[Job "Specializations" for FFXIV] "Restoration", "Rainbow" SMN + "Arcane" SCH Ideas

[ElisaUrsula]

[Update #1 - Updated the Job Spec stats. I made a lot of changes to Restoration Summoner (Changes to Roll mechanics, updated numbers, and there are now a few more new effects to Restoration Summoner's heals now). Rainbow Summoner had a few numbers changed to make things more balanced.]
[Restoration Summoner:
Changes to Abilities:

1. Rolls now last indefinitely as long as the Restoration Summoner is in the same party as the target. However you still need to reapply the roll after you use a Roll 11 ability (as it uses up the Roll 11 buff on the target) or the "Trade in" ability. Also you can now only store up to three numbers (instead of six). Bust debuff effects now last 10 seconds (down from 30 seconds).

2. When you "Add" away from a Lucky Number or Unlucky Number, the roll will now automatically go to 11 (as long as you do not go over 11). When you "Subtract" to a Lucky or Unlucky number, it now automatically goes to 11 (previously this only worked if you subtracted to a lucky number).

3. Fortune Flow charges has been changed. Instead of gaining a charge when you hit 11, you now automatically (passive effect) gain 1 charge every 44 seconds. However for each Roll you have at 11, the cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds (up to 14 second reduction from 7 rolls at 11). At 7 rolls at 11, Fortune Flow recharges every 30 seconds (you can have a max of 3 charges; previously you could have up to 4 charges stored).

4. Number ? Cure now applies overheals from this spell as increased duration to its heal over time effect (max 48 second duration with a potency of 25). If the target is at 100% HP, 300 of potency that is "overheal" is changed to a heal over time effect (+36 seconds in this case). The Additional Effect will also apply (adding +12 seconds) which makes it 48 seconds total.

5. When Number ? Cure II is cast on a target with 70% HP or lower, Cure II now causes all your heal over time effects to apply one instance/tick of healing instantly with a bonus of 100% increased potency from HoTs that are used up by this effect (this effect does not apply to Number ? Cure II's HoT). For example - If you have Number ? Cure (25 HoT potency), Level ? Cure (25 HoT potency), and Level ? Regen (50 HoT potency) on the target, and you cast Cure II, it will causes one instance of all those heals to apply instantly (granting 50 from Number ? Cure, 50 from Level ? Cure, and 100 from Regen). When one instance of the HoT is used up, 3 seconds from the duration is removed (this effect cannot occur if the HoT has 2 seconds or less duration remaining).

In the example I used, Cure II would heal 450 HP + 25 (boosted to 50) + 25 (boosted to 50) + 50 (boosted to 100) making it heal 650 health with an Additional HoT (from Cure II itself) of 200 potency over 12 seconds.

When Number ? Restoration affects targets with 70% HP or lower, the same effect also applies (it affects all HoTs effects except from Number ? Restoration's own HoT). Number ? Restoration now causes up to 2 instance of each HoT effect (on that target) to be used up instantly if the targets are below 70% HP or less. For each (different) instance/tick HoT is that is used up, MP cost of the spell is reduced by 10% per instance/tick. If you have the heal over time effects of Number ? Cure, Number ? Cure II, Level ? Cure, Number ? Regen all up on a target that has 70% or less HP, than it uses up up to 2 instances/ticks of each HoT (3 seconds is reduced from that HoT when this happens). MP cost of Number ? Restoration is reduced by 10% per instance/tick used, in this case 80% MP cost is reduced. Note, this effect is based on how many different HoT effects (and the max instances used up) overall (with max being +2 from each different HoT), rather than overall from every player. That means using this effect on 1 player with 5 HoTs effects is the same as 5 players each with 5 HoTs effect. However if each player has different HoTs effect, this will count all the different HoTs effect used up across all players.

Note you can also have Spring Water as a HoT. With 5 SMN HoT effects up and if 10 ticks of HoTs is used up (that doesn't include Number ? Restoration), MP cost is reduced to 0 for Number ? Restoration. Base MP cost for Number ? Restoration is 399.

6. Number ? Cure II HoT effect duration now stacks up to +48 seconds (base duration is 12 seconds but now you can use it up to 4 times to make HoT last 48 seconds max).

7. When Number ? Cure is used on a target with 70% HP or lower, and that target has Number ? Cure II's HoT effect, Cure 1 now causes up to 3 instances/ticks of Cure 2's heal over time effect to be applied instantly. Additionally the MP cost of Number ? Cure I is reduced by 5% for each instance/tick (1 tick = 3 seconds on the duration) of Cure 2 HoT used this way (up to 15% less MP required). For example if target is below 70% HP and they have Cure II's HoT effect with a duration of 12 seconds. Casting Number ? Cure will now use up to 9 seconds of the duration to apply 3 instances of HoT effects instantly (Cure II's HoT is 50 potency per tick; in this example Cure 1 now uses up 3 HoT ticks of Cure II and cause 150 potency of heal instantly).

8. Trade In now restores up to 20% MP (decreased from 25%).

Changes to Stats:

1. Roll effects have been changed to 0.5%/1%/1.5%/2% (previously it was from 2% to 5%).
2. Cait Sith's Level ? Cure changed from 300 potency to 200 potency with 100 heal over time (12 seconds).
3. Number ? Restoration potency changed from 150/150 (150 with 150 heal over time) to 100/100 (100 with 100 heal over time).
4. Spring Water heal potency changed from 500 to 200 potency with 100 heal over time.
5. Earthen Ward changed from 15% Stoneskin to 10% Stoneskin.
6. Inferno Howl changed from +5% damage bonus to 2.5% (also grants +2.5% heal potency boost too now). Garuda's Roll Haste and Movement speed bonus changed from 10% to 5%. Ramuh's Crit Bonus and Potency effect changed from 10% to 5%.
7. Shining Ruby has been changed from 15% Cure Received bonus and 15% defense + magic defense boost to 5% Cure Received Bonus and 5% defense + magic defense bonus. Effect has been changed and Shining Ruby now also increases the duration all the Restoration Summoner's heal over time buffs by 100% of its base duration (max +30 second bonus).
8. Number ? Cure now costs from 133 MP to 146 MP (it costs 10% more MP than Cure and Physick).
9. Number ? Cure II now costs from 266 MP to 319 MP (it now costs 20% more MP than Cure II).
10. Number ? Arcane Magic now deals random element (or unaspected) damage with a potency of 170 (from 220).
11. Level ? Holy now deals 60% less damage than before. Max potency is now 500 (before was 1250).
12. Rainbow Carbuncle's (from Cait Sith's Trick Box effect) "Carbuncle's Favor" effect changed from 150/75/75 HP/MP/TP heal to 100/50/50.

New Abilities:

1. Boon (Cooldown: 10 seconds. Requires use of 1 Fortune Flow charge) - Applies the target player's heal over time effects (only you and Cait Sith's heal over time effects) to two other party members (this will apply to the two lowest HP party members first, if tied, the two party members with no HoTs effect, or the two closest party members to the target). If you have less than 50% MP, also adds the base duration of the heal over time effect to the current duration. If party members have less than 50% HP, the heal over time effect is applied instantly (the additional heal amount from this effect has a max potency of 500 though; also this doesn't take away the heal over time).

2. Number ? Regen - Grants a healing over time effect to target. Potency 50 (this is 100 potency less than WHM's regen). Duration 30 seconds. Total potency (500 potency; this is 550 less than WHM's regen). MP Cost 148 (costs 20% less MP than WHM's regen).
Additional Effect: Generates a random number.

[Rainbow Summoner:
Rainbow Summoner has had some changes. Most notably are that Advanced Dark and Rainbow Hope's potency increase effect has been decreased significantly (the numbers should be a bit more balanced) and MP cost of Rainbow Spells have been increased from 150 to 175 (though I changed Rainbow Surge to now have the added effect of reducing MP cost by 15% while active, and Rainbow Hope's same element MP penalty is now 1.4x instead of 2x).
Changes to Stats:

1. Advanced Dark's potency bonus to Rainbow Spells has been changed to +30 potency (from +50 potency).
2. Rainbow Hope's "same element as Carbuncle" potency bonus has changed to +50 potency (from +100 potency). However the MP penalty has been changed from 2x to 1.4x (before it cost 300 MP with 150 MP base, now it costs 240 MP with 175 MP base). Now grants 2 Overflowing debuffs (from 3).
3. Rainbow Spells now cost 175 MP (from 150 MP). This means you have to use Rainbow Hope's MP restoration effect more often. This also means you have to spend Rainbow Lights on Electric Recharge a bit more often too.
4. Multicast Mimicry's other player damage penalty is now 45% (from 35%).
5. Rainbow Radiance can now hold up to 2 charges of the ability. The cooldown is still 90 seconds but you can now hold the ability and have it store up to 2 charges of the effect. This is you can now time which version of Rainbow Radiance you want to use without the penalty of holding the ability from use.
6. Rainbow Surge potency bonus changed to 40 (from 50). However, Rainbow Surge now also decreases MP cost of Rainbow Spells by 15% while active.
7. Carbuncle's Favor changed from 150/75/75 to 100/50/50.

(I would love to see Job "Specializations" in FFXIV which allows you to play a job in multiple ways like in XI or in WoW. I added three "Spec" Ideas along with their abilities below to show how Specs could work. Please reply if you would like to see something like Job "Specializations" for FFXIV; my spec ideas are just examples on how they could work.)

There have been questions on what role a Red Mage (for example) or Blue Mage should play if they are added to FFXIV. Red Mage can play a variety of roles in FFXI (same with Blue Mage). Blue Mage is known for having the strongest heals in FFXI if you sub Scholar since you can use Light Arts to greatly increase the healing spells of BLU.

In FFXIV, due to the way things work, (currently) only one job can be one role.

This can easily be solved by adding something like Job "Specializations" like in World of Warcraft. There are 11 classes in WoW and each class has 3 or 4 "Specializations". A Druid can be played as a DPS (Balance is ranged magic DPS and Feral Druid melee physical DPS), Tank (Guardian Druid), and Healer (Restoration Druid).

A Specialization is like a whole new class altogether. Switching from Balance Druid to Feral Druid (even though both are both DPS classes) changes almost all the abilities you have and allows you to play your favorite class in a different way. This adds variety of play to each class.

For jobs like Red Mage and Blue Mage (especially), I know some players (in FFXI) loved to play BLU as a healer or even Tank. Red Mage could be played as healer or magical damage dealer or even Tank (even SE themselves used a Red Mage tank in their Absolute Virtue fight video).

The current system in FFXIV doesn't really support any of these, "however" if specializations (like WoW) can be added to FFXIV, this will solve that problem.

Personally, it is something that I'd love to see and it would add a lot to the game.

Finally, making a new "Spec" for a job requires less time and effort than making a completely new job altogether since you can reuse the same job/class Quests and the same Armor and Weapons.

Class specializations gives more different options for jobs to be played.

In World of Warcraft, I really like how they did specializations. Druid and Monk in WoW (For example) can play as Tank, DPS, or Healer.

