Gear and Progression: A Discussion

[Kalise]

I think the problem lies in quit a number of mechanics of the game.

The thing is, even if you rework Enmity in the way that you say, it still wouldn't really change much. Heck, even if you made it so that Tank stance was a necessity in order to generate Enmity, it still doesn't change the fact that a Tank will want to stack damage. Since damage = more Enmity as well as faster boss kills. All you really do is mean that their DPS doesn't get as high. Same if you reduce all the Str on their gear (Honestly, that'd just mean that BiS Tank gear would be Crafted gear all melded for STR...)

Again, same thing for healing. You reduce healing output and nerf oGCD's they'll still be trying to spend as much time as possible dealing damage (As well as getting more damage from their main stat)

Like, irregardless of how you tune the numbers, the only thing to realistically gear for, is more damage. The optimal way to play, is to try and push out as much damage as possible (I.e. Using DPS stance, using higher damaging combos, as a healer using damaging spells during downtime).

Even if you buff DPS so that a Tank/Healer is only contributing 1% of the overall damage, it's still optimal to push towards doing 1.1% of the overall damage than it is to stack stats you don't need (I.e. Stacking defence when you already survive the encounter. Stacking Piety when you already have infinite MP with also access to a plethora of MP regen tools etc)

It's a problem that most (If not all) games come across at some point (Usually in the highest level content when everyone running it is essentially full BiS), that Tanks and Healers will try and push out more damage and so will gear and play in a way where they can push out more damage. Even with penalties such as low base DPS and Tank stance reductions, at some point, scaling non-Damage stats becomes irrelevant and you just wanna push out more damage, to beat enrage timers faster, to clear content faster and to have meaningful progression with gear and playstyle.

Hence, why it would be more suitable to provide non-Damage focused stats a utility that provides damage in a sense. So that there's a shift from wanting to stack raw damage, into wanting to stack these other stats that won't increase your personal damage output (At least, not in the same way as stacking damage) but will help your party/raid deal damage instead. So that there's less focus on the Tank/Healer pumping out damage and being basically DPS but with damage mitigation/healing buttons to use when necessary and more focus on them being a supportive part of a team, protecting them and facilitating their ability to do their job: I.e. The Tank holds aggro and stays alive so that the DPS and Healer don't get straight up destroyed, the Healer props up the Tank and spot heals the DPS as enemies toss out AoE's and randomly targeted damage and then the DPS are free to do their thing of pew pewing down enemies.

For healers it's slightly simpler, as all you really need to do, is give them something else to fill in downtime other than damaging skills. Or you could even rework their damaging skills so they also provide other (Stat scaled) benefits so it's less about spamming them for damage and more about "When you don't need to heal, you're still supporting your team" kind of thing (Though, improving the number of skills they use during downtime would be beneficial, so it's not just Stone/Ruin/Malefic spam). The main issue for Healers is trying to come up with a good way to provide visual feedback from this solution, to make it feel akin to a DPS seeing bigger numbers as they deal damage.

For tanks it's a bit trickier, since well, all of their skills deal damage and their main mechanic to keep in mind, Enmity, is based on dealing damage. Which is why I suggested the Stagger thing, since not only could that be kept completely independent from damage scaling, but it could also be a way to make using Tank stance and the Enmity combos more enticing without having to gimp their ability to actually use DPS stance (For solo/OT) or their other combos, as you could provide them with a bonus towards Stagger generation for using them (Heck, you might even see high tier raids start to utilize an entire kit of a Tank, building up the Stagger then swapping to DPS stance and non-Enmity combo's to wait until phases and DPS CD's align before triggering the effect)