Dps As Healer

[alimdia]

Original Arum Vale and Pharos 1.0 comes to mind...

With a good group, yes, its cake and smooth sailing but with the average pug back then, you earned your comms as a healer.

Only because people didn't know how to do the fights.

[Keydah]

Easy fix for Cleric Stance is to disable it in dungeons and raids. Even if they dont, I expect the new Stormblood content to keep healers busy doing their main job and unable to DPS. Reminds me of going back to the 2.X days, you almost never saw a healer in Cleric unless it was a very special setup and very special circumstances.

1. That's not a fix. That's taking away healers' ability to um...do stuff for most of the dungeon. It's not a fix in any way, regardless...because CS is not a problem. It's not a problem that healers are dpsing, it's a problem that people are attacking non-dpsing healers. I don't think it's okay to just stand around most of the time, but I'm not gonna harass someone over it.

2. You can be on your toes doing your main job and still have time to dps. Especially when we begin to outgear content at 70.

3. I don't remember seeing healers not dpsing. Maybe in 2.0-2.1 when I was a noob and not paying attention to anyone but my BLM self, but the whole time I've been playing a healer (2.2/2.3 or so onwards) I've been dpsing and seen other healers dpsing all the time. EDIT: K, Aurum Vale and Pharos are fairly healing intensive. Those are special situations though - you can/could always dps in other content.

EDIT so I don't double post in a few minutes timeframe:

My opinion: DPSing as a healer is boring. Your dps 'rotation' is so bare bones it's less complicated than 2.X BLM, making it incredibly easy to just zone out. There's hardly even any reason to be engaged when all you do is mash a single filler spell when your DoTs are up. You hardly even need to pay attention to anyone's HP except the MT's either.

Healing is boring (we don't exactly need to heal much, wouldn't be any funner if we had to heal constantly either), dpsing is boring (because we can't exactly heal AND have a super immersive rotation). Combine the two and it's a fun dance.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Combine the two and it's a fun dance.

We must play different healers then, because whether I'm playing WHM, SCH, or AST, I'm so ridiculously bored when I dps that I have to be browsing the forums or I'd fall asleep from complete boredom. What is this healer wherein dpsing is fun, because I want access to it. Healers either need to have their healing potency nerfed to the point they can't bring a tank back up from 1 HP inside a gcd or two, or raid wide damage needs to be upped considerably. Seriously.

GIVE ME SOMETHING TO $%#%ING HEAL INSTEAD OF MAKING ME FEEL LIKE AN INFERIOR DPS.

Thankfully I main tank, and stance dancing is actually fun.(　^ω^)

[Lilseph]

We must play different healers then, because whether I'm playing WHM, SCH, or AST, I'm so ridiculously bored when I dps that I have to be browsing the forums or I'd fall asleep from complete boredom. What is this healer wherein dpsing is fun, because I want access to it. Healers either need to have their healing potency nerfed to the point they can't bring a tank back up from 1 HP inside a gcd or two, or raid wide damage needs to be upped considerably. Seriously.

I think either this game or the healer class is not for you. If you find DPS and healing boring, I can't imagine what it feels to you to only heal in dungeons...

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

I think either this game or the healer class is not for you. If you find DPS and healing boring, I can't imagine what it feels to you to only heal in dungeons...

I do love this game actually. Balancing tank /dps stance or going crazy as a DPS are incredibly fun and engaging! Dpsing as a healer... just isn't fun, because I do it out of obligation, not because I actually have fun with it.

[Lukha]

Easy fix for Cleric Stance is to disable it in dungeons and raids.

How exactly is that a 'fix'? That would actively make the game less fun for healers, which would in turn mean that everyone else suffers because less people would play healers.

If they removed it and rebalanced combat so that you can still deal decent damage while soloing and questing, but have to focus more on healing and removing status effects in dungeons and raids, what then?

If they rebalanced our stats like they did with tanks so that there was no longer the NEED to switch stances to DPS (i.e our offensive spells would use mind instead of INT), I would accept that, even though it would ultimately result in slightly lower DPS numbers because you're not getting the extra int buff from Cleric Stance?

If they made it so you COULDN'T (as in, actually impossible due to a gameplay restriction preventing you from it) put out those same numbers while in group content, that would Not Be Okay. On the other hand, if they actually made that group content harder such that as a healer I was actually kept engrossed in healing for most of the battle, that I would be perfectly okay with, and maybe even actively support.

I enjoy playing healer in this game because I ALWAYS have something to do; there's no point during any given run where I'm just standing around twiddling my thumbs. So I wouldn't be opposed to being given more actual healing to do, as long as it didn't come with anything that ACTIVELY IMPEDED my ability to DPS if I chose to try.

[Hyperia]

We also need to remember that the devs are aware that a good chunk of people who choose to play a healer want to heal and don't care about DPS. If they wanted to DPS, they would have rolled a DPS class. They have access to better metrics than we ever will. I'm expecting the new content in Stormblood to be healing intensive enough to see that the healers who do DPS will be in the single digit percentile.

Oh and to the people who think that a healer who is not always casting is lazy... sometimes its nice to play a class where its not always 100% go go go go go. The little pauses are a nice stress reliever for those who want to have a nice job, keep people alive and relax. If your DPS players are complaining that the run is not going fast enough, dont look at the tank or healer to bolster your DPS, look in the mirror first.