If you like the look of Monk (animations, gear, etc) but you don't want to play them as just a DPS, you can build them in a different way to allow them to tank or be a healer (for example).

Specs in WoW gave almost all classes at least 2 different roles to play (Priests can be DPS or healers for example). This adds a lot of variety for play. In FFXIV (if specs were to be added), I think every class/job should have at least 2 different types of specs.

Finally another reason to add specialization is they allow new classes that have a varied of interpretations of how they should play (again most famously Red Mage and Blue Mage) to play all of them by allowing each job/class to be divided into three or more sub (or specialized) classes that have different abilities while keeping a somewhat similar theme of the class.

Overall, I think FFXIV should definitely adopt specializations or sub classes (or something similar to either XI or WoW) that allows a class or job to be played multiple ways.

Adding specializations (similar to WoW), would be a great way to add variety to the game and let players play their favorite class or job in various ways. This would also allow players to potentially avoid longer queue times for their favorite job by allowing them to switch to a more in demand role by changing specs (for example). Also while I don't think all jobs can practically (in keeping with the job's theme) have a healing, DPS, tank spec, I definitely think all jobs should be at least two out of those three roles they can change into at least.

In this post, I will post three full ideas for "Job" Specializations for FFXIV to show how "Specs" in FFXIV could work. I will present two for Summoner and one for Scholar (I have also a few ideas for other jobs too):
1. "Restoration" Summoner which is a healer SMN that uses Cait Sith as their Summon; this is like in FFXI)
2. "Rainbow" Summoner which is alternative burst DPS SMN that uses Carbuncle as their Summoner. (Also I am going to call the current DoT Summoner "Affliction" Summoner.)
3. "Arcane" Scholar which is a DPS alternative to the current healer Scholar (will be kind of like Scholar in FFXI with "Dark Arts" ability).

I'm going to post my ideas on the Jobs themselves first, and in a later post I'll post on how specs could work in FFXIV (like what to do with equipment, how to change a spec when you are a job, etc).

Idea for Specializations in FFXIV #1 ("Restoration" Summoner):

First, for those unfamilar with Cait Sith in FFXI and what Cait Sith's abilities look like, here is a video that show cases some of Cait Sith's abilities (most notable "Level ? Holy" which looks really neat).

Video of Cait Sith and Level ? Holy in FFXI (see 51 seconds in video).

Specialization ideas for Summoner:

1. Normal Summoner (like now). I'll call this Summoner "Affliction" spec Summoner.
2. "Rainbow" Summoner (Uses Carbuncle). Alternative DPS spec to "Affliction" spec summoner.
3. "Restoration" Summoner (Uses Cait Sith - Based on FFXI). Healing spec Summoner. A mix between XI's Corsair and Summoner.
________________________________
For Restoration Summoner - skill changes.
Removed and replaced spells:

Ruin, Ruin II, Bio, Bio II, Physick, Aetherflow (and all Aetherflow type abilities: Energy Drain, Bane, Fester, Tri-disaster, ), Miasma, Miasma II, Virus, Shadow Flare, Enkindle.

All other abilities are kept.

All other abilities are kept. The removed spells/abilities are replaced with new ones (which I will list below).

Cross Class abilities changed: Restoration Summoner cannot equip Cure. Can equip spells from CNJ or THM.

Restoration Summoner is a mix between FFXI's Corsair and FFXIV's SCH while having a bit of flavor from FFXI's Cait Sith Summon from FFXI. In FFXI, Cait Sith rolls a dice for a few abilities (like Level ? Holy), etc.

(Also the spells, while based off of CNJ and WHM, have different animations. See the Cait Sith video above to see how "Level ? Holy" and "Number ? Holy" and "Number? / Level ? Cure" could look for example.)

Quick Summary and Play Style of Restoration Summoner (I'm posting this first before I list the abilities; it will make sense once you get to the abilities):

Use "Roll" abilities on all 7 party members (these are minor buffs granted to party members; the effect is greater the higher the number). Cast Number ? and Level ? spells. Generate random numbers. Numbers are buffs generated from Number ? and Level ? spells; they are a resource basically. Try to get "Roll" buffs to hit "11" (or use "Subtract" and make rolls hit a Lucky Number which makes it turn into a Roll 11) in as few steps as possibles.

Getting an "11" allows you to use special off the global cooldown abilities but this uses up that Roll. When Rolls wear off, rinse and repeat.

If you accidentally Add a number to make it above 11 or Subtract a number to make below 1, the Roll will "Bust" (the Roll is removed and you cannot add Rolls again to that same party member until the debuff expires 10 seconds later).

Anyway that's a quick summary of the play style. I'll explain the actual abilities and mechanics and play style of this Specialization idea for "Restoration" Summoner below.

There are two key things to note about Restoration Summoner.

"Number ?" Type spells. When a "Number ?" spell is used, it generates a random number (both you and Cait Sith have seperate numbers). You can hold up to six numbers at once (it will be displayed as positive buffs for both you and Cait Sith). Using "Add" and "Subtract" will use the (by default) most recent number you have though.

For "Number ?" Spells, they are not completely random. Number ? Spells for you, Cait Sith, and "Rolls" all have their seperate set of numbers. Each six casts will produce these numbers [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] except they will always be in random of order. A seventh cast starts a new set of random numbers.

You can only hold up to three numbers at once though (the oldest number will be removed when casting a new "Number ?" spell if you have three numbers already).

The numbers will always be in six numbers per set and they will always contain the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. (You will always see an even distribution of those numbers.) The only thing that is random is the order you see the numbers. When you cast "Number ? Cure" six times (in a row) for example, you will always see 1-6 but the order will always be different. The same with when Cait Sith casts the spell. The same applies to Roll type spells.

This is done to reduce randomness and make the abilities more predictable (allowing you be more able to plan ahead when using the abilities).

You have a unique ability called "Add to roll" and "Subtract Roll" and "Roll" type abilities. These abilities are free cast and they can be cast during the cast of spells (kind of like pet commands).

"Add Roll" adds the number that you rolled last with a "Number ?" ability (you will see a buff next to Cait Sith in the party list to see which number it is).
"Subtract" will subtract the number "you" have from the ability "and" it will also stop Cait Sith's number from changing for 5 seconds.

Restoration Summoner has a unique set of 7 abilities called "Rolls".

The mechanics of Rolls are that they are buffs that you can grant to 1 party member. "However" a party member (except you) can only have 1 roll at a time. When you grant a roll to a party member, you and Cait Sith also gain that buff that same buff. You and Cait Sith can have all 7 rolls up at once but party members can only have 1 roll at a time (of course if they are multiple Restoration Summoners, you can grant multiple rolls to party members).

Similar to how FFXI worked with Corsair, a Roll is a buff that increases with potency (up to 11 which is the highest). There are (for each roll) a lucky number and an unlucky number.

If you add or subtract a number that causes a roll to increase past 11 (or below 1), the roll will be a bust and the party member (and you) will gain a debuff (that lasts for 10 seconds) that prevents a new roll of that type from being reapplied (only applies to that specific Restoration Summoner though).

Restoration Summoner will have basically three main abilities.

Number ? Cure (which cures a party member with a potency of 400 and generates a random number - You can use this random number with the "Add" ability). Cait Sith also as Level ? Cure (which does the same thing "except" you use Cait Sith's number to subtract to a roll). Restoration Summoner also has Number ? Holy and Number ? Arcane Magic (which casts a random elemental nuke with a potency of 170). All these abilities generate a random number between 1-6.

You can hold up to three numbers at once (the oldest number will be replaced if you use a "Number ?" spell with six numbers up; the same for Cait Sith's Level ? abilities too).

The main goal of these "Number ?" abilities and the "Add" and "Subtract" abilities is to try to get the 7 different rolls to have the number 11. When numbers hit 11, there is a potency boost and "Fortune Flow" charges are gained faster (base 44 second recharge rate, for each 11 Roll the cooldown time is reduced by 2 seconds). which allows you to use a special ability based on 1 of the 7 summons (6 of the Egi summons and 1 based on Rainbow Carbuncle) and other abilities that use up Fortune Flow charges (like Boon).

The rolls last indefinitely (as long as the Restoration Summoner is in the same party as the target) but if you use up a roll through "Trade In" or use the Fortune Flow "Roll 11 ability", you have to reapply the roll. Busting a roll prevents a roll from reapplied (the bust debuff lasts 10 seconds).

Fortune Flow automatically charges are gained once every 44 seconds (max 3 charges). However for each Roll you have at 11, the cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds (up to 14 second reduction from 7 rolls at 11). At 7 rolls at 11, Fortune Flow recharges every 30 seconds.

Finally, one mechanic I want to clarify again is that you always want to have all 7 Rolls up at once and each roll not only affects the party member with that specific Roll but it also affects Cait Sith and yourself too (so you gain the effect of all buffs you grant). (Each party member can only have 1 Roll up per Restoration Summoner.)

Game wise, to add a "3" to Carbuncle's Roll, you can do this two ways:

1. Click on Carbuncle's Roll (Ability) again, then click "Add". This will add 3 to Carbuncle's Roll.

2. Click on the party member with Carbuncle's Roll then click "Add".

When playing solo or with only 4 party members, you probably want to do #1 as the method to add or subtract. For a pull 8 person party, doing #2 also works as you will likely have each roll distributed to all party members.

Anyway, that's the main concept of how Restoration Summoner works. It's a mix of Corsair from FFXI (which is similar where you wanted to get buffs up to number 11) and Scholar from FFXIV.

Finally one important mechanic are the "Fortune Flow" charges (max 3 charges). You automatically gain 1 Fortune Flow charge every 44 seconds or 30 seconds with all 7 rolls at 11 (the Cooldown time is reduced by 2 seconds for each roll at 11, max 14 second duration reduction). Additionally (one for each of the elements + Carbuncle), you can activate an off the GCD ability. This ability (kind of like Lustrate, Sacred Soil, etc) costs 2 charges "but" it can only be activated by using up and removing an 11 roll. I'll describe them below. Finally, again when you buff a party member with a roll, you and Cait Sith "always" have the same benefits of that roll active (party members benefit from one roll at a time from you but you will always benefit from all rolls you have on all party members).

Anyway, here are the Rolls:

(All are off the GCD abilities and have a recast time of 5 seconds; Additionally each roll when used for the first time generates a random number between 1-6 - Using the roll again won't grant another buff "but" instead it is used for selecting which roll you want to "Add" or "Subtract" or "Trade In") (Also one other thing to note, when you use a "Roll 11" ability, it not only uses up Fortune Flow charges but it also uses up that roll buff which means you have to reapply the buff again and start from scratch; Generally though, the power of a Roll 11 ability makes up for the fact you have to start from scratch again "and" alternatively you can wait until a roll is about to expire before using the Roll 11 ability to maximize duration though in some cases you may want to immediately use any DPS increase Roll 11 abilities whenever you can)

1. Carbuncle's Roll - Grants 1% Cure Potency increase and Received.

Lucky Number 2 - When 2 is hit, Cure Potency increase and receive is 1.5%.
Unlucky Number 6 - Cure potency is 0.5%.
11 - Cure Potency increased and received is increased to 2%.

