future abilities

[Oohlalaheals]

I do agree with some of the other comments that it is already getting a little bit overloaded with abilities. A couple of things I would like to see

AST- More cards, the ones we have now are fantastic, but I would love a little more variety, maybe 2 more. I also like the idea of having cards that debuff, but I wouldn't want those mixed in with what we already have, it would have to be a separate draw.

SCH- I would love something instant cast, something equivalent to what Aspected Benefic does in Noct sect on Ast. The only thing SCH has that's instant is Lustrate, and sometimes I don't want to throw something quite that big, but I'm on the move and need to cast something. I would even be willing to sacrifice and have a longer cool down on Lustrate to have something smaller that's instant. Or instead of this perhaps something like lightspeed so an Adlo could be tossed out quickly.

WHM- I'm only 56 with WHM so I don't get the feel for the full range of abilities yet.

[XiXiQ]

The bloat definitely needs to go - but you can still have new skills. These skills could be an upgrade of, and merging of, skills that exist already - as an example a new skill that combines both quelling and raging strikes. so, it gives the dps bump, at the same time lowering the threat. so you just need the one skill, the old 2 can be ignored. similar idea could work for swiftcast/surecast. I'm sure some of you can think of some others that would help streamline the bloat.

[JackFross]

AST- More cards, the ones we have now are fantastic, but I would love a little more variety, maybe 2 more. I also like the idea of having cards that debuff, but I wouldn't want those mixed in with what we already have, it would have to be a separate draw.

I actually think the debuff thing would be really cool - not as new cards or as a special effect of one sect, but as a different ability. You'd Draw a card and then either tap Draw again to cast it, or tap some other skill to invert the card's effects and use it as a debuff, instead, kind of like Salve-Maker/Chemists with Poison Potion.

Balance would decrease damage dealt by 5%
Bole would increase damage taken by 5%
Arrow would decrease attack speed by 5%
Spear could just be a direct attack spell with 100 potency or so.
Spire could increase physical damage taken by 10%
Ewer could increase magical damage taken by 10%
And then you'd also be able to Royal Road these effects and do an Enhanced Inverse Bole for a pretty sweet opening party burst, for instance.

The inverse skill would have a longer cooldown than Draw, obviously, to balance it a bit (like 150-180s), but I actually think that would be a really neat addition to AST's kit.

[Dzian]

Don't necessarily need more skills and abilities in terms of quantity. However there's a ton of currently useless skills that could be replaced or modified to make them much more usefull and worthwhile. a few examples in no particular order :-

Surecast:- currently useless, never used, if interrupts could be a problem most players will just swiftcast instead.
One small change. allow casters to move during there next spell cast without interruption. would make that ability much more usefull. would be usefull for things like flares and raises with there long spell casts when swift is on cooldown.

Shadowbind:- just lol. crowd control doesn't exist at all this skill could be dropped and replaced with anything.

tempered will can on rare occasions be usefull but the ridonculous recast doesn't help. and the immunity from knockbacks can be delayed seems to be the same problem hallowed has.
adjust it's recast or maybe allow a degree of tp regen.

cover recast and duration thing in my opinion. see a lot of people say it should work with magic damage but I tend to think not as you can't block magic damage anyway. but with a slightly lower recast and longer duration it would be better. cover the blm who aoes everything off you. or the whm spamming holy in the middle of a pack.

silent dusk useless skill pretty much. fairy's seem to have some delay around in game "ticks" that make timing this to be remotely usefull near impossible.
would swap it for some form of party buff, maybe a small crit% increase. or something. and maybe a slight boost to fey winds haste. 3% often doesn't match what eos can bring to a group.

interrupts stuns, pacifies, silences, I generally feel that these should all do zero damage. and not be neglected to just a dps increase. it's annoying trying to shield bash echidnas massive flame aoe thing only to find it's immune to stun cos the melees spammed it for dps.

and also wish more encounters needed these things to be utilised correctly.

crowd control heavies, binds, sleeps all useless especially with the 3 and out system in place. crowd control doesn't exist so all of these abilities are completely useless. should be a need to sleep mobs or a need to kite things and keep them heavied.

that'll do I think, but there's certainly a lot more.

so yeah I don't think we need more skills in terms of quantity, just need to address the number of useless skills that exist

[Torunya]

I'll just sneak some Paladin wish-thinking in here...

