Why does this game hide essential character info?

[Nora_of_Mira]

At the least I would love to be able to see what my actual GCD is... that’s the most common place where you want a specific value not too high or too low...

I just mouse over any of my weaponskills and look at the tooltip, but now that i type that, yeah I think there should be a better way than that.

[Dzian]

however, if people expected that from HW to ShB we would be reaching ridiculously low GCD and super high crit rates, thats unfortunate. I cant see SE balancing it that way and we'll never be able to know how they change the potencies of stats from expansion to expansion, sadly.

I don't think its anyhting extreme like that.
I just think its easy to see why people think stats are boring and meaningless when you never actually gain anything from them because they're always adjusting potencies.

I also think its down to design. FFXI worked around a hidden stat many referred to as DLVL which scaled your stats according to a basic level difference between you and whatever you were fighting. and that always meant that you felt stat differences.

I sometimes think XIV would be better with something similar.. At least then if a level 80 player went and did Ifrit Ex unsynced he might actually see a difference in his crit rates by seeing them skyrocket, but when you unsync to 80 and your crit rates against a level 50 mob are the exact same they are against a level 80 then what does that stat actually do for you???

Or even just have some variance in monster stats. Mobs that are super slow but super heavy armored, mobs that are soft and squishy but evasive as hell... there's a lot they could do to cater for ever increasing stats without constantly changing the potencies and removing any gains..

Where as now I can step out of Ul'dah throw a shield at a level 1 bug and hit it for almost the exact same damage as I would throwing that shield at a level 80 boss.. It's kinda weird to think that boss has the the exact same defense as a level 80 bug... the only difference between them is the boss has way more hp..

[Genz]

It's been like this since FFXI. That's about 17 years. Don't expect any change.

The reasoning they gave back then was that they wanted the players to figure it out as a community. They still do that with a lot of things in the game today ("communicate with your fellow players to learn how to progress"), so it's likely still the same reasoning.

No.
It would be meaningless in FFXI because, like a lot of other RPG, calculations involve enemy stats and enemies have a lot of special characteristics and traits.
Estimation is possible, but the variety of enemies makes it limited (for example the game can tell the player character has around 90% hit rate on most enemies with his current equipment, but it no longer work against an evasive enemy)
Giving accurate number like the OP is suggesting is only possible in shallow games like "modern" MMO.

[Makeda]

I just mouse over any of my weaponskills and look at the tooltip, but now that i type that, yeah I think there should be a better way than that.

I’ve never seen my GCD listed, but will recheck.

[linay]

I’ve never seen my GCD listed, but will recheck.

It's the recast time.

[Barraind]

Being able to actually know the stat thresholds in games like WoW was really helpful as some stats like skill speed are genuinely useless until you hit the next breakpoint that actually lowers your GCD.

the silly thing is that you can actually know all these things from datamining, and confirm them through parsing.

They just dont display them.

I thought there was a point where crit overtakes direct hit for tanks in general for dps gains. Is that not the case?

This is correct.

Because crit affects crit chance and crit damage, it scales exponentially and will eventually outscale everything for almost everyone. It tends to happen at either the .2 or .4 patch (this expansion looks likely it might start happening at .2 for a lot of classes. Healers are already safe to get into their crit/det melds, but that has a lot to do with how modular piety is and how questionable spellspeed is right now)

[Shurrikhan]

The interface does give some explanation as to what each stat does in general terms if you hover the cursor over it in the character screen. However, they're deliberately not going to explain in detail what the mathematics do under the hood as that sort of information players would then use to exploit the game deliberately. And even keeping it secret has not stopped players already doing just that. Unfortunately, you're not going to get an in-depth explanation from the development team about this I'm afraid.

Taking the (normally unnecessary) effort to be less ignorant about the core elements of one's game is not cheating.

Edit: You know what feels an awful lot like cheating, though? Developers hiding what stats do so they don't have to balance them well.