Carbuncle's Roll 11 Ability - (Can only be used by using up 2 charges of Fortune Flow and only when Carbuncle's Roll is at 11) - "Shining Ruby" - Grants you and party members increased cure potency received and defense + magic defense by 5%. Lasts 20 seconds.

Additional Effect: All your heal over time effects duration is increased by 100% of its base duration (max +30 second duration bonus).

2. Ifrit's Roll - Grants 1% physical damage increase at roll 1.

Lucky Number 4 - Damage increase is 1.5%.
Unlucky Number 8 - Damage increase is 0.5%.
At roll 11 - Damage increase is 2%.

Ifrit's Roll's 11 ability (2 charges of Fortune Flow) - "Inferno Howl" - Grants Enfire to all party members for 20 seconds. 2.5% of all damage dealt is added to each attack again as fire damage (basically +2.5% damage increase to party members that deal fire damage - For most cases this doesn't matter but it can be useful for procing Blaze Gust from Rainbow Spec summoner).

3. Titan's Roll - Grants 1% physical damage reduction at roll 1.

Lucky Number 3 - Damage reduction is 1.5%.
Unlucky Number 7 - Damage reduction is 0.5%.
At roll 11 - Damage reduction is 2%.

Titan's Roll 11 ability (2 charges of Fortune Flow) - "Earthen Ward" - Grants party members an effect which absorbs up to 10% of max HP as damage (it is basically Stoneskin but it also stacks). Lasts 1 minute.

4. Garuda's Roll - Grants 1% haste (reduces GCD and cast time of spells and skills by 1%).

Lucky Number 3 - Haste is 1.5%.
Unlucky Number 7 haste is 1%.
At roll 11 - Haste is 5%.

Garuda's Roll 11 ability (2 charges of Fortune Flow) - "Fleet Wind" - Grants party members a buff which grants +10% haste and +10% movement speed for 20 seconds.

5. Leviathan's Roll - Grants 1% magical damage reduction at roll 1.

Lucky Number 4 - Damage reduction is 1.5%.
Unlucky Number 7 - Damage reduction is 1%.
At roll 11 - Damage reduction is 2%.

Leviathan's Roll 11 ability (2 charges of Fortune Flow) - "Spring Water" - Restores party member's HP with a potency of 200 in 15 range radius.
Additional Effect: Grants a regeneration effect which lasts 12 seconds and restores HP with a potency of 25 (100 potency over 12 seconds).
Additional Effect II: Removes 1 negative status effect from party members.

6. Ramuh's Roll - Grants 1% critical hit rate increase at roll 1.

Lucky Number 5 - Critical Rate increase is 1.5%.
Unlucky Number 9 - Critical Rate increase is 0.5%.
At roll 11 - Critical Rate increase is 2%.

Ramuh's Roll 11 ability (2 charges of Fortune Flow) - "Rolling Thunder" - Grants party members 5% increase in critical hit rate. Additionally, critical hit rate potency is increased by 5%. Default modifier is 1.5%, so with the buff, it is 1.575%. Lasts 20 seconds.

7. Shiva's Roll - Grants 1% magical damage increase at roll 1.

Lucky Number 5 - Damage increase is 1.5%.
Unlucky Number 9 - Damage increase is 0.5%.
At roll 11 - Damage increase is 2%.

Shiva's Roll's 11 ability (can only be used by using up 2 charges of Fortune Flow) - "Frost Armor" - Grants Ice Spikes to all party members for 20 seconds. Grants +5% damage reduction to party members (that deal ice damage to attacks with a potency of 50).

Other Abilities for Restoration Summoner:

1. Add (5 second cooldown) - Add (and consumes) your current (most recent) number to the target roll.
Additional Effect: If the targeted current roll is a "Lucky Number" or "Unlucky Number" and you "Add" a roll, as long as adding the roll does not increase the target's roll over 11, the number will now change to 11.

To active this ability, there are two methods:

*With a roll already active, active the Roll ability again then immediately use "Add" after (Use Carbuncle's Roll, then use "Add" to add the number to that roll).
*Select a party member with a specific Roll then use the "Add" ability to add Cait Sith's number to that roll.

2. Subtract (5 second cooldown) - Subtract Cait Sith's current (most recent) number to the target roll.

Additional Effect: Pause Roll - Grants a buff to you called "Pause Roll" which locks in your current number (when you use Add, it will use that number until this buff wears off) Lasts 5 seconds.

Additional Effect II: If you subtract a roll and it reaches a "Lucky Number" or "Unlucky Number", the number will automatically change to 11 instead.

To active this ability, there are two methods:
*With a roll already active, active the Roll ability again then immediately use "Subtract" after (Use Carbuncle's Roll, then use "Subtract" to add the number to that roll).
*Select a party member with a specific Roll then use the "Subtract" ability to subtract your number to that roll.

3. Trade In (60 second cooldown) - Converts a target roll to MP. MP restored varies based on roll number.

At roll 1, you obtain 10% MP. Each roll after that increases MP restored by 0.5%. At roll 11, you gain 20%. For lucky numbers, you gain 15% MP restored. For unlucky, you gain 10%. (Lucky and Unlucky numbers are determined by which roll you trade in).

To active this ability, there are two methods:
*With a roll already active, active the Roll ability again then immediately use Trade In after (Use Carbuncle's Roll, then use Trade In to convert that roll into MP).
*Select a party member with a specific Roll then use the "Trade In" ability to convert that roll.

4. Astral Conduit (180 second cooldown) - Allows you to use a Roll 11 ability (also Rainbow Carbuncle's abilities) without using any Fortune Flow charges, without having to have that ability at Roll 11, and without consuming that roll. When Astral Conduit is used, the next "Roll" ability (when you use it) will active the Roll 11 ability.

5. Change Order (5 second cooldown) - By default, you will "Add" or "Subtract" the most recent numbers you have on you (and same with Cait Sith). Turning this on will change the order so when you use "Add" or "Subtract", it instead uses the oldest number you have on you instead of newest.

6.. Boon (Cooldown: 10 seconds. Requires use of 1 Fortune Flow charge) - Applies the target player's heal over time effects (only you and Cait Sith's heal over time effects) to two other party members (this will apply to the two lowest HP party members first, if tied, the two party members with no HoTs effect, or the two closest party members to the target).
If you have less than 50% MP, also adds the base duration of the heal over time effect to the current duration. If party members have less than 50% HP, the heal over time effect is applied instantly (the additional heal amount from this effect has a max potency of 500 though; also this doesn't take away the heal over time).

Spells for Restoration Summoner:

1. Number ? Cure - Restores target party member or self with a potency of 300.
MP Cost: 146 (This costs 10% more than Cure and Physick).
Additional Effect: Grants a regeneration effect which lasts 12 seconds and restores HP with a potency of 25 (total of 100 from the regen effect and 400 total heal from both spells).
Additional Effect II: Generates a random number between 1-6.
Additional Effect III:

Overheals from this spell is applied as increased duration to its heal over time effect (max 48 second duration with a potency of 25). If the target is at 100% HP, 300 of potency that is "overheal" is changed to a heal over time effect (36 seconds in this case). The Additional Effect will also apply (adding +12 seconds) which makes it 48 seconds total.

Additional Effect IV:

When Number ? Cure is used on a target with 70% HP or lower, and that target has Number ? Cure II's HoT effect, Cure 1 now causes up to 3 instances/ticks of Cure 2's heal over time effect to be applied instantly. Additionally the MP cost of Number ? Cure I is reduced by 5% for each instance/tick (1 tick = 3 seconds on the duration) of Cure 2 HoT used this way (up to 15% less MP required). For example if target is below 70% MP and they have Cure II's HoT effect with a duration of 12 seconds. Casting Number ? Cure will now use up to 9 seconds of the duration to apply 3 instances of HoT effects instantly (Cure II's HoT is 50 potency per tick; in this example Cure 1 now uses up 3 HoT ticks of Cure II and cause 150 potency of heal instantly).

2. Number ? Cure II - Restores target party member or self with a potency of 450.
Additional Effect: Grants a regeneration effect which lasts 12 seconds and restores HP with a potency of 50 (total of 200 from the regen effect and 650 total heal from both spells). Also if the target already has "Number ? Cure II"'s heal over time on them, instead of overwriting the duration, the duration is increased by +12 seconds (max 60 second duration). This means if you cast "Number ? Cure II" multiple times, the duration of the Cure II's HoT is increased instead of being overwritten (max 48 second duration).
Additional Effect II: Generates a random number between 1-6.
Additional Effect III:

When Number ? Cure II is cast on a target with 70% HP or lower, Cure II now causes all your heal over time effects to apply one instance/tick of healing instantly with a bonus of 100% increased potency from HoTs that are used up by this effect (this effect does not apply to Number ? Cure II's HoT). For example - If you have Number ? Cure (25 HoT potency), Level ? Cure (25 HoT potency), and Level ? Regen (50 HoT potency) on the target, and you cast Cure II, it will causes one instance of all those heals to apply instantly (granting 50 from Number ? Cure, 50 from Level ? Cure, and 100 from Regen). When one instance of the HoT is used up, 3 seconds from the duration is removed (this effect cannot occur if the HoT has 2 seconds or less duration remaining).

In the example I used, Cure II would heal 450 HP + 25 (boosted to 50) + 25 (boosted to 50) + 50 (boosted to 100) making it heal 650 health with an Additional HoT (from Cure II itself) of 200 potency over 12 seconds.

3. Number ? Restoration - Restores own HP and the HP of all nearby party members. Cure potency: 100.
Additional Effect: Regen for 30s. Cure potency: 10. (200 potency total from heal and heal over time effect). MP Cost: 399.
Additional Effect II: Generates a random number between 1-6.
Additional Effect III:

When Number ? Restoration affects targets with 70% HP or lower, Number ? Restoration now causes up to 2 instance of each HoT effect (on that target; this doesn't affect Number ? Restoration's own HoT effect) to be used up instantly if the targets are below 70% HP or less.

For each (different) instance/tick HoT is that is used up, MP cost of the spell is reduced by 10% per instance/tick. If you have the heal over time effects of Number ? Cure, Number ? Cure II, Level ? Cure, Number ? Regen all up on a target that has 70% or less HP, than it uses up up to 2 instances/ticks of each HoT (3 seconds is reduced from that HoT when this happens). MP cost of Number ? Restoration is reduced by 10% per instance/tick used, in this case 80% MP cost is reduced.

Note, this effect is based on how many different HoT effects (and the max instances used up) overall (with max being +2 from each different HoT), rather than overall from every player. That means using this effect on 1 player with 5 HoTs effects is the same as 5 players each with 5 HoTs effect. However if each player has different HoTs effect spread across each player, this will count all the different HoTs effect used up across all players.

Note you can also have Spring Water as a HoT. With 5 SMN HoT effects up and if 10 ticks of HoTs is used up (that doesn't include Number ? Restoration), MP cost is reduced to 0 for Number ? Restoration. Base MP cost for Number ? Restoration is 399.

4. Number ? Esuna - Removes a single detrimental effect from target.
Additional Effect: Generates a random number between 1-6.

