As a healer, is it my job to DPS? A new perspective.

[IttyBitty]

Whilst that's the official SE line, I flat out don't believe it and suspect the majority of people who did early progression in A4S (and to a far lesser extent, A8S) will agree. Healer DPS was required for those turns during progression.

Just chipping in on this, but you have to remember that they tune the fights for an ilevel that's much higher than what you'll have when a raid tier is released.

For development, such as with Bahamut's Coils, the development team assumes what the item level should be for general equipment on players when they clear a raid. They sum up the basic DPS for four DPS and tanks at that assumed item level and cut that by about 10-15% for the minimum clear DPS.

They may not count it when balancing, but healer DPS can contribute to a large chunk of the shortfall you'll have when essentially fighting under the "recommended iLevel".