Imagining Astrologian

[lyndwyrm]

These are just my perceptions/opinions/observations about what you've listed. Any criticisms are intended to be constructive.

1 – Proto Star (Deals cosmic damage with a potency of 110 and applies a 10 second slow effect. Effect diminishes over time. Slow=10%)

--I actually think the potency of this could be a little higher, given stone is potency 140, and has a longer heavy effect.

2 – Southern Crux (Restores target’s HP with a potency of 400)

--Basic cure, check.

4 – Level 4 Death (Inflicts instant death on a target. Can only be used when target’s level is divisible by 4 and at 4% HP. Can only be used on certain targets, not bosses. Recast of 40 seconds)

--If it can only be used on non-raid, non-boss, mobs, then I would up the HP threshold to more like 40%, or anywhere beneath 40%. At 4%, just about anything could kill it. In balance with the much higher HP threshold, you could add a flat miss chance of 30-50% to make it less powerful.

8 – Focus (Restores the users MP over time with a potency of 15 per tick. Prevents casting of offensive magic while effect is active. Effect ends upon reuse)

--Combines MP management with limiting DPS, effective in my opinion.

10 – Trine (Deals cosmic damage over time with a potency of 20. Duration: 15 seconds)

--This is defininitely underpowered, proto star deals more in total. If you upped the potency to 30, it'd be better than proto star, but still worse than aero. Of course, if the MP cost is low enough to justify it, then that's that.

12 – Wall (Applies a physical and magical resistance effect to all party members within radius of target. Duration of 30 minutes)

--(pointing out the obvious) This probably wouldn't stack with protect, but would at least alleviate the need to cross-class CNJ skills.

15 – Divining Deck (Grants access to the Divining Deck. Six cards available in a separate menu similar to Fisher’s tackle box)

--With the variety of effects given in the Deck, I'd probably seperate them out across a few more levels.

15 – (Q) Divination (Activates effect of selected card in the Divining Deck to user and party members or foes within area of effect)

--Also, I'm not quite sure what the "(Q)" means.

18 – Vitalum Vitalis (Resurrects a KO’d target to a weakened state. Applies the effect of Assurance which reduces damage taken by 15%, and damage dealt by 30% for 10 seconds after resurrection.)

--An enhanced raise, if they added the buff, I think it'd be traited in later as opposed to being immediately available.

22 – Sacrifice (Removes up to two detrimental effects from the target and transfers them to the caster. Detrimental effects duration will expire after 5 seconds. Silence will not be transferred and will be removed entirely)

--If the wording was changed to "detrimental effects duration will be reduced to 5 seconds." then it would be much better. As for silence, the ability could also just have no effect on that effect.

26 – Lunar Flare (Applies cosmic damage over time effect to target with a potency of 70 for 15 seconds. Damage dealt is stored and can be used to restore a selected target’s HP upon reuse)

--I'm not quite sure where this would be stored, also, the DOT is quite powerful, has a total potency that is equal to Bio II, and a DOT potency 30 higher than anything in the game currently. I might instead, depending upon how it was stored, reduce the potency to 35 or 30 and say it can heal 2-3x the damage dealt.

26 – Lunar Wind (When used after Lunar Flare, stored HP will be reduced by 25% before being used on party members within area of effect. Combo action: Lunar Flare) (For example, if Lunar Flare stored 1000 HP, each party member would receive 750 HP when Lunar Wind is used

--For an AOE heal of this type, have an 5-8y burst around the target that was dealt the damage, for example? I would stick with the reduced potency and multiplied heal for lunar flare though.

30 – (Q) Dispel (Removes a beneficial effect from target. 50% chance of being able to bestow effect upon party member)

--I love this, but at the same time... one-ilm punch is in the upper eschelons of useless skills in the game. The possibility to bestow it to a party member would require targetting multiple times, so I'd probably just apply it to self. Though, it could also be throw on any random party member, with still limited usefulness compared to applying to oneself.