5. Number ? Arcane Magic - Deals a random element of magic damage with a potency of 170.
Additional Effect: Generates a random number between 1-6.

6. Number ? Holy - Deals unaspected damage to the target and enemies within 5 range of that target with a potency of 200.
Additonal Effect: Generates a random number between 1-6.

7. Number ? Regen - Grants a healing over time effect to target. Potency 50 (this is 100 potency less than WHM's regen). Duration 30 seconds. Total potency (500 potency; this is 550 less than WHM's regen). MP Cost 148 (costs 20% less MP than WHM's regen).
Additional Effect: Generates a random number.

Cait Sith abilities:

1. Level ? Cure - Restores health to a party member with a potency of 200.
Additional Effect: Additional Effect: Grants a regeneration effect which lasts 12 seconds and restores HP with a potency of 25 (total of 100 from the regen effect and 300 total heal from both spells).
Additional Effect II: Generates a random number between 1-6.

2. Trick Box (Cooldown: 150 seconds. Duration: 30 seconds) (The ability has to be manually used) - Swaps Cait Sith with a summoned based on your most recent "11" roll. Rainbow Carbuncle, Ifrit-Egi, Titan-Egi, Garuda-Egi, Leviathan-Egi, Ramuh-Egi, or Shiva-Egi.
Additional Effect: Trick Box buff. When Cait Sith is switched out, your "Number ?" healing spells potency is doubled and you generate 2 rolls at once per "Number ?" spells instead of 1. Additionally when you use "Add" it adds your own number instead of Cait Sith.
Additional Effect II: The damage potency stat of all summons will be doubled and damage is based on your MND or INT (which ever is highest).

The Summon that replaces Cait Sith will have slightly different abilities compared to their "Affliction" Summoner (the Egi Primals) and "Rainbow" Summoner counterpart (Rainbow Carbuncle).

Rainbow Carbuncle has the same abilities from the "Rainbow" (Spec) Summoner's Carbuncle.

1. Rainbow Cast (Default Auto Ability) - Casts Ruby Flare, Sapphire Freeze, Emerald Tornado, Topaz Quake, Amethyst Burst, Cobalt Flood, or Amber Light (Carbuncle casts whichever buff you have the least of, or if you have equal buffs or no buffs at all, Carbuncle casts them on Carbuncle's current element(which again, shifts with every Rainbow cast)).

2. Carbuncle's Favor - Requires 4 buffs of all Rainbow Lights. (Cooldown: 120 seconds). Grants you and party members "Carbuncle's Favor" which restores one of 100 potency HP, 50 potency MP, or 50 TP per tick. The heal is based on the lowest (in terms of percent) HP, MP, or TP the party has. If a party member only has 50% HP, 75% MP, 75% TP, the tick will heal HP. If this changes (mid buff; like lets say party member suddenly has 0 TP now), then it will heal TP. If they are all equal, it heals HP first, then if HP is higher than MP or TP, MP is healed next, then TP (If TP is the lowest of all 3).

Lasts 30 seconds. At max, this ability will restore 100 potency worth of HP, or 500 potency of MP, or 500 TP.

Potency healed is based on your MND or INT (whichever is higher) along with your magic damage.

3. Holy Mist - Requires 2 buff of all Rainbow Lights. Orders Carbuncle to deal unaspected damage with a potency of 750 to one target. Cooldown 120 seconds.

4. Searing Light - Requires 3 buff of all Rainbow Lights. Deals 500 unaspected damage to all nearby enemies. Additionally heals party members with a potency of 500 based on your magic attack power or magic healing power (whichever is higher). 20 radius. Cooldown: 120 seconds.

Rainbow Carbuncle's abilities normally requires "Rainbow Lights" but as a Restoration Summoner, you can activate Rainbow Carbuncle's abilities by using up "Fortune Flow" charges instead (1 Fortune Flow charge equals 14 Rainbow Lights in this case) or using the "Astral Conduit" ability. Carbuncle's Favor costs 2 Fortune Flow charges. Holy Mist costs 1 Fortune Flow charge. Searing Light costs 2 Fortune Flow charges (the cost is rounded up in this case).

Ifrit Egi - Radiant Shield can be cast on a party member.

Titan Egi - Earthen Ward can be used on a party member (if used on a party member, damage they take is reduced by 10%). Lasts 20 seconds.

Garuda-Egi - Contagion can be cast on party members and if cast on Party members, most positive buff duration is increased base duration by adding its (max 15 seconds; Fey Light and Fey Glow is unaffected).

Since there is currently no Leviathan-Egi, Ramuh-Egi, and Shiva-Egi (yet), there abilities won't be listed here. Rainbow Carbuncle is a good defensive and buff Summon. Garuda-Egi and Titan-Egi is good support. Ifrit-Egi is can be used for high damaging auto-attacks.

Note - You temporarily lose Cait Sith but your Number ? spells are enhanced. The replaced Summon can be used to help deal damage or support party members with their modified skills.

3. Mewing Lullaby - When an enemy is targeted - Puts target enemy and enemies within 5 range to sleep or interrupts their current action (if it can be interrupted) if they cannot be put to sleep.
Duration: 5 seconds.
When targeted on self or a party member - Restores HP with a potency of 400. Additional Effect: Removes a single detrimental effect from the target.
(Take note, you have to use this ability manually for the party restore effect.)
Cooldown: 40 seconds.

4. Level ? Holy - Deals unaspected damage with a varied potency to target enemy and enemy within 5 range. Damage dealt varies on the number of rolls you have and their potency. If you have all 7 rolls up at and at 11 potency, this ability will deal 500 potency worth of damage.

If you have all 7 rolls up at only 1 each (or they are at an unlucky number), this ability will only deal 40 potency worth of damage. If all rolls you have is at a lucky number, it will deal 400 potency worth of damage.

Additional Effect: 50% damage dealt is converted into HP and MP.

Cooldown: 180 seconds.

Damage is based off of INT or MND (whichever is higher) and magical damage stat.

Restoration Summoner is a heal over time healer with some small buffs that they can grant thanks to their "Roll" abilities.

Level ? abilities (from Cait Sith), Number ? abilities (from yourself), and "Roll" abilities all have their separate set of numbers ranging from 1 to 6.

The numbers aren't completely random. You always get a set of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 every six casts of those abilities (and it resets to another set of six numbers from 1-6 after those six casts). This adds predictability to the Roll system.

Remember you can get a Roll to 11 through a few different effects:
1. Rolling to 11 normally.
2. If you "Add" a roll away from a "Lucky" or "Unlucky" number, it automatically goes to 11 (as long as the roll doesn't go over 11)>
3. If you "Subtract" a roll to a "Lucky" or "Unlucky" number, it automatically goes to 11.

Anyway, that's my idea for "Restoration" (Spec) Summoner. A healer alternative to "Normal/Affliction" (Spec) and "Rainbow" (Spec) Summoner. Take note the current numbers may not be really balanced. If you like the idea or concept of the job (or the concept of specs), the numbers can be balanced later (the numbers are just for examples).

Restoration Summoner loses a bit of Utility abilities (Eye for an Eye, Virus) but they are made up by the Roll buffs.

What do you think of the concept of this SMN (Restoration Specialization)? Again, this is an alternative play to SMN (like Specializations in WoW where multiple classes have different specs which alters their abilities and playstyles) and using Cait Sith (from FFXI) as the basis with the job playing similar to Corsair (from FFXI too).

I'll post my "Rainbow" (Spec) (Alternative DPS) Summoner idea in a bit and my "Arcane/Dark Arts" (Spec) (DPS) Scholar idea later too.
________________________________

[ElisaUrsula]

[Update][Rainbow Summoner:
Rainbow Summoner has had some changes. Most notably are that Advanced Dark and Rainbow Hope's potency increase effect has been decreased significantly (the numbers should be a bit more balanced) and MP cost of Rainbow Spells have been increased from 150 to 175 (though I changed Rainbow Surge to now have the added effect of reducing MP cost by 15% while active, and Rainbow Hope's same element MP penalty is now 1.4x instead of 2x).
Changes to Stats:

1. Advanced Dark's potency bonus to Rainbow Spells has been changed to +30 potency (from +50 potency).
2. Rainbow Hope's "same element as Carbuncle" potency bonus has changed to +50 potency (from +100 potency). However the MP penalty has been changed from 2x to 1.4x (before it cost 300 MP with 150 MP base, now it costs 240 MP with 175 MP base). Now grants 2 Overflowing debuffs (from 3).
3. Rainbow Spells now cost 175 MP (from 150 MP). This means you have to use Rainbow Hope's MP restoration effect more often. This also means you have to spend Rainbow Lights on Electric Recharge a bit more often too.
4. Multicast Mimicry's other player damage penalty is now 45% (from 35%).
5. Rainbow Radiance can now hold up to 2 charges of the ability. The cooldown is still 90 seconds but you can now hold the ability and have it store up to 2 charges of the effect. This is you can now time which version of Rainbow Radiance you want to use without the penalty of holding the ability from use.
6. Rainbow Surge potency bonus changed to 40 (from 50). However, Rainbow Surge now also decreases MP cost of Rainbow Spells by 15% while active.
7. Carbuncle's Favor changed from 150/75/75 to 100/50/50.

Idea for Specializations in FFXIV #2 ("Rainbow" Summoner - Alternative DPS for regular Summoner):

Short Description of "Rainbow" Summoner Specialization.

Focusing on the power of the Rainbow, Summoner makes the use of their new found powers to focus on Carbuncle again. Gaining access to new spells such as Ruby Flare, Topaz Quake, Emerald Tornado, Amethyst Burst, Cobalt Flood, Sapphire Freeze, and Amber Light.

Using any of these spells will grant a "Rainbow Light" buff (which are basically charges that are required to use Rainbow abilities which are powerful off the GCD abilities).

Carbuncle makes the return with two interesting mechanics. Carbuncle's new default ability is "Rainbow Element" which casts one of seven Rainbow based spells (listed above) and each spell adds a Rainbow Light charge to you. Carbuncle's element will shift each time a spell is cast.

Two major new abilities are: "Advanced Dark" (allows you to use Rainbow Light abilities free of charge but at the cost of Dark <Element> Debuffs which you need to remove after Advanced Dark ends) and "Rainbow Hope".

Rainbow Specialization Summoner is an alternative to "Affliction" DoT Summoner.

Quick Summary and Play Style of "Rainbow" Summoner (I'm posting this first before I list the abilities; it will make sense once you get to the abiltiies):

Use "Advanced Dark" and "Rainbow Hope" when they are available.

"Rainbow Light" Abilities require "Rainbow Light" "Charges" which are generated from casting: Ruby Flare, Sapphire Freeze, Emerald Tornado, Topaz Quake, Amethyst Burst, Cobalt Flood, an Amber Light (there are 7 seperate Rainbow Light buffs, each corresponding to the spell casts).

Those Rainbow Nukes all deal magical damage with a potency of 70 and grant 1 charge of that Rainbow Light (max 7 stacks). Carbuncle also does the same.

