The reason we healers DPS

[Urthdigger]

We've all been seeing the outcry over the healer changes. I won't be discussing that, not directly anyway, but I noticed a common thread from non-healers wondering WHY we care about the removal of DPS tools. I've seen arguments such as "Leave the DPS to the DPS and just heal," "Go play something else if you want to deal damage," and "You're just a DPS that wants a faster queue." Lets be real, if that last one was true I'd be a tank main.

The truth is, DPS healers like healing. Well, most of them anyway. There's no excuse for ones that forget to heal entirely, they're bad and this thread isn't about them. We all come to healing for different reasons, some of us want to do what we can to help a party succeed, some like the complexity of juggling various roles, some of us get a kick out of bringing a party out of the depths of failure. If we didn't like healing, we wouldn't be healers. Plain and simple. So, why care about DPS then?

The problem with healing is you can only be so good at it. There's a maximum limit to the amount of useful healing you can do, which is the amount of damage that the party is taking. In FFXIV in particular, this limit is EASILY reached. You can ignore most of your kit and spend half the fight sitting around and still hit that limit on most fights. Once you can heal that much, what point is there in doing better? Why pursue better gear, why study your class and make full use of your kit, why care about anything regarding your job? It won't help you keep people alive any better. It won't make the fight any faster. It won't make the mechanics easier on anyone. There's literally no point in improving past this point if you view healing as the only thing you should do as a healer.

The only thing improved healing-wise by improving your gear and skill once you hit that point is the amount of GCDs spent healing. Maybe that extra MND means you can top off that tankbuster in one cure II instead of two. Maybe you toss a divine benison on beforehand and tetragrammaton after to top them off without spending a single one. Maybe you work with your cohealer on who will use what abilities when to avoid stepping on toes. These are all examples of improving your play that reduce the amount of GCDs spent healing. But then, what do you do with all that free time?

Standing around is boring and helps nobody. But if you're not doing anything else, more DPS is always appreciated: It makes the fight take less time, allowing for more farming and reducing how long the party needs to go without making a mistake. It can reduce how long troublesome phases last, or even skip them entirely. It's an area where more gear and skill always leads to helping the party.

The truth of the matter is, we DPS because we want to excel at our job, and there is a hard limit on how much you can improve with just healing. Even increasing the damage output won't majorly change anything, it will just move the goalposts back a bit: You can't make something that's still difficult to heal with near the best gear you can wear without making it impossible at the entry level or making stats useless for healers.

I look at the amount of DPS I can put out as a badge of honor, but every drop of DPS I put out comes with the unspoken partner of "And I did it without anybody dying." I view healers who don't DPS as bad because it either means they have a lot to improve of in terms of skill or gear (And I'm happy to help them reach that point) or they need an improvement in attitude because they CAN help the party and willfully refuse to do so.

I love healing. But I don't need any more help doing it, not unless you drastically change combat across the entire game. What I could use are more ways to help the party in meaningful ways, more ways to do something productive with my downtime.

[Nedkel]

Because its fun.

Less DPS less fun.
Healing only is stupid and should never be consider as a good form of gameplay itself.

[Freyt]

Because it's efficient.

You stay out of the AoE's.
Tanks use their cooldowns.
DPS use their AoE's.
I'll use my AoE's.

Groups will die before even needing to heal. We clear a group in 20% of the time and move on.

The dungeon goes from taking 25 minutes to taking 10 minutes.

[Uielyave]

I prefer to focus on healing.

I dont DPS unless I know the tank can handle a few seconds without a heal or two.

I feel like there are far too many healers who want to DPS and neglect actually doing their real job as healers.

[Freyt]

I feel like there are far too many healers who stand around idly while the rest of the party does all the work.

[Reinfeld]

DPS is what separates the Good from the Great. Healers who don't use downtime for DPS will never exceed mediocrity.

[supergiz]

I prefer to focus on healing.

I dont DPS unless I know the tank can handle a few seconds without a heal or two.

I feel like there are far too many healers who want to DPS and neglect actually doing their real job as healers.

If your party doesn't wipe and everyone had a good time you did your job as a healer. Some of the dungeons are boring enough as is can't imagine doing them without being able to DPS.

[Deceptus]

I feel like there are far too many healers who stand around idly while the rest of the party does all the work.

Going to be even more of them in Shadowbringers.

[Hunky]

I've posted a lot about this in the past, and I'll post it again. Healers dps in this game because the game lends itself to it.

There is so much downtime that healers can weave in some pretty decent dps. Many enemy attacks are telegraphed and avoidable. When things are going right, dpsing just makes for a faster and smoother run.

And I'll write it again:

You never truly stop "healing" as a healer. Some people make it sound as if healers only have two choices: dps, or heal. That is not the case. Dpsing as a healer doesn't mean you're not doing your job. When I dps as a healer, I'm always keeping an eye on my fellow party members. I check to see if the tank needs regen, who needs healing, esuna, etc. You never really stop doing your job as a healer. Dpsing as a healer doesn't mean you're prioritizing dps over healing. It means you are trying your best to contribute as much as you can, to be an outstanding party member. Of course, you always stop dpsing as soon as a party member needs help. But when the right conditions are in place (tank's regen is up, nobody needs healing, there's downtime), then dpsing is a great way to help your party. Dpsing as a healer is about going beyond the basic minimum. Dpsing as a healer means understanding your toolkit and utilizing those tools as efficiently as you can.

Of course, there will be times and situations where you can't dps because you got to heal first. That's totally understandable, and it would be unreasonable to demand or expect healers to dps during such times.

And no, this isn't about "well, dps players need to do their job so I don't have to dps." That's a totally different issue. Whether or not dps players are hitting their optimal rotations, dpsing as a healer (at the right time) will always be a positive thing.

Thank you for posting this, Urthdigger. I agree with you.

[LashL]

We protec
We attac
But sadly
Our dps kits won't be bac.