Why Determination & Direct Hit are NOT the Best stats in FFXIV!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Correction about Determination explained in this video: While the tooltip itself *literally* says it only affects healing spells, I've been doing some more testing for a future video (that I might just link here when it is made), and it is very very very likely that Determination affects all healing effects, and that the stipulation that it only affects spells is completely incorrect! Sorry for the confusion! Nonetheless, it isn't like people were choosing Determination much over Direct Hit for the healing it did anyway right? Link to video showing off the correction: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ep3RaKhupLiNgKs (Thing number 8, "Determination is Weird!" at 11:55)

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

If the buff specifically says "spell" then it is only spells. For example, white mages temperance, or Scholars dissipation. I talk about this in the eighth thing in this video (extremely specific buffs): kzbin.info/www/bejne/hWq2qGeOoJWYiMksi=pCHXpwJN-zR9eUA7 But for some reason it seems it doesn't work like that with determination specifically, so there is an error in the tooltip 😊

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

My correction mentioned above is that it appears det DOES affect all actions despite it's tooltip suggesting otherwise 😊 Temperance, dissipation and fey illumination all specify spells in their tooltips and, unlike det, actually mean only spells! The reason fey illumination works on embrace is because embrace is a spell 😁

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@aSmolGoth very strange that it doesn't work, especially since pets normally are affected by raid buffs in some capacity! But I just went and tested it myself and you are right. For some reason fey illumination just doesn't work for embrace 🤔

[@mp9228]

Thanks for the video. I really wanted to be the ubertank with a full tenacity meld, but the game is really built around tanks naturally returning health during attacking. This caused me to have far more survivability by using a crit and direct hit build on pld over tenacity. The tenacity was really nice in sub 40 dungeons tho

[@Anolaana]

1:01 I got tripped up by oGCD abilities vs spells again lol, it took me a second to spot the difference even with the big labels on screen! Thank you for making these great explainer guides!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad these kinds of details help! Thank you for letting me know 🥰

[@iambecomegameend2972]

I just wish some of these stats were easier to understand from the names alone. I guess it makes sense since stats like determination do multiple things but I’ve gotten it confused with tenacity since the meanings of the words are similar lol.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Yeah, it would also help if like... The percentage effect of the stats were clearly visible without needing to consult like a separate website or something 🤔

[@Anolaana]

I think you meant comparing Determination to tanking Tenacity right? Yeah, that's an easy mistake to make, I agree.

[@iambecomegameend2972]

@@Anolaana oh i must’ve been half asleep when i wrote that lol. Thanks, tenacity’s what I meant to say. Fixed

[@Puddingskin01]

Stacking all Piety on your tank lets your party know that you are the best.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Just to flex! "I don't even need my materia!" 😂

[@unlikelyraven7374]

Let me go find the Intelligence and Mind materia I saved from 3.0

[@Puddingskin01]

@@unlikelyraven7374 There you go, be the smartest tank around!

[@gravitycat6862]

I think biggest qualm with the current Materia system and I hope to see addressed in 7.0 is the unimportance of some Materia types like Piety and Tenacity outside of Progging. I feel like role materia like those should have some more benefit to the role to incentivive use compared to most BiS going Crit, DH, Det/SkSpeed for Tanks which is the role I mainly play which stinks because I think Tenacity could be a great Defensive Materia for jobs that lack healing tools like DRK that only has Abyss Drain and Soul Eater. I don't know much about game design I do admit, but I always wondered what the point of Tenacity is when I never seen it being used despite being the Tank Materia. I think it also increasing Block/Parry Chance would be interesting. I guess my point is that I want to see more diverse Materia use for tanks like how there is for BLM.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I absolutely agree! Just to add on the block/parry chance thing: Tenacity actually replaced a stat that increased your chance to parry (and did nothing else whatsoever). Parry was unsurprisingly considered even worse than Tenacity. I think the problem is that adding things that are defensively helpful in video games these days requires the defensive value to be absolutely massive for someone to prioritize it over doing more damage. Gamers have simply figured out that: 1) Killing things faster means you save time. 2) Killing things faster means you take less damage in total by virtue of the enemy being dead. 3) Offensive values can be compared, meaning that the player that does more damage can be viewed as stronger than the one that does less damage. Defensive values are extremely difficult to quantify and value aside from whether you die or not. Add to this that most tanks and healers in FFXIV have so many tools that taking even 10% less damage passively isn't particularly helpful, since you can get 30% or more damage reduction when you need it. I am not sure what the solution is. I really don't. But I absolutely agree that it is very very boring to deal with stats when the answer is always "more damage better!" :/

