The "To DPS" vs "Not DPS" Debate

[Lovemonster]

A better idea is to go SCH, summon your pet, follow the tank, and AFK. As long as the tank is getting heals you don't have to do anything right?

[DeadRiser]

I'll stand around as a healer and not do anything.
If I wanted to DPS I would have queued as a DPS (SMN).

Then you aren't doing your jobs full potential hunny ^^
SE gave you spells to deal damage, and as a scholar you have
a much easier task as healing and dpsing. If you are just standing there
you definitely won't get my commendation :P

[Segraine]

Most of the Scholar's attack spells also debuff the enemy. This is more important than the damage done. The blinds and slows decrease the incoming damage, which is the job of the Scholar. Shadow Flare is useful with or without Clerics. Ruin 2's blind is nice when a mage pulls hate. Weaving into Cleric's Stance should be automatic for a scholar, but even when the pressure doesn't allow it, a Shadow Flare is still a good choice. A scholar that doesn't take advantage of her offensive protection spells is making her job a little more difficult. It isn't about the DPS. Using the DPS spells a scholar has is about protecting the party.

[SeraviEdalborez]

Most of the Scholar's attack spells also debuff the enemy. This is more important than the damage done. The blinds and slows decrease the incoming damage, which is the job of the Scholar. Shadow Flare is useful with or without Clerics. Ruin 2's blind is nice when a mage pulls hate. Weaving into Cleric's Stance should be automatic for a scholar, but even when the pressure doesn't allow it, a Shadow Flare is still a good choice. A scholar that doesn't take advantage of her offensive protection spells is making her job a little more difficult. It isn't about the DPS. Using the DPS spells a scholar has is about protecting the party.

You are highly overrating the Slow (which many bosses are immune to) and the Blind (which most bosses are immune to, if not it never causes an actual miss, as well as the problem with diminishing returns). Blind isn't even best-used by a SCH or SMN; if you have a PLD, their blind from Flash lasts longer. Even though, again, Blind is pretty worthless as "mitigation".

[Algin]

From a tank point of view:
Yes, sometimes it's irritating, especially in low roulette, when you see healer just standing and dropping like one heal per fight, and then doing nothing. But according to my rule - if the mobs are dead, and we are not, I don't mind But on the other side, when we are doing something like BF SR, and I pulled everything in first map, am on 400 HP, out of my cooldowns and healer just spams holy, which ended in wipe, that's wrong too.

I do understand that people are different, some do not want to DPS - yes, I know people who are healers, just because they like to heal, not to damage mobs. And that's fine with me. Some are learning, some are struggling. But, if the team survived the fgith, I'll never blame the healer for not attacking monsters. But yes, I'm that strange tank, that when coming to BF, always asks healer with how many pulls he/she is comfortable with.

Now from my WHM point of view (got two characters from RP reasons :P). It really depends on the party. If tank is taking damage, DPS pull whatever they can, and general chaos ensures, then my job is to keep them all alive, and I won't even have time for dealing damage. But, in the low roulette (I'm still before 50, so no other roulettes nor the best gear), it's sometimes enough to drop two or one Cure per mob pack, and you don't even have to switch off cleric stance.

I only struggle at bossess. They hit harder, sometimes cure in cleric stance is not enough, also if I dps too hard, then I have mana problems. Thus, during boss fights I prefer to just focus on healing.

[JonBigwood]

For WHM, in low level dungeons, if circumnstances allow it, helping to kill the mobs makes things go faster, it's not required but if you can, why not help. A high level WHM in Cleric Stance hits hard, so there are places in which he can help a lot, like Castrum Meridianum or second boss of Wanderer's Palace (there's a lot of difference between having a WHM holy the adds or not.) But what should not happen is losing control on the health department because you are dealing damage in Cleric Stance. The more you know a place and control what is going to happen, the more possibilities of dealing damage now and then.

For a SCH it is much more expected to help dealing damage, you don't imagine a SCH just healing and never dealing damage after having leveled the ACN all the way up to 30 and having all the damage abilities there ready to use. And a fairy there to help.

[Onyxium]

This isn't a debate. If you have the time and the mana to DPS, you should be doing so, except for very specific situations where you don't really want to push phases of various fights any faster.

Obviously, keeping people alive is the priority. But if you're doing 0 DPS and nobody is dying, that means you could be doing more to help your party. Learn how to do both - your party will thank you.

[Benolan]

There's no set answer to this, you have to decide from group to group, fight to fight, stage to stage... Is the tank taking too much damage to let up? Is the DPS staying out of the fire? Are you staying out of the fire? Is the DPS too slow on the adds? Are you low on MP?

Just like the decision of who to heal and when is not always black and white, neither is this. If you are having no trouble healing and are getting bored, then test the waters... Just don't forget what you are there for.

[ZhycranaDranix]

I base it off the dungeon when doing my daily I will run through DPSing everything regardless of party since Cure pretty much pops everyone back to Full HP w/o the high cost of Mana

Higher dungeons probably 40 > I base it off of my party with Warriors I DPS they have more health etc don't require much healing usually , and If I have a bard I will spam holy and stone II

I DPS in pretty much every dungeon healing is probably the best job seeing as what you get to do and dictate somewhat the flow of the dungeons a GREAT healer can Maintain MP and also throw out some DPS not even switching through cleric though because sometimes you forget and what not

[Okashii]

They significantly boosted WHM DPS with this patch! I'm super pleased!! It's a lot of fun spamming Holy in ST on the trash pulls. Pull that shit all together for me!
Our team really pushed T6 phases now that all our DPS had their i110 weapon and both healers were DPSing too.