New SMN JA "Possession" Empowering the "Melee SMN"

[kingfury]

If someone has already suggested this I apologize, but if you're asking for more activity while on SMN in regards to melee and more interesting gameplay, it would make the most sense to simply allow the Summoner to be Possessed by Avatars in order to toggle between "Stand and watch mode" and "Melee/Weaponskill + Spell casting mode". This would open the job itself to new versatility in both solo and party situations while vastly expanding on the current and possible new SMN specific "Joint weaponskills" and "Joint spells" that could be birthed from such a union. If a SMN can conjure up an Avatar to fight alongside them, then why not from within as well?

SMN Job Ability- Possession:[INDENT]Instead of summoning an avatar to fight near by or far away from the summoner, this job ability would summon them to fight from within the summoner themselves. Once this JA is active, the avatar’s strength would now be imbued within the summoner’s melee attacks and new joint weaponskills and joint spells. Additionally, any attack traits associated with the current possessed avatar(such as double attack, Attack speed, def bonus, etc.) would be inherited by the summoner. MP would still be the defining conduit that determines the duration of time the Summoner could remain possessed by an Avatar, and the JA would cease to function should MP fall below a certain amount.

•Possession example

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•Possible Avatar Possession characteristics

Similar to how Blood Pacts unlock dozens of individual abilities, Possession would unlock an equally vast number of Joint weaponskills and Joint spells per selected Avatar.

Joint Weaponskills:

A "Joint Weaponskill" would be the combination of an Avatar's special attack with that of the selected weapon being wielded by the summoner. Not so much the marrying of Eclipse Bite with Full Swing per say, but rather the creation of a new weaponskill all together like "Eclipse Smash" that would only be available while wielding a staff and being possessed by Fenrir. These new weaponskills would be dependent on TP rather than Blood Pact timers. The strength of these weaponskills could be drawn from both combat and summoning skill levels.

Joint Spells:

Based on the selected Avatar, the list of Joint spells could be swapped based on the situation at hand. These spells would be considered "Joint" due to the fact that both the Summoner and the Avatar would be casting the spell vs just the Avatar. This could, however, alter certain spells design from being party only spells to being target specific spells like "Hasteja" and "Earthen Mold" for example. Spells cast while Possession is in effect could grant a reduction in MP cost per spell to allow some flexibility since MP will be steadily draining while the JA is in use.

This would not be in any way out of context for what a SMN is in terms of job function within this game, but rather just another mode to perform that job function in. The Dev team wouldn't have to introduce any new gear or abilities that would cause them to rework the job function-wise for this new JA to work. Simply combine the two entities and introduce a myriad of new effects and abilities that would allow SMNs to be more active than ever before.

• Karbuncle's detailed descriptions of possible Weaponskills and Stat bonuses from post #4 (Thanks for the great additional concepts Karb)

They could adjust an Inheritance for Each avatar instead of a flat "JT" transaction. for instance

1) You Gain a stat boost related to the Avatars Element

*Example: Ifrit=STR+30, Titan=VIT+30, etc

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2) You gain a strong Enspell Effect related to Avatars Element
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3) A Unique buff is gained based on the Avatar

Ifrit - Double attack +10%
Leviathan - Store TP+15
Ramuh - Critical hit rate +10%
Titan - Increases WS damage (+10%)
Garuda - Haste (+10% JA Haste)
Shiva - Increases Magic Damage (works with WS's below) (+10%)
Carbuncle - Regen+10 Regain+1
Fenrir - Triple Attack +5% Regain+1
Diabolos - "Dark Affinity"* Regain+1
*Greatly increases your resistance to dark based spells and Abilities. Also gives a strong resistance to effects like Death and Doom.

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4) A Unique aura is gained based on the avatar.

Ifrit - Attack +10%
leviathan - Magic Defense Bonus +10
Ramuh - Critical hit Damage +10%
Titan - Physical Damage Taken -10%
Garuda - Critical hit rate +10%
Shiva - Magic Attack Bonus +10
Carbuncle - PDT-5% MDT-5% Regen+5
Fenrir - All Stats +10
Diabolos - HP/MP+10%

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5) Combat skills are enhanced.

