaths. I've seen scholars /follow tanks during trash pulls like others.

Yeah, I see your point and I think that's sound, too. So we have healers that aren't using their full capabilities, which is true, but the reasons for why vary. Not coming to the conclusion its based on laziness is great start. I mean I stand by the reasons I already listed but a huge one is that it can be hard to learn. That changing target from tank to mob is still risky and sometimes scary but exciting.

I took what OP said and based it on what was the most probably situation and reason he saw the difference in healing styles and efficiency. Was he mad at his FC and basing them? Probably not. So yeah, the conclusion I used is fair as to how he experienced it. If it came off as a difference between casual and not, I didn't mean it to be at all.

I'm a casual player, like most players and proud of it. It's just that we all use it and it shows a fair representation of how people use the jobs and abilities and for which reasons. Like Cure 3 wasn't used for a while until Titan EX and I remember seeing people use it there and saw it wasn't useless. I love duty finder and it's a great tool and I left it on the note that it's quite possible more and more people will start healing and dps because they see others doing it efficiently.

[Februs]

Healers should throw out some dps once they are comfortable with the dungeons. I can understand not dpsing if the healer is not very familiar with the fights, but once they are, they should help.

That's pretty much my stance on it as well. It's the same for every job in the game, but tanks and healers in particular have to deal with it to a greater degree.

In comparison to Dps, Tanks and Healers have to know the dungeons much more intimately to be comfortable with it. Tanks have to know practically EVERYTHING (how strong the mobs are, how many, where they are, what kind of mobs they are [ranged/physical/magic], when to use what Cd's, what is each mob's effective pull range, how should each mob should be positioned ... etc). On top of that, they have to know their own job well enough to adapt on the fly and manage aggro efficiently. On top of that comes the advanced stuff, like maximizing your personal dps, for example. The advantage they have is that they can pull at their own pace. When you see them hesitate before a pull, it's probably because they don't know the dungeon as well as a seasoned Tank.

Healers have much less to know, but they have a disadvantage that the Tanks don't have. They basically have to know how much dmg they have to mitigate, and what kind of dmg they are mitigating (ranged/physical/magical/status effects and AoE). The easy part for them is that, assuming things are going smoothly for the tank, they really only have to heal one person directly (save for Aoe's). Their disadvantage, though, is that they are at the mercy of the tank. They can't go at their pace. They have to go at the Tank's pace, and they have to put up with a variety of Tanks who may not know how to use their cooldowns as effectively as others. That can be pretty rough. So, I kind of understand when healers only heal.

That being said, when they know a dungeon, and the tank is good, they should be going beyond just healing. I get it when they're new, but they're not new forever. There's a point when they should be actively seeking to optimize their role. As long as it's not at the expense of the tank's health pool (No tank should have to pop extra CD's because of a bad healer) seasoned healers should be upping their game to match the efforts of the rest of the group... of course, that's not very high if the rest of the group is total crap as well...but still.

[Astral145]

meh I just heal and sometimes pew pew if the tank lets me... but if the tanks pulls every mob from start to boss well I guess i'll be healing instead of pew pewing.... unfortunately I've run in the more heal heal category then pew pew category... for some reason I usually run into the full throttle dps mode tanks that don't even bother throwing up the def buffs or anything else... so all I can do is heal heal heal.... so yea either way I could care less.

[KarstenS]

Not so different if you think about it

More different than you think about it

The point of the conjurer questline is to get in touch with the elements of the nature and learn to use this power for your spells.

Sylphies issue was: She never got in touch with the nature and their elements. She never learned to use this power. So she drained her own life power for casting her spells, which would kill her, like it happened to her mother before. That was Sylphies issue. Nothing else.

[Cynfael]

More different than you think about it

The point of the conjurer questline is to get in touch with the elements of the nature and learn to use this power for your spells.

Sylphies issue was: She never got in touch with the nature and their elements. She never learned to use this power. So she drained her own life power for casting her spells, which would kill her, like it happened to her mother before. That was Sylphies issue. Nothing else.

Now let's try segregating the gameplay from the lore a little. I thought this was too obvious for bullet points, but here we go...

- Sylphie wanted to do things her way despite the fact that her playstyle was suboptimal.

- Her trainers kept trying to help her understand that drawing on elemental powers (which necessarily include spells such as the Stone series) was vital to being well-rounded and fully functional.

- She unambiguously complains that all she wants to do is heal, and none of those "other" things.

- The CNJ quest lines drop some huge anvils about the role being bigger than just heal spamming.

Not that different.

[KarstenS]

- She unambiguously complains that all she wants to do is heal

...and the point of the CNJ questline is that she shall do that by using the power of the elements and not by draining her own life

Cleaning up with the unclean elements is there to show that the elements are in danger itself (but in most cases its just the lack of creativity of the designers). The aim of all that quest is a different: get your connection to the elements.

EDIT: I'm not against DPS by healers. I just want to show, that this example is completely cut out of the real context.

But in my eyes, except for hard content: As long >90% of all DPS player in i190+ do less damage than I did as noob DPS at Lvl 50 in around i120, its ok for me if a heal do just heal.