[Job idea] Dryad as healer

Hi, It's been about two month, now, I began to imaginate this job.
I want to share my creation with you.

All you need to know can be find on this Google sheet : Dryad job

But I will sum up a bit here :

- Dryad is a healer who dances and uses nature during battles.
- His/her attribute is agility ; melee/range (or mid-range) ; magic ; weapon --> vegetable whip.
- The job has two stances dance : one give heals with auto-attacks ; the other give heals after you (or teamates) took damages.
- He has four channeling dances (4 seasons theme) of support type. Four spells are reinforced under its own dance.
- Some abilities and one spell are buffed/tied to Sprint.
- Great mobility because two dash healing abilities + a good use of Sprint.
- HoT/DoTs a bit powerful than other healers, but shorter duration.
- Spells are weakers if not buffed with their dance.
- Along with AST concerning the mana managment.
- I consider it's more difficult to play and to master than other healers jobs.


I have shared this work with the french community before (i didn't get a lot of answers though, but they were positives).


I hope you will enjoy the Dryad job.
If you can leave a comment, it would be nice.


PS : from K4 to M7, there are some informations.

We see the work behind, the idea I like, good luck for the future!

Good work and idea. Good luck. +1

I would definitely switch my main to this! Love it!

Definetly seems interesting. I like it!

I like this better then the proposed chemist.

I like an idea. But I think dryad is more like a race than a job

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KuroShinra

I like an idea. But I think dryad is more like a race than a job

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Yeah, usually Dryad is a race, I understand your feeling.

Thanks for the compliments, all of you.

Currently, I am on a DPS job and a Tank job I wrote end 2016 and early 2017.
With Stormblood, I need to rearrange them to fit with the expansion.
The dps job name is Meteorologist ; the tank job name is Spacetime Soldier.
These two are pretty unique, I think you will like them too :)

This is a really good idea and looks very fun =) You can tell that you've put a lot of thought into it. +1

Since they are using dances why not just call it a Dancer. I mean you can change how they dance and why so thats not an issue.

Also, why are the skills not in level order, showcasing how the job evolves over time?

One major thing I will add now, is to remove sprint from your moves. It became clear with the release of SB that a jobs function and skills should be self contained, and not come from outside sources. If anything, have something like a Monks Fists (wind) for the additional movement speed.

I didn't want to use the name "Dancer" because it would have some restrictions tied to his actions, names actions, etc., or it's what I believe.

I know, organize my skills by levels it's a good thing in a way. But, for me, it's more complicated to understand the job quickly because every part (spells, abilities, dances, sprint actions...) are spread among 70 levels.
I remember when I tried AST level 30 in Heavensward, because it was not sort by category, I was lost.
But I understand, I got the same reply from a french player.
In the future, I will see if I can sort by level, or arrange it.

I don't agree for remove Sprint. I don't see why I couldn't use it.
To support my words, Ninja has his movement speed higher than other. None other jobs has a particularity like that.
So, it's the same for my Dryade and the Sprint.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ceasaria

I didn't want to use the name "Dancer" because it would have some restrictions tied to his actions, names actions, etc., or it's what I believe.

I know, organize my skills by levels it's a good thing in a way. But, for me, it's more complicated to understand the job quickly because every part (spells, abilities, dances, sprint actions...) are spread among 70 levels.
I remember when I tried AST level 30 in Heavensward, because it was not sort by category, I was lost.
But I understand, I got the same reply from a french player.
In the future, I will see if I can sort by level, or arrange it.

I don't agree for remove Sprint. I don't see why I couldn't use it.
To support my words, Ninja has his movement speed higher than other. None other jobs has a particularity like that.
So, it's the same for my Dryade and the Sprint.

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I can understand the notion of not wanting to use the title dancer, but as someone indicated, the name fits more with a race over a job, maybe something like Druid or words from the study of plants, Arborist, Dendrologer, or even a new take on Green Mage.

