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

[Jollyy5]

...

Oh yeah, I do overheal all the time too, mostly with Whispering Dawn, the reasoning behind it being that it's free healing that gives me some hands off time so that I can better DPS, but that's not something I'm going to tell someone else to do, so yes, I admit I was being unclear...

What I meant by "standing around or overhealing" is using GCD heals like Cure or Medica spells to heal the tank/group who don't need it.

I have a huge fear of screwing up and wiping the party so I mostly go BioII+Miasma+Bane then dropping the heals with some Esunas if someone has a debuff or proc.

And that's most of the time good enough, just re-applying your DoTs when you can and everyone should be pleased. Getting in Broil, Ruin II and Energy Drain casts are something you can start sneaking in once you feel confident enough and know what to expect.

[Vyriah]

Despite your numerous posts, I still can't tell if you are for or against healer DPS... If you approve of healer DPS, why are you arguing with all these people who approve of healer DPS as well?

I do approve healer DPS. I even respect the player that does it really well. I fully understand the benefits from it and certainly not because I was told here.

Since it seems that you only "tried" to see my point and failed to understand it, I'll try another approche. What about ABC ? Why do players do that ? There's no BLM NPC that say always be casting. But that something that matters a lot for BLM. Other casters uptime is weaving, but BLM in particular is ABC. That's because the first most gameplay mechanic of OCC is astral fire and umbral ice, timed buffs that you have to keep up. Wich means stop casting = loose the buff. The actual buff is pretty long and loosing it because you're not casting enough is unlikely to happen but the sense of unrgency is here. And became (too ?) real once enochian made it's way into the game. And even loosing enochian wasn't such a dramatic DPS loss as ARR rotation still landed decent damage in waiting. But you couldn't use that flashy super high damage Fire 4 and that was enough to make anyone understand that you have to keep Enochian up, and keep astral fire up. See, this is design induced.

The most efficient solution may exist but if it's not the obvious and simple answer (simple, not easy. Uptime is simple to get, but hard to apply), lot of players won't simply reach to it. And as already underligned, there's a lot a things that would comfort players in general in to continuing playing that way. There's one healer in dungeon each dungeon, there's few communication between players in them, healers tend to get a lot of commend because they're are healer, the average level is closer to them that the uptime crazy SCH and bad attitude of mostly premade lv gain players will comfort them that what they're doing is right, even if it's standing here doing nothing. And even if they pick up healer DPS later in the game, it's not gonna do wonders. As Sebazy already underlined : even some DPS aren't doing wonders at expert dungeon, so what about healer who have no experience about handling huge pack of mob doing anything else than healing ? Well tank will die, tank will pull less and they would think that they're just not cut for this. So yeah, no NPC told me about all this. But I've encoutered this many times and is newer player than certain intervenants here, I also did that more recently in a game that someone said have changed a lot. I personnally didn't read the hall of novice dialogue, I was just running into the gate saying "I don't care I know this, give me my stuff !"

What I'm against is players gatekeeping the game, like saying someone shouldn't play FF XIV. Because that's the kind of reasoning that make speople affraid of healing, that makes SE want to have low healer requirement and only high burst healing spells. Because they want a theme parc where everyone can come and play Final Fantasy, not somewhere were you have to weave and ABC. It's that exact kind of comment that's hurting the game, player doing non healer DPS is nothing but a consequence of that.
What I'm in favor of is that player can learn and providing an environement that encourage doing so is better than just having someone tell them do so.

You're a little hard to follow here =(

I think you're saying that we've gotten more burst healing abilities over the last two expansions which has opened up more opportunities for healer DPS?

I'm trying to organize my though while trying ot speak to something like five or six people doing relay nitpick at every thing, I'm doing my best here.

But What I'm saying here is much more simple than that. Earlier I said that MP were restrictive in a poor way and I think everyone stopped on restrictive, but what I mean is that it was poor. Maybe it meants something in ARR but exactly as you say it, it's doesn't really mean anything now outside of "you can't just stand in the middle of the fight and press medica every GCD". It does punish death a bit in healing heavy fights (I kinda regretted not melding some prog piety on non-BiS items while doing Neo) but nothing more. That's why I'm saying it's poor and not saying it's restrictive.
I pretty sure I just said that someone spamming cure 2 on the tank on brayflox will get OOM fast. So they will only cast when needed and watch intensly the tank HP bar while doing nothing else. And still get commends for it because lot of people aren't paying that much attention. Things like that just happen.

What I'm talking about is nothing more than improved lily/eatherflow system that actually work as designed : do something to get ressources, use said resources to do stronger thing. I'm not even sure why is every so dead set of nitpicking that. Espcially to say "why couldn't healer do DPS ?!!" while I'm saying that it should be encourage by the game in a more intuitive way.
Because everyone hate to be told what they have to do, be it tutorials or from some kind of autority.

[SilentVoice]

i give up. healing is not for me. i always seem to overdo it, so focused on dps and uptime, while healing and panicking when group screws up mechanics - to hell with it, i don't enjoy this anymore, despite decent performance.
if i want to suffer i'd rather play BLM than SCH again, will be just frustration about screwed rotation, rather than worry that my dps could have been better along with feeling group did not have to suffer deaths despite it being their fault to begin with at the same time, if i could just done something better at that time. i think there was a post about how rewarding healing can be? yes, it certainly is, at those rare times when i make the day. except it is rarely the case

[RopeDrink]

healing is not for me. i always seem to overdo it, so focused on dps and uptime, while healing and panicking when group screws up mechanics to hell with it, i don't enjoy this anymore, despite decent performance.

