Time Mage, Geomancer, Dark Knight, Templar, Berserker proposals

[Duelle]

Got another one.
Astrologist

I'm not too keen on Astrologist as a job, seeing that they seem to be fairly common in Ishgard, and jobs tend to be long-forgotten disciplines.

Here's my take as well as the related jobs:

Class: Astrologist

By the decree of Ishgard's Holy See, the nation's decisions in its eternal battle against the dragonkin falls to the discoveries and research led by its astrologists. The fruits of their labors have yet to lead the theocracy wrong, and as such these men and women apply their trade in the reading and understanding of the stars, and thus, the fate surrounding their comrades and foes.
Using their knowledge of the stars as an interpretation of the past and possible futures, astrologists can sentence foes or save allies from danger. With enough training, these mages can even stave off death within their ranks while bringing certain doom to their enemies.

Weapons: Astrologists use armillary spheres (would have called it astrolabe but we already have a THM weapon bearing that name). Instant-cast spells would release a small light from the sphere, while casting animations should have the astrologist arrange the arrays on his sphere to show he is adjusting celestial arrays. When sheathed the spheres should have a protective cover (i'd recommend a collapsible outer shell).

Concept: A healer with a couple of DPS options for soloing.

Abilities
01 Banish: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 140. 2.5 second cast time.
02 Situla: Restores HP over time. Instant cast. 30 second duration.
04 Lesath: Delivers damage over time. 21 second duration. Instant cast.
06 Cujam: Delivers unaspected damage with a potency of 10. Inflicts target with 50% slow and 50% gravity. 12 second duration. Instant cast. 45 second cooldown.
08 Convergence: Reduces your magic attack potency by 70%, but allows your offensive spells to heal you and allies within 15 yalms for 100% of the damage dealt. 20-second duration. 5 minute cooldown.
10 Kornephoros: Delivers non-aspected damage over 6 seconds at increasing potency (40/80). 3 second cast time.
12 Pollux: Restores HP of target, and heals a party member with the least HP for 30% of the amount healed.
15 Dispel: Removes one status ailment from target ally.
18 Deneb: Restores 30% of target's MP over 15 seconds. 4 minute cooldown.
22 Banish II: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 100 and deals additional damage over time for 18 seconds. 3 second cast time.
26 Scutulum: Places a barrier on target that reduces damage taken per attack by 5% and heals target for X HP. Absorbs damage equal to 10% of target's max HP. 3 minute duration. Can only be active on one target.
30 Celestial Stasis: Stops the countdown of healing over time effects on target ally or damage over time effects on target enemy. 20 second duration. 3 minute cooldown.
34 Blink: Reduces enmity by 20%.
38 Mira: Restores own HP and that of nearby allies. Channeled over 6 seconds.
42 Bound by Fate: Creates a tether between target and one party member within 5 yalms. As long as the tether is active, damage is split between the two in a 70/30 split. Last 15 seconds or until damage equal to 25% of the target's max HP has been divided.
46 Delay: Absorbs damage up to 25% of the your max HP, then deals this damage over 18 seconds. Ignores Stoneskin-type effects.
50 Lavos: Target enemy receives damage over time for 9 seconds. On the 10th second, target explodes. DoT effect: 20 Potency. Explosion: 150 potency.

Traits
08 Expansive Mind I: Grants a X% bonus to INT or MND, whichever is highest.
14 Expansive Mind II: Grants an additional x% bonus to INT or MND, whichever is highest.
16 Enhanced Cujam: Cujam now also Disorients target.
20 Enhanced Convergence: Reduces Convergence's cooldown to 4 minutes.
24 Cup of Life: Pollux now heals two party members with the lowest HP.
28 Enhanced Kornephoros: Kornephoros now deals damage over 9 seconds at increasing potency (40/80/120).
32 Expansive Mind III: Grants an additional x% bonus to INT and MND, whichever is highest.
36 Enhanced Deneb: Deneb now restores 50% MP over 9 seconds when used on yourself.
42 Purge: Dispel can now be used on enemies to remove one beneficial status from them.
44 Aegis: Scutulum can now absorb damage equal to 15% of target's max HP.
48 Enhanced Blink: Blink reduces an additional 30% enmity over 6 seconds.

