Regarding healers acting as DPS

[Adol]

Greetings.

I recently picked up Astrologian a couple days ago and currently loving it. Been going through dungeons from 30 through to 42 where I am now currently sitting on. The job is great. It makes me feel more in control of everything going on more than WHM & SCH did and will most likely make it my first healer job to 60.

As a healer I am confident in my ability to both keep people alive and serve as an extra DPS role in a party. I know when to heal, and when I don't need to heal and can do damage instead. I'm sure many healers know when to switch between modes by now without needing prompting.

This brings me to the crux of this thread. About an hour ago I was doing a levelling roulette as Astrologian and landed in Copperbell Mines. Everyone was well geared, including the tank. I gauged after the first pull that the tank would not need healing during any non-boss encounter 99% of the time and so I continued to do damage instead of heal.
Heck, even with the coblyn and gigas that bursts through the wall encounter, the tank still had over around 200/800 after we had killed the two mobs. Afterwards the tank could move on to the next pack while benefiting from the natural HP regen outside of battle.

We reached the area where the spriggans and thunder sprites appear and the tank suddenly stopped while the two DPS and I carried on going while we waited. I assumed the tank had gone AFK but there was no danger to continue without them.

It was then that I had been dismissed from the party. Without a single word spoken by the other party members letting me know I'd done something wrong to them.

I can only be 100% certain I had been kicked because they did not trust my ability as a healer. They had seen me allow the tank to go to around 25% of their total HP and didn't heal them afterwards. They either thought I was botting, new to the game, or just being an idiot.

The question remains, however, as to what I should do from here on out. In my opinion I should not change the way I perform my healing role. Maybe I am taking things too far with wishing to be both a healer and DPS.

Has anyone else ever been kicked due to this? I realize it can be hard to ascertain the reason for dismissal in a number of situations, but if your playstyle is similar to mine and you don't usually mess things up then you will probably know why.

I'm not upset about anything which has transpired today. After being kicked I simply re-queued and got in instantly due to being a healer. On the other hand, I am concerned about the attitude towards DPS healers in the eyes of the general population of this game.

If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone else who chooses to play this way.

[Odd]

If a tank only has 1/4 of their HP left after a pull, you really should send them a cure/benefic. In most dungeons their HP will not be full by the time they get to the next pack if left that low.

[Adol]

In most dungeons their HP will not be full by the time they get to the next pack if left that low.

This is true, but we were in Copperbell Mines normal mode and I had already taken in to account how each encounter would pan out after the first pull. My thoughts were correct up until the time the tank stopped moving and then decided with the rest of the party to kick me. If this had been a higher level dungeon I would have adjusted my healing strategy accordingly. Unfortunately it seems my way of playing, no matter how successful it was, was misunderstood by the other players.

[Riki_Namu]

Im sorry, as a healer you shouldn't be letting them drop below 50% like that. It's stressful on a tank because they dont know if you just suck or dont know what you are doing.

You are complaining that they never communicated that you did something wrong.... well you never said im gonna dps most of the dungeon because "reasons".

So from their standpoint you are a newbie in copperbell not healing and the tank is popping cooldowns and relying on himself to heal.

You straight up weren't doing your role. That would be like a tank tanking in a dps stanece not holding threat well and taking more damage making you sweat because you have to constantly heal him while getting slapped in the face by adds he couldn't keep control of.

Its pretty obvious why you got the kick to be perfectly honest. Your main priority is healing, not dps no matter how gear they are. If they are topped off every fight and never dropping into the danger zone then fine throw in some dps. But your priority is keeping them up on HP.

[Atoli]

I play pretty much the same as you, but I do send them a heal once in a while. Not switching out of Cleric Stance for that though. In low lvl dungeons, the weakend heal is still more than enough to pretty much top off any player. Have never been kicked with that.

You straight up weren't doing your role. That would be like a tank tanking in a dps stanece not holding threat well and taking more damage making you sweat because you have to constantly heal him while getting slapped in the face by adds he couldn't keep control of.

That is so wrong...the "job" of a healer is to keep the party alive. He was doing that.
The "job" of a tank is to hold threat. As long as he does that, it's fine to be in dmg stance and take a lot of dmg, as long as the mobs stay with him. So your comparison is unfitting.

[Adol]

Im sorry, as a healer you shouldn't be letting them drop below 50% like that. It's stressful on a tank because they dont know if you just suck or dont know what you are doing.

You are complaining that they never communicated that you did something wrong.... well you never said im gonna dps most of the dungeon because "reasons".

So from their standpoint you are a newbie in copperbell not healing and the tank is popping cooldowns and relying on himself to heal.

You straight up weren't doing your role. That would be like a tank tanking in a dps stanece not holding threat well and taking more damage making you sweat because you have to constantly heal him while getting slapped in the face by adds he couldn't keep control of.

I see. Your opinion is respected, but I do not agree with it.
As someone who has mained tank from 1.0 through to 3.0, I found my greatest joys of party play were when the healer was capable of support and offense. It allowed us to clear content much more effectively than wasting time with wasted heals. It also displayed to me their knowledge of the game was greater than those who would rather spend most of their time in the dungeon healing than helping the damage dealers.

You mention my comment about how the other party members didn't say why they were going to kick me, and that I should have told them I was going to DPS. I cannot agree with that. Square Enix gave every single job in this game, from tank to dps to healers, the ability to deal damage. I should not need to tell anyone what skills I am going to use and when. It is not anyone's right to dictate what a person does in a dungeon, although I can agree that if someone is completely failing to do their job properly then some helpful tips to that under performing player may be warranted. When I say 'completely failing' I mean a healer letting the tank die due to not healing them, or a tank letting their party die due to not having hate on anything. In the real life situation that happened to me earlier I had not failed in my role, as nobody had died and I had contributed towards the team's damage.

[PetiteMalFleur]

Op, it may just be the tank had a low frustration tolerance and kicked you rather than gitgud. The damage is so light the dungeon hardly needs a healer at all. I personally appreciate a healer who does what they can to speed up the dungeon.

Keep clerics on your bar and ignore the haters.

[Ghishlain]

I would say report it for difference of opinion to a gm and let it go. If they took the time to talk with about any issue I'd say otherwise. Also most people need to realize AST has the equivalent of benediction at this level in the form of Essential Dignity so you always have an "emergency heal.

Move on and keep playing well.

[Calypsx]

Im sorry, as a healer you shouldn't be letting them drop below 50% like that. It's stressful on a tank

Us tanks can get over it, trust me. As long as we don't die I don't care what hp i'm at.

Don't let this group get to you op.

[cgbspender]

Im sorry, as a healer you shouldn't be letting them drop below 50% like that. It's stressful on a tank because they dont know if you just suck or dont know what you are doing.

What a poor argument. Do we, healers, votekick a tank when he pulls more than one mob at a time because we are unsure whether he "just sucks or doesn't know what he's doing" ?