Adding Stances

[Sloprano]

I guess Legion. I started during the Firelands patch of Cataclysm, and played until just before BfA. But I didn't really do any group content until Legion.


That part I don't mind so much. Soloing was always fun for me; I like to be able to find strategies to handle a situation on my own that's supposed to require a group.

Of course, it's very difficult to achieve that in a game, because encounters have to be very carefully balanced in order for them to be soloable, but not easily soloable, and it's hard to achieve that balance in light of differing player skill levels.

Want to think it is possible, and keep coming back to classes/jobs being designed for themselves first. So when you get to a point that's recommended to be done in a group, you could invaribly do it solo through patience and full use of your class' skillset. Was probably not designed to happen, but it would be the kind where the devs makes a class cool first, let them out in the world and then just sit back. It's how we got a Paladin soloing Lord Kazzak. That was hotfixed in 24 hours. So it went: Class was made of cool stuff, let loose in a game world and only when a class completely broke that world did the devs step in. FFXIV have been out long enough that it seems SE have stepped in so many times they are so far in the distance in front of us we can't see them, but they made huge deep tracks that are easy to follow but you have to no option than forward or back. 2.0-3.0 was the time they were still trying to get things right, but as they got better at it all the things I saw as flavor and nuisance to be worked around got the axe. "Not always useful? Can these be combined?"

Stances is just one of those things that it seems they found superflous. Now we don't need to be in a high-risk stance to deal more damage, but removed an entire dimension to the role without putting anything in it's place. For all I know this is the Prime version of the game for SE, what they intended it to be when they started all those years ago, or what all MMOs strive their balance to be.

Any kind of stance that involves a reduction to healing potency will never return. They got rid of that for a reason, and doing the same thing to tanks only goes to reinforce their decision to move in this direction. If there is to be any kind of stances for healers, it would likely involve preventing damage vs recovering from it. IOW shields and direct heals. However, a constraint is that some of what remains of what differentiates one healer from another is tied to those two healing archetypes. This along with SCH being the lock-in shielder has been a big problem with AST, which has lead to it and WHM leap frogging each other like anime rivals.

As far as SCH and WHM go, I don't think they need any kind of stance switching. That type of gameplay could go a long way to giving a particular healer a unique playstyle which is what is desperately needed for them right now/

I keep my hopes high in that regard until I see SE live stream removing the code and art for Cleric Stance (3.0) before doing git commit and git push on the altar of Balance. I would like it back in some capacity, maybe a bizzaro version: Healing stance: Increased healing from spells and abilities by 50% but reduces damage by 50%. And all our healing was initially cut in half so you want to be there as much as possible, only when soloing or when foolheardiness sets in do you want to leave it. We'll be like downsynced tanks forgetting Tank stance.

Been writing "Stance" so many times it's starting to lose meaning along with "fun" and "balance." We can go for something different: "Chaplain Stand." Getting back Chaplain Stand is what seems like the quickest way to give healers something more to do which I find the most pressing matter. Above all else, something entirely new and even better would be even more welcome. I can't say for the other jobs, but for Scholar I've read countless interesting ideas about making Stratagems on the fly then commiting them for gaining advantages or exploiting weakness, making Aetherflow and Fey Gauge work together instead of one powering the other so you'd start with 100 Fey gauge or a little dating mini-game with Lily to turn her into Eos or Selene and perform actions (and have more than two of the things.)

I wish they reduce all the potency of all healings of all the healer classes so healing will be intense and healers will just do their roles, healing.

If they did that and made every fight resemble the Mist Dragon in terms out damage dealt to the party and how much movement there is I'd be halfway on board with one foot. It would make the role more exciting (more healing, shielding and movement needed), but the Job would still be a one nuke/one dot/one aoe template which a stand would definitly liven up until they can get something more engaging in place. Because, despite everything, even as a Healer-assigned job, we still might end up doing quests alone, get a solo duty or find parts of a dungeon where no healing is needed but more damage would help and in that regard I'll soon have to swap out my "1" keyboard key relegated with Broil III for being worn out.