Improvisation

[Valence]

I would not equate a 120s cooldown to an afflatus that is damage positive and on a 20 second cooldown. And if I'm not mistaken, MCH is actually above DNC and BRD since its buffs in damage since it's much more reliable.

But after thinking it over, I think the esprit generation coupled with the shield would feel much better. You get the instant punch from a slight dps gain and a useful shield. So I would revise my armchair development exercise to something like this:

Improvised Finish
- Creates a barrier around self and all nearby party members. Damage absorbed equals 10% of maximum HP of target.
Duration 30s
-Generates Esprit upon execution. Esprit generated increases with stacks of Rising Rhythm.
0 Stacks: 10 Esprit
1 Stack: 20 Esprit
2 Stacks: 30 Esprit
3 Stacks: 40 Esprit
4 Stacks: 50 Esprit

I'll edit my original post with this update.

MCH is and has always been since shb at the bottom of the cDPS charts (well technically we only have had those since abyssos/anabaseios, but it's not hard to do napkin math and project earlier since not much has changed anyway). As for rDPS charts, it's always been either similar to BRD/DNC, or way below depending on patches. It's not more reliable and the idea that a non proc job is more reliable is just a myth. If it dies it loses potentially as much if not more than even BRD if the gauges are filled up. DNC is and always has been the meta rphys prog job due to no harsh consequences from death beyond weakness, and the biggest amount of raid utility.

However, it does have a very versatile mitigation in the wrench, where DNC and BRD are healing focused, and we all know that nobody actually lacks healing except perhaps in prog those days, at best. But then again, once you're past prog and geared a little, or with a more optimal plan, you also need less % mitigation as well, so is the wrench such a boon? idk. And Curing Waltz is just broken, even though again I think they could remove every utility from rphys and nobody would bat an eye, because everybody and their moms those days has overbloated mitigation.

I don't disagree with this new idea for Improv though. If anything it feels more streamlined and usable, even if probably a little too strong. I liked the idea of having some constraints around it meaning you'd truly get big shields during downtime when you can have sufficient time to prepare it. But I definitely do agree that adding some esprit gauge generation could help DNC a lot during downtimes, even though it's a job that's already so versatile that nothing can virtually screw up the rotation.