If you thought the healer DPS debate would change with the change...

[IttyBitty]

But it certainly doesn't help that SE is muddling the waters by claiming that they design encounters with healers only healing in mind.

This is actually not what is said. What *was* said is that healer damage is not included when they calculate DPS requirements to clear a fight.

Which...makes sense. Because a healer's GCD priority can change from second to second. Someone stands in stupid and needs a heal. Someone dies and needs a raise. Healer had to move too much (due to bad positioning either on the part of the healer, another party member, or both) and now has to hold their GCD for a second to time a heal properly for a double raidwide or something. Lots of things can affect a healer's ability to contribute DPS that are completely outside of the healer's control. Sometimes you have no choice but to chain heal (eg the entire raid has gained multiple stacks of vuln up).

Yoshida personally believes that healers shouldn't be expected to DPS, but....his beliefs and the content and systems he delivers to players do not match up at all. If he doesn't want us DPSing, he has the power to make that happen. He has not. So it will be expected. Because people care about party contribution, and 3 people putting in effort ~90% of the time and one person putting in effort ~10% of the time is not an even distribution of effort.

"Hey doc, us soldiers are all good now. Here's a rifle, catch! Omg shoot man

Healers in this game are not non-combatants. We're not combat medics. We're not chirurgeons. We are spellcasters who support our allies by keeping them standing.