Dear Healers who don't DPS

[Tridus]

It's damn easy to be sub-optimal on a DPS class and have it fly under the radar for most people. A samurai can do it with just their basic combos and Iaijutsu, a black mage can do it with just doing a basic Fire/Ice rotation, a Ninja can do it by doing basic weapon combos and a ninjutsu...

It's also pretty easy to be a sub-optimal healer. I see them sometimes on my tank. They appear to have no idea what Regen/Tetra/DB are, never use Assize, and think Medica II is the only AoE heal in the game. If people are still alive, it slides by largely unnoticed by other players.

Of course, nobody is here on the forum going "it's my choice to use Medica II three times in a row instead of Medica II/Medica/PI", because we all know that's clearly a mistake and want to educate the person how to get better outcomes in the same situation.

And yeah, when I'm on my Red or Black Mage? I don't do amazing DPS. But I stay out of bad and don't tend to embarass myself a whole lot, so outside of high end content nobody much cares. If you're putting in an honest effort in DF, that's all 99% of players want.

It's not that I defend '0 derps healers', only that I don't understand why they get -so much hate- compared to the, basically same, performance of the Derps and Turnks.

Because it's a false equivalence. A DPS doing suboptimal things (not using Enochian), a tank doing suboptimal things (staying in tank stance even during an extended burn phase with no incoming damage and no risk of aggro drop), and a healer doing suboptimal things (massive overhealing, overwriting Medica II with 25 seconds left) are equivalent.

There is literally no case, EVER, where someone would defend a tank that Flashes 6 times, pops Rampart, than stands still waiting for aggro to drop before doing anything else. That is the real equivalence to a healer standing around doing nothing 75% of the fight, because that's the tank standing around doing nothing for 75% of the fight. Any tank that tried that would be kicked. If they came to the forum to complain, they'd be told to knock that crap off, because doing damage helps stuff die faster and is thus a good thing.

DPS doing that is so absurd that the very idea of it is laughable, but their closest equivalent is that Red Mage who complained about how they preferred single target spells do they didn't AoE big pulls. You know what the reaction to that was? I can tell you it wasn't "YoshiP says the content doesn't require AoE", despite the fact that it actually doesn't require AoE. You can burn all that stuff down one target a time successfully, and yet nobody considers that to be a defensible practice.

People react to this because nobody's come up with a good explain for why experienced healers deserve a free pass to stand around doing nothing while everyone else is active. When you know no damage is coming (see: O2N), toss some rocks. If you simply refuse to do that, you're actively refusing to contribute to the group when mechanically you are completely capable of doing so.

[Kabooa]

People react to this because nobody's come up with a good explain for why experienced healers deserve a free pass to stand around doing nothing while everyone else is active. When you know no damage is coming (see: O2N), toss some rocks. If you simply refuse to do that, you're actively refusing to contribute to the group when mechanically you are completely capable of doing so.

Alright. That's fair. If it's a matter of perceived activity, there's no arguing with that, though at the end of the day, I still don't think this warrants a close to 70 page thread now.

I tend to look at things in a checklist, not on buttons pressed, mainly because just pressing buttons doesn't mean a whole lot. So these legendary 0 derp sub-optimal healers tend to rate as:

Healer: Heals.
DPS: Basic Derps
Tank: Threat

Moving into the more optimal play, it looks like

Healers: Heals + Derps
Derps: Derps + Cooldowns
Tanks: Threat + Cooldowns

So while the Healers who just heal might be sitting on the GCD, they're no different to me than the DPS who just do their basic rotation, or the tank who just hold hate. Sure, lower uptime. Objectively a worse measurement, but still just doing their basic, one thing like the other two. That's why it seems like a disproportionate amount of hate. On one hand, it makes sense when looked through regarding plain ole uptime, but the on other, they're fulfilling their basic task, just like a basic Derps rotation or a tank who does their basic combos and holds hate.

They are, as far as I'm concerned, in the same submarine, but it's the Healer that's getting an undue amount of ire.

[Tridus]

Alright. That's fair. If it's a matter of perceived activity, there's no arguing with that, though at the end of the day, I still don't think this warrants a close to 70 page thread now.

Not even close. But it keeps going. If we could harness its power, we could solve the global energy crisis.

I tend to look at things in a checklist, not on buttons pressed, mainly because just pressing buttons doesn't mean a whole lot. So these legendary 0 derp sub-optimal healers tend to rate as:

Healer: Heals.
DPS: Basic Derps
Tank: Threat

Pretty much.

Moving into the more optimal play, it looks like

Healers: Heals + Derps
Derps: Derps + Cooldowns
Tanks: Threat + Cooldowns

Something like that. Interestingly, everyone's damage numbers go up as you get more optimal, because past a certain point you can't optimize anything else (Healers can only heal how much damage is coming in, and tanks can only mitigate so much incoming damage).

So while the Healers who just heal might be sitting on the GCD, they're no different to me than the DPS who just do their basic rotation, or the tank who just hold hate. Sure, lower uptime. Objectively a worse measurement, but still just doing their basic, one thing like the other two. That's why it seems like a disproportionate amount of hate. On one hand, it makes sense when looked through regarding plain ole uptime, but the on other, they're fulfilling their basic task, just like a basic Derps rotation or a tank who does their basic combos and holds hate.

They are, as far as I'm concerned, in the same submarine, but it's the Healer that's getting an undue amount of ire.

See, I don't think its a disproportionate amount of hate. It's just that this thread is so long because there's a debate going on. The Red Mage I mentioned previously who didn't use AoE didn't get a long thread because there was no debate: there was total agreement they were in the wrong and should knock that off. Ditto with a tank who refuses to do damage or use cooldowns. You can't get a 70 page thread when everybody agrees. For a myriad of reasons, it's different on the healer side of things. Why there is a difference there is an interesting topic and goes to other MMOs where healers are mostly if not almost entirely healing all the time in groups.

My experience in DF is that none of these things generate significant reaction in game unless wipes are happening due to it. If you get a clean clear, almost nobody raises a fuss in game.