Stats Actually Working

[Laughlyn]

totally agree with OP.

[Rydin]

Testing on NMs with GLA and MRD I promise you the only thing that increases my ability to take less damage are abilitys: like Defender and stuff like that. Im not even sure if gear helps. Alot of it has to do with levels in comparison to the mob.

Yea, but without knowing the exact calculations.... There could definitely be a modifier on the Vit stat... and VIT is only one piece of the damage formula... Also Def, Level difference, armor damage reduction bonuses
The attributes are clearly not working as intended.... but the evidence (That they become less important the higher your level and subsequently the higher your attributes) suggests that, as opposed to doing nothing, they work but they dont factor in on high level formulas as much as they should
It is weird too... because early on, vitality made a world of difference and Def did very little....
From my test on mobs that are roughly the same level, Vit increases definitely make a difference... just not a large one
The formula is indeed as Yoshi P says... too complicated
But FFXI's damage formula was only slightly better... from a mathematical standpoint it could have been better... but I guess we'll see what changes are made here

[Hawk]

I totally agree that VIT helps with defense. But the only defense that works is the one that you give with points with physical level. Gear VIT and the VIT you get with traits dosent do jack.

[ssppiikkeeyy]

the old stat system in XI was prefect i think they should think about bring it back in and maybe just gave it a little poslih up to work in this game.

[AlexiaKidd]

I think the problem is with the Physical Level system. As people can have such different ranges of stats they have had to tone down the effectiveness of stats. For example a MRD who focus solely on his stats that he needs would have a huge advantage over someone who balances their stats more evenly, if stats were given there full effect. In order to combat this they reduced stats across the board apart from MND and VIT on Physical as they are tied to your HP and MP so they needed to work a bit.

By toning them down they they have pretty much killed all stats on gear and food making everything pretty much worthless. I know a lot of people like the freedom the physical level system brings but look at what it has cost us. It's a balancing nightmare, hopefully SE will be able to figure it out if not though I would have no problem with it being removed and stats being allocated automatically per class like in FFXI. Then add a Merit Point style system at cap to add a little customisation but not to the extent we have now that can cause these huge gaps.

[Aldarin]

The large issue with the current system is the way physical level was implemented. Since you're amount of stats are independent of rank, two characters with the same rank can have massively different stats due to both the difference in physical level and stat preference. The lack of quick restating ability also forces people playing multiple classes to spread out their stat points. The developers will need to change stat points to be varied based off of class rank, and allow separate assignments per class. Once those two things are implemented the developers will be able to change the relevance of stats.

The reason why gear does little is because stats themselves do little, and adding 2points to 150 does not provide much increase.

[Reika]

I think they either need to give less stat points from physical level increases, or increase the amount of stats equipment gives.

[Honz]

I'm going to preach this until it happens. Remove physical level and give allotment points based on individual ranks.

[VydarrTyr]

I think the problem is with the Physical Level system. As people can have such different ranges of stats they have had to tone down the effectiveness of stats. For example a MRD who focus solely on his stats that he needs would have a huge advantage over someone who balances their stats more evenly, if stats were given there full effect. In order to combat this they reduced stats across the board apart from MND and VIT on Physical as they are tied to your HP and MP so they needed to work a bit.

Actually, they're not toned down across the board. There's a stat cap at each level. For example, if your job is rank 20, you don't get any benefit to a stat over 76. So if I'm a level 50 Gladiator, and I've got 170 points in Vitality, when I switch to my rank 20 Pugilist, even if I leave my Vitality at 170, I get the benefit of only 76 Vitality points.

I like the physical levels. It gives a benefit to players who have already leveled up one job, making it easier to level a second job. So players are encouraged to level several different jobs, and become more well-rounded, experience more of the game, etc.

It also allows players to tailor their stats to their play style. If I'm a Marauder and want to tank, I can jack up my Vitality. If I want to be a DPS Marauder, I can jack up my Strength. I like the fact that different players can do different things with the same jobs.

If you get rid of physical levels and stat point allocation, then players will be more limited by their job. Only Gladiators can be effective tanks. Soloing on a mage class will be much more difficult because you can't jack up your Vitality to fit the situation. Classes become more defined, but they also become more cookie-cutter and vanilla.

But, as Kanican pointed out, right now there's not much (if any) benefit to any stats except Vitality (which gives HP) and Mind (which gives MP). I would like to see that straightened out.

[Rydin]

The Physical level system isn't necessarily the reason attributes don't do much....
The don't do much because they were made to be that way
In the beginning, attributes were everything and they mattered, big time... increasing your VIT made a huge difference in how much damage you took... but DEF didn't do as much... and the problem was there were conjurers pumping VIT and taking less damage from physical attacks than gladiators... so in one pf the Pre-Yoshi P patches, attributes got a MAJOR nerf.... we logged on and all of a sudden had like 300 less HP and were getting hit like trucks.....
So no... the physical level system doesn't inherently make attributes suck... its the coding.....