My concept for Ultimate Skills in FFXIV WIP

Please keep in mind that this is a WORK IN PROGRESS, what is written here is not represented of the final Idea.
Ultimate skills Are powerful (where normal skills are concerned) And Flashy skills that Can only be used sparsely And when certain conditions are met.
Potency: 400
Caster potency: 200 per target
Cooldown: 5-10 minute GCD shared for ALL Ultimate skills
Cast time: 30 sec-2 minutes
Ultimate gauge(?): use a charge skill to channel 100% Max MP into gauge (If, for example, you have 9000 max MP you must channel 9000 MP into the gauge to fill it completely even if you have under 9000 at the time, Example: If you have Max MP of 9000 but only have 6000 when you start channeling you would still need yo channel 3000 MP in order to fill the gauge completely), will be immobile or unable to use other skills until charge is complete or MP is fully drained, using other skill will cancel charge. Whether or not you lose gauge when you break channel is unknown.
Multiple Ultimate's: if one is used the rest will get locked by UGCD (Ultimate Global Cooldown)

Please let me know what you think. I want this to be usable but not abuse-able, useful but not broken.

So... limit breaks?

In a sense. The major difference is that Ultimate Skills are Significantly weaker than a limit break but stronger than your normal skills, As well as there are more than one unique Skill per job, rather than how the LB1&2 are shared among role types. With this you can choose one (of how many ultimate skills you have) to use per Cool down.

400 potency single-target or 200 potency AoE for a 30 second cast time? Unless I'm reading your post wrong, this idea is hopelessly underpowered for something called an "Ultimate Skill". 400 potency on a 30 second cast time puts it at a PPS (Potency Per Second) of 13.33~. To put that in comparison, BLM's Blizzard I hits for 180 potency with a 2.5 second cast time, giving it a base PPS of 72. My Blizzard I already has over 5x the PPS while being 12x faster to cast.

Also your potency choices + Cast time makes it dead weight for all DPS/Tank jobs.

• PLD can use Goring Blade, which does more damage after 12 seconds. Royal Authority does 455 when used with Fight Or Flight.

• MNK can use Tornado Kick, which does about 445.5 potency with GL3 and Fists of Fire.

• WAR can use Fell Cleave, which does ~660 potency (math may be wrong) with Maim and Storm's Eye up.

• DRG can use Life Surge every 50 seconds on any of their combo finishers for better potency. ( ~680 for Full Thrust, ~550 for Wheeling Thrust & Fang And Claw. All three have Heavy Thrust)

• NIN can use a Kassatu'd Raiton every minute or use Duality on Aeolian Edge every 90 seconds. Shadow Fang also does more damage after 15 seconds of uptime.

• DRK can use Dark Arts + Carve And Spit every minute or Dark Arts + Souleater.

• BRD can just combine Rain of Death and Wide Volley for more potency assuming it uses the caster version of your idea.

• MCH can use Grenado Shot or Spread Shot twice.

• BLM can cast Fire II twice with the upside of not spending ALL of your mana.

• SMN can cast Painflare for 200 potency and DeathFlare for double that. Also Bane with all Bio II, Miasma, and Bio will do the same at 6 seconds and beats it after that.

This idea needs a massive overhaul or it's only going to be used as an opener.

I Grossly undershot it so that I could have a base to work off of. Better that than to go full 1K Potency with a shorter Cast/Cool-down time And make people look away, by starting out this low I hope to Have people suggest what would work best in terms of Potency and cast/cool-down time. Suffice it to say this isn't what I would want it to be, however I did not want to propose something that would be broken and make people dismiss this as another player seeking to have an overpowered System added into the game. Anyway I'll just be spinning my wheels if I keep going, I do hope to Keep this discussion going so we can tweak this into being something reasonable with the base Idea that I have written currently.

So once again, you just come back to having a limit break with another name.

I suppose. Granted I want this to be Viable, but not broken, for Solo use. With the way the party LB system works it would understandably be difficult to bring that into the Solo player, seeing as they would have to tweak an already existing system with it now having two uses. And the Adrenaline Rush system is close but from what I've read the gauge fills to fast to be balanced, And again they would have to tweak an already existing system which would probably cause problems with the code. This is merely another version of that which is made specifically for the player(s) who are not in a party or a full/light party. This would also give each player A strong attack to use at their own discretion without having to worry about wasting the LB gauge.

I'd rather players have individual limit breaks(like a actual FF game who would have figured) instead of the party sharing nonsense. PvP already does it with a Adrenaline gauge.

The Problem With The Adrenaline System is that the gauge fills to fast, Plus it has the Potency of an LB1. If anything I would want to expand upon that and Make it interesting for players and give them the option as to which skill they wish to use.