Notes
- As always, potency numbers and percentages can be tweaked and are very negotiable.
- This version of Astrologist is themed around delayed effects and a little more focused on healing. It would be more difficult to play with solo because you have to ensure you live long enough for your attacks do their thing. To give the class a way to defend itself, I felt the Banish line of spells was appropriate.
- Given this new theme, I wanted Convergence to be like Cleric Stance, but decided against it because it would probably lead to Time Mage using this to heal the group while also doing damage. I felt it worked better as a cooldown in case the party were to need extra healing while sacrificing a lot of damage potential.
- Expansive Mind is designed to help push the AST in their chosen direction. If the AST is gearing for MND then they'll get even more bonuses for MND to help them go into healing. If the AST is gearing for INT then expansive mind will do the same for INT. An alternative would be inflicting a penalty on the lower of the two stats and add this amount to the greater stat. This would reduce the chances of balance issues as the AST gains levels.
- The HoT effect from Situla is fairly weak.
- Dispel would start as an ally-only spell, but would become useful on AST and both of its jobs to remove enemy buffs.
- Bound by Fate is a mitigation cooldown. Of course, the downside is that the two targets involved would have to be close for it to work.
- Celestial Stasis literally stops the countdown of any HoT/DoT placed by you on the target. I originally wanted it to affect all HoTs/DoTs on the target, but then the synergy between AST/TIM/GRM and ACN/SMN/SCH would be ridiculous.
- As an example, if you placed Lesath, Banish II's DoT and Lavos on a mob then used Celestial Stasis, the countdowns on all three spells would stop while their effects would still continue. In the case of Lavos the DoT effect would continue and resume where it left off once CS wore off.
- Deneb is in an iffy spot. I wanted to give AST the ability to recharge the MP of one party member or themselves when called for. At the same time, I didn't want to create a refresh-whore scenario again, which is why I decided to give it a long cooldown so that it is used in times of need rather than something other casters would expect the AST to keep on them at all times. More like Innervate (from WoW) and less like Refresh.
- Scutulum would be taken into account AFTER other damage mitigation effects have been calculated. If a PLD with Rampart and Stoneskin on them receives the Scutulum effect, Scut's 5% damage reduction would apply after the hit in question being reduced by Rampart and being absorbed by Stoneskin. I'm not sure on whether the auto-heal effect should proc in the event you take no damage.
- The way Scut works is as follows: If you use it on a paladin with 6000 HP, untraited Scut will create a block threshold of 600 HP. Tank proceeds to eat a Mountain Buster from Titan that after Shield Oath+Rampart would do 2000 damage. Scut mitigates 5% of that, which is 100 HP (knocking MB's damage down to 1900). Now Scut's block threshold is 500 HP. If Titan were to break his rotation and do another Mountain Buster, that's another 100 HP mitigated and Scut's threshold is now 400 HP. Titan would have to do 4 more mountain busters in a row in order for that PLD to lose the Scutulum effect.
- Pollux is a smart heal. Because of its target limit, WHM would still have better AoE heals while AST/GRM would use Pollux to top people off where needed (might prove useful if the Siren's Song mechanic is ever used again).
- Disorient would be a new status effect where a mob's "controls" would be messed up for the duration. On a mob, they would try to wander around unable to do anything. On a player character movement controls would be rearranged (pressing up makes you go left, pressing down makes you go up, and so on). Think the mushroom effect from Earthbound. If that doesn't ring a bell, Wildstar is going to implement a status ailment of that nature. >.>
- Disorient, like other statuses, would also have diminishing returns.
- Delay is a self-preservation cooldown.
- As for some of the ability names: Cujam and Kornephoros are named after two stars in the constellation Heracles ("Club" and "Club-bearer", respectively). Situla is the water jar from the constellation Aquarius. Deneb is a star from the constellation Cygnus. Pollux is a star from the constellation Gemini. Mira is a star from the constellation Cetus (and part of the etymology for the word miracle). Lesath is a star from the constellation Scorpius. Lavos means "big fire". :O

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Job: Time Mage

As with the majority of forces in the world, time and space can be bent by the will of an individual with the right training. In ages past, such individuals existed within a coven known as the Followers of Althyk. Those with the right talent were inducted into the coven as Keepers of Time, or Time Mages, and were charged with ensuring right outcomes, futures and events played out on the stage of history.

