Pipe Dreams: Chemist

Chemist could work as a job. I imagine its gimmick would be to "amalgamate" potions for different healing effects and buffs but it also can use potions exclusively. Examples of some skills:

Amalgamate = combine two potions for enhanced effect. Duration 5 secs. Recast 30 sec.
Hi-Potion = Restore target HP 200 potency and Regen. Instant. Recast 2.5 sec Duration 15 sec.
Max Potion = Restore target HP 800 potency. Instant. Recast 60 sec, 2 charges.
Elixir = Restore HP of self and nearby party members 200 potency. Instant. Recast 2.5 sec.
Remedy = 300 potency shield. Instant. Recast 2.5 sec
Eye Drops = Restore target Hp 200 potency. Removes Blind. Instant. Recast 2.5 sec. Effect changes when under Amalgamate.
Hi-Ether = restore MP. Duration 20 sec. Recast 90 sec

Amalgamate combinations:

-Hi-Potion + Elixir = 500 potency aoe heal + regen (15 sec)
-Max Potion + Eye Drops = 800 potency heal + 5% crit up (15 secs)
-Elixir + Remedy = 500 potency aoe heal + shield
-Hi-Ether + Elixir = Mp restoration + Mp regen aoe

If they are going to take inspiration from FFT I also hope they use a satchel or bag as their weapon. Im sure many players will flock to the class just to have a bag/purse as part of their glamour. I also imagine the potions are all instant but the act of amalgamating them would require a cast time. Chemist would be the most mobile healer due to the instant nature of potions.

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Originally Posted by Marxam

If they are going to take inspiration from FFT I also hope they use a satchel or bag as their weapon. Im sure many players will flock to the class just to have a bag/purse as part of their glamour. I also imagine the potions are all instant but the act of amalgamating them would require a cast time. Chemist would be the most mobile healer due to the instant nature of potions.

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Yesssss finally someone else who wants a satchel main hand! Gimme, please!

I would add hopes that the design of the vials used change depending on the satchel as well, but I could see them going the way of the text in grimoires and codexes. Couple varying designs but not unique, excluding relics.

Remember that AST started as the Chemist job, so the card system, and Mudras are the basis for how a Mix feature would probably work; the same with Dances now.

But a few things to note:
First, I don't suggest going beyond the game in it's current form. And by that I mean, if you are making a healer, they will share healer gear and use the healer role actions. It just makes the most sense.
Second, I'm not sure if you knew this, but Chemist, or Salve-maker as it will most likely be called, usually has a high magic stat, if WHM is A than CHM is B. While the idea of them not using magic makes some sense, based on their concept, most games give them access to basic "magic" which is offset by their personal buff. Basically, they can use MP for spells is what I am getting at.
And finally, I would suggest looking up some of the ability names used by Chemist, and all related jobs, in the past, so as to get a feel for their skill set. You, and most people I feel, seem to stick to their "item usage" nature, and forget that they have a background in magic as well. So it's not wrong for them to use magic, in fact, that could be how they "mix" the items together.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

Remember that AST started as the Chemist job, so the card system, and Mudras are the basis for how a Mix feature would probably work; the same with Dances now.

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Agreed. That ship, however, has sailed. If abilities are supposed to be "unique", Mix has already lost because of Mudras and Steps/Finishes. Beyond that, my own concerns involve the fact that a healer looking away from health bars to mix things (either to build resources or prep said heals) could cause problems in certain encounters.

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if you are making a healer, they will share healer gear and use the healer role actions. It just makes the most sense.

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Mechanically, yes. Concept-wise, no. As I've mentioned before, healers are shackled to jobs that have are, in concept, magic users. I'm willing to acquiesce on gear for the sake of not messing with loot distribution for raids, but giving it role actions meant for an MP-using job when the rest of the kit is designed with its own resource in mind would leave the design at odds with itself.

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Second, I'm not sure if you knew this, but Chemist, or Salve-maker as it will most likely be called, usually has a high magic stat, if WHM is A than CHM is B. While the idea of them not using magic makes some sense, based on their concept, most games give them access to basic "magic" which is offset by their personal buff. Basically, they can use MP for spells is what I am getting at.

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I'm going largely by FFT's version of the job (Item User) along with some rudimentary research I did on FFV's Chemist. Especially in FFT's case, we need to keep in mind that Chemist was the start of the mage tree, so a) any magic stat growth is there because of that and b) it would in theory make it beneficial to cross-class magic (provided magic was useful, which in FFT it wasn't).

