But...I...I don't wanna DPS, I'm a healer...

[Welsper59]

It's funny how that Yoshi-P interview has become some kind of memetic mutation that took a statement very specifically pertaining to how DPS expectations were calculated for raid scenarios and got blown up into what the devs intend for the entire game.

That being said, I do believe that the devs have purposefully avoided taking a hardline stance on the more general issue. They understandably don't want to alienate customers who are far behind the gameplay curve by sending them the harsh message of "Get off your ass, stop watching Netflix, and hit a mob if you have nothing better to do."

Because when you actually stop to think about it, there is literally no content outside of a raid situation that one can fathom to be deemed designed intentionally with healer DPS in mind for party content. Can you think of any example of this? Seriously, it's not hard to come to a conclusion of a design choice when it's literally impossible to prove otherwise about the matter from an overall view. There's no fight whatsoever that requires, as a mandatory, that healers DPS outside of raids that we choose to do earlier than expected, which as you are obviously aware of, was not designed with that intent. There is zero reason why it'd be otherwise, besides a personal one for a need to reach for a different conclusion of the matter lol. All signs point to the direction that healer DPS is not included into a necessary mechanic of a fight. The only one would be for raid clears, which... well, we all know is proven false by that one line. Do they really need to spell out something so obvious that we see it proven every day that healer DPS is not needed for content when cleared as intended?

[Cynfael]

Because when you actually stop to think about it, there is literally no content outside of a raid situation that one can fathom to be deemed designed intentionally with healer DPS in mind for party content. Can you think of any example of this? Seriously, it's not hard to come to a conclusion of a design choice when it's literally impossible to prove otherwise about the matter from an overall view. There's no fight whatsoever that requires, as a mandatory, that healers DPS outside of raids that we choose to do earlier than expected, which as you are obviously aware of, was not designed with that intent. There is zero reason why it'd be otherwise, besides a personal one for a need to reach for a different conclusion of the matter lol. All signs point to the direction that healer DPS is not included into a necessary mechanic of a fight. The only one would be for raid clears, which... well, we all know is proven false by that one line. Do they really need to spell out something so obvious that we see it proven every day that healer DPS is not needed for content when cleared as intended?

What you aren't mentioning is the other side of the coin: it's so much easier for most healers to DPS outside of end-game raid content since the windows are large, obvious, and frequent. You literally have nothing better to do than to help DPS if you are a good healer with even an average party. It should be fairly obvious that the healer DPS discussion is most relevant to raid scenarios since the only question in regards to the rest of the content is "does the player know what to do, and are they doing it?" Questions of intention or design are irrelevant there.

I'm not the one reaching to draw conclusions here; I'm simply referring to what's actually been discussed by official sources.

[Welsper59]

What you aren't mentioning is the other side of the coin: it's so much easier for most healers to DPS outside of end-game raid content since the windows are large, obvious, and frequent. You literally have nothing better to do than to help DPS if you are a good healer with even an average party. It should be fairly obvious that the healer DPS discussion is most relevant to raid scenarios since the only question in regards to the rest of the content is "does the player know what to do, and are they doing it?" Questions of intention or design are irrelevant there.

I'm not the one reaching to draw conclusions here; I'm simply referring to what's actually been discussed by official sources.

Does that really need to be said though? I mean, we all know this already. The OP already knew this. If a human being has a properly functional brain, you can put it together that you can do more, so they would know this too (eventually) lol. The design mention is incredibly relevant here for this context of the subject. The OP is uncomfortable having to DPS because of the fact that a lot of people have an obscured belief that it is INTENDED (see mandatory) for healers to always DPS alongside using heals. For something to be intentional, it had to have been designed with that in mind. That claim that healers are intended to DPS is 100% false. So this is completely relevant for this topic.

