Eyes Open Now

[MXMoondoggie]

On a side note the DPS thing doesn't apply until Aurum Vale before that there is no real reason to DPS unless you want to. For lvl 50 content it definitely pays to DPS as a healer and it's more fulfilling to feel like you contributed even more to the team effort.

[FinagleABagel]

Ooooh *clapclap* you can beat a set of enemies! Then, why don't you solo a whole dungeon? You're so skilled!
And how did you calculate those 5 minutes you contribute? Now it's you that have to give me a break.
Just buff your party with your pet and heal, you'll contribute much more than killing enemies by yourself. And if you really contribute for 5 five minutes less, then your party must REALLY suck and make 80 minutes runs of Sastasha.
Black Mages CAN Sleep enemies.
White Mages CAN dps.
Tanks CAN dps.
But none of these actions are actually a great gain in speed of the runs.

Super easy. I take a group in and pour on the DPS. I take the same group in and don't DPS. There's a difference.

The whole point is to take advantage of over gear. Most 50 dungeons aren't tuned for someone with full DL, which is quite easy to get.

[YanDere]

Super easy. I take a group in and pour on the DPS. I take the same group in and don't DPS. There's a difference.

The whole point is to take advantage of over gear. Most 50 dungeons aren't tuned for someone with full DL, which is quite easy to get.

Not everytime you run a dungeon you'll get the same time.
It can be 10-15 minutes less even in the same gear, with the same dps.
WHM or SCH dps time gain is NOTHING compared not to get hit by a Tomberry Stalker or not to die from a Mountain Buster.
I never dps, and I always make good runs in few minutes, and when I have nothing to do, I do nothing, I just keep watching at the tank and maybe I Stoneskin someone te better protect everyone. I suggest not to dps, if you want to do it then dps the shit out of your cane, I don't care.
I'm out of this post

[WhoIsTheGuest]

@Zormikal

Healing is fun because it's more engaging:
(I can't speak for SCH, so what I say here only applies to WHM)
1) Need to dodge, and also heal, but movement will interrupt cast. (Hint: Go get swiftcast)
2) Need to watch out for every teammate's HP and status effect (to Esuna), not only your own AND boss.
3) Need to manage mana really carefully...factors that can contribute to Out-of-Mana:
- overheal
- inefficient use of skill (e.g. using Cure II while a Cure is already sufficient)
- too many mistake = too many HP lost = need to heal a lot = less mana
- too many death = many Raise = much less mana
4) Due to 1, 2, 3 = WHM needs to know the battle very well...standing in the right position and using the right skill at right time is important. Hitting by some boss skill may net you some nasty status effect, or instant-death...which pretty much = game over for entire team.
5) Also due to 2,3, sometimes you may have to just let someone lie dying for extended period of time, to get pass certain critical stage in boss fight. Only then, spend the MP to cast Raise. Because, the timing of Raising and accepting-Raise is very important: you don't want to Raise when the boss is about to cast huge AoE, the guy who raised may just die again the moment he accepts it.
6) Remember to use some tools to save your self from occasional trouble: Repose, Fluid Aura, Stone I, Benediction, Swiftcast, Surecast.

I would say, it's important to refine your hotbar and UI, to something you are very comfortable with. This may involve moving your party UI to somewhere more easily reach by your mouse, and making it bigger.
Also, you may want to look into Macros.

When you are comfortable enough with a dungeon, consider DPS-ing whenever you need not heal, otherwise it's just wasted manpower. Plus, it makes everything faster and more fun too. Although every bits help, always prioritize healing/Repose/Esuna/buffs over DPS.
Try to do 1 PLD 1 BRD 6 WHM for CM sometimes Regen can be stacked, and 6 WHM spamming Holy can clear CM very fast...BRD is just there for the mana-regen.
Also, in the case where teammates are all Relic+1, you can try forsake healing, go full DPS + LB on DemonWall in AK, and high chances (if nobody makes any mistake), the DemonWall will die before any Bees are spawned.
Holy is great not only for DPS, but a mean of crowd-control as well: it can stun.
Get creative

You may get a lot of blames, but press-on, trial-and-error, and you will be rewarded by great sense of achievement.
Anyway, you will find WHM gameplay quite engaging and thus fun in end-game. Just ignore all those negativeness from people around you

[FinagleABagel]

Not everytime you run a dungeon you'll get the same time.
It can be 10-15 minutes less even in the same gear, with the same dps.
WHM or SCH dps time gain is NOTHING compared not to get hit by a Tomberry Stalker or not to die from a Mountain Buster.
I never dps, and I always make good runs in few minutes, and when I have nothing to do, I do nothing, I just keep watching at the tank and maybe I Stoneskin someone te better protect everyone. I suggest not to dps, if you want to do it then dps the shit out of your cane, I don't care.
I'm out of this post

Huh? The variance isn't anywhere as high as that. I don't run AKs that are slower than 30 minutes. Are you saying that I could be doing at 15 minutes?

Also, why is it a binary choice? I can DPS and save my tank from Mountain Buster.