**Summoning Magic Skill/10 = Amount of Acc/Atk gained from the ability. (I.E with say, 350 Summoning Magic Skill, a SMN would gain +35 acc/atk)
**Summoning Magic Skill/25 = Amount of Critical Hit rate gained. (i.E A SMN with 350 Summoning Magic skill would gain 14% Critical hit rate)

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6) Defenses are enhanced

*Increases HP, Defense and Magic Defense by a flat 10%

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7) Access to a Unique Staff WS based on Avatar

•(Ifrit)Flaming Smash - Deliver an attack that deals Triple damage and burns target. Duration of burn varies with TP.
*Burn is 30hp/tic. 30/60/90 second duration 100/200/300%

•(Carbuncle)Blissful Euphoria - Deals Light Elemental damage and lowers targets Attack, Accuracy, Magic Attack, and Magic Accuracy. *-10% to each

•(Shiva)Chilling Swings - Delivers a 3 hit attack that paralyzes target. Potency of paralysis varies with TP
*10/20/30% at 100/200/300% TP

•(Titan)Fortified Blow - Delivers an attack that ignores targets Defense. Amount ignored varies with TP
*20%/35%/50%

•(Leviathan)Vengeful Maelstrom - Deals Water elemental damage to enemies within area of effect. Additional Effect: Drown. *Drown is 25hp/tic.

•(Ramuh)Thunderous Torment - Delivers a 3-hit attack that deals critical damage. Additional Effect: Stun
*Stun subject to resists

•(Fenrir)Eclipse Strike - Delivers an Attack that deals triple damage. Lowers Enemies Critical hit Evasion
*-5%/10%/15%

•(Garuda)Gale Void - Delivers a 2-hit attack that deals Wind elemental damage and weighs target down.
*Weight effect is that of Gravity(Spell)

•(Diabolos)Nether Strike - Deals darkness elemental damage that drains a targets Stat.
*Stat is random. -15 on Enemy +15 on player.

WARs have Berserk and Defender to toggle between during combat. SAMs have Hasso and Seigan. NINs have Innin and Yonin. This would be the SMN's equivalent. It would also be friggin' awesome to see.

Just a thought.

[Korpg]

A) Avatars are all BLMs. Anything "inherited" would be BLM traits, so it wouldn't help with the "melee" SMN at all.

B) Losing the avatar would make melee SMNs worse off. Their numbers that they state makes them better than Ukon WARs include the huge spike damage from avatars instead of staff WSs that they rely on for MP with.

C) Avatars don't have double attack, attack bonus, defense bonus, or nothing near the actual DD stuff that makes WARs, DRKs, DRGs, and all other front-lines great. Even PLD is more preferred in front because their ability to tank. SMN has nothing that justifies being a front-line.

D) This idea smells like DRG 2hr to me.

[Vold]

I did not see that post coming. True story.

[Karbuncle]

[QUOTE=Korpg;151228]A) Avatars are all BLMs. Anything "inherited" would be BLM traits, so it wouldn't help with the "melee" SMN at all.[quote]

They could adjust an Inheritance for Each avatar instead of a flat "JT" transaction. for instance

1) You Gain a stat boost related to the Avatars Element
*Example: Ifrit=STR+30, Titan=VIT+30, etc

2) You gain a strong Enspell Effect related to Avatars Element

3) A Unique buff is gained based on the Avatar

Ifrit - Double attack +10%
Leviathan - Store TP+15
Ramuh - Critical hit rate +10%
Titan - Increases WS damage (+10%)
Garuda - Haste (+10% JA Haste)
Shiva - Increases Magic Damage (works with WS's below) (+10%)
Carbuncle - Regen+10 Regain+1
Fenrir - Triple Attack +5% Regain+1
Diabolos - "Dark Affinity"* Regain+1
*Greatly increases your resistance to dark based spells and Abilities. Also gives a strong resistance to effects like Death and Doom.

4) A Unique aura is gained based on the avatar.

Ifrit - Attack +10%
leviathan - Magic Defense Bonus +10
Ramuh - Critical hit Damage +10%
Titan - Physical Damage Taken -10%
Garuda - Critical hit rate +10%
Shiva - Magic Attack Bonus +10
Carbuncle - PDT-5% MDT-5% Regen+5
Fenrir - All Stats +10
Diabolos - HP/MP+10%

5) Combat skills are enhanced.

.
**Summoning Magic Skill/10 = Amount of Acc/Atk gained from the ability. (I.E with say, 350 Summoning Magic Skill, a SMN would gain +35 acc/atk)
**Summoning Magic Skill/25 = Amount of Critical Hit rate gained. (i.E A SMN with 350 Summoning Magic skill would gain 14% Critical hit rate)

6) Defenses are enhanced

*Increases HP, Defense and Magic Defense by a flat 10%

7) Access to a Unique Staff WS based on Avatar

(Ifrit)Flaming Smash - Deliver an attack that deals Triple damage and burns target. Duration of burn varies with TP.
*Burn is 30hp/tic. 30/60/90 second duration 100/200/300%

(Carbuncle)Blissful Euphoria - Deals Light Elemental damage and lowers targets Attack, Accuracy, Magic Attack, and Magic Accuracy. *-10% to each

(Shiva)Chilling Swings - Delivers a 3 hit attack that paralyzes target. Potency of paralysis varies with TP
*10/20/30% at 100/200/300% TP

(Titan)Fortified Blow - Delivers an attack that ignores targets Defense. Amount ignored varies with TP
*20%/35%/50%

(Leviathan)Vengeful Maelstrom - Deals Water elemental damage to enemies within area of effect. Additional Effect: Drown. *Drown is 25hp/tic.

