What are the most common reasons people don't dps?

[Tiva]

Hi again guys,
I'm making a new post as some research for my youtube. The purpose of this post is NOT to tell people to dps or shame ppl for not dpsing. There are plenty of other threads for that. Instead I would really appreciate if you guys that are hesitant to dps or just don't dps would share WHY. This is very important for me to learn more about the perspectives of other healers.

I have some of my own theories, or things I hear often, but I'm not sure if that is the majority or not. For example, it is my opinion that a big reason many people don't dps is because they are nervous if they make a mistake in cleric and can't get it off right away, someone will die and the party will blame them. Tell me if I'm right or wrong and why! Is your reason something else? I want to hear about it! If you have friends that are heal only healers, please encourage them to come to this post and respond.

Again, please try and refrain from replying to everyone's posts and saying shit like "yeah but you are wrong! just dps!" this is not helpful and not what I'm looking for. I'd appreciate it if all of us "dps or go home" healers can listen more and talk less in this post. If you currently stance dance really well, but you USED TO be against dpsing or nervous about dpsing, I'd also like to hear why and what changed for you!

As always my goal is to help players to improve and become more confident in their healing and thier play. Thank you guys o7 Hopefully this thread can stay on topic....

[MirielleLavandre]

I'd guess there are 3 main reasons I can think of that healers don't dps: 1 - new to healing and nervous about messing up and people dying due to being in cleric/trying to dps. 2 - just plain lazy and like to relax and just heal. 3 - RP? I understand being new and only healing due to nervousness, but the 'lazy' ones who are overgeared but still don't dps probably just have a different playstyle than myself. I find that in the current content, healing is almost not needed outside of DS regen on the tank, especially given how geared tanks are these days. Once SB comes, I'm sure the first few new dungeons will be mostly healing again until we learn the trash packs/bosses/etc. I was on Balmung for awhile and there were also some healers who RP as 'strict healers' and didn't dps as it went against their RP persona - which is fine, too.

When I first started with WHM back at ARR release, I didn't stance dance too well because I found it bulky and was worried I couldn't do my primary task (healing) well, but after gearing up and getting regen [especially after getting regen -- that skill allows for a lot more dps], I found it easier and more fun to weave in dps during gameplay as otherwise, most dungeons would be boring. Then again...getting under geared or new tanks also makes things entertaining from a 'only heal' perspective :P

In essence, either people don't dps because they are new to healing and not comfortable with it yet, or are lazy. Not to be offensive, but I think the ones who say 'I didn't make a healer to dps' are kinda lazy because what else are you going to do between your one heal every 20 secs or more... >.> New content - sure, heal until you know it, but after a few runs, I think all healers should at least try to contribute a little dps even if it is just a debuff here or there ^^

[Masekase_Hurricane]

I think the reason as to why will be found in the countless other threads.

[Sebazy]

Miri has it mostly covered tbh but I'll expand on it in a handy TLDR friendly format <3

1 - A lack of confidence in themselves - aka they fear that they will put up cleric right as a tank buster starts casting
2 - A lack of confidence in others - aka the fear that others will jump into aoes the moment they put up cleric
3 - A lack of experience or knowledge of the encounter at hand - Concentrating primarily on learning the flow and timing of the encounter or dungeon
4 - A lack of mechanical skill - They simply might not be able to handle the APM that DPSing can sometimes require.
5 - A lack of awareness - They may not spot safe opportunities in which to DPS without prompting from others
6 - Not knowing better - This game does a poor job of coaching players and it's easy for someone simply not realise the potential benefits of dpsing
7 - It's not what they signed up for - Many players simply want to heal and that's that
8 - Netflix/Reddit/CBA - Those cat videos aren't going to watch themselves you know
9 - Peer pressure - aka the fear of what others will say/think of them if they fail, sometimes this is self inflicted, sometimes it isn't

Pls don't jump on this as a 'this is right or wrong' post, just purely some of the reasons I've seen over the years.

[eternalstar01]

Sebazy pretty much covered it...

The only thing I want to add is... it took me a while of stance dancing to realize how seamless it is. I'm about to show my noob here (I've been playing MMOs since 2006, I should know better, but I really don't)... CS is off the global cooldown, so I think most people don't understand how powerful that is. You can weave yourself in and out of CS without losing "time" (waiting for a CD to cast your next heal or spell). Once I learned how all that worked, I have been DPS-ing far more.

My last add is, I think people would use it more if they ditched that 10-15 second penalty when you turn CS on. That penalty is a huge deciding factor for me when determining my comfort level with a group.

[ChameleonMS]

2 - A lack of confidence in others - aka the fear that others will jump into aoes the moment they put up cleric

2a - Tanks pulls the floor and switches stances.

[Neela]

2a - Tanks pulls the floor and switches stances.

yeah this is a thing which seems to become trendy as well... so less chance for getting the extra dps in big pulls on both sides – tank and healer at the same time. maybe possible if all your buffs and cds are up for the first or even second mob grp but really tricky to get both in dmg stance through the whole dng...

[Sida]

I used to be a healer in WoW back years and years ago and when I came to this game I picked WHM because I knew healer is what I want to be. During my leveling and way into 50 I didn't DPS. Mostly it was because I had been strictly taught in that previous mmo that healer should not dps, or at least use mana for it (auto attack with wand for the win \o/ ) So as for the question, the reason was that I had learned different healer culture, one where healers were loked badly if they "waste their mana" to admittedly lackluster damage spells in that game.

I was later lured to try the damage part by some friends and found out in this game the damage spells are viable enough compared to the resources they need, and that I can still fulfill the healing needs with the resources I have and have been happily boom ever since. But originally it wasn't even fearing failing, it was just assumption I should "stay in my healing role" learned elsewhere.

[Fernosaur]

But originally it wasn't even fearing failing, it was just assumption I should "stay in my healing role" learned elsewhere.

I came from this kind of school too, though not from WoW. It was only reinforced because my first job in FFXIV was PLD, and I had plenty of bad experiences with healers who would be DPSing and let me die through my levelling dungeons in ARR -Aurum Vale can be particularly punishing on undergeared and newbie tanks. It didn't help that my friends who were healers had the same mentality stemming from other MMOs.

When I levelled WHM, I spent a good portion of my healing career not DPSing. It wasn't until I reached lvl 45-50 -when I got Holy- that I started seeing the benefits of it for myself.

I am now rather good at healer DPS with all three jobs, whether in raid or in dungeons, so it's been a process of growth and self-learning that took me some time to develop. With it, I also begun understanding a lot of the core mechanics that are unique to this game, and have since focused on optimizing the DPS on every job I play frequently, be it tank, healer or DPS themselves

I always hope people who refuse to DPS can see the game for what it is and stop wanting to play other games in which healers are just heal bots, but differences of opinion will always exist.

[Risvertasashi]

If you currently stance dance really well, but you USED TO be against dpsing or nervous about dpsing, I'd also like to hear why and what changed for you!

What is 'really well'? There's been enough occasions where I've ended the dungeon as top party DPS on WHM, so I guess I'll take a shot at this one. I don't derive enjoyment from DPSing. I do it because it's expected, and I see the logic behind optimizing play, but I don't enjoy it. I don't expect that to ever change.