Organizing the skills in the order you get them help to visualize how the job evolves. It helps you fill in any weak spots and shows a player what thet can expect at certain levels. Yes when you start at higher levels sometimes the flow can be confusing since you get the skills all at once but the flow is still there. Its best to have it laid out by level then explain the finer points; since if the descriptions gave the correct bits of info, the finer points will be few.

Not to sound mean, but the support info you gave actually counts against you and supports what I suggested. Ninja has higher movement speed by default and a trait to reduce their fall damage, but these are all self contained. That's what you want self contained skills. Remember, they changed how sprit worked for the very reason you are suggesting.

The last thing I'll suggest is to try and punch up the names a bit. I know names like fire and ruin are so fancy, but a few touch ups here and there wouldn't hurt. Like instead of "Season" Dance, why not Spring Shuffle, Summer Samba, Autumn Acro, and Winter Waltz; it's got the alliteration factor too.

Also its not bad, but why do you have a move called Dance of the Azure Earth and one called Dance of the Green Flame? The color symbolism feels off, why not use Viridian, Jade, Celadon, or Chartreuse? Something that expresses green but in the same manner as azure expresses blue?

Sorry for the late response.

I totally agree with you for the the fact that Green Flame doesn't follow the color symbolism of Azure Earth. So I changed it for Jade Flame.
For the seasonal dances, I don't know really. It can be a good idea. I will do research later to see if I can find dances associated with seasons.
Because I want to keep my categorization of skills by theme, but I understand categorization by levels is also important, I decided to do them both.
For the story of Ninja, Sprint and cie, maybe we can take another approach and do like Red Mage with a trait level 1 which precise Dryade gain extra effect on his skills with Sprint and maybe improve the ability by giving it a new name ?

Anyway, thanks for your remarks ^^

Im with Eloah on the sprint collusion feeling clunky, and against the games general design.
As for the name, in the park of Dryad feels like a race not a title. Not to discard Dryad from it, what about having Dryads/Treants as a possible beast tribe and have their people present and run the quest chain for the class, maybe a small community of people decended from Sephriot's worshippers already described as Tree/Plant people. Possibility for the title change being Harbinger, a being who announces or heralds an upcoming thing, in this case seasons. We've always been tied to the primary races for jobs, might be a nice change of pace to have one come from the beastmen.
Now onto more point by point commentary.

Your seasonal dances aside from the previously mentioned unimaginative naming, for a character based on mobility, that is A LOT of locked in place channeling abilities. I would look into the SB Bard changes to their songs for something more gameplay interesting. You already have some collusion with abilities which leads into this avenue of thought a bit more. Given that it's half healer/half DPS on the split for bonuses maybe have em so they work on a 3 season rotation but the 4th allows more emergency planning or different rotations. So your looking at like 20D/60CD for all 4 or something to that effect. Maybe make Fall/Summer a dmg buff, Spring/Winter a healing recieved buff both in that passively up AoE standard of 3%. While each having a unique passive would be nice, from a gameplay perspective it gets muddy.

Jade Flame/Azure Earth what they do I like, but how they work seem muddled. Im in the camp for a healer that heals on hit or casts a buff that causes healing when hit for a duration (similar to SCH Excogitation but threshold be per hit for X hits as opposed to once at X%) which seems to be what Azure Earth is going for. All in all they feel more like they should modify an existing skill with those effects and give a passive benefit to the caster. Looking at AST Diurnal/Nocturnal before getting homogenized on the stances effect itself. Maybe have Jade Flame affect your instant casts and CDs while Azure Earth affects hard casts and channels in some way along with their self contained minor passives. Possibly bake the sprint bonuses into Jade Flames unique change. Maybe Azure Earth can be used to ignore channeling detriments aside from moving, i.e. cast while channeling, tho Id still say having a lot of moderate duration channels is still just an idea that wont work.

Charnel Embrace is just an all in one button of multiple role skills with a super shelltron. Needs to be replaced.