[Rasikko]

I tried figuring out the cure formulas way back, but what kept throwing me off is the variance between the min and max values. I know crit basically doubles the final value, but I never figured out the chance.

[RoyalBeef]

I dont think its anyhting like that. i just think its easy to see why people think stats are boring and meaningless when you never gain anything from them because they're always adjusting potencies.

I also think its down to design. FFXI worked around a hidden stat many referreed to as DLVL which scaled your stats according to a basic level difference between you and whatever you were fighting. and that always meant that you felt stat differences.

I sometimes think XIV would be better with something similar.. at least then if a level 80 player went and did ifrit ex unsynced he might actually see a difference in his crit rates by seeing them skyrocket but when you unsync to 80 and your crit rates against a level 50 mob are the exact same they are against a level 80 then what does that stat actually do for you.....

or even just have some varience in monster stats. mobs that are super slow but super heavy armoured mobs that are soft and squishy but evasive as hell... there's a lot they could do to catar for increasing stats without constantly changing the potencies and removing any gains.. where as now i can step out of uldah throw a shield at a level 1 bug and hit it for almost the exact same damage as a level 80 boss.. it's kinda weird to think that boss has the same defence as a level 80 bug... the only difference between them is the boss has more hp..

Also curious if our defense makes any real difference. Was running some low level dungeon unsync the other day to get WT done, and I swear trash mobs were hitting me for 25dmg or so, as far as I remember that should be pretty similar to the damage they did when I was level 20 with 300 hp or so lol.

[wdeschain]

I've subbed 4+ years.I am here after wanting to understand stats better for tanks--my PLD--WOW! What's crazy to me is that I really never thought much about the stats because, as mentioned, player created content always was available .A couple weeks ago, I was re-reading the short stat narratives, and questions popped up that I've thought about many times, yet never sought answers.

OP, I applaud your post--more players should herald the observation. I'd like to add to OP's outspokenness my reoccurring boggle throughout my subscription tenure. I am tired--and apologize if I like clarity..

On our character UI window we have an operational button with the ability to equip a personal inventory BiS.
1. Is SE algorithm correct? Have we merely been duped by a covert organization that has purposely distorted stat weights so as to retain ownership of the ranking on the site that shall not be named? Seriously, who is correct: a) SE Devs OR b) FFXIV content creator X?

2. Why would the above mentioned BiS in-game tool NOT fit us with BiS? Is it that content creators engines churn out gear sets that focus solely on maximum damage output? --while SE's calc does some function that adds job specific variable to its equation (e.g. piety, tennacity)?

3. I have experienced this with crafted HQ versus patch raid gear versus tomestone. All MAIN STATS equal--the only difference being "sub stats." The following is merely one recount as it's the freshest in my mind. I outfit pld with 350 norm gear. 5.05 begins, and so with my avatar, I penat-meld HQ acc's(neck & a ring) plus penta up a chest and leg slot. I manually equip the penta-melded, replacing the norm 350. If i go to the in-game BiS solver, it wants to put the norm gear back onto my character. I ignore it. I have been omni thru SB, and so I glam alot. That said, I use the BiS solver often as a quick check to make sure I'm not slotting any ilv 1 pieces I was glam geeking on. I have seen the norm pieces from want to take the slots over my pentas though they haven't been worn for a few instances. THEN! Magically! The BiS solver no longer wants to place them on my avatar--I sure hope someone else has witnessed this!
Why does this happen? What is going on?

4. FFXIV demands that X amount of dps be doled out on X boss in X amount of time or you will be served an enrage.The dps pld skills have tooltips that contain their potency, and this allows me to craft a rotation without player created guides(yes,I know...pld is on the simpler side) Stats that affect the effect of my dps in any given instance are an unknown--though absolutely necessary to aid a party in taking down a boss under SE's fight formula of partyDPS>(Boss HP/Instance Enrage Timersecs .
I am a bit tired, but please do not read as salty. The OP has a very legitimate question.I hope it entices converstion and a SE response. Peace.