What are some of your thoughts on balancing Immanence?
Immanence has been a topic of discussion for a a while now since it is a job ability that has all but replaced the need for melee/ranged physical damage in today's metagame. It really deserves it's own thread. Scholars are the go-to skillchainers now, which is just bizarre to me. From what I have seen, most people seem to agree on this. But what is a viable solution? I wanted to open this up for discussion to see if we can find some fair ways to de-emphasize Immanence, and re-emphasize Melee as the prime skillchainers in end-game battles.
First, as much as I would love for Immanence to die in a fire, I don't think it would be fair to Scholars to completely remove it, since it can be useful for soloing, but I think I have another idea.. What if the damage bonus for Magic bursts are recalculated?
Currently, the damage bonus on Magic Bursts is 100% based on how many steps are used when performing a skillchain!!
Neither the skillchain's damage nor the level of it's skillchain property have any bearing on the Magic Burst damage at all. Only the number of steps in the skillchain matter. And it's extremely front-loaded too.
A 2-step skillchain gives a flat 160% bonus to magic burst damage, and each additional step performed adds another 10% bonus. As long as the skillchain lands, then the corresponding spell hits 160% harder, and magic damage never misses! This means that a Scholar using Immanence can guarantee to land a 2-step level 1 skillchain for 300 damage, and a well-geared Black Mage can still burst it for full damage. The Scholar doesn't even need much gear. A Scholar can still make skillchains even with no gear equipped and floored magic accuracy. In this case, MAB and magic accuracy isn't as important as Stratagem recharge.
What if the MB Damage Bonus was instead awarded based on Skillchain Damage rather than skillchain steps?
What would the pros and cons of this be? Given that immanence skillchain damage can't compete with geared melee players, I think it would probably make the current Immanence strategies ineffective in endgame content without directly changing Immanence. The ability should still situationally useful for low-man content and for soloing. It may also encourage people to start using melee again for skillchain purposes in SC>MB strategies since double light/dark or radiance/umbra skillchains should theoretically create the best magic bursts. Scholars could be used in support roles without completely replacing melees. They can do so many other things other than just skillchaining.
Now since this is my idea, I obviously think it's perfect, so I can't criticize it myself. So please let me know what your thoughts are. What are viable solutions to bridging the gap between Melee skillchainers and Immanence in end-game content?