Healers that don't want to DPS are like DPSes who refuse to move out of AoEs.

[Rysir]

We have been told repeatedly that content is designed without healer and tank dps in mind and that all content can be completed in a timely matter without healers dpsing.

Like if the devs can complete content without balls to the wall DPS DPS DPS DPS then we shouldnt shame people for not dpsing as hard as they can as a healer since the ultimate goal of getting things done in normal time is achieved.

Does a healer dps help? Yes it will speed things up a bit. Is it mandatory? No (even if some make it out to be) Should it be a DO IT OR GTFO kind of thing? Absolutely not, its purely bonus ducks that would be nice to have and not the ultimate crisis if you dont have it. The community needs to relax a second.

[aleph_null]

This is a double edged sword here. SE has put in the ability for healers to dps but don't actually factor in healer dps when making/turning content.

In which case healer dps could either help a group clear a content while having setbacks (undergeared, mistakes/deaths, bad group compositions), or simply make the run faster.

[Blackcanary]

Only main reason why I would stick to healing as a WHM well one that's its main Job roll a healer. 2 I have tunnel vision so once I start dpsing I get really into it and I slowly stop paying attention to my teams health. People need to stop forcing their play style as WHM on to other people. I fully agree with Yoshi san when it comes to WHM's and Cleric Stance to be honest with you. A WHM is a Healer that should be it's main roll and focus.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

May I ask what keybinds people use for their dps abilities as healers?

I keep all my healing skills 1-whatever and use a Razer Naga, which lets me access them easily and without triggering borderline carpal tunnel (or whatever it is that makes the muscles in my left hand scream). But that doesn't really leave much for dps abilities, so I put them on shift modifiers. However, hitting the shift key constantly while dpsing makes this game probably the most painful for me to play. CTRL would be even worse, I'm sure. So basically a lot of times I am not dpsing in a dungeon because it hurts too much - unless things are really slow and I feel okay with just clicking the dps buttons to get around the pain in my hand. xD

I highly recommend picking up a Logitech g600. It's a three click MMO mouse. What I do is bind CTRL to the third click and it essentially gives me 24 buttons all on the mouse itself. I then setup my hotbar to look like this:

[Hyperia]

In which case healer dps could either help a group clear a content while having setbacks (undergeared, mistakes/deaths, bad group compositions), or simply make the run faster.

If healers have dps with such issues, they are often so busy with healing and mana regen from rezzes that dps is the last thing on their mind.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

If you can do more but choose not to, that's wrong.

While I don't disagree with this sentiment, what many fail to realize is that not everyone is capable of performing to the same degree, despite whatever potential a job might be able to achieve when optimally played. Not everyone is good at judging when its safe to swap into CS and when its not. I know when I see content for the first time I use my CS sparingly because I am not yet familiar with the encounters. I dps more when I get comfortable with the content of course but every player learns at their own pace and there should be some consideration given for that.

As a healer (I prefer WHM), my job is to heal and support my party. Sometimes that support means doing some DPS and sometimes the best thing I can do is let my mp regen because I expect the next pull to be mp intensive (The next pack might be big aoe and I needs my mp's for Holy spam!). Healers who adamantly refuse to dps at all even when they know all the fight mechanics and have plenty of safe opportunities to do so are indeed holding their group back. But a healer that doesn't dps because they aren't confident enough to do so without risking the deaths of party members should not be chastised for putting the primary role of their job first. Not everyone is capable of multitasking to the same degree. If the choice is a healer dpsing but dies or lets other die because they just can't handle watching hp bars, dpsing, and watching their feet at the same time, or they don't dps or do very little dps, but they stay alive, keep everyone else alive, and follow the fight mechanics flawlessly, then not dpsing is the right choice.

Everyone is different and expecting everyone to live up to some theory crafted optimum is unrealistic. With that said, refusing to make any effort to dps at all as a healer is "doing it wrong". Every healer leveled conjurer to some degree. So remember the lesson you were trying to teach Sylphie when she "just wanted to heal" and didn't want to use her dps spells. If you spent all that time and effort teaching her that her dps spells were important, shouldn't you know better?

[aleph_null]

If healers have dps with such issues, they are often so busy with healing and mana regen from rezzes that dps is the last thing on their mind.

Not exactly, of course it depends on how tight the actual fight is, but a lot of first clears aren't executed perfectly, some of the earliest a12s clears have deaths. The first a12s clear by angered has around 1.3k healer dps combined, if they contributed 0 dps then the 4 dps players need to pick up the slack and raise their dps by around 300 each, which means they'll take longer to clear the fight. In that case healer dps helps reduce the gear requirement to clear the fight.

While I don't disagree with this sentiment, what many fail to realize that not everyone is capable of performing to the same degree, despite whatever potential a job might be able to achieve when optimally played. Not everyone is good at judging when its safe to swap into CS and when its not. I know when I see content for the first time I use my CS sparingly because I am not yet familiar with the encounters. I dps more when I get comfortable with the content of course but every player learns at their own pace and there should be some consideration given for that.

This is why I think it's important to emphasize on the "trying" part, instead of just saying healers have to dps. Even good healers won't be able to dps well if the other people in the party are messing up mechanics, dying, taking avoidable damages, tanks not using cds properly etc, and of course when you do a content for the first few times you don't know precisely where you can dps, so you'll have to first observe while playing safe, and slowly increase your cleric stance uptime from there. It's the same thing with tanks trying to stance dance, sometimes tanks can't go into dps stance if the rest of the party aren't performing well.

[Atos]

May I ask what keybinds people use for their dps abilities as healers? ...

I'd also suggest trying out Razer Nostromo or something similar. I've used that for years with G600 (even before FFXIV), feels way more natural than keyboard, and use thumbstick to move. Using thumbstick may take a bit of getting used to at first but it leaves four other fingers free to do whatever.

My binds are unstructured but I place the abilities that I use most (Stone III, Cleric Stance, Cure 1&2, Medica, Esuna, Aero 2 etc.) on mouse numpad (1-0 and - and +), then second most used skills (raise, virus, SS, protect etc.) on Shift + numpad, and whatever is left over on Ctl + numpad. Focus target is mouse wheel click.

You're probably already doing it, but i'll mention it anyway, mouseover macros make life a lot easier (e.g. '/ac "Cure" <mo>'), that way you can have the boss targeted and heal party member whose name you're hovering your mouse cursor over in the party list instead of having to switch targets for healing.

[Kitfox]

This is a double edged sword here. SE has put in the ability for healers to dps but don't actually factor in healer dps when making/turning content.

It doesn't matter if they factor it in or not. You have the tools to DPS, so you should use them when you're able to.

[RokkuEkkusu]

It depends on the situation as healer.

I had a situation when I leveled one my characters as White Mage in the Aery. Both tanks are equally geared (including weapon item level), used their respective tank stances, and managed to keep enmity on all enemies they pull (pulls are equal in both situations too.)

Run 1: Dark Knight used Grit. In addition, he also rotated his defensive cooldowns. As a result, I can heal him and DPS enemies during each of the pulls and boss fights to clear the run faster.

Run 2: Paladin used Shield Oath. However, he did not use his defensive cooldowns. As a result, I had to heal him more and I could not hit enemies as much as I did in my previous run.