The Origin here refers to the story components of the job within the game in the forms of background lore and the story told through the job questline. Without this component, the job would have no reason to exist within the confines of the game world, thus having no purpose for developers to its creation. The "short" story presented here provides a possible means of establishing Saint into storylines already implemented into the game:
An Unfortunate Circumstance
The storyline would begin with a relatively ordinary request of looking for a a lost child. Upon finding said child about to become monster chow, the Warrior of Light dispatches the monster, the monster manages to let off a parting shot directed at the child, but intercepted by the Warrior of Light as they jump in the way of the attack and fall unconscious.
The Warrior of Light wakes up to the area surrounded in an unusual haze, hearing a woman's voice: “alas, our hero hath finally awoken”. The Warrior of Light looks around, taking note of the many ghost-like figures drifting around as a handful of them appear before the warrior of light as fuller images of people, one of which being the image of a woman in front of the Warrior of Light who continues to speak. “Doth not fear brave soul, for thou art not dead yet. Close, aye, but still not one among us”.
Purpose
“Apologies for this conundrum, but mine name is Jeanne, and the group of departed souls thee see hither art known as the Saints. Each one a worthy soul once a life that hath been lost for a cause greater than their own. Whether t'would be for family, for village, for nation, or mayhap something more; every one of us hath died not as a victim of circumstance, but instead as a martyr bearing full control ov'r our destinies.”
Jeanne places her hand on the Warrior of Light's shoulder. “We died knowing that those we cherished would be spared. We died knowing that our beliefs would still be held firm. We died, but although t'may seemeth so for thee as well, thou art still alive. And now one last question: would thy journeys allow thee to telleth our tales so that others would not share the same fate?”
Upon the player's agreement, Jeanne nods, saying “good, and now thou must returneth to the world of the living. We shalt see thee in due time.” Jeanne calls down two ghostly figures, which pour themselves into the Warrior of Light, who eventually wakes up where they fell, but now with a soul crystal in one hand and an odd string of bulky beads in the other.
Jeanne's voice echoes in the mind of the Warrior of Light: “giveth voices unto the voiceless, so that no others wilt share our fates.”
Lessons of the Saints
Each quest would introduce one of the Saints--spirits of fallen heroes of Eorzea--who would provide a task for the player while giving the story of how they died and what they gave their life for. At the end of each quest, the Saint who gave the task would “bestow a gift”, but raise a question: why is the Warrior of Light the only living saint? With each quest done, one more clue comes up that will help answer that question, leading to why Jeanne chose the Warrior of Light to become a saint in the first place.
Currently healers in FFXIV follow a fixed template in regard to how they operate. Factors such as healing kit, MP as a resource, and universal cross-class (for now) abilities provide healing jobs the means of functioning in the game to adequately meet demands from various levels of group content. What has also been standard is healing gear, as all healers currently share the same “light armor” theme as well as the method of dealing damage by becoming spellcasters.
The objective of this experiment is to break the latter part of that mold through a healer concept that would not be “of the cloth”, but also to provide a concept for a healer that would still maintain that general functionality required of all healers through an approach and an identity both unique from healer options present in Heavensward.
Melee DPS
Rather than the typical ranged DPS done by current healers, the Saint would deal the vast majority of its damage in melee range and also wear alternative armor to allow for being in melee range. However, to maintain practicality as a healer, Saint healing spells will still be ranged.
Damage Interception
One of the two major features the Saint would possess as a healer is damage interception through the ability Soulbind, allowing a portion of damage received by a party member to instead be taken by the Saint. In return, the Saint would gain buffs through this link to compensate for the additional damage taken.
Delayed Healing Triggers
The other major healing feature of the Saint would be in the form of delayed healing triggers: buffs which would only heal the target once the target's HP falls under a specific point. This would also provide for a different means of proactive healing compared to the current two forms of shielding and healing over time.
MP and costs
With the exception of its TP-based weaponskill combo, all Saint skills would cost MP. MP for Saint will be explained in further detail in the Outfitting section.
The weapon of choice for Saint would be a “strand”: a string of six small orbs that would appear as a bulky visible bracelet when sheathed. When unsheathed, the orbs float off with a very faint glow, with one orb going to each hand near the palms and the other four floating around the Saint's head. Attack and healing skills will manipulate these orbs in various ways, with the basic cast animation showing the handheld orbs hovering around the hands and the orbs hovering overhead spinning quicker (the animation itself would be similar to Sophia's cast animation).
Due to the requirement for extra sturdiness in melee range, the gearing goal for Saint is to have it in heavy armor similar to Dragoon armor. For armor and accessories, Saint would bear one of two possibilities:
1) The “Dragoon route”: Saint having its own exclusive armor type like the Maiming armor type for Dragoon, which would be mind-based with Healing accessories. This option would allow for much easier stat allocation for items.
2) The “Dragoon mix”: Saint using Maiming gear and strength or vitality-based accessories, with a passive trait that would offer a scalable means of greatly increasing piety as a means of giving a suitable amount of MP that would either be just as or slightly greater than that of any other healer.
Although Option 2 is the far less practical option for itemization, this option will be used for now to prove that this could be done with current available resources, and skills and abilities listed in the Abilities section will be treated as if this option was chosen for itemization choices.
First off, neither the abilities nor their values are set in stone. This list of abilities is to mainly provide some idea as to the basic combat functions of Saint and getting an idea of how it would fight. This is also not set up as a complete list of abilities as to not convolute or confuse anyone reading it and trying to bounce back and forth attempting to link skill relations. Lastly, TP and MP costs have been omitted for now, but one asterisk (“ * ”) means that there would be a TP cost, and two asterisks (“ ** “) means there would be an MP cost.
