Healer DPS metagame for non savage content is getting old

[Astrelle_hyperion]

I only have end-game experience in this game, not in other MMOs, so I'm genuinely curious, what alternate healer meta's can there be?

Lets assume (and these are all ballpark figures don't think it changes if you shift them down. If you shift them up it changes some)
Story mode content (dungeons, story trials) are tuned for something in the 50-65% player skill range at min iLvl
Extreme Priamls in the 75-85% range
Savage Raides in the 85+

(this percentage applies to doing the role to the best of a players ability, whether that's bringing damage, heals, maintaining aggro, avoiding avoidable damage, not tunnel vision on dps alone)

So if we're tuned for not requiring 100% heal out of the healers, what do you want the meta to push the good/exceptional healers to do with their down time?
Add extra optional mechanics that help the raid (increase dps, decrease damage taken, etc) and expect the good healers to have time to interact with them?
Add ability to stack shields/stoneskin: ie stockpile mitigation if you're already that far ahead? (which means things just get more boring)
Allow healers to build up some stacks of "readiness" for each gcd skipped that can proc surecast or something (procing swift would probably be too strong)

The last one is the only thing that feels like it not either a) functionally the same as healer dps or b) not completely cheesable.

While increasing the amount of tank and raid-wide damage going out increases the time spent healing, outside of the savage raids, I can't see the content being tuned to require 100% healing effort-- because that would also imply that a missed heal, or a failed dodge would likely wipe en expert dungeon and I don't think people want DF to implode that way Just look at the number of healers who don't precast for Hellwind for example.

[Estellios]

Sounds like the misconception that healers contributing to dps is something "to carry the dps players". Healers should dps because that's how this game is built.

The Conjurer storyline even tries to drill it into your head that dealing damage is something that you need to do once in a while.

The fact I can swap between healing and DPS when required is the reason I like healing in this game at all in the first place. Getting breathing room to throw in some DPS is a good indication that you are doing a good job keeping the group alive. Some breathing room at all is necessary for anything outside of Savage-tier stuff. You need to allow mistakes to be made for people that aren't as geared or aren't as skilled.

I feel like Weeping City is a pretty good level of challenge for healers in casual content, despite my frustrations with bad healers in it. There's a lot to pay attention to but most of the time you can recover from a wipe or near-wipe if you are judicious and smart with your healing, and if your group is doing well you can throw out DPS or help out other groups if they are struggling.

[Jonnycbad]

Stick a 30 second cool down on Cleric Stance. That will make you think twice about DPSing.

[Zojha]

Stick a 30 second cool down on Cleric Stance. That will make you think twice about DPSing.

And for what gain? If you're not doing door to door pulls, the healer is going to throw a HoT and then jump around anyway - chances are, he could even manage with 30 second cleric stance CD.

Stance dancing for DPS is the only little bit of depth healing has.

Personally, I think a bad healer should quickly go oom and slow down groups with it, a good healer should need little to no breaks for mana, thus allowing speedy runs and only the most excellent healers should have mana to spare for DPS. That way we could also get rid of those stupid hard enrages because the healers mana bar would be the hard enrage timer and thus, could be influenced by skill not only of the healer but also the group who avoids mechanics. And hey, mitigation would actually become a worthwhile thing to have as tank, because suddenly, it means you can actually fight longer with it. At that point fixing parry would be a simple number adjustment.

But that would require healing itself to have a far higher complexity, more akin to what DPS jobs have.

[LunaFaye]

Stick a 30 second cool down on Cleric Stance. That will make you think twice about DPSing.

That's a great idea since people love to bash healers that dps. How about we add a 2 minute timer, if the dps doesn't meet a specific amount of dmg, that player will be removed from the group immediately. Then the healers don't have to dps and the actual dps maybe puts some effort in the job they are playing.

[Khalithar]

I only have end-game experience in this game, not in other MMOs, so I'm genuinely curious, what alternate healer meta's can there be?

I have played a lot of other MMO's and there are a few, these are the healing styles we don't have in this game:

1. Triage style. You get a variety of different heals and you have to learn which one is the best to use. The basic heal that is MP and HP efficient? The big slow heal that costs a lot? The fast heal that goes off when you need it but is very expensive to cast? With the right damage tuning this can make a healer constantly have to heal while forcing them to consider which button to hit lest running out of mana becomes a threat.

2. Buffing/Debuffing. This is mostly built around maintaining buffs on your allies or debuffs on your enemies to make healing easier while keeping everyone alive. Depending on the nature of this though it can be a little overwhelming, depends on how many different spells you get.

3. HoT focused. Healers like this do have some single target stuff but their main focus is keeping HoTs rolling on their allies at all times and anticipating when to use their larger heals. So rather than burst healing it's more about constant HoT ticks maintaining the party.

These are specifically healing types that don't involve dps at all. I've seen other healers in other MMO's where DPS was part of the healing, disc priest from WoW had a build like this and so did the Warrior Priest from Warhammer though they functioned very differently.