Is dpsing and a healer becoming the standard norm!

[Malicewolf]

It's situational really... I mean, in low level dungeons, if the tank isn't doing huge pulls, I can literally stay in cleric stance and through the dungeon. They take little damage, my 150 heals are plenty when his hp bars are around 1000. Now I've always been an advocate of maximizing yourself in what you do. For me, I always try to stance dance with my healer, as I do my tank as well. When there is opportunity, I will push out more where I can. However, by no means am I a flawless healer. I've accidentally spam clicked cleric stance in panic mode when a tank takes an AoE hit from a boss and I'm in cleric stance already (and then end up taking it off and PUTTING IT BACK ON from my spam clicking). There are times when I'm simply in a panic because I tried to do too much DPS as well and let someone die. And I'm still not great at the whole "pay attention to status effects" part of healing.

I've always had the mentality of "every bit helps". If you don't have that mindset, why bother having a PLD tank attack? Just have him flash away endlessly and sit there popping defense CDs. His attacks will barely help out (sarcasm). It's kind of like sword oath in general. Everyone believes it to be very underwhelming because it's not a lot of extra dmg output per hit. But it adds up quickly over time. Very quickly. Just like mobs hit for very little, when you group up a lot of them, guess what?! That "little damage" you weren't worried about all of a sudden becomes a big deal. Why put on a protect? It barely gives any mitigation?! Why do stoneskin?! It only stops 10% of your hp worth of dmg? Why put on any DoTs, it barely does any dmg?! Because it adds up. Everything helps. If you're going to have the mindset of "that ___ does so little, why bother?" then why not just say, "if I can't 1 hit any enemy, whats the point?" What's the cut off for how much damage is worthy in your eyes to be valuable?

I understand that sometimes a healer needs time to recover his MP, that is fine. Being conservative is fine. Knowing what is do-able and what is not is something every healer must gauge for themselves. I will never condemn a healer for helping to DPS where he can. If he makes a mistake once, I can accept it. If he wipes us 3x times, then yea, I might chime in with something along the lines of less DPS, more healing. Everyone has a primary role to play and I hope they make it their priority.

Anyone would be mad at a tank not holding aggro on a mob.
Anyone would be mad at a healer not keeping players alive.
Anyone would be mad at a DPS not killing things.

[Kaurie]

otherwise they'll use Hello Ground and you know what happens from there.

They'll greet the floor?

[Whiteroom]

They'll greet the floor?

DRG limit break

[Alistaire]

Here is a screenshot from the Hall of the Novice, Healer section.



Did you catch that? Here it is again.



Here, I'll post it again.



One more time!





In summary,

If only this had been in the game from the start maybe we wouldn't have so many terrible lazy healers. Oh well.

[Mature]

Such discussion over something so simple. People over reading stuff.

I main a healer (Ast) and I always dps cause I personally get bored of standing there when I can actually contribute to some extra damage.

Dpsing as a healer is a CHOICE. As long as you know and fulfill your role as you should everything is good.

I don't expect a healer to dps, if the person decides to do it ,it's great if not I'm not even bothered.

[Tanathya]

If only this had been in the game from the start maybe we wouldn't have so many terrible lazy healers. Oh well.

Lazies are gonna be lazy no matter what. Even newbies who start now aren't gonna give a crap about that if they want to do the bare minimum.

[Noxifer]

The only reason why healers have the ability to DPS is so they are able to solo content, not to deal DPS in party's.

I'll just begin by responding with this, like other people have before me:

One more time!

In other words, SE does intend for healers to be able to do some DPS in parties. (They also tell you to stop DPSing if the people in your party need healing.) So no, like you say it's not the primary task for healers, but it is part of their toolset. To not use that toolset because "it's not my job", is like a Monk saying, "Well, I only need to keep myself alive during solo content; in parties that's the healer's job. So I'm not going to use my Second Wind if I'm damaged and it's off cooldown."
(Note: It's a different thing altogether if a healer isn't DPSing because they don't feel confident they can pull it off without risking the other party members' lives. It's just the belligerent, "I don't care if I sit half-afk during dungeons; I'm a healer, that's the only thing I'll do," attitude from some people that I'm starting to get fed up with.)

you have to know for a fact that your tank will survive the next hit, otherwise they'll use Hello Ground and you know what happens from there.

Wait. I thought that was the DRG special skill that automatically Provokes the floor. ;)

[Arrius]

In other words, SE does intend for healers to be able to do some DPS in parties.

It's encouraged to DPS, but not required or enforced in any normal dungeon content.
Sure, they can if they want to, put pressing them into doing more then they are willing to and they might act up.

And a stubborn healer you rubbed the wrong way is one of the last things you want in the dungeon, right behind a stubborn tank you angered.

[nexas506]

Will This healer dps debate never end? People are gonna do what they want and no amount of arguing in an online form is gonna change that.
I want to say "let this thread die" but as soon as it does a new one will show up.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

Will This healer dps debate never end? People are gonna do what they want and no amount of arguing in an online form is gonna change that.
I want to say "let this thread die" but as soon as it does a new one will show up.

Well, it'll never die out because:
1) Those who refuse to contribute in damage are subjected to being shunned by the community as being lazy
2) Those who suffer the brand of "lazy healer because no DPS" shift the blame elsewhere

And what better way is to defend their comfort bubble than marking the other playstyle as "unnatural"?