Ritualist > Necromancer Class Idea

[Nahara]

RIT/NEC sounds like an extremely complex job, needing to juggle not just your multiple pets, but the Ritual circle mechanic and your own spellcasting on top of that. Needing to do so much at all times and the frailty of the pets make me think it might not be that effective as a magical DPS compared to the BLM and SMN, which are more straight-forward.

I really don't like the Tractor ability and think it should be tossed. An ability that allows you to reposition your allies is just begging to be abused to troll other plays, specifically other caster or healers who can be interrupted from their casting by the moment.

I'm also not too sure about Drain or Aspir.

Energy Drain essentially does the same thing, but is limited in availability due to needing Aetherflow charges to use, while Drain and Aspir seem to be able to be used freely with no limitations. I can kinda be okay with that, since Aspir is supposed to be the class's main MP recovery tool, but I feel like there should be at least some kind of limit to use (with an appropriate buff to it's potency, if you wanted to make it more like a THM/BLM's quick Blizzard III to recover MP).

As for Drain... I'm not sure how best this should be reworked, since as a spell it's still a copy of Energy Drain (without the Aetherflow limitation), but as a buff it's a copy of Bloodbath or Life Surge. Should think on that more.

As for cross-class abilities, there's no reason this class should have access to the Conjurer or Arcanist abilities. The best cross-class abilities should come from Thaumaturge and Archer. THM gives you Swiftcast, which is amazingly helpful to anyone that casts spells (on top of Surecast, which is less helpful, but still nice), and ARC gives you Raging Strikes (which is about the only pure DPS boosting cooldown casters get right now).

Lich I'm not fully sure I understand, but if I'm understanding it correctly, I'd rather raise a party member back to life than into a temporary state that has weaker abilities than their default class... and a party member dieing is really not something you WANT to have happen.

And on top of all this, Enkidoh had the right of it, that I really don't think Necromancer could be worked into the story in a favorable way. Anyone caught learning Necromancy would be killed on sight, since that's the kind of magic you need to sell your soul to the void to learn.

[Mimilu]

Snip

Thank you for the feedback.

To cover your points

RIT/NCR vs BLM & SMN
When I had made the class, I had thought of it being a jack-of-all-trades, in terms of Magical DPSing. It would have DoTs and pets, like SMN, and have burst damage, like BLM, but not as good as either. I thought with this, it could focus more on their pets, mainly their Draugr, and optimizing that person's damage versus their own.

Drain and Aspir
In terms of Energy Drain vs Aspir, how about this:
Take your idea of a system like THM's Blizzard/Fire system and mix it with Cost MP/Cost HP? You would start off summoning your pets, setting Ritual Sites, and/or casting debuffs, then, when you MP was low, you would use Aspir, which would cost HP, to regain your MP, and give you some sort of buff like the Astrals, then when you're stocked up on MP, you would use something similar to Transpose (which would replace Tractor), which would allow you to use Drain to heal your HP and would cost MP (but not enough to drain your MP), then you would to your setting up and DPSs again, and rinse and repeat.

Another option could be to take the same system but have it so that when you cast Aspir, it would place a buff on you which make you use your HP instead of MP for all of your spells, while simultaneously regenerating your MP. Then when your MP is to your liking, you would use the Transpose-like skill to switch to a buff that would buff up Drain (probably a one-time-use buff), so you wouldn't be a burden to your Healer(s).

Cross Class
The Cross Class skills I mentioned were just for Ritualist's use, seeing as classes can use any Cross skill.
The reason I chose Arcanist instead of Archer for Necromancer's Cross Classes was for two reasons: 1) Arcanist is the secondary class you need to unlock it, I didn't want to leave it out, and Thaumaturge has Swiftcast, which every magic class needs, and 2) Arcanist has pet support skills. My idea was that NCR would gain ACN's Sustain and Rouse abilities, in addition to the natural Cross C skills, to help support their Draugr.

Lich and Draugr
If you're referring to the Opus, those movesets are for your other pets (not the Draugr). When an Opus is in use, the undead you summon with Skull Ritual change. Draugrs keep their original moves and class and are controlled by their player, not the Necromancer.
I also thought reviving might be a bit too niched, that's why I also added the Zombie skill, which turns an already living ally into a Draugr. I might shorten the Draugr buff on it and remove the Weaken debuff from the effect though...

Lore
I had actually thought of a story where you and an NPC with some sort of tragic back story trying to revive a loved one would be taught necromancy from either an Imp or ominous, shadowy figure with a hidden agenda and the story would end with you thwarting their evil plan and the NPC would grow as a person and let their departed love one rest in piece (hence why Necromancer's last skill is Death Release). >w>()

[Nahara]

Lich and Draugr

This explanation makes a lot more sense, so thank you for that, but if that's the case with how it works, I almost feel like Lich's power budget should be split into two different abilities (instead of having one ability that raises an ally and/or empowers them, and having it more-than-likely tied to a lengthy cooldown).

I would propose that the class be given a combat res that is a normal spell like Raise and Resurrection (which is fine in the hands of a caster, as SMN has one). With that mechanic off the ability, Lich gets more of it's power budget back to increase the potency of it's empowerment or have a shorter cooldown.