[@gravitycat6862]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh I think the only real solution would be bring some form of reason to use Materia like Tenacity. One thing I can think of but probably wouldn't work would be to have 7.0 enemy damage in grouped content to be a bjt more harsh and include mechanics like a DPS Buster that wouldn't require the tank to use materia to help mitigate but would be useful especially in Party Finder scenarios since if you use all defensive cooldowns to save the DPS you'd lack mit for your self when the tank buster comes. I could also think about having Materia affect the party's defensive like the 5% buff when you have one of every role on the team, essentially having a BiS for statics and BiS for Party Finder. But I think the main thing is just the general design of the fights and game itself at the moment doesn't promote a playstyle where defense should be prioritized or isn't needed for the reasons you listed.

[@gravitycat6862]

@@aSmolGoth Yeah the more I think about it, the more I understand the current system of Materia usage. I started in near the end of 5.3 and I love the game, but it was only till EW came out that I started getting into high-end duty. I learned about the complexity of some things like Astro's Cards having different effects and two stances for tanks later on and thought it was more intriguing and wondered why it wasn't like that anymore. I do agree with wanting to make the game more appealing to the casual audience and seem less daunting for new players. I also get the materia system as it would be a huge pain to re-meld everything if you wanted to swap jobs even if now you still re-meld for certain things like Skill Speed and DET for jobs like DRK/GNB and WAR respectively but it isn't as massive as it could be. I kind of wonder if they'll lean more into the JOB identity itself in 7.0 like giving DRK some more abilities which trigger upon taking an amount of damage like TBN giving a free Edge/Flood or giving WAR an upgraded Vengence which gives like 5 Beast gauge upon being hit by the bosses attacks/auto's. I guess we'll see with the DRG and AST rework, which I hope DRG continues the theme of Jumping with style. I went all rambly there, main point is that I can understand the current philosophy of the Materia system and I would like to see more boss interactivity like positioning and doing unique mechanics like P3 normal and Savage with the dark flames or Zurv's Add phase except the tanks need to position them away from the DPS to avoid the cleaving autos while the DPS takes care of the Add/s which may cause a wipe if not killed.

[@Anolaana]

The way WoW seems to have done it is that defensive stats (leech and avoidance) are "tertiary stats" that don't conflict with damage stats at all. In dragonflight you either get these tertiaries as "free" upgrades that don't take away from the stat budget, or as enchants for slots that don't have damage enchants as competition. Maybe materia slots that are locked to only defensive/utility options would get people using these materia, and make people take these utility choices more seriously?

[@saintitchief]

hey! love your videos quick question: if i have 2600 crit which is above the threshold where you say crit is better than both dh and det, would it be worth sacrificing them to get more crit? for example, i have room for 16 more crit materia points in my helmet. would it be worth it to sacrifice that 36 dh or det for 16 crit?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you very much!😄 Fortunately critical hit never reaches such an overwhelming advantage no 😊 You should always make sure to meld with materia where you get the full value 😊 there may exist some extreme specific situations where melding crit in this way might be better, but I highly recommend always melding 36 of a stat over 16 of a better stat! I will leave an example of how sometimes less crit can be better than more determination in case you are interested, but I really do recommend just focusing on getting the most stats out of your melds! 😁 To outline a specific situation where *29* crit might be better than 36 determination: as critical hit increases in increments of 9.5 points, gaining 29 crit would equate to 0.3% more chance and damage, three increments, which if you already have over 2600 crit is worth ~0.2% more damage. Determination requires either 13 or 14 per increment of 0.1% so with only 36 points, you can sometimes end up only getting two increments instead of three, meaning you'd only get 0.2% more damage instead of 0.3% (ignoring the relative power gain argument)

