New Healer Job Suggestion: Necromancer

[Archwizard]

First, I'd like to start by saying I'm well aware that Yoshi-P has literally said both following last FanFest and in the latest Letter from the Producer that a new healer isn't coming until after the three healer jobs we have are better balanced. This thread hopes to suggest something for after such a glorious day comes.

With that out of the way...

Pledge before me now, else fall upon my scythe:
That life begets death, as death begets life.

You cannot outrun death; it is the natural order of all things to die so that others may live.
It is only a matter of when... and how.

Necromancy: Once considered a harmless form of divination seeking boons of knowledge from the spirits of the deceased, it has become synonymous with black magic in recent years and is now considered a staple of the fantasy genre, favored by wizards who distinguish themselves in the ability to pervert the cycle of life and death for all manner of dark enterprises.

In typical RPGs, the Necromancer often plays as a pet class, raising undead minions to do battle for them while they spread curses and/or plagues to break down and siphon the life energy from their opponents.
Originally introduced to the Final Fantasy series as a playable job in remasters of its fifth entry, the Necromancer's "Dark Arts" were learned similarly to Blue Magic and allowed them to cast more powerful incarnations of Black Magic and Summoning skills. The Necromancer was once considered to be a job to be introduced to XI in the Treasures of Aht Uhrgan expansion, but was dropped in favor of the Puppetmaster.

"So why are you suggesting a Necromancer to be a healer, rather than a DPS?"

Glad you asked! Remember, the fantasy Necromancer works around the entire cycle of life and death; many a Necromancer comes into the vocation seeking the means to extend life or even counteract the separation of death -- just look at Nybeth Obdilord. Just as much of their kit revolves around breathing life into the lifeless and redistributing such energy as it does with simply bringing death to the living.

None of the healer jobs available today are unfamiliar with the prospect of meting out pain to the unjust; some are even quite proficient in it. The fact that a Necromancer could be just as capable of inflicting harm as anyone else is not a suppressant in this regard.

But if there's one thing Necromancers will always do, it's raise the dead -- certainly a much more noble use for its Limit Break than just exploding an area.
After all, isn't a Necromancer just a healer who was a little late?

"But what about the lore! Aren't necromancers bad guys???"

Well, aren't dragons the enemy of the Dragoons who siphon their power? Aren't Primals the enemy of Eorzea, while Summoners are able to siphon theirs too? Isn't Black Magic descended from a state that derived its power from summoning Voidsent, and White Magic prohibited to all but the Padjal for its connection to the Sixth Umbral Calamity?

Many a job questline throughout FFXIV has revolved around rebranding misunderstood arts oft considered vile, dangerous, or taboo -- and yet, we can use their soul crystals all the same. Likewise, enemies are made allies all the time throughout the story.
It is not our job as players to determine the lore, only to witness the story the devs choose to tell us. And if we can make friends of dragons and beastmen (hell, Scholars learn from Tonberries), I don't see why we can't run across a friendly lich interested in putting other undead to rest.

"To humor you for a moment, how would it work as a healer?" Truly the only important question.

The playstyle for the Necromancer (NCM?) would not be designed around the typical spamming of direct-healing effects like Cure, Physick and Benefic. Rather, the Necromancer would heal by redistributing health: Giving health to allies which was drawn from enemies, minions, or even the Necromancer itself.
In essence, a battle healer. Those familiar with the "Fistweaver" style from WoW will have a rough idea: Deal damage in order to heal.

The Necromancer's unique resource (let's call it Soul Power for now, or SP for short) would primarily be generated by overhealing themselves via casting Drain-type effects on enemies for an MP cost. Under normal circumstances, the Necromancer's direct-healing effects would consume their own HP (rather than MP) to redistribute it to an ally, similarly to Mana Shift or Convert; however, pooled Soul Power can be used as a substitute for HP in casting these effects, effectively allowing them to restore an ally using someone else's health, or even dump the entire pool at once into an absorption barrier.

As a pet class, the Necromancer can also use their MP to call forth disposable undead minions, who will inflict damage for them to siphon additional SP. In a pinch, minions could be sacrificed to distribute their remaining health to nearby allies, preventing the Necromancer from being at a complete loss when draining is a non-option. Minion detonation effects can also be used for the Necromancer's area-effect damage, effectively turning minions into an additional resource -- but at a cost to gain back.

