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

[Elishan]

I don't really get all the debate - I've only been playing a few days admittedly but essentially - If you can do some DPS, do it, but don't risk missing an important heal because of it.

Dungeon clears faster, mind numbing boredom doesn't set in, and you're contributing more to the party.

Full disclosure: I've totally messed up and had the tank die on me because I miss-timed the Aero GCD. That wasn't a bad thing, it was a valuable lesson (and bless the poor sod, he didn't complain).

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

I don't really get all the debate - I've only been playing a few days admittedly but essentially - If you can do some DPS, do it, but don't risk missing an important heal because of it.

Dungeon clears faster, mind numbing boredom doesn't set in, and you're contributing more to the party.

Full disclosure: I've totally messed up and had the tank die on me because I miss-timed the Aero GCD. That wasn't a bad thing, it was a valuable lesson (and bless the poor sod, he didn't complain).

We need more players with this kind of mindset

[Anova]

I don't really get all the debate -

It's mostly hyperbole. Every healer will at some point switch to cleric stance for whatever reason. Some players just do so less often.

What you essentially hear in these arguments are players saying healers should spend more time in their heal stance (and those who argue against them saying a healer shouldn't spend ALL their time in heal stance), and other players saying healers should spend some time doing dps (and those who argue that the healer should not ALWAYS be in cleric stance).

Also, you get a few players who fondly remember MMOs before WoW when healers couldn't kill anything past level 10 and always had to be leeched by a party to end game; but nobody really takes them seriously. Amusingly, healers wielded enormous political clout in those days, almost like a despotic Pope. They were just so necessary but so rare you only had 1 or 2 in a FC, and people would spend weeks trying to find a new one if they lost theirs. It may be a reason for some, but who really knows. It varies from player to player.

TLDR: every healer is dpsing and healing to a certain extent. As long as they can complete the dungeon or raid, it's fine. People are arguing about what's optimal for the party in terms of time, actions per minute, enjoyment, and what other metric they think is relevant.

The game queues up the next skill while you're casting. So you only need to press Cleric stance once if you're already in the middle of casting another spell. It'll come off as the cast finishes, though you probably know this but just a tip for anyone else who doesn't xD

Another tip: Macros will overwrite queued commands, so if you activate a macro (such as a mouseover heal) after turning cleric stance off, it will overwrite the cleric stance command instead of queuing the heal to come after the cleric.