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

[AmalonStar]

Yes I think most healers that enjoy dps as well like cs, and the point you want to dps as well is a valid one, and although I would never want anyone not to have fun, there are some healers that are not comfortable with dps, but are being made to, but no one is making dps heal and maybe if that was the case there would be many more people not enjoying the game any more.

What I would like to see with clerics stance is simply removing to cool down when you use it, then you can freely switch back and forth and not worry about needing to switch back out while it's still on cool down. I know it is a relatively short cool down but in that little bit if time deaths could happen if someone gets hit hard.

[Critical-Limit]

Just pretend when you cast stone that your healing future damage to your party with it dying faster. There you're still healing.

[SachiBear]

I won't force anyone to do what they don't want to, but personally I don't see the how a healer doesn't want to dps. When I was a new player, well levels 1-40, I wasn't comfortable with dps in party instances. I played with my friends, so they were fine with it and told me to take it at my own pace. Eventually as I knew my friends play styles more (thank goodness they use cool downs and stand out of the dumb), I got more comfortable with playing with CS. After I got comfortable with it, there was no going back. I'm practically a CS expert, but only because of practice of course. And playing with those that use and don't use their cool downs really got me to weave and balance my skills better.

In instances, I'm usually dpsing about 70% of the time, and runs go fast and pretty well. I don't know what some could do with all the extra time, but I know good and well I'm not just going to stand there looking at my characters backside or overhealing.

I also don't think anyone should be kicked for just healing, as it's not that big a deal to me. I don't mind if something takes an extra few minutes or whatnot. I've been kicked for dpsing before, so I wouldn't be surprised if it happened to someone who didn't. Everyone plays differently, and it's just how it is I wouldn't try to change how someone plays.

[Feyona]

This reminds me of all the vit wars in 2.x afraid to drop defiance because they might mess up and the party could wipe. Guess what? The party's going to wipe if you swap stances as a healer or a tank. It happens. Know what else happens? You start to learn. You learn when it's safe to swap stances, you learn how to play to your tanks' strengths and your healers' strengths. Being afraid to do something only makes you avoid it and keeps you on that same treadmill. What happens if you move into DPS stance at the wrong time?

I do see your point, and this is about if people can play their chosen role which is one of the three. I do have much better skills, and spells as a healer, otherwise everyone would be some kind of hybrid player that has to do all three. Dps to me is a different role to healing, Dps is not part of that role naturally, same as healing is not part of a dps role

[seekified]

I dunno. If Stormblood makes fulltime healing a necessity on casual content, I would still play healer. If it doesn't, I'll play healer anyway and keep DPSing 75% of the time, since I would be bored out of my mind just running after the tank and waiting for his HP to hit dangerous levels. That's really all this is about for me - having stuff to do. I'd feel completely useless just standing around waiting for something to happen, and the same goes for tanking. I DPS as much as I can in Deliverence because otherwise all I'd need to do was Flash and Overpower, because holding aggro is my job. I want to do more, and I choose to do more because there's room for doing more.

[Feyona]

I won't force anyone to do what they don't want to, but personally I don't see the how a healer doesn't want to dps.

I also don't think anyone should be kicked for just healing, as it's not that big a deal to me. I don't mind if something takes an extra few minutes or whatnot. I've been kicked for dpsing before, so I wouldn't be surprised if it happened to someone who didn't. Everyone plays differently, and it's just how it is I wouldn't try to change how someone plays.

Its really nice that you have a good attitude like that, Im kind of the same and like to see people having fun, unfortunately, some enjoy coersing others into a playstyle that they may not be enjoying in the name of 'efficiency'. Not that efficiency is a bad thing, the game may be more enjoyable for some if they can be efficient in their own chosen role

[Feyona]

I dunno. If Stormblood makes fulltime healing a necessity on casual content, I would still play healer. If it doesn't, I'll play healer anyway and keep DPSing 75% of the time, since I would be bored out of my mind just running after the tank and waiting for his HP to hit dangerous levels. That's really all this is about for me - having stuff to do. I'd feel completely useless just standing around waiting for something to happen, and the same goes for tanking. I DPS as much as I can in Deliverence because otherwise all I'd need to do was Flash and Overpower, because holding aggro is my job. I want to do more, and I choose to do more because there's room for doing more.

with genuine respect why do you play healer if your dpsing 70% of the time?

[winsock]

It is very seldom you see a heals only healer.
'Heals-only' is usually confused with a hybrid style of heals + idling/afk, so I guess it is up to SE to create content that requires more healing, so that people can adopt a heals only playstyle.

While a personally don't give people who adopt this hybrid idling playstyle a hard time in chat, I always give the commendation to someone who is more active.

[seekified]

with genuine respect why do you play healer if your dpsing 70% of the time?

Several reasons. I still enjoy the actual healing, and the shield-style healing of SCH really clicks with me. I also feel like I contribute more to the speed of a dungeon run if I queue as healer because there's probably a bigger difference between a healer doing 0 DPS and a healer doing 1000+ DPS, than the difference between a mediocre DPS player and a great DPS player. Or at least the difference usually isn't less. It's also because juggling healing and DPS is, to me at least, quite exciting and fun. There's always buttons that need pressing and little details that can be optimized.

This is just how I work as a person - I try to fill each moment with something worthwhile. I don't particularly mind players who just focus on healing, I just personally like taking the opportunity to speed things up where I can.

EDIT: I suppose I should add to this that I do in fact want more focused roles going forward. This current DPS-madness meta that has arisen can be fun, but if tanks actually had to think about aggro and mitigation for more than five seconds per pull, and healers had to spend more time healing and buffing, it could result in party content being "clearer" and each role having a more defined purpose.

[CafPow]

with genuine respect why do you play healer if your dpsing 70% of the time?

Why do you play healer, standing around 70% of time doing nothing?

Question here: is removing paralysis from a blackmage considered "raising grp dps"? Because it's not healing. Not at all. So you are just raising the dps of the grp, which is not a healers job right?