Naturally, the Necromancer would also have access to its own iteration of Raise, as well as crowd controlling effects like Fear and Zombie, allowing them to suppress enemy combatants (a la Repose or Fluid Aura) or even coerce weaker enemies into aiding them in lower encounters. Though not efficient in Raid content, such effects could be a massive boon in lower dungeons or in the overworld.
Likewise, the Necromancer could directly cripple and curse more powerful enemies to inflict less damage (or receive more) for brief periods.

Unique to the Necromancer, however, would be the ability to briefly grant the Undead status, allowing them to reverse the distribution of healing and damage for an ally. While risky when paired with another healer, this effect could be of particular use against tankbusters to turn a potentially fatal attack into a massive heal instead, or even giving the tank a brief period of immortality during a large pull so the Necromancer has time to siphon SP.
Advancements could also include the ability to turn allies into other forms of undead to increase their survivability, such as ghosts, vampires, and liches.

The point is, there is a lot of potential for such a class in FFXIV as more than just a rehash of SMN.

Some sample abilities, just to get the creative juices flowing:

Weapon: Scythes (including Sickles, Warscythes and Kama)
Extra resource: Soul Gauge, holds up to 100 Soul Power and marks the number of active undead minions.

Reap (1.5 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Deal unaspected damage with a potency of X00.
Additional effect: Absorbs a portion of damage dealt as HP. Healing in excess of maximum HP will increase Soul Power by 1 per 1% overhealing.

The Necromancer swings her scythe, shearing off a fragment of a distant foe's soul and drawing it to her.
Physician, heal thyself. Essentially Drain on steroids; the Necromancer's answer to Stone, Malefic and Broil, it can be upgraded to Reap II/III/etc.

Sin Harvest (3 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Deal unaspected damage with a potency of 150 to enemies in a cone in front of the caster.
Additional effect: Increase Soul Power by X per target struck.

The Necromancer enters the fray, charging her scythe with energy before spinning it in an arc in front of herself.
Unlike Aero III, Bane or Gravity, Sin Harvest is a close-ranged attack akin to Holy or Miasma II. So named as a reference to the Platinum Match in the original Kingdom Hearts, it felt apropos to have the evolution to Reap be a Harvest.

Haunt (instant, 30 sec CD) – Deal unaspected damage over time.
Potency: 50
Duration: 30 sec
Additional effect: Inflicts unaspected damage with a potency of 30 to nearby enemies per tick.
Additional effect: Increase Soul Power by X per tick.
Additional effect: If target dies, increase Soul Power by X and reset Haunt cooldown.

The Necromancer launches angry spirits from her scythe to torment her target, which lash out at any foes who come near.
While it fulfills the role of Aero, Bio and Combust, and can be upgraded to Haunt II/III/etc., the note of greater importance is that Haunt provides a means to gradually generate SP so you're never completely out, particularly providing a base amount at all times in the event Reap isn't able to overheal enough to suffice.

Sow (instant, 1 sec CD) – Restore target ally’s HP other than self.
Cure Potency: 200
Soul Gauge Cost: X Soul Power, or X% of caster’s health.

The Necromancer charges her palm with life energy and fires it at an ally.
The Necromancer's bread-and-butter heal, and main differentiation from other healers. Due to the Necromancer's need to drain in order to heal efficiently, Sow can be used off-GCD, with the limiter that each cast consumes the caster's health if they have insufficient SP, putting them at greater risk to die instead. Essentially, they displace the damage onto themselves.

Soul Spiral (instant, 15 sec CD) – Restore HP of all nearby party members except self.
Cure Potency: 200
Soul Gauge Cost: (3x Sow)
Additional effect: Cooldown reduced by 4 sec for each affected target that is not overhealed.

The Necromancer runs her hand along the blade of her scythe, slashing her palm to expel her life energy in a radius.
Also worth noting, the intent is that if the Necromancer's Soul Power and health are insufficient to cast the heal, it simply rejects the cast rather than killing the caster, much like any other MP-based heal.

False Life (2 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 750
Additional effect: Inflicts Necrosis, causing unaspected damage over time up to the amount of healing received, excluding overhealing, and preventing the effects of False Life. This damage cannot reduce the target below 1 HP.
Duration: 15 sec
--> Trait: Enhanced Sow – Sow has a 15% chance to remove Necrosis.

A staple of Necromancers since Dungeons & Dragons: The ability to temporarily grant additional hitpoints. Though more powerful than Cure II or Benefic II, due to the DoT effect it inflicts, False Life is useful to buy time to heal but not as a heal in itself. However, the ability to inflict damage to a teammate may not be such a bad thing...