(Ramuh)Thunderous Torment - Delivers a 3-hit attack that deals critical damage. Additional Effect: Stun
*Stun subject to resists

(Fenrir)Eclipse Strike - Delivers an Attack that deals triple damage. Lowers Enemies Critical hit Evasion
*-5%/10%/15%

(Garuda)Gale Void - Delivers a 2-hit attack that deals Wind elemental damage and weighs target down.
*Weight effect is that of Gravity(Spell)

(Diabolos)Nether Strike - Deals darkness elemental damage that drains a targets Stat.
*Stat is random. -15 on Enemy +15 on player.

Sounds like a lot, But we lose our Avatars... So it seems like a fair trade off? Maybe...

B) Losing the avatar would make melee SMNs worse off. Their numbers that they state makes them better than Ukon WARs include the huge spike damage from avatars instead of staff WSs that they rely on for MP with.

I see your worry here. I do.

D) This idea smells like DRG 2hr to me.

Lol, Kinda.

Anyway, If you've read this far bravo, I do have to say this idea does sound a bit ludicrous... But i've always like the idea of Becoming the Avatar, or infusing your avatars power into you to augment your combat capabilities. That being said i think its a bit unrealistic in FFXI.

It wouldn't fit right and SMN was never meant to be frontline, While i think something like this would be really really fun. I just do not see it being realistic

[Korpg]

I don't see this as being realistic either.

And it wouldn't help with SMN DoT, it would either keep it the same (no avatar whacking the mob anymore) or make it lower (no 6~12k BPs anymore).

[Karbuncle]

I don't see this as being realistic either.

And it wouldn't help with SMN DoT, it would either keep it the same (no avatar whacking the mob anymore) or make it lower (no 6~12k BPs anymore).

I see 6-12k Being pretty unrealistic outside Abyssea.

However you have to keep in mind, if these buffs did get applied, Take Ramuhs theoretical WS, Say if it even averaged ~3k like Evisceration in Abyssea, We as players dont have a 45 sec BP Timer, We can gear Haste/etc and get TP generally much quicker than that with proper buffs.

But yah, It would be a lot to lose. The biggest problem i have with this is it removing the "hate free" aspect of SMN DD. So again while I would have a ball doing this, I just don't see SE adding it. Plus I think I'd have more fun actually becoming the Avatar. oh well.

I feel i need to repeat this I don't hate the idea, infact i like it, I'm just realistically never seeing it happen :X

[Korpg]

I included the 6-12k because this "ability" would only be useful inside Abyssea only.

Having a SMN melee on anything outside of abyssea, except for DC or lower mobs, is...well...insane. You are basically asking SMNs go to die to stuff. I don't want SMN to turn into the old 24/7 method of killing things (throw more bodies at it!).

SMN sucks at melee gear anyway, to have a SMN use melee gear is basically asking them to be a melee mage. What is the point of a SMN if they don't summon anything or have a pet do basically most of the damage for them?

I can see some use inside Abyssea, but outside, it is a death sentence for the SMN.

[Karbuncle]

Again, Yah, I agree with basically all your points.

Like i said, I would find this an exceptionally fun toy, But its unrealistic and quite obviously it just wouldn't work on everything (or most things) unless the buff was quite significant, but then you run the risk of overpowering it.

[Vazerus]

I actually like this idea, but I just don't see it happening. I guess the only way it would is if this ability could meet and/or exceed damage done from the traditional method.... Depending on how strong the WS's are it could be quite a menacing ability. Perhaps when the "Possession" ends, a portion of hate accumulated disappears as well? Would make sense in a way, since the avatar is leaving your body.

Korpg, if this was added for some reason or another, do you think they wouldn't release gear for it specifically? Also, SMNs would have some boosted defensive stats when merged with said avatar (refering to Karbuncle's list), so they wouldn't be as squishy.

-edit- Not trying to argue really, just saying they probably would include gear and such for it. Also agree this wouldn't see too much use, depending.

[Karbuncle]

I have a picture in my head for how each wS would look.

You should draw them for me King, I can give you descriptions O_O