why do you heal?

[Eul]

Fast duty, mostly some of raid/trial phase healer just focus healing, and also I love heal + DPS.

[Kacho_Nacho]

Lots of reasons!

Healing truly matches my personality. I like taking care of people and offering succor! I even worked in the medical field in real life behind the scenes before my health took a bad turn.

Watching those health bars and keeping characters alive is so satisfying. Triage keeps me actively engaged in the game. I watch the party's health and choose the best spell for the situation. No stressful spell rotations to memorize.

As a healer in other games, I tended to be included in raids. Also, my waiting queues were shorter. I have found the same in this game. It's nice to be needed.

And lastly, I love the spells themselves. It's nice to be able to quest and know that I can easily replenish my health as needed. It's a big turnoff to me to keep dying while leveling.

[Warr_of_Lint]

I tried healing at first because I always loved white mage robes. The red triangles in stark contrast to the pure white robes is a simple yet vivid icon in the Final Fantasy series. I have since branched out.

Regardless, I've enjoyed healing from the first day. Everyone looks outward at external threats, but healers also look inwards and tend to the party. I feel closer to my party members when I heal, which is natural given more of my spells are spent on my friends than my enemies. Then there is the feeling of euphoria when I manage to save a party member from near annihilation with a timely spell.

[Alisane]

Like several others have mentioned, I too am a "healer IRL" so I suppose it was a natural choice.

I really enjoy the diversity of the role. Some encounters have a lot of single target damage, some lots of AOE, some a mix of both. It's fun to know what is needed when and react accordingly. Some encounters don't have much damage at all and then you can stance dance and add to DPS. But really I enjoy supporting my party members and keeping them going! Nothing is quite so satisfying as seeing the healh bars go up after a big heal, or giving an enhanced balance and time dilating it on that great BLM. My secondary class is paladin which caters to group support, so I think that says a lot about my attitude toward that anyway.

I have never really enjoyed DPS. Pushing the line with damage, rotations, and mechanics always seems so overwhelming. Which is funny because I know a lot of people feel that way about healing!

[Kerrigen]

Because this is the closest role to 'support' we have in this game. I like that my contribution to the party's success is non linear, tactical and situational.

[File2ish]

I heal because I was generally put in the healer role by my friends (an early-ish example being FF Crystal Chronicles on the Gamecube. Once we found the cure spell in the dungeon I was healer). It's the role I knew and genuinely tried to avoid when I could. But always found myself choosing jobs and classes that had healing abilities (but not focused).

In FFXI I loathed healing because of one bad experience. Got really pissed off when, as a budding Red Mage in my first Yuhtunga Mandragora leveling party, I was forced into a healer role while we had a White Mage in the group on top of a level 75 RDM healing us ("PLing" if you will). "RDM HEAL, Dia HASTE, REFRESH ONLY!" they said (and I lacked the latter two). That's when I picked up dancer (I started around the time WotG came out). Loved it because it had a ton of utility, could attack without being yelled at and I never had to be main heals.

And now I main heals in XIV. Go figure. I actually started the game as Archer/Bard and didn't pick up a healer role until I made my alt character and leveled CNJ/WHM a bit. I liked it, got it to 50 on her, then got it to 50 again on my main guy and made it his main role. I've accepted that I like the role. It's fun and can be challenging.

Now I'm just waiting for Red Mage in XIV, regardless of what role it is. It is, after all, my favorite job :P

[Reinha]

1) Healing is both reactive and proactive in nature. Nothing beats pre-casting and landing a fat aoe heal right after group wide damage, or quickly casting an instant heal to save a failing tank.

2) I get to actively focus on my group as well as enemies. This helps me understand encounters faster and from multiple perspectives.

3) The dps "rotation" is enjoyable.

4) It fits the image I've developed of my character. Also better glamour options.

5) High skill ceiling. Fitting your healing output to the damage taken, avoiding overhealing, adjusting to burst phases, stance dancing, positioning to minimize movement, mp management... There's always something to improve.

Lot's of people have mentioned the control they have over people's lives, but that's not on my list.

[Atoli]

I thought about the question again and found another answer:
I heal because someone's HP are dropping and no one else is stopping it :P

Yeah. I like that answer better x3
Because it also includes me spamming heals on other classes than designated healers when it's necessary xD

[Rhyku]

Been a healer in every single MMO I played, so it was natural I'd pick up healer class in 14. I love the challenges of being a healer, because each encounter is quite different, mechanics aside. There's that pretty grand feeling of satisfaction you get, when you save your party from the brink of death to total victory .

AST LB3 ftw =P

[UlricCraft]

Why do you heal?

So the tank doesn't die?