[Opinion] Why I'm disappointed by most changes to healers.

[Gun-Cat]

When I say "derps around" I'm not just referring to the common usage of healers who stand around not healing at all, trying to DPS instead. I'm also referring to healers who are too busy buffing the party or using cooldowns for DPS, then cause a party wipe because they didn't have the right defensive spells available at the right times. These sorts of healers can even be found at high levels of play. Generally, these healers blame the party for wipes. "That tank though; he just kept eating AoEs and getting vuln stacks. But it's not MY fault! I was still throwing out great DPS cards/speeding up the add phase with Holy spam." But here's the question: why was the healer so busy throwing DPS/offensive buffs out when the tank got wrecked? They could have saved the tank if they'd had, say, a Bole held. Or maybe if they hadn't blown Largesse/PoM earlier to save MP/create DPS uptime. Maybe the healer made the judgment call that the tank wasn't likely to get wrecked, so they focused on offense. But that judgment call ended up being wrong, the healer didn't have the spells available when needed, and the tank died. That is at least as much the healer's fault as the tank's.

Should the content require the tank to have a Bole ready I'd rather ask the groups BRD or MCH to go for Palisade, since that is atleast reliable available. If you imply I should hold a Bole in my spread for an entire fight just for that moment, then I am ignoring all the other tools I could have for that in the interim. Also, why is the healer busy doing DPS? Because it increases the chance of victory and can be planned around. Fights in XIV are incredible straight forwards and you can plan around phases where players might make mistakes. With 4.0 you can even correct some of those with Rescue.

Example 1 (which I gave earlier): DPS is the target of Shinryu's Akh Morn. This will require cooldowns if you want them to survive.
Example 2: Any situation in which the healer is being put under more pressure than most people consider it "intended" to handle.

You seem to be under the impression, like others, that anything that isn't a full 8-man party (or even a full party with a couple critical members down) is somehow an "irrelevant" situation. What happens if the party is taking more damage than you're able to heal without using cooldowns? Even if your party is at 100% topped off at all times with shields, party members can take more damage than you can prepare for, if they make mistakes and get hit by avoidable damage. Or even if it's unavoidable, if you're doing undersized content, etc. If your perspective is only being based on farming parties, then yes, this kind of situation isn't likely to show up very often. And if it does, people will cry "I thought this was a farm party!?" and disband.

Heck though, if the use of cooldowns was entirely avoidable, then they wouldn't be in the game in the first place.

Yes, DPS getting targeted by a tankbuster might require CDs to stay alive. Mostly Bole I'd say. But again, you can plan around this because it happens at certain points in time and I don't see how the spear is of any help there. And being under pressure is the fun part. And guess what, good healer manage to be under pressure, keep everyone alive AND contribute to the DPS. Because what you want to happen is the fight to end asap when shit hits the wall. Less windows for screw ups and all. Also, the usage of cooldowns IS entirely avoidable. They are crutches if you are under geared or people mess up.

"There shouldn't be any stress on the healer, and if there is, it's the fault of players getting hit by avoidable attacks. Any stress on the healer detracts from their ability to contribute to the party's DPS."

DPS-centric players feel this is a reasonable expectation. Players that make mistakes are holding the party back and deserve to be kicked. They should get better before they join public parties.
I do not believe this is a reasonable expectation. Players that make mistakes are only human, and everyone has different skill plateaus. Players with a lower skill plateau shouldn't be disallowed from joining parties if it is within the healer's power to manage the extra load.

Both tanks and healer have the job to smoothen encounters out so DPS can do their job. If anything doing DPS is a self imposed stress to help with the fight in any way possible.

Why are you so unable to see the new gameplay changes the new Spear gives? Why are you using this thread not to discuss the Spear but instead, try to validate your own opinion about 'correct healing' over and over again? You are building strawman after strawman of this 'bad healer' without answering to the simple question: Healer A uses his cooldowns exclusively for keeping people alive. Healer B uses smart casting, predicting the encounter and judgement calls to keep people alive while contributing to DPS via cards/buffs. Who was more useful in the end?