Also, slightly off topic:

The pressure to Speed Run/Stance Dance as WHM in endgame dungeons:

The devs don't like it. I could dig and find the post where they basically said 'we are finding parties are placing too much pressure on healers to dd and we find this trend unfortunate and are looking into remedies' (the 'remedy' was they modestly nerfed Holy...and then made it so most level 50 dungeons now have 'gates' of some sort)

The main reason the devs likely don't like the stance dancing pressure placed on healers (esp WHM) isn't that they think it's 'game breaking' or 'OP' or anything, but rather it places more than 25% of the party burden onto the Healer. And I say this as a well-geared WHM main that basically ends up doing at least one PUG/DF speed run of some random dungeon a day. (IE I'm more than capable, and not really whining, just pointing out observations/what has been said in the past on the matter).

As a WHM, you are basically (esp in the newest dungeons) riding every CD/skill you have and praying that it all works out. And while many groups expect you to flawlessly DD/Heal ...very few groups will see the error as being their fault if there's a wipe (like if i have used PoM/Regen/medica II/ Swiftcast/ Cure II spam/Holy Spam (if able sometimes...people pull so much you can't even begin to breathe let alone Holy spam)/Benediction/Shroud and I run out of MP/can't keep up with the incoming damage...i am NOT the fail...tank either pulled to much/took too much to the face/didn't use CD's (yes many of them who do insane pulls...don't even give the healer so much as a Rampart for breathing room)/the DPS from the dedicated DD's was too low. Sometimes...all of these mistakes happen in the same pull....but even in a clean pull w/ skilled and geared players, as WHM, you WILL be blowing CD's and timing things will need to be exact. You need to rely on the Stuns from your Holy's to proc enough heals back from regen/medica ii...you need to know which pulls best are served with an Eye4 Eye...when to Shroud for MP (because even if you have an army of bards with you...it is rare, rare indeed for them to ballad you even between pulls)...when you can(and should) count on Bene to heal so you can keep spamming holy...and when you need to swap out for some quick healing action. And if you miss it...even by a second=wipe. Seriously. It's that tight.

And therein lies SE's problem with the 'Stance Dance' 'Healer DD' pressure.

No other role is THAT pressured doing mundane dungeon runs

DD's just do their thing, to the best of their ability. Sure, they should try to stay out of the AoE's and keep proper rotations/use CD's etc... but even a DD that plays top-tier in an EX roulette typically never has an 'OMG down to the second moment' on trash pulls.

Tanks...basically the same. Sure, a well-played tank will use his CD's etc effectively and will be working hard to hold hate against screaming DPS, but 1. As tank they can control the size of the pull/flow of battle and 2. They aren't being expected to do anything outside of hold hate/mitigate damage. They naturally do some dps while accomplishing their hate goal. A good tank also can avoid getting punched by everything in sight w/o spinning mobs onto the DD's (a really good tank can tightly stack them for AoE funzies). But again, tanks that don't do everything as well as they should can easily have (and expect) their shortcomings picked up by the healer.


So basically, what is happening (and what SE doesn't like) is the playerbase is more or less forcing Healers (esp WHM's) to play at higher standards/expectations for content that shouldn't otherwise require such standards. SE fully expects most dungeons to take 30-40 mins...of people playing as intended. (balanced play/ normal pulls/at or slightly above item level). This is even more so for content that is expected to be PUG;d with random strangers/party roles. And if SE designed dungeons so that everyone was working as hard as the healer in them....well, it'd be called coil. :P (kinda but not really joking)


And again, for the most part, I don't mind the whole 'speed run'/stance dance thing...I'm actually pretty good at it...but I don't always like that random parties basically 'use' me for faster clears/times....most of the time without even asking/stating they are doing a speed run first. They see 'WHM w/ decent gear' and they go balls to the wall...even if it's PLD/WHM with solid gear -gimpy drg gear and ninja...gonnna pull all the things anyway....because healer can do it for us.