Touch Comforting, switch to Comforting Touch for English translation, I'm assuming that happened because I'm guessing French is your primary language. Onto a more important point here, I like HoTs and all but I'd say here's one of those spots to go for broke on Heal on Hit and Heal on Being Hit synergy with Jade Fire/Azure Earth stances. Boost it's duration more in line with WHM regen so it doesnt need that initial heal tacked on so 21-30s, and itll make for a very unique signature spell for the job.

Resurrection spell name change suggestion Flower > Perennial, implication of coming back from death or the brink being stronger in the latter, while keeping the very horticulturalist/botanist theme throughout the class.

Kiss of the Forest, despite the fact that I think it'll be deemed worthless really quickly like all no-touch CC in this game, I like it.

Pruina (sadly I had to look up the word first to get an idea of what it meant/possible missed translation), given it definition seems to fit in the "Winter" theme section of the class which seems to be the healing type AoE. I don't think magic dmg prevention focused Sacred Soil is going to work, note changes to DRK/PLD being made in regards to favoring Magical/Physical damage. Tho it falling into the space of Sacred Soil/Collective Unconcious/Asylum works. Good spot to leverage a large single hit reactive AoE heal in your kit.

Blossoming/Soaring Petals, names work abilities themselves don't return to drawing board. Too much of your kit as is relies on 10s every minute sprint. Thus why I suggested moving some of tjose effects into a stance choice like Jade Flame. Soaring Petals, in a nutshell, beyond broken OP, on just self or single target it lines up with Lightspeed from AST, with the group effect, broken. Imagine using that in a pile of BLMs on Fire IV rotation and youll get the idea. Using it for self/one target can probably get away with it, AoE tho, no.

Graceful Charge/Floral Fallout, seems interesting for a midrange melee healer, bit concerned how Graceful Charge will feel in practice. It may have some issues with being used on tanks, assuming their given a pretty long melee range, maybe if it charges just to the target being in range of your whip it'd work regardless. More thought on the matter may be necessary.

Myriade, intersting, could be a good place to make a sort of combo action focus or side effect initiator. CD would need a reduction tho possibly a spot to sneak in a TP requiring element, depending on frequency it may need to be super expensive, but more thought needed. If going the bard-like route this may be a nice spot to set off the bonuses from.

Seismic Slap, aside from feeling thematically a step out of line, it still feels like it has little place in the kit.

Growth, I'd almost have to actually go hands on with it to feel it out, but the possibility of being 1 spell or two may need to go. It also may have to change to work with any spell so heals or damage, but not abilities.

All in all I think its an interesting take on how to incorporate dancers thematics into something enough different to feel distinct. It mostly needs more time given to how it will play. Your current iteration feels clunky and punushing to me. See where you can go from here. Maybe my thoughts will be useful maybe you'll come up with some interesting changes from other commentators or think up some new ideas yourself to improve it.

Sorry for the very disorganized nature of my wall of texts, on an iPad and didn't work out my thoughts on paper first.

Well, I see that the name Dryade always annoys as much.
Personally with time, I got used to it. If necessary, I'll try to see what to replace it with. The problem is that the identity of my job is tied to the name and the idea of Dryad itself, and that replacing it would give a less exact identity.

I will be able to find alternative names, such as Green Mage mentioned by Eloah, or why not Green Dancer, Arborist, etc. Nevertheless, I am afraid of having to keep the original name, otherwise I will have to make several changes in the actions.

But for me, it's a page turned (I'm on other jobs), although I continue to take the advices into account to change what could be wrong/incorrect.
In any case, it is sure that I will pay attention in the future to the name that I will choose for my future jobs.