[@saintitchief]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh ok thank you! and another question, my DH is way higher than my Det. i'm a dps again, but anyways my Det is 1471 and DH is 1913, should i try to balance them better?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

If your direct hit is greater than your determination, then you want more determination yes! I'd mostly suggest replacing any direct hit melds you can with determination if possible. But as shown in the video, the damage difference is going to be small (it's going to be a gain to balance them by a bit), so don't break your back trying to perfectly balance them! 😁

[@DeadEye935]

The imbalance of the substats doesn't bother me too much. Even if they buffed det again, buffed direct hit to try to make them more equal, something is inevitably going to be more valuable than the others. Crit is overwhelmingly valuable, but even if it was only very slightly better, melds would probably still look much the same. And ultimately outside of sps and sks materia, they don't change how the job plays, so I see materia as just the necessary requirement for doing enough damage in high end content. If determination was buffed to be better than crit, then you'd just meld more determination, and nothing about how you actually play the game would change. Though there is an argument to be made that critical being as valuable as it is makes damage output immensely variable, so I do think it'd be for the best if crit was reigned in, or det was buffed more, or some such.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I agree! Honestly, what bothers me more about substats is that as you said, it doesn't really change how it feels to play! 😅

[@Marcomax742]

Fun fact, I only learned what Direct Hit did this year and it replaced hit chance. I get the logic (replace chance to miss for chance for a harder hit.) But Crit already does that. With your various stat videos, it’s gotten me thinking about a question. What do we actually want from stats? Do we want to dump points into a single stat to create specific builds (Crit builds, Speed builds, etc)? Do we want break points where we have to spread points to different stats to maximize damage? It’s one thing to want stats to be more impactful, but it’s good to have a vision of what that means.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

A very good question! PERSONALLY I want stats to have a tangible impact on how you play the game. Coming from wow, my favorite stats were haste (a much much more effective version of speed to be honest), and mastery (a stat that did something unique for every specialization) Combine that with wow just allowing stats to go a bit wilder, and every Stat was good in some way. Just to explain further, I wouldn't care too much about the whole breakpoint thing and perfect optimization. I would just really want that getting more stats does something that feels different!😄 How about you? What would you like stats to be like in ffxiv? 😊

[@Marcomax742]

I would like stats in FFXIV to be a way for people to personalize their rotations. Not just either speed stats, but Crit, DH and Det affecting different abilities (Ten and Piety too). So depending on what you invest in, you feel that power at different parts of the rotation. And in some cases, it can change how you use some abilities. On top of that, I’ll love if gaining stats felt like they marked your characters growth via a noticeable gain in power. As they are now, getting new gear with better stats doesn’t feel like a real upgrade. This is something I really felt bouncing between FFXIV and WoW.

[@Anolaana]

Thanks jerdomax, good way to conceptualize it!

[@ShuckleII]