The following abilities would only apply under Option 2 of the Outfitting section (LNC/DRG armor and accessories). If Option 2 (unique armor with piety options and mind-based accessories) was chosen, these two abilities would not be required.
Spirit Ward: 5 second recast. Switches STR and MND stats. Increase spell-based healing and healing received by spells by 15%. Reduce damage dealt by 20%. (This ability would only be necessary under Option 2 in the Outfitting section).
Afterlife Knowledge: Passive trait. Increase your PIE stat by an amount equal to a greater portion of your VIT stat. (This would be around two-thirds of VIT with the goal of roughly providing at least triple the base MP of a Dragoon in equal gear.)
The remaining skills and abilities will have their names and attributes listed under this order: potency, periodic potency (“X periodic”), effect duration, range, radius (if it is an AoE effect), cast time (only if there is a cast time involved), and recast time. Any secondary effects and their durations (if applicable) will be listed afterward along with a description as necessary for cooldown effects. Visual descriptions will be noted for some skills and abilities (because I am still HORRIBLE at art).
*Soul Arc: 150, 3y range. Visual: caster swings their left arm, causing one of the glowing orbs to create a blue horizontal arc.
*Spirit Strike: 100 (200 Combo: Soul Arc), 3y range. Visual: caster raises both arms up and throws them down and off to the sides, causing two pairs of orbs to strike downward to briefly form a blue X-shaped pattern.
*Halo Press: 100 (250 Combo: Spirit Strike), 3y range. Visual: caster rears back and thrusts their right hand forward, causing all six orbs to circle around and quickly shoot toward the target and dart back out.
**Restore: 400, 25y range, 2.5 second cast. Heals the target. Visual: two orbs of light drift upward while rapidly revolving around the target.
**Restore II: 650, 25y range, 2.5 second cast. Heals the target. Visual: a halo drifting upward while quickly rotating around the target.
**Guardian: 500, 30 second duration, 25y range. Applies Guardian to the target, healing them when their health falls below half. Effect is removed upon activation. Only one Guardian effect can be applied to a target per caster. Visual: Upon cast, a spotlight shines onto the target. Upon activation, spirit-like entity leaves the target as they are healed.
**Venerate: 300, 15y radius, 2.5 second cast. Heals all party members in range. Visual: three large lights shining down and outward while rotating above the caster.
**Venerate II: 150, 30 second duration, 15y radius, 3 second cast. Heals all party members in range and applies Guardian to them. Visual: six large lights shining down and outward while rotating above the caster, ending with the visual effects of Guardian on each target.
**Purification: 25y range, 1.5 second cast. Removes one negative effect from the target.
**Soul Retrieval: 25y range, 5 second cast. Brings the target back to life in a weakened state. If a party member dies while under the effect of Soulbind or Soulbind II, the next Soul Retrieval cast within 10 seconds is instant.
**Essence Font: 100 periodic, 400, 20 second duration, 25y range, 8y radius, 120 second recast. Place a well of aetheric energies at the target location, releasing small pulses that heal party members in range. If an enemy dies near the Essence Font, party members will be healed for a greater amount. Visual: a small, faint, translucent blue vortex at the target area, glowing whenever an enemy dies.
**Aetherburn: 40 periodic, 30 second duration, 15y range. Deals unaspected damage over time. Visual: the caster launches one of their orbs at the target.
**Revenant Wave: 50, 50 periodic, 18 second duration, 10y range, 10y radius, 2 second cast. Deals unaspected damage over time in a fan-shaped pattern. Visual: the caster throws their arms out, releasing a brief wave of blue light.
**Soul Cannon: 200, 15y range, 5y radius, 3 second cast. Deals unaspected damage in a line. Visual: large blue line of light similar to Ravana's Chandrahas skill.
Draining Blows: 20 second duration, 120 second recast. All damaging weaponskills restore 5% of your maximum MP.
Exorcise: 100, 25y range, 2.5 second cast, 90 second recast. Deals unaspected damage to the target and restores 10% of maximum MP. If the target's HP is below 20%, then damage dealt and MP gained from this ability is tripled. Visual: a stream of blue haze is pulled out of the target and quickly sucked into a glowing orb in front of the caster.
Soulbind: 50y range, 10 second recast. Applies Soulbound to the target party member, causing 10% of all damage dealt to that party member to be redirected to the caster (this damage cannot exceed half of the caster's maximum HP). Increases the caster's maximum HP by 20%. Lasts until canceled. If a party member dies while under this effect, the next Soul Retrieval cast within 10 seconds will be instant.
Soulbind II: 50y range, 10 second recast. Applies Soulbound to another target party member, redirecting 10% of all damage they take to the caster (this damage cannot exceed half of the caster's maximum HP). Reduces all damage taken by the caster by 20%. Lasts until canceled. This effect cannot be used on a party member who is already under the effect of Soulbind and can only be used if another party member is Soulbound.
Grace: 400, 25y range, 60 second recast. Heals the target. If the target is Soulbound, healing is doubled and the caster is healed for half.
Exaltation: 700, 15y radius, 120 second recast. Heals all party members in range. Visual: a large blue glowing shockwave emanating outward from the caster.
Bestow Power: 25y range, 20 second duration, 180 second recast. Increases the damage dealt, defense, magic defense and healing done of all Soulbound targets by 20%. Reduces the caster's damage dealt and healing done by 10%.
LIMIT BREAK – Souls Returned: Healer Limit Break.
Casting visual: the caster throws their arms out as the area begins to swarm with spirits.
Heal visual: spirits dive into each party member, healing/reviving them.