Chemist Kit theorycraft

[Ghostwk]

I left out specific numbers because those would all need to be figured out internally by the design team to come up with something balanced that makes the class fall in line with the other healers. I was basically just throwing out some ideas for abilities (some cases word for word, others i tried to make them fit 14 because of what they actually did) and what they could do to make them feel similar, yet unique. a big concern ive heard about the mixing mechanic is that it would be too slow for healing, so I dont want to say that using ninjutsu exactly as a model for it would work, although I think that would be a decent start to see how it works, and if it is in fact too slow in an end game scenario. My thoughts are that, Ninja does just fine, so I think something along those lines could work. Im imagining a combination of how dancing and ninjutsu both works, how you "start" a dance, then "end" it, but having a 3 step button combo you can press in different orders to create a bunch of different items for various uses. It could also be as simple as ninjutsu where you press a button then "confirm" it with Mix. it just seemed more appropriate to add a prep button, your 3 button mixing phase, then "Mix" as your confirmation button. It would all fall on how you want the items or potions to actually work though. I think combining the 2 makes for a complex but simple gameplay experience, perhaps "Mix" is your button that starts your sequence and finishes it, and "throw" is your use button.

to be fair, mixing and potion creation would be the staple, so i feel like it should be doing that a lot of the time, if not most. but using single potions should also be a phase or thing you should have to do as well, so Im not sure what the balancing would be like on that. It all depends on timings and what works for general gameplay and end game raiding, but if you are a healer or have played one, I think you can kind of visualize the gameplay in your head. base potions being used for like trash pulls and dungeon content, or spot heals, mixing to set up for big pulls, or lots of incoming damage, similary to how you set on a different healer. Thats why I feel like mixing in and before combat happens and being able to "store" some potions prior would help a bit with the concern that mixing might be too slow for healing. but my exact vision would be like this;

you have 3 potions, red, green, blue. you press Red, "throw" and it deals damage to the target. you press green, then "throw" and it heals the target. Those are GCD abilities.
now you start a mix phase, by pressing "Mix", green, blue, "mix" this makes a oGCD potion that heals for more, and is AoE, readily available as soon as it is mixed, but can also be stored.
lets say you saved that potion, and you start a mix again, and you mix red, blue this time. this creates a grenade or molotov, also a stored potion. Now you can "experiment" and combine the 2 stored potions to create a potion that AoE heals and deals AoE damage, similar to Assize from white mage. since it took so many steps to make, I feel like the damage and healing potency could both be upscaled to be a little stronger than what Assize is, that was always the trade off for Chemists in other games.

now lets say you failed somewhere in that whole situation, and a big poof cloud happens and your character's face is charred and everyone knows you failed your potion. that creates 1 failed potion charge shown on your buffs bar. you could "cast" it out at the enemy, and deal a bit of damage, or save for more failed potions and add a bit more potency to it. Since you have an assistant, they would help you "cast" out failed potions and share in the fun of your failures. With that kind of mechanic, hopefully you can kind of envision things how i do as well as this chaotic all over the place controlled chaos type of gameplay, a mad scientist and their lackey kind of thing.

all in all, your healing would come from either using your single target healing potion, or mixing stronger healing potions with different effects depending on how you mix up, and the cooldowns and what not would all have to be balanced depending on the effects and how exactly you want it all to take place.



As for being a lab assistant, I was thinking when a potion or item is used, or maybe even when youre mixing, the assistant shares the effects, and i kind of thought it would be more interesting as a co-healer experience, so its not just another "throw it on a DPS" ability. For instance, when you pop Pharma, it could give them a potency buff as well, and whenever you use a healing pot, they gain a small bonus to their next heal as well, or something to that effect. I think it could be a fun and interesting co healer experience if the devs or we as players thought that it seemed fun and doable, because your interactions as healer buddies right now already exist, and it could be an interesting way for healers to work together during the course of a fight to plan out healing and damaging phases.

Hero's Drink I think could work if balanced correctly. I could see the Chemist being able to mix during combat as well as pre pull, storing a set amt of charges before a fight starts, and the "potions/items" sharing cooldowns in some cases, or having their own in others. Hero's Drink is one of those items you dont get many of and you have to use with good timing and you only get pretty much one chance to use it during a fight. It would be like giving an extra holmgang to a warrior, or maybe even just function as a shielding potion instead to fit the balance of the game if invuln is deemed too strong.

A lot of the ability design is copied right out of other games, some of it is changed to fit 14 better as well. Doubling potency could be too strong, but it could easily just be changed to 20% or something similar to an existing ability, because it would still do essentially the same thing as what Pharma does in other games.

Phoenix Down as an AoE revive seems extremely poweful, and i understand that, but Ive also been part of an LB3 that goes off and.... does absolutely nothing but get everyone killed again. I added it in because it is kind of a signature thing we dont have in 14 yet that is in every other game, and I think it could be balanced still because youd still be reviving in a weakened state. I still imagine it as mixing a single target revive potion, then mixing an AoE potion, then combining the 2 for an AoE revive that can only have on use per encounter, so it would probably be a potion you create pre pull, and until its used, it takes the place of a single target revive, so youd have to choose wisely when to use it.

thanks for the feedback though, appreciate you all taking the time to read it and add imput. I thought about all the gil abilities and stuff Rikku uses too, but it seemed more fitting for Thief moreso than chemist. Keep the ideas and refining coming though, Hopefully the team takes a look and at least finds some kind of inspiration or something from what we write here