Skill/Spell Speed Should be Removed from Gear

[TheRealQuah]

I can't take the OP seriously when they said they wouldn't use a weapon with +1/+3 weapon damage because a 2.46 GCD would "play completely differently"

[TomsYoungerBro]

The initial BiS set for Asphodelos absolutely needed skill speed, because Blood Weapon didn't use the stack system yet.

After the 6.1 change, which asphodelos was still BiS, Drk BiS was still 2.45.

[RaionKansen]

Caster gear still needs SPS for BLMs, but please let me play 2.50 GNB/PLD BiS in peace without having to do dumb things like double tome 660/650 rings

[Absurdity]

Caster gear still needs SPS for BLMs, but please let me play 2.50 GNB/PLD BiS in peace without having to do dumb things like double tome 660/650 rings

Please let me play 2.40/2.41 GCD GNB from back in 6.0 in peace, I never imagined that CBU3 would manage to make the rotation even worse after that.

[ForteNightshade]

After the 6.1 change, which asphodelos was still BiS, Drk BiS was still 2.45.

That's only because people didn't yet parse the adjustments. Dark Knight shifted to 2.5 as their default BiS midway through 6.1 and even Gunbreaker shifted over now, though there's more of a debatable on preference between fast and slow Gunbreaker.

Please let me play 2.40/2.41 GCD GNB from back in 6.0 in peace, I never imagined that CBU3 would manage to make the rotation even worse after that.

To be fair, I do like the idea of just merging Skill/Spell Speed into "Haste" and doubling or even tripling the numbers. That way we solve both problems. People who want faster tanks, can meld for it while people who prefer slow tanks don't have to buy two rings just to avoid Skill Speed.

[Absurdity]

To be fair, I do like the idea of just merging Skill/Spell Speed into "Haste" and doubling or even tripling the numbers. That way we solve both problems. People who want faster tanks, can meld for it while people who prefer slow tanks don't have to buy two rings just to avoid Skill Speed.

I like the idea of merging both stats into haste. Just not sure how I feel about making it melds only, it's a nightmare for omni tanks because 2.50 feels fine on everything except gunbreaker to me. Then again I also absolutely hate the forced 2-cart nonsense you currently have to do, I'll take the scuffed pre-6.2 rotation over that any day.

[Thurmnmurmn]

Is that a description of White Mage and the Blood Lily Spell (which is damage neutral)?

It's not damage neutral if you count in the Crit chance. Possibility of a Crit on one blood lily will out damage a possibility of a Crit on multiple glares. But yes, it is pretty darn close.

I personally think they should just revamp the whole substats. Replace them with actual % stats that we can read by looking at it in game.
I'm also all for merging the 2 speed ones as others stated.

[Absurdity]

Replace them with actual % stats that we can read by looking at it in game.

The devs really don't like giving us clear information about what our substats do.

[hydralus]

I'd prefer if they got rid of crit/direct hit. Why should damage output have a luck variable? It's so strange. "Well it evens out in a long fight" okay sure why not just make it a general damage output increase, then. What, for 'gameplay depth'? There's no depth to either hitting a higher number or not based on an unseen force. At least with skill/spellspeed changes you could actually see some alterations to some rotations.

[Eorzean_username]

I'd prefer if they got rid of crit/direct hit. Why should damage output have a luck variable? It's so strange. "Well it evens out in a long fight" okay sure why not just make it a general damage output increase, then. What, for 'gameplay depth'? There's no depth to either hitting a higher number or not based on an unseen force. At least with skill/spellspeed changes you could actually see some alterations to some rotations.

It's to provide variance in psychological feedback, and somewhat of an RPG "staple".

The human brain will pick up on it pretty quickly if all your numbers are hitting for the same amount over and over again, and it begins to feel conspicuously "artificial" and "gamey". Same reason there's the artficially-induced 5% damage variance even on non-critical attacks.

That's not to say that FFXIV has ever been a breathtaking simulation of reality, but the "staticness" of lacking crit spikes tends to make numerically-based combat feel more stale and uninteresting; generally, people who aren't parsing and competing with logging tend to have "fun" seeing their numbers randomly get "lucky" and bigger, because it satisfies something similar to the same complex that causes people to engage with other forms of gambling — the promise that sometimes, something more rewarding and exciting happens, if you just keep doing the same thing, and/or execute this-or-that sequence correctly.

At the end of the day, XIV is an extraordinarily simplistic combat system; it doesn't even include most of the modifying factors that RPGs traditionally have, like hit chance, enemy avoidance / armor mitigation / resistances, elemental weaknesses, etc etc. So, the substat systems serve to provide some remaining illusion of variability and "unpredictability" to the combat experience, especially for more casual players who aren't mapping out Savage timelines down to the GCD.

You could strip all of it away, and just put all gear upgrades down to mainstat alone, but the "hit rhythm" of your numerical pop-up feedback would begin to feel extraordinarily predictable and "flat".

Now, whether that's actually "bad" in a game where the "absolute repeatability" of its choreographed combat has become somewhat of its "design identity"... that's up to each individual, I guess. But it is the reason why RNG stuff like Crit/DHit continue to linger around stubbornly.