For those who main/semi-main a DPS (e.g. DNC, RDM) but like Healers...

[Shurrikhan]

In fact, it's 'inspiration'/older brother, Holy Priest, does exactly this, with Holy Words lowering CDs on things so there's interplay. Akin to 'Casting Stone or Holy advances the CD on Assize by 1 second' in our terms.

I never really understood this Holy Priest <-> White Mage connection, at least since Stormblood. I wouldn't mind seeing a WHM that takes cues from Holy Priest, wherein it'd actually have some CDR-affected GCD nukes (that are proper nukes and not just free of MP, cast times, and offensive opportunity cost), but... the closest WHM ever got to anything like that was old Secret of the Lilies.

...Granted, I did prefer the fundamental concept of StB Lilies over ShB Lilies, and kind of prefer would prefer it even over Holy Words' CDR if only there were more reason to GCD heal.

If Stormblood Lilies could have just reduced the time until the next use of the chosen ability, instead of the next-next use, reduced that time by both % and flat seconds as not to only ever be spent on longer CDs, and was granular instead of capping at 3 stacks... it'd just be an outright more versatile and responsive version of Holy Words' CDR, especially if we'd added even a single purely offensive oGCD on which to spend it.

* No, the addition of Lilies in place of standard oGCD value per minute is not primarily designed to refund potency, since that potency would have been free anyways if it'd been included as the standard oGCDs. Using Lily heals for free-healing instead of oGCDs for free-healing simply links mobility CDs/capacity and free healing CDs/capacity in a more integral way while providing less APM and yet a lower portion of GCDs spent on filler spam.

DOTs can be cool design. But I don't think they're cool design when A: everyone has one, and B: everyone has one. SGE didn't really need one, if anything it feels like it was just thrown on there to try and justify Eukrasia being a button a bit more.

Agreed on the bolded part, but...

...If SGE were actually a job that deals damage to heal, rather than one that simply has flat minor healing bundled atop its attacks, that'd be precisely where a DoT would have innate synergy, since now one has to choose between greater immediate healing and greater total healing.

A DoT on a true damage-healer would naturally have not just the complexity of using a DoT (not much when they have equally low-cost mobility besides it and there's only a single enemy), but also the complexity of using HoTs.

I'd also consider removing Combust IF! and only if, said removal is what has to be done in order to focus the class more on it's buffing aspects. Like, if we're playing 'would you press the button' and it's 'unique card effects like SB, ...BUT... Combust is die', personally I'm slamming that button frame 1, and I'm not stopping to think. They removed all the Time Magic stuff so the chances of 'AST manipulates it's DOT with its abilities' is pretty dead, and that was the saving grace for Combust's continued existence IMO. Axe it and replace it with something more interesting, something to do with the cards like a Minor Arcana rework (cough).

I'm cool with virtually any and all changes to AST that would better let it focus on Time-Space Magics and its Cards.

I literally do not care about anything else. And while I'll agree with Ren that AST was already light on those Time-Space Magics pre-pruning, I honestly think a supportive Healer is the best place to situate those utilities. By far.

That said, the old flavor text for (pre-release?) Combust's (leaked?) tooltip was amazing. It was something like "Birth a theoretical star, growing in size and potency over time to deal damage to nearby enemies."

That? I would love that shit. Especially if you started to add explicit interactions atop it. Imagine if...

• Combust would deal proximity AoE damage (a few expanding radial areas of effect, tapering off by 25% at a time, to a minimum of half damage in the outermost space).
• You could place Combust on allies, enemies, or the ground, though their maximum movement speed slows and may drop off allies and enemies after a certain mass, thereafter becoming stationary. (There is a 2-second warning in which the theoretical sun flickers.)
• Combust would grow from Mana spent near it (following the same ringed model, at similar efficiency), or even more from mana spent directly on it, which can be from attacks or heals.
• The larger Combust grows, the greater its effect (more damage, and the more it would forcibly draw in enemies and accelerate allies' movements towards it), but also the more Mana it needs to keep from bursting.
• Combusts show on and can be targeted via a unique UI component, from which one can also select whether Combust units show as enemies, friendlies, or both. This UI displays the Combust's current and maximum HP on a laterally growing bar, along with an increasingly opaque edge of said HP bar. If their HP hits zero, they sputter out, and that rate of drain increases with size. The maximum reached HP shows their current size, and the actual far edge of bar shows when they'll be forced to implode.
• If two or more Combusts of significantly different size meet, the larger absorbs the smaller. If two or more Combusts of roughly the same size meet, they collectively implode for greater than the sum of their individual implosions' damage.

Now that... would be some fun Time-Space Magics.

It'd siphon a lot of AST's power into that particular tool, especially if we don't do as Taurus spitball-ed earlier and give players control over their kits (say, you have n AP at this level, and can siphon that from active skills to additional minor traits for a lower ceiling to both effort and damage that'll still be a net gain for those who would really struggle with that skill's mechanic), but I like the idea of AST actually being a Time-Space Occult Diviner instead of just another 22 filler and 2 DoT GCDs per minute with some of that would-be potency siphoned over to a gimmick used twice per minute oGCD.