It was not long until an ancient empire branded them as fiends when they allowed the heiress to their throne to perish. Not long after the scandals that followed, the coven mysteriously vanished from the face of Hydaelin, and has not been seen since.

Mechanics: Equipping the TIM crystal gives Banish and Banish II a 25% chance to double the potency of your next Kornephoros. Banish II's damage over time ticks have a 10% chance to make your next Gravity frontload its damage and apply its weight effect at full potency for the whole duration. It also reduces your MND (base value + any stat points allocated to MND) by 10% and increases your INT by half of the reduced amount.

Support Classes: ACN (Ruin, Eye for an Eye, Virus), THM (Thunder, Surecast, Swiftcast)

30 Stop: Prevents enemy from moving or acting. Effect breaks if enemy is attacked.
35 Gravity: Afflicts enemy with a weight effect that grows stronger over 6 seconds. Upon ending, target receives non-aspected damage with a potency of 200. 2.5 second cast time.
40 Slow: Slows enemy attack speed by 70% for 12 seconds.
45 Comet: Channeled spell. Channel spell for 6 seconds, causing comets to hit all enemies within a 10-yalm targetted area.
50 Hastega: Increases skill and spell speed of all allies by 80% for 24 seconds. Inflicts all recipients with Temporal Displacement, preventing them from receiving this effect for 7 minutes. 7-minute cooldown.

Time Mage Notes
- Stop joins Sleep and Repose under the "useful crowd control" category. While TIM cannot stop multiple enemies at once, Stop could be spammed to control multiple enemies.
- Here's how Gravity works: You cast Gravity on a mob, applying the unique debuff Gravity. Over six seconds the weight effect increases from 10% to 60%. As soon as the weight reaches its max potency, Gravity wears off and the target takes the damage. Think of a person being slowly burdened by heavy weights to the point they get crushed. Much like Kornephoros, Gravity is NOT affected by Celestial Stasis.
- Comet is there because we can't use Meteor. I guess the closest graphic comparison we have in-game is Starstorm (caster lv2 Limit Break), but taking place over 6 seconds as the Time Mage is channeling the spell.
- Temporal Displacement is there to prevent stacking Time Mages and chain-using Hastega.

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Job: Green Mage

Understanding the theory of aetheric manipulation beyond the bounds of the elements and the stars, ancient academics once possessed the ability to manipulate aether inside the bodies of living creatures, easing their pain while using the patient's own energies in the healing process.

As most of these exercises and theories were tested on flora and fauna, these self-professed "natural medics" were known to most as Green Mages. It was said that at the height of their art, a Green Mage once restored a forest from a desert wasteland with a single tree sappling and a handful of seeds.

Mechanics: Equipping the GRM crystal causes Situla to increases your spell speed by X% whenever it is active. It also reduces your INT (base value + stat points allocated to INT) by 10% and increases your MND by half of the reduced amount.

Support Classes: CNJ (Cure, Stoneskin, Protect, Cleric Stance), ACN (Eye for an Eye, Physic, Virus)

30 Stimulate: Restore target's HP. Greater healing potency if target is under the effect of Situla.
35 Renascence: Revives target ally in a weakened state.
40 Profusion: Infuse energy into a designated area, allowing any allies that step in it to recover HP over time. 12 second duration. 24 second cooldown.
45 Life Font: Marks an ally. Direct healing effects received by them place a healing over time effect on all nearby allies. 15 second duration. 60 second cooldown.
50 Meridian Ripple: Restores 30% of all allies' HP and removes one status ailments from each. 5-minute cooldown.

Green Mage Notes
- The increase to spell speed is meant to encourage a GRM to keep Situla up as much as possible.
- Yes, GRM gets its version of Raise at lv35. I figure if the devs were willing to make SCH wait until lv40 to be able to remove debuffs with Leeches, GRM can afford to wait until lv35 to be able to rez.
- GRM's healing abilities: a direct heal via Stimulate, a weak HoT via Situla, a smart heal with Pollux, (chanelled) group healing with Mira, and a healing zone with Profusion.
- Speaking of Stimulate, without Situla on the target Stimulate's potency is significantly reduced (I'm thinking probably 25-50% of what it can heal for if Situla were up on the target).
- Life Font is heavily inspired of Divine Veil, a 1.0 PLD ability that placed a HoT on people near the PLD whenever the PLD received a direct heal.
- Rather than being for low HP emergencies, Meridian Ripple would shine in situations where some HP needs to be recovered but with buff removal being more important.

