What are the most common reasons people don't dps?

[Shouko]

I'm relatively new to FFXIV (1 month) and during a Stone Vigil run as WHM, I was told to only use Aero.

Curious you say you're new but your profile says you've been in since pre ARR, did you stop playing after a bit and just come back recently or something?

[Nergui]

Curious you say you're new but your profile says you've been in since pre ARR, did you stop playing after a bit and just come back recently or something?

Stopped playing about when the new guy took over. Didn't play again until very recently. It's a totally different game.

[Shouko]

Stopped playing about when the new guy took over. Didn't play again until very recently. It's a totally different game.

Ah, well welcome back then.

[Sylvain]

In general I don't dps too much as an AST since well... it sucks
As a WHM I tend to be much more aggressive for two reasons
- Every small window allow me to weave more potency through Aero II and III, stone potency rocks #lul
- Not having to manage cards and having more tools to keep my group alive and, on top of that, having unlimited mana, gives me more time to find windows to dps.

[Tiva]

Ah I see my thread was resurrected! lol
Anyway, hello new healers.

I will talk about some of the new posts, but first I want to make a general statement about cleric. So, clearly we saw cleric was removed (I mean like altered to the point where it's previous function was essentially removed and though it has the same name now it's a completely different function) in SB. I was one of the people who was thinking.... OKAY, we will see many more healers dps now because cleric was removed. This is like a huge part of why I made this thred in the first place. I was thinking... ok so a lot of healers probably dont dps because cleric stance is so scary. And I have seen it mentioned a lot, but also (to my kind of dismay honestly) I also see a lot of people syaing things like "I play a healer because I want to heal". And I think this has further cemented my belive that the class system they chose in this game was a mistake. And this is why I think that - people generally chose a class for 2 reasons. First reason, because they identify with the aesthetic of that class and they would play it regardless of what role it is (looking at you warriors who wish they were a dps). Second reason, they chose the role, then chose the class. I think many healers do this. They want to heal. They dont want to dps. So they pick healing role, then they chose which healer they want to be. This is also the reason I picked my classes for many years over many MMOs. I have role loyalty over class loyalty. So I play healer, and then secondarily I play my healing class. I personally have grown to enjoy the caster focused healing style of FFXIV (cus lets be honest most of my GCDs are going to dps). But many never get to that point. And I think its really interesting that so many players find dpsing so bad that even in a game where we are basically told every step of the way... everyone dpses, then you also do some other things, people still say "no. I heal. I dont dps." And my point is not that those players are bad or anything. I think its like a lesson to developers about what the majority of players really want in an mmo. / I typed a bunch of other shit here about how they could make ffxiv healers more pure healing / comparisons to tier 11 in wow / ways to make healing more enguaging but less dps focused... but I deleted it because it really went on. Maybe I'll make another comment tomorrow about it. But I want to go through the comments now.

1. On my personal experience in The Vault, I ran out of MP twice and can't heal the whole team. I had to cleric stance.
2. I'm afraid I'll pull aggro higher than the tank.
3. The tank or DPS might dealt heavy damage while I'm DPSing, so I have to use the remaining time to prevent them die.
4. I chose my job as a healer, DPSing is not required except extremely needed.

1. Remember to use your mana cd when you get to about 80% mp. Dont wait to be oom to use it. If you have a caster/ ranged expect them to mana shift and refresh. Dont be afraid to ask for it.
2. You should never pull threat higher then the tank in most dungeons except in 1 situation... where you start healing or dps before the tank has aoed or if they do that stop start shit. I mitigate this by always staying close to the tank when he's pulling. As soon as he stops I start casting. I dont use an instant right off the bat. The cast gives the tnak enough time that they should have aoed. If the tank is loosing threat to you dpsing that is the tanks fault not yours, healers are far more likely to pull threat because of inappropriate healing choices.
3. Once you get to know the damage patterns in fights this gets much easier. This is how I consistently out heal healers doing 0-100 dps in 8 mans... they are just throwing heals out, they have no idea when the damage is coming. Meanwhile, I know when it's coming, I throw out a quick heal to top the party, then I go back to dps. It just requires more experience
4. Yes, I feel this and I commented about it a bit. I think many players feel the same way. I personally enjoy the way healing works in ffxiv but I think many players do not and desire a game with "pure healers".

I'm relatively new to FFXIV (1 month) and during a Stone Vigil run as WHM, I was told to only use Aero.

