Possible alteration to Cleric Stance

[JackFross]

I'd rather see the requirement reduced, especially the base from zero bonus accuracy to back-cap, so that it stands at least as much an optional stat for hitting from the flank and front, at least for melee dps, as it does a stat dump.

Hitting flank and front is not optional as a Melee dps. In all of the newest raid tier, you cannot guarantee that you will never use an attack from the front of the boss you're fighting. Bosses spin to face you if they target you with their random target skills in every single fight. Sure, you'll run away sometimes, but other times you won't, as a melee. So, like, yeah?

All they'd need to do is give Cleric the ShO/Def/Grit treatment and slap on a 5% accuracy buff to the stance. 95% accuracy rate is easy to hit, and that's all you'd need to hit every time.

I don't think Accuracy is a worthless stat as everyone here is saying. I don't think it should be gotten rid of. Yeah, we need better, more interesting secondaries, so that gearing up becomes a choice - not an easily-discovered BiS set. I'd love for there to be more stats with boosts you can't measure as strictly weighted. I've never played an MMO besides this one, though, so I have no idea what people mean when they say "MORE STATS PLS" since I have no framework for thinking of a stat that does something other than strict damage gain, crit rate increase, and speed boosts.

As it stands, Accuracy is the only thing that makes gearing up interesting, challenging, and fun. If you remove that stat from the game, everything just becomes boring. You just slap on the highest dps piece and you're good, because, at the end of the day, this game is all about how much damage you can do to the target. Unless these secondaries are some fourth, fifth, or sixth way of boosting damage dealt in a meaningful way, they'll be widely ignored for the crit/det options.

tl;dr: Constantly reminded why not everyone is a game developer.

[Ghishlain]

My only real question there is what comparison do they have for whether Healer dps is "in check". Is it combined HPS-DPS output compared, in which case they've almost always exceeded DPS, or even HPS/Mitigation-DPS output, in which they'll now likely outdo tanks in casual fights? By either of those comparisons, it's not exactly "in check" right now, not that I especially mind this. After all, DPS is unlimited, where as healing and mitigation quickly max out as soon as fights lose their challenge, making it unlikely that a DPS would lose their spot to a bonus healers in virtually any content, even if healers were given bonus accuracy enough via Cleric Stance to need only half as much melding as they would now for 'rain-proofing'.

To be clear, I'm not a fan of removing accuracy entirely, I'd just like to see the amounts needed reduced, and to see less of a gap between "raid" content and all other content types. It makes no sense that the larger the enemy gets, the harder he is to hit.

I'd rather see the requirement reduced, especially the base from zero bonus accuracy to back-cap, so that it stands at least as much an optional stat for hitting from the flank and front, at least for melee dps, as it does a stat dump. Have its relative cost increase a bit, as it does now, but such that it's still no more than maybe 8-12% of our overall secondary stat expenditure, down from some 18-22%, and likely decreasing that proportion a bit with further ilvls.

An additional option would be to increase magic accuracy requirements to be equal to flank-cap for melee, at which point their average expenses are equal, but that's just to keep caster stats from gradually scaling ahead of physicals' now that a larger portion of accuracy only affects flank>frontal capping, in other words now that the optional range is a larger portion, rather than relatively small compared to the base (zero to back). In the first case, Cleric Stance and Rain of Death could each cover one step out is the progression of Zero Accuracy > Halfway > Back/Caster Cap > Flank Cap > Frontal Cap, guaranteeing healer hits with Rain of Death without allowing others to bypass accuracy requirements outright, while in the second, Zero > Half > Back > Flank/Caster > Frontal, Cleric Stance would get you 25% of the way, and could either give another 25%, nearly guaranteeing healer hits, or 50%, guaranteeing hits for healers and nearly for no-acc casters. While it's true that this would give a lot of free stat to healers, at present, no one else has to consume nearly every materia slot they have just to reach cap. Moreover, with such changes the overall value of accuracy will have been reduced. At that point it's really not much different from when accuracy was included for free on i100-130 gear.

inb4 "Why keep accuracy as a stat sink at all?"
Mostly so that Rain of Death and other evasion reducers still have a place, and to keep that optionality from being either too expensive or too trivial a cost, especially if caster cap remains equal to back cap. I mean, ideally it'd be a much more analog stat, where excess still contributes in some way, but as it functions now in gameplay I feel that roughly equal halves are perfect, especially with an adjusted caster cap.

"In check" might not have been the best way to describe. However Accuracy is a good way to arbitrarily limit Healer DPS to a curve that satisfies the dev team. If a Healer has 85% accuracy on content and can do 200 DPS on a dummy, then that 85% accuracy will restrict them closer to 170 DPS (ASTs and SCHs will most likely be slightly higher due to non-missing DoTs). When it comes to pushing DPS, healer's are the easiest way to add that in a raid. It's much easier for a Healer who's not DPSing in the first place to add say, 100 to 150 DPS versus a DPS who's already pushing 1,200 DPS to add that 100-150 DPS when they're already pushing 98% of their capacity due to the nature of the fight.

