Heavensward ability/trait/skill wishlist!

With the level cap increasing to 60, we all are expecting new abilities. Following the 1-50 pattern, we'd get 2 class skills, 3 traits, and 2 job abilities, but they could certainly change that up.

So let me ask you, what abilities do you want to see? What abilities do you hope to see? What abilities do you think will actually be added? There are abilities from 1.0 that could reappear, do you think they will?

You don't have to respond for every job, you don't have to respond for every trait/skill on one job, but if you want to, that's fine too.

While we're also getting new jobs in Heavensward, we pretty much have no idea what abilities they'll get, so this is mainly focused on the classes/jobs we already have.

I'll start with my own wishlist.

Heals:

-White mage-
lv52 trait: Improved Stoneskin II - Allows stoneskin II to be cast in battle. The 6 second cast time could be hard to work around, but hey, at least we have presence of mind and swiftcast.

lv56 trait: Improved Shroud of Saints II - Increases refresh potency to 120. I would honestly prefer to see another ability to restore MP that isn't tied to enmity management, but this would at least scale up our current abilty.

lv60 trait: Maim and Mend III - Increases base action damage and healing restoration by XX%. The percentage would vary on how lv60 content is balanced, and whether this series replaces the lower level Maim and Mend.

Tanks:

-Paladin-
lv54 skill: Fury of Halone - 40TP, combo action: Riot blade, potency ~290, reduces target's dexterity by 10% , duration 20s. Paladin needs a non-threat combo. This skill would give them something that is/could be useful for tanking, combo's off of riot blade, and wouldn't break the TP bank with riot blade's 80TP cost.

DPS:

-Monk-
lv54 skill: Crescent Kick - 50TP, can only be used in Coeurl(III) stance, grants greased lighting, changes form to Apkallu(IV) stance, inflicts heavy 40% on the target 12s, potency 120/160-rear. A little weaker than snap punch, has an additional effect, and more on Apkallu on the lv58 skill. The additional effect is just there to make it different than snap punch, it could be slow instead.

lv55 Job ability: Fists of Lighting - Increases crit chance by 20%. The napkin math says this works out to be slightly better than fists of fire for damage, but it's also not just a flat damage bonus.

lv56 trait: Dragon's gift - restores 10TP per landed critical hit. You see what I did there?

lv58 skill: Backbreaker - 50TP, can only be used in Apkallu(IV) stance, changes form to Raptor(II) stance, potency 150/190-rear, increases damage dealt by 5%, duration 35s. I think it would be cool for monk to get more stances, and keep the basic setup of 3 skills, 3rd one grants GL. I really don't expect this kind of change until at least another expansion down the road. I also like monk's buildup and think for a 4th stance, this would fit in rather well.

lv60 trait: Greased Lighting IV - Allows stacking of a 4th greased lightning (additional 9% damage 5% attack speed). It follows the natural progression of monk, and I don't think I'm the only one that hopes for this

-Black Mage-
lv52 trait: Improved transpose - Transpose now converts the number of Astral Fire or Umbral Ice stacks into the opposing type. I think this would make transpose seem more useful at endgame, but wouldn't completely displace Fire3 and Blizzard3. It could also grant 2 stacks instead of one, but either way, I think transpose deserves it.

lv60 trait: Magick and Mend III - Increases base action damage and healing restoration by XX% and allows for the stacking of a fourth Astral Fire or Umbral Ice. Just like with White mage, seems like continuing natural progression, numbers depend on balance, and I'm not going to speculate that much on what effects AF4 could have in addition to damage.

Shroud of Saints needs to scale with MP and not be a flat MP recovery. Also it'd be nice if SE would rework Raise so it doesn't waste a valuable Trait slot and just allow Raise in battle, spend that Trait slot on something useful. It's just an unnecessary hindrance.

As I'm a Paladin main I'd love to get a more...Paladin-y feel about it. So I'd love to get Holy Succor back but without Magic Damage on our weapon we wouldn't heal for much unless the spell was based on Weapon Damage. Paladin also needs another AOE hate tool so I'd like to see War Drum return or another similar ability, for those who didn't play 1.0 War Drum was a small AOE with massive hate generation that did minimal damage and could only be used after a successful shield block and Paladin could really use another AOE threat tool. I'd also love to get back AoE Rampart, Paladin's job is to protect the party but the only party protection they offer is Cover which physical only.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NoloeTazier

As I'm a Paladin main I'd love to get a more...Paladin-y feel about it.

