Healer DPS or no?

[Heliantheae]

Has long as I don't die, the healer can do what they want. I don't care if I sit in the triple digits for most of the dungeon. That's what LD and TBN is for. DPS to your hearts content.

I do get a little annoyed at the opposite. If I'm sitting in the five digit range and your sitting there doing nothing, then yea a little upset. DRKs are not that squishy. I even melded Tenacity for that problem.

[Umbrak]

From a healer perspective:

DF Dungeons
If a tank does a big pull and starts using CDs , I go havok and DPS, because keeping you alive with your CDs active is easy.
As e.g. AST I will help too, stun, aoe, buff like mad and make sure everyone stays safe.
The opposite, no CDs and big pulls, I'll let you die, over and over and over, until the DDs leave or you start to play your role like you expect me to play mine.
It depends on the players really. A "new" tank won't satisfy a "good" healer and vice versa.

Raids
Can't speak for savage, haven't been there, but from my Ex experience a healer should also DPS AFTER making sure everyone is safe.

But generally speaking, no, a standard healer doesn't have to DPS.
If you want to "up" your game, do it.

[MoroMurasaki]

Thank you for the responses guys! They have been really interesting to read in conjunction to the discussions on the healer forum.

The one big "difference" I suppose I've seen (and I am not criticizing any of you who have said it, personally I agree with you guys) is that many tanks have commented that if their healer doesn't DPS they would pull larger/drop stance/ etc. in an effort to make up for the lost healer dps.

On the healer forum the predominant argument for healersnot having to DPS (despite us not having to Cleric Stance dance anymore) is that there might be players who aren't skilled enough to keep up with both. I don't really understand this myself outside of progression maybe but if someone is not skilled enough to heal while DPSing in a 4 man dungeon I doubt they are good enough to handle a tank pulling big in his DPS stance.

Just some food for thought. Again personally I am on the tank side of this, who doesn't want a quicker clear? You guys all seem pretty respectful so I doubt you're harrassing anyone.

Again thanks for the feedback!

[AlexionSkylark]

NO.

/10char

OK, sorry, haha.
Anyhow, I'll provide an argument to the oher side. No content in this game has healer DPS REQUIRED, and if you DPS, you may lack MP to pull some massive heals/raises if hings go south.

IF your group is skilled, and IF you're pretty certain that only minimal (or no) non-avoidable damage will come out, then go ahead. Else, being conservative about your MP is the better choice.

[Freyyy]

and if you DPS, you may lack MP to pull some massive heals/raises if hings go south.

If DPSing makes you so low on MP then you're doing something wrong. The only thing that can make a healer go OoM is raising people multiple times in a very short time.

[AlexionSkylark]

If DPSing makes you so low on MP then you're doing something wrong. The only thing that can make a healer go OoM is raising people multiple times in a very short time.

But that's exactly my point. If you are conservative about your MP you CAN pull that kind of thing you described. If you're like halved, probably not.
I'm talking about "when things go south", not normal situations.

[Freyyy]

But that's exactly my point. If you are conservative about your MP you CAN pull that kind of thing you described. If you're like halved, probably not.
I'm talking about "when things go south", not normal situations.

But things shouldn't go south, especially in dungeons. And if it does, you won't wipe because the healer used its MP on DPS and couldn't raise everyone, you wipe because everyone else fucked up and died in the first place, so it's non-issue.

[Umbrak]

If DPSing makes you so low on MP then you're doing something wrong. The only thing that can make a healer go OoM is raising people multiple times in a very short time.

Well, you can pretty much go OOM if you (brain afk ) AOE like mad.
But with one eye on your MP you can still do decent damage and heal enough.

If you stop to DPS for some manaregen or pop a manaregen CD, i doubt that anyone will yell at you.

But... isn't this Topic going out of hand in a way?
The threadstarter said it's all said and done?

[Nowakii]

NO.

/10char

OK, sorry, haha.
Anyhow, I'll provide an argument to the oher side. No content in this game has healer DPS REQUIRED, and if you DPS, you may lack MP to pull some massive heals/raises if hings go south.

IF your group is skilled, and IF you're pretty certain that only minimal (or no) non-avoidable damage will come out, then go ahead. Else, being conservative about your MP is the better choice.

you are right, you have to save Mp , but thats what LD is for, if its on CD, my stopping point on dps is when my Mp reaches 15% of its max amount, so if mp on 15% or lower, and LD in CD for more than 10 seconds, i stop dpsing, else i just dps, theres really no reason to sit on max MP the entire fight, if you need to ress multiple times follow the basic rule: if a dps dies twice in arow for not avoiding dmg or due ignoring mechanics, just leave him on the floor, you are doing more dps than him anyway.

[AlexionSkylark]

you are right, you have to save Mp , but thats what LD is for, if its on CD, my stopping point on dps is when my Mp reaches 15% of its max amount, so if mp on 15% or lower, and LD in CD for more than 10 seconds, i stop dpsing, else i just dps, theres really no reason to sit on max MP the entire fight, if you need to ress multiple times follow the basic rule: if a dps dies twice in arow for not avoiding dmg or due ignoring mechanics, just leave him on the floor, you are doing more dps than him anyway.

It's all a matter of how you see your responsibility to the party as a healer.

You can either see yourself as a guardian angel of sorts whose main contribution to the party is to ENLARGE THE MARGIN OF ERROR so you can get a clear with less tries, or as a Half DPS who don't give a single proverbial F to people who fail mechanics and only deems acceptable for everyone to perform flawlessly, only feeling that you need to heal unavoidable damage.

Each of those different healers will have a different answer to "should I be DPSing". And each of those different healers are better suited for different groups. If they match, then it's wonderful. If it doesn't, you AND your group are in for an awful time.