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Originally Posted by Lambdafish

You have them wearing Aiming gear, with glamour as the reasoning. I feel like this isn't good enough reason to justify having a healer wearing DPS gear, and nowhere have you considered the stat implications. If CHM wore aiming gear it would have much higher DPS than the other healers, and very low heals as you haven't made any allowances to account for the lack of MND and PIE on aiming gear.

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You realize different skills use different stats for their throughput stat, right? Cleric Stance, for instance, allowed healing based on Intelligence if normally based on Mind, while other heals are just outright based on Mind, Strength (via Attack Power), or Dexterity (again, via Attack Power). We've have multiple Attack Power heals since ARR, so why would it suddenly be an issue now? You could quite simply have all Chemist skills generate throughput from Dexterity and... done. At worst you'd have to worry about no access to Piety outside of melds, but... who has ever wanted Piety?

I feel like expecting Chemist to come, let alone as a healer is setting people up for disappointment like Dancer.

It's more likely to see Geomancer first.

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Originally Posted by Rai_Takara

It's more likely to see Geomancer first.

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That is a recipe for disappointment too. Also I don't wanna see GEO as a healer. I prefer Tank, but I'll take a DPS as well.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

Remember that AST started as the Chemist job

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Er... no?

SE said "item user" AKA chemist was one of the candidates they considered back in HW. AST didn't start as chemist any more than Samurai was rooted in Machinist.

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Originally Posted by Rai_Takara

I feel like expecting Chemist to come, let alone as a healer is setting people up for disappointment like Dancer.

It's more likely to see Geomancer first.

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Well, setting your hopes on any one thing is a high risk for disappointment. That said, there's a lot of community interesting in CHM - more than geomancer, from all indications - so I think saying Geomancer is more likely seems unlikely.

But we won't really know what jobs in what roles are being added till the announcement comes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

Er... no?

SE said "item user" AKA chemist was one of the candidates they considered back in HW. AST didn't start as chemist any more than Samurai was rooted in Machinist.

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Yes.

SE stated that Chemist was the intended healer at the time, utilizing guns as their main weapon. But since they couldn't get the mix command to function how they wanted, it eventually developed into the card system for AST. But prior to the reveal of both jobs, SE only hinted at a gun wielding job. MCH was the byproduct of that, since they "hinted" at a gun wielding job at the time, but had originally planned on it being a healer.

If you go back and scour through all of the live letters and whatnot you'll find the "official" source, but here is something I found on TV Tropes that can at least point you in the right direction, if you wanna search. Because, honestly, at this point in time, that bit of info is just common knowledge for most veteran players.

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To a lesser extent, when information for*Heavensward*was buzzing about, Michael "Fernehalwes" Koji-Fox said that the expansion wouldn't have a new DPS class, but a healer one. Later in that same fan fest, he heavily alluded to a gun using class. Come the December fan fest, he showed that there was indeed a new DPS class: Machinists, and the healers he was talking about are Astrologians, an entirely new, completely unforeshadowed class. In a later Live Letter Koji admitted that when he made that statement, there really*were*plans for a gun-toting healer class based on the Chemist from*Final Fantasy Tactics. However, there were enough problems regarding mechanics during the preliminary phase of development that they scrapped the idea and made the Machinist and Astrologian instead.

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As for the idea of Chemist proposed here, I think a primary complaint from the amount of resources required just for basic healing.
Basic Potion (Heal 1) **Consumes 15% of “MP”**
Airborne Medicine (AoE Heal, Regen) **Consumes 25% of “MP”**
Advanced Potion (Heal 2) **Consumes 25% of “MP”**
Healing Ampoule (AoE Heal) **Consumes 35% of “MP”**
Phoenix Pinion (Revive) **Consumes 45% of “MP”**

With the current system, casting GCD heals 2-3 times is as punishing as reviving an ally, casting many damage spells has no impact on your resources, excluding Poisoned Syringe. This is a job that could easily maintain DPS through a raid, but when I think of situations like E4S’ Voice of the Land, Tumult, Voice of the Land, Earthen Fury combo, I don’t think it could keep up. At the very least, while this job might be attractive to DPS mains, I don’t think any healer would want to heal alongside it.