Clarification on character stats please

Ok so I'm really new to this game but not new to MMOs. I've been playing many different ones since EQ1 came out so I'm not new to how certain stats affect characters differently. The thing is I'm not too sure what each stat in FF14 does for characters fully nor do I know what stat/stats I should be aiming for on my conj/WHM. This is my understanding of how stats work:

Piety - MP regen for healers only
Mind - Healing & magic attack potency/increase & a healer's stat
Int - magic dps stat only so does nothing for healers
Strength - physical damage increase only for everything but pug (as in increases the damage my staff would do and nothing else as a conj)
Dext - Pug's main stat that increases damage done
Crit HIT rate - increases chance to crit with healing spells or melee/magic attacks/spells
Crit HIT - increases the amount of damage your crit does (as in crit multiplier or something like that)
Spell speed - reduced cast time on spell & makes your DOTs tick faster
Skill speed - melee cast time reduction (not sure on that one)
Determination - Flat damage and/or healing increase
Tenacity - Tank-only stat that increases damage dealt, reduces damage taken, and if I'm reading this right increases the amount of HP that is healed to you by other players (not entirely sure on that yet)

So I guess my post is pretty much asking a few things.

1. While leveling up, which stats should I be slapping in my gear when it comes to materia?
2. Once I hit level cap, what stats should I be focusing on then? (mind you I don't plan on "hardcore" raiding just doing the duty finder stuff)
3. What food should I be using to level up? (yes I know food can be used starting at level 1 but I'd rather not waste food for level cap if something is just as good for leveling up instead)
4. What food is best for level cap stuff?
5. Are there any potions I should be stocking up on or using throughout the game?

Thanks for your answers and advice.

*Bonus question*
Do any of the healers get HOTs or are they all bubbles & direct heals?

Your take on the stats is *mostly* right with a few corrections:
- Dex is the main stat for ranged DPS classes and rogue/ninja. Pugilist is Strength
- Spell speed has a small effect on the damage/healing of DoTs and HoTs, not their tick speed (which is always the static once every 3 seconds)
- Skill speed reduces the GCD for physical classes, making it lower than the base 2.5 seconds. This is also true of spell speed for casters, which is reflected in their reduced cast times as well.

Materia on your leveling gear will provide mostly negligible benefits to you, especially with stats that have breakpoints like spell speed. Stat priorities haven't been determined yet this expansion to my knowledge, but given last expansion, something like this will be the case:
- Mind (and weapon damage) is your most important stat, but you cannot meld it.
- Determination is linear, while crit is exponential and affects both rate and percentage increase when you get a crit. Det will be smaller and more consistent, while crit will quickly overtake it in usefulness
- Spell speed will provide a benefit in the same ballpark as Det, but it has breakpoints where you won't get any faster unless you have a certain amount.
- Piety is okay, but won't help much unless you stack a lot of it. At present, White Mage will need it the least, Astrologian the most.

Food is much better for the experience boost than the stats. They won't give you a ton of noticeable benefit. Food that follows your stat priorities is best at endgame.

Bonus answer: all three healers get HoTs. White Mage has some beginning with a single target around level 35 and an AOE at 50, Scholar gets them from their fairy, and Astrologian has a HoT stance.

As a long time WHM main:

1.) I wouldn't bother with materia or worrying about stats until you are max level.

#2.) Generally speaking, if you wish to raid, usually people will meld Vitality in their accessories while doing prog raids. As for stats to focus on, it can change a lot. I think if I recall correctly, Direct Hit is stronger at the start of an expansion and Critical Hit becomes the end all be all by the end of the expansion due to how much of stats you can stack, etc. I would think WHM would have enough MP economy to not need to stack Piety (hasn't been a thing since 2.X, but we'll see). Last raid tier I melded Crit > DH > SS and it worked well for me.

#3.) Leveling food, I use just anything, I bought a ton of Easter event food two years ago and have been using that because it's cheap EXP. Stats wise on food, unless you're raiding, it's not needed or required for anything else, it's just bonus.

#4.) For raids, DH/Crit/SS food is good generally speaking. But that's for raids, everyday stuff, most people do not use food for, if you do, whatever is cheap and has those stats or is easy to make for you, is good.

