dev1024 - healing magic

[SpankWustler]

I leaned on Esuna pretty hard in Einherjar and sometimes in CoP Dynamis, but I guess it's continued usefulness depends on which junk monsters appear in events from here on out.

Same goes for really solid magic damage mitigation, it really depends on what kind of monsters pop up. Against generic mages or something that uses a strong light or dark attack, the additional 5% from Shellra V alone is less than epic.

It is definitely true that many of White Mage's advantages depend on the kind of monster being fought.

I'm not suggesting Cure V for anybody with healing magic skill as a magic bullet. I just think it would be better, or no worse, than the healing scene is right now.

Giving Cure VI to non-White Mages with healing magic would also be a solution. I think the result would be similar to adding an extra cure, as far as MP efficiency goes. It would allow several jobs to cure huge amounts of HP for low amounts of enmity, but at the cost of twice the MP a White Mage would spend. Almost three times the cost, if you factor in Orison Pantaloons +2.

This would enable Red Mage or Scholar to take over the healing role in a pinch, but due to MP costs they wouldn't be able to cast much other than vanilla support spells. Essentially becoming the worst White Mage in all of Vana'Diel, but able to keep people alive.

I'd love to have more unique spells and abilities in the game, but I'm also weary of them. It seems that around a third turn out awful and useless and pointless. Humpty Hump's Healing Helix could be similar to Cure III with the soft cap and VIT modifier both removed every 10 seconds, or it could just end up as a concrete 200 HP every 10 seconds.

I get the feeling that there's a one guy on the development team who isn't so bright, but they all feel bad for him and let him work on a spell or ability sometimes. He's probably the dude who came up with the formula for Cure VI, actually.

[Economizer]

Sorry if most of this is head nodding and agreeing, but I found your comment to be unusually agreeable, even if we have varied opinions about Cure V.

I leaned on Esuna pretty hard in Einherjar and sometimes in CoP Dynamis, but I guess it's continued usefulness depends on which junk monsters appear in events from here on out.

Don't get me wrong, Esuna is probably what I'd list as the second most useful thing as a White Mage just after Cure V. Certainly makes your life a whole lot easier. Also makes me wish SE would buff Afflatus Misery so it would be more equal to Afflatus Solace in use, instead of primarily being "degimp Esuna".

Same goes for really solid magic damage mitigation, it really depends on what kind of monsters pop up. Against generic mages or something that uses a strong light or dark attack, the additional 5% from Shellra V alone is less than epic.

I can't wait until we get some Barlight and Bardark. No offense to Bards, but I see no reason a White Mage (and by extension, Red Mage) shouldn't have these.

Giving Cure VI to non-White Mages with healing magic would also be a solution. I think the result would be similar to adding an extra cure, as far as MP efficiency goes.

This is another thing I thought about suggesting. Or rather, I was going to say "I'd be less offended if you were just asking for Cure VI" as a retort to Red Mages and Scholars asking for more cures.

This would enable Red Mage or Scholar to take over the healing role in a pinch, but due to MP costs they wouldn't be able to cast much other than vanilla support spells. Essentially becoming the worst White Mage in all of Vana'Diel, but able to keep people alive.

This reminds me of one time where I got careless and got caught by Amnesia after using Dark Arts. Its one thing to intentionally cast an occasional cure spell while using Dark Arts, but main healing with it because you can't change sucks.

I get the feeling that there's a one guy on the development team who isn't so bright, but they all feel bad for him and let him work on a spell or ability sometimes. He's probably the dude who came up with the formula for Cure VI, actually.

I hope SE makes Cure VI what it should have been, somehow (I'd prefer an efficiency buff over a cost reduction, but I'd take anything at this point). Also, I'd really like classes that can heal to have a decent chance too.

Game balance is a difficult thing to do when dealing with 20 classes that have not just unique balance problems and individual look and feels, but also several secondary class roles. I really hope it all gets sorted out in a way that not only makes everything unique and useful, but also open to different play-styles within the classes themselves.

I'm sure being manaburn support only is about as interesting as only ever being a curebot.

[SpankWustler]

Sorry if most of this is head nodding and agreeing, but I found your comment to be unusually agreeable, even if we have varied opinions about Cure V.

Your posts actually make me consider the difference between the jobs and how much of a difference is needed to be meaningful, which is why I generally respond. I'm content to leave posts like "i am happi dat what mage iz still d onli 1 wid cure 5 it iz all we kan du!" well enough alone. I think less of a difference is needed for White Mage to remain unique, but we both seem to be using stuff that actually occurs in FFXI as a basis for our opinions so I see where you're coming from.

I'd love to see different jobs fill the healing role in different ways. It would be a big improvement over both how healing works now and how it worked at 75. Hopefully the guy who came up with the Zanshin changes is currently hard at work on it, with the evil genius who plotted Cure VI being far, far away.

[Parrow89]

As having both SCH and WHM at 90 there are a couple of things I'd like to point out that I'm sad to see that SE didn't continue as the progression of spells continues.

I was looking over the spell lists again between WHM and SCH and one question comes to mind. "Why hasn't Scholar's regen progression continued?"

Looking at the spell lists Scholar gets spells well after both WHM and BLM except for one, and that's regen. Scholar is the only job that gets it early. Regen at 18. Regen II at 37. Regen III at 83? Wait! Stop right there!

For comparison WHM gets Regen at 21, Regen II at 44, and Regen III at 66.

For all the complaints that SCH doesn't have Cure V which I'm not a fan of. I would present the suggestion that we restore SCH to being the Regen kings/queens. Keep the merits for Regen on whm and get rid of the regen + on sch gear.

My proposal is that Regen III goes to sch at 60, Regen IV at 80, and create a Regen V (or equal healing helix) and give scholar that spell at 95.

Regen IV currently at base restores 600 hp total and costs 82 mp to cast.
Regen V (or healing helix) I would propose at base restores 800 hp total and cost 100 mp to cast. Make it unable to be used with Accession.

With this I could see healing again even in aby made better cause I dare not take my SCH into it anymore.

Thoughts?

[Economizer]

I was looking over the spell lists again between WHM and SCH and one question comes to mind. "Why hasn't Scholar's regen progression continued?"

This is something that really didn't make sense to me either. Sure, you could argue that White Mage should have all the tiers too or something, but a big part of the "Scholar" concept is changing battlefield conditions, which should include DoT.

Bigger reliance on Regen spells would really help, especially since Scholar should be the "X over time" king.

Reading what everyone said here, I would prefer a potent healing helix over a job ability that makes a cure into a helix, unless of course, the job ability is a strat. But a helix spell would be better in the first place. It could even be more potent then what SpankWustler is suggesting depending on the recast timer. If the spell is a larger cure but always affected by weather, and has a fairly long recast, like 20-40 seconds, it could still work. Of course, a smaller cure would have to have a shorter recast, correspondingly.

On a somewhat unrelated note, inspired by this discussion, perhaps Scholar should get a job trait or spell that makes other jobs in the party affect it. For example, a Red Mage in the same party as a Scholar would make it so the Scholar could boost Fast Cast by 5% (or maybe Magic Accuracy) for everyone in the party. Or a Black Mage could do something with either Magic Attack or magical damage. Then again, this concept might not work well, plus it somewhat feels like Corsair's rolls getting a bonus depending on party members.