Healers please

[Lunafreya]

I like healing and dps and only heal when necessary.

[-BlueGreen-]

I've personally found myself on both sides of this at various times. I remember many times my SCH was essentially forced into main healing for groups back when things like Dun Scaith and Alexander were new for WHMs that seemed to outright refuse to heal (and would sometimes make it known that they didn't really want to heal).

On the other hand, I've increasingly found myself doing less and less healing with newer content (at least when I bother to play an actual healer job and not just carry a bunch of DPS through stuff as RDM/PLD). I think it says something about the healing requirements when you don't need an actual healer for most dungeons, and there's even proof of a current EX trial being beat without proper healers. When I take RDM in to fill in for the healer slot in a full 4-man FC dungeon run, I feel like that kind of gameplay is how healing should be for this game. It's an interesting, though easy, DPS rotation, but importantly one that can be interrupted at almost any point to toss out any needed vercures/verraises. All RDM probably needs is esuna and maybe vermedica to pass healing checks that pretty much require those.

As many have pointed out, the healing requirements are mostly a joke. Even in the highest tier content, the damage is almost completely scripted and unexpected damage is often lethal anyway (even if only because DPS downtime means hitting enrage). It's pretty pointless to throw something out like a Medica II only to see your co-healer decide regen isn't fast enough and they deploy half their arsenal of AoE heals to top everyone off.

I doubt upping healing requirements would do much good. If they go too far, the minimum gear won't generally cut it for most players causing a larger number of wipes due to poor healer gameplay (I'm doubtful that an increase in healing difficulty would attract more players than it would scare away). Additionally, since so much content allows you to overgear it, sometimes by huge margins (Labyrinth of the Ancients, Void Arc, Praetorium, Cape Westwind, etc.), you'll likely still end up with bored end-game healers since the better gear negates the increased difficulty.

If I get the feeling that the other healer is just going to go nuts in passing out the heals, I'll just go about focusing almost exclusively on DPSing to try to make up for their lack of DPS. I'll keep an eye out on the overall situation and be ready to heal if things start to get hairy.

Sometimes this strategy even pans out for the best if the co healer happens to be not only quick on the draw, but actually know what they're doing to the point where we largely both get to maximize DPS uptime.

[Exosapien]

prognosis ect.

Never. Not even once. If you're grouped with a sage and they're hard casting heals, you're in more trouble than you know. Especially in the two current extremes.

[Shialan]

Please stop calling yourself a healer "main" if you do not know how to properly manage healthbars, especially with a co healer. I don't know how often you ran EX1, but if you still did not understand how the first minute of the fight works healwise, you shouldn't join any farm groups and practice more.

[ClaudeHerel]

There's two types of pug healers, 11111 spammers that don't realize they have ogcd heals, and medica II spammers that don't realize they have ogcd heals.

[OranKells]

I am continuously amused by the should healers dps question that comes up. I don't know if this a preconception from WoW or other games where healers are expected to not dps at all or what exactly; but in this game healers are expect to do both.

In the ARR days we had cleric stance which was the healers dps mode. People took this to mean that healers should only dps in certain spaces. some people would do a stance dance to weave in the occasional stone or bio but for the most part a lot of healers couldn't/wouldn't dps.

but eventually clerics stance is removed and healers are now allowed and even encouraged to do dps, whm even gets a big blood lily. you even get some spells that do both! look at assize and stellar explosion.

Now we even get a new healer with damage spells that add a passive heal. What is not clear??


but to get to the immediate issue at hand of a co healer not pulling their weight. I'd suggest to force them by healing less and dpsing more. I know it sounds counter intuitive but if you keep them alive and just not at full it may encourage them to press some of their own buttons, not to mention the tank's or dps' mitigation buttons.

Have faith that the other party members will put their weight. And if they don't let them die once or twice. It's the only way they'll learn.

[ElciaDeiLinus]

It's pretty clear the 'healers are actually dps!' thing that content creators and this forum push has been very effective. It's become very noticeable since EW launch that healers think they're DPS, and having groups for all sorts of content where they're attacking the boss with two people dead and the rest of the party at quarter health is becoming the norm.

So I guess good job content creators- at least each wipe gives them more time to parse.

[Saraide]

It's pretty clear the 'healers are actually dps!' thing that content creators and this forum push has been very effective. It's become very noticeable since EW launch that healers think they're DPS, and having groups for all sorts of content where they're attacking the boss with two people dead and the rest of the party at quarter health is becoming the norm.

So I guess good job content creators- at least each wipe gives them more time to parse.

Having to rely on gcd healing is usually the sign of a healer not using their resources correctly or just straight up not understanding them at all.

[LittleImp]

So I guess good job content creators- at least each wipe gives them more time to parse.

Ironically, I find I have significantly more problems with healers that only heal. I literally can't even remember the last time I died because a healer tunneled on DPS. Typically, a player that is focusing 100% on healing is doing so because they aren't comfortable with their role or are just plain bad, and end up managing their healing really poorly regardless.

I think one of the problems driving this thread is that people assume because they struggle with something, that everyone else does, because most people percieve themselves as average or even above-average. Just because you may have difficulty juggling healing and dpsing, doesn't mean that it's a common state for other players. The reason the mentality of healers doing damage is so widespread is because most players don't feel that it's difficult or risky, and it makes runs in all content significantly faster and smoother.

[ElciaDeiLinus]

Ironically, I find I have significantly more problems with healers that only heal. I literally can't even remember the last time I died because a healer tunneled on DPS. Typically, a player that is focusing 100% on healing is doing so because they aren't comfortable with their role or are just plain bad, and end up managing their healing really poorly regardless.

I think one of the problems driving this thread is that people assume because they struggle with something, that everyone else does, because most people percieve themselves as average or even above-average. Just because you may have difficulty juggling healing and dpsing, doesn't mean that it's a common state for other players. The reason the mentality of healers doing damage is so widespread is because most players don't feel that it's difficult or risky, and it makes runs in all content significantly faster and smoother.

The topic of the thread isn't healers who are able to balance dps and healing- it's very clearly about healers who spam damage and let others die and groups wipe, or just have the other healer do all the healing and not help- which according to some is good group play.

Whether it's because they're uncomfortable at healer, tunneling dps, or just think others shouldn't take damage so you don't heal them out of spite- healers not healing is becoming more common, and I don't really think this is all an effort from healers to make other players better by teaching them through wipes.

You say you find healers who just heal a bigger issue than those who don't damage... but a healer that just heals, you're still going to finish anything below maybe savage/ult. A healer that just deals damage, you're going to wipe constantly and not finish anything.

Obviously, a healer that does exactly enough healing to keep people alive and everything else is damage is ideal, and great if you can do that... but just as you said, even if you're able to do that and never let someone die unless it's something impossible to save (ie- someone eating every vuln stack), doesn't mean that's a common state for everyone.