There is zero content ever created in this game with the design that a healer must DPS, at least when done as the devs intended. Yoshi-P also mentions that healers should DPS if you need that extra output, but it is never a part of their raid design. So raids are covered on that. Now, as I said previously, look at all other content in the game. Think of a single group activity that is, by design, mandatory for healers to DPS to be successful. If a player wants to DPS as a healer, then please do. It helps a lot. But strictly looking at it from the role and how content is created, it's not a requirement (yet). That was the point for the OP on the matter, because he didn't want to DPS as a healer, which is fine as long as your group activity doesn't require it to be successful (which would be doing something NOT as intended).

[Cynfael]

Does that really need to be said though? I mean, we all know this already. The OP already knew this. If a human being has a properly functional brain, you can put it together that you can do more, so they would know this too (eventually) lol. The design mention is incredibly relevant here for this context of the subject. The OP is uncomfortable having to DPS because of the fact that a lot of people have an obscured belief that it is INTENDED (see mandatory) for healers to always DPS alongside using heals. For something to be intentional, it had to have been designed with that in mind. That claim that healers are intended to DPS is 100% false. So this is completely relevant for this topic.

There is zero content ever created in this game with the design that a healer must DPS, at least when done as the devs intended. Yoshi-P also mentions that healers should DPS if you need that extra output, but it is never a part of their raid design. So raids are covered on that. Now, as I said previously, look at all other content in the game. Think of a single group activity that is, by design, mandatory for healers to DPS to be successful. If a player wants to DPS as a healer, then please do. It helps a lot. But strictly looking at it from the role and how content is created, it's not a requirement (yet). That was the point for the OP on the matter, because he didn't want to DPS as a healer, which is fine as long as your group activity doesn't require it to be successful (which would be doing something NOT as intended).

I see what you are saying, but I personally don't find words like "intended" and "mandatory" to be relevant here. What matters to this discussion is the "meta," if you will.

The devs could release a statement tomorrow revealing their grand design that any sort of behavior be practiced or abstained from, but it wouldn't do a thing to change the way that players interpret game mechanics.

Also, you can do a lot of horrible and incompetent things and still complete 99% of the content in this game. I really wouldn't use completion as the bar against which to measure whether or not a behavior is "mandatory" when playing decently isn't itself remotely mandatory in most situations.

[Welsper59]

I see what you are saying, but I personally don't find words like "intended" and "mandatory" to be relevant here. What matters to this discussion is the "meta," if you will.

The devs could release a statement tomorrow revealing their grand design that any sort of behavior be practiced or abstained from, but it wouldn't do a thing to change the way that players interpret game mechanics.

Also, you can do a lot of horrible and incompetent things and still complete 99% of the content in this game. I really wouldn't use completion as the bar against which to measure whether or not a behavior is "mandatory" when playing decently isn't itself remotely mandatory in most situations.

That is very very true. That's something that would really help if they did reveal such a thing lol, but as you said, we're going to do things the way we want to as long as it's possible. The OP, however, just essentially wanted a clear cut and simple answer. Intention and mandate are relevant terms for this subject to get the point across, at least to me. We're always in favor of letting people play the way they want, as it'd be wrong for someone to push their own agenda unnecessarily unto another. The meta for this subject is a 3rd variable agenda among the player base. We're essentially forcing that onto someone that doesn't feel it needed, when that person is clearly right to feel that way. If you've cleared the content, you've played the game. Even if you were carried, you've played the game in your own way. It's when that becomes a reasonable problem, as in this lack of action by a player is making it impossible to do something or causing strife in the group, that things need to change somewhere in that group of people, be it the player lacking something or the person complaining. I mean, if someone keeps complaining about a 4man dungeon taking a few minutes longer because the healer doesn't DPS much/at all, I'd be more inclined to just tell the complainer to GTFO rather than the healer.

Playing up to the standards that we players have for each other (which is entirely subjective) is not something someone should feel obligated to be concerned about in any situation. If they want to be successful, they'll adjust as needed for the group/activity. If they don't do that, they simply won't get far. The other players are not obligated or forced to keep this player who refuses to adjust (or maybe just can't). This is nothing new to the MMORPG genre. Play how you want and understand the limitations related to it.