Should healers now be allowed to play how they choose to play?

[Feyona]

This topic is not new, but in light of the proposed changes, like two more dps classes which all the dps has to choose from, could we now leave healers alone to play as healers, and those who want to dps, dps? Thinking that many people would like to heal as a chosen playstyle. The feedback I have received before is that its not playing to 'optimal efficiency', but this is not a workplace it is where people come to enjoy themselves, not be coerced into doing a role that they didnt choose- dps as healer. Most dps did not choose to heal, and have a monopoly of different playstyles to choose from, on the other hand healers are being made to dps, to sort of make up for dps defiency, Then I see a question asking for harder content, just stop healer dps and the content will be harder to clear. Healers that want to dps go dps, leave others to heal or tank if thats what they enjoy.

[Spiroglyph]

You're allowed to stick to your own playstyle - if that's healing ONLY, well, go right ahead.
However keep in mind that it's NOT against the TOS to kick people for different playstyles though, so if you're ever in a team that feels you should indeed be contributing to DPS, they can kick you and GMs are unlikely to do anything about it (unless of course they harass you, but then they'd get in trouble for another matter entirely).
Optimizing your job/role and utilizing all skills available to you is, to some players, something that is considered fun (personally I see healer DPS as utility - some DPS have team wide buffs, SMN rez, BRD/MCH regenerate TP/MP, so on so on, and healers can dish out some DPS to minimize time spent in an instance), and something that makes your contribution to the team's performance that much higher - now, I'm not going to argue with you why you should or shouldn't DPS; strictly speaking as a healer your core purpose is to keep the team alive long enough to see the instance cleared.

Wether or not the "healers need to DPS" mindset will remain or not will depend mainly on
1) Healing reqs for SB fights
2) Wether CS is or not one of the skills SE decides to remove

Bottom line, if nothing changes and instances (and their difficulty level) and skills remain unchanged, you CAN only heal, if that's what you want to do - keep in mind that people are not obligated to like that, and they're well within their right to kick you.

[Feyona]

You're allowed to stick to your own playstyle - if that's healing ONLY, well, go right ahead.
However keep in mind that it's NOT against the TOS to kick people for different playstyles though,

Wether or not the "healers need to DPS" mindset will remain or not will depend mainly on
1) Healing reqs for SB fights
2) Wether CS is or not one of the skills SE decides to remove

Bottom line, if nothing changes and instances (and their difficulty level) and skills remain unchanged, you CAN only heal, if that's what you want to do - keep in mind that people are not obligated to like that, and they're well within their right to kick you.

This is true that is why it can be viewed as coercion to dps. Btw not saying I dont dps as healer only that some may prefer it not to be made compulsary. I dps but prefer to heal, maybe other people do as well

[Spiroglyph]

It's the same with all other classes...

BRDs not using WM can claim they don't want to play bowmage, tanks can claim they only need to hold aggro and thus completely ignore they DPS stances, SMNs can have a full MP bar and choose to let a whole alliance burn to the ground because they're busy doing whatever stuff they're doing.

Now, mind, all those examples are doing their core roles - tank is holding aggro, BRD is still killing stuff (albeit possibly slower than you'd hope), and the SMN might be pulling highest DPS in the whole alliance.

Are they fully optimizing their jobs? No, they are not.
Are they free to play "their way"? Sure they are.

However you can still not agree with their playstyles, and if the other team members agree, a vote kick ensues and goes through, it IS valid. Some people will be okay with you healing only, shrug and move on, others will not.
However you play you'll be criticized at some point - for one team that gives you cheek for not broiling all the things there'll be another scrunching up their brows at a healer that isn't keeping everyone topped up. Just do what you want, have fun ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Dsync]

Play how you want. If the party doesn't want a lazy healer then the party can kick you. Same goes for DPS and Tanks. I'm now firmly in the 'Kick' camp for people who can't be bothered and bring the "my sub" and "this aint a job" attitude.

No one is forcing a healer to DPS at gunpoint. Don't want to do what the others on the party ask of you? Keep doing what you're doing and see if you get kicked or not. Or you could just leave.

[CafPow]

was at a low level Dungeon today.
had an overgeared Tank (270 Items)
had to cast 5 Heals until the Endoboss, so... 15 seconds of Healing Work in the 20 Minutes Progress. (it was the long one)

so ... if you want to be completley useless for 19 minutes ... you are free to do so.
be free to be kicked.

nobody is gonna kick a healer who is only healing all the Time because:
-he is new and don't know all the mechanics
-there is so much to heal

but if the passive out-of-combat-LP-Reg is enough to ensure, nobody dies, then, for god's sake, put your cleric stance on.
This stance is not given to you because it has a nice Icon in the Toolbar.

[Rawrz]

I really don't care if my cohealer dpses. If they dps, that's great. I'll help burden the healing as your cohealer, always ready to drop cs and ogcd. If you're ONLY healing, in content that you are familiar with, I'm gonna give you a fairy and ogcd mitigation and that's all you're getting. You need to be able to almost solo heal if you aren't gonna even try to dps.

[Zojha]

Play how you like, but please don't expect your party members to put more effort into excellence or have a higher APM than you do.

[TheBoat]

I personally hate switching to Cleric Stance, mostly because someone always gets blasted in the face right after I turn it on. But without it I'd just be standing around picking my nose half the time. It gives you something to do when there's no damage going out.

I wouldn't mind if future encounters had less opportunities to use it though. As useful as healer DPS might be, it's mind-numbingly boring in comparison to the actual DPS rotations. I'd rather run around like a madman and play ping-pong with health bars.

[Aerish]

I'm fine with healers only healing, so i can ignore mechanics and give them something to do of their iddle time, while i can focus on dps (that's usualy what i do, never heard any wrong from them, and they must keep it that way since it's what they'r "calling for")