Suggestion about Cleric Stance

[Ghishlain]

Assisting killing something is not healing. Your role isn't "Support", your role is "Healer". Let's stop trying to give excuses for a game where you can put a HoT on your tank and DPS, because that'a NOT healing at all.

As a healer, my role is to ensure the health of my party. If DPSing when the opportunity presents itself reduces the amount of healing spells I need to use, I am killing two birds with one stone: (1) indirectly maintaining the health of my party via reducing the oncoming damage and (2) ensure monsters die faster.

It's not an excuse to DPS. It's a method for me to play efficiently and providing the best I can for my party. If there is no opportunity to DPS because there's a STR WAR in i150 running into the first massive pack of Fractal with Deliverance on, I most certainly won't be able to make use of my DPS abilities.

The mark of the best healers are those who adapt to the situation. For example:

Situation 1: DRK tank in i200+ with Grit pulling the entire first pull of Fractal. I see they used Blood Price so I will refrain from using Holy on my WHM. I pop down an Asylum and Regen and begin an Aero III into Blizzard II a few times. When Blood Price is about to go off cooldown, I refresh Regen, Tetra them, pop Clerics and PoM and begin to hit hard with Holy providing additional mitigation while bringing the mob down faster.

Situation 2: PLD tank in the i170s with Shield Oath pulling the entire first pull of Fractal. I pop Asylum + Regen + E4E and begin to use Holy immediately. Holy >>> Aero III >>> Holy >>> Holy to afford me 7 seconds of mitigation. I then Virus the dread and move onto alternating between Cleric Stance DPSing and healing as I ping pong the HP between 50% and 100% relatively easily while still providing more DPS.

Situation 3: STR WAR in i150s with Deliverance pulling the entire first pull of Fractal. Will most likely Swiftcast Holy into two more Holy's, pop Assize, then pound the WAR with as much healing as possible as he's taking far too much damage in this regard and I'll need to heal constantly.

What you're advocating is, for all intents and purposes, is one dimensional and lazy play:

Situation 1: DRK tank in i200+ with Grit pulling the entire first pull of Fractal. I will heal once every 6 GCDs.

Situation 2: PLD tank in the i170s with Shield Oath pulling the entire first pull of Fractal.I will heal once every 3 GCDs or so.

Situation 3: STR WAR in i150s with Deliverance pulling the entire first pull of Fractal. I will be healing every GCD.

If this is how you want to play, so be it. Just realize that this is stunting the growth of any aspiring healer looking to better themselves.

[F_Maximillian]

Stance dancing makes this game's healer much more dynamic than alot of other healers in games. Over the years I've always been a multiclasser so naturally I know my way around the general healing role as well and there's few that allow you the opportunity to do more than spam 1-1-1-1-2-1-3-1-1-4-1-1-1 for the duration of the fight without even looking because there is no opportunity or reason to do anything else.

The option to be a pure healing healer is still there albeit you will most likely get called out by a decent chunk of the populace for it. Stance dancing as others have said requires forethought, properly gauging how much damage the tank receives in a certain timeframe and how quickly you can switch back and proceed to heal. For some people the ability to do some reasonable damage in addition to healing (which is the reason most healers pick them up to begin with) is what drives them to improve as healers. I truly wish the game doesn't go back to the days where healers can set up a 1-1-1-1-2-1-3-1-1-4-1-1-1 macro and afk for the duration of a fight. If it isn't broken don't fix it.

[Mibgestalt]

Assisting killing something is not healing. Your role isn't "Support", your role is "Healer". Let's stop trying to give excuses for a game where you can put a HoT on your tank and DPS, because that'a NOT healing at all.

I mean... it's fine design when the content isn't designed around a gear level 40 higher than the minimum. I'm sure if you went into Neverreap or Fractal, or one of the new EX dungeons, or even Alex normal with a group at minimum item level you'd be able to heal all you like. But obviously healing gets less demanding as people get more and more geared. It's just that there's a limited amount of healing that can be done, whereas possible rate of DPS is basically infinite.

