Minor Idea: Make Art of War ranged

[ForsakenRoe]

WHM and AST have a dichotomy - both have a casted AOE filler spell. WHM's is centered on the WHM, AST's is centered on a given target.

SCH and SGE do not - both of them have a spell that is point blank AOE centered on the caster, that is also instant cast. For those keeping score, they ALSO have the same MP cost (400) and nearly identical Potencies (180 for SCH, 170 for SGE)

ONE OF THEM should probably be a ranged spell.

The reason I say Art of War over Dyskrasia is that SGE is already designed for near-melee range combat. Plgema requires it (6y range), and Pneuma somewhat does (aiming its line AOE through the enemy pack and not being at the end of its range before it hits all enemies), as well as Kerachole being centered on the SGE meaning the SGE needs to be somewhat near the center of the party.

Contrast SCH, which has no other melee range abilities, and unlike SGE, can use Sacred Soil at range as well as any Eos based abilities by using Place with Eos and sending her into the melee on your behalf.

Indom/Expedient be like:



Anyway, technically the abberation here is AST. For the same reason as you say 'SGE wants to be melee because of Kerachole' (this also applies to Physis Holos Ixochole Panhaima Pepsis if you ever use it), AST wants to be close for CO, CU, Horoscope, Divination. Just because one of the healers has a skill that lets it do damage from several yards away, does not mean it should BE several yards away. We've got enough issues with BRDs and the like standing in Narnia, we don't need the healers to be in 'the other side of Narnia'

Also Sage's autos are worse than scholar's. If anything I'd have sage as the one with a ranged aoe

I mean, it's already got Toxicon, does it really need a second, spammable one that has the same targetting/damage profile as that? In which case, what is Toxicon's purpose? The damage scaling on Tox (the 50% falloff) makes them almost identical in their damage output, with Tox remaining a tiny amount ahead up until like 11 targets. Might as well just delete Dyskrasia, make Toxicon the AOE spell

Oh wait now Addersting has no purpose. Oh wait, now we've accidentally made Dosis pointless because Tox is equal potency and instant cast meaning even more leeway for doing mechanics. Etc Etc, it's a rabbit hole of stuff that would have to be reworked to fix the issues that the previous skill reworking opened up. And once you've reworked these two points, chances are something else now needs reworking

Personally, I'd like to see healer autos either reduced to 1 like BLM or make caster autos ranged with INT/MND scaling. Do we want caster/healer autos to be a thing, or not?

Make them do 1 or 0 damage, or just disable them entirely. Don't make them scale on INT, if you do you'll have parsehounds trying to find ways to greed melee uptime and potentially causing issues because of it, we don't need the ARR booksmack era back

If any, I think it's SGE who should get something different. It's -laser-, why not let them have an 8y frontal-cone/10-12y line AoE instead? Why does everything has to be circle(s)? Imo this subtle difference is just enough to make me remember that I'm playing SGE during trash pulls (standing next to the group of mobs), not a SCH. (trying to plant myself where the tank is)

It has Dyskrasia (circle on you), Toxicon (circle on enemy), Phlegma (circle on enemy) and I guess Pneuma (line from you to enemy). Whole lot of circles. Why couldn't it be lines? Terminus Est style fire cross in front of you, MCH LB3 style 'point at floor, arc upwards to raze in front of the SGE' style, etc, many options for Line AOE skills when you have 'lasers' as the aesthetic. When I first saw SGE I had a dream, that it's Medica equivalent was a wide Line AOE in the direction it was facing (think Asylum width), so which way you faced was an actual gameplay factor