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This sums up my feelings as well. Paladins could benefit from some more abilities that play up our description as Holy Knights. And while I appreciate that our plethora of self buffing abilities play up our defensive nature I would appreciate more variety. A huge percentage of our abilities are just "click to enhance your defense in some way", but I would prefer if they did this in more interesting fashions, like NoloeTazier suggested.

For SCH that i play most i would like to see:

A trait that makes energy drain never miss >.>
More Aetherflow stacks!
Heal overtime that can shield a little every tick
No big aoe heals please thats whm job!
Another aoe mitigation like soil but in target and around him ( like cure 3 but with a strong shield instead of heal)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NoloeTazier

Shroud of Saints needs to scale with MP and not be a flat MP recovery.

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I'm not entirely sure about this, but if Shroud scales with level, then it should be more or less ok. This is supposing fights don't get longer than ~10min., we don't become reliant on higher MP cost spells, the proportion of PIE from gear vs. level doesn't increase that much, and that it scales with level.

That is a lot of supposing and while the shroud trait is an idea, something that is a percentage recovery would be good despite any those suppositions and separate some of our MP recovery from threat management.

Scholar abilities:
Level 55: Gift of grace- transfer 500mp or 300tp to a party member. Cooldown 30 seconds. Depending on Disciple
Level 60: Friendship- Summon a level 50 retainer

Traits:
Level 52: improved sacred soil-from 10%-25% damage negate
Level 56: Extra help-Fairies now heal 20% more and when party member drop below 95%
Level 60:Healing clock- adloquim and succor have regeneration properties

Here's a few things that I thought of, mostly focusing on SMN and SCH, because those are what I play most.

Summoner:
lv 55: Leviathan Egi (Summon IV) - summons support-type pet focused on buffing allies
lv 60: Ramuh Egi (Summon V) - summons support-type pet focused on debuffing enemies
I think the order or effects of these two could be swapped, but the general idea remains the same. Since Summoner seems to be pitched as a more utility or support-focused casting dps, it seems logical to add egis that are designed specifically for this. I would expect them to still have some amount of offensive capability, but would probably be less powerful than Garuda.

I would like to see a job adjustment so that the damage all the egis deal is based off the Summoner's INT, and then take advantage of this adjustment to trade SMN's high strength (compared to BLM/WHM) for higher piety to help resolve some of the current longevity issues.

Scholar:
lv 55: eruditio - heal potency 100; erects a shield for 8x hp recovered that may/may not stack with galvanize from aldoquium/succor
lv 60: radiosus - 5-15% damage reduction + HOT 100 potency; duration 30 seconds

Arcanist class abilities/traits:
lv 52: Enhanced bio: extend bio duration to 36 seconds
lv 54: Bio III - potency 35: duration 40 seconds -> bane and fester re-specked to include Bio III among spells relevant to their effects
lv 56: Mutating virus: immunity duration after the effects of virus reduced from 60 to 30 seconds
lv 58: Energy Siphon - potency 150: absorbs damage dealt as MP, consumes one aetherflow stack - basically an mp-focused energy drain
lv 60: Maim and Mend III - increase base damage/healing by >30% + Aetherdam III: allows stacking of 4 aetherflows

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WellFooled

This sums up my feelings as well. Paladins could benefit from some more abilities that play up our description as Holy Knights. And while I appreciate that our plethora of self buffing abilities play up our defensive nature I would appreciate more variety. A huge percentage of our abilities are just "click to enhance your defense in some way", but I would prefer if they did this in more interesting fashions, like NoloeTazier suggested.

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Paladins in this game aren't holy knights; however, there story could always evolve. I do agree they should have more light elemental tools especially since that is what many people think of when they hear paladin, or at the very least SE should change the name to knight, and release a true paladin in the future.

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Originally Posted by Brightshadow

Paladins in this game aren't holy knights; however, there story could always evolve.

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It's much more subtle than in other incarnations (which may be part of the problem), but I would argue that FFXIV's Paladins fit the classification of Holy Knights.

