Healers, DPS is Part of Your Job! - Final Fantasy XIV Columns

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Healers, DPS is Part of Your Job! - Final Fantasy XIV Columns

For the most part, playing how you want is fine. But there’s one area where I cannot stress enough that conventional knowledge is incorrect: the idea that healers shouldn’t DPS is preposterous, and anybody who says otherwise is wrong, wrong wrong.

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Dragnelus

Its like this since as long as I can remember in ffxiv

Siveria

I think the problem is the fact that healer attack spells are int based, if anything when on a healer role it should be swapped to mind, getting rid of cleric stance entirely. When Smn or ast goes to scholar, their attacks go from int to mind as well. As a whm I hate dpsing, because I just find the stance dance annoying. Its not hard, just annoying. I do it anyway, but I don't really like it. SE Could do what I said though and it'd remove the problem entirely. Though the spells would be a tad weaker due to the 10% bonus from cleric stance not being there, unless they just up the potency a bit to make up for it which they probally would do.

In fact they might be, 4.0 is said to focus on allowing players to do the same things but with less button presses/hotbar space needed to do them. Kinda like the WoW button squish I heard they did a while back. I could see the removal of cleric stance and when in healer role the attack spells all being mind insted of int a thing.

linadragon

Realistically, I have to disagree with this overall sentiment of this article. Yes Healers can toss out some damage spells/debuffs/and dots here and there, but their first and foremost action should be healing done right. So many healers that play mmorpgs today waste so much of their casting resources that they can burn out on fights. Yes, the fight might take a little longer, but everyone will be alive and you can usually churn out more fights before a resource burn down is felt. Healers all too frequently try and dps and then just spam group heals and it's just not a good way to work it.

People need to find a balance between the two, but no DPS is not "part of their job" it is a throw it out when you can thing, but do not risk things to try and do damage. There are tricks here and there then too that healers need to start to pick up on. As an example in FFXIV many stand still the ENTIRE length of a cast (this goes for non healers too) when realistically you can move when there is a little under a half second left on the cast time (about .46 - .48 seconds) thus if a dodge attack is coming at you and your cast bar is at that point you can literally avoid it instead of standing there taking the damage just to attempt to get off that spell..

I think the problem stating "DPS is also your job" is that healers need to first learn to actually you know do their healing right before they start to throw DPS into the mix. Get your healing and resource management under control and THEN you can focus on tossing out some damage spells which again keep resource management in mind. Healers should not DPS long term in any sort of group content and it should be off the cuff stuff where they can do it and keep up resource management. In a prolonged more difficult fight telling a healer to DPS at all can be fool hardy even particularly if we bring any challenge back to the genre.

Avarix

That's fine. Just don't complain about 20min+ queues as a DPS. It's putting too much stress on healers, so you'll get fewer of them.

PNM_Jennings

The sort of nonsense found in this article is one of the reasons I quit FXIV. Prescriptive, inflexible yammerings about how so and so or such and such was "doing it wrong." And if they say they can't do that? "Git good."

Honestly I'm really surprised that MMORPG would publish this article. They've always struck me as a site that embraces the fun of games, and understood people's different ability levels and play preferences. (And don't tell me that silly little line at the start counts. It's the equivalent of saying "I don't want to offend, but...")

Get off your high horse and let people do what they want. That goes for the people who kicked you for doing damage too. If it's going fine, who cares?

carotid

@Michael O’Connell-Davidson You could not be anymore wrong, wrong, wrong! Go home! You're drunk!

Albatroes

I'm not understanding the point of writing an article that only applies to savage raiding, which the developer even posted some time ago that no more than 15% of game's population even bothers with let alone bothers to clear.

As for the need of healer dps, that's really a development flaw since they do not go with a typical raid number or even party number for that matter (5+ for parties, 10+ for raids). With those dps slots dropped, it just divides between the tank and healer. But if you dont want to healer dps, just run 7 WARs and Healer.

Iselin

As someone who enjoys healing I've always loved classes in MMMOs where the healing is a proc from the damage I do. I loved the Warrior Priest in Warhammer Online and the Chloromancer in Rift for that reason.

Even in games that don't have those types of healing classes I still like to mix in DPS when I heal. But it's highly situational depending on group make-up, instance and even specific bosses. If I'm in a group where everyone is good at avoiding damaging mechanics, that takes pressure off me and gives me enough time to mix in some nukes. Same situation with a group that's poor at avoiding damage and I might have to do nothing but heal to pick up their slack.

Adding damage is fun and a help to the group, but it should never be done at the expense of healing well - that's what you're there to do.

Vodun

This is one of the reasons I stopped playing mmo's in general. People complain too much about what other ppl are doing when they are in a pug. the only time you should complain is when your in a guild group, ppl in a pug don't care about your complaints on their play style they just want to play.

kericstiq

atticusbc said:

The sort of nonsense found in this article is one of the reasons I quit FXIV. Prescriptive, inflexible yammerings about how so and so or such and such was "doing it wrong." And if they say they can't do that? "Git good."



Honestly I'm really surprised that MMORPG would publish this article. They've always struck me as a site that embraces the fun of games, and understood people's different ability levels and play preferences. (And don't tell me that silly little line at the start counts. It's the equivalent of saying "I don't want to offend, but...")



Get off your high horse and let people do what they want. That goes for the people who kicked you for doing damage too. If it's going fine, who cares?

