What I've noticed when one of the healers die.

[Tiva]

Look at it this way, what does the OT contribute to tanking? Not much really, maybe a 10% damage debuff if it's a WAR. So when MT dies, OT picks it up, nothing has really changed setupwise.

My point was that even with tanks it should not be the case that the OT doesn't contribute to tanking. If you look at the way the dynamic is shifting in many groups... they are breaking out of the whole "warrior is the off tank" dynamic where you pld/drk tanks everything until it's absolutely necessary for the warrior to tank. This, again, is an outdated meta. You gain a lot more by having BOTH tanks contribute to tanking and you get better damage mitigation by utilizing both tanks cooldowns. And less damage on the tanks often means more dps for them and also the healers. So now we see a lot more "main tanks" in dps stance/out of tank stance in the case of drk. And a lot more cases where the warrior contributes to tanking the boss even if its just for a short time to take the tank buster. To be clear, I'm talking about savage level play where you can coordinate with your group. But these meta's and definitions of class roles all trickle down from that anyway for the most part. If we start to see more open mindedness about previously defined job roles in raiding, it will trickle down and affect the more casual part of the community. I'm hoping in stormblood some job changes will help speed this up.

The roles of "main tank" and "off tank" haven't really suited this game anyway tbh. They really apply to games with larger scale raiding where adds have much greater significance. There are many fights in other games where you have adds almost the entire fight or there are two bosses in the fight or something. Then main and off tank have real significance, because the MT is the one tanking the boss... But in FFXIV we haven't had as many real add fights. Maybe it's an add phase but not the whole fight where adds play a big role.. but usually in those the boss actually goes away in this game... so then both tanks are tanking the adds. So again there's not really an off tank. A9S is kind of closest to what I mean. But overall the term co-tanks applies better in 8 man raiding.

[TaleraRistain]

I have to agree with Tiva that the issue is the MH/OH mentality. If you're both expected to keep up on heals and dps, then you're much more aware of what is going on in the fight and better prepared to take over with one role or the other.

[Gemina]

I have to agree with Tiva that the issue is the MH/OH mentality. If you're both expected to keep up on heals and dps, then you're much more aware of what is going on in the fight and better prepared to take over with one role or the other.

It really isn't a OH/MH mentality though. The astonishing factor here is how the "off healer" all of a sudden forgets what they've been doing in four-man content since day one. It is a big reason why I shake a finger at DPS focused healers. Like I stated in a earlier post, when I group up as WHM, I am always expected to main heal, and I am perfectly fine with that, but in the case that I fail a mechanic and fall, I am just taken-back that it almost always leads to a wipe, especially with a SCH as the other healer. The times I have seen them continue to DPS while waiting for a rezz it more often than I care to remember.

The mentality is the OH doesn't have an OH mentality at all. They are all DPS and expect the MH to stay alive and keep everyone on their feet. If there is a wipe, it is on the MH for failing mechanics. :/

DPS players in Healer's clothing.

[Fernosaur]

I have to agree with Tiva that the issue is the MH/OH mentality. If you're both expected to keep up on heals and dps, then you're much more aware of what is going on in the fight and better prepared to take over with one role or the other.

This is specially toxic when the so-called "OH" never uses their tools to make it easier for the other healer to get into CS and weave in some DPS themselves. A Scholar not properly using their fairy, or a NoctAST not making good use of their instants, Disable and Collective is shameful. It's lazy mentality developed from misunderstanding the metagame.

[AmeliaVerves]

Me: So called "Off-Healer" as SCH.
You: Mixing up things.

You keep talking about "Off-Healers" that don't want to/ can't handle when the "Main-Heal" dies. But this is not a "OH" problem, nor is it a SCH problem. It's a problem bad healers have. That's where you should make the difference. ^^
I had so many AST/WHM/SCH dying in Dun Scaith where I had to stop renewing my DoTs/dpsing and just went out of cleric to pick them up and heal the group until the "MH" has regained at least half of his/her MP.
This is what good Co-Healers do. (End yes, I even go "OH" as WHM when I see the other healer is not using cleric, even if it's a SCH )

So it doesn't matter if someone is "MH" or "OH" (which shouldn't even exist anyways, it's 1.000.000% more efficient having both healers throwing DPS and heals!), what really matters is their skill!
They have none? > One dead healer leads to a wipe.
They have skill? > You barely notice if one healer died. (Except for a loss of DPS)
(Not referring to Savage content here!)