Cure IV enmity - a solution?

[Jerbob]

I think every job with access to Cure IV can agree that, over prolonged fights, Cure IV can cause fairly significant problems with enmity, even with enmity reduction effects. This has always been a problem that we've worked around, but with increasing HP levels that come with the level cap increase I think this is becoming more of an issue.

From a white mage perspective, a lot of the "topping off" we used to do with Cure III is leaning towards needing Cure IV, particularly in Abyssea but also outside. This is going to become more true as HP increases. Regen is particularly nice for when "topping off" isn't urgent, but it's not always practical or desirable.

Cure IV is an important mid-high tier cure spell in our arsenal, and it should be freely usable. There are occasions when I have overcured using Cure V rather than healed more appropriately with Cure IV because enmity is shaky for some reason or another. This kind of inefficiency doesn't sit well with me, and I'd like to find a solution! As such, I propose a new job trait that affects only Cure III and Cure IV to help remedy this problem:

Tranquil Heart II (WHM40, RDM48)
Occasionally reduces enmity gain when casting curative magic.

I'm using the traditionally ambiguous "Occasionally" here in the game description, but Tranquil Heart II will have a well-defined effect: the enmity given by Cure III or Cure IV will be reduced proportionally to the "appropriateness" of the cure for the target.

For example, a dragoon in my party has 1400/2000HP, and my Cure IV can restore precisely 600HP. Cure IV is obviously the most "appropriate" cure spell for this situation. When I heal that 600HP with Cure IV, Tranquil Heart II will trigger and significantly reduce the enmity gained by my spell. Conversely, if the dragoon has 400/2000HP, a Cure IV will bring that value to 1000/2000HP. This isn't "appropriate", and as such will not trigger Tranquil Heart II.

The "appropriateness" of the cure spell would be determined by three factors - the innate potency of the cure used, the amount of that cure that actually restores HP (i.e. minimising overcuring), and how close the target is to full HP once the cure is used. I would envisage a sliding scale - over or undercuring by, say, 20% of a cure spell's potency would still have a (lesser) effect, but 50% either way would certainly not.

This would make casting Cure IV much more practical when it is used correctly, while preserving the idea that knowing when to use Cure IV is a skill that white mages must learn and allowing Cure V's special low enmity to remain unique. White mages shouldn't be punished for being MP efficient by using the correct cure tier! I also believe that it will help red mages as support casters, and by linking the effect to a job trait it won't have any negative impact on paladins.

I'm not a genius when it comes to the precise mathematics behind enmity gain and healing magic, so any suggestions/augmentations to the idea would be more than welcome. Hopefully we white mages can get SE to help us unlock the potential of Cure IV!

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Tranquil Heart II is probably in the game already, I doubt they'd only add one trait of it available and at subjob level.

[Jerbob]

To be honest this new trait could probably be served better being called something else anyway, as it works completely differently; I'm just awful at coming up with names. So long as it isn't "Divine xxxxx" then I'm happy, that seems to be all we have in traits and job abilities these days!

[DebbieGibson]

I have no issues with cure 4 in or out of abyssea, lv75 nor lv90.

[Vortex]

This has never been a issue for me, obviously don't use only cure 4 and tbh back in the 75 days i added "extra" enimity down gear to cure IV, these days it's not really needed, it really should not be a problem unless you have really bad dds/terrible tanks which is quite common, but don't forget that you do NEED enimity - sets outside abyssea,

[SpankWustler]

I have no issues with cure 4 in or out of abyssea, lv75 nor lv90.

I also have no issues with Cure IV in or out of Abyssea, neither at 75 nor 90.

[Bubeeky]

I've never had a problem with Cure IV either...matter of fact, I can usually do just fine bouncing back and forth between Cure III and V...having said that, I think that this is a bad idea for a trait, not because of any personal feelings about Cure IV or w/e, but because it sounds like this would make things a whole lot more complicated for us whms....I don't want to be duoing with someone or in a party/alliance and have to think...gee, how appropriate will this cure be? Ok, I'm going to cure <party member name> for x amount so....yes it is appropriate! When I'm doing serious events, I'm usually doing a lot of different things and can't put this level of detailed thought into each individual cure.

[Francisco]

I played WHM years ago, and the only time I ever bothered with Cure IV was when I was about to tap on MP and didn't have enough for Cure IV. In that situation, I'd just Divine Seal it and tell the other WHMs they were up.

[Jerbob]

Wow, I've obviously completely misinterpreted the playerbase's opinions regarding Cure IV, lol. I still think a job trait along these lines would be nice to have, but clearly not as essential as I had envisaged. Oh well.

.I don't want to be duoing with someone or in a party/alliance and have to think...gee, how appropriate will this cure be?

I can very much appreciate that we as WHMs are too busy to hit the mark with the "appropriate" cure all the time, but to be honest I think most of us do it without even thinking about it. Most of us don't lunge for the Cure V macro when someone is only missing 200HP, nor do we use Cure III when someone needs 1700HP worth of healing. A trait like this wouldn't require any special thinking, it'd just support us with high-enmity mid tier cures... or would, if that was useful, which it apparently isn't!

Thanks for the feedback, anyway.