New Healer Job Brainstorming! Art, mechanics, the works!

[Jaywalker]

I know there are a lot of people who are feeling very disappointed about not getting a new healer job, and that can feel really depressing, frustrating, and otherwise awful. Since things didn't work out in an official capacity, I'd like to invite fans to channel all their love and excitement about possibilities for a new healer job in this thread.

I'm not a mod or anyone's mom so if people do decide to be killjoys it's not like I can control that. However, I'd like to make a request fan-to-fan that people not crap on each other's ideas here. You don't have to promote concepts you're not into, but please don't shut them down. The goal here is to help people have fun and feel excited again through the community, and that kind of thing would be counter productive.

The premise here is to come up with ideas for new healer jobs. They can use jobs already proposed in the Final Fantasy franchise (ex. geomancer, chemist, etc.) adapted to FFXIV or they can be original jobs developed based on what might be interesting or thought provoking given established jobs or lore.

There are a few angles this can be approached from.

CONCEPT
This would apply for overall theme of the job, if the healer is tied to a particular god or city state, how aether does or doesn't work, tone, what sets it apart from existing healers, weapons, motifs, basic direction for movesets. Things of that nature.

MECHANICS

For people who focus hard on things like rotation, strategy, and adapting different moves sets across jobs. We have mudras for ninjas, astral and umbral cycles for black mages, cards for astrologians, etc. If you're someone who really likes that aspect of jobs and would be interested in coming up with something that's different and functional, this is for you!

DESIGN

Possibly some overlap with concept, if something inspires you this is a place you can pitch aesthetic ideas for a new healer job or outright draw a design. If people do decide to draw or mess with gpose combinations to establish a direction, it's absolutely fine to do more than one interpretation per concept! This is fast and loose, if you feel motivated to try something then run with it.

No one has to hit all categories for a suggestion, but you're welcome to. Additionally, if you see someone else suggest e.g. a mechanic system you like, you can make your own post building off of that with a design. More than one person can do this, so if Person A suggests a Geomancer concept it's okay for Person B and Person C to each put a different design or mechanic system forward for that. More ideas here, not less.

Please keep any critique respectful and constructive! Again, the goal here is to get people feeling excited and encouraged through the community. There's a difference between saying "X idea seems too similar to what has been done already, how would you set it apart? I might try blah blah blah" versus "That's a dumb idea and I hope SE never does anything like it. We have enough things like that already."

If anyone has suggestions for additional categories besides CONCEPT, MECHANICS, or DESIGN feel free to suggest that!

For what it's worth, I am not fantastic at drawing bodies but I'm alright and would be willing to do designs if i get an idea. My art style is like this:

[Jaywalker]

CONCEPT: HEMOMANCER
Falling under the patronage of Altyk (focusing on change and time aspects) and located in Limsa Lominsa, this job works by manipulating aether in the body to heal or harm targets. Operates by the principle that the body will naturally try to fix itself, and a hemomancer who heals is bolstering that tendency at an accelerated rate. When damage is dealt, the hemomancer can twist bones or organs in painful ways or inflict stacking status ailments. Weapon is an ornate scroll. Some healing spells release gradually over time and some are immediate, but hemomancers do not have access to shielding spells. Without shields, hemomancers can inflict some status afflictions that reduce damage output from enemies with effects like Lethargy (slow/fewer attacks) or Feeble (weaker attacks). Tone is dark, has a more severe visual direction compared to other healers.

DESIGN

I think goggles and masks, long gloves, high boots, slacks, and long coats could work as parts of this design. Plague doctor visual inspiration might work, but so could mad scientist or deranged surgeon. I think the overall look should involve a lot of coverage, keeping bodily fluids from splashing the character. Unlike the summoner or scholar tomes, scrolls will often feature anatomical diagrams. Overall style should have a sense of rigidity, very straight laced and polished.

MECHANICS

This was trickier for me (critique is absolutely welcome) but I think I might have a direction at least?

