If I am running with a well meaning newbie tank, who is still learning (or we lack a tank) I will gladly focus 100% on healing. If I am in unfamiliar content, or running more difficult content I will focus 100% on healing.

 

If, on the other hand, the tank is really good or the group as a whole is easy to keep up I'll probably DPS. Instances like Esseles I will act primarily as a DPS and heal as we're heading towards the next pull. More than that isn't really necessary, and I want to have fun and not just stand there.

 

In some cases, when the tank or DPS aren't doing their jobs I may DPS to keep mobs off of myself, or throw out some damage in between heals to help us make an enrage timer.

 

For the most part, I know what I am capable of, and I know the flashpoints and some of the ops really well. After the first couple pulls I'll have a general idea what the tank and DPS are capable of as well. Once you got that down it's fairly easy to anticipate incoming damage and to heal or DPS accordingly. I couldn't do this when I new, but there is no reason why I can't or shouldn't now. Have a little faith in your healers, often we know what we're doing.

healing is incredibly overpowered in this game before 50. they have plenty of time to do deeps in between a single heal that fills your entire health bar for no resources..

 

even full dps spec works beautifully if they have a heal on their bar.

Edited February 2, 2013 by cultivatedmass

healing is incredibly overpowered in this game before 50. they have plenty of time to do deeps in between a single heal that fills your entire health bar for no resources..

 

even full dps spec works beautifully if they have a heal on their bar.

 

I have to agree with the first part of this. I've leveled a heal-specced Operative & Consular to 50, and am doing a combat support Merc now.

 

Before Red Reaper, a well-equipped & specced healer can easily split time between DPS and heals except on a few fights per flashpoint. If the healer & the tank are over-leveled for the flashpoint, the healer can productively split DPS & Heals on pretty much all the fights. Sure, it probably amounts to >1/3 of the DPS a dedicated Deeper does, but every little bit speeds things along.

 

It should also be pointed out that Smuggler/Operative healers have two resources to manage. They sometimes are DPSing not so much to dPS, but to pick up Upper Hand/Tactical Advantage. When I'm on my operative, if nobody really needs a heal but tactical advantage < 3 or is about to drop, I'm going to throw out a shiv or shoot down a weak mob.

 

But, I've never actually tried healing a flashpoint while specced for DPS. In fact, that strikes me as a pretty terrible idea for all the flashpoints after Athiss. All the heal trees include a signature heal ability at L20, and that ability is increasing needed except in seriously overpowered groups .. which is usually not the case with a PUG.

I'm a DPS Sorc, recently there have been several times that I have queued for DPS in GF, but when GF pops it lists me as the healer. The first time this happened I thought I forgot to uncheck the healer box in GF so I declined group, went back in to GF unchecked the healer box box and queued again. 25-30 mins later GF pops and i'm listed as the healer again. Some of the "healers" the OP is talking about may have been DPS players that were switched to healer by the bugged GF system. This seems to only happen when I'm queued for GF for a long period of time. I have filled out a bug report but have not received a response from BW (ticket still open).

I'm a DPS Sorc, recently there have been several times that I have queued for DPS in GF, but when GF pops it lists me as the healer. The first time this happened I thought I forgot to uncheck the healer box in GF so I declined group, went back in to GF unchecked the healer box box and queued again. 25-30 mins later GF pops and i'm listed as the healer again. Some of the "healers" the OP is talking about may have been DPS players that were switched to healer by the bugged GF system. This seems to only happen when I'm queued for GF for a long period of time. I have filled out a bug report but have not received a response from BW (ticket still open).

 

Oh, good, so it's not just me. I had this happen quite a bit as a DPS Merc. I just went ahead and healed the FPs after telling the group what happened. We did fine and no one died - granted, I'm talking Hammer Station and Cademimu here - so nothing requiring heroic measures, especially since both tank and I were over-level and well-geared. But annoying nonetheless.