The base idea of self ultimate skill can be interesting, but I'd also see this as a revamped LB system.

But, on top of that, it would be fun to bring back "Skillchains" but for those limit breaks with new animations.
You'd need two healers LB at the same time to Raise everybody, two tank LB to reduce damage by 50%, etc...

You could have a MNK kicking the BLM meteor like a Blitzball ! :D

Skillchains sound cool but the matter of implementing them would be kind-of a pain to code. I would still love to see the Ultimate Skill system implemented.

The Main idea behind the original post is to use that as a base template for what the Ultimate skills can do in terms of Potency, Cool Down, and Cast Time. With this being a system I would much like to be implemented I would much love to hear what (using the template in the original post(not the numbers mind but the rest)) you all would Suggest for each role, and to a larger extent jobs, So Please tell me what would seem balanced to you. For references sake I'll re-post the Template here, I hope to hear what you all come up with.
Potency:
Caster potency:
Cooldown: GCD shared for ALL Ultimate skills
Cast time:
The Ultimate Gauge, if something that you all think would be useful, should be fine as is originally stated int he original post, however should you wish to tweak it then feel free.

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Originally Posted by XiroGear

In a sense. The major difference is that Ultimate Skills are Significantly weaker than a limit break but stronger than your normal skills, As well as there are more than one unique Skill per job, rather than how the LB1&2 are shared among role types. With this you can choose one (of how many ultimate skills you have) to use per Cool down.

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Most jobs already has a long cooldown "super ability" learned at level 50.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

Most jobs already has a long cooldown "super ability" learned at level 50.

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They're also significantly more attuned to the job's role and/or mechanics than a generic high-potency super move. The only real exceptions I can think of are Monk's and Machinist's. And the only one with a cast time is...like, Flare, which makes up for it by being on the GCD.

This is a System that is meant to give a boost to DPS and/or survivability that would otherwise make no sense with the current Skill system, not to mention the potency would be much higher than the aforementioned "generic high-potency super move" as in there would be more than one Ultimate and not all Ults are attacks, some are supports and others Disabilities. This is meant to be more of a "desperation System" Used Sparingly but having effects that more than make up for the long recast time.

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Originally Posted by Reynhart

The base idea of self ultimate skill can be interesting, but I'd also see this as a revamped LB system.

But, on top of that, it would be fun to bring back "Skillchains" but for those limit breaks with new animations.
You'd need two healers LB at the same time to Raise everybody, two tank LB to reduce damage by 50%, etc...

You could have a MNK kicking the BLM meteor like a Blitzball ! :D

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Someone beat me to it. In fairness, I was just going to say a DRG riding in on a meteor though. Kicking it is better.

It'd take a fair bit of rework to make Skillchains applicable here, especially without negatively affecting the gameflows we already have, but it's by no means impossible, and I think they would add more choice and aesthetic than these extra and kind of wimpy LBs.

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Originally Posted by XiroGear

This is a System that is meant to give a boost to DPS and/or survivability that would otherwise make no sense with the current Skill system, not to mention the potency would be much higher than the aforementioned "generic high-potency super move" as in there would be more than one Ultimate and not all Ults are attacks, some are supports and others Disabilities. This is meant to be more of a "desperation System" Used Sparingly but having effects that more than make up for the long recast time.

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So... once more... limit breaks, only with another name.

What you want to add is pointless. Most class already have some form of signature 'ultimate' ability as it is, and if you think that's not flashy enough, then you have your limit breaks. There is no missing role in between the two that needs to be filled.

What would be a fitting ultimate skill for Warrior? Why, the ability to max out their stacks of Wrath/Abandon instantly. Wait a minute, they already get that, it's Infuriate!
What would be a fitting ultimate skill for Paladain? How about some super powerful protection ability? Holy cow, they already have that in Hallowed Ground!
How about Monk, what could they possibly use for an ultimate ability? Maybe something that allowed them to freely move through forms in order to maximize DPS... something like... wait... Perfect Balance!
Or Dragoon, one of the coolest classes, definitely needs one of the coolest ultimates. How about some big flashy AoE damage bursty move, something like Dragonfire Dive!
Bard would probably want something to emphasize the other tools in its kit. How about something that really brings out the effects of it's support abilities? Wait, we already have that in Battle Voice!
Okay, but what about White Mage? Their ultimate skill would probably be some really big clutch heal, something raid-saving like, just like... wait for it... Benediction!
Now Black Mage is all about big, flashy explosions, so it's ultimate had better be some big, flashy explosion. But wait a minute, don't they already have that in Flare? Oh yeah, they definitely have that in Flare!
Summoner would probably want something that allowed them to execute one big super ability with their pet, just like Enkindle!
Scholar would probably need a big flashy heal, just like White Mage. Something with a cool spammable gimmick like Lustrate!
Since Ninja is all about ninjutsu magic, having the ability to reset its timer and buff the next spell would be pretty freaking badass. Something just like Kassatsu would be really sweet!