30 – (Q) Imbue (Bestows a removed beneficial effect upon party member when used within 5 seconds of using Dispel. Combo action: Dispel)

34 – Cassiopeia (Restores HP to party members in area of effect with a potency of 120. Applies a healing over time effect for 10 seconds – potency 30)

--If you upped the duration to 12 secs, the total potency would still just be 240, lower than medica. This is again ok if the MP cost is low enough, but I'd probably up the time to 18secs or the potency to 40 (for 12 secs still)

35 – (Q) Leo (Increases damage dealt by target for 10 seconds. When effect wears off target cannot receive this effect again for 2 minutes)

--Slap a 90sec cooldown on this (for ~10% DMG) and it'd be great for AOE pulls, burn phases, and general DPS boosting. This kinda falls into "support" which we don't have a whole lot of at the moment, mostly BRD and SCH, so I'd be happy to see more support-y skills.

38 – Interstellar Influence (Allows two cards to be drawn at once by the user. Beneficial effects bestowed will be reduced by 50%)

40 – (Q) Comet (Deals cosmic damage to enemies in a target area with a random potency of between 100-200.)

--The high range of damage has been kind of a staple for comet/meteor in past FF games, but to be honest, I don't think people would like it. In 1 player games, they can reward large damage range skills with a higher average damage, but for MMOs, they really can't do that, or else it would end up being the go-to class for whatever it did in that fashion. The damage range given doesn't seem unresonable, but it'd still have to cost a pretty hefty amount of MP, 250-350 I would think.

42 – Animus Augeo (Increases enmity gain for all abilities used by target by 10% for 15 seconds. Recast 120 seconds)

--Has the possibility to be abused/misused, but doesn't seem large enough to cause much of a problem even if that happened. It does seem large enough to assist tanks, but most tanks don't have issues with aggro anyways, so it would have a limited usefulness. Maybe it could keep threat off of a ninja that popped every skill they have right at the start of a pull, but it still isn't that big.

45 – (Q) Strange Vision (Grants a target a 20% magical damage bonus, and increases damage taken by 30%. Duration of 10 seconds. Recast of 90 seconds)

--I'm not a huge fan of causing allies to take more damage, also that abuse/misuse issue, but one way or another, for the duration and the fact it's just magic damage, I'd reduce the damage taken increase to 15-20%.

46 – Star Reading – (Lowers own damage dealt by 50%, but increases healing magic potency by 20% for 15 seconds. 90 second recast.)

--A nice healing buff, but divine seal is overall better, so it might be worth tweaking numbers. Also the reduction to own damage in addition with the "Focus" skil mentioned earlier, seems redundant.

50 – (Q) Stellar Wind (Drains 40% of user’s own HP to restore the amount over time to a party member. Cannot be used when below 60% HP)

--Hmmmm, this is a big chunk of HP to lose. Also, if used on a tank with twice your HP, then relatively speaking, it should heal more than it drains, maybe only 1.5 but still.

54 – Lunar Nebula (When applied to a single party member after the use of Lunar Flare on a target. Damage dealt will be restored over time for the duration of Lunar Flare. Combo Action: Lunar Flare)

55 – (Q) Reflect (Grants a 25% chance of negating the next magical attack against the target. 1 Minute recast)

--Combination perfect dodge/featherfoot except for magic. Seems pretty good, the duration is something that could come up, whether it's 10secs or 60secs would affect whether or not it would be useful to use on raid members as a pseudo-static buff, or just when someone is dying. But if someone is dying, then the 25% isn't a great chance of helping.

58 – Lunatic High (Increases physical defence of target by 40% while reducing magical defence by 40%. Duration 15 seconds. Recast of 1 minute)

--Great for tanks, take mostly physical damage, still has high MDEF, and magic normally hits for less. I would probably reduce the numbers though, maybe 30% buff, and 20% penalty. Then again, post-50, the buff could be kept at 40% (the 40% penalty still irks me though).

60 – (Q) Super Nova (Deals cosmic damage with a potency of 240 to a target, and 120 potency to targets within 3 yalms. Also grants an random effect from the Divining Deck to party members or enemies within range at full potency.)

--Sounds like a nice capstone, even if it's not healing focused.


-Divining Deck-

Balance- considering the range and multi-effect removing capabilities, this would either have to be nerfed or pushed post-50. I'm not saying I wouldn't want to see it, but considering SCH doesn't even get leeches until lv40, I'd at least reduce it to a single target or one debuff.

Ewer- seems reasonable.

Bole- also seems reasonable.

Spear/Arrow- fits the theme quite well, and the more buffs the better.

Spire- It certainly has uses. Though, I'm again a little worried about the damage debuff to the party, and that it could be used "at a bad time"

[Avalt]

Your suggestions are muchly appreciated! I've made a few additions to several of the abilities