Tank or Healer DPS?

[MoroMurasaki]

I mained SCH in HW, WHM so far in SB and I'm leveling AST. My boyfriend is all WAR all the time. For a long time we accepted the idea that he needed to hold the aggro and mitigate as best he could to give me max DPS uptime. We tend to do large pulls and I just have much better AoE than him in any given situation.


Recently with the level 65 dungeon we decided to try switching it up, him popping into Deliverence and chainsawing everything in sight. It was definitely an adjustment for me because his health plummeted like a lead balloon but I had just gotten Divine Bension which helped out.

Overall we did this dungeon 8 times split between prioritizing his personal DPS and mine and the runs all turned out very similar with the exception of one where we had an abysmal monk couple who apparently didn't believe in positionals and loved tornado kick.

It's gotten me wondering though- is there a clear better choice here? No matter how good you get a tank in tank stance focused on survival is going to give their healer more DPS time and mana. Since we aren't endgame players though and 8 is still not an imprrssive sample size (and the DPS in each instsnce were randoms) I wanted to get an opinion from you all.

Also any iteration of "we should both focus on DPS" will be summarily ignored; I'm not asking that, we do both focus on personal DPS, what I want to know is is the value of my DPS lost to his DPS stance gained by having him in that stance?

Obviously generalizations abound here. Lets say we are equally geared and skilled for the sake of the argument.

[Yahallo]

The ideal situation is to strike a balance. Tanks should start by securing enmity then begin optimizing their DPS actively rotate through cooldowns to mitigate damage. Of course, they will have to watch the aggro as a DPS can rip off the tank, especially if they forget to use their enmity reducer or split dps. As the tank is using cooldowns to mitigate, this should ideally give the healer some room to DPS.

Having both the tank and healer optimize their DPS while performing their roles is generally better than having one focus purely on their role and the other going gun-ho on DPS.

Do note that this is a rather general description and a number of factors can change what is ideal or optimal.

[Rhais]

Tank and healer dps are not mutually exclusive.

[HyperSMB]

I imagine that the AoE Spam of a healer is going to best that of a Tank unless you are a SCH in which case reverse.

As for Single Target, I imagine a VIT stacked tank will lose in a DPS race to a healer not named Astrologian (In stormblood anyway). I don't have a parse (PS4) but this is just what eyeball test leads me to think.

[Kalocin]

I imagine that the AoE Spam of a healer is going to best that of a Tank unless you are a SCH in which case reverse.

As for Single Target, I imagine a VIT stacked tank will lose in a DPS race to a healer not named Astrologian (In stormblood anyway). I don't have a parse (PS4) but this is just what eyeball test leads me to think.

According to FFLogs most Astros hover at around 1.5k dps and tanks all average between 2-2.6k.

Of course that's single target, so

For AoEs I think the Healer will likely win though, and survival of course is more dps than anything. At max level with max gear it depends on the pull. (As a DrK) Sometimes I can drop Grit after the initial abyssal drain or two and use blood weapon with Quietus while still not really taking too much damage and in those situations it's better to do so. In low level dungeons whiling leveling I was not able to drop grit for adds but now going back to it I definitely have no problem mid pull.


Gist version:
Tank > Boss
Healer > Packs
Max Gear = Don't worry 'bout it.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Generally speaking, it is better to prioritize healer DPS due to Holy/Gravity dealing substantially more than tanks dropping stance. This only applies to large pulls, where frequent healing is required. As we get better gear though, you'll both be able to optimize more.

[Pells]

Going by how you describe it, either way is about the same damage but having the tank focus on surviving is less risky.