So the hemomancer acts to manipulate the aether within bodies. When they act to heal another person, that comes at a cost to their own HP. When they act to inflict status ailments on enemies, that comes at a cost to MP because it isn't replacing or fixing anything, just twisting what is already present within the body in harmful ways. But what about self-healing?

The hemomancer has a move called Siphon. This deals damage by stealing HP and using it to replenish the hemomancer. Siphon I is quick and does light damage to a single enemy. Siphon II does light damage to a group of enemies that stacks into more regeneration overall for the hemomancer. Siphon III drains a lot from a single enemy. Siphon IV drains a moderate amount of HP from every animate thing in the vicinity. This includes the party as well as enemies.

The hemomancer is of course able to Raise, but it comes at a greater cost than some healers. Raise costs 50% of the hemomancer's remaining HP as well as some MP. To be hemomancer well you better not get your party killed and you'll need to Siphon enough to stay alive yourself.

[TarynH]

CONCEPT

I've been thinking of a sort of unique concept for a job, but I'm not really sure if they can pull it off. It's basically a Chemist/Mixer type job, but with a unique way of gathering resources. I think it would work amazingly as a healer, and be an interesting twist on healing in general.


MECHANICS

Most of the concept rests in the mechanics of the job, and how it functions. They would have three basic abilities; Scavenge, Mix and Use.

Scavenge - When used searchers the nearby area of the player, and gathers resources.

-- Those resources that are gathered would fill bars (much like RDM) with three different pools to draw from. Buff, Debuff and Heal. You would always gather some amount of each.

Mix - Would work somewhat like Mudras in a way. Where it would mix elements from those 3 pools. When used, 3 new actions will be enabled; 1 for each of your 3 pools to draw from. And Mix will change to Use. (Would all take up 4 spots on the hotbar.)

-- Examples:
Mix -> Heal -> Use = Effectively a Cure I.
Mix -> Heal -> Heal -> Heal -> Use = Cure III.
Mix -> Buff -> Heal -> Use = Cure I with perhaps regen, or slight shield.
Mix -> Buff -> Debuff -> Use = (On PC would give something like an enspell. On mob would give a type of DoT.)

Once something is used with Use, Use will change back to Mix.

The idea for the job is to balance the actions with what you Scavenge, and using them effectively. It would not have "casting" times like current healers, but rather management of mixing things instead. An effective Mix can take as long as casting a cure, for instance.

DPS aspect: This one is a bit tricky. Either it can have direct damage or DoT, or it can have a pet. The pet could be consistent DPS, but there wouldn't be a ton of options for it other than persistent attacking. It would be interesting to have a hawk or something that could even scan for stronger resources. (Not wanting to mix this with BST though, because I feel BST should be its own thing eventually.)

The idea overall though, is to keep the actual job focused on mixing and scavenging. Rather than juggling DSP with healing. So having a persistent source of DPS would be a benefit.

Other abilities it could have:

Pre-Mix - Premixes an ability and holds it. (Like AST with cards.)

Re-Mix - Quickly remixes last ability. (Would have a cooldown.)

More focused Scavenges later on. (Example: Heal-focused Scavenge)

Abilities to make possible pet do certain actions.

Abilities to do DoT or dmg to mobs.

I'm leaving it up to suggestions, but I thought it might be a unique spin on healing. Curious to see if anyone would be interested in something like this.

DESIGN

Forgot to mention the "weapon" could be something like a vile/bottle, with the offhand being a unique glove. The glove is used to Scavenge and is the thing filled with what you Scavenge. The animation of Mixing could be reaching over to inject the vile/bottle with serums or w/e the "pools" are called. Then you throw the vile/bottle to Use it.

The offhand could also double as a place for the hawk pet to land while stationary with weapon drawn.

[Meta-Flare]

I love doing stuff like this! My Chemist idea is really long, so I dont want to copy and paste the whole thing here, so I will put the link below.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...st-as-a-healer

[Jaywalker]

Just want to say love your spins on Chemist! Really impressive amount of detail both of you.

[Ceasaria]

I think I can add my healer job Dryad (Dancer + Druid or something like that) then.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ryad-as-healer

I have another healer concept in mind. I will try to put it here later.