Can we make Lucid Dreaming Optional?

[NobleWinter]

Right now, every healer (WHM, SCH, and AST) are using Lucid Dreaming on cooldown to manage their spell cost assuming they are trying to constantly cast spells. For Scholar and White Mage in particular MP can get tricky if Dungeon pulls last too long. Does anyone else think that it would make things easier if each healer had the tools to manage their MP economy within their own kit without relying on Lucid Dreaming to such a heavy extent? I personally would prefer if the cooldown on Lucid was raised to 180 seconds and could be avoided in use altogether in properly performing parties. In scenarios where you need to manually revive an entire alliance or party it could then give us more power to handle this by being an even more powerful tool in exchange for the larger cooldown.

WHM struggles with MP management at low levels and Endwalker changes to Thin Air are likely to cause problems with this to return at end game. I think structuring each healer to be self sufficient if played properly from level 1 to max would be great for the health of the game. We already have Astro using a great system to get MP from Drawing Cards and this incentivizes using their entire kit. I proposed a change in another thread for Scholar to use one fairy for increased healing spell potency and the other for enhanced mana regen and I think WHM could benefit greatly from an oGCD learned early that upgrades into Assize later. It could be an ability that only does damage within 6 yalms of the caster and restores MP for an extra tool to help them in A Realm Reborn Content where they desperately need it.

The specific changes to each kit don't really matter so much as how good it would feel to be free from Lucid Dreaming as a mandatory action every 60 seconds. It doesn't feel impactful or like a true decision that needs to be made if the only way to play healer is using the button on cooldown. If we are truly going to simplify healing then this would be a good first step.

[lisaa]

I think that could be a good idea. Experienced players just press it every 60s without thinking about it. It does nothing except punish newer players. It doesnt even need to be moved to a different mechanic, they can just increase passive mana gain instead because that's basically what it is

[NobleWinter]

I want Lucid Dreaming to feel just as good as Surecast or Rescue when used properly. They are tools that allow you to navigate specific mechanics or save people at clutch moments and it feels good to use them well. Lucid should feel good too.

[Sebazy]

That's quite an interesting angle and it could be used to encourage each healer to use their gimmick per say. I'd go one step further and actually remove Lucid.

For example, making ASTs lean entirely on their cards for their source of MP.

SCHs with Aetherflow and Fairy Actions.

Sage with Cardia and DPS abilities.

WHM would be a bit of an outlier here but I'd go with simply owning that angle and making an adjusted version of Lucid WHM only so it can offer a viable route for players who aren't as good at keeping the GCD ticking all fight.

Obviously this would all need to be tuned, tested and adjusted quite significantly from what we have now, but I think it'd be good way to highlight the importance for healers to use their kit to the fullest.

[Yhisa]

Well in all fairness.....just get more piety gear if your struggling with MP in game

White mage have thin air, even know it is getting nerfed in endwalker, it still save mp by a lot, u can get 1 free cure lll off or a free Raise

The only time ANY healer will have mp problems is when they are hard casting raises due to player mistakes , which personally i would turn raise into a 20-30sec cd with no mp cost

At low level there isnt really MP issues , but i will say this, due to lack of ogcds you play very differently as a healer

For example whm whilst holyspam will use lucid and do. Holy > holy > cure > holy >cure and if u get "free cure ll" you use that instead

I know alot of people say the "free cure sucks" and they kinda right at "high end" but low end where you dont have alot of ogcds its a god sent

[Recon1o6]

I'm in favour of scrapping it in favour of unique mp recovery, its yet another avenue to undo homogenisation and fix healers

unlike most posters im in favour of mp management being something to learn. At minimum, the basic attack (glare/broil/malefic/dosis) should all cost 0 mp to encourage a freshly raised healer to do something productive while lucid is coming off cd. Basic competence is managing your mp, this is hammered home in the conjurer questline. Smart play shoudl allow mp positive and enhanced gameplay

Lucid can be returned to whm as shroud of saints at level 24 and have it get a trait at later levels where it instantly generates a lily or it can consume a lily to generate double mp. Right now whm overcaps lillies in some duties because there is so little damage and the gcd is better spent on refreshing dia and dropping an ogcd heal and struggles with mp between cure 2 and getting lucid since cure 1 is tapering off in usefulness but cure 2 is expensive.

For sch, i concur with selene having an mp restore, and her other ability should be a silence fitting the "Eos to sooth and salve, Selene to Support and Silence" bit of sch's lore that forms the core of the fairies.

As for astro, well this was one of the strong points of the unique cards- despite what parsers like to pander around the ewer was a great card. it could give yourself a decent recovery of mp, the rdm get back on their feet or back into the game after a verraise and you could always burn it for an aoe card later. Not to mention slapping the bole on the tank meant you didn't need to use as much healing on them indirectly saving mp.
It also had another ability called luminiferous aether. Lucid dreaming but with an enmity reducer, very helpful for your tank. Them scrapping LA and then the Ewer was what caused launch ast to be as bad as rdm when it came to bleeding mana.
Astrodyne is already having an mp restore every time you trigger it come 6.0 plus the excellent draw-gain 800mp

LA replacing lucid dreaming. How about grants the effect of noct sect for the duration of its mp restore- give back more access to the shields that were unneccessarily stripped from it for a pure/barrier split that doesn't actually exist. Alternatively have it consume a card drawn or astrodyne seal. Either of those can directly allow smart play to get the full 3 seals.

Sage can easily have an mp steal attached to any of its attacks.

[DPZ2]

Lucid Dreaming is the button you press when you've been a wee bit too enthusiastic doing DPS without looking at your MP bar.

For all the complaint about 'lack of things to do as a healer', it's another 'thing to do'.

[QooEr]

we actually Used to have unique mp recovery and it got (mostly) scrapped for lucid dreaming as a role action.

Lucid Dreaming is the button you press when you've been a wee bit too enthusiastic doing DPS without looking at your MP bar.

For all the complaint about 'lack of things to do as a healer', it's another 'thing to do'.

One hand hand i agree and on the other i dont.

Lucid dreaming isnt the button you press "when" something. You use it on cooldown since the start of the fight because none of the healers are mp positive. it hardly adds any depth to its gameplay

but on the other hand, i agree. It IS something else to do in a role so dull where pressing draw every 30 seconds is a godsend compared to the other 2 (3?) healers.

if im to understand OP tho, its less about not needing to use lucid ever, and more about having more interesting systems to replace it. which i think would be a good thing overall. (however i know that more available mp just facilities builds with higher spellspeed until you Need to use lucid dreaming on cooldown again, so theres that issue...)

[KDSilver]

As long as we don't completely rob the mana managment and it's moved elsewhere I'm fine with it.

[TaleraRistain]

Ironically we did at one point have individual MP recovery options for each healer class. Lucid Dreaming was the WHM Shroud of Saints skill. I forget what the others had.