[Little_Lulu]

I want Templar...(Lnc30/Cnj15) Functions as a 2 handed DPS with supportive skills for allies.

[Tzain]

I'm not too keen on Astrologist as a job, seeing that they seem to be fairly common in Ishgard, and jobs tend to be long-forgotten disciplines.

I name the design last. So I'm never tied to it. I decided to create something based around Thunderstorm procs rather than firestarter.

Plus, Paladins aren't long-forgotten, they're just rare because they didn't want Adventurers to join.

As for your Green Mage idea. The idea of stacking marks (sigils?) on a target could have some legs. Especially given a "stack and consume" mechanic. I actually think you'd be better off baking these into the Astrologist class and making it a pre-30 healer. Stack offense DOTs and consume for Burst, Stack Defensive Marks and Consume for Burst. Maybe a Consume for burst and also a consume for spreading? Like stacking Marks on the Tank and then move them from the Tank to all the rest of the group. Has a nice "Risk vs Reward" idea behind it and the timing works well with Cleric Stance (or something like it). Generally speaking though, don't use Max Range. It's just going to inflict pain on you. if you're spreading them around, make the healing range basically twice the range of Medica II if the point of spread is the tank, preferably though, base the spread range on yourself and match the range to Medica II.
Then at 30 you can split it into a DMG focused aspect and a Healer focused aspect, but both of the basics are all there in the class itself.

So the class might be 1-30 baseline dps/heals, 30-50 debuffs and utility. Then the Jobs take the heals and dps respectively and ramp them up?

All in all it feels a lot like how I played my Plant based healer in DCUO. I stacked the Regens and then consumed them for Burst healing. the difference there was, the regen was an aftereffect of the heal but given how FFXIV works, I don't think it's a problem.

EDIT: Oh, and for a weapon, how bout a sweet crystal ball? Bringing back the old school FF1!

[MartaDemireux]

.

I had actually meant for Piercing Talon to have enmity, lumping ranged properties in the direction requirements. Should have mentioned it specifically though, thanks.

I was hoping for Heavy Thrust to take the place of a stance, though, with my changes of adding enmity and damage mitigation. It'd be maintained through an enmity combo HT>Bonecrusher. I thought it would be more engaging to maintain your stance rather than a set it and forget it like Shield Oath. Since Heavy Thrust's direction bonus would now be in front of the target it would be able to have 100% uptime. But I do see the reasoning in needing an actual stance. If a combo has to be used to maintain enmity and a stance it makes the other attacks less likely to be used except in off tanking. Then if you have the 300p attacks off the tanking combo you could run into getting too much enmity too. I'll have to think on how I'd like to include one but thanks for the idea.

Blood for Blood in my idea does reverse the effects on TMP remember. Damage taken reduced by 25%, damage dealt reduced by 20%. A mini Shield Oath.

[MartaDemireux]

All right, gave it some thought and have made some considerable changes (as well as clarifications) to Templar:

Astra: Changed to level 30. Placed on GCD. Timers adjusted slightly, added MP Cost.
Discipline: Changed to level 35. Turned into the tanking stance. Reduced damage mitigation and Parrying Rate for 100% uptime, added Parrying Strength and enmity increases.
Faith: Changed to level 40. Removed Regen. Increased recast time to 180s.
Lifebreaker: Changed to level 45. Removed damage dealt added a Regen effect.
Bonecrusher: Changed to level 50 and from a weaponskill to a mitigation buff. This is the Templar's panic button so to speak. For 15s it counters the damage from auto-attacks and adds an 80% Parrying Rate increase which bumps them to 100% Parrying Rate under Discipline. Their Parrying Strength will also be bumped up to a flat 65%. With this they will only suffer 25% damage of the target's special attacks (weaponskills, abilities, magic etc.) under Discipline. Since it's not as powerful as Hallowed Ground I made it have a recast of 5min.
All "Thrust" abilities: Will have increased enmity. This will facilitate a 3 step combo for maintaining enmity and give minor enmity increase for offtanking with the lower DPS combo.
Reinstated positional requirements for other weaponskills sans Heavy Thrust.
Ring of Thorns: Added a Combo Bonus: Add.Effect: Increased enmity.
Piercing Talon: Specified the enmity increase.