I say this because of our ability Hallowed Ground (hallowed being defined as "regarded as holy; venerated; sacred"), the focus on not just honor but virtue (Jenlyns says "but remember that fancy swordplay and well-polished armor do not make you a paladin. You must be just in your heart and strive always to be an exemplar of true virtue"), and the obvious design cues like having shining white armor.

Paladins aren't played up as holy in a religious sense, but I would say that they most defiantly are in sense of having a spiritually pure quality.

GLA: 54 War Drum: Delivers an attack with a potency of 170 to all nearby enemies. Can only be used immediately after blocking an attack. Additional Effect: Increased Enmity (3x) [80TP GCD]
58 Goring Blade: Delivers an attack with a potency of 100. Combo Action: Riot Blade Combo Potency: 170 Combo Bonus: Damage over time Potency 25 Duration: 15s 60TP GCD
TRAITS: 52 Outmaneuver: Restores TP upon blocking equal to the percentage blocked while Bulwark is active.
56 Shield Smash: Increases enmity generated by Shield Swipe. (3x)
60 Enhanced Tempered Will: Shortens Tempered Will recast time to 120 seconds.
PLD: 55: Holy Succor: Restore's target's HP. Cure Potency: 400 Cure potency varies with current attack power. If target is not self, trigger additional effect. Additional Effect: Increases own maximum HP by amount restored and restores the amount increased. cast 2.5s MP cost 1.5x flash recast GCD
60: Atonement: Delivers an attack with a potency of 320. Potency decreases based on enmity. 45sec recast, off GCD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lyndwyrm

I'll start with my own wishlist.
Apkallu(IV) stance

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no, just no. We have too many stances as it is.

Anything new kinda , cuz honestly it'd be taking the lazy way in an expac ppl paid for if SE were to just spam the numerals on already existing abilities.
I.e medica, medica II, medica III, medica IV etc
Stone skin, stone skin II
Cure I, cure II, cure III, cure XIV lol...
I prefer the ra, aga ,aja endings for abilities if they r gonna keep making them like that :S
Or even better just make "whole" new abilities and old ones get scaled to current expac standards.

Haste and the Melee DPS version of Foe for Bards.

That's all I can think of.

Trait - Advanced Shield Lob
Causes the shield to ricochet off its target and strike up to 2 nearby enemies before returning.

Weapon Skill - Hallowed Blade
150 potency with the effect knockback, target will only attack the caster for 10 seconds. A rescue the healer skill.

Cross-Class - Cure 2
Enough said.

This is why the devs stopped asking for player input, all I'm reading is a horde of abilities with little to no consideration to scale or balance. 4th Aetherflow? Greased Lightning IV? Try to keep in mind how the current jobs will scale and realize that some of these abilities would make content almost faceroll easy. I love monk but I know that a 4th Greased Lightning would require some significant boosts to other DPS to stay competitive. I'd rather see a return to some of the 1.0 mechanic which involved disabling parts of the mob to weaken them or increase damage, basically give you a reason to use a more varied rotation in order to more effectively battle. This would give people an opportunity to refine their skills rather than just a baseline increase in damage.

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Originally Posted by Slirith

no, just no. We have too many stances as it is.

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Well, that's fine, but is there anything you would like to see?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ErikMynhier

Trait - Advanced Shield Lob
Causes the shield to ricochet off its target and strike up to 2 nearby enemies before returning.

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This one sounds neat. Grabs aggro on a group of mobs as part of a pull from a distance, instead of just one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wobi

I love monk but I know that a 4th Greased Lightning would require some significant boosts to other DPS to stay competitive.

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I mean, several jobs receive flat 20-30%damage buffs at lv40, and received a 10% buff at lv20. I don't think they'd give one DPS class abilities that significantly increased damage without giving others the same thing. At least in the case of Increased Action Damage on BRD and Maim/Magick and Mend on BLM, WHM, SMN, SCH, since they've been given at lv20 and 40, lv60 will have one too if they continue to follow that chain of progression.

I'd like to see some more abilities that are fun to use and situational, like bounding heal from WoW. Or more stuff that relies on timing. Like imagine a manual block skill for PLD that converts 25% of the next hits damage to MP (or something). Of course, the way this game currently handles animation and buffs would need to be changed for something like that to be usable.

Also, love the bouncing shield lob suggestion. Something like that is super fun and satisfying on a visceral level. Need way more things like that.