Regarding the opposition between mobility and seasonal dances, it is fully assumed. Firstly, seasonal dances have the distinction of delivering great animations (it's my desire). If you turn them into passive effects (like Bard), you lose all that.
Secondly, I do not want the job to be too mobile, otherwise it could take an advantage over other healers. But you see, even if these dances do not offer mobility, you can still use a spell, which avoids waiting stupidly (as with Collective Unconscious). In addition, this type of action is unique and original, and I really made sure that it is well thought out (the effects + the spell bound) without being penalized for the player. Your idea in my opinion is just a copy of the Bard (could work for another healer, but don’t want to see it in mine).

I do not see how Jade Flame / Azure Earth might seem confused. In general :
You take damage : Azure Earth.
Do not take it : Jade Flame.

What is strange is that you propose ideas for my dances that copy other jobs, but for Charnel Embrace on the other hand, you are not for a copy of a set of existing abilities.
Honestly, if I did that, it was to find an equivalent to the White Mage's Benediction. I tried to find what could best fit the job, and for now, although very classic, I am satisfied.

Thank you for correcting me for Comforting Touch, and Perennial suggestion.

For Pruina, we don’t have the same definition/explanation then. On french wikipedia : “ Pruinosity protects the plant from heat and external aggressions (parasite attacks). At a certain stage of ripening, it also prevents evaporation or, conversely, protects it from rain”. So I decided to do a kind of reduction/protect to help a bit. I know it’s not really strong, because protect is not the main thing of Dryade, so it’s intended.

For Graceful Charge, I would say it’s closer to the monk's charge but with a slower animation.

I don’t really understand your part on Myriade, sorry.

About Blossoming and the “10s every minute sprint”, I want to add, for the pull, you can have 20 sec Sprint, Seasonal Dances reduce the recast time of Sprint, and you have Blossoming to refresh the recast time. For me, it’s enough.
I don’t see the problem with Soaring Petals. Why can’t we have an ability more in favor of Casters ? I follow discussion on the forum, and clearly Casters are not the favored jobs of the game. I wanted to change that a bit, and give some unique (copy a bit Lightspeed of Ast right) utility for casters of the party.

For Seismic Slap, it’s Earth Element, and Slap is from the whip or the hit with the foot. Maybe, the name is too violent for this job. I will reconsider this.

For Growth, I don’t want it to be a healing boost because we have already Largess.
The idea of ​​this ability is to add a little interest to the dps of Dryad, that’s it.

Thank you for reading my work and for your suggestions/ideas.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ceasaria

1.Regarding the opposition between mobility and seasonal dances, it is fully assumed. Firstly, seasonal dances have the distinction of delivering great animations (it's my desire). If you turn them into passive effects (like Bard), you lose all that.

2.Secondly, I do not want the job to be too mobile, otherwise it could take an advantage over other healers. But you see, even if these dances do not offer mobility, you can still use a spell, which avoids waiting stupidly (as with Collective Unconscious). In addition, this type of action is unique and original, and I really made sure that it is well thought out (the effects + the spell bound) without being penalized for the player. Your idea in my opinion is just a copy of the Bard (could work for another healer, but don’t want to see it in mine).

3.I do not see how Jade Flame / Azure Earth might seem confused. In general :
You take damage : Azure Earth.
Do not take it : Jade Flame.

4.What is strange is that you propose ideas for my dances that copy other jobs, but for Charnel Embrace on the other hand, you are not for a copy of a set of existing abilities.
Honestly, if I did that, it was to find an equivalent to the White Mage's Benediction. I tried to find what could best fit the job, and for now, although very classic, I am satisfied.

5.Thank you for correcting me for Comforting Touch, and Perennial suggestion.

6.For Pruina, we don’t have the same definition/explanation then. On french wikipedia : “ Pruinosity protects the plant from heat and external aggressions (parasite attacks). At a certain stage of ripening, it also prevents evaporation or, conversely, protects it from rain”. So I decided to do a kind of reduction/protect to help a bit. I know it’s not really strong, because protect is not the main thing of Dryade, so it’s intended.

7.For Graceful Charge, I would say it’s closer to the monk's charge but with a slower animation.

