There's no hard and fast rule, but generally speaking, utility aircraft are often better on skids. Passenger aircraft, especially where the helicopter has to taxi close to people or structures etc. are better on wheels, to avoid excessive downwash issues.
Having flown both, though, landing "off helipad" on wheels isn't as much of a problem as you seem to think. It's not a matter of just plonking the aircraft down and hoping for the best, a good pilot will "feel" his/her way down as each wheel makes ground contact and reposition if unhappy. Slope limits are usually more of an issue.
On the A109, at least on the ones still in production, have landing/taxi lights built into the undercarriage sponsons, so they aren't affected by undercarriage retraction. They also have a steerable search light under the nose. For those who do require skids, Leonardo (Agusta Westland) fairly recently announced a skidded version known as the Trekker. I've not seen one yet, though.
Edit: As for landing wheels up....are you serious? The landing gear absorbs energy....and is fitted with brakes
Last edited by ShyTorque; 5th Dec 2017 at 09:40.