It would be great for monks to get a skill that gave them immediate GL3 (think axe kick just it would probably need a lot longer CD)

SMN
- teleport ability make you change location with your pet
- trait energy drain and fester hit 5 y radius all targets around
- radiant shield can be used for party members(like tank)
- flaming crush range increased to 5 y
- shiva egi?

WHM:
Fluid Aura 2 -- AOE fluid aura

BLM:
Death -- chance of instant death (can't work on bosses)
Doom -- Will kill after timer's up
Double Cast (can you imagine? Double cast flare > convert > swiftcast > Flare > potion > flare)

Ninja - name undecided lv 60
1 ninjitsu becomes aoe
3min timer

Probably a bit op tho to give everyone huton >.>

Lv 60 doh ability Remove RNG everyone hq at click of a button

somthin tera did with their heals which i'd like to see here is a teamy grab ability
basically pull targeted teamy to your location
this would help alot in those raids where theres always that one stray thats on the other side of the field or just outta your range
it could also be used to help a straggler get out of an aoe in time

SMN
Lvl 52 - Infection - refresh dot timers on target. Uses Aetherflow

lvl 54 - Rekindle - reset Enkindle CD
Lvl 54 - Trait - Enraged - Reduces Spur CD to 60s.

Lvl 58 - Enhanced Pet II - 20% chance that when pet crits it will restore MP equal to 10% of damage dealt.

Lvl 60 - Plague - Deals damage to enemies within 8 yalms of target. 50 Potency for each Bio, Miasma, Bio 2.
(AOE version of Fester.)

Conjurer White Mage/Conjurer traits

54 Hurricane -- 5% of every Aero or Aero II tick, next Stone III will be instant cast
58 Wind of the Mountain -- 25% chance of every Stone III cast, next Aero III will be instant cast
60 Remedy -- Esuna now removes two debuffs

52 Stone III -- Higher potency Stone II with longer casting time; best used with Hurricane Trait
58 Aero III -- 100 potency Wind attack with longer casting time, instantly removes both Aero and Aero II by the caster and inflicts that damage immediately; best when used with Wind of the Mountain.

55 Geyser -- Water attack throws targeted enemy up in the air and reduces enemity from that target by half; shares recast with Fluid Aura. Targets immune to knockback won't be thrown.
^ Possiblly Unlocked by new CNJ quest if there is one.

60 Serenity -- Allows Freecure and Overcure to proc 30% of the time and makes healing 30% potent when using Cure II and Cure III respectively. Stacks with Divine Seal.

White Mage

55 Penance -- 150 potency attack that heals all party members within 5 yalm of the targets for 250 potency. MND/INT swap of Cleric Stance(uses MND or INT, whichever is higher)
60 Revivance -- Raises target with 50% HP/MP/TP and no weakness; shares recast with Benediction

What I expect and/or would like to see:

WHM

Trait 1: Enhanced MND IV.
Trait 2: Maim and Mend III.
Ability 1: A reverse Provoke which lowers or raises your enmity to 1 below the highest on the table. Mainly for when Regen lasts longer than a fight and tank doesn't remove it or if Holy spam gets you attention.
Ability 2: Ability that makes your next SS/Regen/Cure/Cure II/Esuna AoE for increased MP cost (like 1.0s Sacred Prism). We have SSII now but this would allow AoE SS in combat.

SCH

Trait 1: Enhanced INT IV.
Trait 2: Maim and Mend III.
Ability 1: Libra! Perhaps an inverse of Eye for an Eye. Place it on the enemy and players hitting the enemy get a chance to reduce their damage taken. Can't stack with E4E. SCH absolutely needs Libra no matter the effect.
Ability 2: New pet: Lily. Lily is the base fairy (Selene/Eos are 2 aspects of her (Moonlight(Dusk)/Sunlight(Dawn)). She could be in charge of cleansing, pacifying and minor MP/TP restoral perhaps and be aspected of Twilight (vampires aside). As pets share the same cooldowns the cleanse could be on Embrace's CD, the pacify could be on Silent Dusk (Silence)/Whispering Dawn's (HoT) CD, the MP restoral could be on Fey Glow (SpS)/Covenant's (MDEF) and the TP restoral could be on Fey Light (SkS)/Illumination's (RHP). For continuity let's call them Caress, Pacifying Twilight, Fey Refreshment, and Fey Invigoration.

