Genshin's Bond of Life Mechanic

[ty_taurus]

In Genshin Impact, we've recently been introduced to a new region in Fontaine, the France-inspired nation that represents the Hydro element--water. While the region is still pretty new, one of the qualities of new characters and weapons from this region is a lot more involvement with the process of losing and gaining HP. One of these new mechanics is called a "Bond of Life."

The Bond of Life is a effect that prevents the character from recovering HP by creating this sort of 'empty space' that must be healed to full before that character can be healed again. Here's a visual to help explain the mechanic:



EDIT: I just came across someone on Reddit who described the mechanic very aptly. They described it as "HP Debt." You accrue a debt of HP that must be healed through before the character can be healed again.

You can see that in the left image, there is a red outline around the character's HP bar. When trying to heal, a portion of that red outline is "filled" in the right image. Now, this sounds like a bad status condition, but it's also being used to the player's advantage. You see, some of the new weapons will actually inflict a Bond of Life on the user based on their Max HP and grant special benefits once the Bond of Life has been filled. The characters from this region generally have built-in ways to recover their own HP, but in general, this also adds more value to the healers in the game who can accelerate filling these Bonds of Life. Here are some examples:



Presumably, future characters from this region may also apply a Bond of Life to themselves, or other weapons might use this mechanic as well, and it's something quite interesting. But the reason why I bring this up is because I wonder if this is a concept that could also adapt to FFXIV to help give more reasons to heal the party.

Imagine if Warrior, for example, instead of just healing themselves, also created a Bond of Life that, when healed up, grants them bonus Beast Gauge. Or maybe it Dark Knight does this and their Bond of Life restores their MP. Or Reaper does this during their Enshroud and filling it extends the duration of their Enshroud window, or grants them additional charges on their Death Gauge. As long as the UI is very clear and strongly indicates when a player has this Bond of Life, I think it could do a lot in the way of creating more reasons to heal without necessarily increasing outgoing damage frequency. While that's still something I'd want to see anyway, I just say that because it's possible to see a lot more use of healing by creating reasons to heal these HP debts even when no one is taking damage.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[fulminating]

How would you have it interact with galvanise/catalyse - it sounds like the same concept but in the other direction, so cancelling out or instantly fulfilling the bond could work there?

Similarly would it proc excog or nah? Being able to instantly proc whatever effect sounds like a pretty cool interaction.

A downside would be that it might incentivise and reward medica2 spammers.

[ty_taurus]

How would you have it interact with galvanise/catalyse - it sounds like the same concept but in the other direction, so cancelling out or instantly fulfilling the bond could work there?

Similarly would it proc excog or nah? Being able to instantly proc whatever effect sounds like a pretty cool interaction.

A downside would be that it might incentivise and reward medica2 spammers.

You can have a barrier in Genshin as well. The barrier would protect your actual HP while you try and fill the Bond. Since we generate barriers through healing, I imagine the HP recovered would go toward the Bond, but the barrier would be applied independently and still protect you. It wouldn't proc Excog because as you can see in the example image, the bond is not actually a part of your HP. Your character still has full HP while the Bond exists.

As for Medica II... there isn't any more or less incentive to spamming Medica II since you ultimately lose out on a portion of your regen. Though I imagine if you fill the Bond with a regen, the remaining duration will go toward healing the target's actual HP.

[Sebazy]

IMO it'd be a super neat addition for more casual content for sure. Gives us something to feed all the excessive oGCDs into.

The only pain point for me is how it would potentially collide with the 2 minute meta's emphasis on stuffing every buff possible into the window coupled with SE's love of ensuring there's some kind of mechanic lined up right with said 2 minute window. On one side, we managed before with Blood for Blood, but on the other side, it could start being problematic if we get 'Top to 100% or Doom' style mechanics in these windows.

[ty_taurus]

IMO it'd be a super neat addition for more casual content for sure. Gives us something to feed all the excessive oGCDs into.

The only pain point for me is how it would potentially collide with the 2 minute meta's emphasis on stuffing every buff possible into the window coupled with SE's love of ensuring there's some kind of mechanic lined up right with said 2 minute window. On one side, we managed before with Blood for Blood, but on the other side, it could start being problematic if we get 'Top to 100% or Doom' style mechanics in these windows.

