Avadon Synaly brought this topic up by mentioning that Yoshi-P hates Cleric Stance. And how he thinks that is ridiculous considering the importance of that skills for healers in Final Fantasy XIV. As you can tell, I could not let that statement there as it is. And since it might be an interesting and apparently recurring topic, here goes my opinion on the matter. ;-)
First thing first: what is Cleric Stance and while it is that important that it could divide the opinions of players and designers so much? Cleric Stance is a cross-class-skill obtained by Conjurer at level 6, which lets you swap your MND stats with INT, and enhance your magic attacks by 10% while reducing healing spells by 20%.
Whoever played healer before either heard of it as a must have, or can see the high benefits of that skill right away. As an endgame player I can assure you: it is as strong as it sounds. Simply due the fact it does not just change the role of a healer to a DPS class, but it comes even with the additional 10% boost on damage spells.
Now for the obvious we can safely assume, that Cleric Stance was implemented to make healers less independent of other classes. Especially when it comes to game content which were clearly designed to be completed solo. Thinking of Main Story Quest instances even, it is believable that all those were made with a random DPS class in mind, who could not heal themselves properly.
On those occasions it is indeed somewhat ridiculous to expect a weak healer having the same fun, while being in need for more than triple or quadruple the time to finish the same quest. It would probably make people level DPS first for Main Story Quests purposes only before giving healer or tank even a chance. We could not let that happen, could we? And that is the point where Cleric Stance - or in case of tanks, equal skills which reduces their defense but boost their attacks - makes most sense to be part of the game.
However, as soon as you reach endgame, as a game designer you will encounter a major problem, caused by that so-called must-have Cleric Stance. Despite the fact, that many skills are not needed to finish the game or make you become an advanced player, Cleric Stance among other skills have been considered must-have by the community. The damage done to the game is remarkable, and right now we have reached one of those break points of the game, when the mistakes of the past are finally catching up with future game designs.
What problems do we have? First: it was never meant to be like this, that some cross-class-skills are to be considered must-haves. In fact, you could do very well through the whole game without using Cleric Stance once! Same with other skills like 'Provoke'. Nevertheless, no one will every deny the convenience and benefits which comes with those skills. And while the latter has not such a major impact to the game design, Cleric Stance certainly has.
Let us start with fun, by pointing out what hurts the community a lot at the moment: high level dps class players who do less dps than they should be capable of, considering their available equipment and skills. It is easy to say out loud 'it is them to blame, since they should know their skills better!'. Not so easy, yet not less true, you can say: 'Cleric Stance is partially to be blamed on that', as much as 'high level players are to be blamed on that due given matchmaking'.
In regards of such players I like to ask: how did they even make it so far in the first place, that weak DPS players can become an endgame problem? And guess what: the answers to that questions reveals a lot of understanding for any designer who hates Cleric Stance. It all starts with the basic dungeon / raid design of two DPS, one tank, one healer (four DPS, two tanks, two healers).
Imagine every dungeon is designed with battles, fitted for the same exact roles with two players dealing damage, one dealing little damage but taking in all the damage created by the enemies, and a healer, who focuses on healing. In numbers it may look somewhat like this:
DPS A: 100
DPS B: 100
TANK : 30
HEAL : 30
This is just a simplified example of the actual idea. Numbers, naturally, would vary due to differences in equipment. For the example a difference in skill usage is ignored.
Remember: always with having in mind that a dungeon must be doable by the players and at the same time rewarding and satisfying for everyone as a challenge. Now this blueprint is taken for every non-special-hardcore-raid (raids have the same problems too, but we get to that another time). Can you already imagine what impact it has, when we are having a good party - let us say: with a very strong tank and a very good healer? Let us assume the healer is that good with the tank, that they can easily switch to Cleric Stance every 10 seconds to cast a spell or two. The numbers might change to this:
DPS A: 100
DPS B: 100
TANK : 30
HEAL : 110
110 due to the extra 10% boost given by Cleric Stance. And if you ever paid attention to the high MND stat of a healer, you can imagine these numbers can be as well the real thing. Not continuous, but even if it applies only to 10% or 30% of a battle - it is still 10% or 30% more damage output than the dungeon has been designed for!
Hold on a second! 30% more damage output due to the healer? Why does that number sounds familiar to you? Because some of you might miss the 30% more which could be done by the DPS. Which even allowed in the first place setups like the following one to reach endgame with ease.
DPS A: 80
DPS B: 79
TANK : 30
HEAL : 30
(feel free to do the math, but this is what it looks like when both DPS all together do 30% less damage. You can imagine how terrible it is actually, when you heard of people complaining some DPS do only half of what they are actually capable of...)
You see: just one skill for one class/role does a huge impact, to the game design and therefore to the rest of the community as well. Try to imagine how hard it is to design a dungeon without breaking the rule of claiming, that not everyone has or use Cleric Stance. How hard have the enemies to hit the party, and which members of the party, so that the healer needs to focus healing instead of dealing damage. What DPS check is nowadays realistic when taking into consideration that most DPS players who reach the endgame nowadays are used to the ones which are weak with healer plus active Cleric Stance? If I am a game designer who has to think about all that, I honestly would wish that Cleric Stance was never created. Because no matter how you turn the table, you are easy to meet troubles with either part of the community. Those who loves Cleric Stance as an intelligent and complex skill which make the combat more special than it would be with healers who are stuck to their roles - and those who wants more of a challenge but cannot get it because of Cleric Stance and other tricks of a good party, who really knows how to use their skills. Depending on which part of the community you rely more the content will always be either too easy or too hard.
Possible solutions with a glance into the future: Cleric Stance is essential to the game as it is. Without a major break or big changes, which might come with Stormblood, there is no way to suppress the skill. I even would ask the developers to be more brave of allowing the community to have actually hard encounters which make them think more about their skills. Not everyone should be capable of finishing every raid - raid that is, at least. As much as not everyone every will make it to the summit of the Everest, right?
I can also imagine how the skill might be changed in the future like having more mali when being part of a party. Or a global dungeon malus for heals as seen in the Palace of the Dead. Whatever might come, I am curious to see it. Until then I just can hope that more players are open-minded in regards of changing game mechanics, having always the fun and joy experience in mind. I admit fairly I am afraid of whatever might changes the game to be more casual. But in the end what always matters is: the game should be fun.
For all of us.
Thanks for reading and sorry for my bad English. ;-)
Bonus: now some of you might wonder how other player can possibly know about what damage is dealt by which player of a party. Apparently there are third-party application who does extract the battle log and put it into some Excel-like GUI. This topic is surely worth to be discussed, but not this time and not by me. However, one possible solution I like to share with you: I can imagine a Colosseum in some future content with battle rankings, as seen in newer Final Fantasy games. Why not being open-minded to some game content which makes a party strive for the best score, best time and best rating? Even if it is a simply D to SSS ranking, I fairly imagine, a lot of people would love to know what they are capable of, without the intention of bullying someone else (the reason why there has been never a game implemented option to see your actual damage done, as you can see it with the third-party app). But that is another story...
https://fcfallenangels.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/my-opinion-on-cleric-stance/
