The reason we healers DPS

[TaranTatsuuchi]

Call me controversial, but I don't agree with either side of this entire Healer discussion.


Healers must DPS!
Stop telling healers to DPS!



The problem lies in the expectations and word usage.
Healers don't have to DPS. They can DPS if they want to.

Running dungeons, raids and trials should never boil down to being forced into using something specific.



A Healer doesn't wish to use DPS spells? Fine, let him. He's healing and keeping you alive, performing his primary task.
A Healer uses DPS spells, and your HP drops, but you don't die? Fine, let him. He's performing his primary task and helped you kill stuff faster.
A Healer uses DPS spells, and your HP drops to 0? That healer didn't do his job, assuming you weren't standing in avoidable damage.


This entire back and forth between people whether a healer should do additional DPS is moot.
The only point where all this micromanagement, optimization and mix-max pays off is in speedruns for Savage content.
Everything else is so trivial that those few seconds/minutes in a total run don't matter.
And if they do matter, you should be really re-evaluating your game's goals and priorities.

That is certainly the case. However, even if a healer is standing there and everyone is topped off that is exactly what the devs are pushing. Why is this so controversial?

I'm not suggesting no healer DPS. My problem is this player base made faux expectation that healers need to DPS to be considered "not lazy" when that isn't even their job. That is even more apparent now that they are losing more ability to do so.

This debate has been misrepresented so many times...
It's never been about DPS, it's never even been about healing...

It's about expectations, and fairness.



Every other role is expected to keep the gcd going, pressing a beneficial skill every time the global cooldown comes up.

It's only fair for healers to be expected to do the same.


The ratio of damage to Healing is determined by the devs, their class design and the combat design.



If someone were to actually want to have healers use their DPS skills less, rather than arguing against using the DPS skills, they should instead be trying to convince the devs to change their combat encounter mechanics and their class design...

[Sitallik]

I prefer to focus on healing.

I dont DPS unless I know the tank can handle a few seconds without a heal or two.

I feel like there are far too many healers who want to DPS and neglect actually doing their real job as healers.

Healing is not an excuse for bad tanks.

[RyuDragnier]

The reason we DPS is because it's the only form of support WHM and SCH have during downtime. AST has cards to help with the support and take a bit of time from DPSing, but WHM and SCH have nothing. Give us actual support things to do like AST, and we'll DPS less.

[GrimGale]

The reason we DPS is because it's the only form of support WHM and SCH have during downtime. AST has cards to help with the support and take a bit of time from DPSing, but WHM and SCH have nothing. Give us actual support things to do like AST, and we'll DPS less.

AST does buffs
WHM does raw damage
SCH does debuffs

They should have kept these identities rather than homogenize skills.