I mean, I don't like talking as if the 2 minute meta will never or cannot ever change. We don't know what Dawntrail will do to the flow of combat, or any future expansion. And that's not to say it absolutely will change or go away either, I just don't like letting something that isn't set in stone control discussion about design ideas.

[Sebazy]

I mean, I don't like talking as if the 2 minute meta will never or cannot ever change. We don't know what Dawntrail will do to the flow of combat, or any future expansion. And that's not to say it absolutely will change or go away either, I just don't like letting something that isn't set in stone control discussion about design ideas.

If the 2 minute meta evaporates, that only makes this mechanic better IMO++

[LilimoLimomo]

As much as I think healers need more to do, I don't think giving tanks the ability to explicitly create an additional need for healing is a good idea.

If it was a mechanic in a specific fight maybe, something the boss does to the players? Sure. But not something players do to themselves that then creates a need other players have to fill.

[ty_taurus]

You know, it's actually quite interesting to see how Genshin has addressed meta balance concerns over the years. Because its characters and weapons are monetized, there are legal difficulties in changing existing characters or weapons. So when they address concerns with balance, they have to do so by considering what they add rather than what they take away. Some examples...

For a long time, shielding was vastly superior to healing. Zhongli in particular is a character with such a powerful shield that it makes you nearly untouchable, and since you aren't taking damage when protected by a shield, you not only block damage instead of needing to heal it, but your character also doesn't get staggered like they normally would when taking damage, which is much better for dealing damage since there's no concern of getting stunlocked out of your combo. So they introduced Riftwolves, enemies that inflict corrosion, which deals damage over time to your entire party, not just the on-field character, and that damage over time ignores shields. So suddenly, healing because very relevant again. And then there's the new Fontaine mechanics like the Bond of Life that I explained here.

Another example would be the introduction of the Dendro element. Prior to Dendro characters existing, the Electro element was very weak because the interactions it had with other elements wasn't nearly as strong as the reactions between Pryo, Hydro, and Cryo. But Dendro has very powerful and very easy-to-use reactions with Electro. The character Kuki Shinobu was very underwhelming when she first came out, but once Dendro was released, she jumped from unremarkable to exceptional because her emphasis on the elemental mastery stat and consistent Electro application became a fantastic resource for Dendro characters like Tighnari.

[ty_taurus]

As much as I think healers need more to do, I don't think giving tanks the ability to explicitly create an additional need for healing is a good idea.

If it was a mechanic in a specific fight maybe, something the boss does to the players? Sure. But not something players do to themselves that then creates a need other players have to fill.

What makes it work well in Genshin is that characters that have a need to heal themselves are able to provide that healing they need. Which is why I used Warrior as an example. Healers just make those mechanics significantly easier and faster.

In Genshin, I have the character Lyney who uses a bow and arrow. Bow users can charge an arrow by holding down the attack button to release an elemental arrow during combat. When Lyney does this, his charged shots consume 20% of his HP to summon a decoy object called a "Prop Arrow" that distracts enemies and eventually released a fire explosive and disappears. Every time he does this, he gets a stack of a buff unique to him, up to 5 stacks. He cannot reduce his own HP below 60% by doing this, though. When you use his skill, he deals a burst of Pyro damage that gets stronger and heals him based on the number of stacks you've gained. While he's able to sustain his own HP this way, having a healer who can provide healing over time to him makes him considerably stronger since he can keep burning that excess healing to gain more stacks, and then get back all his HP after he uses his skill.

[AmiableApkallu]

As much as I think healers need more to do, I don't think giving tanks the ability to explicitly create an additional need for healing is a good idea.

If it was a mechanic in a specific fight maybe, something the boss does to the players? Sure. But not something players do to themselves that then creates a need other players have to fill.

Tell me you've never healed a random Duty Finder party without telling me you've never healed a random Duty Finder party.

Seriously, the current bread & butter existence of a healer in Duty Finder is waiting for some other player to do something to themselves (e.g., failing a mechanic, whether intentionally or by accident) that you then get to do something about.

The entire problem with healers in FFXIV is the lack of things that create a soul-fulfilling need for their healing kits.

Thus, other players being able to push a button and go, "hey, I could use some healing" is no different from the current state of things. And as opposed to failing a mechanic, from that other player's perspective, this hypothetical button gives them a reason to look at how the rest of the party is faring and decide whether "push button to request healing" is a good use of the healer's attention.