I learned something very helpful and surprising about video game stats from my experience playing the stockholm syndrome and gambling addiction developing game Genshin Impact. Let's say you have 3 stats that affect your attacks, Speed Strength and Luck, and they give you 1%, 2%, and 3% more damage per point (linear) respectively. They all multiply each other, meaning if you balance the points well, you'll get way more damage than if you spend them all on the strongest stat. But that's not the interesting part, the optimal balance of the stats is dependent on how effective they are relative to each other. You start with the biggest one, Luck which is 3% per point, let's say you spend 100 points in Luck. Strength gives 2% per point, so it's 66% as effective as Luck, therefore it's optimal to spend that proportion of points relative to Luck, 66 points in Strength. Speed gives 1% per point, it has a third of the effectiveness of the most effective stat, therefore it gets a third of that stat's points, 33 points in Speed. Reminder, they each multiply each other, so: 33 points of Speed = 1.33x damage multiplier. 66 points of Strength = 2.32x damage multiplier. 100 points of Luck = 4.00x damage multiplier (it's 3 + 1 because multiplying by 1 gives you the same number) The base damage is 100. The minmaxed result is 1234 damage. Now let's confirm it's better than spending all the points on the most effective stat. 199 points of Luck = 6.97x damage multiplier (it's 5.97 + 1 because multiplying by 1 gives you the same number) The base damage is 100. The result is merely 697 damage, an entire 537 damage below *disgusting minmaxed stats.* YEA, YOU GUESSED IT, MINMAXING MECHANICS ARE AN AFFRONT TO HUMANITY. ANY GAME THAT HAS THEM DISGUISED AS "MECHANICS" IS A SHAM, THEY'RE ONLY DOING IT BECAUSE THEY COULDN'T IMAGINE ANY REAL MECHANICS TO ADD TO THE GAME, THEY DON'T CONTRIBUTE ANYTHING TO THE GAMEPLAY, THEY JUST MAKE THE EXPERIENCE WORSE FOR PLAYERS THAT AREN'T OBSESSED WITH NUMBERS BECAUSE IT'S UNINTUITIVE, NOBODY SHOULD HAVE TO DO SERIOUS MATH TO PLAY A GENERIC FANTASY GAME. Speaking of unintuitive, the Genshin Impact community is obsessed with minmaxing because they all ruined their accounts by accepting a coercive mechanic, if they don't minmax they suffer the difficulty of the game. Yet, even with all the minmaxing and tutorials they do, I haven't seen a single person on that community that even hinted knowing about this optimal distribution of stats. Even most people obsessed with video game numbers don't know this. It is awful, no player deserves to experience this problem disguised as fun. Thank you for listening.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Indeed, that example is very similar to the crit, det, direct hit situation 😅 And part of the problem with having these kinds of massive swings in power based on being optimal (where having the right combination could give you double the damage), means that either the developers balance around that, and you will not have fun if you are not optimal. Or they balance around less than optimal. And the game becomes too easy (possibly) as you get closer to perfection. In ffxiv, the situation is that the optimal setup is stronger than random Stat Combinations, but not by that much at the end of the day. But this is moreso because the stats in the game aren't that impactful and you never get to have so many stats that it starts to go crazy 😅 which is both good and bad! Good because it means that the power difference isn't too massive between players. Bad because all the stats are somewhat boring 😅😕

[@BaghNakh1]

I agree completely. To be honest I understand that some people like getting into a game with calculator and a spreadsheet on their hands and sure for them doing that is part of the fun, but I believe that even if a game allowed some room for min-maxing, I think that min-maxing should be a way to squeeze that tiny bit extra performance you want for the sake of it, min-maxing should never ever be a mandatory requirement to enjoy an RPG or an MMO, as in, the game should never be designed around requiring players doing tons of math and spreadsheet calculations just to be able to get through it normally. This is the main reason I stopped playing Genshin Impact, the amount of required min-maxing just to be able to clear harder content was just too much BS to me, it made me feel like I was fighting against a game system that was designed to defeat me in mostly every single scenario possible, as in, the game designed around having certain amounts of stats in a certain combination as one of the key winning conditions and not meeting that condition is a guaranteed loss/defeat, so I just quit the game period.

[@zenwilds2911]

This is an overwhelming amount of information for me as a new player. I just need to know which foods I should be trying to eat while leveling up. Where should I go for that information? I'm leveling a variety of DPS (melee and magic) and heals.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Food buffs while leveling mostly matter just for the exp bonus itself and can be literally anything. Some people prefer orange juice, others prefer boiled eggs. What really matters is the exp bonus attached 😊 it is not as recent a video, but I do go over my recommendations for leveling jobs in this other video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hICppZ2CZpdpock If you really want to optimize in excess, then baked eggplant is a currently popular raiding food buff which would be very effective while leveling, but extremely excessive 😅

[@Abelix95]

