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

[RadiantRay]

Hmm I've always tried to dps even when I was completely new to the game and as early as Copperbell Mines I was doing more dps than healing. I don't get why people see these classes as only healers. I see these classes as support, that means when the party doesn't need healing I'll support you any other way I can. In FF14 the healer classes in this game have little support abilities but they hit like trucks compared to most mmos, and thats where the majority of their support should come from when the party is not in need of healing. I mean sure I can understand only healing in harder stuff like extreme primals, but they give you another healer making healing too easy once again. Most of the time you're just over healing :/

[Iris_BP]

No you're wrong, you can DPS in everything if you want

You are not hearing me. Where did I say you can't dps in every dungeon? I just said that there are leveling dungeons where people won't say a word to you for not doing anything but healing. Hell, I level ninja and 95% of healers are only healing and Noone gives a damn about it, definitely not to the point of telling them in chat. Because if you're undergeared healer or you're with undergeared tank it's not easy to consistently dps. Of course you can throw in some dots and occasional rock but that's it. And many people while leveling just don't care enough.
I'm not defending lazy healers, um just saying Thayet many things depend on a situation. If you're struggling with just healing then you better not dps until you feel like you can, that's common sense.

[Ghishlain]

because i hate it D: especially the stance dance... so rational it's either stop playing as a healer - wich means for me stop playing FF14 at all because i hate the battle system except healing - or just heal.

okay, in real i am in fact doing DPS, but i don't want it. but even if i don't use any HoTs there is simply nothing to heal. and yeah, i'm not staying there around doing nothing for like 10 seconds. but i hate it : / i want something i can heal, not dps o.o/

Rational? I don't know if that's rational, but I started playing a healer to heal. I'm ok with doing DPS, but NOT ok with people expecting it from you like it's some type of rule on the game's ToS.

Then unfortunately, from a healer standpoint, this game isn't for you. The healer meta is more than a "Heal only" meta because of the way S-E has designed the game.

• The game has high potency outgoing healing and low yield incoming damage. It's very easy for heals to outpace the oncoming damage and require minimal healing in sporadic intervals.
• Healers have an ability that gives them an magic attack stat comparable to their DPS brethren. While their DPS skills aren't on the same level as a real DPS, they can still offload very potent numbers when played properly.

With the way S-E has designed this game, once you acquire a certain skill and gear level, there is little else to do as a healer but to make use of the rest of your toolkit - AKA, their DPS abilities. But choosing to ignore this aspect of your kit in a situation where you can make complete use of it, you're indirectly hampering the performance of the party.

The mark of a good healer is adaptability. Any healer worth their salt knows how to adapt to a situation regardless of the game they play. When I played WoW in the Burning Crusade era, there was little time to do anything BUT heal in raids because if the tank wasn't fully topped, a random crit spike can potentially one shot your tank. They designed their game where you NEEDED three healers healing your solo tank to prevent a wipe. That's a meta more suitable to these kind of comments.

In the FFXIV healing meta, there are lots of instances of downtime for a healer once they and their party are sufficiently geared and at these junctures they should be making use of their DPS skills to accelerate the pace of the activity.

As I've stated in the comment that was replied to - there is little reason to not make use of the rest of your toolkit unless you choose not to. Again, I reiterate - I understand that comfort level is a factor and any new healer to an instance should take time to gain that familiarity and gauge their party. Once they've hit beyond that?

...well, again, I will also reiterate I have yet to hear of a good reason to not DPS. "I don't want to" is a comment made by an unadaptable player which in my mind is something I personally frown upon but won't really openly begrudge either as long as the party is flowing forward at a good pace.

With that being said - Adapt to the meta you're given or fall into obscurity. That is your decision to make.

They don't have to? Maybe they don't feel comfortable and want to stay focused solely on healing, because they are learning. I'm sure some are lazy, but that's their choice. As long as you're all alive til the end complaining is silly.

I've already stated in my original comment about comfort level. Just to restate that since it was clearly missed.

I can understand being new and uncomfortable initially - this makes a lot of sense.

So, please enlighten me - what good reason does anyone have to not DPS as a healer when they're over geared for the situation? There has yet to be any reason outside of "I don't feel like it" or "I'm lazy" and there have been many points to the "I'm Lazy" discussion already.

Also, I'm not really complaining about the whole thing. As I mentioned earlier in this post, if you don't want to DPS and you're in my party, I'll just shrug it off and keep going. I'm just curious to hear what rational a "Heal only" healer has outside of "I don't want to" or "I'm lazy". Both are those indicate inflexibility and no desire to become a better player. Players advocating DPS advocate that because they want to see the player base grow in skill. Admittedly, some these "advocates" are too petty and aggressive about it (but that argument can be made on the "Nope, not gonna DPS" camp too).

[MentheusDreyar]

Because if you're undergeared healer or you're with undergeared tank it's not easy to consistently dps. Of course you can throw in some dots and occasional rock but that's it. And many people while leveling just don't care enough.
I'm not defending lazy healers, um just saying Thayet many things depend on a situation. If you're struggling with just healing then you better not dps until you feel like you can, that's common sense.

