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

[Ghishlain]

The point I'm getting at is that the argument about why other roles don't do X or Y is not a good one. Healers have been given the tools to perform a wide variety of useful actions; their damage skills are not somehow separate from their job.

I'm just contributing here to re-emphasize on this point. Anyone who brings up the argument of "Well, BLMs aren't expected to Physick" or "DRGs aren't expected to tank" don't seem to realize that these roles are ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE at doing that. It's possible, yes, and sometimes you need to have that niche to clear a piece of content if the crap hits the fan but their performance in that aspect is so below average performance of that role that it's not even funny.

In contrast, Cleric Stance gives Healer's DPS stats that rival their caster counterparts of the same ilvl, allowing them to effectively DPS.

Keyword - effective

BLMs and SMNs can heal. It's ineffective because they don't have the MND stats to support their healing.
DRGs can tank. It's ineffective because they lack the enmity tools to try to hold hate on a DPS with equal ilvl and you end up with a bouncing hate table.
Etc.
Etc.