Oh my! I don’t play any kind of role playing games but @mr.crispy you geeked this out to the max, I love it.
I came back to this thread quite a few times trying to understand what’s said but each time it just went over my head till more people started responding then it’s became clearer.
I also play healer and generaly support classes (tank, buff). Playing dps amuses me for about 20min. I like staying in the back of the raid, landing healing spells on people who keep standing in a lava puddle. They don’t notice a thing and keep having fun making big numbers and I’m satisfied behind my curtain. Bassists are healers. We like our tank drummers and keep safe together.
I have no idea what this thread is about - I was initially thinking socioeconomics……!!!
This is the kind of thread that makes this forum always worth coming back to imho 
I understand the guys who are completely lost, I remember the same feeling before joining the madness 
I’ve never been a regular player, table or online. There is only one healer character worth remembering, actually no, I played three, but for short campaigns. And even the non-healer types were of the “let’s the others show off but make sure we get our job done” attitude anyway
Ditto… and I think we are better off leaving it that way 
Sure, everybody is free not to care, but at its best roleplaying is creating a great story together with a group of people you enjoy. In the end, you don’t really remember how much damage was dealt or how much xp was a given monster, but rather who saved the group with a creative spell, how somebody solved a difficult enigma, gave a great speech, or what lucky/unlucky dice roll left the group (more or less literally) rolling on the floor laughing.
(speaking from my experience with tabletop RPG - YMMV, especially online…)
Not so different than playing in a band, as OP said 
The funny thing is I always found healing really stressful. I think tanks and healers are just like drums and bass though, yeah. If you have a bad DPS, eh, the fight just takes longer (or you just leave them dead). But if you have a bad healer or tank, you are totally screwed.
I usually play DPS because to me games are my place to chill. Healers and tanks are high pressure. I do play healer some but never in pugs. You never know what the tank will do.
I’ll just be the expert DPS and burn down the mob
Tanking can be pretty chill too. The nice thing about tanks is they are super easy to level in pugs, but can also solo well. Healers not so much in most games.
lol this thread just made me reinstall ESO and pick up Necrom.
Definitely a shammy…sometimes tank, sometimes healer depending on how big our group and how good our healers were.
Ok so the new Arcanist class in ESO is pretty fun. Couldn’t decide if I wanted to go DPS or Tank with it and then I realized it might do both in one build.
Haha, I love this.
Bassists are indisputably the healers of the band, in musical context.
My personal tendency: ranged DPS in solo RPGs, I can hit a deer at 5000 yards in Skyrim. 
To differ, beg I.
I like to nerd out on machinery, tools and cars… but RPGs? Spasiba, niet, as the old French saying goes.
But you do nerd out. What you specifically nerd out about doesn’t matter. Bass players are nerds.
Extra nerd points for using Yoda syntax.
She’s got a point ya know
Correct but Bass players have an outside chance of someone wanting to take them home and get naked.
Whereas Dungeons and Dragons nerds? 
Not the only standard of the worth of a person.
You’d be surprised. 
Also: " Luke reveals that his friend and fellow player Joe Manganiello – now a Hollywood actor currently directing the first official D&D documentary – went backstage at a Metallica show for an interview with Kirk Hammett. “They played D&D,” says Luke. “I guess Cliff Burton was a little older than them, and he introduced them to D&D when they were travelling as a young band. Same with Anthrax: Scott Ian is a D&D player. Metallica and Anthrax were some of my favourite bands in high school, I still put them on to this day, and they’re D&D players.”"
