Dps As Healer

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Despite Yoshi P's hilarious "I hate Cleric Stance. . ." comment at PAX yesterday, he did say it won't be going away.

The real issue comes from the adopted all-or-nothing mentality many players adopt ("If you don't pull big, you're a terrible tank", "If you don't skip X mechanic, you're a terrible DPS", and "If you don't DPS as a healer, you're a bad one!")

Let me put it this way: If you don't perform your primary role, out of trying to perform a different one your job isn't designed to be, THAT is a problem. Now, it's not an excuse to underperform at all, so let that not be at all mistaken. But I'll take a tank that pulls what he can handle and still effectively perform his role over one that just pulls big "because" and expects someone else to bear the responsibility of it. Or a healer that can keep their party alive and remain adaptable to the situation, over one trying to chase parses or prove they're as good as, if not better than a DPS.

SCH however, is tough to apply this to as it's a healer born out of a DPS job. The reason why it excels at both is because it's designed for both. There's a part of me that would love to see this for Red Mage, but given how Yoshi P wasn't satisfied with the SCH/SMN split, and how the lines blur between DPS/Healer with SCH, I don't see that happening.

I know this sounds super awful but if I'm not in a good mood & I get a non DPS healer for something I know is very easy(nearly every 60 dungeon) & hp barely drops at all yet they're spamming heals or waiting 10s+ to cast one...places where no one actually needs healing, I usually start playing more recklessly since they can heal it anyway. Standing in AOEs, facing mobs at healers so they have to move out AOEs, going into DPS stance asap(as tank), I won't use defensive CDs, or I'll pull a larger amount than usual as they actually require healing but I usually do this anyway(I use CDs anyway just in case). Anything to make the healer be forced to do something, since you know, the entire party is working their butt off & this healer is basically being carried. Though the 3.5 dungeon bosses do seem to be a more healing requirement so that's nice.

I'm not picking on you, but this is rather petty to do. Let's say your healer's also not in a good mood, and now you've gone out of your way to do things to complicate matters for them. Perhaps they can't keep up and die, then the rest of the party dies, and they angrily leave the instance. . . Your selfish desire to force another player to do what you want them to do has not only affected both you and them, but the other 2 players that perhaps may have been performing their roles properly. In short, fighting fire with fire, or taking it upon yourself to determine what the other person should be doing is really just sabotaging your party's ability to succeed. Bad form.