No i hear you, and i agree there are situations where you can't and if you're struggling to heal then don't DPS due to whatever reason. But these situations are few and far inbetween. I myself have never encountered one, hell the first thing i do when entering new content as my healers in see how much DPS i can output, with HoT and mitigation is easy as hell to ignore healing until last minute, as you'll unlikely need your emergency heal again before it's off CD. I pretty much use them every pull, no use saving them only to never use them

But i started out DPSing as early as Halatali, healer undergeared, tank undergeared doesn't really matter except in mass pulls. DPSing while healing is still very easy in those situations, heck i've been doing it all day so i know what i'm talking about

And if they are mass pulling while undergeared they will more than likely die before you run out of MP. So either way it's a non issue.

[Fevelle]

"Adapt to the meta you're given or fall into obscurity"

Yup, continue focusing yourself on metagaming and theory while players give up on the game. Nice, rational choice! Plus, who's going to put me into obscurity? DF players who can't even dodge AoEs right? Oh, I see, that's dangerous. But if you're talking about content where meta game really matters, I really don't care, hardcore is far beyond my line of interest. And it seems it was too for the poor player who got scared by all these people who care more for numbers than for the players confort.

[Ghishlain]

"Adapt to the meta you're given or fall into obscurity"

Yup, continue focusing yourself on metagaming and theory while players give up on the game. Nice, rational choice! Plus, who's going to put me into obscurity? DF players who can't even dodge AoEs right? Oh, I see, that's dangerous. But if you're talking about content where meta game really matters, I really don't care, hardcore is far beyond my line of interest. And it seems it was too for the poor player who got scared by all these people who care more for numbers than for the players confort.

If you're looking for a game with raw and unadulterated necessity of raw HPS, this is unfortunately not the game for that. That's the simple truth of the matter.

As much as I want to encourage the growth of the game, I also don't want people playing something they personally don't enjoy because of the very fact they don't enjoy it. There are other healing metas that are suited for that and perhaps other games that are more suitable.

Will that make our population worse? Definitely. But each individual should try to find a past time that suits them just fine and there will be players that you just can't cater too because of the way the game is designed. That's the unfortunate circumstance of FFXIV Healing and while I absolutely love the choice of being able to mend or maim, I know others do not.

And no, I think the OP left the game because he sampled it, tried to see if he could enjoy it, felt he couldn't and moved on. There's nothing more to it. It's sad to see a player go but I wish him well in his future endeavors in gaming. I don't get the impression he was scared of the people, just didn't enjoy how the healing in this game works. I felt he got the information he required to make an informed and right decision. He wasn't looking for comfort - he was looking for information and made his choice based on that.

Could some posters have been more tactful? Oh yes, that's certainly the case in any of these discussions on both sides of the thread. But that's an unfortunate side effect of posters not filtering for tact on an anonymous message board.

[braneri1]

As I said before the op didn't really care and had given up from post number 1 if you had actually followed this thread fully, it's painfully obvious. But keep believing your little fairy tale you have made about it in order to demonize everyone who doesn't agree with you Fevelle.

It gets rather tiring seeing the same old strawman arguments that have long since been burned to ashes.

[Eii]

This is not a problem in Japanese servers, but from what I read from these comments is the following:
"I can just do the minimal effort possible, I WANT to look at netflix/FB" or
"It's just a GAME, I can do what I want, it's my money"

So some people truly do this just because they want to be lazy. If this is not toxic behaviour I don't know what is.

the fun thing is, these are actually arguments from the "i'm a dps class, stop telling me my class symbol is green" fraction to ridicule the other two factions. no, neither are they uses by the "heals should only heal" nor the "i dps b/c i want to fasten the run a bit" faction.

what i find most amusing is, when i was farming my zodiac items as whm (was tired of tanking halatali run after run) i realized that dpsing as whm is actually the real lazy method. you redecue your class from a big mash of different skills to just 2-3 at all depending on boss or trash. on trash you just spam holy and throw bene/cure II; on bosses you just throw stone II until tank has around 10% and then some cure II til he's topped again and maybe a regen after that. repeat until dungeon done. yay. i didnt really paid attention to the dungeon. i was actually doing smth else entirely. that's funny, because i was able to read a manga. and it was easier doing this during a dungeon run as whm than it ever was as a tank (and you dont even have to look constantly at your screen if you're playing tank at all)

10/10 would never heal any dungeon again. most boring thing ever done. i prefer running mindless circles around limsa aetheryte though

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

you redecue your class from a big mash of different skills to just 2-3 at all depending on boss or trash

You do realise that if you're just healing, you're reducing your job to a single button, two at most, right?

Or in case of scholars in low level dungeons - Which I've actually witnessed before - /follow the tank and hit a button every 10 minutes not to get auto-kicked.

[Eii]

hm, well, if you play around with those awesome(ly useless) healing tools you could at least pretend you*re doing smth once in a while.

but yeah, srsly, all in all, playing healer either way is damn boring. and keep in mind that i main a class where "just stand there while mostly doing nothing" is actually the only thing possible because all the battles so hard scripted, you can tank them in controller mode (or playing on a console) without being in the same room or sometimes ppl wont notice if you fall asleep as a tank (they somehow noticed in t11 though, fun times, didnt die, no wipe, but a bit of surprise in their voice xD)
for what i've seen (and experienced), at least as sch, its just the same. only difference is where you stand during the fight/sleep x)

if you ever wondered why ppl say this game bores them. well, now you know...