Cleric Stance Discussion - Is it needed?

[JunseiKei]

Meta comes from knowledge the player has that comes from outside of the game itself. Healers DPSing isn't meta. "The majority of my opponents are using X strategy, therefore Y strategy is advantageous." This is meta.

Healers DPSing simply comes from the fact that healers have nothing else to do. This isn't meta.

*Facepalm.*

Considering that healer DPS is completely left out of the equation of fights is what makes it meta, not strategic. You guys keep using strategic examples as well.

It's anything outside of the confines of a game. Healers DPSing is not meta, no, as that is within the confines of the game. It is the application (telling healers to DPS in their downtime) as none of the fights take healer DPS into consideration that makes it meta.

Statweights are metagame. Timing your skills together is metagame. MCH not using hypercharge as soon as it comes up and waiting for members' skill to come up requires external knowledge of the game/ coordination between multiple people compensating for the knowledge of each other's cooldowns in a given situation. This is making a decision that has been influenced by external knowledge rather than based on fundamental strategy alone. You may use a meta in a strategy, but that does not make a meta a strategy.

Poker and minesweeper have metas. Hell, even tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons have metagame.

Meta can be something like picking sides in fighting games or whether you sit close to an opponent or far away. Counter picking is another, and common, example of a meta. As I said, it is a broad term and we will agree to disagree. You guys are mistaking them like a sphere and a circluar- similar, but not the same. From your perspectives, you can't see the 3D over the 2D.

[Lambdafish]

Considering that healer DPS is completely left out of the equation of fights is what makes it meta, not strategic.

I think you are misquoting the developers on what is actually meant by "left out of equations". Healer DPS is left out when calculating the minimum viable output, which means this is the calculation for the least amount of effort that a DPS should put out in in order to clear. As a team, these numbers can be spread out to healers and tanks when opportunity or necessity arises, which in raid content (especially with a low ilvl) will happen quite a lot. The reason for this is that if they did include calculations for healer DPS it would put too much stress on DPS and tanks when healers don't DPS, and this is exactly how Gordias was designed.

Basically, you can use the "healers aren't counted in equations" argument only if you intend to meet the standard of minimum viable output, and not exceed that.