That's also why I feel the Accuracy stat is here to stay - because of Healer DPS. It's an arbitrary limit that the Dev team can put without actually removing Cleric Stance from the game. Healer DPS has so much potential in this game due to the nature of Cleric Stance (you get enough INT to rival a BLM/SMN of equal ilvl), they want to try to control it so it's harder for healers to contribute damage. Of course if they make the accuracy requirement to stringent it'll just dissuade any healer from DPSing because it starts to become a waste of MP. We're not at that point yet but if we continue the current trend we'll probably hit that point in 3.4.

Having Cleric Stance have a accuracy bonus based on ilvl is a good way to work around that. Healer's will still need Accuracy but perhaps not to the magnitude we will most likely expect at 3.4. ATM it's not bad, but it has the potential to become absolutely terrible in the future and should be addressed at least in some capacity. Even if that address is "Please meld Accuracy onto your pieces" from the Dev team, I'd be happy because at least then I know what direction the Dev team is going with this trend.

[Amiaze]

If you're gonna give Healer's such a large boost in accuracy in Cleric Stance you might as well just remove Accuracy as a stat for the entire game if you're going to do this. I disagree with this proposal for that very reason.

This.

This is a very extreme proposition just for the sake of giving us our accuracy back. It would also be a very unfair advantage to other DPS that might end up having lower accuracy just because of their gear, whereas we would be using a skill to augment ours for an indefinite amount of time.

We can now meld tome gear. I see no reason not to take full advantage of that. It finally gives us the opportunity to make a gameplay choice rather than being funneled into doing the same thing. Back in 2.X endgame, I mismatched gear so I could have better Spell Speed versus slightly better healing output. Now I can do that sort of thing (or others) without having to worry about ilvl requirements and the like. An increase in accuracy would take away one of our few melding options, and throw away all the effort already put in by healers who, like yourself, value their DPS output.

[_slowpoke_]

you might as well just remove Accuracy as a stat for the entire game

Yes, please. Accuracy is an uninteresting stat that does nothing to actually improve your character, it's merely there to be required because it removes a penalty that shouldn't exist in the first place. It adds no actual depth to gameplay, and takes away choice from gearing considerations (instead of giving you more, as many people seem to falsely believe). Additionally, it's something many players have no real understanding of (especially because FFXIV is intentionally vague and intransparent about its stats), especially those who haven't been playing multiple MMORGs for half their life already. These are the very reasons WoW removed hit rating, and it was the right thing to do - FFXIV should follow suit, for the same reasons. I'd rather see more and new secondary stats instead of the trainwreck that is accuracy, especially in a game where literally no content exists where healers have to heal 100% of the time, and the only thing to do when not healing is either DPSing or standing around doing absolutely nothing, the latter of which is generally not acceptable. Let's hope 4.0 actually cleans up a lot of the stat cruft in this game (also looking at you, Elemental Resistances and Parry) and makes gearing more interesting than it currently is.

[Kerrigen]

snip

Finally someone who gets it. Accuracy is a very unfun stat, no matter the job. It's only a meaningful stat in this game because the other secondaries are so bland.

[amihavingfunyet]

Can only agree with removing accuracy as a stat altogether. It doesn't add anything to the game at all.

[Pharazon]

Can only agree with removing accuracy as a stat altogether. It doesn't add anything to the game at all.

Can we at least start being honest about this type of statement? Accuracy technically adds more to the game than the other secondary stats because it directly influences something to a noticeable margin. If you want to talk about stats not adding to the game then we should be discussing the fact that secondary stats are altogether nearly pointless because of the way stat capping and available gear choices are structured.

[AeraLure]

If you're gonna give Healer's such a large boost in accuracy in Cleric Stance you might as well just remove Accuracy as a stat for the entire game if you're going to do this. I disagree with this proposal for that very reason.

Absolutely. That's what I was getting at too. I want more customization options in gearing choices and play styles when developing a character, not less. It's already way too simple now as it is in terms of stat complexity or anything to plan during character development. It's pretty easy to meld a few ACC and be able to dps in all but savage raid content.

[zuzu-bq]

There is no reason to add accuracy or chance to hit on Cleric as the game is right now. The current gear give us healers the opportunity to meld Heaven's Eye. Without advanced materia slots we can already reach accuracy cap for all Gordias Savage, all dungeons and scratch on the cap of Midas Savage (you can get in cap for A5S). So there is actually no need for this. If you want to miss less just meld accuracy, but do note that you need a high amount of accuracy melded to stop missing, but you don't need that much to just make your spell miss less.

I think SE had this in mind when they made this gear tier. Back on ARR, starting on i100 gear (Second Coil and Soldiery gear) the equipements had just a few accuracy in it to help healer to not miss that much. So if you just put one or two Heaven's Eye V you may see a great change in your miss rate. But you'll still depend on randomness.

[Pharazon]

Shameless youtube plug where I talk about melding gear and accuracy a bit here

The thing is that you don't need much accuracy, if any, to do non progression oriented content. Who cares if you miss? Its not like you are going to hit enrage timers, your just not going to save as much time as you could. And because of how little secondary stats matter in progression level content they are not going to be make or break. I have never been in a situation where I was like "If I only had 100 more DET I could heal this fight". The same is true for non progression oriented content. Why would I burn slots any other secondary stat when I am having no trouble healing the content at all. Why do I need to heal more? Those slots should go to accuracy as well because I would get some use out of them where more det or crit is basically wasted and at least accuracy is making my runs go faster.