You even admit you do nothing....no one should find that acceptable.

[Bigpurpleharness]

Yes, I can spam Holy (which is the SECOND more powerful attack after Flare), but I don't have Umbral Ice to instantly recover all my MPs, I will waste 500 MP out of 4000, and this is not what I want.
I tried to use Holy, and the difference is INSIGNIFICANT. Stop saying that Holy is powerful, because it's really slow and expensive, and this makes it really weak.

No, Holy is *the* best attack by most people's standards. Flare may have more potency but you're getting two off then you're done. Holy can be spammed 10 times in succession, easily. There's a reason some of the best speed runs are 3xWHM, PLD. Having Holy crit for 1.2k on multiple targets is not insignificant. If you hate DPSing as a healer, fine. Even ask for nerfs if you want so it really becomes insignificant, but saying spamming Holy isn't speeding up a SR tremendously is flat wrong.

EDIT due to char limit: Also, with a 3x WHM, PLD setup, you can do 1 pull, boss, 1 pull, boss, 1 pull, boss. DS regen x3 is more than enough to keep the tank topped off during each trash pull, and you have 3 benedictions as a crutch that aren't affected by cleric's stance. You really just have a, "I don't want to DPS" stance and instead of simply saying, "I'm a healer, I only want to heal, not DPS" you're trying to say what has been proven mathematically, anecdotally, and statistically true is incorrect because:

http://i.imgur.com/ZWw1pnc.jpg

It doesn't make you any less wrong, though.

You yourself stated a lot of times you're sitting there, and that's without even trying to DPS and heal both. Heck, let's go by your assumption you're only somehow going to get like 9 nukes off in a dungeon, and we'll say stone II's, not even using a swiftcast holy on a big pull before healing... 9x600 = 5400. Not a huge difference, but given you're still sitting there doing nothing more than DPSing... Now take that and say, ten runs of WP to cap for the week. 54,000 damage. Now multiply that by how many weeks you've been doing WP.

And that's using YOUR skewed, "OMG no one can DPS a good portion of a dungeon and heal!", which has been proven wrong. I would go so far to say any WHM who only gets off 9 Stone II's has a terrible group or really didn't want to try contributing to DPS, be it laziness, hating DPS, or whatever.

[Bigpurpleharness]

No, Holy is *the* best attack by most people's standards. Flare may have more potency but you're getting two off then you're done. Holy can be spammed 10 times in succession, easily. There's a reason some of the best speed runs are 3xWHM, PLD. Having Holy crit for 1.2k on multiple targets is not insignificant. If you hate DPSing as a healer, fine. Even ask for nerfs if you want so it really becomes insignificant, but saying spamming Holy isn't speeding up a SR tremendously is flat wrong.

Also, 9999 stone II's would be roughly 5,999,400 damage, as a small aside fact.

[Ghishlain]

Healers need to adapt to a situation, learn the fights, know how to react and prepare for things to happen, and have incredibly good situational awareness.

The above on so many levels. If anyone can take anything from this discussion, it's THIS QUOTE right here.

You will run into a variety of situations as a healer and you need to understand how to adapt to them. You want to have an acute understanding of your tool kit and what you are and are not capable of handling on your own and how and how you can react to surprises or unexpected spikes. You want to know how to gauge your groups effectiveness and what liberties you have with that group.

IE
-Running Bahamut's Coil? HEAL ALL THE THINGS!
-Doing AK / WP with a set group? You'll probably be able to DPS through most of it with the odd heal here or there
-AoE speed run AK / WP with a set group? You'll know what to do because it's exactly defined what's expected
-AK / WP with PUGs from DF? Be a bit conservative so you can gauge the group then make your decision based on that

A good healer is one who can keep their party alive.

An exceptional healer is one who can keep their party alive and have very little down time doing so. Whether this means just chain healing because of bad tank / DPS or being able to contribute your own DPS to the fray, you are reducing your idle time while being aware for any "O SNAP" scenarios that may occur.

[Urthdigger]

My own two cents: I never see anything take down the adds on the pudding boss in WP as fast as a WHM. In addition to just plain faster kills, that means less time the boss is being healed, and a safer run for everyone. Yeah, Holy is expensive. Which is why you use it intelligently for situations that call for it. For other situations, you should at least be tossing out some DoTs. One can argue it's not as much damage as the DPS, but if you have the time you might as well. If MP issues are so tight you can't even afford your DoTs, you've got bigger issues.

[CyanDvai]

As a tank I can honestly say I do not mind Healers dpsing as long as I know they're doing it.
Run in, cast Holy a few times, heal me, we're all good.
What I do not like, and this has happened to me, is I'm running with a goup of Melee dps and you as a whm want to sit back out of my range of vision and cast Stone II on a mob that is not marked.

If we're not doing a mass AoE pull there's nothing but single target dps in the party I'll mark my mobs and keep loose hate on those not focused on so if you want to quietly sit in the background and pick on a non marked mob, well, hope you don't mind getting punched in the face until I get him back.

It's amazing at how many people can't follow 1,2,3 on mobs.