Nobody Really Wants To Heal

[Stanelis]

Thanks for the good laugh with this topic, always funny to see where this "only DPS matters" meta leads to.

[Penthea]

I would rather have zero DPS skills and play content that actually hurts. I don't care if it's as simple as more unavoidable damage, more poxes upon the party I have to esuna or more bleeding mechanics I have to HOT through.

I just want to heal, is that so much to ask? It's very annoying to be expected to play a healer as if I'm a sad excuse of a DPS class with healing as an afterthought depending on who can't move in time.

My biggest problem with the whole "healers should always dps!" mentality is that healers are expected to be hybrids so they must use both their offensive and support spells, while dps are rarely expected to use their defensive and supportive abilities aside from ressing. I can count on one hand the amount of times I have seen a dps being told off for not using support abilities which would actually permit healers more to do dps, yet I see snarky remarks about dps being directed to healers pretty often. And this isn't because dps usually use their full kit. In my experience they rarely do.

The cherry on top is when I look up some of the players in these forums on fflogs who complain about healers being unable to balance both dps and healing, while often their own logs show some pitiful dps numbers and usually an utter lack of using support abilities.

The hypocrisy drives me mad.

[Adrestia]

My biggest problem with the whole "healers should always dps!" mentality is that healers are expected to be hybrids so they must use both their offensive and support spells, while dps are rarely expected to use their defensive and supportive abilities aside from ressing. I can count on one hand the amount of times I have seen a dps being told off for not using support abilities which would actually permit healers more to do dps, yet I see snarky remarks about dps being directed to healers pretty often. And this isn't because dps usually use their full kit. In my experience they rarely do.

The cherry on top is when I look up some of the players in these forums on fflogs who complain about healers being unable to balance both dps and healing, while often their own logs show some pitiful dps numbers and usually an utter lack of using support abilities.

The hypocrisy drives me mad.

In pugging scenarios these support abilities are often just considered a bonus by the community, as you say. Probably in large part because pugs don’t want to/don’t expect success out of organizing feint, addle, palisade, etc. rotations. However I can assure you that in group play many of us plan these things out so no tank buster is taken without support, the busters at the most critical moments get the strongest support. Addle was a huge part of the way we handled Neo Exdeath for example, and you’re totally on the mark that the reason we did it is so healers could maximize DPS.

It’s unfortunate that the broader community doesn’t easily see the importance of these things the way they see the importance of healer DPS. The only thing I can say to mitigate it is that in the case of healer DPS, it’s about filling GCDs and performing a comparable number of actions over the course of a fight as your party members. That and the fact that healer damage is no joke and is definitely not “a few points of damage.” I think people have a harder time visualizing what something like a 10% damage reduction on a big hit enables for the group.

[Penthea]

In pugging scenarios these support abilities are often just considered a bonus by the community, as you say. Probably in large part because pugs don’t want to/don’t expect success out of organizing feint, addle, palisade, etc. rotations. However I can assure you that in group play many of us plan these things out so no tank buster is taken without support, the busters at the most critical moments get the strongest support. Addle was a huge part of the way we handled Neo Exdeath for example, and you’re totally on the mark that the reason we did it is so healers could maximize DPS.

I know all of this already. My problem is the expectation for dps to use their full kit tends to usually be restricted to ex and savage and even then it's not always a god given rule for them. Whereas for healers it doesn't matter what content they're in. They're expected to be hybrids 24/7.

It’s unfortunate that the broader community doesn’t easily see the importance of these things the way they see the importance of healer DPS. The only thing I can say to mitigate it is that in the case of healer DPS, it’s about filling GCDs and performing a comparable number of actions over the course of a fight as your party members. That and the fact that healer damage is no joke and is definitely not “a few points of damage.” I think people have a harder time visualizing what something like a 10% damage reduction on a big hit enables for the group.

I understand if people complain at a healer standing around doing nothing, or over healing a lot. But sadly these aren't the only times when healers are being told to dps. I have seen abuse thrown at healers for using gcds on much needed healing. Some people quite frankly don't understand the demands of healing to the point that they are asking for healers to doom the party to wipe. Meanwhile we don't see much of anything being said to dps even though using their support abilities doesn't even cost them numbers because they're ogcds...and even though simple logic dictates that this would increase the team's dps due to giving the healer less to heal.

