The "To DPS" vs "Not DPS" Debate

[SeraviEdalborez]

With that being said, this is not to say healer DPS isn't contributing to a clear, but allows the party to clear content faster. HOWEVER, when a healer (or to a degree, even a Tank) is outright blamed for causing a wipe when the DPS can't clear the content in a DPS check and are of appropaite level, then the fault is not the healers, but of the DPS instead.

I don't disagree, but I also wonder what you believe is appropriate ilvl for something like T8.

[Ghishlain]

I don't disagree, but I also wonder what you believe is appropriate ilvl for something like T8.

If I were to use the original coil as the basis:

T1 = i70
T2 = i73
T4 = i77
T5 = i82

And then assume you could do T6 at i90, my guess would be T8 is tuned to i97. Given I believe the first T8 clear was downed within the 2nd week of patch launch (1st week also only being half a week), this means that at most the average ilvl of a group would probably be around 92-94. This is why I respect the end game hardcore community because they know how to get the maximum output possible to achieve content below the recommended gearing. And yes, in this case, you WILL need your healers DPSing at every opprotunity to clear it since you'll need every single possible ounce of efficiency of your group to clear that~ (but the players who are doing this understand this already)

[AichiSuu]

DPS only when you can keep up with healing. If there is very little damage going out on your raid and you're just sitting there twiddling your thumbs, you should DPS. There should never be a point where a healer is doing nothing.

[Shmunkster]

DPS only when you can keep up with healing. If there is very little damage going out on your raid and you're just sitting there twiddling your thumbs, you should DPS. There should never be a point where a healer is doing nothing.

Sometimes I have an orange/red icon on the baddie....so I stop. I stop everything. Healing and DPSing.
Suppose I am "managing aggro" so not really "doing nothing", but it might look like I am twiddling my thumbs.....I'm not. I'm watching, very carefully, for the momment I can start again.

OK, I should manage the aggo better, you will say....and I do 99% of the time...but sometimes I get a random tank where maybe we haven't "got" each other yet (first few pulls) and there's a bit of aggro to manage. It happens. I assure you all, if you see me standing there like a listless kitty, I am 99% likely to be aggro managing, not dossing.

Oh, or I might be stroking my cat, or opening my chocolate bar

[AldoVonAlexandros]

Oh, or I might be stroking my cat, or opening my chocolate bar

lol, that happens to me, sometimes im having dinner and healing a trial or something, so i dont dps, the tank can heal himself or the blm can heal too or the smn, so its not an obligation to dps ok, understand that, i always dps because i like it, not for obligation, im not a dpser im a healer

[Alindra]

I say healers should dps, but only when they know the fight. Because our first job is to heal.

I don't dps during extreme primals or coil until I've done that part of the fight well enough to know when to. Brayflox speedruns are my best example though - I've lost count of how many I've done, but every group is different - some tanks and dps are better at it than others. I've learned that I should not dps during a brayflox speedrun until I've seen how each group works.

Occasionally, in fights I know, I will opt to do nothing, but only if I need to conserve mana.

[AngelicSence]

I think it all comes down to players, just like how many people mentioned.
Healers main job is to heal, but this is final fantasy.. and powerful dps spell like "holy" belongs to white mages. Thus, they are capable of dpsing.
However, people shouldn't push healers to dps and say that "you are bad healer", this is silly. I also believe it's not about healers, but player themselves. So... With all the respect, I found this "to and not to dps" funny. Good players know when to kite, dps and heal. By any means, don't take me wrong tho.. I personally believe if there is a chance people should take it.

[Shadowzanon]

Zanon's Scholar guide on low lvl dungeon healing and dpsing. (will occasionally update.)

First 3 dungeons. Take Aero, use Eos, you will /never/ need to heal at all as eos can perfectly well keep everyone alive, her aoe heal is so op its not funny. With aero you outdps the dps and even if a tank does leave cuz dammit tam tara again, who cares a scholar can easly solo these 3 dungeons with only needing to cast a heal or 2 on bosses, but if tank is there you never heal at all.

Halatali and Thousand maws. Eos, take aero and cleric stance. These 2 dungeons as a sch you just wreck things, dot everything up to keep things off eos. there may be a pull or 2 that you may have to assist eos but this can be done in cleric stance and you will never feel that you may have to stop dps at all just to heal. bad tanks , bad dps, no problemo eos does it all.

Haukke manor and brayflox. cleric stance, aero and protect. Eos once again. Ok here is were you actually need to be careful, depending on how experienced is the tank and how well the team dodges will affect how much dps you can factor into the team to speed things up if the tank and dps know what they are doing both dungeons can be completed in cleric stance, with the exception of the final bosses. Haukke's final boss casts fire 3 and thunder 3, if the tank has a brain they will go through the boss to avoid dmg, this allows you to dps somewhat but as soon as the 3 final adds spawn the tank may need to pick up adds and will be unable to dodge those 2 spells like before, to top off the 2 maidens throwing fire 3 you may want to be out of cleric stance and be ready to heal bust dmg on different party members. As for brayflox dragon boss, if the tank cannot dodge the breath you will be in alot of heat if you are in cleric stance, the lack of leeches to take off poison stacks means you may have little to no time to dps and more time on healing if the tank is good you can sneak some damage in.

[Serabeth]

I have had cases where people have died and I happen to have been dpsing on and off throughout the fight, but it was not a healing issue that caused them to die. An example is in Aurum Vale on the final boss, dps were not killing the adds so people were getting stacks like crazy, to the point that they were getting 1 shot from 100 health to 0. It happened to be a J run so we could not communicate well, but they made sure to indicate they blamed the wipe on me by typing "Cleric Stance" using auto-translate. While at certain points during the fight I had been in cleric stance, it in no way contributed to the wipe.

It depends on personal healing style. I've known great healers that dps whenever they can, and enjoy figuring out when those times are, and I've met excellent healers that only heal, but do their job perfectly with quick dispels, utility spells, etc. If the latter healer has downtime, he's usually casting stoneskin. Really, who cares as long as you're not dead?

[Spoekes]

Hehe gotta love that last Boss of AV with stupid DPS not doing the pods and letting the adds spawn.

Best part is that they then keep flaming the chat for the tank to eat the fruit, which is being hit in the back by like 5 adds :-)