Occultation (instant, 30 sec CD) – Create a barrier around self or target that absorbs damage. Damage absorption equals 1% of target HP per 2 Soul Power consumed.
Can only be cast with at least 2 Soul Power in the Soul Gauge. All Soul Power is lost upon execution.
Duration: 30 sec

Lichyard (instant, 90 sec CD) – Channels all Soul Power to create a designated area in which party members regenerate health.
Can only be cast with at least 5 Soul Power in the Soul Gauge. All Soul Power is lost upon execution.
Cure Potency: 150
Additional Effect: Nullifies most knockback and draw-in effects while standing in the field.
Duration: 1 sec per 5 Soul Power consumed.

A zone where allies cannot be easily disinterred.

Riskcharge (instant, 20 sec CD) – Increase the healing or barrier potency of the next Soul Gauge effect by 100%, but increase the health cost by 100% or consume an additional 1% health per Soul Power drained.
Duration: 15 sec
--> Trait: Greater Risk – Riskcharge holds up to 2 charges, and its effects can stack.

Essentially the Necromancer's equivalent to Emergency Tactics, so named after the ability from Kingdom Hearts III: Consume massive amounts of HP for an even stronger heal or barrier.

Exhume (3 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Summon a revenant to fight at your side.
--> Trait: Magick and Mend – Up to 2 revenants may be in your service at once.
--> Trait: Magick and Mend II – Up to 3 revenants may be in your service at once.
--> Trait: Enhanced Exhume – Cast time is reduced by up to 75% if no revenants are active.
--> Trait: Enhanced Exhume II – Cast time is reduced by 50% if fewer than 2 revenants are active.
--> Trait: Blood Rage – Attack and recast speed of all revenants increases by 5% when an ally falls or is sacrificed. Stacks up to 3 times.
Number of active revenants is marked on the Soul Gauge. All Revenants respond simulaneously to movement commands. All Revenants enter battle with 1 HP. Max HP of revenants is based on necromancer's Mind stat.
Revenant abilities:

• Digest (Instant) – Deal damage to the target and restore own HP and necromancer’s Soul Power. (All active revenants execute Digest simultaneously per pet GCD.)
• Soul Douse (Instant) – Deal unaspected damage to all nearby enemies equal to current HP while incapacitating self. On Obey, will only cast when ordered. (If not on Obey, will automatically cast upon receiving fatal damage, a la Soul Bind. On Obey, only the highest health revenant will cast Soul Douse per pet GCD.)
• Sacrifice (2 sec cast) – Restore HP of all nearby party members equal to current HP while incapacitating self. (Only cast when ordered, even on Sic. Only the highest health revenant will cast Sacrifice per pet GCD.)
• Soul Bind (Instant, 2 min CD) – Splits damage inflicted upon and health consumed from the necromancer amongst active Revenants for 10 sec. On Obey, will only cast when ordered.

The pets' abilities essentially function as the Necromancer's equivalent to Aetherflow, but with the long cast time on each minion -- and the inability to summon more than one at a time -- you have to weigh whether the loss of damage output and more importantly resource gain outweighs your needs in the moment. Furthermore, each pet's burst abilities get stronger the longer they remain active.
On the other hand, the pets also get their output buffed the faster you spend them, which combined with the final Exhume enhancement below creates two distinct philosophies: Conserving the pets for a steady income, or spam-summoning and sac'ing them as fast as possible, spending large quantities of MP instead of health like a normal healer.
And yes, you may choose to heal your own pets to accelerate their abilities.

Drakon's Teeth (instant, 5 min CD) – Instantly summon up to three Revenants to fight for you.
--> Trait: Enhanced Exhume III – Cooldown is reduced by 10 sec each time Exhume is cast.

In Greek mythology, planting the teeth of a dragon (shown by the Colchian Dragon slain by Jason, and the Ismenian Dragon slain by Cadmus) would produce a crop of undead soldiers known as Spartoi, who could not be slain in battle by mortal men. It seems fitting then that a job based loosely off the Grim Reaper would sow undead...

Psychopomp (instant, 2 min CD) – Causes damage inflicted or health consumed by your spells to restore MP based on damage dealt.
Additional effect: Removes cast time of Reap
Additional effect: Reduces cast time and recast time of Sin Harvest by 50%
Duration: 10 sec

The Necromancer is momentarily overshadowed by a hooded figure with black wings, leaving her scythe blade charged.
The Necromancer's answer to Presence of Mind/Thin Air, Light Speed and Energy Siphon, simultaneously providing a means to recover MP, a temporary boost in AoE, and a means to attack on-the-go without access to Aero or Ruin II.

