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

[MoroMurasaki]

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I don't see healers being pushed to the same extremes as DPS roles. As a healer there are groups out there that can and will accommodate a main heal/off heal system to an extent where as no group is going to be like "Wow, this BLM has lower damage but they always mana shift so like lets keep them"... It just isnt true.

I agree there is a lot of pressure on healers to dps but if you can't handle that pressure the pressure on actual dps seems like it won't be for you.

[Elamys]

I don't see healers being pushed to the same extremes as DPS roles. As a healer there are groups out there that can and will accommodate a main heal/off heal system to an extent where as no group is going to be like "Wow, this BLM has lower damage but they always mana shift so like lets keep them"... It just isnt true.

I agree there is a lot of pressure on healers to dps but if you can't handle that pressure the pressure on actual dps seems like it won't be for you.

Well, a DPS only has the one job, to DPS. A healer ends up having two, healing the party and DPSing. So, yes, if it's too stressful to manage DPSing on a healer it could be easier to just roll DPS.

[Cynfael]

Well, a DPS only has the one job, to DPS. A healer ends up having two, healing the party and DPSing. So, yes, if it's too stressful to manage DPSing on a healer it could be easier to just roll DPS.

While I understand the viewpoint, I'd suggest that the notion of DPS having "one job" vs. healer's "two jobs" isn't a very accurate or helpful one. The comparison suggests that healer is somehow twice as difficult and twice as complex as the DPS role, and I don't think that's necessarily true at all.

Some players do find healing inordinately stressful for one reason or another, but many also find that playing DPS in content with more complex mechanics, phase transitions, and DPS checks is just as stressful if not more so. Simply doing damage is not in itself an entire job; it's common to all three roles. It's true that DPS focus on damage as a priority, but not only do they still have to deal with encounter mechanics, their job mechanics in relation to damage-dealing are generally significantly more complex with more timers, resources, and combos to keep track of.

[MoroMurasaki]

Well, a DPS only has the one job, to DPS. A healer ends up having two, healing the party and DPSing. So, yes, if it's too stressful to manage DPSing on a healer it could be easier to just roll DPS.

There are certainly people who have an easier time with a specific role. My comment wasn't about "some people" though, rather about the standards set for roles in the real world.

A healer can get through virtually all content using only the healing half of their toolkit where as every dps class needs to use nearly 100% of their abilities to be considered competent.

Could you imagine a BLM that didn't use Thunder spells at all? Or a BRD that didn't use songs? RDM that never procced with Jolt just hardcasted their 5 second spells? DPS are expected to be proficient with their entire toolkit at higher levels of play. You can't main the support side of your role as a dps. You can as a healer.

[miraidensetsu]

A healer can get through virtually all content using only the healing half of their toolkit where as every dps class needs to use nearly 100% of their abilities to be considered competent.

This is a false equivalence, you know. Alas, this isn't even a fair comparison.

Nearly 100% of the DPS toolkit are damaging skills or support skills for attacks. The DPS can use nearly 100% of its toolkit and do absolutely nothing outside its role. DPS don't have to tank and don't have to heal. Maybe drop a skill or 2 for the rDPS sake.

There are some raid utilities, true, but outside a heavy META content, actually using them - while welcome - is not something that the group is nazi for. At least, never saw a BLM being shamed for not using thunder spells, never saw a party kicking a RDM for skipping the sword phase (the coolest part of RDM's rotation IMO) or refusing to heal.

For what is being said here if the healer - for whatever reason - lacks off DPS, the party should instantly open vote kick against him and blacklist that damn noob.

[Taika]

At least, never saw a BLM being shamed for not using thunder spells, never saw a party kicking a RDM for skipping the sword phase (the coolest part of RDM's rotation IMO) or refusing to heal.

You don't think a tank refusing to do any DPS, a BLM refusing to use nothing but ice spells, or a BRD refusing to sing (or refusing to do anything but singing) would get comments about their "chosen playstyle" or even get removed from parties occasionally, just like healers who refuse to use anything but their healing spells no matter what situation? The main difference between the two, in my opinion, is that for those ice mages, Flash paladins and "I'm only here to sing" BRDs you don't see anyone actively defending that kind of playstyle choice on these forums... But for some strange reason some people think healers should get a free pass to play however they want, even though no one else gets (or should get, even in their opinion) the same choice.

