AST proposal: An idea revisited

[Shurrikhan]

GCD cards could be much easier to tune if they simply gave flat potency onto the targets next attack rather than all having to all be to percentage based buffs where things can potentially balloon out of control.

If you attach a flat potency increase then its value would vary hugely around offensive APM and damage modifiers. For instance, if it would directly increase the potency of each action by, say, 50, it would actually increase the value of BLM fire actions by 90... before even adding in Enochian, and Mage's and Army's Paeon would both likely outperform Wanderer's Minuet, etc., while MCH takes the world by storm, and SCHs' Energy Drain would make a much larger difference than just its current up-to-390 relative ppm.

Restrict that to affecting GCDs only and you'll have made Physical Ranged better recipients than all other DPS save Monk and BLM, and Healers better recipients even than physical ranged, just through their bonus damage from traits (20% for Rangers, 30% for healers).

A simple percentile damage bonus is already the easiest thing to balance, because it interacts only with the final product, rather than any of the varied factors in getting there.

[Sebazy]

If you attach a flat potency increase then its value would vary hugely around offensive APM and damage modifiers. For instance, if it would directly increase the potency of each action by, say, 50, it would actually increase the value of BLM fire actions by 90... before even adding in Enochian, and Mage's and Army's Paeon would both likely outperform Wanderer's Minuet, etc., while MCH takes the world by storm, and SCHs' Energy Drain would make a much larger difference than just its current up-to-390 relative ppm.

Restrict that to affecting GCDs only and you'll have made Physical Ranged better recipients than all other DPS save Monk and BLM, and Healers better recipients even than physical ranged, just through their bonus damage from traits (20% for Rangers, 30% for healers).

A simple percentile damage bonus is already the easiest thing to balance, because it interacts only with the final product, rather than any of the varied factors in getting there.

I probably should have been clearer ya. My thoughts were more akin to ffxi en spells. A flat potency hit that’s added on independently of your own attack. That would bypass the multiplicative spiral entirely.

[Shurrikhan]

I probably should have been clearer ya. My thoughts were more akin to ffxi en spells. A flat potency hit that’s added on independently of your own attack. That would bypass the multiplicative spiral entirely.

That would not bypass the multiplicative spiral entirely, even then. Modifiers like Fight or Flight and Twin Snakes still affect such things. Even if they didn't, you'd then have only two optimal targets, a Heated MCH and Monk. Such would be far worse than what we have now, so I don't understand what you hope to accomplish by moving away from the already most balanced form the buff could take.

[Sebazy]

That would not bypass the multiplicative spiral entirely, even then. Modifiers like Fight or Flight and Twin Snakes still affect such things.

That would be circumvented by limiting the number of hits that get the added potency hit no?

To be clear, at it's most basic level, my idea boils down to 'take my nuke potency and put it on another players next attack'.

Dress it up as an enspell akin to what we saw in the old XIV intro cinematic with the Marlboro and I'd be willing to bet that it'd be received in a better light than the current crop of glare mages with different oGCDs, think Yelan's burst in Genshin if you're familiar with it. Perhaps if explored properly, this could be a gimmick for a healer other than AST?

[Shurrikhan]

That would be circumvented by limiting the number of hits that get the added potency hit no?

Not unless you don't actually give the effect over to that other person and instead generate some sort of new unit to cast the ability without benefiting from any player's damage modifiers.

To be clear, at it's most basic level, my idea boils down to 'take my nuke potency and put it on another players next attack'.

Which, if you give over possession, will be worth 25% more on them if they have 25% more damage buff value up than you do (e.g., a Fight or Flight while you have nothing).

For this to work as you imagine, the amount of damage (which cannot be simple potency, since that is an input, not an output) to be attached to the recipient's actions would have to be pre-set much like a barrier's HP (but without any possible recipient-dependent effect on that amount saved), AND exempted from the recipient's damage amplifiers, AND capped to a total value if applied over multiple hits, AND done as a separate action.

It's possible to do, but then at "best" it makes it so that timing and target selection doesn't matter whatsoever, and at second best its optimizations are identical to +%Damage.

Perhaps if explored properly, this could be a gimmick for a healer other than AST?

Aye, but see above. You have to decide how distinguishable you want its best use case to be from its worst.

Given sufficient new tech, yes, you could balance it marble smooth so that nothing matters whatsoever. You could make it so the recipient's actual output over the period to be affected is what matters (as +%Damage), or you could have different components of that output be weighed differently such that a normally worse choice (under +%Damage) could be the better choice instead.

Personally, +%Damage already seems a good balance between knowing your party's damage dynamics and 95+% of your attention being demanded just to math out the best recipient for the particular span of time, etc. I wouldn't hate a job having the latter, as we could always just do less than what is optimal and still feel pretty satisfied with that gameplay, but I also don't think it'd be treated as a noticeable improvement to most players. On the other hand, I do think a balanced-flat buff would be the least appreciated of all.