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

[ManuelBravo]

SE designed this game in a way that everyone (healers included) have to dps

/end of thread

I think you mean everyone (as a healer ) has the option to dps not that they have to dps. >.>

[Watachy]

I think you mean everyone (as a healer ) has the option to dps not that they have to dps. >.>

If you're raiding, you have to.

If you're not raiding, you have to dps too because there is not any healer check on the normal content.
If you're not, that just mean you're waiting something to happen and that's... Well if you wanna slack, do it, but not with 3/7 persons.

[RizenSaga]

I'm in agreement with healers doing damage. In my early days of ffxiv I was often asked to stop doing damage because healers are supposed to heal, and party members found it really uncomfortable that I wasn't 100% hovering ready to heal them.

My argument is simply that this thread doesn't give people the knowledge how to heal and do damage. It just says they should and that's truly not helpful because you're assuming everyone is intelligent enough to figure out how and when they should dps, yet calling people out for not being aware and not understanding their skills. You can't tell a four year old they need to learn how to read and write and not teach them.

I'd say a quite a few people take other peoples beliefs and use them as their own. Lots of people don't do the work, don't do the math, they just take someone seemingly smarter then themselves opinion as fact and throw it around as truth. These people read these forums, they agree slightly and make the belief their own.

[ManuelBravo]

If you're raiding, you have to.

If you're not raiding, you have to dps too because there is not any healer check on the normal content.
If you're not, that just mean you're waiting something to happen and that's... Well if you wanna slack, do it, but not with 3/7 persons.

Correct big IF your raiding. Unless they are hardcore types rare your seeing them not dpsing, if spouts best to guide them the path of yes you want to dps also. Hence my first posting. In legacy servers you see many healers dps. However too many sprouts now a days giving dps healers a bad rep unfortunately. SE made it to give players an option. Not set in stone that they MUST dps. It helps yet over all depends on the player type. New , casual, hardcore and of course the ever so popular troll. I agree it would be nice for healers to DPS and as a mentor I do recommend to do so, however you can't force it on a person if they just want to have heal all we can do is advice them that for certain content it is a must.

[Chevronone]

We can't force them to dps, but we certainly don't have to tolerate them under-performing. DPS can't sit still for a prolonged period if time, they're expected to perform 100% of the instance, not 75% and get to stare at health bars for the remainder 25%.

We'd never tolerate a tank just spamming flash, why are we forced to tolerate a healer who simply doesn't want to contribute 100% by using their full skill set?

If a healer is in EXPERT roulette, they should be utilizing their full skill set, if not I'll just spam flash as a tank and keep enough or just auto-attack as a dps and not avoid AoEs I'm under no strick obligation to avoid.

[ManuelBravo]

We can't force them to dps, but we certainly don't have to tolerate them under-performing. DPS can't sit still for a prolonged period if time, they're expected to perform 100% of the instance, not 75% and get to stare at health bars for the remainder 25%.

We'd never tolerate a tank just spamming flash, why are we forced to tolerate a healer who simply doesn't want to contribute 100% by using their full skill set?



If a healer is in EXPERT roulette, they should be utilizing their full skill set, if not I'll just spam flash as a tank and keep enough or just auto-attack as a dps and not avoid AoEs I'm under no strick obligation to avoid.

True, sometimes, depending on servers healers can be rare when kicking one out. I rather have a healer than no healer as long as min is healing properly just to finish up. In raids or any endgame yeah I wouldn't tolerate that.

[Chevronone]

Oh no no no, I'm not saying I'd ever kick a healer for not dpsing, no way.

What I am saying is that what's good for the geese is good for the gander. Ill mimic their playstyle and contribute the absolute minimum required of my role to show them how absurd they're being. (this is all dependent upon many factors such as are they a sprout? First time in dungeon? Healing>DPS but just standing there when party is 100% hp is nonsense)

[Cynfael]

I'm in agreement with healers doing damage. In my early days of ffxiv I was often asked to stop doing damage because healers are supposed to heal, and party members found it really uncomfortable that I wasn't 100% hovering ready to heal them.

My argument is simply that this thread doesn't give people the knowledge how to heal and do damage.

I understand where you're coming from. I agree that it may be difficult for players to understand the "how" by reading this thread.

In the spirit of cooperation, let's try a brief explanation/suggestion post for players who are interested in using their full kit, yet not sure how...

- Know the encounters in the duties so that you know which mob abilities to watch out for. This way you won't be caught in CS right when a big hit goes out.

- Recognize tank cooldowns and know that, if there are lots of baddies still alive when they wear off, your tank will suddenly hurt much more.

- Know what is likely to kill your team and what can be tolerated. You don't need to wait out of CS just in case a DPS gets a boo-boo from an infrequent, non-lethal AoE. If they stand in multiple overlapping AoEs while getting blasted by a raid-wide AoE, that goes beyond what you are reasonably expected to fix.

- Weave in and out of CS as necessary until it becomes second nature. You'll often want to cast your regens and shielding immediately before changing stances so that you can apply at least one round of DPS comfortably.

[Raven_Darkstar]

I'm just going to reiterate, in case there is any confusion out there, that healer DPS is not a phenomenon born exclusively of everyone being overgeared for content. Players have been successfully contributing DPS from the healer role regardless of ilvl since the beginning.

It's true that increased ilvl relative to content difficulty makes it easier for everyone to play more aggressively, but it's a huge oversimplification to suggest that healers DPS simply because they are overgeared and bored. Skilled players look for opportunities to do more and play better, and this is an obvious way that healers of all ilvls do that.

It actually wasn't my intention to imply that boredom is the origin or only/main reason for healers dpsing. I was just trying to point out the difference in what a player might be capable of depending on gear lvl. It seems to me, and I could certainly be wrong! that much as people forget what it was like to be a newbie, they forget how the ease of content and your role in it, is very different if you overgear it, compared to just barely qualifying for it. And that point, led into the point that people tend to judge players in a role, based on the best and worst examples of such players that they've encountered. And often, imo anyway, it's an unfair judgement. Regardless, this is actually a side issue to the thread. My bad.

Belated reply to the OP - Yes, it clearly is part of a healers role to contribute to dps. I knew this before I even started leveling one, and made it a point to practice stance dancing As I leveled, knowing that dpsing was going to be expected of me. There were times I hated it, and many times I thought I'd never truly get used to it. But now? It's such a natural part of the role to me that I literally can't imagine being one of those healers who just stands around, waiting for the tank/group to take damage. However, I do understand and can sympathize with where the other side of this debate is coming from.

[Reptiletc]

When leveling my WHM I was kicked for both DPSing and for not DPSing at different points. Really you can't please everybody, so just do what you feel you can. For me I've found that DPSing is a good option for stalemate parts of instances where everyone is really not taking much damage at all, so a regen will keep them up while I DPS as much as possible.

Also Benediction is a great asset for WHM considering that it will work to full effect even while under cleric stance. Love the panic button.