Shadowbringers RDM Wishlist

[Archwizard]

At the risk of creating something arguably overpowered, I had some... thoughts about RDM, in response to both recent feedback I've been seeing and giving personally.

In addition to merging the buttons for Jolt/Impact, the Melee combo, the Verproc/Verfinishers, and removing the damage from Corps-a-Corps and Displacement:

Trait - Syphon:
Ripose, Zwerchau and Redoublement restore MP based on damage dealt.
Moulinet also reduces the remaining cooldown of Contre Sixte by 1.5 sec for each target struck; this effect is doubled if Enchanted.

Spell - Verscathe: (Instant)
Deals unaspected damage to the target with a potency of 120, and has a 50% chance to grant Dualcast.

Spell - Ardor: (2 sec cast)
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 50 to the target and all nearby enemies. All affected targets receive the Overheat status for 30 seconds, dealing unaspected damage over time with a potency of 30.
Your attacks against a target you have afflicted with Overheat have a 20% chance to grant Aether Saturation, upgrading Verthunder to Verfreeze and Veraero to Verflood, respectively.

Verfreeze: (5 sec cast) Deals ice damage to the target and nearby enemies, with a potency of 340 to the first target, 40% less to the second, and 60% less to all other targets.
Increases Black Mana by 11, and an additional 2 Black Mana for each target struck. Consumes Aether Saturation on cast. Does not grant Verfire Ready.

Verflood: (5 sec cast) Deals water damage to the target and nearby enemies, with a potency of 340 to the first target, 40% less to the second, and 60% less to all other targets.
Increases White Mana by 11, and an additional 2 White Mana for each target struck. Consumes Aether Saturation on cast. Does not grant Verstone Ready.

Ability - En Garde: (2 min CD)
Raise a barrier of swords, reducing incoming damage by 30% for up to 20 sec. While active, receiving damage has a chance relative to the amount of damage taken to reset the cooldown on Fleche. En Garde ends upon casting Fleche.

Trait - Equilibrium:
Performing any uninterrupted sequence of Verfire, Verthunder and Verfreeze in succession grants Verholy Ready.
Performing any uninterrupted sequence of Verstone, Veraero and Verflood in succession grants Verflare Ready.

All numbers are samples and all names subject to change. May particularly have to tweak Verflood/Verfreeze's mana gains since they don't proc Verstone/Verfire and only grant 2 more Mana than their downgrades in single-target.
(Of course if I cranked it up any higher I might worry about mana imbalance. Perhaps if each granted just a little of the other's mana too, it might be ok?)

Results:

• Making MP gain dependent on melee damage encourages using Enchanted melee to sustain the rotation, but also allows the use of unenchanted combos as a reliable (if minor) kickstart if we're full-out of MP.
• Verscathe acts as a BLM utility for casting on the go, counterpart to Vercure's purpose of granting us Dualcast without a target.
• Yes, I know, I added a DoT, but it wouldn't particularly be different if I just made Ardor a debuff without damage, aside from losing a place to put the damage from CaC and Disp back in. And as an AoE DoT like Aero III or Miasma II, we both resolve any issues of multidotting and allow it to proc Verflood/Verfreeze more reliably off of Scatter in multi-target scenarios.
• The CD reduction to Contre Sixte in addition to 3 spells used in both single- and multi-target means our AoE goes from 2 buttons and a semi-lengthy CD for a slow rotation, to 6 buttons and a rotation that picks up speed relative to crowd size.
• Why don't Verfreeze and Verflood proc Verfire and Verstone? Partly because proccing those would interfere with the AoE rotation; partly because the pairing would grant more mana than either Verfinisher; and mostly just to make the rotation more complex.
• En Garde presents a unique survivability skill befitting the job.
• With the addition of a means to cast Verholy/Verflare outside the Melee combo, we set the groundwork for more finishers to be added to the rotation later on. Bearing in mind that as the conditions of Equilibrium require 2 Longcasts (one of which grants no proc) and 1 Shortcast, realistically deploying it would require either good luck lining up procs, Swiftcast, or just plain giving up on a speedy melee combo -- and of course, the spontaneous gain of 21 mana helps to correct any mana imbalance from casting three spells of the same type in a row. All of this while still having to stay within a 30 Mana balance to avoid losing damage should create a subtly more complex rotation than just adding a new Verfinisher.