Role change anxiety is maybe a thing?

[Selova]

I think this is s normal feeling to have with any job/class role that you aren't experienced with, Moro.

As someone that's mained dps classes for over 14 years, I actually find healing to be incredibly intimidating, at least until I started healing more on FFXIV, so I'm slowly adjusting to it.


I think RDM is the perfect class yoy could start with so that you gain more experience and hopefully it won't be as intimidating to you later. All the best of luck to you.

[Rosentretter]

Before FFXIV I used to play healer or supportive roles but I actually wanted to try my hand at tanking here and I definitely love it. But imo you shouldn't be afraid to try other experiences, in the end it will make it funnier. Sometimes I can get really tired of tanking, and I switch to my AST. In fact I feel way more comfortable farming Byakko Ex (for example) as healer than as tank. Of course in the beginning it may seem scary, but practice makes you better.

[Maeka]

I've felt similar.

I almost always tank or heal in dungeons, but every now and then I'll Q up as a DPS and I'm thinking on-and-off, "I hope I'm doing this right. I hope I'm not the worst DPS in the group." "I hope I'm not screwing up too many maintenance buffs/debuffs".

I know there are some sort of parsing programs or something that people use, and I don't like the idea of them because I'm always thinking that one of these days I'll get yelled at for not being good enough.

I won't use 3rd party programs though because they are against the ToS. I play by the rules and I play fair so I have no idea who is doing what.

[KaivaC]

I understand where you're coming from, Moro. I started FFXIV as a pugilist, and back then, I thought I was doing pretty good (turns out, I wasn't because I ignored positionals). Then I switched to a DRK. Got into an argument here on the forums, learned the hard way through dungeons after the Vault that I was a trash tank, then got completely spanked by O3S, switched to AST. The anxiety I felt as a healer was maddening - not helped by choosing a more advanced healing class that had RNG buffs thrown in. Learning what all six cards did, which ones did what in Royal Road, how to efficiently use Earthly Star, what Sects to use...

It was all very overwhelming to me. I actually almost quit AST entirely. As you may know, I don't have premade groups to call upon (or, I didn't until recently). Most of my experience has been with randoms. But I've gotten comfortable in all roles - part of that is that I'm a competitive spirit. I also actively ask groups in endgame content what my parse was, so I can figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Case in point - I grinded DRG from 60-70 (sadly, I did jump potion that as I don't have that much patience) within a week, and jumped straight into Byakko Ex. My parse was 1.9K,

1.9K.

With only one death for me.

We ran it a few more times, and each time, I asked was my numbers were because, while I got extremely anxious about not having good numbers, every time we started a new fight, I asked for my numbers again at the end - and my DPS numbers went up. A week ago, I was barely clearing Byakko with a 2.8k.

This week, I cleared O6S with a 4.1k. (which is, sadly, not even hitting the 10th percentile right now, but that's another story)

Personally, I put more of a focus on learning when to do my burst, and when to hold back, where to hit my positionals, and of course, always keeping up heavy thrust (this is my biggest hurdle at the moment). My best advice to you is to not be afraid of the challenge. Tackle adversity head on. Personally, I don't move onto another class til I feel I have some kind of mastery of it. I'm most certainly not the most perfect player, and I'm definitely not a 75th percentile player by a long shot, or, to be honest, a 50th percentile player. But I just push myself to get better.

Side note: that run we did on Sigmascape normal was actually the first time I've been able to keep up heavy thrust, hit half of my positionals, and actually be a good DPS.

[Xelanar]

I had the same anxiety when I first started healing. You will start feeling more confident the more you play DPS. As soon as you can pull off your rotation by muscle memory, even when under stress, you'll no longer feel anxious at all. DPS is more about memorization compared to healing, where your playstyle is leaning more towards adaptability and reaction, as soon as something goes wrong.

[Destati]

I feel anxious no matter what class I am. I'm always afraid I'm not using the right skills or rotations. But then again, anxiety is just my perpetual state of being, so...

[Zhamkyong]

I understand the fear perfectly well. When Alexander hit the game for the first time I was playing as Machinist, I admit I was not doing very well but I came from Summoner, so I had to adapt and learn fast, sadly even with a clear I was scolded for my dps score and I only use the class for fun due to the lack of confidence. Now I changed the book of summoning again for another class, Paladin. I am gearing him to do Ex trials and maybe when I get better Savage (and no, I do not have a static).

I have the Ilevel, I can clear the stone sky sea dummy of Byako with 10-12 secs ahead of the end, I practice with roulette but I am feeling unable to take the step and start practicing the fight.

[Aomine1992]

This is absolutely normal Heck even for people who play dps are always worried about that kind of stuff because every fight has some sort of dps check and even though people make the joke about pressing buttons for some classes there is alot more involved...

Dps for sure has a bit of an easier role in savage content due to more mechanics being pushed to healers and tanks but I've always felt dps have alot more to worry about when it comes to actually killing things...

The way I get over it as a SMN main is that I always practice my rotation and times to optimize in every fight...and most importantly ask better SMNs for tips even if I think I alreasy know something it still doesn't hurt to get advice

[RenOkamiya]

I still feel like I need to always be pushing that much harder.

Welcome to the world of DPS. You will most likely always feel this way, at every patch and raid tier that comes out, and so on. But DPS is based on muscle memory more than anything else. Every DPS job is hard at first if you don't main it. No matter how good you think you are or not, you will struggle at first; But then as you learn your rotation(s), the fights, mecanics etc, you'll get better, and your anxiety will go away. Until the new content anyway

Unless you are a really hardcore raider/player, assume you will always suck the first time you kill something. Good news, it'll get better the more you kill it.

For what I understand, the only thing you lack is practice and experience. Since you seems to have "good" friends that don't judge you, take the opportunity to practice with them, don't be afraid to ask other RDM main you come across for advices, watch guides, go hit the dummy... as long as you go out there and practice, you'll be fine. If you do some pugs, keep in mind that they also more often than not suck more than you do. (I'm sure you know this coming from healer when you get a MT pug that doesn't know what a CD is ^^ it's basically the same thing, focus on you and what your doing and not on what those others people think of you).

[Laurawrzz]

Oh, I totally get this, and you are most definitely not alone.

I used to main BRD. I was confident and always top on the DPS threat list. However, when I reached endgame and SB came along, all my finely-tuned rotations changed and parsers started tracking my every move, so I can't enjoy it any more. Definitely DPS anxiety as I'm convinced I'll probably be the lowest on the list, all the time. It's annoying because these days I still enjoy BRD as a job in itself, but I'm nowhere near confident enough to use it in anything but casual content. I've tried looking up rotations etc. but I'm just not confident. So I know I'm basically sabotaging myself, but I can't convince myself to do it. That's why I took up healing, as it's far less of a rotational thing and it's way less stressful for me, which might sound weird, I know. But I don't think I'll be seriously taking up a DPS role for the foreseeable future unless there's a seismic shift in endgame content, which is highly unlikely.