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

[Neophyte]

I kinda miss things in the early dungeons they put in where you can't cheese mechanics with DPS lol (the slimes in copperbell mines comes to mind. It's boring as hell now because we've all done it a million times, but the first 2 or 3 times was interesting).

Yep, we totally need more of those.

At this boss I tend to just /sit next to the spawn point and every 30s I kill an add with 1-2 (o)GCD.
I think this is good, because it gives us peasant dps mains a good feeling for the "playstyle" of those only heal healers.

[AmeliaVerves]

Healers are designed to heal, not DPS.

I find this statement kinda confusing, because (espacially scholar) Healers are designed to dps as well. That's what CS is for.
And ever since Gordius came up it is 100% sure that Healers are meant to dps. o.o

That it is actually possible to enjoy the game if some do just heal.

I think noone is arguing about this. How could they? If you enjoy only healing that's your way. o.o
But you might want to consider that in FFXIV healers actually have a huuuuuge potency to dps, given to them for a reason. While I can understand your point of view and I generally just "shrug and ignore mechanics" in a Dungeon with a only-healing Healer, I also have to mention that you are, in fact, are kind of ignoring a part of your classes design. :/
Maybe you don't actually need to dps in the daily face-roll dungeons I would still prefer a Healer contributing some dps instead of just healing... (My very personal point of view, I usually don't kick, because I want to get the easy stuff done in a good time and it's still faster to go with a "slow" group than trying to find a replacement.)

After all, maybe you just have to live with the fact, FFXIV Healers are not your type of healers and you either go on complaining about that fact and the community, or you move and and try to find another game where your favourite role fits your very personal needs, or you accept it as it is and find peace with playing your way and being not everybodys favourite healer? :x
(No offense, I just don't see any other way to solve the "problem".)

At least I hope they don't change the games dynamics, because I surely enjoy the way healers are designed. (And dps is a part of their design, which is a fact and not a point of view! :P)

[Limonia]

I don't really get it. I mean, I fully understand that some players only want to heal. But if you're playing this game as a healer, you must notice how there's usually so little to heal that you're a) just standing there like 80-90% of the time and doing exactly nothing or b) overhealing like crazy because you're clicking that cure button every gcd. That just cannot be any fun at all. This game just isn't designed in a way where healers have to heal all the time to keep the party alive.

Yes, I personally dps a lot as a healer and hate it when other people don't. That is NOT because of the different playstyle discussion or just to make a run 3 minutes faster. It's because I find it unfair that 3/4 or 6/8 to 7/8 of the group are constantly doing something and one of them is just idling, slacking off or afk. I find it disrespectful. If you're new, don't know the fight yet or it's a fight where there is much to heal at times (like the last two bosses of Dun Scaith because many people still fail mechanics and there can be a lot to heal then) then I'm totally fine if you're not doing dps. But what about older dungeons, trials or raids where we're overgeared, everyone knows the content and there aren't any sudden raid-wide wipe mechanics? Like Void Ark or so. One fairy, if well-managed, is enough to keep your group alive in there now. There just is no surprise wipe as soon as you press that Cleric Stance button.

I would also never expect healers to do top dps or some such. But you can at least use some damage over time spells on the enemies when there's nothing to heal (means: no one is almost dead, not they are at 100% HP). Just do something productive instead of idling. Some people argue that healers only have dps spells to be able to do solo quests. If that is so, then why is incoming damage in dungeons etc. usually so extremely low?

Fact is if you want to heal only, this just is the wrong game for you. Especially if you only want to relax and enjoy when playing healer. This isn't the right game for just that.

And yes, a healer idling or spamming cure is the same as a dps not using his buffs or utility. He is still doing his job if he does some dps, but he's lazy or even bad if he's not using songs, Mantra, Resurrection or maybe he's even only using auto-attacks or taking a 10 second break between every attack or not using things like Heavy Thrust or Enochian. It's also the same as a tank not using his cooldowns (but well, they're not needed if the healer only heals because incoming damage is so low) or only ever doing his enmity combo. But you don't notice those so much because it at least looks like if they are doing something. Because they are somehow doing more than an idling healer.

