Loss of drain on Blm...really?!

[Hasrat]

So, sorta tangentially related, role skill I actually miss, and used way more often than Drain: Mana Shift. I always thought it was the perfect way to show thanks for the rez. "Here, have all that MP back."

[YanderePrincess]

Wait.. BLM had drain?


The fact that i had to ask this question should tell you enough.

I mean, the number of times I've heard someone ask a question like that about something super important to a job kinda negates your reasoning there. Just because you weren't aware of it doesn't inherently mean it was useless. :P

[Remedi]

is this an out of season april's fools joke?

[Waterdesk]

Drain should return. It has its uses for those who liked it, and the people who don’t like it can always just remove the ability from their hotbar.

[Orbus]

So, sorta tangentially related, role skill I actually miss, and used way more often than Drain: Mana Shift. I always thought it was the perfect way to show thanks for the rez. "Here, have all that MP back."

Also good for handing some mp to a tank.
Have a irl friend that plays pld and in voice chat he could tell me in a pinch that he needs some mp, and 20% of a casters mp is pretty much a full mp restore for a tank.
Guy can clutch a clemency when he needs to, let me tell ya.

[TurtlesAWD]

The removal of skills that fall outside of use in an optimized rotation limits the creation of gameplay content to that which can be handled only by an optimized rotation. This has a streamlining effect on the challenges and experiences players have access to, and taken too far, can lead to all classes losing their class identity and feeling like they're all functionally the same. As I understand it, a certain other MMO has been struggling in this regard for a couple expansions after stripping out significant numbers of skills and talents from every class.

A sufficiently complex RPG world should have room in it for spells that have suboptimal damage utility but do something unique from the other spells a class can access. I likely don't speak for everyone on this but personally I really enjoyed the Logos actions in eureka for introducing exactly this - a wide array of utility skills which allowed playing a familiar class in new and interesting ways.

To compare to another IP, the reason games like Morrowind and Oblivion are memorable to such a huge audience has a lot to do with their inclusion of a magic creation system that's fundamentally broken, both in its capability to create entirely overpowered spells, but also in its ability to create things that are hilariously bad. Players remember the scrolls that let you jump super high but don't last long enough to survive the landing, for instance. Nobody remembers creating a fireball that does a thousand damage.

[Kabooa]

Players remember the scrolls that let you jump super high but don't last long enough to survive the landing, for instance. Nobody remembers creating a fireball that does a thousand damage.

But every player made the townwide fireball.

Only a few bothered to make a super jump suicide.

[Archwizard]

-snip-

Right. There's more to a class' or job's identity than simply their stat totals. It's the sum total of all the things they can do, even the ones that either are niche or don't seem to have practical applications to combat whatsoever. Just look at, say, Sleep and Repose for instance.

I mean hell, people keep on begging to see a "real" Time Mage (in spite of AST), even though it's agreed CC effects are pointless in group content (so things like Stop, Slow or Zero Gravity would have no value) and many jobs want to avoid Speed buffs so they don't clip GCDs or overspend MP.
That leaves... what, combat Peloton?

Furthermore, let's touch on access to Raise skills. RDMs have low value in farm content due to the hit they take to their damage in favor of access to quick Raising, which becomes obsolete after a certain stage of progression (eg when people stop dying) -- meaning we already have a full job designed with a skill that ideally isn't ever to be used in mind.
A practical skill at that, not just flavor, but a complete emergency tool. SMN likewise has the same skill, albeit less ease of use so it doesn't hamper their performance much.

So to dismiss Drain on the grounds that it wouldn't see much use in a raid is complete nonsense.

[Acidblood]

Just because you weren't aware of it doesn't inherently mean it was useless. :P

True, but Drain was useless; it didn't even heal an equal level mobs auto attack. Though I suspect that was by design...

The issue with any sort of decent healing skill on BLM is of course that BLM essentially has infinite MP. This makes them unique from RDM and the Healers, all of whom will eventually run dry and be unable to keep up with neither healing nor damage vs. a serious threat (and if not; i.e. they are ‘overpowered’ and able to solo things they shouldn't; it is a simple matter of adjusting costs). PLD can also heal themselves, but only in bursts, and with a long MP regen time in between; BLM MP regen in UI is, by comparison, incredibly fast.

So make the heal weak? Firstly, weak by what context (remembering that weak is relative and changes with gear as the game progresses). Secondly, if it is ‘weak’ it is likely to be useless, as Drain was, and little more than button bloat (and I for one would rather have a useful ability... like Mana Shift).

So what about a cooldown? BLM already has Manaward, the cooldown of which could simply be lowered, or a charge added, if extra survivability was warranted (which IMO it isn't).

Oh, and BLM also has AoE Sleep, which can be far more powerful than any healing skill if the issue is open world survivability.

[Seraphor]

Not to mention Convert > Manafont means we're in credit in terms of HP management.

I'm quite happy to not have a healing skill to worry about, in addition to Manaward as well.