I never really do Savage Raids (because I'm shy and already fail at the "socializing" part, having to create a non-randomized group and working together, lol), so I don't have to worry about maximazing my stats to the point where 50 extra damage makes a difference when I'm dealing in the 10 thousands to begin with, but I like watching these videos nevertheless because I find the logic/ maths interesting (multiplication, am I right?) If I may, I have a question: how much are base stats worth? How does your job's "main attribute" increase your damage output, exactly, and by how much? Or to use a concrete, comperative example: if as a healer I had a helmet that by default (gear's built in stats) gives me maximum crit and lots of determination (so that I could slot in direct hit as per your video's instructions :P) should I consider changing it for a higher ilvl helmet (say, the current limited tomestone, blue rarity helmet) if that helmet gives me spell speed and piety instead? (I usually have no mana management problems at all, so for simplicity's sake let's just say that piety is completely useless.) I could meld back in some of the lost crit, for example, but definitely not the other stats. Would the extra 20-30 points of Mind and Vitality be worth so much that I should give up some of my "secondary stats" for it, or is it more benificial to willingly remain on a lower average item level in favor of having higher "ideal secondary stats"? Not sure if this is worth doing a full video on, but if you don't mind doing some more maths, I would love to know the answer simply to satisfy my curiosity. ^-^

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad you enjoy the maths! 😁😄 To your question, it is a bit more complicated, but getting like 1% more primary attribute is, to my knowledge, *somewhat* comparable to getting 1% damage output. The reason it is very difficult is because observing changes in primary attributes without adding or changing any other stat is problematic 😅 I tend to make the simple assumption that 1% more main attribute is approximately 1% more damage / healing, and by that assumption, the answer to your question depends of course on the stats on the piece you already have, the one with more attributes, and to some degree, the stats you have in general! I actually have a video in the works about item level where I have an example specifically about healers regarding piety pieces ☺️ To take a particular example, gaining ten item levels on a ring tends to be worth less than 0.4% gain in primary attributes. If your current ring has crit > determination, and the higher item level ring has crit > piety, then you are at least losing around 0.6% damage from just the lost determination, in the current raid tier. However, if the piety is actually helpful for it's mp utility, then this might be worth the trade off 🤔 I hope this makes sense! 😊 Edit: typically, when the item level difference is more than 10, meaning for example 20 item levels, the primary attribute tends to become the most important. There can be certain outliers like switching from an item with the perfect stats, to one with the worst possible, where it might not really be worth it. But at 20 item level difference, it should almost always be better 😊

[@Abelix95]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh I was looking for this kind of an answer exactly, thank you. I'll make sure to watch your ilvl video when it comes out. ^-^

[@mimikyoo]

It fills you with Determination.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

If determination had that power built in it would certainly be the best Stat! 😄

[@shatteringglass3843]

How can u even distinguish when you do a direct hit or a critical hit ? Because they have no icons or any indication to show wich one they are.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Direct hits have slightly bigger text than normal hits, and also pop out in a different way. Crits add an exclamation mark (!) next to the damage or healing. Critical direct hits add 2 exclamation marks (!!) 😊 It's a lot weirder with dots and hots, because for those, they actually have no indication, but you can know simply by the significant healing or damage difference 😊

[@peppermint7152]

The funny thing is that all theory aside, the actual best meld choice between det/dh at any given point is going to boil down to, "Which results in better tiering/less substat waste?" The values of each substat are so close all the way down the line that you're generally better off just ensuring you don't waste substats.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Very true! And that can mean that what is best to meld depends on precisely what you are wearing at that very moment! 😅

[@redstrawsii]

My radical hot take about substats and gear in general is that with gear stats having a purely number-based effect on gameplay, there would be effectually no difference if they just removed all stats on (combat) gear. You might ask what then would motivate people to play through the content? Well, ultimate weapons will always ultimately become effectually cosmetic based on their stat loadout because of how the continually escalating push of item level works, and yet people still do that. I think that at the end of the day people just want to do the content. Maybe it's my own sensibilities but grinding current content to get BIS just is not something I value when the end result is so unbelievably uninspired as "I do 3% more damage". Making it purely a numbers game also means there (with *very few exceptions*) is a correct answer for every job for how to meld materia or choose your gear. With such a change in place, I feel like they could go with a more open effectually horizontal-style method of progression. Focus less on the continual ebb and flow of introducing new equipment, and put that into new forms of reward structure. I'd like to stress that this extreme option is not something I believe in because I dislike the part of RPGs that involves tweaking numbers and character building, I mean I like TTRPGs. But the element of that in XIV is so bare-bones and surface level I just think that it may as well not exist. But the game lives in a catch-22 where if they introduced new stats or made the equipment part of the game more interesting, it would inherently affect the fine-tuned balance that allows for such tight, tense encounters. So I think that they may as well lean in on this fact, progress characters' stats automatically by level (or do another radical thing and remove levelling, but that's another discussion), and adjust the game based on that rather than continue this charade. Do I think they'd do that? No, absolutely not. I did say it was a hot take for a reason.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Yeah aside from speed, stats don't really change how you play very much, so I can see the reasoning. It sounds strange, but for most content we know that players will not do it (EVEN if they think it's fun) if there is no relevant reward. We know this from criterion dungeons. So I think it is for the best that we continue to have a somewhat vertical gear system to motivate players to do content, even if it seems pointless 😊

