Add Shell, and don't make it stackable with protect.

[ty_taurus]

snip

I totally agree with that, but I think there could be ways to play with the elemental system more without creating bloated situations like that or them being situational based on the fight. The mechanic exists, so I firmly believe we should use it somehow.

Something I played around with for fun was a dancer that could grant all allies either Enfire, Enwater, Enblizzard, Enthunder, Enaero, or Enstone with an action at random while also having an action that would drop the elemental defense of an enemy of the matching element. Everyone's doing Wind damage thanks to Enaero, you drop the opponent's wind resistance. Its functionally similar to just a defense drop on the target, but using the elemental system would help give it an identity.

[Sandpark]

I totally agree with that, but I think there could be ways to play with the elemental system more without creating bloated situations like that or them being situational based on the fight. The mechanic exists, so I firmly believe we should use it somehow.

Something I played around with for fun was a dancer that could grant all allies either Enfire, Enwater, Enblizzard, Enthunder, Enaero, or Enstone with an action at random while also having an action that would drop the elemental defense of an enemy of the matching element. Everyone's doing Wind damage thanks to Enaero, you drop the opponent's wind resistance. Its functionally similar to just a defense drop on the target, but using the elemental system would help give it an identity.

But if only a hypothetical dancer would grant it, wouldn't that lead back to some parties wanting dancer over say some other support class?

Make it too weak or random and no would want dancer.
Make it too strong and other classes would start asking for nerfs or their own buffs.
And if it's just a flavor but the same thing as a defense drop then we already have that.

If the want is casters want Protect to be more than just cast it and forget it. Then it has to be a buff you can build up similar to Greased Lightning. I don't know how the rotation would work to accomplish that since Protect is a role action spell though.

Many fights have a DPS check, well this would be similar to a Healer Check. Say you get the spell version up to maximum Protect. In a circumstance a Primal ultimate skill would one shot the party. If Protect was maxed it could theoretically circumvent a group wide one shot just enough so no party wipe but just barely. In a party with more than one healer, it would take a stacked max protect from all healers to circumvent the group wide wipe.

Maybe you cast a low level defense boost protect 8%.
Then it requires a certain amount of hit points healed to keep it growing
At the next threshold it builds to 12%.
Next threshold it builds to 16%.
Next threshold it builds to 20%.

Change the icon to show 4 distinct sections, each section shows what threshold you are at. Recast required to upgrade the current spell level.
Cast it is Protect 1
When you hit second threshold, cast Protect 2
When you hit third threshold, cast Protect 3
When you hit fourth threshold, cast Protect 4

Or a simpler version where it requires more environmental awareness from the tanks, dps, and healers.

An area based effect similar to Summoners Shadowflare but way larger.

Members In the immediate vicinity of the caster grants a 20% defense boost
The further out you are the % is smaller, 15%, 10%, 5%.
There it would have to be recasted every 60 seconds.

[Aldora]

Protect in XIV - Increases the physical and magic defense of target and all party members nearby target.

They basically merged Shell into Protect.
Actually they made Protect, Proshell.

The funny thing is that in 1.0, Protect and Shell were 2 separate single target spells. After clicking the "Area of effect"-button those the single target spells would turn into AoE spells.

FFXIV 1.0 Protect:


FFXIV 1.0 Shell:



With A Realm Reborn, they merged those those 2 spells to make the "Protect"-spell which increases both physical and magic defense (after getting the "Proshell" trait at level 16). I'm actually happy they they merged those spells into 1 single spell, because if you look at the every day Duties, half of the groups you meet didn't even want to wait till both Protect and (Swiftcast) Stoneskin II were cast before taking off.

Image how things would be if we had Protect, Stoneskin and Shell in our toolkit.

Edit: And then i found out that Lemuria beat me to it. (^_^; )

How soon we all forget. At the launch of XIV, there were two separate spells. Protect and Shell. It was only when it was remade into A Realm Reborn that we lost Shell and it became a trait added onto Protect. What's more, Protect and Shell had a far more dramatic increase in defense in their original forms, reducing damage by a very noticeable margin.

Mind you, these were also the days where Conjurer also had all of the elemental spells too. Banish was in the game too, but as a Thaumaturge spell.

[Daralii]

The funny thing is that in 1.0, Protect and Shell were 2 separate single target spells. After clicking the "Area of effect"-button those the single target spells would turn into AoE spells.

With A Realm Reborn, they merged those those 2 spells to make the "Protect"-spell which increases both physical and magic defense (after getting the "Proshell" trait at level 16). I'm actually happy they they merged those spells into 1 single spell, because if you look at the every day Duties, half of the groups you meet didn't even want to wait till both Protect and (Swiftcast) Stoneskin II were cast before taking off.

Image how things would be if we had Protect, Stoneskin and Shell in our toolkit.

But only White Mages had Proshell, so Scholars just had to deal with only having their shields to mitigate magic damage. If they want any group composition to be viable, passive mitigation buffs either need to be available to every healer or not exist.

[Aldora]

But only White Mages had Proshell, so Scholars just had to deal with only having their shields to mitigate magic damage. If they want any group composition to be viable, passive mitigation buffs either need to be available to every healer or not exist.

And that's why Protect has been changed to a Role Spell/Ability which does the same thing for everyone. All 3 healers now have access to Protect, which will increase both physical and magic defense.

But, let me ask you this. How does a scholar (or Astrologian) become less viable in a group composition, just because it didn't have a "Proshell"-trait? The only "shielding" ability the White Mage had was Protect and Stoneskin. The White Mage always was the burst healer and the Scholar always had its shields (which gave a shield for the amount of healing done) and fairy. They both had their own identity in ARR and complemented each other well during raids.

Then the Astrologian was introduced, which was meant as an alternative to the White Mage and Scholar combination for Raiding. The flexibiity and Card system was the strength of the Astrologian and gave it its own identity.

It's not necessary for all 3 healer classes to have the same "passive mitigation"-buffs. It doesn't really matter for the regular dungeons (due to their more casual difficulty) and with raids, you could get 2 healers that complemented each other. So, that difference that the "Proshell"-trait gave you was only marginal compared to what the spells from the other classes could give.

But, with my previous comment, i was only referring to the fact that Shell was a separate spell in 1.0 they merged with Protect and offered as a trait in ARR. The Proshell trait was later removed and the effect permanently incorporated within the Protect spell. What the OP was asking for was a situation we already had in 1.0, but the team stepped away from that. They even considered removing Protect entirely with the release of Stormblood. So, we won't be seeing Shell in the game anymore.