 

As to Healers dpsing a bit, I recently spec'd to Bodyguard and, yeah, I'll throw out an Unload or a missle or 2 while fighting trash mobs just to help speed things along, but during boss fights I'm waaay too busy watching health, for the group and myself to do anything but heal

 

As far as normal mobs beating on the healer, It's the tanks job to hold aggro on the more threatening mobs, silvers/golds/champs/boss the normals should be killed first by the dps which is why most tanks will maybe hit them with an aoe or default attack just to get initial aggro. But it's really the DPSs job to know the kill order and actually do it.

 

That is the most important thing. I got told on my Juggernaut for not holding aggro on the weaker mobs. I throw in a Smash and then I continue my way on to the silvers and golds, indeed.

 

And when it comes to healers doing damage. I often throw in a Death From Above (When the healer is topped and still has enough charges of Kolto Shell). I know when I can do extra DPS on my healer and when I just focus on healing and don't bother with doing damage.

As a commando healer I have been dpsing while healing lately, I am keeping people topped or over 90% very easily, I throw out Plasma grenade sticky and Mortar rounds when there is aoe, I shred things very easily and can get my cells back easy.

 

Aslong as everyone is healthy I think healers should dps

This is funny.

 

A friend of mine has a healer and she tries to keep everyone healed but she will help out in a fight. But recently she was told not to. You are a healer your job is to heal. Just heal let the rest of everyone do their job.

 

Now I read this so I think the best idea is find out what your group wants and do it . Frankly for me I will only group with friends and guild members since it seems no one knows what they want but they want to yell and blame everyone else and forget it is a game.

OK, hopefully I can put this debate to an end.

 

1: I have a scoundrel healer and a sage healer, both have around 21k hp, both are in full BH with DG hilt/armoring and barrels in my main and off hand.

 

2: I also have 2 tanks, 1 Van 1 Jug, both are also in end game (yes I have no life)

 

3: I have 2 dps, a Sentinal and a Merc

 

4: When I"m healing..... this is how i roll and it has nothing to do with the speed at which the group is moving as stated above i have no life and am in no real hurry to complete the flashpoint. That being said, on my sage, before the pull I will bubble the tank, put a cog (designating my cc) on a target, tank pulls, I cc, if tank is not getting wailed on I will find the nearest (NORMAL NPC) and hit him with a project followed by a quick tumult. This combo will effectively 2 shot any normal mob in any location. At which point i expect my bubble on the tank to be shot and I begin healing. IF i'm worried about dmg going out I will pre-apply my aoe heal where the tank plans on leaping into.

 

On my Scoundrel, i will stealth, CC a humanoid and mark it with cog, then I will find a droid (if present) and put a lightning on it (again designating my CC target) I will hot the tank, target my next CC, then cloak. Tank pulls while my hots are active but i'm cloaked so i pull no immediate threat. I then find a normal npc by himself not near anyone's cc's and i will grenade him (which knocks him down) then hit him with one of my 2 attacks that only work on stunned or incapacitated enemies, which will two shot them. Then I will throw my aoe heal, and re-hot the tank, then progress through my healing rotation. As it stands now if I use underworld med plus an emergency medpack on the tank i WILL heal him for 10-12k no questions asked. So I always reassure the tank "DON'T BE SCARED".

 

Now a less experienced or geared healer might have trouble with this and unless you understand who/what/when/where you can dps you will not be helping your group. I don't mind when i'm tanking if a healer dps's as long as I know I can trust him. I gain trust in strange tanks on my healers when I LET them purposely get below half health then within an flash I can have them full life and feeling comfortable with the situation again. I do the same by proving that i can keep a whole group full and thus it appears as no one is taking any dmg. That way they stop worrying about what i'm attacking.

 

I hope this helps people understand why some of us healers DPS. In my case it's because i'm bored, want to help out, and i enjoy 2 shotting things even if it's a lowly normal npc. It makes me feel good. I feel that i can bring more to the group than just healing, but remember you need to be a good healer FIRST as it's your job. Then stretch out your palate to being able to HEAL and off dps if only for not being bored.

 

Granted: On lower gear'd groups I have to watch my heals more, on better gear'd groups, depending on how ambitious the tank is I can dps more. You just have to use the first few pulls to determine if you'll be healing a lot or get to relax some and sit back and dps.