For what is being said here if the healer - for whatever reason - lacks off DPS, the party should instantly open vote kick against him and blacklist that damn noob.

Please show the comments here, in this thread, which advocate instant kicks and blacklists for healers who don't DPS.

[miraidensetsu]

You don't think a tank refusing to do any DPS, a BLM refusing to use nothing but ice spells, or a BRD refusing to sing (or refusing to do anything but singing) would get comments about their "chosen playstyle" or even get removed from parties occasionally, just like healers who refuse to use anything but their healing spells no matter what situation?

Do you think that when they do that deserves all this demonization? Or just healers deserves this and ice mages, loldrgs, non-singing bards, etc can get away with it with (as it is today)?

Minimum effort players exists in all roles. Tanks, healers and DPS, likewise. But do you demand a Ice Mage to at least use fire spells as well? Do you demand provoker paladins to use their complete hate rotation? Do you demand your co-bard to play songs? Do you demand your RDM to use weaponskills as well? Do you demand your loldrg to be cautious about when he uses elusive jump? Or you're demanding just with healers? God saves me from healing at the same group as you.

Healing are the more situational role. That's because, while tanks and DPS must mainly deal with a highly-scripted AI, healers must deal directly with humans to fill his role. Why they don't DPS or stop DPS'ing completly? That question is what this topic was trying to answer before its goals changed to bash healers again (and again, and again, and again). And so far, most reasons were situational, where it IS justifiable for healers to not DPS, at least until the situation becames more manageable. The healer won't be granted that he will always have 10 free seconds without any noticeable incoming damage. That time happens, but it is more frequent if the party is good. But if the party is bad? That happens often, you know. And you - and every other defensor of healer DPS - are here generalizing as all healers that don't dps are because they're lazy, they're bad and they are always doing nothing on downtime. Like if every party was good, full of great players. But that healer.

And if everything is group effort, why only healer is being called into transposing its role and being compared with players that don't even do their role description right? The ice mage isn't doing damage. The provoker paladin isn't holding aggro and thus isn't defending anyone. But the non-dpsing healer IS healing. That's more like if a PLD will cast or not Clemency, if the BLM will include Addle into his rotation or not, if the RDM will use Vercure or Verraise when needed or something like that. Things that aren't that enforced on non-savage content. Sure, that is enforced on high end statics.

If you'd like to see more healer dps, there will have to be more group effort to let that happen. Or do you think that a provoker PLD or a low-dps dd don't affect the healer DPS uptime and they can ultimately drop it to near-zero? That's why I spoke about RECIPROCITY. You guys put your effort, I put mine. That's how it works. EVERYONE must put effort to kill the boss, not just the healer. And if the DPS is not being demanded for more effort when he isn't giving any, is it fair?

EDIT: Notice that I am not speaking that low-effort healers shouldn't be putting some effort. What I'm saying is "stop with that war against healers or let's demand maximum effort for everyone. Pick one".

[Jollyy5]

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I do approach tanks and DPS who are obviously doing something wonky and try to direct them to the right direction, it's not just healers.

But as it has been mentioned already, bad tanking and DPS aren't defended the same way as bad healing is, the other problem is the fact that an idling healer is a more prominent problem than "Ice Mages" in that while these Ice Mages are doing a whole lot wrong, they are still doing something (little damage > no damage), while a healer who is either idling or healing a player who's health is already full is doing absolutely nothing, and it's plain to see.

[Sebazy]

Healing are the more situational role. That's because, while tanks and DPS must mainly deal with a highly-scripted AI, healers must deal directly with humans to fill his role.

I do agree with the core of your point and yes, a healer's overall performance is in many regards, restricted by the consistency of their group. Don't get me wrong, an Ice mage doesn't stop me DPSing, neither does a flash spamming PLD (It is entirely possible to hold rock solid agro on PLD whilst doing very negligible damage).