Pain (2 sec cast, MP, 45 sec CD) – Inflicts unaspected damage with a potency of X00 to the target and nearby enemies.
Additional effect: Reduce targets' damage by 10% and prevent them from inflicting critical or direct hits.
Duration: 10 sec
Additional effect: Paralysis
Duration: 10 sec

The Necromancer weaves a curse to overwhelm her foes with agonizing pains.
Because what self-respecting necromancer doesn't have a curse or two to throw around? While effectively similar to a weaker Holy in trash pulls, in some encounters this also could also act as part of the Necromancer's answer to Sacred Soil or Collective Unconscious, albeit falling behind Lichyard in cases where the opponent or source of damage is untargetable. Still, at the very least it can reduce some group damage or turn some tankbusters.

Fear (2.5 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Inflicts targets with Hysteria, causing them to flee in fear.
Duration: 30s
Cancels auto-attack upon execution.

Zombie Powder (instant, 1 min CD) – Inflicts target with Zombie, causing it to turn on its allies. Target is immune to Zombie status for 1 minute after execution.
Duration: 10s

Undying (2 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Grant Undead status to target ally, converting incoming direct damage and most Instant Death effects into healing of equal potency but making the target immune to other healing effects.
Duration: 10 sec, or until 100% HP is restored
Additional effect: When Undead status ends, target is afflicted with Anastasis, preventing them from receiving Undead status.
Duration: 1 minute
--> Trait: Specter of Death – Critical healing from Sow, Soul Spiral or False Life reduces the duration of Anastasis by 5 sec.

Vampyr (instant, MP, GCD) – Causes self or target ally to heal for an additional 5% of damage they inflict.
Duration: 10 sec

Red Feast (2.5 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Causes self and all nearby allies to heal for an additional 2% of damage they inflict.
Duration: 30 sec

Who needs Heal-over-Time effects or Shields when you can have Vampirism?

Phylactery (instant, 3 min CD) – Prevent self or target ally from falling below 1 HP by means of most attacks.
Duration: 10 sec

Veil Ethereal (instant, 2 min CD) – Grant all nearby allies a 15% chance to negate incoming attacks.
Duration: 10 sec
Additional Effect: Generate Soul Power for each attack negated.

Trait: Pestilence – Removing a damage over time effect with Esuna has a X% chance to apply it to its original caster.

Reunion (8 sec cast, MP, GCD) – Resurrects target to a weakened state.
--> Trait: Seance – While the Soul Gauge is full, Reunion is cast instantly and consumes all Soul Power instead of MP. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute.

If White Mages can Thin Air and Astrologians can Light Speed their resurrection skills to reduce costs and cast times, why shouldn't the job that specializes in them?

Death (instant, MP, 5 min CD) – Deal unaspected damage with a potency of 1000 to an enemy or Undead ally. Can only be executed when target’s HP is below 20%.
Additional effect: Attempts to inflict Instant Death on enemies whose level is equal to or lower than your own.
Additional effect: Generates 100 Soul Power
--> Trait: Angel of Death – Death resets the cooldown of Psychopomp.

EITHER the Necromancer summons the chalice of death from under their target, as Forgall from Mhach OR she summons a Grim Reaper to do a flyby attack on the target.
Aero III, Assize, Lord of Crowns, Earthly Star, Energy Siphon, Shadow Flare; all skills that go above and beyond the healer's calling, adding damage skills to their kit and in some cases even giving access to resource recovery.
Do note that many enemies will resist Instant Death effects, making that note itself more flavor than an actual balance adjustment. On the other hand, the ability to use it to rapidly heal allies afflicted by Undying, or to fully heal a Revenant, will give it fairly constant use.

Funeral Rites (instant, 2 min CD) – Channel Soul Power to increase the damage the target receives based on their missing health.
Auto-attack ends upon execution.
Effect ends upon using another action or moving (including facing a different direction).
Duration: 10 sec, or until Soul Gauge empties
Soul Gauge Cost: 10 Soul Power per sec

I've had this image of the Necromancer singing a funeral dirge for their target as their health gets low, speeding them towards their death. It fulfills a supportive role and their ability to debuff enemies, and works well with their pet-summoning and DoTs to retain some degree of damage.

LB3: Witching Hour

The Necromancer floats into the air as feathered black wings form behind her, before opening them to unleash a horde of souls that breathe new life into the fallen.

So, what do you think? Provided this could be balanced, would such a take on healing interest you?