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

[Elspeth]

Besides the misrepresentations of game-design and producer commentary, please tell me why the Hall of the Novice says to "weave offensive magicks" if no one is dying? They added that because people were not doing DPS. There's literally no other explanation.
If the developers wanted Healers to not DPS, they didn't need to give them Cleric Stance or DPS skills for the MSQ, the far easier thing to do would be to ("Healer=Y? Then: BIG NPC that needs healing()")


The reason there's no ACC on Healer gear is because Healer Gear is so efficient and they F'd up Materia Melding. If they could meld other stats onto gear, it'd be better to bring 3 healers than 2 healers.
The raid design comment was taken very out of context. It was how they decided to balance it around it not being impossible.
They take the max possible DPS of the DPS classes at min item level, no mechanics, lower it a bit and make that the boss HP+enrage timer.
It's still impossible to actually complete without Healer DPS at the min item level.
It's not a "Healers don't need to DPS", it was a "how do we decide how much HP and time people have to do the raid". But bad players will always look for excuses that makes them think they're not actually bad. Just because people don't think they're bad, doesn't make them good.

Where to start.

If healers could meld other stats onto gear it would be better to bring 3 healers instead of 2. What do you drop for this? If im doing more damage than a DPS class that DPS needs to seriously reconsider thier gameplay choice, if you drop a tank your screwed if adds happen. (remember sometimes you gotta seperate those guys)

If healer = y then big npc that needs to be healed. Not only does this mean every instance would need to be reworked just for 1 role, but it would also be boring. "and so the warrior of light bravely stood behind Raubahn healing him while Raubahn fought the Garlean empire" No thanks.

The raid design comment. While i believe this thread was originally about dungeons, at min ilvl the fights are hard to complete without healer DPS, not impossible.

The Hall of the Novice says to "weave offensive magiks" if no one is dying. You clealy didnt read all of my post, I do this, its a good thing to DPS when you can, it is not however neccesary. The game promoting good gameplay practice, does not mean "omg my healer deeps save the day"

Obviously i prefer a healer that DPSs when they can, most of the ones who dont are the ones doing more casual content, like VA or WC, or dungeons, and its not neccessary there.

[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.

[Seoulstar]

It's becoming highly annoying that this thread is still going on and it appears that some people can not accept that not everyone plays the same and to be honest. A healer dpsing or not has little affect to a dungeon. Like really, let it go. If they don't want to dps, who cares. I fail to understand why people are making this a huge deal like it's something game breaking. People log into this game to have fun. Not to be controlled by others. I think it's time that some of the people in this thread realize that.

[Rennies]

It'll go on as long as willfully poor play continues

[Nekotee]

A healer dpsing or not has little affect to a dungeon. Like really, let it go.

I beg to differ, there is a strong différence between a lazy fart healing healer and a dps healer

[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?

[gumas]

there is no end of this discussion, in the end its all up to your current party at that time AND your policy wherever you want to help dps or not.

if you are really set on not doing dps then your party must understand either way. Lazy or not, be polite and give them reason whatever it is, your task 1st hand is to keep party alive, the run will not crumble into pieces just because you didnt dps, your lack of heal will. If they still bitching about it then tell them to man up and accept it, if they want to kick you out? let them, they will wait in agony for new healer or else, while you will be in another party in less than 2 minutes no biggie.

i play in tonberry and so far until now i never encounter anyone in party complain or at least ask me to dps, i help DPSing? party just go merry the way, i didnt do dps? party still go merry the way, seriously its not game breaking issue.

[FunkyBunch]

Where to start.

If healers could meld other stats onto gear it would be better to bring 3 healers instead of 2. What do you drop for this? If im doing more damage than a DPS class that DPS needs to seriously reconsider thier gameplay choice

Good DPSing Healers are already barely behind on DPS in world firsts. If they could meld other stats, they'd be doing MORE damage than DPS plus bringing way more utility to the raid.

If healer = y then big npc that needs to be healed. Not only does this mean every instance would need to be reworked just for 1 role, but it would also be boring. "and so the warrior of light bravely stood behind Raubahn healing him while Raubahn fought the Garlean empire" No thanks.

Then stop complaining that Cleric Stance is a thing. If they wanted Healers to just Heal, that's what they would have done.

The raid design comment. While i believe this thread was originally about dungeons, at min ilvl the fights are hard to complete without healer DPS, not impossible.

They are impossible. Try it out. FFS, One out of context quote by Yoshi, and everyone is like "screw it, I can be a bad player". The community would just be better if he had kept his mouth shut.

The Hall of the Novice says to "weave offensive magiks" if no one is dying. You clealy didnt read all of my post, I do this, its a good thing to DPS when you can, it is not however neccesary. The game promoting good gameplay practice, does not mean "omg my healer deeps save the day"

Exactly, the Hall of the NOVICE (aka noob) says this is what good gameplay is. You NOT doing that, makes you a bad player. Which is the crux of the argument here.
I have never said you CANNOT healz only. I have only said that makes you a terrible player and you should play something else you can be not terrible at.
I fully understand that. What I strongly dislike is people making excuses for playing bad and pretending that bad play is good. Which is what keeps happening.

[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.