With these changes in mind I gave Berserker another look with a fresh mind and decided on some changes for it as well:

Berserk: Changed name to Instinct. Derped on MRD having Berserk already. Greased Lightning (per stack): Increased damage mitigation from 5% to 8%, decreased evasion bonus from 7% to 5%. Attacks that change form to Coeurl will also give an enmity boost.
Mad Rush: Changed to level 35. Placed on GCD. Potency reduced to 110. This is the Berserker's pull.
Scream: Changed to level 40. Changed to Howl. Increases own maximum HP by 20% and nearby party members' HP by 5% for 45s. Recast of 240s. Forgot PGL had access to a GCD AoE Silence as well as a 40s stun. I'm thinking about changing the stun to GCD for Berserker but still undecided.
Eject: Changed to level 45. Recast reduced from 60s to 50s.
Hone Senses: Changed to Inner Calm. Removed critical hit rate buff and added an 80% evasion and critical evasion buff. Berserker needed a panic button of sorts. This allows them, with 3 GL stacks, to have a 95% evasion. Since there is still the chance of being struck by a hit I made the duration be longer with a 300s recast. Featherfoot cannot be used while this buff is active and this buff will overwrite it.
Given access to: Marauder's Berserk since it no longer stems from MRD.

[Duelle]

As for your Green Mage idea. The idea of stacking marks (sigils?) on a target could have some legs. Especially given a "stack and consume" mechanic.

That was the idea. You set up marks on allies then use convergence to detonate them. I was having a hard time figuring out what the detonate effects would be. Well, other than "bigger heal". For example, I was thinking Mira would be a HoT effect but if you detonate it it becomes a burst heal for the amount remaining in the HoT. It would make that aspect of healing reactive. Of course, the major hurdle is healing throughput and how it compares to WHM and SCH.

I actually think you'd be better off baking these into the Astrologist class and making it a pre-30 healer. Stack offense DOTs and consume for Burst, Stack Defensive Marks and Consume for Burst.

While I agree that we need another baseline healing class, we've yet to see how far the devs are willing to go in drawing a second job from CNJ, which is why I used a similar approach to what the devs took with ACN.

All in all it feels a lot like how I played my Plant based healer in DCUO. I stacked the Regens and then consumed them for Burst healing. the difference there was, the regen was an aftereffect of the heal but given how FFXIV works, I don't think it's a problem.

Mine was more inspired by resto druids, which is why I suggested Stimulate and its synergy with Mira/Alfirk (similar to how Nourish and Lifebloom synergize).

Oh, and for a weapon, how bout a sweet crystal ball?

Crystal balls imply divination, which the astrologists of Ishgard have already mentioned they have nothing to do with. Their carrying grimoires actually makes sense, but I would not want a class overlaping with arcanists. I would have suggested astrolabes but as I said, we already have a THM weapon bearing that name. A portable version of armillary spheres may work, IMO.

[Kitru]

Discipline: Changed to level 35. Turned into the tanking stance. Reduced damage mitigation and Parrying Rate for 100% uptime, added Parrying Strength and enmity increases.

That's Shield Oath with a further parry buff added to it, and one that is *way* in excess of what a Shield would provide. You'd be giving Templar explicitly higher mean mitigation than either WAR or PLD, assuming their CD suite isn't a joke (which it doesn't look like would happen).

Faith: Changed to level 40. Removed Regen. Increased recast time to 180s.

Having it last 60 seconds is just absurd, as far as CDs are concerned. It wouldn't be a useful CD because it doesn't provide enough burst mitigation and, as a mean mitigation improvement, it's just weird since it doesn't have 100% uptime. It's also increasing both eHP and mean mitigation thanks to the healing and hp buff; it could just as easily reduce damage taken by 9% and accomplish the exact same thing.

Bonecrusher: Changed to level 50 and from a weaponskill to a mitigation buff. This is the Templar's panic button so to speak. For 15s it counters the damage from auto-attacks and adds an 80% Parrying Rate increase which bumps them to 100% Parrying Rate under Discipline. Their Parrying Strength will also be bumped up to a flat 65%. With this they will only suffer 25% damage of the target's special attacks (weaponskills, abilities, magic etc.) under Discipline. Since it's not as powerful as Hallowed Ground I made it have a recast of 5min.

