Is DPS'ing as a Healer Vote Kickable?

[Saito_S]

If you need the BLM cooldown to complete the encounter, then that is akin to when you need healer DPS to do so as well. Would you even think of kicking the BLM for not using Apocatastasis to help the healer when it's not a question of the life or death for the tank and it's merely a slight convenience for the healer and/or tank? Probably not.

No I wouldn't, but then I also wouldn't kick a healer who isn't DPS'ing, at least, not without asking them about it and seeing what (if anything) they said in reply. If they were healing well, and weren't an arse, I might just let the lack of DPS slide. It'd take more than that for me to want to kick someone - at least, more than JUST the fact that they aren't DPS'ing. Especially if we're in an easy dungeon. That's just me - I tend to view kicking as something that should only be done in specific circumstances. That doesn't change my stance on healer DPS'ing in general. By the same token, kicking someone because they are doing DPS as a healer - if they are successfully balancing DPS and keeping the party healthy, using whatever buffs are needed, etc. - in other words kicking them SOLELY because they are DPS'ing and you don't think healers should DPS, makes you a grade-A douchebag.

It's actually false equivalency. Other roles are not healer roles.

That's ridiculous. "Other roles are not healer roles" is a true statement of fact, sure, but it doesn't change anything.

A healer gets to slack off, stand around waiting for incoming damage or a need for Esuna/other buffs, etc, simply... because they are a healer? "You picked the GREEN role - congratulations! Sit on your ass and watch Netflix while your party fights the boss!"

It's not a false equivalency at all. It's basic fairness: there is NO GOOD REASON why we should all just be perfectly okay with the idea that 3 classes in this game get to spend 3/4s of their time during easy-to-middling difficulty content standing around doing the Moogle Dance while the rest of their party must be constantly performing skills and paying attention to the fight.

If you want to blame anyone blame SE for tuning every instance to the lowest denominator and allowing us to so massively overgear content. If anything this healers must dps during downtime mindset only serves to show SE that their current balancing of the system is perfectly acceptable and they don't need to change anything. Mindlessly spamming stone III because there's nothing else for you to do does not indicate good game design!!!

Sure, this is valid - to a degree. Blame SE if you don't like the way healers work. I don't really mind it (granted, I haven't played healer myself much in ages; my stance on the basic design could change if I start playing a healer in current content), but I don't think I would mind if things were tuned so that actual healing itself was much more demanding, leaving little-to-no time for DPS'ing, either.

But this is the game we have. SE's design choices don't entitle you to sit around while your party does all the work. The simple fact of the matter is: healers in this game have a fully loaded freight train's worth of DOWNTIME during a lot of the content in this game. Not all content - no one is saying that. And DPS isn't MORE important than keeping your party alive - no one is saying that either. Nor that you have to DPS in ALL situations - obviously if you've got a super squishy tank who barely qualifies for the ilvl req and loses half their HP when the monsters sneeze, then of course you're not going to be able to DPS much, if at all, even if normally, you would. I'm putting these in bold because I'm tired of people trotting those things out, as if ANYONE here is advocating letting your party die, or saying "you should be constantly DPS'ing as a healer in synched EX Primal fights or Savage raids or you're a bad healer!"

But outside of those situations, healers have got that downtime. It's there. This is not up for debate.

If you REALLY think that watching Netflix, doing the Moogle Dance, standing around, sitting on the ground, or just overhealing the shit out of your party is a good way to play... If you think it's okay to demand WAY more than that from tanks and DPS classes, even in relatively easy content, but just say "healers can sit on their ass, because they're healers"... then I don't know what to tell you.