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

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Demanding tougher healing requirements in regular dungeons through higher damage from Tanks also has a chance to alienate "inexperienced or bad" healers from joining the casual content.

Right now, the dps meta caused by low healing requirements has a nice side-effect:
1) Healers, who know how to be efficient at GCDs, will have a lot of GCDs to spare and can put them into dps instead
2) inexperienced, sleepy or bad healers, who have long reaction times, are not that good at keeping the GCD rolling efficiently, or want to take a try in dungeons, still can fullfill the healing requirement of not letting anyone die without much difficulties.

This just isn't a good excuse anymore. Queues have actually slowed prior to the Anima step, and I strongly attribute it to overall boredom with dungeons-- something even the devs have acknowledged. Let inexperienced players learn through leveling dungeons or old content not the most recent "Experts." Among my biggest gripes with Heavensward is the sheer lack of challenge outside Savage. Xelphatol is so laughably easy you can do it without a healer. Granted, you won't be pulling the room. Frankly, I want to feel like a tank or healer whenever I queue for Experts. The fact I have to pull everything on Dark Knight otherwise the healer may as well /sit points to poor optimization. Hence why nowadays, most tanks won't even ask about big pulls at 60. You're expected to handle them or you're just a bad healer; assuming they didn't mess up, of course.. While some may disagree, XIV needs more content that actually requires skill. A big reason the DF produces such so many awful players is the game does a horrible job at encouraging personal advancement. Going back to our current Experts. What reason do new players have to upgrade their Augmented Esoteric gear when the ilvl for the highest tier dungeon lost its relevancy over a year ago?

A lot of issues with tanks pulling too much and healer DPS would be rectified if content actually hurt.

[Cynfael]

It was the design of Gordias that started the DPS Meta

I don't know why I keep seeing this. Good healers adding DPS is a meta older than 3.x itself.

Is it your job to DPS, NO...

I appreciate the opinion that follows this introductory comment, but to be very clear for anyone just tuning in...YES, it is your job to DPS. It is the job of all three roles (and indeed of all party members) to DPS. Healers should not succumb to the conceit that DPS is something they do above and beyond their job, but accept that adding to party DPS as they are able to do so is simply another facet of the role.

The only difference with healers is that their primary obligation to the party is to counter incoming damage so that everyone can continue playing (rather than being incapacitated on the floor). To a certain extent this means that healers can end up carrying lazy or bad players who do not properly execute mechanics, which can consume a lot of GCDs and preclude much DPS, but in average or better circumstances, skilled players do not require many GCDs just for healing. This opens up the question of what they are doing with the other 80+% of their time, and the answer should not be "standing around waiting for someone to get hit."

[Locke_Rockwell]

It's kinda funny how people that think healers shouldn't dps have never done savage content before. Just something I've noticed so far.

[Tint]

I'm not defending the dps meta. It's what we have so we have to deal with and make the best of it. You can refuse to optimize your play and/or protest the meta all you want but it, honestly, just looks like you are stamping your feet and crying like a child who can't have a toy. It may not be what you want but refusing to work with it helps no one and will fix nothing.

and how will following the dps-meta fix the dps-meta? have you ever heared of something that's called "Protest"?

sure, i am not in the mood to gather all the non-dpsing healers together and go on strike (but i have thought about this option a while ago), but at least i can express myself on the message board...

whatever, defend your dps-meta (yes, you ARE defending it, and calling me a child just proves it even more. making fun of me because i am against the dps-meta? that IS defing the dps-meta...), play with the dps-meta, there are enough people who have fun with dpsing 90% of the time it seems, i don't really care anymore (just a little bit xD)

You didn't even answer my questions. If you are not casting DPS spells then what are you doing? YOU quit healing, but I'm asking those who choose to still play a healer job but refuse to do something of use for the majority of a run.

hm, i think i just can't answer this question, because actually i am dpsing. i just don't like the amount of it. 90% dps, 10% healing? i have played healer for almost 3 years, i played with the dps meta, maybe i was stompig with my foot, but i was just trying to do my best with this meta. and then palace of dead came and the amount of healing dropped even further to nearly 0%.... and i was asking myself: why am i still doing this? so i quit, yeah ^^

you call me a child stompig with my foot, i see myself paying a sub to be a healer in an mmo (and that's exactly the reason i bought FF14: because i can't be a healer in a single player game). that's like paying for the golf club to play golf, but almost the only thing you can actually do there is playing tennis.

i have nothing against using the other activities the club has to offer from time to time (playing tennis / dps as a healer), but when dpsing / playing tennis becomes my main activity, then something is going wrong!

[Cynfael]

sure, i am not in the mood to gather all the non-dpsing healers together and go on strike (but i have thought about this option a while ago)

So, generally speaking, the least productive healers would be going on strike together? Please make this happen.

and then palace of dead came...

What does PotD have to do with the price of tea in China? It's a fairly recent addition to the game that plays nothing like the rest of the content. If you're trying to make a connection between PotD and poor gameplay, that's weak considering that FATE-based leveling has been producing clueless max-level players for years.

[Chocolys]

I've been following the discussion about Tint initial post and the reaction that followed and I find some replies to him be misleading of what he said.

For example last comment from @Cynfael: "So, generally speaking, the least productive healers would be going on strike together? Please make this happen."
That does not apply to Tint. Tint stated ealier that he was productive as healer, and that he was DPSing. And Tint is not alone. There is other healers who DPS actively because that's how it is right now, but they would prefer doing more healing instead. If theorically they would go on strike pressuring for a change, it would have nothing to do with them being actually productive or not.

If you read carefully what Tint said:

- He agrees that when you can DPS as healer you should in the current game state.

- He said he does not like the state of the Healer class in the current content, and wish the content to require more healing so that healer focus would be primarily on healing with DPS on the side. There is nothing wrong about it. You may prefer a healer class being more oriented on the DPS or versatile, and you're not wrong either. It's a personal preference of what you personally expect from a healer class. There is no real argument to have about it.

So in short Tint is saying it should not be his job to DPS as a healer, because he considers healer class to be mostly healing (personal preference), while acquiescing that right now practically as a healer you have to DPS (practical current aspect).

So I don't really understand the weird replies to him which seems to just be about wrongly saying that people like Tint who do not enjoy the current healing meta are automatically bad healers.

[Blonde_Huntress]

I love to DPS personally (some do, some don't).

That being said, it really boils down to the team I'm with at the time. Healing takes priority when, you know, you have to heal a fool. A group that's newer(and usually reckless) will take more devotion to healing/buffing, whereas a more experienced team makes DPS much easier to do for longer periods. I try to take care of my DPS jobs/classes too. ;P

Typically as long as the Tank is doing his/her job well enough, I can do a pretty good DPS/Healing balance.

[Cynfael]

Snip

You would have more of a point here if I had called Tint out for allegedly not DPSing, but I didn't; I responded to a specific comment about healers who don't DPS, who are by definition the least productive healers (assuming otherwise comparable skill).

Over the course of this discussion I've noticed a much greater lack of reading comprehension from players who attempt to defend the choice not to DPS when players are fully capable of doing so.

[Chocolys]

.....Over the course of this discussion I've noticed a much greater lack of reading comprehension from players who attempt to defend the choice not to DPS when players are fully capable of doing so.

In the case of idling (emoting and jumping around does not count as doing something useful ), that's just called lazyness or lack of cooperativity regardless of the class.
And yeah I've noticed the same confusion in the discussion.

[HyperiusUltima]

I think this thread should be closed now, given the fact that it's been discussed to death and every aspect has been accounted for: All we can do is wait for Stormblood to fix all the problems(or make them worse), I suppose.