[Eisenhower]

Make all healer attacks dependent on MND, not INT stat, removing the need to dance in and out of cleric.

This basically removes the need for MND/INT as a stat entirely (pick one, the end result is the same) as well as a big layer of decision making for healers. Going in and out of Cleric Stance is a good risk-reward mechanic that highlights the importance of preparation and foresight - a player takes on extra tasks, increasing performance at the cost of greater risk for party members.

Though it can be argued that the MND/INT split is inconsequential to begin with, that's another discussion entirely.

[Twilite]

And be it said hereforth, that a new breed of healer be born unto the world. A healer unthinking, only caring about DPS. Honestly, this is what separates the good Healers from the bad healers.

Right, and as a reminder to you and the 16 people that like'd your post, we already have a ton of healers that only care about DPS. Hell some of them post here.

Assisting killing something is not healing. Your role isn't "Support", your role is "Healer". Let's stop trying to give excuses for a game where you can put a HoT on your tank and DPS, because that'a NOT healing at all.

EDIT BECAUSE I CAN'T POST (20 posts rule):

Uhm..healer is supporting. They aren't two entirely different things, nearly all our of abilities function around sustaining a player's life. Support. Increasing damage etc is not the only thing support defines. HoT is still healing, when with DS, regen is basically cure 1, oh slap all the regen spells on and you have a free (a bit lower) cure 2. Now of course this doesn't mean ride regen, certainly not.

[416to305]

Cleric Stance is what makes playing as a healer tolerable especially in low level stuff. If you're not going to DPS, then you're going to stand around doing nothing half the time. Cleric keeps things in line and makes it less boring, forcing you to time everything perfectly to get that damage in quickly and drop CS.

[ChazNatlo]

Honestly, I'm terrified every time I go into a fight as a healer. Switching to do damage scares me even more. I keep running into fights where the Tank's Health just evaporates. Good lord how can I do damage when the tank can be dead at a moment's notice. I've got to keep track of my party health, my position, Debuffs, which buffs are needed at any moment, all while managing a stance that actively hinders my ability to do my job so I can add a little more damage?

I love it. The fear keeps me sharp. It makes me notice these things, and it makes me feel absolutely fantastic when it all works out, because of that keen awareness of how everything can go wrong. Removing that threat of screwing up and not being able to heal at the wrong time would be as alien to me as removing enemy AOE attacks for me to dodge. ((That is not to say it would be the same thing. Obviously they are different beasts all together))

Also I use Cleric Stance to organize my Scholar's Cross Hot Bars, changing between a DPS hotbar and a Healing hotbar to with a CS macro called "Cleric's Dance" so if I have CS up I'm in the former hotbar, and if I have it down, I'm in the latter. If we dropped it, I'd just be switching between them the old fashioned way. Which is boring. Personal qualm with the idea, but I feel it is relevant.

[Pomelo]

As a healer, my role is to ensure the health of my party. If DPSing when the opportunity presents itself reduces the amount of healing spells I need to use, I am killing two birds with one stone: (1) indirectly maintaining the health of my party via reducing the oncoming damage and (2) ensure monsters die faster.

This girl has got it in one <3

[Jxnibbles]

Since I main white mage all I generally have to do is Regen Med 2 cure 1 for a pull in fractal? What else do I even do after that I can sit their playing with my thumbs or be an actual support and help my tank by casting holy to stun lock. Blizzard 2 to force mobs to stay in place if my tank loses agro and use Dots to help dps. I mean sure if you are new to a dungeon and are not comfortable then yes I understand full healing only. But lets be realistic most of the healers that stance dance get bored being 25-40 ilvls above content and just wanna be helping in other ways. Heal, dps, mechanics.

[RedHerb]

How about you go ahead and y'know... change to Summoner?

Healers should be required to heal. SQEX should increase the healing necessity on all instances. If you rolled a healer to deal damage, you're the one who should git gud.

I rolled a healer to support my party. Dropping DPS to make the tank or DDs job easier is what I call support.

Edit: It's what separates the okay healers that do what's required of them from the amazing healers that can go above an beyond thanks to knowing their skills set.