Bring Cleric stance back

[Packetdancer]

i don't see how kardia is at all like the cleric stance concept, however Lost seraph Strike is very much much what i had been thinking about, without realizing it.

See below on why.

I'll admit, I also adored Lost Seraph Strike even aside from the Cleric Stance buff it gave you, because until then I had not realized that I really wanted a gap closer on a healer. (That might be another aspect as to why I'm maining sage this tier instead of my traditional WHM... Icarus is SO GOOD.)

Yes, not stance dancing, but I do agree it has a touch of "situational" around it, and it's rather handy to switch it around in a mid level PUG as needed. Moreso with a front-positional RPR in the party. There are times when he needs it more than the tank.

Yeah, I think that's it. It's not really stance-dancing, but it's something you weave in situationally to switch around an aspect of your healing, which is why it gives me a tiny bit of cleric stance nostalgia.

[Shibi]

Interestingly, I think part of why I've come to love sage is that you have something that, while it isn't stance dancing per se, feels a tiny bit similar. Namely, the fact that I can weave a Kardia in amongst normal attacks to shift my Kardion healing status among the party to top off whoever's a bit wounded, without having to spend an Addersgall charge and throw a bunch of overhealing at them. DRG is down a little bit of health? No problem, I'll shift Kardion from the tank over to them. BRD got Dropsy in P2S? Well, I'll shield them first, but then I'll shift Kardion over to them as well and let my damage help keep them topped up. They're good? Shift Kardion back to the main tank. Etc.

It's not quite stance-dancing, but shifting the Kardion around that way mid-fight feels at least a little like it to me, somehow.

Yes, not stance dancing, but I do agree it has a touch of "situational" around it, and it's rather handy to switch it around in a mid level PUG as needed. Moreso with a front-positional RPR in the party. There are times when he needs it more than the tank.

[Nizzi]

Not sure what Cleric Stance would accomplish at this point in time with their commitment to the mindless and boring gameplay of glare/broil/malefic/dosis spam. I'd much rather have something engaging to deal with in downtime than something that hurts my ability to heal.

[Shibi]

I understand they removed it for balancing purposes, but I think it would be cool if healers can get the cleric stance back. However, for said balancing purposes. It would work similarly to BLU basic instinct where it only boosts the damage outside instances & Parties.
Same for tank stance. It can boost the tanks' damage outside instances & parties but once they join one the damage increase will be gone.

(Bolding is mine, as most people are skipping this part, he only wants it solo-overworld)

No thanks. We want to reduce the number of dead buttons in instances, not add to them. Overworld damage is just fine. If more is needed, choco can help, and if more still, switching to a DPS class gets the job done.

[Divinemights]

Instead of bring back a removed ability, perhaps it is better to re-examine FF14's current party formation and increase to 5 instead of 4?
I mean, FF11 a light party was 5: 1 tank, 2 pure DD, one DD/Support and Healer.
Maybe it is a good time to revisit that formation and put BRD/RDM/DNC/MCH to the DD/Support Role?
Healer and Tank then don't need to worry about dps and focus on damage mitigation and MP management?

[Shougun]

It's subjective, and I can hear arguments of thematic at least, but I just don't think it was that fun even when done right.

I used to tank and cleric dance (or just tank without stance at all when possible), but I just felt like it was a burden, unfun, and countered the purpose of my role (ruined the theme objective, imo).

When I say I can see a theme argument I mean let's take Dark Knight for example, what if some of the spells cost health-- that could be cool, but since it's a tank that'd also probably be pretty bad unless it was basically a 'theme' only mechanic that didn't have much gameplay impact. Even if it wasn't a tank it could easily create a situation where bad players make healers dislike the job overall (more so than normal, although speaking of Dark Knight... their anti-tank buster certainly counts lol). Or like when you use those shield skills in games that also cause you to move slower for a time, but that can be annoying and sometimes just make you not be able to (or want to) use it if the con wasn't made to be fun (even if the skill offers good defense it could still be so punishing that it's just not fun to use, like imo the blue mage self stun skills). A skill of similar concept might be the old version of Dragoon's lance charge which caused you to take more damage but deal more damage (blood for blood, technically lancer skill but w.e :3).

Now... there is the issue of making things so silky smooth that you've no wrinkles, like no wrinkles on your brain, smooth brain. Sometimes everything is hyper sleek and simple to the point it's not frustrating.. yet somehow that is now making it frustrating lol. Too complex, jail. Too simple? Believe it or not, also jail.

Anyway, the skill as it was, imo, was not very enjoyable. Yet I imagine you might be able to make a mechanic semi-akin to it that could be more fun. For example you might have a oGCD spell that causes your next X damage spells deal more damage, afterwards you will AoE heal for a portion of that damage. If you use healing skills during the duration of that ability you will lose the secondary heal effect of the mechanic. You've now been encouraged to deal more damage and not heal, but technically you can still absolutely heal (and heal well), and you don't even lose the bonus damage either. Encourages you to mix up your play but doesn't really slap you upside the head for messing it up either. Cleric stance didn't just slap you upside the head, it choco stomped you into the ground (if you messed up) lol. I love thematic or quirky things / skills, sometimes I call it new old school or something along that line, but I'd hope we can leave some of the more, imo, unnesccary rough elements out of it.

[Knot_D]

Go back to bozja if you want cleric stance...

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

There is...NO reason to bring that crap back.

[Kolsykol]

I don't understand the point of this.
The OP not knowing how Cleric Stance worked to begin with adds a level of comedy to it, but even that aside what's the point?

If it's about damage and healing then you can just increase potencies.
I don't think that this added anything ( and yes I did play when Cleric Stance was around and do remember it, it was just odd ).

[Lubu_Mykono]

maybe they could actually have 2 healers that are DPS focused and 2 that are not (like og SCH Vs WHM) and bring back DoTs so SCH can have 6 again?