Dear Healers who don't DPS

[Taika]

Sure, if the healer was DPSing the amount I would be in place of said tank. Thankfully, that hypothetical situation is impossible to accomplish in FFXIV with the exception of a PLD who only used flash . . . which has probably never happened ever. Conversely a healer not DPSing can still occur while they do their job and the three other members do their respective jobs. And the dungeon would not be significantly longer for it.

But let's say you'd have a PLD who'd only Flash to keep hate (I'm only leveling PLD right now, it's 65, but so far seems possible), and a healer who'd only heal. You would be missing out on at least the DPS of one extra DD in the party, and leaving all the DPS on the 2 DDs. Would you consider that acceptable? Would it be somehow more acceptable for the healer to not DPS than the PLD, and if so, why?

To me, being a healer main from 1.0 until early SB (AST was my first 70), it's always been self-evident to me that DPS is part of my job, just like it is when I'm tanking, and I've never understood people who see it wouldn't be. And it's not about "dungeon taking longer" or not, it's about being able to be useful to your party - so why would you choose not to be?

[Avatre]

To me, being a healer main from 1.0 until early SB (AST was my first 70), it's always been self-evident to me that DPS is part of my job, just like it is when I'm tanking, and I've never understood people who see it wouldn't be. And it's not about "dungeon taking longer" or not, it's about being able to be useful to your party - so why would you choose not to be?

For me in regards to healing, the cake is the healing aspect. The icing(which isn't needed for all cakes) is the DPS. Does it make the cake more enjoyable for the majority of people? Sure, but it isn't needed.
Though, I also find healing boring when I don't DPS at the same time(if the tank is doing small pulls).
It's really all up to 2 main things:
1. How new/comfortable is the healer with being able to DPS and heal at the same time?
2. How big of a pull with/without cool downs is the tank doing?

Saying that healer must DPS is just an opinion, and based on personal skill/experience. Newer healers I don't expect to see them DPS, and won't tell them to, since I want them to get comfortable with healing/knowing when to throw those large heals out.

[Sebazy]

For me in regards to healing, the cake is the healing aspect. The icing(which isn't needed for all cakes) is the DPS. Does it make the cake more enjoyable for the majority of people? Sure, but it isn't needed.

That's not an argument I'm especially keen on TBH. By all rights you could clear an instance with everyone mashing 1 ability. It might well take 90 minutes to do so but you'll get there eventually right? Anything more than that isn't needed.

The whole 'I'm a healer and that's the end of that' mentality is woefully outdated and frankly a hinderance. We are supports and IMHO we are there to make the run better in whatever way we can. If that involves mashing cure 2 on a tank that's taking an absolute pasting then so be it. If it involves spending time DPSing rather than twiddling our thumbs then game on. Adapt to the situation at hand and get on with it.

It doesn't matter if a non DPSing healer is being lazy, one dimensional, simply lacking in talent or would just rather watch Netflix. Much better that they stop making excuses and try to expand their horizons a little bit at a time <3

But . . . how? Don't they need MP? And more importantly, why??? That couldn't possibly be fun o_o

Blood price for days (and days and days). It was in response to a thread not too dissimilar to this one

[Shadowblind]

Blood price for days (and days and days). It was in response to a thread not too dissimilar to this one

Oh wow. That's awful. Sounds like one of the only good things to come from the Blood Price nerf. XD

[Shadowblind]

snip

You make a good point and one I ultimately agree with: if you CAN dps, do it. The difference between tank dps and healer DPS is that FFXIV has been designed in such a way that the tank generally does need to do damage to keep aggro. To do their job, they have to DPS. Even if a PLD only wanted to Flash, he'd have to use riot blade pretty consistently to maintain MP. For a healer to do their job, they don't need to do damage at all. And the party could still pass.

I'll maintain that a healer who can DPS will always be more appreciated that one who can't. And for speedrunner groups or high end players, that DPS may be mandatory. However, For me and others who play the game casually, I don't check to see if the healer is DPSing or not. I don't parse DPS. It's never made my experience more or less enjoyable, save for grinding Titan EX and Titan HM.


Whether a healer DPS or not is up to them should they run a party with me. I wouldn't get mad unless we consistently drop due to lack of healing. However if they DO dps then I'll probably commend them. It's an added bonus in my estimation. BTW if I came off standoffish, apologies! Never meant to since I both see your PoV and in many ways agree with it. TL;DR for me, if a healer does DPS, cool. If not, alright. Long as they keep healing, haha.

[Maeka]

-snip-

I remember doing many early level dungeons where the PLD had nothing but RoH combo and healers very rarely DPS'd way back before Heavensward. We got through the dungeons just fine. The mobs are designed with 2 DPS in mind.

[Taika]

I remember doing many early level dungeons where the PLD had nothing but RoH combo and healers very rarely DPS'd way back before Heavensward. We got through the dungeons just fine. The mobs are designed with 2 DPS in mind.

You can clear most of the dungeon content "just fine" with whole party smashing their heads against keyboard (or everyone using just 1 ability throughout the dungeon). Doesn't mean that's recommended or acceptable way of participating in team content.

[technole]

You can clear most of the dungeon content "just fine" with whole party smashing their heads against keyboard (or everyone using just 1 ability throughout the dungeon). Doesn't mean that's recommended or acceptable way of participating in team content.

Yep, and when faced with the idea that the duty lockout is 30 minutes vs likely 1+ hour Ala Mhigo run. You can decide which is acceptable.

[Maeka]

Yep, and when faced with the idea that the duty lockout is 30 minutes vs likely 1+ hour Ala Mhigo run. You can decide which is acceptable.

I have never seen a dungeon take an hour, even when we were pulling single groups and I was only sporadically DPSing as a healer. The only way you'd take an hour to clear Ala Mihgo or any other dungeon is if you have multiple wipes because you have 2+ newbies in the group trying to learn, say, Zenos... or your DPS are severely under par DPS-wise, maybe because they are barely geared for the instance.

But when the Lv70 quest offers a full left side of 290 gear... there's no excuse for that. But, I suppose some people will Q up for Ala Mihgo the second they ding 70 without even bothering doing their class quest. I suppose that is possible.... but I've not seen it yet.

Worst I think was like a ~35 minute dungeon. Single-pull tank using mostly threat stuff, and two "meh" DPS. Except for my very first Ala Mihgo clear, that was ~45min but we had 3 wipes on Zenos because the healer just couldn't keep themselves alive, lol. We won on the 4th try because of me spamming Clemency on the healer every time they got hit.