Petition to keep Cleric Stance unchanged

[Belhi]

Cleric stance was far from fantastic but it was literally the only mechanic in healer dps which required even the most basic level of attention to manage. It required a risk/reward scenario which required some foresight and planning to manage well. Sadly there hasn't been any indication they intend to add any other mechanic to healer dps which basically simplifies it to the point of making it sleep inducing simple.

They said they wanted to bring up the floor with the combat changes in Stormblood. With healers they have just lowered the ceiling.

Well I suppose it will be easier for those who want to watch Netflix at the same time I guess.

[Muahbec]

Omg no
That was probably one of the best changes and it will help healers DPS while Healing
Its way more fun, its way more useful, plus it will prevent mistakes.
It's way better now.

[Cynfael]

Cleric stance was far from fantastic but it was literally the only mechanic in healer dps which required even the most basic level of attention to manage. It required a risk/reward scenario which required some foresight and planning to manage well.

On the other hand, and once you've developed the minimal level of foresight and planning required to use Cleric Stance correctly, it becomes pure button bloat. This is not a dumbing down so much as it is a spring cleaning.

[Belhi]

On the other hand, and once you've developed the minimal level of foresight and planning required to use Cleric Stance correctly, it becomes pure button bloat. This is not a dumbing down so much as it is a spring cleaning.

At least you still needed to pay attention to what you are doing. This is the literal definition of dumbing down. Now you don't even need to pay really pay much attention. God knows the dps rotation doesn't need it and healing mechanics in this game aren't really up to scratch in 90% of content. They are only a bit better in the rest.

Healing dps has literally no mechanics beyond maintaining a couple of dots. You don't even need to worry about timing and prepping for it anymore.

I am not saying it wasn't worth replacing Cleric stance with something better but they haven't replaced it. They just removed it.

[Cynfael]

Snip

When CS as a stance is gone, the change for experienced healers should be extremely minimal since they already habitually prep for DPS windows and observe/memorize the flow of fights.

Sure, this change will make healer DPS far more forgiving for beginners in particular, but by this point in the game, I think the stance mechanic has become stale. It's worth changing just to free up a favorite hotkey.

[Belhi]

When CS as a stance is gone, the change for experienced healers should be extremely minimal since they already habitually prep for DPS windows and observe/memorize the flow of fights.

Sure, this change will make healer DPS far more forgiving for beginners in particular, but by this point in the game, I think the stance mechanic has become stale. It's worth changing just to free up a favorite hotkey.

So your happy with a casting scenario that requires almost no thought when it comes to dpsing? Even dealing with emergencies and peoples mistakes isn't going to require any though. You wont even need to learn and prep anymore.

Honestly I don't really get how you feel having zero dps mechanics in a position where you will be dpsing regularly is a good thing. How is that not boring?

[GDFletcher]

With cleric stance on a 6-7k heal on the AST went down to a mere 1k heal so I can do more damage.... When you are running with tanks that have little to no mitigation or simply magic is tearing a PLD a new one that drop is unacceptable. I am glad they are getting rid of the stance all together to allow those that want to be bit more creative with the DPS spells and those that will use the instant cast DPS spells with the healing. The argument over this "you have to dps" and "I am an healer dammit" wont ever go away until SE decide once and for all to change inner dungeon mechanics.

Who knows with Stormblood healers may have more work to do on the healing side which will basically make the argument moot and all these threads be for nothing. Also remember the reason they are balancing the game is to bring the lower majority of the player base up to the 1% of the hard core level so that everyone can play the content they pay for.

[Cynfael]

So your happy with a casting scenario that requires almost no thought when it comes to dpsing? Even dealing with emergencies and peoples mistakes isn't going to require any though. You wont even need to learn and prep anymore.

Honestly I don't really get how you feel having zero dps mechanics in a position where you will be dpsing regularly is a good thing. How is that not boring?

CS only requires real thought for players who haven't figured out how damage dealing as a healer works. Of course I can't speak for everyone, but I don't generally have to ask myself if it's ok to use CS; I toggle it on reflexively whenever I don't plan to heal. If the stance lockout lasted longer, player error and risk vs. reward would be more of an issue, but since it's an oGCD toggle with a 5 sec lockout upon activation, I don't see the struggle. The biggest potential issue is, as you indicated, that new healers might suffer more of a learning curve since they won't feel the initial necessity to memorize fights and balance their maximum DPS uptime vs. their minimum healing requirements. They can afford to be sloppier.

I'm not suggesting that CS is completely without value as a mechanic, but at this point in the game I don't think it's a big deal to remove the stance mechanic, especially since they appear to be replacing it with new ones (WHM lilies, new AST card manipulation, SCH had some sort of fairy bar?).

The only way I see healer DPS being more mechanically intensive and still making sense is if they finally tie more of our DPS actions into our healing kits and vice versa. Tanks and DPS have their various rotations because virtually 100% of their play time is spent attacking a target, while healers benefit from the flexibility of being able to change targets from friend to foe on the fly and not sacrificing more of their damage due to failing a rotation. I suppose they could implement small rotations that involve the interaction of only a few skills, but that's not likely to be any more interesting or rewarding than the current DoT maintenance mechanic.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

So your happy with a casting scenario that requires almost no thought when it comes to dpsing? Even dealing with emergencies and peoples mistakes isn't going to require any though. You wont even need to learn and prep anymore.

Honestly I don't really get how you feel having zero dps mechanics in a position where you will be dpsing regularly is a good thing. How is that not boring?

Cleric Stance was only a mechanic for inexperienced healers. For everyone else it was merely an occasional hindrance. If healers were built around a risk/reward style of gameplay, it might have merit. Since they are not, once you learn how to stance dance properly, it becomes another button you mindlessly press... except unlike any other job, it gimps an entire portion of your abilities. I prefer simplicity on the jobs themselves if that leads to greater mechanical and secondary variation. Stance dancing may be fun, however intense healer checks while simultaneously still DPSing and dodging mechanics is far more appealing.

[Belhi]

The problem is the mechanics they are replacing it with are healing mechanics which is an area of the Job where such mechanics. In most content most healers will probably spend only half their time healing yet all their Job mechanics are tied only to healing. What is more is that heals are already so powerful that extra mechanics that add heals feel wasted.

AST is the only one avoiding this and that is because they have a secondary buff system that is actually likely to still be a useful system.