8.I don’t really understand your part on Myriade, sorry.

9.About Blossoming and the “10s every minute sprint”, I want to add, for the pull, you can have 20 sec Sprint, Seasonal Dances reduce the recast time of Sprint, and you have Blossoming to refresh the recast time. For me, it’s enough.
10.I don’t see the problem with Soaring Petals. Why can’t we have an ability more in favor of Casters ? I follow discussion on the forum, and clearly Casters are not the favored jobs of the game. I wanted to change that a bit, and give some unique (copy a bit Lightspeed of Ast right) utility for casters of the party.

11.For Seismic Slap, it’s Earth Element, and Slap is from the whip or the hit with the foot. Maybe, the name is too violent for this job. I will reconsider this.

12.For Growth, I don’t want it to be a healing boost because we have already Largess.
The idea of ​​this ability is to add a little interest to the dps of Dryad, that’s it.

Thank you for reading my work and for your suggestions/ideas.

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1. Yes, it could cost some lengthy animations due to the change. Could still retain the some by having a different animation when a given spell is "in season" (couldn't help making that pun). But I would still say borrowing the underlying idea behind BRD's system would be more engarging.

2. The nature of being a melee healer requires a good chunk of mobility due to your base range being skewered in favor of the tanks and melee. While a decent group can reign the ranged characters in, but some mechanics will want that spread. Will having too many movement and spell restricting actions hinder its ability to function on par with the other healers? Will it cause a problem in dual Dryad groups? It's an important consideration point. And can this much disability survive in how current encounter mechanics work. Would it break it, not 100% sure, but imho it would detract people from using it.

3. What they do isn't the muddy point. How they do it is. Current wording suggests, simply by being in the stance the effect is in place non-stop. In the case of Azure Earth, its basically a 20% survivable damage recovery for no cost as long as the caster lives and stays in a generous range. In short its a TON of free healing with little to no inout from the player.

4. Charnel Embrace reads as blantant Hallowed Ground, Esuna Spam, and Rescue all in on button. Maybe I conveyed it poorly, I wasn't trying to say copy it over, but look at the core idea and see how it can be changed. In BRD songs case, core tenent is, rotating simple group buffs that permit an advanced effect or ability upon the successful meeting of a given condition, with the cause and effect altering based on current short term buff. Which in the case of your job concept, could be implemented in a way that is enjoyable to play.

5. Your welcome, if it improves or influences a different improvement everyone reading benefits.

6. Interesting, but opinion on the validity keeping of it being magic only in this state of the game?

7. Graceful Charge issue I was trying to get at was distance from target at end of animation. If a healer charges to a target, say the tank, things like cleaves and AoEs become serious issues. So after GC is the healer 5m from target, 10m from target, or within 1-2m of target.

8. Mostly relies on changing your seasonal dances into your job gauge manipulation abilities. And using Myriade as an activator with changing effects based on the season.

9. It is still basically having a huge chunk of your kit based around managing the CD of one just to have it up. To say nothing of making a general skill a core component of a job.

10. Soaring Petals being a cast time reduction, fine. Taking influence abilities like Lightspeed, Swiftcast, Triplecast, etc. taking that kind of reduction into AoE is the issue. Imagine an AoE ability that halved the recast time of weaponskills within a radius, it'd be broken. Giving this buff to a single BLM/SMN/RDM/WHM/SCH/AST it'd work fine, give it to potentially 8 casters, the sheer value of it is too large. Take note of nerfs given to AoE buffs over the course of 2 expansions.

11. On the name side the bigger issue was your core theme has been flora based then suddenly we have a plate tectonics spell. It felt out of place. Tho I still stand by it brings nothing to the kit.

12. To me Growth fit along side skills like Life Surge, Mirage Dive, Swiftcast, Third Eye, Hissatsu: Kaiten, Duality, Emergency Tactics and maybe others. The important aspect was the spell count as opposed to the effect.