Honest question from a sprout, healer dps versus actual dps?

[Renathras]

What Roe said is pretty accurate overall.

RDM is probably the closest to what you're looking for if you prefer more staying at range and a hybrid. It also does let you play a little melee if you want, but for the most part you just do it for your big damage phase, and it's just 3 quick slashes before you're out again. Between the healing and raising and a pretty straightforward rotation and gameplay, it's pretty solid.

SMN actually does have healing, but it's weird. Up until level 60 or so, your base heal (Physic) is generally somewhat useful, but it drops off pretty hard between 50 and 60, then isn't worth it past that point. On the other hand, at level 80, you get Phoenix, which gives you party heal as part of your rotation and a strong single target heal you can apply on the tank (or yourself or anyone you feel like needs it). This isn't as on-demand as RDM since it only comes at a set point in your rotation, though, but it is very powerful. SMN also has a raise, though it's not as powerful as RDM's since RDM can basically chain raise 4-5 people in quick succession and SMN is more like a healer as it can Swiftcast (instant) one but then has to slowcast any additional ones.

DNC has a party heal you can use at any point in your rotation (unlike SMN), and it has half the time span (once per 1 mins) between uses. You can just move it around where SMN's is more rigid in where it comes in the rotation. DNC doesn't have a raise, though.

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As for healers doing damage;

WHM and SGE do about the same damage and around 60-70% of DPS Jobs, which is pretty good.

SCH does a bit less, though has the strongest AOE spam spell, and the faerie can help you heal while you're doing other things. SCH is kind of a "party in a box" if you have a tanking Chocobo since, for most overworld stuff, your Choco can tank, you can dish out damage, and Eos can keep you both healed. And as said above, SCH levels with SMN, giving you that option.

AST does the least damage of any Job in the game BECAUSE it's balanced around its party buffs increasing the damage of your allies. This means AST itself does low damage personally. When in a party with good damage dealers, AST's total damage contribution (if you include, say, you buffing that SAM so it can do more damage) is arguably the highest of the healers. But the flip side is that it does less damage ITSELF to make up for this and not make it OP vs the others. It's...arguably the worst Job in the game to solo with in terms of damage races.

And yeah, Choco advise is good, whether you play a Tank or Healer or DPSer.