Why does this game hide essential character info?

[SaberMaxwell]

I'm of the opinion the game should be more communicative about what stats mean. Critical Hit isn't just crit chance, it's crit multiplier for instance, and based on the one number we get it's hard to tell how it affects either of those statistics. Statistics like Determination and Tenacity are especially bad: "This is a stat that just increases everything!"

To a layman, this sounds like the best stat ever. "Why wouldn't I stack Tenacity, it says it increases everything and I take less damage and get healed more!" It can be a bit of a noob trap, and noob traps aren't what XIV needs really. I don't agree that knowing what these statistics mean could break the game, but that's also because I can't envision how knowing stat breakpoints (which can even now be datamined as I've been told) could break the game.

[Driavna]

IMO SE has two reasons to not disclose them:

- Easier to sneak changes here and there when needed.

- Once an expansion hit and our character go to the level cap will "becomes weaker" and that's something certain players hate. You know, ignorance is bliss.

There is no other reason to hide that info from the players, at all.

[Waliel]

Recommended just shoves gear by some combination of Ilvl and Vit. It will absolutely NOT give you optimized gear on most classes if you have accessories with 0 vit on them but carry glam pieces with you. This was mostly seen with earrings and rings pre stormblood, but Aetheryte earrings solve the problem for the ear slot.

It also doesn't search your normal inventory. Noticed that the hard way when i was running around with lvl 25-30 accessories at 50+.

[Aylis]

So, when you open the character page in FFXIV, you will see ton of primary and secondary stats. Strength, tenacity, direct hit, etc.
You can see their numerical value, yet these numbers are meaningless without context, without feedback for my character.
What is my chance to crit? Exactly how much extra damage/healing/dmg reduction do my tanks get from their tenacity? How much damage reduction I gain from my defense values?

I have never seen this in any other MMORPG. I've been playing them for over a decade, I have high level characters in 5 MMOs and I dabbled in many others, and I can't remember not being able to see such basic, essential info like what is my crit chance.

I guess there are some fan-made online calculators where I put my stats and see the desired info, but that's kinda my point, I shouldn't have to rely on fan-made third party resources to see such basic stuff.

Why does it matter?
- its impossible to make any character/gear optimization, theorycrafting, without being completely reliant on player-made guides.
What is my best secondary stat? Is this piece of gear with slightly higher ilvl, but lesser amount of materia slots better? Who knows?
- it can lead to outright wrong choices when gearing up. For example, going by ingame description, Tenacity seems like such a wonderful, all-in-one stat for tanks, and new player might be tempted to stack it as much as possible. Yet when you read any tanking guide, every advanced player will tell you that tenacity is bad and you should stack CRIT and DH as tank.
- character and gear progression feels much less satisfying in this game compared to other MMOs. Yet "the loot hunt" is one of the main reasons to keep playing MMOs once you've completed the story and hit max level.
Sure, my lvl80 SAM with rankVIII materias has much more CRIT, DH, DET, than my lvl 68 DNC in Shire gear with V materias, but ultimately this tells me nothing.

The only stat whose progression you can easily see is Vitality, where you can see your HP increase with each item you equip. Everything else is hidden for some reason. Why? And why aren't more players concerned with this?

I feel its done to keep players guessing intentionally. I mean, Yoshida has a stance of avoiding all forms of meta. Any class can do any content no better then another class and what not. I feel its a giant mask to hide behind that they don't know the first thing about class balance. Not to mention Yoshida's negative stance on parses and how oh so toxic they are. I play MMO's that have parsing built directly into the game and never have I seen anyone use numbers to attack or belittle anyone in a random PUG situation. Also these games are active in both NA/EU regions as well as Japan. I feel he's content to keep the game a guessing gleeful button mashing combat style to make up for and hide their lack of knowledge in creating and balancing classes. I used to care and did try at one point to min-max, but without any clear way of telling if its even having an impact without looking over a million spreadsheets, it became more of a chore then anything fun. Just get that next item level is the name of the game.

[Canadane]

I think if they told us our crit chance and strength and such directly, there'd be a lot more people upset after finding out how often SE adjusts these numbers.
I'd have over a 100% crit chance by now if these things never got nerfed.

[rachcouture]

Because the stats don't really matter in this game; they just get bigger. If the numbers were significantly smaller and we had actual control over distribution, then it'd be another story, but unfortunately that isn't the case, and it's far too late in the development cycle to change it.

Tbh, they could probably do away with everything but the core five attributes and focus on providing customization elsewhere where it actually matters (i.e. skill loadout/alternate specs) instead.