Will Healers Still be Forced to DPS in 4.0 Due to Lax Content?

[Ayer2015]

There is no reason NOT to dps anymore, even if that means just throwing up a few dots. No more Cleric's Stance = no more excuses.

[Marcu18]

Some healers may not feel comfortable dpsing and healing. If you stuggling with dps checks, put the duty on hold till everyone can get 4 or more ilevel higher than they currently are. True this doesn't work ALL the time but most. Just ask your healer(s) are u comfortable or would u like to dips if need be. We CAN help with dps but that's not our #1 responsibility. The team's survival and revival if necessary is our #1 responsiblity.

[Yellow]

I think it's easier to DPS now now that we don't have to stance dance. The least we can do it apply a dot or something, especially if healing isn't a huge concern (ie levelling roulette).

[Fernosaur]

Some healers may not feel comfortable dpsing and healing. If you stuggling with dps checks, put the duty on hold till everyone can get 4 or more ilevel higher than they currently are. True this doesn't work ALL the time but most. Just ask your healer(s) are u comfortable or would u like to dips if need be. We CAN help with dps but that's not our #1 responsibility. The team's survival and revival if necessary is our #1 responsiblity.

Everyone's #1 responsibility is clearing the duty, by any means necessary. If healer DPS would mean getting a clear then you should help out like that. If your only excuse is "I'm not comfortable," then you're literally being a liability to the party. Casual content where "I'm not comfortable" is an acceptable excuse will never need healer DPS, so if you're raiding and holding your party back like this you should probably get replaced.

[Gunnie]

Some healers may not feel comfortable dpsing and healing. If you stuggling with dps checks, put the duty on hold till everyone can get 4 or more ilevel higher than they currently are. True this doesn't work ALL the time but most. Just ask your healer(s) are u comfortable or would u like to dips if need be. We CAN help with dps but that's not our #1 responsibility. The team's survival and revival if necessary is our #1 responsiblity.

Ofcourse your first concern should be keeping everyone alive. There will be downtime in between where you'll be picking your nose or DPS'ing before healing is required again. DPS'ing >>> nose picking.

[MoroMurasaki]

Some healers may not feel comfortable dpsing and healing. If you stuggling with dps checks, put the duty on hold till everyone can get 4 or more ilevel higher than they currently are. True this doesn't work ALL the time but most. Just ask your healer(s) are u comfortable or would u like to dips if need be. We CAN help with dps but that's not our #1 responsibility. The team's survival and revival if necessary is our #1 responsiblity.

I don't understand how a healer could be uncomfortable DPSing. I'm not trying to poke fun here, honestly asking. There are certainly times when a tank pulls like an insane monkey and he needs constant attention or people are failing mechanics in a boss fight and it's all you can do to keep them vertical but from your message I don't get the vibe you're talking about specifically those scenarios.

Again, not trying to be rude, but if you're using every GCD for legitimate healing then there may be something bigger wrong here and if you're not using the vast majority of your GCD's for something... Why not DPS and help out?

[Fortune_Cookie]

I don't understand how a healer could be uncomfortable DPSing. I'm not trying to poke fun here, honestly asking.

Same here. I'm relatively new to FFXIV and this "healer dps" debate is the most baffling aspect of the game. Why are there at least a couple threads on this topic constantly near the top? (Don't say because idiots like me keep bumping them.)

Genuinely curious why this debate even exists. Obviously, I'm used to forum threads about "healers in pugs suck" or "dps in pugs suck" or "everybody that isn't me sucks and is holding back my progress", but why this singular focus on healer damage?

[Lastelli]

Same here. I'm relatively new to FFXIV and this "healer dps" debate is the most baffling aspect of the game. Why are there at least a couple threads on this topic constantly near the top? (Don't say because idiots like me keep bumping them.)

There are mainly two reasons, generally overlapping: 1) the general simplicity of the role in casual content and the extremely low healing requirements attracted a lot of unskilled players, especially in the hw era when a lot of dps jobs became very complicated, and said players erroneuosly thought they were good because they could keep the party alive, thus "fulfilling their role", by pressing one button every 20 seconds or mindlessly spamming heals; 2) some sort of distorted mentality about "I'm a healer, my job has a green icon, I'm good at healing, I don't want to do other stuff". In other words, giving more importance to what they think a healer should be instead of giving priority to efficiency.

[Fortune_Cookie]

snip

Thanks for the response! That makes some sense - I can see that a low healing requirement naturally brings healer dps contribution into focus. Still, there must be something about the df system in this game that causes people to obsess over the concept of "role", rather than look at their job's toolkit to see what they bring to a party.

[LegoTechnic]

Ideally the answer is simple. A healer's role is to keep the party alive, and that's the bare minimum. Once this is assured, it's a measure of how good the player is in how they fill their down time. For new content it is perfectly expected to play conservatively, but as one becomes more comfortable with the content then utilizing your healer toolkit to damage while healing proactively is simply what an active player should be doing, because it remains being active. In addition to fulfilling the primary role, the desire to utilize the class's move list to the best of their ability is part of what determines a "good" player from a "bad".

This isn't specific to healers, either. A tank in new content or unfamiliar with the party may choose to keep tank stance on and overspam aggro generation as a safety measure, and DPS may forgo optimal rotation focus in order to keep aware of new mechanics. A proc may go unanswered or cooldowns saved in preparation for abilities, and as experience is gained a good tank/DPS will begin to better leverage their toolkits as they learn what's coming, optimizing the amount of damage and control they can do within a fight. A bad tank/DPS will just lazily repeat the most basic variation of their role without ever seeking to improve, doing the bare minimum to scrape by without putting in the effort to perform. Sure, they're still controlling mobs and doing damage, but their performance is a far cry from an active player legitimately practicing their class, though this has admittedly diminished a little since the complexity of HW was reduced, though interestingly with DPS being given damage reduction moves their ability to perform this action may color a similar role debate.

Obviously there are different levels of experience in the playerbase and repeated practice is the most important method of growth in the game, but in this particular situation it just so happens that one of the ways a healer in particular sets themself apart is how they deal with "downtime", and the tools they have for that are DPS-oriented. Thus similar to a tank who optimizes his available cooldowns versus one that just spams aggro gen and calls it a day, there are healers who will set up active healing buffers and throw in some DPS versus those who will just heal. As always, it is fine to perform the minimum when you're learning until you're comfortable with the class mechanics, but it's a sign of a good player to work towards doing your best, and a lazy player to not.