Use the correct Rainbow Spell to generate the current Rainbow Lights you need. Use Rainbow Light abilities (keep buffs up, DoTs on, etc). Some Rainbow Light abilities deal different damage depending on the situation (Mana Surge deals a lot of damage when you are at high MP, so if that is the case, use that ability over other abilities).

When Multicast Mimicry is up, combo it alongside with as many damage buffs as possible. Alternative if you see a BLM or (Affliction) SMN or SCH use their highest damaging spells, you can use Multicast Mimicry to copy and instantly cast the last 4 spells they casted.

When MP is low, use the approperiate abilities to regain MP (one of Rainbow Hope's effect, some Rainbow Light Abilities, etc all can restore MP).

That's a quick description of the play style of a "Rainbow" Summoner. I'll list the abilities and spells below.

Abilities changed (For "Rainbow" Summoner):

For (Rainbow) Summoner - skill changes.
Removed and replaced abilities/spells:

Ruin, Ruin II, Bio, Bio II, Resurrection, Aetherflow (and all Aetherflow type abilities: Energy Drain, Bane, Fester, Tri-disaster), Miasma, Miasma II, Eye for an Eye, Virus, Shadow Flare, Enkindle, Summon II, Summon III.

All other abilities are kept.

Cross Class abilities: THM and ARC (same as regular Summoner).

Rainbow Summoner new spells: Ruby Flare (Fire) > Sapphire Freeze (Ice) > Emerald Tornado (Wind) >
Topaz Quake (Earth) > Amethyst Burst (Lightning) > Cobalt Flood (Water) > Amber Light (Unaspected)

All deal magical damage with a potency of 70. Costs 150 MP at level 50.

Casting any of those abilities also gives you a buff (it goes up to "7") similar to after casting Fire or Blizzard as a THM/BLM. If you cast Ruby Flare, you gain 1 stack of "Ruby Flare".

Carbuncle also share these abilities too and gives you the same stacks after each cast (If Carbuncle casts Ruby Flare, you get one "Ruby Flare" buff from Carbuncle casting that same spell).

However, Carbuncle always casts the spell in a set order "or" Carbuncle always casts the spell which you have the least buffs of.

One important thing to note about Carbuncle is that Carbuncle will always shift elements after each cast of an elemental nuke. This is used to determine which spell Carbuncle casts "if" there is an equal amount of Rainbow Light buffs on you. This is also used to determine the element aspect of certain spells (Like Rainbow Radiance).

Carbuncle shifts from Ruby > Sapphire > Emerald > Topaz > Amethyst > Amber and back to Ruby again in that order each time Carbuncle casts an Elemental Nuking spell. Carbuncle will cast the spell you have the least buffs of (if you have equal buffs, Carbuncle will then cast them in that order) "or" if you have an equal amount of buffs (lets say you have 3 Ruby buffs, 3 Amethyst buffs, but none of the other), Carbuncle will first cast whichever spell it has next.

Lets say Carbuncle is in Ruby phase. Since you already have 3 Ruby buffs, Carbuncle will then cast the next spell after Flare (which is Topaz Quake). If Carbuncle also has 3 Topaz buffs, then Carbuncle will shift to the next spell (which in this case, is Emerald Tornado).

Finally, stacks cap at 7. If you have 7 stacks of Ruby Flare and cast Ruby Flare again, then you won't gain any more than that. It is important to make sure you cast the right spell (which stacks you need) as the Rainbow Light buffs are used for abilities.

Since both you and Carbuncle should be casting a Rainbow spell (Carbuncle has a default recast time of 3 seconds, while you have 2.5 seconds), that means you are gaining 1 stacks every 1.36 seconds on average (assuming no Spell Speed). Most Rainbow Light abilities cost 7 Rainbow Lights, so that means you can use a Rainbow Light Ability around once every 9.54 seconds.

Here are some abilities that change:

Ruin, Ruin II, Bio, Bio II, Miasma, Miasma II (6 abilities so far) Resurrection, Aetherflow, Shadow Flare, Energy Drain, Bane, Fester, Spur, Virus, Eye for an Eye, Tri-disaster, and Enkindle (11 abilities total), Summon II, and Summon III (2 more abilities) are all replaces with 19 new abilities (7 are the Rainbow Light abilities and 12 are combination abilities). The only summon in this specialization is Carbuncle (just plain Carbuncle). The color will be like Emerald Carbuncle. (Just for fun, maybe there is a command to change the look between Emerald and Topaz Carbuncle just for looks. Like the command can be called /ChangeCarbuncleLook "Emerald" or "Topaz") so that both Carbuncles can be featured. However the default look is Emerald Carbuncle.

Here are a few new abilities.
General Abilities:
1. Ruby Flare (Fire) > Sapphire Freeze (Ice) > Emerald Tornado (Wind) >
Topaz Quake (Earth) > Amethyst Burst (Lightning) > Cobalt Flood (Water) > Amber Light (Unaspected).

All deal magical damage with a potency of 70. Costs 175 MP at level 50.

Casting any of those spells will give 1 stack of that spell as a buff. Casting "Ruby Flare" will give you 1 stack of "Ruby Light" (for example). I'll refer to the set of buffs as "Rainbow Lights".[

2. Rainbow Re-Focus" (Cooldown: 60 seconds) - Converts 3 of your Rainbow Lights to 3 "Freecast" Charges (the priority is the 3 most Rainbow Lights you have, "or" if they are equal, it will pick based on which Element Carbuncle is in and go from left to right.

Freecast is a buff that has 3 charges. Your next Rainbow Spell will cast instantly with no recast time and no MP cost.

Due to the fact that a lot of abilities require a different mix or Rainbow Lights, you may eventually end up with too much of a Rainbow Light. This ability lets you trade a Rainbow Light for another essentially (and of course it saves you MP in an essence).

3. Over the Rainbow (Cooldown: 120 seconds) - You and Carbuncle swap positions. "However" this ability has a max range of 25 (you cannot use it if Carbuncle is 25 range farther than you). Cooldown is 60 seconds.

4. Advanced Dark (Requires you to have 2 or less Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/Topaz/Amethyst/Cobalt/Amber buffs. Cooldown: 120 seconds) -
Shifts into Advance Dark form.

Increases the damage of both you and Carbuncle's Rainbow Spells (Ruby Flare, Topaz Quake, etc) by 30 potency (this damage buff only applies to those spells and no other abilities; it doesn't affect Rainbow Light "Abilities", only Rainbow "Spells" (basically anything that is on the GCD is affected by damage buffs but any ability outside of the GCD doesn't gain a buff). Lasts 15 seconds.

Additionally (for up to 4 Rainbow Light abilities), instead of Rainbow Lights being used (for Rainbow abilities), each Rainbow Light ability can be cast for free but for each Rainbow Light it costs, you gain the same stacks as Dark and the element you used. For example, casting Storm Speed grants you Dark Emerald and Dark Amethyst (as debuffs). For spells that require and cost 1 of every Rainbow Light, you gain a Dark element for all of them.

Each Dark Rainbow Light element debuff lasts 45 seconds.

When a Dark Rainbow Light debuff expires, for each stack you have, you gain a debuff (+15 seconds for each stack you have; there is a max duration of 60 seconds) called Rainbow Fatigue that reduces your damage dealt by 50% and increases GCD and spell cast time by 50%, and you lose 5% MP for each stack you had when it expires. Long story short, you don't want to have too many of these stacks.

During Advanced Dark, you cannot remove Dark Rainbow Light stacks.

However after Advanced Dark ends, you can remove Dark Rainbow Light stacks by casting the opposing spells of Rainbow Light abilities that you used (each cast removes 2 stacks of the opposing element).

For example if you cast Storm Speed (Emerald which is Wind and Amethyst which is Thunder), you can remove stacks by casting Sapphire Freeze (Ice is stronger than Wind), and Topaz Quake (Earth grounds Thunder). The exception is Amber Light; for that you cast Amber Light again.

By casting the right spells, you can remove any penalty gained from using Advanced Dark (and instead it will be a benefit only).

Since Advanced Dark lasts 15 seconds, and the debuff lasts 45 seconds, you can have either the full 45 seconds (if you cast a spell just before Advanced Dark ends) or 30 seconds to remove the Dark Rainbow Light stacks. Take note, only by casting spells will you remove Dark stacks (Carbuncle doesn't remove them). If you use lets say three Rainbow Light abilities during Advanced Dark (Storm Speed, Blaze Gust, and Hailstorm), you will gain 6 stacks of Dark Emerald, 3 stacks of Dark Ruby, 3 stacks of Dark Sapphire, 3 stacks of Dark Amethyst, and 3 stacks of Dark Cobalt. That means you need to cast 2 Sapphire Freeze (to remove 6 Dark Emerald, 1 cast removes 3 dark stacks), 1 Cobalt Flood (for Dark Ruby), 1 Topaz Quake (for Dark Amethyst), 1 Amethyst Burst (for Dark Cobalt), and 1 Ruby Flare (for 1 Dark Sapphire).

Requires 6 casts to remove all Dark stacks. Which means it takes 12.7 seconds to remove all stacks (This is with 2.5 GCD and with the Storm Speed buff which reduces GCD and spell cast time by 15%).

It gets a bit more complicated if you use 1 of every Rainbow Light ability (like Rainbow Radiance and Holy Mist). In that cast, you might potentially add up to 7 extra casts for those which adds 14.875 seconds. Having 1 stack of Dark that expires (which translates to 10 seconds of Rainbow Fatigue) is usually bad but if you get away with casting 5 Rainbow Light spells for free essentially, the benefit outweighs the negative effects. Though usually, you will probably want to get rid of all Dark stacks before it expires as the penalty is big.

Since you will normally not be able to have enough Rainbow Lights to cast every single DPS oriented Rainbow Light ability, you will have to use Advanced Dark to casts a few abilities.

5. Rainbow Hope (Cooldown: 120 seconds) - Reduces GCD, cast times, and overall damage dealt by 50%. Reduces MP cost of Rainbow spells by 75%. Cannot be used when Advanced Dark is active. While buff is active, Dark Rainbow Lights and Overflowing Rainbow Lights cannot be removed. Lasts 15 seconds.

When used, all Rainbow Spells will also grant a debuff called "Overflowing <The Rainbow Spell you used> Light". This debuff lasts 40 seconds and when it expires, it will apply 1 stack of Rainbow Fatigue debuff (just like Advanced Dark). This debuff also cannot be removed when either Rainbow Hope or Advanced Dark is active.

To remove it, simply use a Rainbow Light ability which uses the element. For every 1 Rainbow Light charged that is used from a Rainbow Ability, 4 stacks of "Unfocus Rainbow Light" debuffs (of the element) will be removed.

A counterpart to Advanced Dark.