I also just cannot understand how people can say that they even are fine with it when one party member is half afk all the time as long as you clear the dungeon. Don't you find it unfair that you are doing all the work and one person is doing almost nothing? If one dps would only use auto-attacks and some random ability here and there, you wouldn't be fine with that, would you? Most people would probably even kick such a player. Also, why is having different playstyles only ok for healers? What about the ice mage? Why is that not ok? What if you're a healing only healer and get into a dungeon with a tank that only uses aggro combos, an ice mage and a Summoner that just lets his pet dps for him?

[CookieMonsta]

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

If you choose to heal only, that is your choice. However, people have the choice to not play with you because you are not using your full potential. Its like, I can refuse to use DoTs as a DPS, or refuse to mass pull as a Tank but that does not entitle me to hold 3 other people hostage who disagree with my playstyle. But at the end of the day, we all live by the consequences of our choices, if everyone understands this then its perfectly OK to be heal only.

Now that the preamble is out of the way.

In my opinion and strictly my opinion. You are a shitter if you choose to not DPS despite it being easily in your capacity. It is on the same level of lazy as a Tank who doesn't minimize damage taken or a DPS who doesn't maximise output. I have recently picked up healer for fun and it has further reinforced my belief that healing only type players are either misinformed, crap, lazy or all three. Even if you switch cleric, chuck your DoTs up then go back to heal bot mode, you are already better than the most experienced "heal only" type players. And it has also further reinforced my rather counter-intuitive observation that the healbot type players are also terrible at healing under pressure (i.e. serving an actual Heal check) or making recovery healing plays (i.e. the most traditional of healer tasks). When you are juggling DPS+Healing, you are constantly pacing at the back of your mind, "how do I further improve the efficiency of my action at this window of action before a context switch?", if you only play one style, you will never pick up the nuances that context switching teaches you.

[Hasrat]

Healers are designed to dps as well. That's what CS is for.

healers actually have a huuuuuge potency to dps, given to them for a reason.

Arguably, that reason is so they can actually do their own solo content, with the additional consequence of having that ability in duties. It can hardly be said the sole intent of those skills is so healers can double as dps in parties.

[AmeliaVerves]

Arguably, that reason is so they can actually do their own solo content, with the additional consequence of having that ability in duties. It can hardly be said the sole intent of those skills is so healers can double as dps in parties.

Next time don't quote me off of context...

Healers are designed to dps as well. That's what CS is for.
And ever since Gordius came up it is 100% sure that Healers are meant to dps. o.o

Btw Astro and Scholar don't have CS as a skill on their own. How are they meant to do their solo content?
-> Your argument is invalid, Sir!

[AmalonStar]

In my opinion a healers top priority is to heal and keep the party alive although if there is time I between healing doing some dps helps to fill your time instead of standing there doing nothing. As someone had already said there have been times I've switched into clerics and right after someone gets blasted and because of the cool down to it sometimes ppl end up dying due to weakend heals and not being able to switch out of clerics yet.

So I do tend to avoid using clerics and I don't like when the tanks hp gets below half.

[ShikiRyougi]

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.

so you cleric stance after an encounter immediately, start next encounter with dps and you can un stance any moment.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Play how you want, but if you can't adapt and be part of the team then bye bye. As a healer you are their to make sure your party survives, if your extra damage helps stop enrage then you have done your job. Heals are not the only way to help your team live.

Arguably, that reason is so they can actually do their own solo content, with the additional consequence of having that ability in duties. It can hardly be said the sole intent of those skills is so healers can double as dps in parties.

Also the other day all my party wiped in a dungeon with just me up and the mob on 3% suppose I should of just sat down and said sorry I don't dps instead of killing it.

Cool thanks for that info, at least I now know I only need dps stance on tank when I am doing storyline or class quests. Also when I have no mobs to tank as OT I can still stay in tank stance as I am a tank :S

[Limonia]

Arguably, that reason is so they can actually do their own solo content, with the additional consequence of having that ability in duties. It can hardly be said the sole intent of those skills is so healers can double as dps in parties.

If Cleric Stance is actually for solo quests, then why is there so much healing downtime in parties?