Quote Originally Posted by Kiara View Post
1. Then why not just have *2* (TWO) Stats for everyone: "ATTACK" and "DEFENSE" and be done with it? That's the true simplification of it all. Those are the 2 more important stats.

Answer: Because it's more *interesting* with different parameters that are related to Attack and Defense.
You're bringing in needless hyperbole in an attempt to make a point. Secondary stats have always existed in the context of RPGs, and the key has been to balance stuff in such a way that you don't have one stat to rule them all (the way Haste did in FFXI). The other key point is making stuff not mandatory outside of what is the context of your job.
Relevant Meaningful interesting predictable limited *magic* boring
And so come the meaningless words. Gear is a means to an end. The end being seeing content. You claim balance can exist despite people who have seen examples to the contrary. We're telling you that drinking the cool aid with cyanide in it is a bad idea but you think it'll somehow work out if you do.
2. The irony here is that for all of Yoshi P's statements that he simplified 2.0 (and removed the Elemental Wheel) and removed all these other stats was "because of balance," this game has continuously had Balance Problems.

He had to adjust Warrior because it was insufficient. He had to adjust Black Mage (even with No Elemental Wheel) because it was imbalanced. He's now having to adjust Dragoon because of imbalance.

So we still have balance problems even now, with a dumbed-down, oversimplified game, with No Interesting Stats.
Now you're abusing the word "irony". Since you missed the obvious point, I'll spell it out in a format that you seem to think will drive a point home:

Now imagine what balance clusterfuck we'd have if we had what you call "meaningful" "interesting" stats on top of imbalances that are a result of encounter balance and new classes being added to the game.

WAR's design clashed with what how people were approaching Coil, which is why it had to be changed. People who actually analyzed stuff could also see that in the long run WAR would have run into issues (even the tank forums here agreed that no amount of self healing could ever hope to approach the level of mitigation a PLD had at the time). That's what prompted the change. BLM's got buffed in response to how the class performed versus encounter design (because encounters with mobility elements were pimp-slapping BLMs). DRG's issues didn't really become news-worthy until magical damage attacks in Coil 3 were nearly-killing or one-shotting DRGs in top raid gear in the obvious result of crafter gear having more magical defense than ilvl110 DRG gear.

Mind you, more "interesting" stats would have done absolutely nothing to alleviate the issues these jobs had, as they come from job design vs encounter design. The fact that itemization is straightforward simply makes finding these issues a lot easier, and thus easier to resolve. So to spell it out again: Class design and mechanics don't have anything to do with "unique" stats, and issues/deficiencies would be notably more difficult to pinpoint and resolve if said "unique" stats were part of the equation.