There are four different effects from Rainbow Hope:

*If you cast a Rainbow spell that has the same element as Carbuncle, the potency of spell will increase by 50 but you will gain 2 stacks of "Overflowing <Spell> Light" instead of 1 and the Rainbow Spell will cost 1.4x more MP (245MP per cast) instead of 0.25x MP.
*If you cast a Rainbow spell that is "stronger" than the element Carbuncle has (If Carbuncle is in Fire element, and you cast Water for example), then there is no MP cost but instead you actually regain MP (7% MP restored per cast). However, you will gain 2 stacks of "Overflowing <Spell> Light" instead of 1.
*If you cast a Rainbow spell that is "weaker" than the element Carbuncle has (If Carbuncle is in Thunder element and you cast Water for example), then you gain 2 stacks of the Rainbow Light and you do not gain any stacks of "Overflowing <Spell> Light". (If you have Rainbow Surge active, you gain 1 stack per cast instead of 0.) Additionally, the damage dealt will be only 25% of the base (instead of 50% when Rainbow Hope is active).

Alternative if you cast any spell that doesn't fit the above criteria, then the spell will cost 75% less MP, GCD and cast time is reduced by 50%, and you gain 1 stack of Rainbow Light and 1 stack of "Overflowing <Spell> Light" like normal.

Rainbow Hope is a powerful counterpart to Advanced Dark and should be used whenever as it has four different effects that you can use (depending on the situation).

Rainbow Light abilities (these abilities cost Rainbow Lights) (Also unless otherwise noted, each seperate ability has a Cooldown of 5 seconds):

1. Storm Speed - This ability costs 4 Emerald Tornado and 3 Amethyst Burst buffs.

Grants you and Carbuncle Storm Speed buff which reduces casting time (and GCD of spells) by 10% (before spell speed reductions; this essentially means that it always reduces GCD and cast time by 0.25 seconds for you and 0.3 seconds for Carbuncle) and grants 5% movement speed bonus for 40 seconds.

2. Hailstorm - This ability costs 4 Sapphire Freeze and 3 Cobalt Flood buffs.

Targeted point abililty (radius is 10) that deals ice and water damage with a potency of 60 over 15 seconds (for a total of 300 potency). Slows enemies movement by 50%.

3. Bubble Light -- Costs 5 Amber Light and 5 Cobalt Flood buffs. Restores the target's HP with a potency of 800 based on either MND or INT (which ever is higher is used in the healing calculation). Any excess healed (over the max HP) is converted into a shield (like Scholar's Adloquium but only works on excess healed) that lasts for 60 seconds.

Can be cast on a K.O. target to revive them in a weakened state.

Rainbow Summoner loses access to Resurrection (spell) but they have an alternative with this.

4. Blaze Gust - Costs 4 Ruby Flare and 3 Emerald Tornado buffs. Deals fire and wind damage with a potency of 120. Also inflicts the target with a DoT with a potency of 20 for 18 seconds (for a total of 120 potency from the DoT = 240 potency total).

When a (non-DoT) wind or fire aspected damage is cast on the same target, there is a 30% chance (15% for party members) that the DoT damage duration will increase by an additional 3 seconds (up to +18 second max).

With this effect, can add +120 potency (360 potency total from the initial ability and if this ability reaches max duration).

5. Stone Barrier - Costs 4 Topaz Quake and 3 Amber Light buffs. Grants you and Carbuncle a Stoneskin effect (50% of max HP). While the buff is active, damage and healing is increased by +10% damage and healing. Lasts 60 seconds.

6. Flame Burst - Costs 3 Ruby Flare and 4 Amethyst Burst buffs. Grants you "Flame Burst" buff which lasts 40 seconds. Every time you cast a spell, you will deal an additional attack that does fire and lightning damage with a potency of 20. Can be used to reapply and increase the duration of Blaze Gust's DoT. This is also useful for "Rainbow Radiance - Amethyst Burst" and "Rainbow Radiance - Ruby Flare".

This effect is also applied when you use "Multicast Mimicry".

7. Electric Recharge - Costs 5 Amethyst Burst and 5 Sapphire Freeze buffs. Restores 50% MP and TP to yourself or 20% MP and TP to a party member (can be targeted).

8. Mana Surge (Cooldown: 20 seconds) - This ability costs 3 Sapphire Freeze and 4 Cobalt Flood buffs.
Deals unaspected damage depending on your current MP to the target. 100% MP = 400 potency.
0% MP = 0 potency. 10% MP remaining is 40 potency.

9. Aqua Fotify - 4 Cobalt Flood and 3 Topaz Quake buffs. Can be cast on enemy target or party member (plus self). If cast on Enemy: Deals Water and Earth damage with a potency of 200. Additional Effect: Stuns target for 5 seconds. If cast on Self or Party Member: Removes up to 2 debuffs (that can be removed with Esuna or Leeches) and grants a Shield effect that negates up to 2 attacks (physical or magical) and prevents any additional effect (Like Manaward). The same target cannot have the shield active on them for another 60 seconds though (after "Aqua Fortify" buff ends, it grants another buff that prevents another application of "Aqua Fortify" until the buff wears off after 60 seconds).

10. Aqua Link - 3 Cobalt Flood and 4 Amber Light buffs. Copies most positive buffs from target party member (buffs that are not included are "Rainbow" Ability buffs from other SMNs). The buffs durations are reset to full and doubled (with maximum increase being +10 seconds) duration of buffs. Only buffs with durations can be copied.

This works on most buffs with durations like Blood for Blood, etc. Also it copies the enhanced versions of them if they are active (DRG with Blood for Blood, for example).

Some buffs are copied but work differently.

Copying Astral Fire or Umbral Ice (regardless of tier) converts them to Rainbow Astral Fire and Rainbow Umbral Ice.

Rainbow Astral Fire increases fire based damage dealt by 30%. Lasts 10 seconds normally (just like THM/BLM) but is buffed to 20 seconds from this abilities.

Rainbow Umbral Ice reduces ice based spells (Sapphire Freeze) to 0 MP cost. Also reduces cost of Rainbow Light abilities whihc use Sapphire Freeze as a cost by 1 (minimum cost is 1 though).

11. Multicast Mimicry (Cooldown: 60 seconds) - Costs 1 of each Rainbow Light.

Copies the last 4 GCD related abilities from you or target party member and casts them as if you cast them (with no MP and TP costs and no cooldowns).

Additional Effects (most of them) add normally. When used on a party member, there is a damage (and healing) penalty of 45%.

12. Rainbow Surge (Costs 1 of each Rainbow Light). Adds 40 potency to your Rainbow Spells but prevents your Rainbow Spells from generating Rainbow Lights (This does not affect Carbuncle). Additionally reduces MP cost of your Rainbow Spells by 15%. Lasts 40 seconds.

13. Rainbow Radiance (Requires Carbuncle to be summoned to use this ability) - Requires (and costs) 1 of every elemental buff. Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 150. Unlike other Rainbow abilities, this ability has requires using a charge with a 90 second cooldown between regaining charges. You can have up to 2 charges of this ability. Basically every 90 seconds, you gain 1 charge (max 2 charges). This means that you can wait for Carbuncle to shift to the element you want before using this ability, without any cooldown penalty for holding this ability from use.

Additional Effect depending on Carbuncle's current Element buff, an Additional Effect will happen.

1. If Ruby Flare is Carbuncle's current element - Deals fire damage with a potency of 150 with an additional DoT potency of 20 for 21 seconds (150 + 140 for a total of 290 potency damage). Additional Effect: Fire or Wind damage dealt has a 40% (by you; 20% by party members) chance of adding 3 seconds to the DoT duration (up to +30 seconds max). Assuming max duration increase, deals an additional 200 damage from the DoT. 490 potency total potentially. 640 potency if you include max duration from DoT and Rainbow Radiance's damage.

Max duration is 51 seconds.

2. If Sapphire Freeze is Carbuncle's current element - Deals ice damage with a potency of 150 to target enemy. All positive buffs on you (including ones you used with Aqua Link) have their duration reset to full and increased by 200% (max +20 seconds). All negative buffs on target enemy (from you) have their duration reset to full and increased by 200% (max +20 seconds).

3. If you have Emerald Tornado as Carbuncle's current element - Unleashes a Torando at target. Deals 50 potency per tick to enemies within 5 range of the Tornado. Tornado moves at 5 range per second (and homes in on the target, if target dies before it reaches, it will disperse at the location the target died). If cast at 25 range, it will take 5 seconds to reach target. After Tornado reaches target, deals a varying amount of damage based on distanced traveled to the target enemy and enemies within 5 range. Cast range 25.

The longer the distance, the greater the final damage and AoE.

25 ranged = +450 potency. 1 Range = +18 potency of damage.

Base damage is 50 potency. So at full distance, this deals wind damage with a potency of 500.
AoE 5 range.

4. If Topaz Quake is Carbuncle's Element - Grants you and party members 10% damage reduction for 30 seconds. After the ability ends, this buff cannot be reapplied again for another 30 seconds (if you or any other SMN attempts to use Rainbow Radiance - Topaz Quake, it instead applies Amber Light effect below).

5. If you have Amethyst Burst as Carbuncle's current element - Deals lightning damage with a potency of 150 to the target and nearby enemies in a range (with an area of effect of 10). Additional Effect: Stun 5 seconds or if the targets cannot be stunned, prevents the target from auto-attacking for 5 seconds (works on bosses also but it only affects their auto attacks and none of their special moves). Additionally each target has a 3 stack debuff called "Charged Burst" (lasts 20 seconds).

Dealing an instances of non-DoT lightning damage to that target decreases the stack by 1. When it is decreased to 0, it will deal an additional lightning damage with a potency of 150.

(Blaze Gust can be useful as it adds both fire and lightning damage to your attacks.)

6. If you have Cobalt Flood as Carbuncle's current element - Deals water damage depending on your current MP to the target. 100% MP = 500 potency. 0% mp = 0 potency. 10% is 50 potency.

50% damage dealt is converted to HP for both you and Carbuncle. Also removes 3 negative debuffs on both you and Carbuncle.

A more powerful version of Mana Surge basically.

7. If Amber Light is Carbuncle's current element - Revives a party member (it always picks the last person that was KO'd in your party member first or someone without a "raise" buff already) in a weakened state at 50% HP, 50% MP, and 500 TP.
Additionally when this is used, you regain 30% HP, 30% MP, and 300 TP.

You can click on a target K.O. player and use Rainbow Radiance (with Carbuncle with Amber element up) and it will revive the party. Rainbow Radiance will target and damage whatever Carbuncle is attacking. If Carbuncle is not targeting or attacking anything, then you won't deal any damage with Rainbow Radiance but you can still manually target players and revive them with Rainbow Radiance (Amber Light).

Since Carbuncle always shifts element with every cast, that means you may have to wait 17.5 to 15 seconds (depending on spell speed you have) max.

Abilities that Carbuncle has:

1. Rainbow Cast (Default Auto Ability) - Casts Ruby Flare, Sapphire Freeze, Emerald Tornado, Topaz Quake, Amethyst Burst, Cobalt Flood, or Amber Light (Carbuncle casts whichever buff you have the least of, or if you have equal buffs or no buffs at all, Carbuncle casts them on Carbuncle's current element(which again, shifts with every Rainbow cast)).

