Dear Healers who don't DPS

[Zojha]

Honestly, on a sociology level, it's fascinating how unique healers are in this regard.

It's easy to understand however - Healing primarily is a nurturing fantasy, not a destructive one. Stereotypically ascribed to women (Coincidences: Our healer jobs are about nature, fairies and sparkles and usually have a dress as dresscode), the appeal is to prevent harm, rather than cause it. Many people drawn to it would like to be the guy/gal who delivers people from pain and eases their sorrows, to cure the sick and help the wounded. A saint! And saints don't kill people (Unless you play Saints Row). It also appeals to militant pacifists who would rather people don't fight at all and snuggled instead, who have a hard time identifying with the 'violent' roles.

It's probably a big reason behind the frequent resistance, even if I doubt people think about that consciously. It probably is more of a subconscious motivation that then gets rationalized afterwards (That's common after all!)

[Hyperia]

It's easy to understand however - Healing primarily is a nurturing fantasy, not a destructive one. Stereotypically ascribed to women (Coincidences: Our healer jobs are about nature, fairies and sparkles and usually have a dress as dresscode), the appeal is to prevent harm, rather than cause it. Many people drawn to it would like to be the guy/gal who delivers people from pain and eases their sorrows, to cure the sick and help the wounded. A saint! And saints don't kill people (Unless you play Saints Row). It also appeals to militant pacifists who would rather people don't fight at all and snuggled instead, who have a hard time identifying with the 'violent' roles.

It's probably a big reason behind the frequent resistance, even if I doubt people think about that consciously.

Bingo! Have an upvote! I dislike killing and I am a CERT First Responder IRL. I’ve seen enough death in my life and I prefer to fight death rather than deal it.

[Almagnus1]

If everyone's "fun" matters, then everyone has to compromise when in situations where there are opposing ideas of "fun" and your idea of fun isn't the majority opinion in the group you are in. Give a little, get a little.

Maybe we need to separate this out from what's going on in the roulettes vs what's expected in party finder and statics?

For the latter, the healers should most definitely be contributing as much DPS as they can, and I don't think anyone's really going to argue that point.

The problem with the roulettes comes down to whether or not the healer is actually geared decently for the content, player skill, and motivation. One of those you can actively fix in the instance, the other two you cannot.

Maybe the better thing to do is just write off the roulettes until SE forces players to go through role specific training classes, and bars any player that hasn't from continuing to instance on the class until they do?

[Seoulstar]

If everyone's "fun" matters, then everyone has to compromise when in situations where there are opposing ideas of "fun" and your idea of fun isn't the majority opinion in the group you are in. Give a little, get a little.

Who is the majority? The pro dps crowd?

[HyoMinPark]

Who is the majority? The pro dps crowd?

Exactly who Miste said the majority was: the group you are in. Be it DF or PF.

[Seoulstar]

Exactly who Miste said the majority was: the group you are in. Be it DF or PF.

Maybe in PF, but certainly not DF. Not once have I ever seen a complaint about the healer not dpsing in DF.

[MoroMurasaki]

Maybe the better thing to do is just write off the roulettes until SE forces players to go through role specific training classes, and bars any player that hasn't from continuing to instance on the class until they do?

I'm unsure why we would write off performance in what is one of the largest areas of player interaction.

This idea that healers who play poorly just don't know any better is odd to me. I know from personal experience with this as my first real MMO (other than ESO where I never became involved in multiplayer dungeons or trials) that I came to the conclusion very early on that I was meant to use all my abilities. A good portion of the CNJ questline (the part before you really enter dungeons btw) is about a CNJ who only heals and doesn't use her other abilities and how she needs to broaden her horizons.

Let's be real guys, if SE wanted to reinforce this pure healer bull they would frame the healer class quest battles around you spending your time healing. They wouldn't have the only starting healing class in the game have quests around using attack magic.

They do teach this "role specific training" you ask for in multiple places; the morals of the CNJ questline, the way instanced battles for healers work (we still have to kill stuff, can't just heal an NPC) and even in the Hall of the Novice.

The framework for new healers to understand DPS is a part of their job is everywhere, if you don't see it look again.

Maybe in PF, but certainly not DF. Not once have I ever seen a complaint about the healer not dpsing in DF.

I have.

[era1Ne]

They do teach this "role specific training" you ask for in multiple places; the morals of the CNJ questline, the way instanced battles for healers work (we still have to kill stuff, can't just heal an NPC) and even in the Hall of the Novice.

The framework for new healers to understand DPS is a part of their job is everywhere, if you don't see it look again.

Hall of the novice is the only vaild argument here as harsh as it sounds, because all the rest whether or not it is used as an argument for or against healer dealing dmg, is just an dialog an the opinion of an NPC and NOT Square Enix. Also you can't use single player quest/instances to argue for healer dmg, because they obviously had to be designed with healer dmg, if you don't want the devs to design two different mission for the same instance. This was probably more down to not wasting dev time instead of them telling healers to dps.

Who is the majority? The pro dps crowd?

I believe he means that the majority of the group aka 3 or 7 of the 4/8 people decide what the group should do. For instance if 3 out of 4 are against mass pulls, then you better adjust as the 4th guys who complains about the (new) tank not doing big pulls.

[MoroMurasaki]

Hall of the novice is the only vaild argument here as harsh as it sounds, because all the rest whether or not it is used as an argument for or against healer dealing dmg, is just an dialog an the opinion of an NPC and NOT Square Enix. Also you can't use single player quest/instances to argue for healer dmg, because they obviously had to be designed with healer dmg, if you don't want the devs to design two different mission for the same instance. This was probably more down to not wasting dev time instead of them telling healers to dps.

The NPC was created by who exactly? I can't believe you don't see the issue here.

Also I'm not talking about MSQ instances I'm talking about healer quest instanced battles. You kill things in them. Hell, lots of the time there is an NPC responsible for healing you while you deal out the vast majority of damage. Why did they do that if they could have just had you cast Cure every 20 seconds?

[era1Ne]

The NPC was created by who exactly? I can't believe you don't see the issue here.

Also I'm not talking about MSQ instances I'm talking about healer quest instanced battles. You kill things in them. Hell, lots of the time there is an NPC responsible for healing you!

An story (the sidequest are still a story) is NOT the same as an tutorial text (hall of novice for example) and this is the huge different here. As an good story writer you don't necessarly state your opinion on the matter. Sometimes you write bad people who hurt others and think this is fine. Doesn't mean the writer is fine with people being hurt as an obvious example. Basically you don't ask yourself the question "ok, what would i do in the situation or whats mine advice", but you ask as an good writer yourself "What would the character do in the situation? What is is position in the world? What are his thoughts on the matter?". So no pls, pls don't read so much into an opinion of an npc, if it isn't clearly an tutorial like the hall of novice. There are also npc saying "but i just want to heal" (or something along those lines) and this doesn't mean Square Enix wants healers to only heal, either.