I'm just tired of seeing the weight of playing a hybrid being only on the healer's shoulders when the fact is every class in the game can do things to help the healer be able to dps more, without it costing them their own dps.

[Liam_Harper]

I would rather have zero DPS skills and play content that actually hurts.

Why not have content that actually hurts and often requires constant healing and have your dps skills? In which case it wouldn't be expected of you, but more a bonus and a higher skill ceiling.

Those who argue for dpsing as a healer do want healing to still be the primary focus. Higher damage intake would be great. But the appeal of the role for a lot of players is being able to contribute more to the party than a simple dps. Being able to keep your entire party alive flawlessly and adding a few thousand extra raid dps makes you very valuable to a group, especially when high end fights are on timers. It rewards playing exceptionally well. That appeals to some players.

[Hash_Browns]

I know all of this already. My problem is the expectation for dps to use their full kit tends to usually be restricted to ex and savage and even then it's not always a god given rule for them. Whereas for healers it doesn't matter what content they're in. They're expected to be hybrids 24/7.

I think the problem with that comes to downtime.
The lower the content, the more downtime a healer usually has with a decent party. Ultimately I would personally expect DPS to use support abilities they have even in PUGs, however.

[Adrestia]

I understand if people complain at a healer standing around doing nothing, or over healing a lot. But sadly these aren't the only times when healers are being told to dps. I have seen abuse thrown at healers for using gcds on much needed healing. Some people quite frankly don't understand the demands of healing to the point that they are asking for healers to doom the party to wipe.

I’m sure you are correct that this does happen. The internet is full of people ready to point fingers despite only having a surface level understanding of what they’re complaining about.

However, there are also a lot of healers out there who don’t know or don’t care that GCD healing is not the norm in this game. When their default go-to should be waiting for an efficient tetra, essential dignity, etc., they instead hold onto those cooldowns for an emergency that is never going to come, and waste all their GCDs mashing entirely superfluous heals. This is very bad play in the same way that a tank not using cooldowns until it’s too late to matter is very bad play, and it’s okay to expect more out of our healers. It should be done tactfully of course, but they should learn this fact and apply it.

[Adrestia]

Re: expecting healers to be hybrids, all I personally expect is that healers are equally engaged and putting as much valuable effort into an encounter as anyone else. Today, that means about 60-70% of their GCDs should be spent doing damage. I’d *love* it if this game was much more demanding in terms of healing and healers didn’t have substantial time to DPS. I’d love it so much.

However, that’s not going to happen. The team behind this game is not going to alienate healers who cannot handle pressing a button every 2.5 seconds or so. Right now they may be playing badly by not DPSing and they may be called out, both in good and less-good ways, but they at least get to clear content. Bring the healing requirements up to WoW levels and a lot of people are going to stop being able to even finish dungeons.

Do I think these people should “gitgud?” By and large, sure. I prefer video games to be video games, not movies where a successful outcome is basically guaranteed. But I don’t work for Yoshida. What I think doesn’t matter. What we’re going to get is healing that requires the same ~30% uptime or maybe a tiny bit more, but not a radical increase of difficulty that requires intense healing every global and tons of micromanagement of MP cooldowns and decision-making between MP efficient and high throughput heals. Some 60-70%ish of the time, the optimal choice will still be for a healer to cast a DPS spell.

[Penthea]

I’m sure you are correct that this does happen. The internet is full of people ready to point fingers despite only having a surface level understanding of what they’re complaining about.

However, there are also a lot of healers out there who don’t know or don’t care that GCD healing is not the norm in this game. When their default go-to should be waiting for an efficient tetra, essential dignity, etc., they instead hold onto those cooldowns for an emergency that is never going to come, and waste all their GCDs mashing entirely superfluous heals. This is very bad play in the same way that a tank not using cooldowns until it’s too late to matter is very bad play, and it’s okay to expect more out of our healers. It should be done tactfully of course, but they should learn this fact and apply it.

Well yes of course but there are bad players in every role. My point hasn't got to do with bad players as such, more that the expectation to use your full kit is constant as a healer but is only in a handful of content as a dps. Even if said dps kit can help healers do what is expected of them even better. It's hypocritical, annoying and illogical. That's it.

[Drayce1]

I like the changes. Now healers will have to actually heal, and not let tank die due to ermahgodbigdikdpsu and then blaming the tank for dying. .

But please. Carry on.