 

Lastly: If you are a healer and want to dps, COOL, don't sacrifice your group to do so. Remember that healers have an instant cast dot which if your good with targeting (IE) the F1 F2 F3 F4 keys to target your group it's easy to tab over, apply a dot, and get back to healing without anyone being the wiser except your dot shows up on the boss debuffs.

 

I hope this helped and didn't instigate any problems among friends, or make any enemies among former friends between all you who took the time to read this.

 

-Ifo 50 seer

-Ifo'lek 50 sawbones

THE SHADOWLANDS server

 

no hybrids here

Healers should be DPSing to avoid falling asleep out of boredom on everything but the most healing-intensive Operations boss fights after about level 30. Bored healers lead to wipes.

 

HPS requirements for nearly all content are ludicrously easy to hit, even at content-appropriate gear levels, so an efficient healer is going to have a lot of downtime. If they don't want to waste resource regeneration, they might as well DPS with the extra resources that would do nothing otherwise.

Healers should be DPSing to avoid falling asleep out of boredom on everything but the most healing-intensive Operations boss fights after about level 30. Bored healers lead to wipes.

 

HPS requirements for nearly all content are ludicrously easy to hit, even at content-appropriate gear levels, so an efficient healer is going to have a lot of downtime. If they don't want to waste resource regeneration, they might as well DPS with the extra resources that would do nothing otherwise.

 

/salute /agree

Healers should be DPSing to avoid falling asleep out of boredom on everything but the most healing-intensive Operations boss fights after about level 30. Bored healers lead to wipes.

 

HPS requirements for nearly all content are ludicrously easy to hit, even at content-appropriate gear levels, so an efficient healer is going to have a lot of downtime. If they don't want to waste resource regeneration, they might as well DPS with the extra resources that would do nothing otherwise.

 

Corruption Healer here....

 

Dear Tanks, one Recklessness --> Dark Infusion = 50% HP

 

I am bored, so I am throwing out Lightning.

I always tell my healers to throw DPS as long as the following criteria are met...

a) everyone's health is at a managable state AND

b) you will not overtax your resources AND

c) you have nothing else to do

if

a=true

and

b=true

/cast mortar volley >.>

There is no doubt over-geared and/or experienced healers can dps and heal efficiently. So the question is "suppose"?

 

Starting with the first fp, Esseles/Black Talon.... the healer probably has one or two inefficient heal at that level with no energy management ability. If the healer dps, he may struggle to manage his energy. Having said that healer and tank are so ineffective at that level that the instance is designed as simply dps race. You can clear that with 4 dps. Are healers suppose to dps for the fp? I say yes.

 

The next two fps, Hammer Station and Athiss, are more challenging and attempt to introduce trinity for mmo newcomers. Tank and healer are still not very effective at that level but most of the fights require substantial amount of heal to keep the group alive. Are healers suppose to dps? No.

 

The rest of the fps up to hm Ilum and most ops have no requirement for healers to DPS. Some exceptions are Infernal Council in EV and last boss in TFB.

 

Kaon and Lost Island introduce long stun as well as trinity mobs set up. In certain trashes, the healer's interrupt, knockback and stun can greatly help the group. Those abilites require changing target to an enemy. So it is entirely normal if the healer decides to throw some dps out during those circumstances.

 

Now for top tier ops...

With the enrage relatively tight in NiM Kephess and F&S, most guilds employ strats that expect some dps output from the healers.

Edited February 14, 2013 by Banegio

I run a full 63 geared scoundrel and I dps as hard and as often as I can in pug fp's. It helps me prioritize my healing rotation and stresses my energy management skills. Critical in top tier content. In other words it makes me a better healer. Same reason i pug lost island over and over. Healing inexperienced, unorganized, under geared or just plain bad players makes me a better healer. It's either that or I craft while waiting for the health bars to drop lol Edited February 19, 2013 by nninjacoupe

This quote surprised me:

I dislike when healers try to DPS instead of watching health bars. Healer DPS is so pitiful, you might as well stand and wait for healing to be done instead. ...

As an optimized Sage healer, I have a tremendous amount of willpower and power on my gear. I can do a LOT of dps following a simple rotation of TK Throw / Disturbance / Project, even if it is marvelously inefficient as far as force management goes.