/pet Hi, yeah dont listen to that guy. Cynfael made a good post so I wont get too much into this. Basically just to say, if you check the forums you will probably see ppl argue about healer dps a lot. My advice is to try it as you are comfortable, but it's much easier to start out dpsing and learning to predict damage patters and heal only when needed than it is to try and heal all the time and teach yourself to overheal and then try and ween off it later. So yeah, I'd start now to form good habits.

In general I don't dps too much as an AST since well... it sucks
As a WHM I tend to be much more aggressive for two reasons
- Every small window allow me to weave more potency through Aero II and III, stone potency rocks #lul
- Not having to manage cards and having more tools to keep my group alive and, on top of that, having unlimited mana, gives me more time to find windows to dps.

I definitely hear you about whm. It has sooo many tools in its kit and imo the kit just keeps getting better (except lillies, Se you can take that back pls). I also see a huge mp difference between ast and whm and it feels kind of gross to have to stop dpsing on my ast because my mp reasons when on my whm I just yolo it. It's interesting what you said about the card system. I think ast having a 2 button dps rotation makes up for the added complexity of the cards and that taking away their second dot was overkill but perhaps not.

[RopeDrink]

There's only one thing that stops me DPS'ing - being put in a position where I simply can't.

DPS eating AoE for breakfast? Check.
Massive three-pack-pulls in dungeons by squishy tank? Check.
Players unfamiliar with boss mechanics and eating frequent damage? Check.

In short, if I have to stop DPS'ing, I will. Otherwise I don't... Because there's no reason not to DPS when you have the freedom to do so. Even if the tanks are going mass-pull suicidal, I'll still follow them with a QC-Holy before even hitting a healing button, Assize later. I get the feeling I often do more damage than the actual damage-dealers half the time, and that's while I'm monitoring healthbars. I won't pat myself on the back, I just like to get things done (and enjoy being able to do two things in one class). Meanwhile, anytime I swap to my PLD, chances are I get a CureI spammer dribbling over their keyboard while my healthbar is perma-stuck at 99%, with the first trash-pack taking about half-an-hour to kill.

[Moogly]

with the first trash-pack taking about half-an-hour to kill.

Eh, that could also mean DPSes are no good !
Funny how slow killing is somehow always because of "bad" pure healers on those kind of threads
What about dpsing healer that keep on letting the tank die because he's "practicing" ? Or because he's just so focused on his dps rotation that he's forgetting his primary job ?
And if they would at least apologise when they mess up...
Or people that read a anti-pure healer post on the forum, then get ingame and tell me that they don't really have to heal... that I can survive on bloodbath and CDs...

I get it that pure healers can be annoying the "over the top" players, but when you meet a "I think I am an over the top" player, it's way worse.
And I think that is a reason that can be added to the list : bad experience with a wannabe pro-gamer.
I mean, who would listen to a tank not keeping aggro, or a dps barely making as much dps as the tank ?
Especially if that player is yelling on everybody and claiming he'd do a much better job than you when he barely does his right ?
If a fresh healer still in pure healing mode should have just one experience with a player like that, believe me, he's not going to dps for the next 4 or 5 dungeons !
And it won't matter if the "skilled" player is right or wrong...

[Cynfael]

“Pure” healers are just as annoying and entitled as those who DPS regardless of party needs.

Both groups are saying the same thing with their choices: “I do what I want (and forget what the rest of you need).” I think we more or less established this point over the previous 7 pages, though.

[Moogly]

“Pure” healers are just as annoying and entitled as those who DPS regardless of party needs.

Thing is : you look more like someone full of himself than somebody skilled by having such a mindset. At least to me.
Where's the need of being so offensive on that matter ?
What kind of example is that to the community, especially if you're a said, good player ?
If you want to be harsh on people like in military instruction, then you have WoW...
That's where I've been trying to get to, like in previous threads.

Like, open your mind, there's not only dps that matters.
What about, I don't know, having fun only healing people ?
Yea, people can actually have fun only doing that, believe me.
Even if it's not efficient.
Even if the packs take forever to kill.
Even if you don't like it.
They're having fun.
I don't understand what is so hard about not pushing your ideals on other people.
What's so hard about accepting that other people have different expectations or purpose in playing that game ?
Have you ever thought about putting yourself in other people's shoes ?

And just fyi, I am a big fan of dps as a healer.
But when I'm not on the role, I respect other player's playstyle decision... as long as they keep me alive, which is what they're here for after all.

Also, please respect OP's wish of not being offensive to people in his thread...

[Valmaxian]

Snip

You left out the portion where Cynfael qualified that both "always-DPS" and "never-DPS" players can be equal in terms of being unreceptive to overall party needs. I would also like to say that I find his/her posts to be among the most insightful and respectful on the healer forums. Let's stay objective!