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

[SeriousxSarcasm]

ANYWAY, sorry, I'm getting side-tracked. My main point is, I think it's okay to be in-the-middle about this issue. ^_^ Is it nice when healers DPS? damn straight, and I intend to be one of them (when I suck at it less).

I've seen some pull it off flawlessly, but I've also seen a lot of healers fumble it too, and it often makes the dungeon take a hell of a lot longer than if they'd just left the DPSing to the casters and melee. :P Really, so long as their healer game is good, I've never worried about if the healer in my party is DPSing (probably because that's MY job. If I need my tanks and healers to help me pull out the deeps, I am a very sad addition to the party and we might as well just run with WARs and WHMs all around! LOL).

[Lambdafish]

ANYWAY, sorry, I'm getting side-tracked. My main point is, I think it's okay to be in-the-middle about this issue. ^_^ Is it nice when healers DPS? damn straight, and I intend to be one of them (when I suck at it less).

The thing is, DPSing as a healer IS the correct way to play. Your argument is how harshly treated players who play incorrect are. Nobody can make the argument that only healing is the right way to play, because it isn't, and it neglects half of a healers toolkit (hell, SCH is a DPS for the first 30 levels). I do feel that players who struggle with healer DPS be helped and not shunned, but lazy players should not be supported when all they want to do is heal and idle. It's gotten to the point where there are threads asking for cleric stance to be disabled in group content, and that is not ok.

[SeriousxSarcasm]

The thing is, DPSing as a healer IS the correct way to play. Your argument is how harshly treated players who play incorrect are. Nobody can make the argument that only healing is the right way to play......

I don't believe I said anywhere that it is not the correct way to play? :P Just that there are likely reasons why some people do not, or if they try are not good at it (lack of skill, lack of confidence, unfamiliarity with the content). Absolutely, when you encounter a situation like Ragology mentioned above, that is unacceptable, but when I see people lose their minds because the healer isn't helping us shave off a whole 20 seconds from an easy mob is kind of infantile (and especially when the tank is a dud, and DPS are fluffing AOE dodges). To be more clear: I think healers should aspire to learn the balance between heals and DPS, but I think other players need to be more tolerant when it just doesn't happen sometimes. (1/2)

[Greedalox]

To be more clear: I think healers should aspire to learn the balance between heals and DPS, but I think other players need to be more tolerant when it just doesn't happen sometimes.

I know you're probably not a member of the development team but I must ask- like water your average player takes the path of least resistance, how do you promote players to aspire to find that balance while at the same time tolerating (I think this is a loaded word, but I'll use it :P) the mediocrity of "it just doesn't happen sometimes."?

At what point is the healer who's spent 60 levels healing, has a lot of modern gear from dungeons and extremes subject to not having 90% overheaing/ standing still for 20 seconds expected to try/find that balance?

This is actually a serious question, not meant to berate you.