Increasing Parry value *to* a certain value instead of *by* a certain value is both weird and would diminish in value as gear progressed, since STR would increase but the comparative value of it with this buff would not. It's not a *major* concern; it's just *weird*.

Berserk: Changed name to Instinct. Derped on MRD having Berserk already. Greased Lightning (per stack): Increased damage mitigation from 5% to 8%, decreased evasion bonus from 7% to 5%. Attacks that change form to Coeurl will also give an enmity boost.

You're doing it wrong. The class would need to have a multiplier to Defense, not straight up damage reduction, because the two scale differently: this would start off strong but, as gear progresses, they'd fall behind. On top of that, you're providing an *insane* increase to eHP thanks to the flat damage reduction. The changes needed for Berserker were an 80% buff to Def and mDef, a roughly 25% increase to eHP, and a ~20% reduction in required healing. Also, getting rid of the 15% speed increase that Greased Lightning provides reduces their enmity *and* damage even more than removing the 22.5% damage buff already does.

It's for all of these reasons that I suggested ~30% increase to hp (to make up for relying upon evasion, it should be slightly stronger) as a passive benefit (which there *needs* to be), changing *only* the damage directly into evasion for 22.5% increase in mean mitigation at the cost of *only* 22.5% increase in damage (since we're not touching the attack speed), and adding the 80% increase to def and mdef so that those attributes scale properly.

Featherfoot cannot be used while this buff is active and this buff will overwrite it.

I don't really see a reason to include this. It's a 5 minute panic button. Allow for Featherfoot would allow the play to elect to have either 95% evasion so that you're *almost* untouchable or layer the two together so that you are *completely* untouchable. Given how panic buttons tend to be used when absolutely everything else is down, it's a reasonable trade off and allows for some synergy and, most importantly, *reliability*, which is in short supply for an evasion tank but very important for tanking in general.

[Tzain]

That was the idea. You set up marks on allies then use convergence to detonate them. I was having a hard time figuring out what the detonate effects would be. Well, other than "bigger heal". For example, I was thinking Mira would be a HoT effect but if you detonate it it becomes a burst heal for the amount remaining in the HoT. It would make that aspect of healing reactive. Of course, the major hurdle is healing throughput and how it compares to WHM and SCH.
.

I'm gonna toss out some fake numbers for comparison to white mage.
Regen is 150 potency, Cure is 400, Cure II is 650, Cure III is...LOL@CureIII.
If Mira is a stacking HOT of 100 potency, 2 beats a Regen and 5 beats Cure I spam, 7 beats a cure II spam, but that *might* be overkill. (I'm assuming maim/mend trait is present on both, I'm also not including Cure III because it's currently useless.)
If you have a trigger spell that detonates the single target HOT stack into a Group heal, then a 3 stack = Medica spam and a 4 = Medica II spam (assuming you'd get 2 ticks of regen from the medica II effect). I might even suggest having the detonate spread HALF the consumed HoT stack to all other group members (rounded up) just to keep it somewhat balanced.


I wouldn't worry about matching power with a white mage. This mechanic is frankly able to blow them out of the water once the stack hits 4 or 5. The problem is that the Green Mage has to ramp up, which is exactly what you would expect. I'd also avoid giving them any shielding outside of cross class Eye for an Eye and Stone Skin. Shielding + regen is basically the healing holy grail, which is fine IF it takes 2 healers to pull it off. (See: Scholar/White Mage Synergy)

In fact, I think the burst detonation is utterly overkill. If anything, you're going to need burst at the START of the encounter. So you'd need ways to ramp up the stack. A 5 minute cooldown instant 5 stack for a single target would cover the need pretty nicely, adjust the cooldown as needed for balance and could be used in conjunction with the Group detonation. Of course, one well placed BLM Sleep would basically have the same effect as far as buying you time to get ramped up, so the cooldown isn't something that needs to be used EVERY pull. Once a tank realizes that the early part is THE most dangerous part, Mitigation cooldown usage should match up and work it all out.

A lack of Burst also adds some Green/white Synergy, Because if there is one thing a White Mage can do, it's burst some HP, so if Burst is the Green Mage weakness, the White Mage bringing Granite skin and Burst heals is a heck of a team.