#5.) This depends on your play style, in normal play, most people do not use stat boosting potions, but if you do raids, then after progression raiding, when it becomes farm, then people tend to use MIND potions. Or if your group is super close on killing a boss and need just a smidge more DPS, then MIND potions can be helpful then as well. Other than that, I keep MP potions around for normal play because there's always the chance of one of those runs where everything goes wrong and MP is super needed because you spent it all rezzing and rezzing again a bunch of dead people. xD

Bonus Question
WHM has Regen and Medica II for HoTs
AST has Diurnal Sect for it's Aspected Benefic and Helios for it's HoTs.
SCH gets HoTs from it's fairy skills.

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Originally Posted by gaymer77

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So if you hover over a stat in your character panel it will display what it does on a tooltip. The information is somewhat correct here, let me list a few corrections:

• Dexterity increases ranged damage and Rogue/Ninja arm's damage
• Strength increases Melee physical damage with all arms except Rogue/Ninja
• Critical Hit increases both rate and damage dealt on a critical
• Direct Hit increases the chance to both hit and deal a direct hit (which is a weaker critical but stacks with a critical hit)
• Skill speed is for physical classes, and spell speed is for magic classes

As for your questions:

1. While you can slot materia while leveling up, it's essentially a waste due to the insignificant increases it provides and the constant upgrading of gear quickly outpaces whatever gear you have slotted.
2. As a healer, your secondary stats are Piety, spell speed, critical hit, and determination. I personally don't know the current ShB meta for melding on healers, but I would bargain that if your increasing these 4 stats equally then you're probably enough on the right track that it shouldn't make a difference.
3. All food give the same XP buff (I'm pretty sure, I haven't really browsed every piece of food) and for the most part is more or less insignificant to leveling up since it only increases XP from defeating enemies. If you're only doing it for the experience boost, I would recommend buying a large stack of the cheapest food so you can extend the duration to an hour and not have to pay an arm and a leg to do so.
4. Any food that increases your primary stat or the stats that I mentioned before as your secondary stats are good choices. Though if you're not doing the harder content, you hardly need to worry about such things.
5. Since you are a healer, I would stock up on Ethers for when you're soloing and leveling up. Unfortunately, these become less prevalent as you learn your class and how to manage your MP more effectively. They also have upgraded versions that the game gives you, so you shouldn't overstock on them.

All healers have some form of HoT, for Scholars it's in their Fairy abilities, White Mages literally have it every where, and Astrologians go into a stance that turns their aspected heals from shield type to HoT type.

Others have answered most of the questions, but my own two cents: Right now you should probably focus on Determination. While critical always winds up the best stat due to exponential increases, at the start of an expansion after rebalancing it starts out weak, only becoming godlike when ilvl increases allow you to stack more and more and more. Of the other stats that may be useful, WHM has great MP recovery options so Piety is not really desired, Spell Speed is of limited usefulness unless you keep your GCD constantly rolling (And if you do run into MP issues it immediately loses all usefulness), and Direct Hit, while more useful for DPS, does not help healing (By all means if you're confident in your ability to keep people up, focus on direct hit)

I know others have said not to bother with materia, but I'm in the opposite camp: Why not? You can remove up to grade 6 materia at a 100% success rate, it'll be a little bit of extra stats, and having materia bonded increases spiritbind rate, helping ensure you hit 100% and can convert it into more materia when you're done with it (Remember to take the materia out first! Also this is more useful later on when it'll turn into materia people actually use). If you have crafters leveled you can even meld it yourself for free, or you can request melds from a crafter friend.

As far as what food to use, it's honestly up to you. Any food will give a +3% xp buff, so you can use cheap level 1 food all the way for that. You *can* use food while leveling for stats, and finding the best food for your level is basically a matter of looking at the stat you want to focus on, applying the % increase, and finding something that gets you as close to its cap as possible. That said... consumables are rarely needed for leveling, and you'll likely find that they don't increase the speed of the run enough to justify the cost of using them. Just munch some raisins until endgame.

Also as far as potions go, it's the same as using food for stats but worse: As a general rule, stat buff potions are a pain to make as far as consumables go, and they only last a short duration so it's not like you can even keep 100% uptime like food. At endgame, using buff potions can help you push DPS checks harder and clear stuff you'd otherwise be unable to, but just finishing a dungeon a few seconds faster is an ill use for one... oh, and it should also be stated that basic potions, ethers, and elixirs are functionally worthless due to how little they restore and the massive cooldown attached.