[@redstrawsii]

That said your stat analysis videos are still interesting to listen to, so maybe that's one reason not to go with the nuclear option. 😆

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Haha thank you!! 😄

[@556uwv]

Can someone just tell me which ones I should prioritize for AST in endgame. Lol. Thanks

[@peppermint7152]

Crit > DH/Det You can make an argument for SpS most of the time, but 1) SpS AST is a bit tighter on execution, which I wouldn't recommend to someone just learning 2) we're in the third tier of the expansion now, meaning crit has outscaled SpS. Crit is just better right now.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Exactly as peppermint said. Just to clarify, if you can't put a full crit materia in a gear piece, put direct hit in. Spell speed is also an option, but it's complicated, so I'd recommend reading up on this before going for that! 😊

[@frostfire5208]

As a WoW player I don't understand what the difference between direct hit and critical hit. It just sounds like 2 kinds of Critical hit and I know to go for Crit first.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It's a bit like in warlords of draenor where they added multi strike as a stat. Crit was the lower chance to hit for double damage, multi was the higher chance to hit multiple times for just slightly more (multistrike rolled twice on every attack, and would do 30% more damage). Unlike direct hit, multistrike was removed the following expansion because it was kind of meh! 😅

[@frostfire5208]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh I thought about Multistrike too actually. It was removed because it was 'another crit' but also it was problematic to balance with classes that had procs off casts (high multistrike would make you do crazy dps if you had an ability that procced off casts, IIRC for mage frostfire bolt procced off your filler spell so multistrike was a bis stat). Here in FF it's just a weaker crit afaik

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That is true. This is because the game has removed most crit interactions because it was too impactful. Like, crit was already great 😅 and direct hit is like a weaker more consistent crit basically 🤔

[@aiellamori]

I would love a game like this that didn't have critical hit chance as a stat. It always ends up being the best and that isn't fun

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I believe the core issue is that you can both increase the crit chance and crit chance. In my experience, in games where it's just the chance you can increase, there is a certain point of crit you might want, but not an endless amount 😅 But I agree that it is not that fun that it is always crit!

[@thrillhouse4151]

I really like this game, however the stats and equipment leave much to be desired, for me at least. It just seems weird to me how much of a characters power comes specifically from their equipment, like if a warrior of light loses all their clothes in a tidal wave and somehow loses their armoury chest they’re screwed, can’t even have a job without a weapon.

[@Zaknalfein0974]

What about Determination and Direct Hit for Tanks is it still worth it

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Generally, Tanks want Crit and Determination on all their gear when optimizing, if they can. If you play a tank that appreciates a specific amount of speed (Dark Knight and Gunbreaker has some specific amounts that some players enjoy), then Speed becomes a factor as well. When melding materia on your gear, Tanks want as much Crit as possible, so if there is space for Critical Hit on a gear piece, then you meld that. If not, then you meld Direct Hit, due to how having more evenly spread amounts of Direct Hit and Determination tends to lead to a better result. And because Tank gear never has Direct Hit on it, you always have way less Direct Hit, making it comparatively more important to get! I hope this makes sense! ^^

[@Zaknalfein0974]

