As a healer, is it my job to DPS? A new perspective.

[Fernosaur]

You know, it has little to do with the topic of this thread, but I wanna get it out of my system for now. In a way it does relate a little bit to the topic at hand. I wouldn't blame anyone for skipping this post which only contains some personal story that happened to me.



I ran Expert roulette on SCH the other night, and my choice of fairy for roulettes is always Eos. My reasoning is that you never know what kind of player you'll get in DF, and by properly utilizing Eos's skills, I can leave her to solo heal most trash pulls, even the really large ones, 90% of the time, which in turn allows me to use 95-100% of my in-battle GCDs for DPSing, perhaps only throwing one Adlo or Lustrate in the case of really large pulls. This also lets me use Energy Drain and Bane more, of course. I can still do this even with mediocre-at-best tanks. It takes a really, REALLY bad tank to constantly make me pop out of Cleric Stance in order to help them survive.

Another point in favor of Eos, imo, is that, since you never know what kind of players you'll get, using Fey Wind to give a 3% haste to a pair of potentially bad or mediocre DPS isn't worth popping out of Cleric Stance constantly in every pull. I am 100% sure that my Broils and BlizzIIs are more damage than what this haste effect can achieve most of the time.

Now that context is laid out...

The moment we entered the duty, the Ninja asked why I was using Eos. I said it was because of Whispering Dawn. Then he said Fey Wind was so much better and that I was a bad SCH for not using Fey Wind to buff the party. Consider also that the BLM, the other DPS, was under-geared, and kept using single-target spells even on big pulls. I decided that I didn't want to stop and explain things in detail because it would take too long and didn't want to make the other two wait for a pointless argument, so I just said Eos worked better for me.

The Ninja kept calling me a bad Scholar, and insisted that I knew nothing of the job, also claiming he was a Scholar main (which I honestly doubt, given this information...).

Now, to go back to the topic at hand, I just thought it was funny how different aspects of the same meta can contradict each other and cause cracks in the community. The BIG DEEPS meta is what has led me to maximize my own DPS output, and in turn led me to use Eos for casual content in which I'm the only healer. Yet, this same meta is what has made Selene the "standard fairy" because her buff moderately increases party DPS. I think it's ridiculous that such a small part of this could cause an argument, and I'm pretty sure this guy would have attempted to kick me out if they had been more extreme in their ideas.

In a way I think it can't be compared to an argument about a healer that stands there not doing much besides healing, but hey, food for thought: this kind of sour aftertaste once a dungeon run filled with pricks is over is why I don't give them shit. Differing playstyles in the end, eh?

[Gallus]

It's really very simple...a healer who DPS and heals optimally is better than one that only heals. But if I have to choose between a healer that only heals and a moron spamming broil/stone III/Malefic II at the expense of very avoidable deaths, I'm taking the healer that only heals and cleanses stuff when necessary any day of the week.

The problem is, not everybody has the same skill ceiling and not everybody is willing to put the same amount of effort into their healing jobs; being overly aggressive about healers not DPSing only leads to healers DPSing poorly and neglecting their healing duties, which ultimately is much worse than a healer that doesn't DPS but makes sure everybody stays alive.

Lately, I'm seeing a huge influx of terrible healers that pretend to be DPS players, which is why I think people that take a very aggressive stance against those that play a bit more conservative is not contributing.

[FunkyBunch]

Lately, I'm seeing a huge influx of terrible healers that pretend to be DPS players, which is why I think people that take a very aggressive stance against those that play a bit more conservative is not contributing.

Let's help these Healers out, because at least they're trying to be good.

[Supersun]

The moment we entered the duty, the Ninja asked why I was using Eos.

The correct answer is "Eos is the better fairy"

If Eos is going to let you stay in cleric's stance more then you'll more than make up an extra 3% damage ESPECIALLY on big pulls where you are likely going to be topping the charts. Perhaps on a boss where you can probably already stay in clerics 100% of the time regardless of which fairy you have out and Whispering isn't necessary, Selene might be better, but switching fairies back and forth for trash and bosses sounds like a pain.

I mean does that Nin really think that increasing his DPS by 3% is going to beat the extra healer DPS uptime you'd get from Whispering Dawn?

[Fernosaur]

The correct answer is "Eos is the better fairy"

If Eos is going to let you stay in cleric's stance more then you'll more than make up an extra 3% damage ESPECIALLY on big pulls where you are likely going to be topping the charts. Perhaps on a boss where you can probably already stay in clerics 100% of the time regardless of which fairy you have out and Whispering isn't necessary, Selene might be better, but switching fairies back and forth for trash and bosses sounds like a pain.

I mean does that Nin really think that increasing his DPS by 3% is going to beat the extra healer DPS uptime you'd get from Whispering Dawn?

Oh I totally agree, I could have gotten into that argument but it would have required a lot of stopping to type, and frankly, who has time for that amirite.

Though, one case in which Selene could be "better" for trash pulls is if the tank is not pulling anything more than the two or three mobs from every set pack. In that case, the damage is usually so small that whichever fairy you use doesn't make a real difference, so you might as well just pull Selene out and pretend the 3% is making a difference in a trash pull that will last like 15 seconds.

Also, I've found that some of the newer dungeon bosses hit hard enough in AoE that Whispering Dawn can be justified, tbh. Again, mostly just to help me stay in Cleric for 95%+ of the fight.

[Supersun]

Oh I totally agree, I could have gotten into that argument but it would have required a lot of stopping to type, and frankly, who has time for that amirite.

Though, one case in which Selene could be "better" for trash pulls is if the tank is not pulling anything more than the two or three mobs from every set pack. In that case, the damage is usually so small that whichever fairy you use doesn't make a real difference, so you might as well just pull Selene out and pretend the 3% is making a difference in a trash pull that will last like 15 seconds.

Also, I've found that some of the newer dungeon bosses hit hard enough in AoE that Whispering Dawn can be justified, tbh. Again, mostly just to help me stay in Cleric for 95%+ of the fight.

Heck at that point I'd consider keeping Eos out, running to the next pack, pulling them back, and tanking them yourself if you have to. Doesn't really matter who is tanking if you've applied a buffed whispering dawn :P

[Fernosaur]

Heck at that point I'd consider keeping Eos out, running to the next pack, pulling them back, and tanking them yourself if you have to. Doesn't really matter who is tanking if you've applied a buffed whispering dawn :P

Funny that you mention that, cause I totally have had DPS tank an entire run of Sohr Kai before. The tank left us literally before the first pull, but we decided to try it out. We didn't get a tank until after we had started fighting Hraesvlgr, so he MNK, BRD and me tanked literally every pull. The best part is that I was in Cleric for like 90% of the time thanks to Whispering Dawn.

I still can't believe people keep saying Selene is good compared to Eos.