Cure Formula Changes

[Economizer]

I just hope the Development Bros realize the issue is with the soft caps themselves rather than reaching the soft caps.

Yeah, I honestly didn't think of the possibility that they'd just make it easier to reach cap, which is the opposite of what I'd want.

Without running any numbers, I'd say that just increasing all soft caps by 25% but leaving the formulas exactly the same would be easy to do and wouldn't break anything too horribly. Maybe less than a 25% increase for Cure V and Cure VI, since their caps aren't as brutal as those of their little bros.

First off (as more of a point of interest really), Cure V and VI actually have a hard cap (I believe this was tested with a Primeval Brew). If you are interested, my source says they cap at:

• Cure V
  810 HP / 1215 HP
• Cure VI
  1140 HP / 1710 HP

This point of interest only really comes into effect when we talk about changing the soft caps on spells, because when soft caps are removed, (using my previous 400 Healing Magic skill, 140 MND, and 80 VIT stat block to remain constant with the starter post), we get the following numbers for cures. Note that I don't have soft cap numbers for Cure VI, and Cure V is above the hard cap. I'm a bit suspicious of these numbers, as the source for these numbers has proven to be slightly unreliable.

• Cure I
  360 HP - 540 HP
• Cure II
  390 HP - 585 HP
• Cure III
  440 HP - 660 HP
• Cure IV
  720 HP - 1080 HP
• Cure V
  885 HP - 1327 HP

Second, I can't tell how exactly you intent to raise the cure amounts, given your wording about soft caps.

If you mean something simple like "just increase cure amounts by 25%" I can pull numbers for that fairly quickly, with this (just straight 25% across the board):

• Cure I
  43 HP - 64 HP
• Cure II
  121 HP - 181 HP
• Cure III
  255 HP - 382 HP
• Cure IV
  551 HP - 826 HP
• Cure V
  901 HP - 1351 HP
• Cure VI
  1175 HP - 1762 HP

Unfortunitely for me quickly pulling numbers out of the place I pull items in game, soft caps refer to something more confusing (to me). If my source is right, here are the soft caps for cures.

• Cure I
  30 HP
• Cure II
  90 HP
• Cure III
  190 HP
• Cure IV
  390 HP
• Cure V
  690 HP

As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm not so mathematically inclined that I can look at the formulas for these things and know how to increase the softcap and produce a number easily. Still, after some toying around with a spreadsheet using the date from my source, I found how to do this more or less (the numbers below come with a 25% decrease in the rate number to boost cure power, which essentially lowers what we could call the softcap by 25% - interestingly enough, boosting the constant 25% as well just returns the 25% boost numbers almost exactly). I don't have the numbers that the calculator I'm using uses, so again, can't calculate Cure VI.

• Cure I
  37 HP - 55 HP
• Cure II
  100 HP - 150 HP
• Cure III
  209 HP - 314 HP
• Cure IV
  425 HP - 638 HP
• Cure V
  754 HP - 1131 HP

I'm not sure if these were the numbers you were looking for, but perhaps this helps provide a better understanding of the numbers we are looking at. Note that these numbers are about a five percent improvement on the current ones.

Ultimately, I'm not sure a simple 25% buff would solve things ideally, although it would be a solid start. My issues with just buffing spells 25% is a question towards how it would be done - how do we ensure that most of this buff is enjoyed by White Mages, Paladins, Scholars and Red Mages, and not anybody subbing White Mage or Red Mage? Moving from this, even if those four jobs essentially got a 25% buff to cures while well geared and other jobs didn't, would this be enough of an edge to satisfy main job healers? Lots of difficult questions for now, at least for those that would like an elegant solution.

Maybe a casting time reduction to Cure VI to give it a new niche as a MP inefficient "OH NO THINGS DONE GONE BAD!" button. I can't see people ever having enough HP for it to work as just another Cure, no matter how much HP it restores.

Considering that Cure V could be scaled up and up and up when the rest of the cures are (short of some situation where Cure V cures 2440 HP and the tank has like 4000HP), and it wouldn't really affect how White Mage does things, I don't think the amount Cure VI cures could help its case, although I wouldn't be so bitter if it was more MP efficient then Cure VI, even if I could never use that efficiency in the majority of situations. Or if Cure VI performed some ultility while curing sorta like Blue Mage's Plenilune Embrace does. Or something. As is, the spell leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, even when I'm using it for the one use I have for it - being able to main Cure while weakened in Abyssea.

Cure VI was built around a soft cap that no one will ever hit ever outside of brew/massive cruor buffs. I'm not sure what they were thinking when they introduced it.

I think it was a lot like a band-aid, or maybe just misplaced idealism, I'm not sure sometimes. The spell caps at least potency then a Cure V in every situation, and even hard caps faster then Cure V according to current formulas (this is a little harder to tell, but ultimately, pop a brew and we can see the super disappointing hard cap). I'm loathe to admit it even has found a use or two (the second one would be if I'm being lazy on super easy things), but I'd like to think that if Cure III and IV cured for more, even that limited use. I hate even talking about it, because I'd like this thread to be more then just about White Mages, but I can't help myself but complain about it sometimes.

Cure formula changes aren't about to fix Cure VI anytime soon in my opinion, but considering the priorities, I think that's okay. While it won't hurt for Cure V/VI to get masses of more HP cured, I don't really see how that will majorly affect balance. What is more important and will have more impact is for lower tiers, particularly Cure III/IV to cure more for jobs with native access, and this should help everyone.