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

[Hunky]

Some of you make it sound as if healers only have one choice: heal, or dps.

That's not the case at all. I main white mage, and I dps (and I'm not an elitist/hardcore/raid player either).

I wrote this in another thread, and I'll write it again. Even when I dps, I never truly stop healing. Even as I dps, I keep an eye on my team's health bars, and I make sure to reapply regen when it's needed, things like that.

That's what a healer does. It's not as simple as "I'm only going to heal" or "I'm only going to dps".

It's a balancing act. Knowing how to set up with your tools, like regen and asylum, how to time your cleric stance and dps, switch back and get the tank up right away with benediction/tetragrammaton and reapply regen, and activate cleric stance and start dpsing again isn't an elitist style of playing. It's knowing how to take advantage of the tools given to you.

And as I wrote before, there will be times when you cannot dps. Sometimes you have to heal through unavoidable damage, heal someone who got hit, etc.

It would be unreasonable to pressure a healer to dps during these kinds of situations, but that's not what we're talking about. Nobody's saying, "dps always no matter what". That's completely unreasonable, and if people are giving you flack for not dpsing during these kinds of situations, then they're in the wrong.

But those kinds of situations are uncommon. Most of the content allows you to dps safely because the damage is scripted and relatively low.

During these kinds of times, when damage is low and tank can handle it, dps. It'll help kill mobs faster and in turn reduce the damage the tank is taking.

Just because it isn't your "main job" to dps doesn't mean you can't take full advantage of what your job is capable of. It'll make you a stronger, more efficient player. Yes, it takes practice and effort, but once you get it down to a tee, it will help tremendously.

Don't get caught up with the whole "well, dps need to do their job". This isn't about comparing yourself against others. This is about improving yourself, and becoming a better player than the one you were before.

[Silverquick]

Oh holy hell... we didn't get through the dungeon a whopping 2 minutes faster...

Oh my god my... life... is... over... Seriously some of you need to get one...

If the party walked out of there, and you completed it... then its only your own BS you're stuck on... and whopping 2 minutes isn't going to kill you.

The end result is... did you complete it... or did the party get continuously wiped and fail... well if you walked out of there as a success... you win... game over...

No need to get caught up in the petty crap.

[Rita1989]

I find healers that are so obligated to dps that they can't keep tank alive to be cancer.
Dpsing as healer is fine if you keep party alive while doing so, but sadly that is not nearly always the case.

I rarely see a dps healer have trouble keeping a party alive, it most cases its the healer who isn't dps causing problems because they are half paying attention.

As any class healer, dps or tank you should be doing something on every gcd so your never standing around doing nothing. As a healer that often means switching to clerics stance and throwing out some damage when healing is not required.

Honestly once your experienced enough as a healer you can be comfortable being in clerics stance for almost 90% of a dungeon/ normal trial because there simply not enough damage going out and usually all that's required is switching out of clerics stance for a few seconds to heal the tank or throw out an aoe heal and you can switch right back and dps.

As things stand now if your refusing to dps as a healer on principle then your just a bad player just like the dps who uses single target rotations only in dungeons/does sub 1000 dps or are a tank who never leaves tank stance you can argue it all you want but it doesn't change the facts.

If Yoshi P wants healers to be healing all the time then he should really make it so Stormblood content is hard enough that its actually required of them.

[Silverquick]

You know it doesn't even have to be pretty...

I remember one Aurum Vale run... we were at the last boss, and Healer went down, so I raised her with fast cast. She gets back up, gets nailed again and goes down... I'm thinking ok I'm going to have to keep the tank alive, forget DPSing at this point... but at least we have the Ninja... boom... ninja goes down too... so I'm tossing out heals on the tank, and throwing in the occasional DoT... I run out of MP even after Aetherflow... and boom I go down...


The boss has a sliver of health at this point, and I'm thinking... oh crap.. so close...

But sure enough the Paladin pulls out the win...

Well we won... it was ugly... but we won.

I'm not going to sit there and jump on the WHM for dying... or second guess anything... it was ugly... but end of the day... we won.

I remember one in Cutters Cry... where I had to Raise the Whm 3 times on the last boss.... again we won... but I went down after getting caught in the mechanic while raising the Whm on the third time.

The Blm and Pld pulled out the win that time.

Honestly I really don't care how the WHM does their job so long as they stay alive and keep everyone alive.... that's the whole point of a healer... because I sure as hell don't want to Keep getting stuck with the job as a SMN.

I am NOT going to sit there and judge them by whether we get done with the run a whopping two minutes faster...

I'll be JUST fine as long as me and the rest of the party... are standing at the end of the dungeon

[Aquaslash]

The ability to effectively Stance Dance is what separates the men from the boys.

Don't need no Calculus to explain that.

[Kit-Kat]

Oh holy hell... we didn't get through the dungeon a whopping 2 minutes faster...

Oh my god my... life... is... over... Seriously some of you need to get one...

If the party walked out of there, and you completed it... then its only your own BS you're stuck on... and whopping 2 minutes isn't going to kill you.

The end result is... did you complete it... or did the party get continuously wiped and fail... well if you walked out of there as a success... you win... game over...

No need to get caught up in the petty crap.

2 minutes? lol that's cute. I've been in leveling dungeons that would have been 15-20 mins longer if healer didn't dps. And on farmed dungeons for tomes, the faster you do, the better. Minutes just add up in the long run.

[Joe777]

As a Healer (I run White Mage) I DPS when I don't need to heal, but if I feel I need to be ready to heal or support and/or preserve MP I will not DPS. I'll throw on Aeros when I can but I am there to heal, not to DPS, and I for one would never expect a Healer to focus on DPS at all, even if they have the time to, if they don't want to.

[Lexia]

2 minutes? lol that's cute. I've been in leveling dungeons that would have been 15-20 mins longer if healer didn't dps. And on farmed dungeons for tomes, the faster you do, the better. Minutes just add up in the long run.

Most dungeons I have done that not a 24 main have been completed in 30 minute or less you saying you can do dungeons in 15 minutes?

[Kit-Kat]

Most dungeons I have done that not a 24 main have been completed in 30 minute or less you saying you can do dungeons in 15 minutes?

Except that's not what I said. Read again.

[LunarEmerald]

Oh holy hell... we didn't get through the dungeon a whopping 2 minutes faster...

Oh my god my... life... is... over... Seriously some of you need to get one...

If the party walked out of there, and you completed it... then its only your own BS you're stuck on... and whopping 2 minutes isn't going to kill you.

The end result is... did you complete it... or did the party get continuously wiped and fail... well if you walked out of there as a success... you win... game over...

No need to get caught up in the petty crap.

White Mage melt large packs so quickly with holy spam. They put Summoners to shame. If you're a White Mage and you aren't taking advantage of that amazing spell then something is wrong.