2. Carbuncle's Favor - Requires 4 buffs of all Rainbow Lights. (Cooldown: 120 seconds). Grants you and party members "Carbuncle's Favor" which restores one of 100 potency HP, 50 potency MP, or 50 TP per tick. The heal is based on the lowest (in terms of percent) HP, MP, or TP the party has. If a party member only has 50% HP, 75% MP, 75% TP, the tick will heal HP. If this changes (mid buff; like lets say party member suddenly has 0 TP now), then it will heal TP. If they are all equal, it heals HP first, then if HP is higher than MP or TP, MP is healed next, then TP (If TP is the lowest of all 3).

Lasts 30 seconds. At max, this ability will restore 1000 potency worth of HP, or 500 potency of MP, or 500 TP.

Potency healed is based on your MND or INT (whichever is higher) along with your magic damage.

3. Holy Mist - Requires 2 buff of all Rainbow Lights. Orders Carbuncle to deal unaspected damage with a potency of 750 to one target. Cooldown 120 seconds.

4. Searing Light - Requires 3 buff of all Rainbow Lights. Deals 500 unaspected damage to all nearby enemies. Additionally heals party members with a potency of 500 based on your magic attack power or magic healing power (whichever is higher). 20 radius. Cooldown: 120 seconds.

Those are abilities for Rainbow Summoner.

Strategy for Rainbow Summoner - There are four important abilities that Rainbow Summoner has: Advanced Dark, Rainbow Hope, Mimicry Multicast, and Rainbow Radiance.

Here are a few strong burst damage stuff.
Notes for using Multicast Mimicry (when you have lots of Rainbow Lights to work with and Rainbow Hope ready)

Using Rainbow Hope (same element = +100 potency to Rainbow Spells), Rainbow Surge (+50 to all rainbow light spells), Rainbow Re-focus (3 free casts of an elemental Rainbow Spell). Base potency of Rainbow Nukes are 70. With the buffs, it is 70 + 50 (Rainbow Surge) + 100 (Rainbow Hope "if" you cast the same element Carbuncle is in) + Flame Burst (+20) = 240 potency per cast.

Using Aqua Link (copies almost all positive buffs with a duration) on another DPS job that used all their cooldowns (Blood for Blood, Raging Strikes, etc) along with their DPS buffs (Heavy Thrust, Greased Lightning, Astral Fire, etc). Have Rainbow Surge and have Rainbow Re-focus ready. Then cast four Ruby Flares in a row (While Carbuncle is on Amber Light > Carbuncle will shift to Ruby Flare next) > use Rainbow Hope then wait for Carbuncle to shift into "Ruby Flare" element, then use Multicast Mimicry (since it copies the last 4 GCD spells and you cast 4 Ruby Flares before this, you will instantly cast 4 Ruby Flares for 240 potency each). Then quickly use 3 more Ruby Flares (from your Rainbow Re-Focus) for an additional 3 casts of Ruby Flare.

Then when Carbuncle shifts element, cast the same as Carbuncle has.

The optimal combo with Multicast Mimicry is to use it with Rainbow Hope (+50 potency to your Rainbow Spells on same element) or Advanced Dark (+30 potency to your Rainbow Spells), Rainbow Surge (+40 potency to all Rainbow Spells), and Flame Burst (+20 potency on all GCD based abilities). Take note you can basically only get 10 casts from the "Same Element = +50 potency" bonus effect from Rainbow Hope. As you will get 2 stacks of "Overflowing <Rainbow> Light" per cast and you cannot use Advanced Dark to remove them. Casting 10 times of same element gives you 20 Overflowing Ruby Lights (if you using my Ruby Flare example above).

You need to save 7 stacks of Ruby Light and use them up to remove the "Overflowing Ruby Light" (for example) debuff to prevent Rainbow Fatigue (again, a huge damage penalty debuff which occurs if you have any "Dark <Rainbow>" or "Overflowing <Rainbow>" stacks remaining from Advanced Dark or Rainbow Hope.

The Multicast Mimicry + Rainbow Hope + Rainbow Surge + Flame Burst combo is the strongest form of burst damage a Rainbow Summoner has. You can effectively unleash 1800 potency worth of damage in seconds if you have all cooldowns ready and Rainbow Lights to spare.

If you see a SCH or SMN use Bio (240 potency total), Bio II (350), Miasma (300), Aero (200) or Shadow Flare (250), using Mimicry Multicast to copy and instantly cast all those spells is a good idea. All those is potentially a potency of 1090/1140 (45% damage penalty) 599/627 potency from a single cast of Multicast Mimicry. Combine this with Rainbow Radiance - Sapphire Freeze to add +200% (max +20 seconds) duration to all those DoTs.

Alternatively use Multicast Mimicry on a Black Mage after they have gotten a few Firestarter procs. When you need to AoE and the BLM uses Fire II x2 > Flare x2, you can use Multicast Mimicry (right after they cast the last Flare) to instantly copy and repeat the same spells.

Anyway, that's my idea for "Rainbow" (Spec) Summoner. An alternative DPS to "Normal/Affliction" (Spec) Summoner. Take note the current numbers aren't really balanced. If you like the idea or concept of the job (or the concept of specs), the numbers can be balanced later (the numbers are just for examples).

Rainbow Summoner loses a bit of Utility abilities (Eye for an Eye, Virus, Resurrection) but they are replaced by other similar abiltiies from their Rainbow Abilities (Bubble Light can be used as battle resurrection for example).

Virus and Eye for an Eye are also lost when using this spec (replaced by different type of support abilities).

What do you think of the concept of this SMN (Rainbow Specialization)? Again, this is an alternative play to SMN (like Specializations in WoW where multiple classes have different specs which alters their abilities and playstyles) and using the popular Carbuncle summon as a basis.

Those are my two Specialization ideas for Summoner ("Rainbow", an alternative DPS spec to "Normal" SMN, and "Restoration" a healing spec for SMN). The ideas are just an example of how adding "Job Specializations" (like from WoW or FFXI to an extent) could work in FFXIV.

Most of the abilities change but a lot of the theme of the job remains, allowing you to play your favorite job in a different way. I'll add my "Arcane" or "Dark Arts" Scholar spec idea later.

(Also note - The numbers for Rainbow Summoner aren't balanced yet. I'll try to balance the numbers more later. The numbers were mostly an example on how the Spec would be played and I will try balancing it some more later.)

[ElisaUrsula]

Here is a summary and small background lore idea for "Arcane" Scholar specialization.

Arcane Scholar (Spec) is Scholar's version of both Conjurer and Thaumaturge. It is a DPS alternative to Scholar's healing spec (which I'll call Restoration Scholar).

A key new ability to Scholar is "Change Stance" which allows the Scholar to switch between Conjurer Mode (with access to Stone I/III, Aero I/III, Water I/III, and along with Eos with new offensive abilities) and Thamaturge mode (with access to Fire I/III, Blizzard I/III, Thunder I/III, and switches to Selene with new offensive abilities).

Using all six elements (and two more with dark and light), this is Scholar's version of an offensive mage.

Like THM and BLM's Astral Fire and Umbral Ice, Scholar will have their own versions of those buffs. It is different and there are eight different buffs (one for each ability). To maximize DPS as an Arcane Scholar, you want to use T1 spells (as well as using Eos and Selene's new abilities) to continously increase the application buffs. Once they are up, T3 spells (which as an Arcane Scholar, casts faster and deal more damage but with the drawback that they cost more MP per potency and they do not add or refresh Fairy Elemental buffs) should be used. Once MP is drained, a Scholar will have various Strategems and other abilities to keep their resources up.

Like FFXI, an Arcane Scholar will also have the ability to perform skillchains and only through skillchains, can Scholar reach Tier IV Fairy Buffs.

I'll add the rest of SCH post later.

As for how Specializations could work (like for example, how do you switch between Specs)?

How Specs could work in FFXIV:
1. Job Quests and Class quests require you to be on a job's "Main" spec to do it. For the Summoner example, this means you have to be on regular Summoner to do SMN's Job quests. This means that there doesn't have to be job quests for Specs.

2. Gear - There are two ways to deal with gear. For example, lets say I use my Healer SMN idea above - SMN usually can only wear Caster gear that only adds INT, so how would healer SMN get healer gear?

Three ways to solve this is:
*Make it so when you switch specializations, all the stats on your armor changes to match the spec. For example, if you have Caster set with INT, it changes to MND when you change to a healer SMN. Accuracy is changed to Piety, etc.
*And/Or Make it so that switching specs makes it so you can wear different equipment. Changing to a healer SMN means you can now equip healer armor.
*Alternatively a combination of the above.

3. Switching Specs - Should switching specs be free or require a cost? Maybe switching to a different spec requires 10k company seals? Also maybe each week, you get 1 free switch per job per weekly reset. Of course, switching specs can also be free and have no cost.

Anyway, these are my ideas on how Specializations could work in FFXIV (if added).

Again, I would love to see something like WoW's Specialization system. Give each Job 3 or more Specs (with every job at least having two different roles they can play), so you have multiple ways to play your favorite jobs. Plus, it is sort of like adding a completely new job altogether (just using the theme of the same job).

In FFXI, a lot of jobs can be played in multiple ways. RDM and BLU (my examples in the first post) are good examples. SCH is also another example. Adding something like WoW's Specializations would add a lot to FFXIV.

[Eloah]

Hmm... I don't really know how to reply to your ideas. I will say that the specializations you are talking about is basically what the jobs are. With Summoner and Scholar being the best example as the same class but different specialization. While your ideas aren't bad they do feel a little unorganized. I would suggest reorganizing them into a more cohesive format for easier understanding.

As for your individual ideas:

Resurrection Summoner: One could argue that this is basically a Scholar. Additionally, while the moves you outlines don't seem bad, you basically replaced every move the class has, in favor of newer/different moves. (Additionally, Tri-Disaster isn't an Aetherflow move.) I would think this idea would work better as a "Healing" Gambler, a completely new class/job.

Arcane Scholar: Again once could argue that this is iust a Summoner. And again you seemed to of changed a lot of the moves. Now I'm not saying the ideas are bad, but why not just give these new moves to Summoner.

Rainbow Summoner: This is a great idea, and I could see it as a new job to be Branched off of Arcanist. Like a Bard, being a low level DPS with support abilities. This concept plays to the fact that Carbuncle has usually been a support summon, and how in FFIX the gem you had equip changed the move Carbuncle used. While I would suggest reworking it a little, and possibly changing the name, maybe this is FFXIV's Corsair, or Oracle, or some other name; This is your strongest suggestion in my opinion, as it can act differently than current jobs, and would bring back Carbuncle, like so many people want.

I will say it seems like you are adhering concepts other games have to a high standard, and not really reworking them to the gameplay of FFXIV. FF games have always been Main Job/Sub Job, so having a form of specialization doesn't really exist. But truthfully, I have never played any other MMOs so I have nothing to compare the gameplay too.