I don't get that, really, unless you're in some static group with people riding your coat-tails making demands of you - but hey, we're all individuals I guess. In addition, part of the fun is in knowing how far you can stretch that rubber-band before it breaks - and by that I don't mean letting HP deplete to near-0 before throwing out a heal (like some mega-bored healers used to do in levelling roulette's before mega-pulls became so prominent), I mean walking the heal/damage tight-rope. As a WHM, I'm constantly rotating between the two - healing and throwing stones. There will be times where DPS simply will not be possible, much like there are times I can just go ham without a care in the world. The fun is in adapting to that perfect mix of 'just enough healing' equating to 'more than usual damage (if possible)'.

To me, it seems like you're focusing too much on one or the other. Just because there's a popular discussion regarding healers focused entirely on healing-only doesn't mean the opposite end of the spectrum can't be damaging, too (DPS only) - (it's just less damaging in principle... Well, unless a Healer let's people die for the sake of dealing damage, which is never good.)

[SilentVoice]

I don't get that, really, unless you're in some static group with people riding your coat-tails making demands of you - but hey, we're all individuals I guess. In addition, part of the fun is in knowing how far you can stretch that rubber-band before it breaks - and by that I don't mean letting HP deplete to near-0 before throwing out a heal (like some mega-bored healers used to do in levelling roulette's before mega-pulls became so prominent), I mean walking the heal/damage tight-rope. As a WHM, I'm constantly rotating between the two - healing and throwing stones. There will be times where DPS simply will not be possible, much like there are times I can just go ham without a care in the world. The fun is in adapting to that perfect mix of 'just enough healing' equating to 'more than usual damage (if possible)'.

To me, it seems like you're focusing too much on one or the other. Just because there's a popular discussion regarding healers focused entirely on healing-only doesn't mean the opposite end of the spectrum can't be damaging, too (DPS only) - (it's just less damaging in principle... Well, unless a Healer let's people die for the sake of dealing damage, which is never good.)

i had honestly enough of this crap since heavensward when due to fights design scholar had to stay and DPS the whole phases (a1-3s, Thordan, etc.). and then hello, we're in stormblood, and now we even have fflogs, where people can literally judge how good you are in terms of optimization of uptime, while fights keep being designed not as healing intensive. like i said, i prefer to heal, rather than to dps. but those habits inherited from HW and some fights like o1s in SB keep me struggling for maximum dps uptime, while i don't even enjoy that kind of gameplay. yes, i don't let anyone die in normal runs, when people know what they're doing and tanks using their cds properly. yes, i can even save the day when things go south and either tank or several dds screw up things. but in the end, it becomes a master race, where i have to first - find a team, that doesn't screw up, make sure my DPS uptime is at least somewhere in between of 60-80%. and only then i can be considered as a really good healer, who knows his stuff. why do i have do to so much things to take care about, why so much excessive stress, when i could play the goddamn DPS class and be rid of it just worrying about my dps rotation? there already been this post about game not being a job, and i would love it becomes "not a job" now for me, so i say screw the healing

[MoroMurasaki]

snip

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.

[Sebazy]

but in the end, it becomes a master race, where i have to first - find a team, that doesn't screw up, make sure my DPS uptime is at least somewhere in between of 60-80%. and only then i can be considered as a really good healer, who knows his stuff.

If you're joining a team that is expecting you to hit 80+ DPS uptimes then either A) You're trying to join teams that are above your 'paygrade' B) You're trying to join teams that are lead by wannabes C) You're self imposing demands through for lack of a better word, paranoia.

This is something you need to kick back and evaluate honestly with yourself, because frankly, your evaluation is total BS.

I won't bore you with an overly long story or so forth, but I can promise you first hand that most groups appreciate more than just big D DPS numbers on 'muh logs'.

Be friendly.
Be honest.
Be pragmatic.
Be focused.
Be reliable.
Be committed.

Those are the 6 things that I absolutely swear by. Have a look through my logs and see if you think I keep the company I do because of my DPS (I may well be a beast in dungeons, but I'm the first to admit that I'm pretty rubbish when it comes to my savage DPS, going on 20 years worth of healing habits are pretty hard to rewire), /spoiler, I don't. What I lack in skill and aggression, I try my best to make up for with practice and cunning.

In short, if you're not comfortable chasing 60-80% logs then simply don't. Either GTFO that SCH slot for starters or at least find a WHM that wants to push DPS and start pairing up with them instead. Having a main+off healer isn't the most efficient way forward, but in a casual or even midcore group that's just focusing on clears and farms, who cares? Mine didn't.

If you're expecting to get a static that is good enough to clear their progression in a week but isn't interested in numbers then I'm afraid you that you need to either sort your expectations out or 'get gud'.

Getting an A4S clear with my casual team was 2 months of graft, to see that as 2 months worth of screw ups is borderline insulting. Rather, I'd argue that was one of the most enjoyable progression pushes I've ever had in this game and I wouldn't change a thing about it.

[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.

[Elamys]

It wasn't a statement of difficulty of playing DPS vs playing healer, rather that some people have a hard time flipping between the mindset of healing and then dpsing and then healing and so on and so forth. Since healers are also going to be dealing with mechanics in a fight too, some people might just find it easier to only have to worry about one set of bars vs. two.