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

[Bourne_Endeavor]

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.

Just to further emphasise this. I actually tanked Saint Mocianne's Arboretum from near start to finish-- trash and bosses alike -- on Dragoon because I outgeared the Paladin so much, he couldn't keep hate. And believe me, he tried. While it was certainly fun, my DPS hit the floor since I couldn't get positionals and had to prioritize holding Life Surge just in case I needed snap healing. Not to mention, the White Mage had to focus heal me to some extent. All in all, it's a massive party wide DPS loss despite being perfectly doable. As already noted, healers don't have this issue when DPSing. They can freely do both, which benefits the whole party.

[DynamoAce]

snip

It's always fun when you tank while not being a tank.
I've had a lot of instances where for multiple different reasons, I become a healer tank. At first it scared me and almost made me wanna cry (Not literally!) but after a while it became moments of "Oh yeah? You wanna ****ing go?"
Although whenever that happens and it's because the Tank is literally there, able to do tank things but chooses not to, makes me really wonder.