Former WoW player: Suggested changes to FFXIV Raiding end-game

[Shurrikhan]

Strength. Tenacity. Dexterity. Intelligence. Mind.

These are already built into the game and are 'job specific'. Gear for a particular job swims in these stats. The stats change depending on which job you're currently playing.

TL;DR The game already has what you're requesting.

No, the game has nothing like what was being requested.

The example was Mastery, a stat available to every spec and useful to every spec, but the effects of which varies by spec. That has nothing to do with Power-but-for-melee-other-than-Ninja, Power-but-for-Ninja-and-Ranged, Power-but-for-DPS-Casters, and Power-but-for-healers. Those aren't job-specific effects. They're the same effect. They're just convoluted to extend time spent grinding.

A closer example here would be if, say, you had a stat which increased proc rates or resource generation by a job-specific percentage (as to leave it balanced near Crit and DHit), or which added a variably intense mechanic to one's playflow.

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Personally, I'd be cool with just having actual choice in secondary stats and a bit more % effectiveness per stat point. But that requires some further polish.

Jobs vary pretty significantly in the portion of their damage that stems from oGCDs. That's a whole portion on which SkS/SpS (which should be consolidated into simple Haste rather than continuing to uniquely screw over PLD and DRK) has no contribution. So either Haste needs to be scaled differently per job, to provide equal value to the stat, or there needs to at least be a compensatory mechanic. I'd say the latter will probably be the worse option, though, as most compensatory mechanic concepts can only function by watering down the distinction between stats. There's also the imbalance in MP efficiency, though that could be easily solved by placing MP ticks on a rate equal to player GCD, rather than on a 3-second server tick.

Similarly, increase both the peaks of secondary stats and the between-expansion valleys. That's not to say the maximum Crit chance we can achieve by the final patch should increase from expansion to expansion, but merely that we should both be able to hit some significant peak in %Haste or %Crit, etc., by each final patch and that those percentiles shouldn't dive so sharply with the new expansion. In the end, secondary stats are at least as much about having some sense of impactful choice by which to play a bit more in the style we want (i.e., about the actual percentages in play) as the sense of power progression for a given expansion's endgame (i.e., the increase in percentages or, more importantly, the damage thus provided).

Heck, I wouldn't even mind losing Materia as it stands presently. For how much it bloats our inventory, it provides little more than a constant, dull gil-sink. I'd far sooner rather have a single, separate slot by which to just drop in just one customizable, any-job Materia for an oversided dollop of secondary stat of my choice -- say, adding Haste until X, and then Crit. Voila, rather than micromanaging gear to be able to play with the rotation I want, I can just choose it then and there. Choiceful, impactful, convenient.