#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[ForsakenRoe]

Rather than 'channel' abilities, I think the more accurate comparison is how WOW's Evoker handles 'Empower' abilities. Press to start the cast, then press again to fire the spell at whatever 'empower' level you've charged up to.



Transplanting this concept onto FFXIV abilities, an example would be BLM's Flare. It could have 4 levels of empowerment, with the base cast (note: cast time, not recast) being very fast to get out and dealing, say, 240p, and each additional level of empowerment adds 20p more to the potency, so that the fully charged version is 300p. With sensible potency balancing, this would allow the player to play as they do now, aiming for the maximum empowerment, but A: allowing the player to cut the cast off as soon as it hits max empowerment level, rather than letting it auto-cast out (for Flare, this would be firing the cast at 3.2s of the castbar (example) instead of the current 3.5, saving 0.3s on each cast due to the Recast timer being shorter at 2.5), and more importantly IMO, B: allowing the player to recognize 'oh I'm not going to be able to get the full empowerment out of this Flare because the mob's about to die, I'll cut it off early and get 'most' of the damage from it, instead of losing the cast entirely'

Certain actions would feel really cool with that kind of system, IMO. Flare/Despair is the first example that comes to mind, but how about MCH tools? How about making Deathflare a GCD (potency buffed of course) and having that be one of these empowerment actions? What about SAM's Midare? VerFlare/Holy/Scorch? As long as the potency balancing of the 'reward per empowerment level' vs 'base potency of action' is sufficiently skewed towards the base potency (such that punishment of movement etc is reduced), I think there's quite a few actions that could support the system.

Maybe there could even be some slightly different actions, where it's not the final level of empowerment that's the best, but the one before it. For example, what if Midare was 660/670/680/670, such that getting the timing right and hitting the 3rd level was the 'sweet spot' for maximum damage, and over-cooking the charge reduces your damage back to level 2? (MH Greatsword style)


As for Channelled actions, I have an idea for a job: a Healer, where its GCDs are all channels (eg you pulse damage to an enemy, pulse healing around you), and it naturally has a GCD speed locked at 0.5s. Where WHM has 'Medica heals for 400p and you cast it once per 2.5s', this healer would be 'channel AOE healing for 80p every 0.5s', which totals up to the same 400p in the same 2.5s. The 0.5s GCD means that, should you need to move, you can instantly start a new channel as soon as you're finished moving. It'd be the most casual friendly job (because of how non-punishing movement is), and yet an absolute nightmare to optimize (because ANY movement screws your parse)