Quote Originally Posted by Renathras View Post
[EDIT: Let me try to be more polite...]I was explaining why they aren't the same. I'm sorry the concept of "Here's how those two things are different" goes over your head. In simple terms, WAR doesn't have extra decision making because, outside of trying to use Storm's Path instead of Storm's Eye during burst, there's no time that you need to pool Storm's Eyes. There's no time in a fight letting the buff go really low (<9 sec) so you can quickly use two Storm's Eyes in a row is beneficial to you. Unlike stacking Dia, which would allow you to play with the duration to allow you better damage optimized movement, Storm's Eye does not share that quality.

That's how they're different.

That's entirely relevant to the discussion because that difference is what would allow stacking Dia to have a higher skill ceiling and reward foresight where non-stacking Dia does not vs Storm's Path not sharing that quality.
The skill ceiling is defined by the difficulty in identifying what's optimal within the constraints of a fight and job, and by the difficulty in executing the optimal plan once identified.

In terms of difficulty of execution, a stacking Dia lowers the skill ceiling. Consider the lowly striking dummy: A non-stacking Dia must be hit every 30 seconds, on the dot (pun intended?). You are allowed no deviations from this plan. A stacking Dia affords you far more flexibility; you don't have to time your refreshes to specific moments in the fight. This is, in fact, true in any fight so long as movement isn't a concern or otherwise "easily" dealt with by positioning and stutter-stepping. What if movement is a concern?

In terms of identifying what's optimal, a stacking Dia also lowers the skill ceiling, precisely because it makes it easier "to allow you better damage optimized movement." A non-stacking Dia always faces you with the problem of minimizing how many ticks you overwrite or drop. It continually presents you the question and choice between using Dia for movement (or a weave slot, in some world with a better appreciation of how rDPS ought to work), thus losing out on ticks, vs. "git gud" at positioning and stutter-stepping (which takes us back to difficulty of execution). A stacking Dia makes it far more likely that you can just go, "eh, I'm hitting Dia, problem solved."