Enhanced Flash II
Deals light damage of 100 potency

or

Enhanced Tempered Will
Restores 200 TP

[Jonnycbad]

I see a lot of people asking for traits instead of abilities for 62-70, but think about it.
Traits cost nothing to develop, there's no animation or fancy effect a trait takes a few seconds to implement. Achieve 62 and upgrade the duration of some buff or skill a few seconds. SNORE. When going to 70, I want new flashy moves that make me feel better and stronger. I don't want to just have my damage values inflated to match the heightened defense and HP of higher level mobs. The only way we feel stronger is with new skills and abilities, that's what Final Fantasy has always been about--otherwise go play Maple Story, where you go from dealing 3,000-6,000 damage per hit at level 50, to 200,000-400,000 per hit at level 150 but the abilities roughly stay the same.

FFXI never had a problem with ability bloat because it used a menu/list system and combat was slower. Since FFXIV uses a hotbar system with a controller, it's akin almost to a fighting game. I think moving forward the most likely fix is to:

Opening combo weapon skills will be replaced with stronger counterparts. For example:

62: Skewer - 200 Potency combos into Moonrise
64: Moonrise - Combo Action with Skewer: 250 potency. Combos into Stardiver
66: Stardiver - Combo Action with Stardiver: 420 potency.

These weapon skills could, once all 3 learned, replace the TT-VT-FT combo (but these are still able to be used, if needed, at lower levels--but then you need different hotbar for level capped unless they're smart about it and let /ac "Moonrise" translate into Vorpal Thrust pre 62).

[Jonnycbad]

Surecast:- currently useless, never used, if interrupts could be a problem most players will just swiftcast instead.
One small change. allow casters to move during there next spell cast without interruption. would make that ability much more usefull. would be usefull for things like flares and raises with there long spell casts when swift is on cooldown.

Problem with this is, you use Surecast and begin casting a very long spell, like Stoneskin II, or Raise, but then shit hits the fan and you need to cancel the ability to cast a Cure II because the other healer died -- but crap, you can't interrupt it by running because you just used Surecast, now you are committed to finishing the cast which could be very dangerous.

[Dzian]

Problem with this is, you use Surecast and begin casting a very long spell, like Stoneskin II, or Raise, but then shit hits the fan and you need to cancel the ability to cast a Cure II because the other healer died -- but crap, you can't interrupt it by running because you just used Surecast, now you are committed to finishing the cast which could be very dangerous.

hmmm could still make jump interrupt I guess. but allow basic movement to go uninterrupted.

[JackFross]

Problem with this is, you use Surecast and begin casting a very long spell, like Stoneskin II, or Raise, but then shit hits the fan and you need to cancel the ability to cast a Cure II because the other healer died -- but crap, you can't interrupt it by running because you just used Surecast, now you are committed to finishing the cast which could be very dangerous.

Escape / triangle cancels your cast, though. Movement is not the only way to end it.

I do think new skills to replace old skills would be the way to go - WHM got off nice because A1 and S2 were essentially outmoded (A1 is just an instant spell for use with ogcds now, and S2 is straight beaten by S3) and same for SCH with Broil. BRD got a similar-ish treatment via Iron Jaws.

I would, however, feel incredibly cheated as a Dragoon if three of my five new skills only served to replace old ones. Like cool, okay, no more Full Thrust, but ehhh? Would be really shitty unless every Job got that sort of treatment, especially after FaC/WT this expac.

I would be more expecting/hoping for just straight up new skills and better hotbar management. Give me a combo button that allows me to stack 3 skills in one slot, cycling through them in order as they activate/proc one another.

[Anienai]

Scholar ability:

Selene can mimic another player for 20 sec with a 120 sec CD.


Astrologian ability:

Predict an enemies next 5 moves for 15 sec with a 180 sec CD.


White mage ability:

I can't think of an ability that will cure a player of "BORING WHM" syndrome.
Sorry.