Now mix that with some offensive debuffs to decrease the damage output of the enemy and some stance dancing for DOTs and you're gonna be one busy busy caster (in a good way). Which is why I mentioned going 1-30 HOT/DOT and 30-50 debuff for the class itself. Then sticking some of the advanced stuff (like the insta-stack) into the job.

If anything, you're going to need to fill slots rather than struggling to find enough places. And that's a really good place to be on a design.

Cheers.

[Duelle]

Before I reply, some more notes:

- Up to 3 Green Mage marks can be stacked on one target. Be it the same or different marks.
- Convergence detonates the marks and affect only the marked target.
- Divergence detonates the marks and affect the marked target and all mobs/allies near it at half power.
- Effectively, if you're gonna burst heal the tank you'll be stacking up Mira to mitigate the damage the tank is taking, but if the tank gets crit or something else happens you can detonate your three stacks for a burst heal.
- Alfirk is in an odd spot because I do know healers need an instant heal as well as HoTs. My idea for it was originally a group heal that marks you primary target but heals everyone for a bit HP, then when detonated heals the group for even more HP. I chose to make it into a single-target heal that marks the target because then I remembered I gave AST Divergence.
- To ensure your 18-second duration marks don't fall off, you can use Stimulate to refresh their duration. Stimulate's heal effect would be minor even at max stacks.
- Asterism would be a shortcut to quickly stacking three marks. I did neglect to mention that a GRM's marks are affected by Asterism.
- Aside from healing output, I am concerned with how fast a GRM would be able to get their stuff set up. With healing aggro working the way it does, you can't even pre-HoT a tank before the pull because it'll mess up positioning as the tank tries to establish hate. This means a GRM would have to wait until after the pull in order to start setting things up, needing at least 8 seconds to ramp up their stacks on one target.
- I was thinking of changing Divergence into an ability that spreads marks to other mobs/allies (this would affect AST, TIM and GRM). Problem is that I think it would run into the Living Bomb problem of requiring a target limit in order to not be OP. Not to mention that since Convergence is single target, the GRM would have to target-swap like crazy to make sure they're getting the most out of their stacks.

If Mira is a stacking HOT of 100 potency, 2 beats a Regen and 5 beats Cure I spam, 7 beats a cure II spam, but that *might* be overkill.

So given the 3-stack limit, using only that one mark would put GRM behind a Cure 1-spamming WHM.

The problem is that the Green Mage has to ramp up, which is exactly what you would expect. I'd also avoid giving them any shielding outside of cross class Eye for an Eye and Stone Skin. Shielding + regen is basically the healing holy grail, which is fine IF it takes 2 healers to pull it off. (See: Scholar/White Mage Synergy)

Agreed. Damage shields were the furthes thing from my mind when I was typing up my suggestion.

In fact, I think the burst detonation is utterly overkill. If anything, you're going to need burst at the START of the encounter.

I was using the reasoning behind how Wrath stacks work for WAR. You built up, maintain/hold on to stacks until you need them, then have to build up stacks when you use them up. The only difference is that a GRM can refresh their stacks at will. As far as for why GRM needs some burst, it's because they also need to be able to solo heal 4-man dungeons, and an entirely HoT-reliant healer wouldn't be able to do much. Even SCH has some direct heals (granted, they do come from Eos). WHM would still have the advantage of not needing ramp up to get their burst heals out, which I felt was a decent trade-off.

Now mix that with some offensive debuffs to decrease the damage output of the enemy and some stance dancing for DOTs and you're gonna be one busy busy caster (in a good way). Which is why I mentioned going 1-30 HOT/DOT and 30-50 debuff for the class itself. Then sticking some of the advanced stuff (like the insta-stack) into the job.

I'm iffy on too much utility seeing that the current design doesn't have a lot of debuffs per se. Melee DPS's debuffs are situational for the most part. BLM has Sleep and Lethargy, SMN has Virus. In the case of AST/TIM/GRN, you have Dispel, Wezen (Bind) and Cujam (Aoe Stun).

It's not like the current classes have a ton of debuffs to go around, and I wanted to stay within those guidelines.

[Toranja]

Wouldn't MRD be a better base class for DRK? They already get HP drain attacks and use a two handed weapon. Just a thought.

Yes, it is.