Possible alteration to Cleric Stance

[_slowpoke_]

you might as well just remove Accuracy as a stat for the entire game

Yes, please. Accuracy is an uninteresting stat that does nothing to actually improve your character, it's merely there to be required because it removes a penalty that shouldn't exist in the first place. It adds no actual depth to gameplay, and takes away choice from gearing considerations (instead of giving you more, as many people seem to falsely believe). Additionally, it's something many players have no real understanding of (especially because FFXIV is intentionally vague and intransparent about its stats), especially those who haven't been playing multiple MMORGs for half their life already. These are the very reasons WoW removed hit rating, and it was the right thing to do - FFXIV should follow suit, for the same reasons. I'd rather see more and new secondary stats instead of the trainwreck that is accuracy, especially in a game where literally no content exists where healers have to heal 100% of the time, and the only thing to do when not healing is either DPSing or standing around doing absolutely nothing, the latter of which is generally not acceptable. Let's hope 4.0 actually cleans up a lot of the stat cruft in this game (also looking at you, Elemental Resistances and Parry) and makes gearing more interesting than it currently is.

[Pharazon]

Shameless youtube plug where I talk about melding gear and accuracy a bit here

The thing is that you don't need much accuracy, if any, to do non progression oriented content. Who cares if you miss? Its not like you are going to hit enrage timers, your just not going to save as much time as you could. And because of how little secondary stats matter in progression level content they are not going to be make or break. I have never been in a situation where I was like "If I only had 100 more DET I could heal this fight". The same is true for non progression oriented content. Why would I burn slots any other secondary stat when I am having no trouble healing the content at all. Why do I need to heal more? Those slots should go to accuracy as well because I would get some use out of them where more det or crit is basically wasted and at least accuracy is making my runs go faster.

[FoxyAreku]

Healers got their accuracy capped completely for free in WoW, I dunno why they don't do that here.

[Shurrikhan]

I got a feeling the only reason S-E keeps Accuracy as a stat is to keep Healer DPS in check. If they removed Accuracy as a stat, my gut intuition tells me they'd end up removing Cleric Stance in 4- and 8- player DFs at the very same time. Call me pessimistic but I just got a feeling.

My only real question there is what comparison do they have for whether Healer dps is "in check". Is it combined HPS-DPS output compared, in which case they've almost always exceeded DPS, or even HPS/Mitigation-DPS output, in which they'll now likely outdo tanks in casual fights? By either of those comparisons, it's not exactly "in check" right now, not that I especially mind this. After all, DPS is unlimited, where as healing and mitigation quickly max out as soon as fights lose their challenge, making it unlikely that a DPS would lose their spot to a bonus healers in virtually any content, even if healers were given bonus accuracy enough via Cleric Stance to need only half as much melding as they would now for 'rain-proofing'.

To be clear, I'm not a fan of removing accuracy entirely, I'd just like to see the amounts needed reduced, and to see less of a gap between "raid" content and all other content types. It makes no sense that the larger the enemy gets, the harder he is to hit.

I'd rather see the requirement reduced, especially the base from zero bonus accuracy to back-cap, so that it stands at least as much an optional stat for hitting from the flank and front, at least for melee dps, as it does a stat dump. Have its relative cost increase a bit, as it does now, but such that it's still no more than maybe 8-12% of our overall secondary stat expenditure, down from some 18-22%, and likely decreasing that proportion a bit with further ilvls.

An additional option would be to increase magic accuracy requirements to be equal to flank-cap for melee, at which point their average expenses are equal, but that's just to keep caster stats from gradually scaling ahead of physicals' now that a larger portion of accuracy only affects flank>frontal capping, in other words now that the optional range is a larger portion, rather than relatively small compared to the base (zero to back). In the first case, Cleric Stance and Rain of Death could each cover one step out is the progression of Zero Accuracy > Halfway > Back/Caster Cap > Flank Cap > Frontal Cap, guaranteeing healer hits with Rain of Death without allowing others to bypass accuracy requirements outright, while in the second, Zero > Half > Back > Flank/Caster > Frontal, Cleric Stance would get you 25% of the way, and could either give another 25%, nearly guaranteeing healer hits, or 50%, guaranteeing hits for healers and nearly for no-acc casters. While it's true that this would give a lot of free stat to healers, at present, no one else has to consume nearly every materia slot they have just to reach cap. Moreover, with such changes the overall value of accuracy will have been reduced. At that point it's really not much different from when accuracy was included for free on i100-130 gear.

inb4 "Why keep accuracy as a stat sink at all?"
Mostly so that Rain of Death and other evasion reducers still have a place, and to keep that optionality from being either too expensive or too trivial a cost, especially if caster cap remains equal to back cap. I mean, ideally it'd be a much more analog stat, where excess still contributes in some way, but as it functions now in gameplay I feel that roughly equal halves are perfect, especially with an adjusted caster cap.

[Fufupel]

I'd just meld accuracy. I feel like the stats you meld will BARELY improve your healing, however missing an Aero 3 on 1 or 2 targets is the worst feeling ever and almost a dump of 2k mana.

[Kerrigen]

snip

Finally someone who gets it. Accuracy is a very unfun stat, no matter the job. It's only a meaningful stat in this game because the other secondaries are so bland.

[amihavingfunyet]

Can only agree with removing accuracy as a stat altogether. It doesn't add anything to the game at all.

[Pharazon]

Can only agree with removing accuracy as a stat altogether. It doesn't add anything to the game at all.

Can we at least start being honest about this type of statement? Accuracy technically adds more to the game than the other secondary stats because it directly influences something to a noticeable margin. If you want to talk about stats not adding to the game then we should be discussing the fact that secondary stats are altogether nearly pointless because of the way stat capping and available gear choices are structured.

[amihavingfunyet]

Can we at least start being honest about this type of statement? Accuracy technically adds more to the game than the other secondary stats because it directly influences something to a noticeable margin. If you want to talk about stats not adding to the game then we should be discussing the fact that secondary stats are altogether nearly pointless because of the way stat capping and available gear choices are structured.

You are right, the secondary stats in this game are about as boring as it gets, and you barely have any choice too with only 2 i240 gear sets. Even then accuracy is more worthless than the rest as soon as you hit the accuracy cap for the given encounter.
Other roles are swimming in accuracy if they choose to do so (or are more or less forced to do so due to limited gear options), meanwhile i have to meld accuracy on my gear to even hit the cap for expert roulettes.

[MXMoondoggie]

They should add an accuracy increase to Cleric Stance it'd make sense and doesn't hurt balance in any way it just means that Healers get more return for actively using the skill and not losing mana and CD's on failed hits. But yes accuracy itself is a boring stat the way it works in this game is like a frustrating game of wack a mole until you hit cap then it means nothing much at all. I mean shouldn't a stat like accuracy increase likelihood of crits and give more damage since lore wise it'd mean your attacks are more accurate at hitting targets like weak spots?