I'm so disappointed too.. I don't understand why people like the author wants to force their gameplay style on others. If he wants to dps and heal, no one is stopping him. If his raid group absolutely needs the healer dps and do not want pure healers, then they should pick those players...

But berating people, as "bad healer" for not wanting to dps... how arrogant. The game is catered not just to the hardcore raiders but also to casual, average players. This means that there is a wide variety of skill levels involved - not everyone can multi-task like a pro and they also have a right to play as healers.

gandales

Funny that the author is showing a Parser which is a third party software, i.e against the ToS.

Avarix

gandales said:

Funny that the author is showing a Parser which is a third party software, i.e against the ToS.

This is why DPS meters are a cancer in MMORPG gaming.

Annwyn

What a load of rubbish... The only reason healers get Cleric Stance is to make leveling easier for them, not to turn them into dungeon DPS, there are other roles for that. Does that prevent healers from dealing damage in dungeons? Not really, but unless you're in a normal group that doesn't pull everything (which is rare at end-game), you really don't have the time to be doing any kind of DPS as a healer. Bosses are more relaxing at times, yes, so there are windows where you can throw some attacks, but the only times it might actually help is during DPS checks.

Moodsor

And this is exactly why I am not playing FFXIV anymore.

plutosams

This is one reason why I stopped raiding or really dungeoning when I do play this game anymore. I play a healer because I like the playstyle of healing. Having to do the DPS dance just adds anxiety to a role I normally love and too many times I or another healer would get "stuck" in cleric stance during an intense moment. Personally, I would like to see SE gives players other things to do during down time that don't require a stance dance and DPS (buffing for example).

superuguu

Hey, people! Let's ignore all 3 of the healer questlines, the literal tutorial, and the main story questlines, literally telling you to do damage in between healing. let's call the harder content hard and catered to hardcore players simply because we want to ignore game mechanics that's been thrown in our face since the first instanced main story quest.
no people, hardcore people using game mechanics and completing content without relying on drool to be their interface of choice isn't the problem here. people trying to play their own game within another game is the problem.

seratin

Not all resources are in-game. Stance-dancing puts a strain as a healer and can cause them to burn out faster. Yes it will help you get through the current dungeon a little bit faster, but it's going to have an effect down the road.

The obvious solution is to get rid of cleric's stance and just have their attacks be based of mind, but until then keep an eye on your healer's sanity meter.

DanteMagnus

I wanna die reading these comments (not really, but they make me FeelsBadMan).
I understand you don't want to DPS if you're a healer, but don't go saying you're not supposed to. This game's encounters are designed around GROUP DPS. Everyone contributes. That's why they design fights with dps checks taking into account group dps. This is why Stone, Sky, Sea exists, because DPS is a key component in this game, and that's what makes it so unique and fun: everyone should contribute with DPS.

Yes, it's possible not to. No, it doesn't really matter too much in most content.
Personally, I don't care if you do, go ahead, but I sure as hell don't want you in my group for any serious content.
You do you, I do me, but this is why I only run my roulettes up until the point I have all the BiS pieces I need. Roulettes are boring and take forever because people want to sit around and do nothing or limit their potential because "I wanna play how I want" "I'm a TANK! So it's logical I stay in my TANK stance" "I'm a healer, I'm supposed to heal occasionally and look at my toe for 75% of the fight".
Play how you want, that's fine, but if your "play style" is an hindrance to the group you'll probably never know.

DanteMagnus

/babyrage

DAS1337

Maybe you should change the title of this article to DPS is part of your job as a healer, in FFXIV. If you are playing a RPG as a healer, that is your primary role. Situation dictates your role as well. Here's the bottom line though, whether you like it or not. If the group leader tells you to play a particular role in a certain way, you do it. You do it, or you suffer any consequence that my occur because you decided to do whatever you felt like doing.

JudgeUK

This topic has been done to death in the game forum, last look it was at 42 pages.
As usual with this kind of 'you're not playing your class right unless you do.....' article, it didn't change anything.

rojoArcueid

I believe FFXIV needs a revamp to the group/role system. Every class should be able to DPS if you choose to do that. Being locked away from doing damage because i happen to like heavy plates or white magic is a little bit ridiculous. I'm not playing XIV for a totally different reason, but i always disliked how Square Enix treats the group/role system in this game.

I hate when mmos force me to play the role i dont like because the class i want to play only has that role.

Dracogeek

The number one job of a healer is to keep the team alive through healing. If I see the team is doing well, I'll start doing DPS but I won't risk the team's safety over it.

One thing overlooked is that Summoners get a heal and rez that can be thrown around when a healer can't keep up, even a portatank for adds when the tank is having issues.

Bloodaxes

This is not a new issue sadly.

When I played wow a long long time ago, I liked shadow priest but god forbid you tried to join a dungeon run as one. You are a priest, you heal! Uhm, no? I have the option of dealing damage, and I want to deal damage.

The same thing happens on warrior roles that can be built as tanks but can also be built as dps. If there's an option, don't force people to play what you want them to.

Vynt

When I played my healer in ffxiv, most of the time, so much was pulled, there never was time to dps. Sure I would dps if the encounter permitted, but only after I knew I could keep everyone alive.

Also, about the shadow priests joining dungeons. The problem is, they would join AS A HEALER, then refuse to heal. If you want to join your shadow priest, you join as dps, but they almost never did because of the queue times. Same went for warriors. Saw plenty of them join as dps, but also join as tank without being able to tank or get agro.