Idea to fix controversy about healer dps.

[Gemina]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post3007437

Remember that when a new tier comes out, people aren't geared yet. Like, if this tier was set for DPS at ilvl 350 for savage, nobody had that on day 1. Thus, if you want to clear on day 1, healer DPS is mandatory. You don't see any early clear groups with pure healers. There's just no room to carry people at that level.

That link provided is the impression I am under.

Yes. Since all DPS jobs will be increasing up through level 60, it makes sense to have the white mage's DPS extend by a proportional amount as well. For development, such as with Bahamut's Coils, the development team assumes what the item level should be for general equipment on players when they clear a raid. They sum up the basic DPS for four DPS and tanks at that assumed item level and cut that by about 10-15% for the minimum clear DPS. Healer DPS is not taken into account when this is set.

This first part that I bolded, what this says is that healer DPS, specifically WHM in this case, should increase along with everyone else through level 60. Which makes sense. Furthermore, this is a separate statement from the next, and no matter how you want to dissect it, it boils down to 4 DPS and tanks at an assumed ilv (whatever that means), and then they even cut it by 10-15% (likely to allow for KOs and recovery). Then, in a separate statement: "Healer DPS is not taken into account when this is set". Whatever ilv they're clearing stuff at, what's for certain is that healer DPS isn't a factor AT ALL. If this is a higher ilv than what is currently available to the playerbase, then I humbly bow and thank you for the correction. If not, then I don't know, the group needs to perform better I guess?

It's not equivalent, that's the thing. Go to the tank forum and pitch a tank that's idle 50% of the time or more. Nobody will defend it. Go to the DPS forum and pitch it. Nobody will the defend it.

Not only do I frequent the tanking forums. I also play one, and have ran it through all content through lv60 since I don't have SB. The majority of it synced. No one, and I do mean no one is going to even attempt to defend an idle tank. The controversy on that forum that is even remotely related to healer DPS are tanks that stay in tank stance 100% of the time, and spam their agro combo. Again, this is the equivalent to a heals-only healer. They are doing the bare minimum by doing this, and generating more agro than is necessary on trash and bosses (similar to over healing), but they are doing nothing to add to the damage pool other than their innate agro combo potencies, which are negligible in comparison to an offensive tank and still keeping hate.

It's only among the healers that anyone at all thinks this behavior is acceptable. I'm fairly sure that psychology comes from other games where the healer role is almost entirely healing focused and there's much less time/MP to do anything else. And while that's fine, exporting that here doesn't work because that's not the game we have.

I agree with you 100%. The psychology doesn't even come from other games; it comes from the term itself, "Healer". And it is the game we have. Like I pointed out earlier; heals-only healers are still clearing content. This in itself indisputably makes healer DPS mandatory entirely false. Don't put the knife to my throat though. If you have an issue with that, then the issue lies with the design of our current content, which I already stated is a problem. But I also stated it is not as big of a problem as everyone makes it out to be. If someone one wants to argue with that, I am all ears.

If it's the game people want to have, that's a seperate issue. What healing should look like in 5.0 is fair game, but it doesn't change what we have right now.

I'm afraid it is the same issue. Because it is not the game people want to have, it is the game we currently have. That's the reason why heals-only healers are on the defense, and the offensively minded propose a change in gameplay. But is it really so bad that you believe the way healing is currently designed needs to be changed? Before you answer that, don't think I am implying that this is the wrong mentality. However, I really want you to think about the proposed changes and the long-term effect on the game and the community. Does QoL get better? Queue times for everyone? Savage clear rates? Does the game overall, improve over something like all healers all of a sudden adopting the 'DPS first, heal when needed' mentality. If you truly believe that, then fine. I respect that.