 

Gear optimization for a healer tends to be main stat + power, same as a dps. Any highly geared healer can do plenty of damage.

 

That said, when I show up in a group as a healer, one of three things happen during fights:

 

1. Everything goes great, and I have plenty of time to dps in between heals, so I do so.

2. Things are hectic, so I might just keep a Weaken Mind DoT up and the occasional TK Wave, but mostly heal.

3. Things are ouchy-bad, so I focus purely on keeping the group alive and don't dps at all.

My wife had issues laying off the trigger as a healer... it took many times of yelling over the phone that if I die, so will you (we use the phones to talk while we play)... Well, she complained about it but when she finially stopped and realized just us 2 can handle heroic 4's, she realized I was right and has controlled her impulse to kill. I tell her when its ok to jump in, or she will jump in too soon and we die...

 

She just loves to see herself throw lightning around and once she starts we are dead ducks in a H4 or FP lol.

 

Now, she loves healing.... Maybe some people just do not understand how a team works. A pitcher pitches, a catcher catches and so on... We are both new to the MMO world, so we both had learing to do... like me trying to use a DPS to tank until I learned, in these games, we have a roll to fill when it comes to group play....

 

I bet many others just need to be shown the proper ways to function on a team in their roll. This game probably has a higher number of non MMO players in it than the usual, due to it being Star Wars and the game does have a stong appeal to traditional RPG players and "we" usually only know how to play solo.

Edited February 21, 2013 by Themanthatisi

This quote surprised me:

 

As an optimized Sage healer, I have a tremendous amount of willpower and power on my gear. I can do a LOT of dps following a simple rotation of TK Throw / Disturbance / Project, even if it is marvelously inefficient as far as force management goes.

 

Gear optimization for a healer tends to be main stat + power, same as a dps. Any highly geared healer can do plenty of damage.

 

That said, when I show up in a group as a healer, one of three things happen during fights:

 

1. Everything goes great, and I have plenty of time to dps in between heals, so I do so.

2. Things are hectic, so I might just keep a Weaken Mind DoT up and the occasional TK Wave, but mostly heal.

3. Things are ouchy-bad, so I focus purely on keeping the group alive and don't dps at all.

 

That pretty much sums it up. And it pretty much holds true no matter if your going for a traditional crit/surge gearing or a power/alacrity approach.

 

If as a sage I take Concentration in the TK tree & drop Project from the dps rotation ~ The TK Throw & disturbance casts have a barely noticeable effect on my force management.

 

And if I find myself in a group with two fresh 50 dps players ~ we will hit enrage timers if I don't dps between heals.

3. Pushback messes up healing a lot. If your healers are getting torn to pieces by adds, they have no choice but to dps and heal themselves. If you're expecting the DPS players to take care of the adds, and they are not, you better expect to use your defensive CDs on rotation. If you find that the DPS are heading straight to the target your tanking in every fight, keep a close watch on your healer ~ or you won't get any healing.

 

This.

 

A thousand times this.

 

When DPS are focusing on whatever the tank is attacking and leaving a pile of trash to attack me, I am

going to kill the trash or I am not going to live, and dead healers do even less healing than DPSing healers.

This.

 

A thousand times this.

 

When DPS are focusing on whatever the tank is attacking and leaving a pile of trash to attack me, I am

going to kill the trash or I am not going to live, and dead healers do even less healing than DPSing healers.

 

I'll add another thousand times to that as well, unless dps and tank are doing their jobs your healers not going to get a chance to heal you because they'll be too busy trying to keep themselves alive. Just so people don't think think i'm biased i'll admit there are healers/dps and tanks out there that have no clue what they're doing (and often then blame everyone else but themselves for the failure).

 

To the original point though it entirely depends on circumstance, what strength mob your fighting, what level, what gear you have, what classes your group's made up of. Example i ran a lvl50 FP the other week with a tank and dps companion and two heal players off-dpsing. That worked far better than the useless tank and dps players we started with who didn't know what target priority even meant when we told them what they were doing wrong. Probably didn't help that the guardian tank didn't have soresh form up, was guarding no one and had several k less health than me a squishy seer sage with nothing more than tionese level gear on /RantOver.