Expanded Alternate Healing Idea and Potential New Class Idea

[Grimoire-M]

I did make a Dancer concept based on two mechanics: Telemarks, which were a pair of passive healing and damage marks that were triggered by casting spells or using weaponskills. They also had heals that instantly applied temporary Damage Reduction during their cast animations. I guess to distinguish them we can call them Guard Heals. Rather than link the whole thread again, I'll pull out the main four abilities that showcase these two concepts. The rest of the kit was designed around these abilities, and featured a plethora of dual-purpose cooldowns, sometimes letting you or an ally trigger both Telemarks at once, triggering their own effects off of those telemarks, or having a party buff & enemy debuff component that often synergized with one another without directly conflicting with their Guard Heals. I'll keep the notes I had with them in too.


Telemarks

Level 30 - Tandem Telemark: Ability
Cast: Instant Recast 5s Range 30y Radius 0y Cost None
Bestows target party member with a Tandem Telemark. Each time you use a weaponskill, the ally with whom you have the telemark will be healed. Only one Tandem Telemark can be active at a time. Effect removed if target dies.
Cure Potency: 100
Duration: Infinite

Notes: Think of this as the Fairy equivalent. It's not as accessible or as strong as the Fairy for now. Notably, without a cooldown you can't use it if you are out of reach of an enemy target (Unless you wanna spam Chaines, no one's stopping you). Nor can you use it on yourself. You will rely on your other healer to make up for this somewhat. It's good at what you need it to be good at for this level.


Level 50 - Tension Telemark: Ability
Cast: Instant Recast 5s Range 30y Radius 0y Cost None
Bestows target enemy with a Tension Telemark. Each time you cast a spell, the enemy with whom you have the telemark will take damage. Only one Tension Telemark can be active at a time. Effect removed if target dies.
Potency: 80
Duration: Infinite

Notes: This is -free- damage. Since it procs off of all of your spells you'll be better suited to GCD healing than your co-healer generally speaking simply because this ability enables you to keep on dpsing even when you're handling the bulk of the healing load.

Guard Heals

Level 35 - Warden's Waltz: Spell
Cast 3.0s Recast 2.5s Range 25y Radius 0y Cost X MP (Same as Adloquium)
Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 500
Additional Effect: Reduces damage taken by party member or self by 25%. Applied immediately in addition to mana cost.
Duration: 6s

Notes: Functionally speaking, this is the Healer equivalent of Inner Beast. All the benefits of pre-casting a shield, plus a decent heal behind it. If you convert the damage reduction into effective shield potency it's on par with Adloquium and Noct Benefic as long as the affected player is only taking one hit during its duration. Practically speaking however, this is absolutely better than any shielding ability we have currently. And they -stack-. I opted for 25% specifically because it fit in that range. It's worse than a crit from either shield healer but better than both otherwise. Hence why its healing potency is barely an upgrade over Waltz. Hell, there's an argument to be made to downgrade its potency and reduction, but I worry (not by much) this will make it worse with a WHM as a result. Really though if something like this was added, I'd expect potency-based shields and it to be weaker and for Noct AST and SCH's shields to be able to stack in order to keep up with the sheer power-creep this ability and it's AoE equivalent represent.

The only thing somewhat keeping it in check is the fact the mana is spent instantly and the duration is still relatively short. Otherwise this wouldn't work, or be as powerful. The Mana Cost has to be applied immediately in order to make this ability fair. Not getting the damage reduction instantly defeats the purpose of this skill, but if it doesn't cost mana as well, then you can intentionally cancel the cast and keep the damage reduction up exactly when you need it for free. It's a compromise to prevent abuse.


Level 42 - Shepherd's Samba: Spell
Cast 3.0s Recast 2.5s Range 0y Radius 15y Cost X MP (Same as Cure III)
Restores own HP and the HP of all nearby party members.
Cure Potency: 400
Additional Effect: Radiates an aura around the caster, granting 15% damage reduction for any party member who enters. Aura applied immediately in addition to mana cost.
Aura Duration: 3s
Damage Reduction Duration: 3s.

Notes: This ability basically operates in a similar manner as Collective Unconscious. Take that how you will. Mathematically it's somewhere between Noct-Helios and Cure III in power, again depending on how much damage is dealt during its duration. One simple change I'd like to see implemented is showing each healer's AoE range when they cast each respective GCD AoE heal. Not just for Earthly Star. It would be a minor pain to accomplish but I believe adding a faint perimeter to the cast animation is worth it. This is the kind of ability that would push adding it in.