Yes it does thank you so much. My wife asked what about Black Mage

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Black Mage is very unique in this regard. They have 2 different "builds" so to speak, which is dictated by whether you prioritize Speed extremely highly ("Fast Mage", considered easier to pick up and play as it is more lenient), or just a moderate amount to a specific point, after which you prioritize Crit. ("Slow Mage", considered much harder, and relies on a lot of complex tricks known as Transpose Lines) For both builds, Determination and Direct Hit are your second priority after your main focus. This means for Fast Mage, you go for Speed, then Determination and Direct Hit. For Slow Mage, you go for Speed to a certain point, then Critical Hit as much as you can, and then Determination and Direct Hit. I talk about these builds in more detail after the 19 minute mark in my level 51-90 Black Mage guide (Link for your convenience kzbin.info/www/bejne/apLLdX-tYthgrqs ) Just to be clear, if there is an item level difference greater than 10 between two pieces of equipment, then typically the higher item level piece will win regardless of the above stat priorities and such! :D

[@TsukentoX]

​@@CaetsuChaijiChDoes this apply to Warrior, as well? I remember hearing so many people saying not to bother with DH materia at the end of SHB/start of EW because the job had skills that guaranteed DHs.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@TsukentoX yes, shortly into endwalker, a slight change was made to crit and direct hit such that attacks that are guaranteed to crit or direct hit get a damage bonus from the stats (and buffs) that improve the rates. This changed direct hit to be a good stat for warrior, that is considered better than tenacity because of the scaling being good now 😊 It used to be different because direct hit was effectively worthless during inner release and such!

[@PastaTime88]

i feel like they need to rework these stats, piety shouldnt be "useless" for a healer, same with tenacity on a tank

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I absolutely agree! 😕

[@medivh1035]

Well, l will be really disappointed if det only makes the gcd spells heals more. I guess l will wait for next testing result

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

True! However even if it works on all healing, damage optimization means we would still prioritize direct hit on the jobs this healing bonus could be beneficial for 😅😕

[@yoshiguy123]

This seems overly complex for very small % increases. If you enjoy min maxing and theorycrafting im sure its fun.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That's fair, I feel the explanation might be complex, but given the balance of the game, I think it gets relatively straight forward to make use of! 😊

[@Vfanatic1]

So from what I've learned from these videos is all stats are useless.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

All stats are certainly kind of boring 😅

[@HyouVizer]

Yep pretty much lol I just be generic and choose crit as it affects all attacks, even heals **shrugs** 🤷‍♂️

[@Shiirow]

if you watch youtube and take everyones opinion. there are no good stats in XIV, they are all shit and do nothing.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

All the stats do something. As you can see in this video, I specifically outline how determination and direct hit are good stats, just not the best 😊

[@smittenmittens1364]

I won't ever put direct hit on a healer. It makes you look like such a sweaty role confused tryhard.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Not sure why you think so, since most top players would do it given the specific reasoning I gave in this video 😊

[@christopherg7483]

but but but.... direct crit misery XD

[@smittenmittens1364]

@CaetsuChaijiCh honestly it just looks really goofy. Like ooooooo check my crazy healer dps guys!! It's just so silly to me. Again it's like being an ultra tryhard for shaving off a few seconds off a boss fight. Idk.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I mean, healers can do around half the damage a dps can do, so it still matters quite a bit! 😁

[@felixryan9798]

@@smittenmittens1364Not sure why you think helping the party damage output is goofy, but sure

[@HyouVizer]

seems like secondary offensive stats are fundamentally fucked to their very core. devs tried so hard to not be overpowered, that they barely do anything instead. Even primary offensive stats do same thing, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Mind all are base damage stat. They equal to "attack power" for said class/job so just call it that. Giving different names to what is essentially the same thing is hollow depth. Same for spell speed/skill speed, just call it attack speed for all instead. Of GCDs, should be fixed amount no matter the level, and this amount differentiates based off said class/job i.e. puglist/monk GCD will be small, while black mage big. Varites from 1.4 all way to 2.0, cuz 2.5 default is still too damn slow period. GCD how it is now always gets scaled back when new level cap happens, so level syncing older content our GCDs are super fast like roughly 1.5 doing ARR content its insane, its an accidental haste buff when "rebalancing" for new level cap. So having fixed GCDs across the board which remedy this. I often wish for a massive overhaul of games stat systems entirely, may come 7.0 if be

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I wish the stats got an overhaul as well 😕 it is very boring the way it is now certainly!