Do I DPS? Sure do, when I want to or when I am comfortable doing so. I don't always do so, especially when I don't feel comfortable with the group and its dynamics. Though, even on those runs when I could DPS, sometimes I don't. Why? Well, because I got off of my full time job, finished taking care of my family and want to enjoy a nice dungeon run without the added stress of doing max numbers, perfect rotations and totally optimized performance. I do that enough in Savage raiding, sometimes I just want to chill.

[FallenWings]

If you want to remove DPS as healers, then you would need to remove tanks, mitigation, and all forms of self recovery from non-healer classes/roles.

Since we only want to spend most of our time just healing, we gotta make it so things that make that easier shouldn't exist right?

I find it quite hilarious that the healers who only choose to heal also have the audacity to demand tanks rotate their CDs and DPS to avoid taking excessive damage. So which is it? Did you want something to heal or are you really just justifying being lazy?

Healing only is frankly pointless. Your only job is to make sure no one dies. It does not matter what health they are at as long as it's not 0. So then being good at healing beyond "keeping people alive" literally amounts to nothing in the progression of a fight. The boss won't suddenly surrender and submit to your supreme ability to "keep HP bars full". It doesn't make sense from a game or even real life prospective.

"My sub, my way" - Really? Are you so self centered that you can't see that the 3/7/23 other people in your party are also paying their subs but rather than being human pieces of s***, they respect their fellow player and perform to the best of their ability for the sake of the team?

Increasing the healing intensity without understanding why it's currently low is also another point that needs to be made. There are people of varying skill levels. This is something I've learned as a cold hard fact and is borderline impossible to change. And frankly, with Survival being a constraint that needs to be met, akin to DPS checks, if it's too hard, then you will see success rates of content drop to abysmal levels. Healing downtime is an evil necessity so that even the poorest player has a chance. What you do with your downtime determines how good a player you are.

Buffing? Sure, that works. Since it contributes to the goal of any combat related encounter without directly dealing damage yourself. I mean, people get off on being the supporter and that's fine if their support means something.

That idea somewhere earlier in the thread where if you keep people at high levels HP their character would do more damage? That could satiate the heal-only populace as well as make them more useful. Why not?

[Duelle]

I find it quite hilarious that the healers who only choose to heal also have the audacity to demand tanks rotate their CDs and DPS to avoid taking excessive damage. So which is it? Did you want something to heal or are you really just justifying being lazy?

You do know that those things you're trying to vilify go hand in hand, right? Standing in the bad stuff as a tank means I'm either going to be dead, near death as a result, or something happens as a result that will make it a lot easier for me to die (see: vulnerability debuffs that can't be removed via Esuna/Leeches/Detriment). It's not just "take damage, get healed" like you're trying to paint it.

Healing only is frankly pointless. Your only job is to make sure no one dies. It does not matter what health they are at as long as it's not 0. So then being good at healing beyond "keeping people alive" literally amounts to nothing in the progression of a fight. The boss won't suddenly surrender and submit to your supreme ability to "keep HP bars full". It doesn't make sense from a game or even real life prospective.

Casting heals is only part of what people expect from a healer. Debuff removal and (where applicable) crowd control also come into the mix. Just because SE hasn't done it does not mean it doesn't exist.

Increasing the healing intensity without understanding why it's currently low is also another point that needs to be made. There are people of varying skill levels. This is something I've learned as a cold hard fact and is borderline impossible to change. And frankly, with Survival being a constraint that needs to be met, akin to DPS checks, if it's too hard, then you will see success rates of content drop to abysmal levels. Healing downtime is an evil necessity so that even the poorest player has a chance. What you do with your downtime determines how good a player you are.

This is where you can compensate via gameplay. Not all healers have to play like a WHM or SCH. People who liked to brag about their "skill" hated it, but smart heals would be a good way to draw in people who may find conventional healing more difficult. Or a healer more reliant on keeping HoTs up (think a resto druid) where upkeep of HoTs is supplemented by targeted heals.

Who's talking about e-peen DPS? People that want to DPS as a healer is because they want a faster and smooth run, they want to contribute to the group, not only to heal people. You're not any better than the people demanding healers to DPS 100% of the time. It's an option and some people want it.

Except this causes healers to be one way or the other; there's no middle ground because you're terrible if you focus on healing and "good" if you DPS. If your entire argument for Cleric Stance hinges on the idea of doing above X DPS (because even in situations where you can't switch into Cleric Stance, you can still at least put an Aero/AeroII/AeroIII on the mob), then yes, you're focusing on e-peen and not something that is native to healer gameplay.

If you want a healer that deals damage as part of their gameplay, there are venues for that sort of thing. Just be prepared for the problems that come with that, like that class becoming mandatory if the meta were to allow it (becuz t3h d33pz), or for that healer to be weaker in certain ways to compensate (Disc Priests in WoW come to mind).

We can also talk about DPS skills as a mechanic advantage for healers. Use a DPS skill => get something that makes your heals better. That would help everyone adjust to using damage skills as a healer because it props up your primary function. I've mentioned it several times but no one seems to want to talk about that.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Thank you Yoshi for backing up my position lol. I don't DPS as a healer, we are there to heal not do damage.

You're there to heal AND do damage.
It's literally your job. It's the reason you have cleric stance. The lore of WHM is a healer and a attacker. They continue to give you skills to DPS so you can, you know, DPS!