Please Fix Accuracy

[NolLacnala]

The fix is to kill it with fire along with Parry

[LineageRazor]

The fix is to kill it with fire along with Parry

Honestly, they might as well go all the way and remove stats from the game entirely. STR, DEX, INT, MND are all basically identical in function. VIT is similar, but also grants HP. All these could easily be rolled into one stat, with tanks getting a bonus to HP. PIE is the only main stat that doesn't contribute to damage or healing, but the only players who ever bother stacking PIE are BLMs that are trying to reach MP thresholds. Just remove PIE entirely, give everyone a flat 1000 MP at all levels (like everyone has a flat 1000 TP) and scale spell costs accordingly.

Crit, Det, SS, while a few jobs have effects that trigger on crit, for the most part players don't stack for that. All they're interested in is the extra damage provided. So, roll all of these into the one stat as well! Defensive skills, too. The only stat on any piece of gear will be ilvl, and everything else will be calculated from that. HP, attack, defense, everything.

Do I actually want such a simplistic stat system? Not really. I'd love it to be much more robust, with EVERY stat mattering to every job. For example, WARs would need plenty of VIT, but if they skimp on MND they won't be able to survive those magic tank busters - and of course, they need STR to deal appreciable damage and DEX to make sure they land those hits. Instead, what we have is "stack VIT". This game, though, started out with a simplistic stat system that has gotten only simpler as time has passed - and now they're talking about phasing out the only two stats we have that aren't directly related to dealing damage. Might as well take it to its logical conclusion.

[NolLacnala]

snip

The issue is that, if you give this playerbase a mile, they'll hop on a rocket sled and shoot for the moon with how badly they can break the game. We only get 35 stat points to allot because more than that would allow players to cripple their characters. We trade customizability for functionality and safeproofing. We already have to deal with Int melded healers, which is bad enough.

As much as I would love an RO style stat system, the vast majority of our playerbase doesn't allow for it.

[LineageRazor]

The issue is that, if you give this playerbase a mile, they'll hop on a rocket sled and shoot for the moon with how badly they can break the game. We only get 35 stat points to allot because more than that would allow players to cripple their characters. We trade customizability for functionality and safeproofing. We already have to deal with Int melded healers, which is bad enough.

As much as I would love an RO style stat system, the vast majority of our playerbase doesn't allow for it.

Those 35 stat points are a prime indicator of the whole pointlessness of the system as a whole. You talk as if there's a choice, but no, there isn't. Anyone who doesn't dump all 35 points into Primary Stat is a fool. Even the Int-melded healers you're talking about are foolish for doing so - those 35 points are much better allocated to MND, so that they translate to INT once Cleric's Stance is activated.

I do have to applaud those healers credit for experimenting (Assuming, of course, they're not just SMNs who are too lazy to buy a Keeper's Hymn for those occasions when they decide to heal as SCH), but SE has been too thorough in taking any choice out of the system. Their vigilance in ensuring easily-balanced classes has pretty much removed the whole need for a stat system in the first place.

It IS true that a robust stat system can open the door to abuses; for example, if it was discovered that MND had a disproportionately large effect on MNK's Elixir Field, causing MNKs to stack outrageously for MND but turning Elixir Field into a powerhouse ability that threw DPS balance completely out the window and caused players to exclusively invite MNKS as DPS as a result. At least, until the next update when SE nerfs Elixir Field's MND modifier, and players have to search for some other stat loophole to abuse. Honestly, though, even with hiccups like these, I consider it to be a preferable way to run things. RPGs are much more interesting when folks have the freedom to experiment and find tricks and tactics that weren't necessarily anticipated by the developers. The developers can then decide whether to allow them, or to nerf them.

This game has taken a completely different tack. In the interests of enforcing balance, the stat system has been simplified to the point that the only reason we have stats at all is because RPG players are used to seeing INT and STR and whatnot. But it's all a farce. A level 60 WAR has STR VIT INT MND DEX - but the values for all those stats but VIT could be zero or seven billion, and it would make no difference.

[Zojha]

You talk as if there's a choice, but no, there isn't.

And making the system more complex won't change that fact, it simply makes the solution less obvious.

Every stat that changes power/performance suffers from that issue. What happened again in the strength meta for tanks? People took as much VIT as necessary and then stacked STR. And if we were to revamp the system to your proposed solution, the WAR you mentioned would take just enough DEX to get 100% accuracy, just enough MND to survive magic damage, just enough VIT to survive and then stack STR because it gives the highest damage output. What has changed? You have to look up more stat caps. Actual choice is still nil - you can't just stack more DEX because that's pointless and inferior to STR.
You can then go and alter the example - bonus dex now gives crit chance as well. Then the math wizards go and calculate how much worth that crit chance is in STR and if STR is more worthwhile, people still stack STR, whereas if it's better, you have to stack DEX. Difference to now? Math wizards have more to do and people who don't read the blogs of math wizards build bad builds.

In order to allow choices, the output (or more generally utility) needs to be roughly identical, because otherwise you just have the same situation as with MND or INT for healers - one has better results and you'd be a fool not to pick it. Balance is a prerequisite for choice. That's why you can choose to play as any job without people complaining, but playing as a class might even get you kicked - the jobs are roughly balanced against each other, but classes are not balanced against jobs. Just like with INT and MND, balance is not given and thus, the inferior choice becomes a non-choice. This very principle applies to each and every possible stat you can think of that changes performance to varying degrees and the current system primarily makes that fact and the correct solution painfully obvious.

And then the issue is: if choices are balanced, do they really matter? Philosophically, it's actually a very interesting thing. On the one hand, we want our choices to matter, but if they do, we don't really have a choice anymore (unless they only matter for something we are indifferent about). Typical dilemma even in morals - if both choices are wrong, does it really matter which one I pick? The difference being that morals are more subjective than math - functions and equations do not have much argumentative wiggle room.

Buuuut...that's leading off-topic.

[Frowny]

Anyone who doesn't dump all 35 points into Primary Stat is a fool.

In the grand scheme, where accessories give you DOUBLE that (think i270 is 78 of a main stat?), those points are about as meaningful as race bonuses right now. In 2.0 they were important, but now... it didn't scale that well. Will it hurt you? Yes... but not a whole lot.