BRD

Trait 1: Enhanced DEX IV.
Trait 2: Increased Action Damage III.
Ability 1: Fighter's Minuet: Increase physical damage dealt by party (basically a physical Requiem).
Ability 2: Pianissimo: Lower songs radius as well as how much MP is used. Adds a bit of of strategy to your physical placement and allows songs to last longer in an emergency when BV may be down.

BLM

Trait 1: Enhanced INT IV.
Trait 2: Enhanced Surecast II: Allows you to move while casting your next spell.
Ability 1: Burst: AoE damage around your target which spreads your current target's Thunder to all hit (only spreads your own Thunder like Bane). Alternatively it would be nice to see Thunder II turned AoE and then allow Burst to be AoE damage that resets the timer on all target's Thunder and/or deals increased damage to targets with Thunder.
Ability 2: Elemental Seal: Force critical your next cast (would need a hefty recast and/or consume your current UI/AF).

SMN

Trait 1: Enhanced INT IV.
Trait 2: Maim and Mend III.
Ability 1: Summon IV: Leviathan.
Ability 2: Summon V: Shiva. (Yoshi mentioned these 2 plus Shiva will be in. He said he didn't know if Leviathan or Ramuh would appear first so I'm assuming he means that one or the other will come with Shiva.)

DRG

Trait 1: Enhanced STR IV.
Trait 2: Enhanced Exhilarate: Invigorate will restore 200 TP to party members within 6y.
Ability 1: Call Wyvern: Calls an enslaved wyvern to absorb one hit you would have taken and then disappears. Note that this wouldn't be an active pet of any sort; it would merely be a visual effect akin to BLM's UI/AF orbs.
Ability 2: Spirit Surge: Jumps/Dives will heal you. Stacks with Bloodbath and Life Surge. Alternatively it could make you impervious to damage for one Jump/Dive with a long recast.

MNK

Trait 1: Enhanced STR IV.
Trait 2: Fourth Wind: Second Wind restores more HP either directly or as an HoT. Maybe allow it to cleanse 1 debuff on yourself.
Ability 1: Hundred Fists: Auto-attack speed increased for a short while.
Ability 2: Chi Blast: Ranged attack.

NIN

Trait 1: Enhanced DEX IV.
Trait 2: Enhanced Perfect Dodge: Gives chance to counter-attack upon successful dodge.
Ability 1: Kakuremi: Places your enmity to last on the table for a short time. Enmity is still gained during this period and you are placed back to where you would have been after.
Ability 2: Healing Pill: Basically a Second Wind you can use on a party member (was a Ninja staple in the past).

WAR

Trait 1: Enhanced VIT IV.
Trait 2: Enhanced Fracture II: increase its DoT potency.
Ability 1: Double Attack: Deal 2 auto-attacks instead of one for a short time.
Ability 2: Defender: Reduces damage taken for a short time. Can't use abilities (can still use weapon skills) for a short time after. Inverse of Berserk essentially.

PLD

Trait 1: Enhanced VIT IV.
Trait 2: Enhanced Convalescence II: Applies the 30% bonus to the cures you cast on others (you still only get the 30% on yourself from Convalescence, not 60%).
Ability 1: Divine Emblem: Lets you use your current VIT and WD to determine your Healing Magic Potency and allows the casting of Raise in battle for a short time (or maybe a stance).
Ability 2: Chivalry: Convert some TP to MP. This could be as the third weapon skill in the combo or a standalone ability to facilitate the use of Cure alongside Flash (in conjunction with the above Divine Emblem).

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Originally Posted by MartaDemireux

What I expect and/or would like to see:

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Some good ideas there. PLD ability 2 seems superflous with riot blade doing basically the same thing ^_^ Would prefer a 2nd combo that doesnt generate enmity and adds a debuff that heals attackers hitting that mob for a small of amount of HP instead.

Maybe an improved cover "All enmity generated while it is active on the recipient is transferred to the caster"

MNK ones I like, especially the ranged as we have no abilities for disconects from the boss :) auto attack and TP regen increased? ;D Also we kinda have a hot with bloodbath cross classed ^_^ So I think self heals are fine. As my SW hits/crits for 1500/2300.

SCH, a fairy with AE cleanse, yes please XD

Another one for PLD, improved hallowed ground, now applies the shield before the animation :P

Knights of the Round ;)