[Dillia]

As much as I would love to see more options for classes in the game, I think that SEs anouncement that the Heavensward classes will have no job crystal pretty much says they will not do something like this. I think SE missed the mark in a big way with the job crystals, every class should have at least 2 crystals for various rolls. IE. Lancer can become Dragoon (Melee DPS) or Templar (Tank), Conjurer can become White Mage (Healer) or Geomancer (Magic DPS), Gladiator can become Paladin (Tank) or Fencer (Melee DPS) and so on like that. It would not suprise me at all if we log in the first day of 3.0 and find SCH and SMN are now two different base classes. Also, allowing you to level all classes on one character negates the need for alternatives "specs", if your group needs a healer, change to a healing job, if your group needs melee dps, change to a dps job. It is not so important that you be able to fill more than one roll because you can fill ALL rolls.

[Wintersandman]

I hope they can keep the job crystals in for later. There could be some options with it. Wouldn't be nice to scrap it come 3.0.

[liljramos88]

I really hope they keep the job system as each class should have a duel role. The thing that should change is the atribute points should be locked to a job crystal and not the class. If u a smn and your party need healer just switch to scholar. So many posibilities

[elemental10]

I agree with this idea.

I would like it implemented, as it would give a lot of varieties AND manipulate the holy trinity. But as things go, I don't think it would be possible without a total reword of the classes.

Looking at the post, there's just too much XI this and XI that. I'm not trying to be bias but SE would've made another XI as XIV if it's what they wanted to do. I know XI is a very good game, although I have never played it before, but keeping the same old concept over and over again wouldn't attract much market.

[Nyghtmarerobu]

I would love to see job specialization, but more so to change how a job is played slightly, rather than giving it a different role. Specialization trees to augment exsisting skills, or to add new skills to jobs lineup. The other thing you can do would be to add gear-set bonuses to change how you play a job as well. An example of this would be, your wearing 3 peices of a blm set, it says "enhances thundercloud", this could for instance, make it so when you get a thundercloud proc, it can fork and hit 2 more targets applying the thunder debuff to 3 mobs instead of 1. Now this doesn't really change how the job is played, but its an example of how they could add intresting things to the game to keep the jobs intresting.

[ElisaUrsula]

I updated Restoration Summoner and Rainbow Summoner.

For Restoration Summoner, I made a lot of changes. Now it is more of a heal over time healer. Roll buffs have been decreased and Rolls now last indefinitely as long as the Restoration Summoner is in the same party as the target (you still need to reapply after you use Trade In or a Roll 11 ability though). There are now more ways to get to Roll 11. Fortune Flow has been changed. A lot of spells for Restoration Summoner has been changed or have added effects based on heal over time effects.

For Rainbow Summoner, I changed the numbers to try to make things more balanced.

Here are all the changes:

[Restoration Summoner:
Changes to Abilities:

1. Rolls now last indefinitely as long as the Restoration Summoner is in the same party as the target. However you still need to reapply the roll after you use a Roll 11 ability (as it uses up the Roll 11 buff on the target) or the "Trade in" ability. Also you can now only store up to three numbers (instead of six). Bust debuff effects now last 10 seconds (down from 30 seconds).

2. When you "Add" away from a Lucky Number or Unlucky Number, the roll will now automatically go to 11 (as long as you do not go over 11). When you "Subtract" to a Lucky or Unlucky number, it now automatically goes to 11 (previously this only worked if you subtracted to a lucky number).

3. Fortune Flow charges has been changed. Instead of gaining a charge when you hit 11, you now automatically (passive effect) gain 1 charge every 44 seconds. However for each Roll you have at 11, the cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds (up to 14 second reduction from 7 rolls at 11). At 7 rolls at 11, Fortune Flow recharges every 30 seconds (you can have a max of 3 charges; previously you could have up to 4 charges stored).

4. Number ? Cure now applies overheals from this spell as increased duration to its heal over time effect (max 48 second duration with a potency of 25). If the target is at 100% HP, 300 of potency that is "overheal" is changed to a heal over time effect (+36 seconds in this case). The Additional Effect will also apply (adding +12 seconds) which makes it 48 seconds total.

5. When Number ? Cure II is cast on a target with 70% HP or lower, Cure II now causes all your heal over time effects to apply one instance/tick of healing instantly with a bonus of 100% increased potency from HoTs that are used up by this effect (this effect does not apply to Number ? Cure II's HoT). For example - If you have Number ? Cure (25 HoT potency), Level ? Cure (25 HoT potency), and Level ? Regen (50 HoT potency) on the target, and you cast Cure II, it will causes one instance of all those heals to apply instantly (granting 50 from Number ? Cure, 50 from Level ? Cure, and 100 from Regen). When one instance of the HoT is used up, 3 seconds from the duration is removed (this effect cannot occur if the HoT has 2 seconds or less duration remaining).

In the example I used, Cure II would heal 450 HP + 25 (boosted to 50) + 25 (boosted to 50) + 50 (boosted to 100) making it heal 650 health with an Additional HoT (from Cure II itself) of 200 potency over 12 seconds.

When Number ? Restoration affects targets with 70% HP or lower, the same effect also applies (it affects all HoTs effects except from Number ? Restoration's own HoT). Number ? Restoration now causes up to 2 instance of each HoT effect (on that target) to be used up instantly if the targets are below 70% HP or less. For each (different) instance/tick HoT is that is used up, MP cost of the spell is reduced by 10% per instance/tick. If you have the heal over time effects of Number ? Cure, Number ? Cure II, Level ? Cure, Number ? Regen all up on a target that has 70% or less HP, than it uses up up to 2 instances/ticks of each HoT (3 seconds is reduced from that HoT when this happens). MP cost of Number ? Restoration is reduced by 10% per instance/tick used, in this case 80% MP cost is reduced. Note, this effect is based on how many different HoT effects (and the max instances used up) overall (with max being +2 from each different HoT), rather than overall from every player. That means using this effect on 1 player with 5 HoTs effects is the same as 5 players each with 5 HoTs effect. However if each player has different HoTs effect, this will count all the different HoTs effect used up across all players.

Note you can also have Spring Water as a HoT. With 5 SMN HoT effects up and if 10 ticks of HoTs is used up (that doesn't include Number ? Restoration), MP cost is reduced to 0 for Number ? Restoration. Base MP cost for Number ? Restoration is 399.

6. Number ? Cure II HoT effect duration now stacks up to +48 seconds (base duration is 12 seconds but now you can use it up to 4 times to make HoT last 48 seconds max).

7. When Number ? Cure is used on a target with 70% HP or lower, and that target has Number ? Cure II's HoT effect, Cure 1 now causes up to 3 instances/ticks of Cure 2's heal over time effect to be applied instantly. Additionally the MP cost of Number ? Cure I is reduced by 5% for each instance/tick (1 tick = 3 seconds on the duration) of Cure 2 HoT used this way (up to 15% less MP required). For example if target is below 70% HP and they have Cure II's HoT effect with a duration of 12 seconds. Casting Number ? Cure will now use up to 9 seconds of the duration to apply 3 instances of HoT effects instantly (Cure II's HoT is 50 potency per tick; in this example Cure 1 now uses up 3 HoT ticks of Cure II and cause 150 potency of heal instantly).

8. Trade In now restores up to 20% MP (decreased from 25%).

Changes to Stats:

1. Roll effects have been changed to 0.5%/1%/1.5%/2% (previously it was from 2% to 5%).
2. Cait Sith's Level ? Cure changed from 300 potency to 200 potency with 100 heal over time (12 seconds).
3. Number ? Restoration potency changed from 150/150 (150 with 150 heal over time) to 100/100 (100 with 100 heal over time).
4. Spring Water heal potency changed from 500 to 200 potency with 100 heal over time.
5. Earthen Ward changed from 15% Stoneskin to 10% Stoneskin.
6. Inferno Howl changed from +5% damage bonus to 2.5% (also grants +2.5% heal potency boost too now). Garuda's Roll Haste and Movement speed bonus changed from 10% to 5%. Ramuh's Crit Bonus and Potency effect changed from 10% to 5%.
7. Shining Ruby has been changed from 15% Cure Received bonus and 15% defense + magic defense boost to 5% Cure Received Bonus and 5% defense + magic defense bonus. Effect has been changed and Shining Ruby now also increases the duration all the Restoration Summoner's heal over time buffs by 100% of its base duration (max +30 second bonus).
8. Number ? Cure now costs from 133 MP to 146 MP (it costs 10% more MP than Cure and Physick).
9. Number ? Cure II now costs from 266 MP to 319 MP (it now costs 20% more MP than Cure II).
10. Level ? Arcane Magic now deals random element (or unaspected) damage with a potency of 170 (from 220).
11. Level ? Holy now deals 60% less damage than before. Max potency is now 500 (before was 1250).
12. Rainbow Carbuncle's (from Cait Sith's Trick Box effect) "Carbuncle's Favor" effect changed from 150/75/75 HP/MP/TP heal to 100/50/50.

New Abilities:

1. Boon (Cooldown: 10 seconds. Requires use of 1 Fortune Flow charge) - Applies the target player's heal over time effects (only you and Cait Sith's heal over time effects) to two other party members (this will apply to the two lowest HP party members first, if tied, the two party members with no HoTs effect, or the two closest party members to the target). If you have less than 50% MP, also adds the base duration of the heal over time effect to the current duration. If party members have less than 50% HP, the heal over time effect is applied instantly (the additional heal amount from this effect has a max potency of 500 though; also this doesn't take away the heal over time).

2. Number ? Regen - Grants a healing over time effect to target. Potency 50 (this is 100 potency less than WHM's regen). Duration 30 seconds. Total potency (500 potency; this is 550 less than WHM's regen). MP Cost 148 (costs 20% less MP than WHM's regen).
Additional Effect: Generates a random number.

[Rainbow Summoner:
Rainbow Summoner has had some changes. Most notably are that Advanced Dark and Rainbow Hope's potency increase effect has been decreased significantly (the numbers should be a bit more balanced) and MP cost of Rainbow Spells have been increased from 150 to 175 (though I changed Rainbow Surge to now have the added effect of reducing MP cost by 15% while active, and Rainbow Hope's same element MP penalty is now 1.4x instead of 2x).
Changes to Stats:

1. Advanced Dark's potency bonus to Rainbow Spells has been changed to +30 potency (from +50 potency).
2. Rainbow Hope's "same element as Carbuncle" potency bonus has changed to +50 potency (from +100 potency). However the MP penalty has been changed from 2x to 1.4x (before it cost 300 MP with 150 MP base, now it costs 240 MP with 175 MP base). Now grants 2 Overflowing debuffs (from 3).
3. Rainbow Spells now cost 175 MP (from 150 MP). This means you have to use Rainbow Hope's MP restoration effect more often. This also means you have to spend Rainbow Lights on Electric Recharge a bit more often too.
4. Multicast Mimicry's other player damage penalty is now 45% (from 35%).
5. Rainbow Radiance can now hold up to 2 charges of the ability. The cooldown is still 90 seconds but you can now hold the ability and have it store up to 2 charges of the effect. This is you can now time which version of Rainbow Radiance you want to use without the penalty of holding the ability from use.
6. Rainbow Surge potency bonus changed to 40 (from 50). However, Rainbow Surge now also decreases MP cost of Rainbow Spells by 15% while active.
7. Carbuncle's Favor changed from 150/75/75 to 100/50/50.