Cleric Stance Discussion - Is it needed?

[Marxam]

So at PAX East this weekend, Yoshi-P talked about how he hates Cleric Stance, but he feels that people would be upset if they took it away. So I wonder... if they just made Healer Damage Calculations based off of the MND stat, would that be better?

I'm just curious after having put some thought into the question. This would allow for healing and damage without the stance dance.

So do we still want the Stance Dance? Or would something else be better?

Thanks,

He's just mad because he went a little crazy with the "dps push" designed bosses and content. If he's really adamant about the dmg when in cleric then he should just nerf it like he did with tank damage and scaling. Don't get angry at us when you clearly design content that rewards pure dps over proper execution of mechanics.

[JunseiKei]

He's just mad because he went a little crazy with the "dps push" designed bosses and content. If he's really adamant about the dmg when in cleric then he should just nerf it like he did with tank damage and scaling. Don't get angry at us when you clearly design content that rewards pure dps over proper execution of mechanics.

Might have been mentioned somewhere else, and I don't feel like combing 13 pages to quote someone, but:
Old, but relevant.

Let's get right into it - we've seen many posts from readers relating to end-game content. When you go through development, how do you decide how to set the difficulty? For example, the amount of DPS required for each particular content.

Yoshida: When we make battle content, first we determine a minimum assumed item level required to clear. Then, we determine the total amount of party damage required to clear, taking a minimal amount of damage from tanks and healers into account during this calculation.

What do you mean by minimal?

Yoshida: Basically it's the damage from tank auto-attacks and the basic skill rotation used in order to maintain hate. We add this to the party damage needed. However, we often use zero in the calculation for damage required from healers. In other words, we only take into account the amount of damage necessary to perform as a tank or a healer and we don't take them into account as actively participating in attacking. For the clear assumption on DPS, we calculate the 100% value for the item level and we reduce that by 10 to 15 percent for the amount required to clear.

But it's often actually the case that healers do participate in attacking.

Yoshida: Well, the calculations are based on the item level assumed during development.

Ah, and that's different from the minimum item level required to try the content.

Yoshida: Yes. So if you try to clear it at a lower item level, it will be necessary for tanks and healers to participate in attacking. The difference in skill levels for DPS players will be a factor. If you're below the 85 to 90 percent damage assumption, you'll have to fill in the gap with DPS from tanks and healers. If the DPS work together and think about total party damage, it may also help to break through.

So healers may need to participate in the attack if there wouldn't otherwise be enough. Well, even if there is, healers may also attack just to provide a margin [for error].

Yoshida: Yeah. Especially in Savage because it is difficult to deal damage while handling the mechanics I think there is some opportunity there.

It may be difficult to deal DPS close to the 100% result. By the way, we also got some posts asking if the members who worked on developing the battles had cleared the end-game content themselves during development.

Added the red text and underlined super important things people tend to overlook in the grand scheme. Healer DPS is there to pick up the slack for incorrect handling of mechanics (taking too much time or sending the wrong DPS to handle it, etc.), lazy and under-geared players and attempts. The same may be said for your OT and MT that actually do DPS increasing rotations.

The only real flaw that pops out to me on this interview from over a year is that healers would more likely need to DPS if the party is closer to the minimal ilevel requirement. I can't help but think if everyone is closer to the item level requirement, there'd be even less time to heal as tanks may take more damage that otherwise not be quite as harsh. (IE: Couple of times, I've seen OT in Sophia EX get 1 shot at minimum ilevel, even with CDs up. They would live with extra mitigation like virus, stoneskin, adloquium and/or disable, but barely 25k HP really needs the extra compensation).

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Still, I always gathered cleric stance to be a solution to an issue that plagues the healer class in other MMOs: solo leveling. Not only does FFXIV make it pretty easy to level, it's not quite as painful as it is in other MMOs. It doesn't take nearly double or triple the time for a healer to kill something thanks to cleric stance.