...see where this is going?

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Originally Posted by Kiteless

So... once more... limit breaks, only with another name.

What you want to add is pointless. Most class already have some form of signature 'ultimate' ability as it is, and if you think that's not flashy enough, then you have your limit breaks. There is no missing role in between the two that needs to be filled.

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I don't think the idea is completely without merit. You say there's no missing role in between but I feel there is. I'm not super acquainted with FFXI in its hayday, but one aspect I felt that the game had was a level of restraint when it came to a characters' full potential and it was at the player's discretion to unleash that potential partially or wholly depending on the situation at the cost of having limited access to that full potential. In FFXIV, it just feels like access to that full potential isn't at your discretion or moreso since its so readily available, it's your job to utilize all your potential at its maximum calculated value. Just as the OP's suggestion was thus calculated to determine it's overall additional potential rather than it's utility or support for the situation at hand.

As the OP was originally suggested, if the whole charging mechanic could be done outside of combat, I could see its use being not a supplemental DPS but as a clutch DPS burst if needed and access would be limited (so for the DPS roles, pretty much a personal limit break) but then perhaps the usage, limiting factors and player interaction could then bring the suggestion into a new realm in interest for the game.

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Originally Posted by Kiteless

What would be a fitting ultimate skill for Warrior? Why, the ability to max out their stacks of Wrath/Abandon instantly. Wait a minute, they already get that, it's Infuriate!
What would be a fitting ultimate skill for Paladain? How about some super powerful protection ability? Holy cow, they already have that in Hallowed Ground!
How about Monk, what could they possibly use for an ultimate ability? Maybe something that allowed them to freely move through forms in order to maximize DPS... something like... wait... Perfect Balance!
Or Dragoon, one of the coolest classes, definitely needs one of the coolest ultimates. How about some big flashy AoE damage bursty move, something like Dragonfire Dive!
Bard would probably want something to emphasize the other tools in its kit. How about something that really brings out the effects of it's support abilities? Wait, we already have that in Battle Voice!
Okay, but what about White Mage? Their ultimate skill would probably be some really big clutch heal, something raid-saving like, just like... wait for it... Benediction!
Now Black Mage is all about big, flashy explosions, so it's ultimate had better be some big, flashy explosion. But wait a minute, don't they already have that in Flare? Oh yeah, they definitely have that in Flare!
Summoner would probably want something that allowed them to execute one big super ability with their pet, just like Enkindle!
Scholar would probably need a big flashy heal, just like White Mage. Something with a cool spammable gimmick like Lustrate!
Since Ninja is all about ninjutsu magic, having the ability to reset its timer and buff the next spell would be pretty freaking badass. Something just like Kassatsu would be really sweet!

...see where this is going?

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Nice job with the strawman there, but I think it's possible to come up with new ideas without trying to hammer in the message "Don't just copy what we already have". That's rather a given.

I can only speak from the perspective of Black Mage since that is the only high level job I have, but when it comes to super moves, I like and hate Flare (like the limiting factor of MP requiring me to use more of my abilities utilize Flare properly) and it annoys me that Freeze is comparatively useless and that the lightning equivalent, Burst, does not exist. If a new charged super-ultimate ability could be created for Black Mage, there are a lot of possibilities. It could even go an alternate route and give each role a "hybrid" ultimate that gives your class limited cross-role capabilities in a pinch. I'd enjoy being able to support my healer or tank better in a pinch with Apocatastasis + some charged limited-access barrier of some kind that could grant a shield to someone that would require my MP to maintain (requiring Umbral Ice) and if you reach 0 MP the shield breaks.

So that covers possible usage and limiting factor (although for either, there's obviously more room for discussion) but what about player interaction?

One main one that popped in my head that as I was reading the thread is choice and customization. Having only 1 option like current limit breaks is boring. But what if an Ultimate move was a choice you could pick from a book of ultimate moves and you'd be limited to that 1 unless you go through extra respec methods to choose and build up a different choice? Beyond that, someone mentioned skill chains and that could be an interesting.

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Originally Posted by Leogun

As the OP was originally suggested, if the whole charging mechanic could be done outside of combat, I could see its use being not a supplemental DPS but as a clutch DPS burst if needed and access would be limited (so for the DPS roles, pretty much a personal limit break) but then perhaps the usage, limiting factors and player interaction could then bring the suggestion into a new realm in interest for the game.

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THANK YOU!