What's up with healers not healing?

[Tyranade]

I'm a returning player and used to play a WHM which I loved. I'm now feeling very nervous going back to healing and there's no way I will dps if I don't feel I can manage. Does that make me a lazy and bad player? I'm currently levelling a Bard just because I don't want to heal a dungeon without a trial run on a dps first. I always enjoyed healing and take a lot of pride in being a good healer. I haven't had any real abuse in FFXIV but I am always nervous I will get this tank that will just rush off before I have time to buff and then pull most of the room. I've had this happen so much in WoW that I just left the game just hate the gogo mentality that destroyed the enjoyment of the game for me. The community in FFXIV is mostly great though and I know the problem I have is just that, my problem. Just wanted to give you another view point.

[BubblyBoar]

I'm a returning player and used to play a WHM which I loved. I'm now feeling very nervous going back to healing and there's no way I will dps if I don't feel I can manage. Does that make me a lazy and bad player? I'm currently levelling a Bard just because I don't want to heal a dungeon without a trial run on a dps first. I always enjoyed healing and take a lot of pride in being a good healer. I haven't had any real abuse in FFXIV but I am always nervous I will get this tank that will just rush off before I have time to buff and then pull most of the room. I've had this happen so much in WoW that I just left the game just hate the gogo mentality that destroyed the enjoyment of the game for me. The community in FFXIV is mostly great though and I know the problem I have is just that, my problem. Just wanted to give you another view point.

No one is asking you to overburden yourself. They are just asking you to do something in your downtime. That's all anyone has ever asked at all and anyone saying otherwise is on the opposite in and don't want to DPS at all.

[Rasylia]

No one is asking you to overburden yourself. They are just asking you to do something in your downtime. That's all anyone has ever asked at all and anyone saying otherwise is on the opposite in and don't want to DPS at all.

People need to stop coming up with extremes.
I, for example, always try to dps when healing. But, i am still in the "no healer dps"-camp.
Why? Because i stand my ground and do not want Healer to be required to dps.

It should always be an extra, and not mandatory.

And thats what people fail to understand. We dont say healer should not dps / never dps. They just shouldnt be forced to dps.

[Tyranade]

No one is asking you to overburden yourself. They are just asking you to do something in your downtime. That's all anyone has ever asked at all and anyone saying otherwise is on the opposite in and don't want to DPS at all.

I know that. What I'm saying is that the aggressive stance of some players who without even considering why a person may behave a certain way before they go on the offensive have left me nervous to go back to being a healer.
They just attack immediately, no questions asked. Why use words like lazy etc when you don't even know why? I just wanted to give another perspective to why. That's it.
I used to dps as much as I could anyway, so that's never been a problem for me.

[Taika]

I'm a returning player and used to play a WHM which I loved. I'm now feeling very nervous going back to healing and there's no way I will dps if I don't feel I can manage. Does that make me a lazy and bad player?

From my experience, everyone is generally very understanding in game, especially towards new healers who are only just learning. The people who are called lazy are the ones who are at level 70 and experienced and choose to do nothing (when no healing is required) when they could instead choose to be helpful and DPS. The healers who stand still, jump around or /dance while watching the rest of their team work. These are the players that get on other players' nerves, not the ones who are trying to play their job well and be helpful to their party but are new and only just learning (or have other things that prevent them from playing the job fully).

When I see a healer who only heals in game, I say to them something like "hey healer, don't be afraid to also DPS a bit!" or "could you please use some DoTs / Holy / Gravity when no one is in any danger?", and then do my best to be supportive and offer advice if needed (usually I only offer the advice after the run is finished so they can consider it for their next run though, so they won't feel too pressured during the run, like today when I asked an AST to do some DPS in Aery and they proceeded to Gravity spam single target boss fights I let them do their thing but after we were finished adviced to use DoT and Malefic on single targets and save Gravity for groups).

I will never just blindly kick someone for not DPSing and I've never seen anyone blindly kicked for that either. I also never kick someone if they say that they're new and not comfortable enough yet to try DPS, although I do try to encourage them to try. The only times I've seen healers being kicked for not DPSing (some of them initiated by myself) have been when the healer has replied to a request of participating in DPS with "no I won't, it's not my job", so it's been a question of refusing to cooperate with your party.

[Tyranade]

<snip>The people who are called lazy are the ones who are at level 70 and experienced and choose to do nothing (when no healing is required) when they could instead choose to be helpful and DPS. The healers who stand still, jump around or /dance while watching the rest of their team work. These are the players that get on other players' nerves, not the ones who are trying to play their job well and be helpful to their party but are new and only just learning (or have other things that prevent them from playing the job fully).

Thank you for that, it makes sense.