Is the "Point Allotment" system necessary at all?

I agree the point allotment system is useless, especially because "freedom" to spec your character how you want is frowned upon. Everyone and their grandmother are jumping on the elitist bandwagon and forcing people to recite their stats to make sure they fit their standards before they'll invite you to an event. So its mostly the community's fault, but still, point allotment is useless. There's only one 'legitimate' way to allot stats for each job, and nothing else is accepted.

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Originally Posted by Punainen

Everyone and their grandmother are jumping on the elitist bandwagon and forcing people to recite their stats to make sure they fit their standards before they'll invite you to an event.

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Why would you choose to be anything less than 100% though? I know you don't need to allot the stats in the accepted way to clear content but why not do it and be 100% effective? I don't understand why you are insulting people like that when they are just getting the most out of their character, the problem lies with the game where if you allot points any way other than the accepted best allotment you aren't really gaining anything worthwhile and losing very important stats

An example of a stats points system done right: Dark Souls

There's no correct build, all builds work, all you needed to do is pick a play style and build your stats around it, even something as ridiculous as a heavily armored Pyromancer duel wielding a Katana and a whip can work if you put your stats where they matter (Endurance, Dexterity and pyromancy spells).

But I guess that can't be applied to MMOs since parties are built around roles and each role requires specific builds to function properly.

Point allotment in the end is absolutely useless and they should get rid of it. Once the numbers are crunched by people smarter than the ones on these forums, everyone will fall in line for the "cookie cutter" build.

What I would rather see is points put into enhancing abilities and buffing WS. Sure you can say that it'll end up the same way as current point allotment. They just need to make sure that all the ability enhancements/buffs are all really good choices.

In its existing form? I do find the point allotment system a bit useless. If they're going to use a stat allotment model, I think they should go all-in or bust.

The first MMO I ever played was Ragnarok Online. In that game you essentially start with a few stats at level 1, but that's it. As you level, you gained multiple points per level. These points when you were low could raise your stats multiple times per level, but as you got higher raising each stat took more and more points, so you'd only be raising maybe one stat by about 1 toward the end.

The system was great because it allowed for very unique and custom builds right from Level 1, builds that remained useful because you were given full stat control over your character, not just "partial" control which is what we have now (which as a result may just as well not exist entirely). It gave variety and intrigue to the game, and while yes at first it as a new player you were entirely confused by what to pick and most likely would most likely end up botching your first build or two, it didn't take much away from playing the game nor did it deter newcomers (at least not myself or anyone I knew) since that was just part of the experience.

My second MMO? Was FFXI, and I was horrified upon joining that I couldn't allocate my own stats. I had no idea how anyone could live in an MMO-world without having control over where their stats went. "You do it with gear" was of course the answer I was given, but that's not really building your character, that's just adding on bonuses to the existing stat-sets you were given based on your job (and to a lesser extent, your race).

It's hand-holding and WoW is just as guilty of it too. When I first did alpha-testing for FFXIV, I was so excited that we were being handed control of our stats, only to come back now all this time later and find out it's really nothing but more hand-holding.. while two of my stats can be "added to" at my own manual control, you can look at the other stats and clearly see that they are far from being non-existent. They are leveled automatically by the game, all the while the only boost I get to give my two primary stats is a whopping 23-ish points each over what would have been automatic.

Unless those 23 points have a LOT of weight behind them, honestly it's just pointless. I've seen people who forgot to even assign their points in FFXIV sometimes as far up into the 20's or beyond and had no problem playing the game whatsoever. That shouldn't happen in a point-allotment system! You should be unable to play your character properly if you don't assign your points.

So yes, I think the current point-allotment system is unnecessary. It gives you the vague impression that you have "choice" in your stats, but in reality you are given way too little to work with, way too many automatic stat points, and the points you have a choice in don't have enough weight behind them anyway.. plus no one "really" has the option of making a truly custom build, otherwise you essentially make yourself useless under your current class or job.

That's my rant and why I don't really like the current system. *shrugs*

There's only two stats per class that really benefit them. I don't see why they don't just do auto-allocation upon level and just focus more on the primary stats when it allocates. Even if I could reallocate an infinite number of times, I doubt I would ever move points around to another stat.

It really depends on what they do with 2.0. If things are the same as they are now, then no we don't really need it. If it's possible to allot points into stats other than the main two and still be viable and even competitive with those builds then I say let it stay. All I ask, if it does stay, is that they put a way to re-allocate points that doesn't use items in very limited supply.

Yeah, if they change the point allotment system for 2.0 then I'm all for it. However, it is currently useless the way it is and was designed specifically to give the illusion of different builds.

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Originally Posted by Nix

I second what Antanias said♪

You've listed some pretty cookie-cutter setups there, but the nice thing about the stat allotment is you can put the points where you'd like.
If you want a parry-based WAR for instance you could pack a bunch of points on dex.

The system allows for a lot of flexibility which is cool, but just because people cookie-cutter it, doesn't make it a bad system♪

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Isn't this why the devs posted that they want to basically buff our primary stats to matter more? I'm hoping it'll make my DEX/VIT build on PLD more viable (increased acc, block rate, hp & def etc. vs more offensive & healing power from STR & MND).

After watching that video, I couldn't help but wonder if they hadn't put a cap on each of the stats, but instead made it possible to spread points out or stack them all into one stat, if that wouldn't change things up a bit. I mean, were I a pld with the ability to dump ALL my points into VIT, MIND, or PIE, that would be more in line with making a choice over a calculation. I like the system, I just don't appreciate the caps. If yours going to let me spend points, let me put as many as you give me where ever i want.