Your Stance on Cleric Stance

[Connor]

The topic is Cleric Stance has always been controversial, and threads on whether or not it's a requirement for healers has been a hot topic for a while now.
My question is whether people enjoy utilizing Cleric Stance and whether they would like to see more focus on designing healers around it, or whether they would prefer to see the role move away from dps'ing

[UnaLihzeh]

Personally I like DPSing - if the situation allows for it. Unfortunately there seems to be a lot of times where someone thinks the situation allows it, when it doesn't, at all. If I don't think we are in a situation where a healing couldn't wait 5 seconds, I'm not going to DPS. If I don't think I can sacrifice the MP when I'm having trouble keeping the tank alive, I'm not going to DPS. This pretty much only happens when someone pulls too much mobs, and then starts pointing fingers as to why the fights are taking so long.

Other than that, DPS is a way of damage mitigation, since the shorter the fight, the less heals you have to send out. Plus if everyone's item level is higher for the dungeon and healing isn't necessary, it's nice to be able to feel like I'm actually DOING something when I throw stones. D: I think I would like a bit more content centered around cleric stance, for sure.

[Culfinrandir]

The change that is needed is for it to become a base action for all three healers so it doesn't have to be cross classed. It's essential for solo content, & there's a lot of that (even more than originally), so it can't be removed.

[Rawrz]

Cleric Stance is the most powerful ability in this entire game. Increase my dps by 500% by simply understanding the 5 second lockout? Why thank you.

[Aillith]

Would not play healer if not for cleric stance. Standing around waiting to heal would be boring. Solo content would be impossible.

[revonine]

I like it. I like being rewarded for going the extra mile with faster clears. I also like not being bored in dungeons where a decent tank can be kept alive solely with the fairy or a regen.
However Cleric Stance really needs some built in accuracy. I don't like being punished for wanting to step up my game. I'd very much like melding stuff other than accuracy onto my gear.

[Connor]

I agree that playing healer would be very boring without Cleric Stance, not to mention the problems it would cause in solo content. That said, I will admit I do find it strange that a cross-class ability is so important for all healers, but at the same time if every healer had an equivalent you'd just end up with several abilities that all do the same thing (this applies to abilities like Swiftcast too).

I think having content take it more into consideration (dps checks for example) is a touchy subject though, since many would feel that the role would become too difficult if healer dps became a requirement rather than a nice bonus. As others have said, dps'ing is currently the ultimate form of mitigation (the best way to stop incoming damage is just to kill the enemy lol).

[Connor]

I like it. I like being rewarded for going the extra mile with faster clears. I also like not being bored in dungeons where a decent tank can't be kept alive solely with the fairy or a regen.
However Cleric Stance really needs some built in accuracy. I don't like being punished for wanting to step up my game. I'd very much like melding stuff other than accuracy onto my gear.

I agree that it feels good to be able to contribute so much in parties; healer dps can make such a difference in so many ways (helps meet dps checks, shorter runs, easier to skip phases).

As for the accuracy requirements, I've always found these very strange. It's clear that they want healers to dps, otherwise there wouldn't be so much healing downtime. Not to mention the often referred to Hall of the Novice dialogue that outright states that healers should dps when they feel comfortable doing so. Despite this, the devs decided to remove all accuracy from healer gear whilst still giving them the same accuracy requirements as other casters (BLM / SMN). I think these pretty conflicting messages are one of the reasons why Cleric Stance remains such a controversial thing.

[Dzian]

Large part of why it's essential is because incoming damage is a joke 95% of the time

Tanks can be in dps stance and still take so little damage they don't really need healing outside of a fairies embrace or couple of regen ticks from a Whm.

The game is built almost entirely around dps which is why plds have had so many problems. Because it's a defensive tank in a game where defence is mostly worthless. And why most of the time over half of a Paladins toolkit is also useless.

So unless stuff starts hitting hard enough that healers actually have to heal and Tanks actually have to tank cleric will remain almost essential

[Connor]

Large part of why it's essential is because incoming damage is a joke 95% of the time

Tanks can be in dps stance and still take so little damage they don't really need healing outside of a fairies embrace or couple of regen ticks from a Whm.

The game is built almost entirely around dps which is why plds have had so many problems. Because it's a defensive tank in a game where defence is mostly worthless. And why most of the time over half of a Paladins toolkit is also useless.

So unless stuff starts hitting hard enough that healers actually have to heal and Tanks actually have to tank cleric will remain almost essential

Yeah, the game design definitely makes it very difficult to justify not dps'ing. Like with the accuracy thing though it makes no sense to me at all. Why design almost all content in such a way that Regen / Fairy / etc can cover the large majority of healing then constantly limit the amount of dps they can do?

And for that matter, why design abilities such as Clemency when they want dps'ing to be the most important part of the battle system? It just means that the ability is redundant before anyone gets a chance to use it. This is something I'd love for for the developers to explain, but as of yet we haven't had any straight answer about this kind of thing.

I'd like to add for reference, personally I'd love for healing to be an involving and engaging mechanic part of the battle system, but in my honest opinion it really just feels like a small side-mechanic to dps'ing.