However, I will correct you a little on your point that I quoted above. First off, at the end of the day, incoming damage is still a part of that very same script. You can see the damage coming and you've usually got a good amount of time to prepare and adjust for it in casual content providing you are playing with your eyes open.

Secondly and perhaps more importantly, triage! If there's one thing my experience has taught me well, it's the art of recognising how much healing is needed and more importantly, where it's needed in any given situation. If you're blasting multiple Cure IIs at that 1k DPS Ice Mage then you are literally wasting your time for the most part.

I prefer to simply throw a regen at them and leave them to it, that's 21 seconds where I don't have to baby sit them in most dungeons and for the most part, that's plenty enough to keep them going. In situations where it isn't, that's because they've just got themselves one shot and nothing you could do was going to save them from that anyway. This holds true for a surprising amount of mainstream content and it's usually only those occasional moments where a boss is about to do an unavoidable AoE right after a painful mechanic.

TLDR: Don't take someone else's mistakes and make them your own.

EDIT: Notice that I am not speaking that low-effort healers shouldn't be putting some effort. What I'm saying is "stop with that war against healers or let's demand maximum effort for everyone. Pick one".

Doing a modest amount of damage as a healer absolutely isn't maximum effort in any stretch of the imagination. Maintain your dots and the vast majority of people will be happy with that, it's not until you hit savage and beyond that people start expecting more than that.

[Squintina]

Healing are the more situational role. That's because, while tanks and DPS must mainly deal with a highly-scripted AI, healers must deal directly with humans to fill his role. Why they don't DPS or stop DPS'ing completly? That question is what this topic was trying to answer before its goals changed to bash healers again (and again, and again, and again). And so far, most reasons were situational, where it IS justifiable for healers to not DPS, at least until the situation becames more manageable.

While I haven't talked in this thread much, I have been reading it since the start and I do recall the majority of people already accounted for what you said. If a fight warrants that a healer has to do more healing and doesn't have time to dps, pretty much everyone has agreed that that is fine. It can and does happen depending the instance, amount of mechanics, skill level of each player, and gear can make it that a healer either has no time to dps, doesn't have the mana (yes in high level that's not an issue but in low level with lack of skill and lack of role actions it can be), or only has a few seconds to dps but at that point is just too weary to take the risk. What they specifically want to address are when a healer is just standing around doing nothing for multiple seconds (not just 1 or 2 gcd's worth) at a time.

Take this example. I main scholar and I'm leveling up the other 2 healers so I often go for my favorite roulette: MSQ. (love it <3)

I had this one run maybe a week ago in Praetorium in which I was healing as needed, and dps-ing in between. The other healer was not healing mostly because I was doing already MORE than enough (it's not ilevelsynced and most of us were overgeared), so I don't blame the other healer for not really bothering to even try to heal when I clearly had it covered. Did this other healer use that opportunity to attack?

Not until the second to last boss. There were no attacks during the entire dungeon from that other healer until we got the 2nd Ultima form right before Lahabrea (and nothing during Lahabrea at all). I never saw any of his/her dots on anything until then, nor any offensive casts. There were a few heal casts here and there when my regen would wear off and the tank got to 80% and that was it. For one of the bosses I even stopped healing because I figured if that person won't attack, maybe they'll heal..and s/he would only do regen on the tank. If anyone else accidentally got damaged a few times, wouldn't even bother no matter how low it got. So I went back to my mix.

So that was just horrible. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to be accused of elitism but it's like "why are you even here if you're not going to play".

Likewise if that person had decided to just be casting heals all the time, it also wouldn't have been all that great as we didn't need it - though admittedly it would have been slightly better than pretty much standing still the whole time because then I could have just gone full dps.

In the end healers, tanks, and dps all have the same role: to help the party beat the boss(es). A person who's not helping is not fulfilling their role (whether it's healing, dps'ing, a caster manashifting a healer, a tank using CD's, a bard using songs, a summoner or red mage rezzing during undergeared trials where the healers are too busy healing the people who didn't die, etc..). Using one's full kit to the best of one's abilities to secure that win as smoothly as possible is what everyone should strive for. It takes practice and not everyone get it right, but as long as they're trying they'll eventually get there. A person who's barely trying never will.