Geomancer and Chemist - A Better Idea

[Vendalwind]

Chemist (CHM)

Ah, but I never said I had to convince you it’s not a healer, just that it would be a terrible healer in FF14. That, my friends, is a completely different beast.

I disagree. I think there are myriad ways it could be implemented as both unique and functional as I said above.

Chemist is best known for two particular abilities: enhancing the effectiveness of consumable items they use, and Mix, the ability to combine consumables for unique or more potent effects.

Technically there are 4 FFT games. My point? mix is not the best known move of the chemist/apothecary. Also if you include less cannon ff games FFBE has many chemist job characters. side note but you could say XVs magic was more similar to chemistry.

We’ll continue forward under the general assumption that, much as Bards and Machinists have functionally infinite ammo, Chemist wouldn’t actually be limited to effects related to consumables – although I would consider that the first nail in its coffin, considering the most basic and iconic element of the job would be entirely ignored in its creation.

As I suggested above i don't know that it would be. Consumables can exist in the form of charges. And i think having a healer that doesn't use MP but instead operates on a differently managed resource would be very interesting. And is the depth of development any new class should get anyways. I didn't say this at first cause I figured you might be able to connect the things i mentioned in my first post (charges and insta casts{which was why they occured to me}) with this part of your argument.

From what I’ve seen perusing the all-too-many threads suggesting Chemist, its main draws are thus:

• A non-magical healer that uses pharmaceutical science, and maybe even technology!
• A potion-throwing instant/non-MP healer!
• Use Mix to heal or buff allies!

And that is as far as 97% of those threads go with the design. You can literally make a drinking game out of these threads: just take a swig every time someone suggests implementing Mix as a variation on NIN Mudras, AST Cards or DNC Steps. Finish the bottle in the rare case they pull out cloning some other implemented job’s mechanic, rather than suggesting… anything remotely unique.

Using the fact that there hasn't been enough well thought out fan designs as an argument against the classes creation... doesn't really work. Just because no one has had the time to flesh it out doesn't mean it couldn't be done. in fact this thread is inspiring me to do so.

Here’s the thing: “A potion-throwing healer” is an aesthetic. It dictates the particle effects on your abilities and little else. An aesthetic alone is not enough to design or balance a job, but next to none of the threads that use the “Chemist = healer” buzzwords actually give any in-depth consideration on its gameplay; they mostly just seem to suggest Chemist for lack of a better idea on a fourth healer.
A fully instant or non-MP healing job would be wildly imbalanced, most likely overpowered.

Why would it be overpowered? or wildly imbalanced?
if implemented as I loosely suggested it would be more bursty sure but i mean WHM has Bene so..... But the whole thing is it would be more skill based. Nothing would be truly instant if every good heal had to be ground targeted. It would be skill based and there would still be some delay after dmg before a heal can go out, or learning of the fight to begin the cast pre-emptively.

A “non-magical” healing job would either have to facilitate the creation of a subcategory of Disciple of War with its own role actions and unique gearing from other healers or, more likely, just be coded as a magical healer anyway to use the same stats on gear, particularly with regards to fight mechanics that diminish healing effects or silence spellcasting.
Put those two in the coffin and you got… nothing.

Thats just plain false. Like said it would be realllllllly easy to just convert a few of the role abilities to fit with a trait as i suggested. and Mind/piety as a main stat group still makes complete sense for a chemist, especially when dealing with enchanted potions and things such as holy water.

ALSO silence is a non issue. Silence also turns off a bunch of melee class abilities. Silence in this game isn't really silence any more, its just a form of disabled. You could easily reason around this by having the apothecary need to trigger the effects of potions with a word or something. the point being: silence is a non issue.

Frankly the absolute lack of consideration towards implementation is their downfall, especially when players instantly assume it must be possible to balance such insanity, that it’s just not their job to balance their suggestions, and that such underwhelming suggestions are just as valid and deserving of consideration as more practical ones that did put the time and thought in.

Frankly your lack of confidence in the devs ability to create unique and functional content is insulting to me so...

The real kicker is, the devs have tried! Yoshi-P and Koji-Fox have each gone on record in interviews and Live Letters that they intended to implement Chemist as a gun-toting, potion-throwing healer with Heavensward. However, it was scrapped due to balance difficulties (particularly including Mix), which led to it being split into Machinist (gun-toting tech-xpert) and Astrologian (card “mixing” healer).

Look it up.

The above is a very fair analysis.

TL;DR:
Geomancer should be a Caster DPS, because WHM does healing better.
Your bottle-throwing acid trip would be better off as a Ranged DPS.

I agree btw completely with your analysis of geomancer. but i think there are a lot of flaws in your reasoning behind why chemist wouldn't work as a healer. And I also think bottle throwing as a dps mechanic would end up dumbed down to be either: A rather lame, or B stupid complex.