FFXIV Healer Strike and the 'How would you fix it?' line

[ForsakenRoe]

Greetings to the General Discussion section of the forums. As some may be aware, there's a thread up in this section, about a 'Healer Strike' (680 pages and counting!),. Essentially, us Healers have given feedback in the Healer section of the forums, and been ignored, for some five years now. When laying out what issues the healer role faces, be that 'our damage 'rotation' is overwhelmingly comprised of a single button', 'there simply isn't enough damage to heal to warrant our bloated healing kits' or something else, a common reprise from some who don't see the point in the strike, or 'why are the healers complaining', etc. is:

'Well how would you fix it?'

It's getting tiring, watching new faces enter that thread, say the line, and then I/others have to repost what we've already said about how we'd fix it, again and again, because it's simply not reasonable to ask someone to go back through 600+ pages of back and forth (a lot of it completely unrelated to the topic at hand). So, I figure I'll just make a thread here in General, which answers the question: How would I fix it?

A couple months ago now, I posted (in the Healer section, since it's Healer related) a thread for each of the Healer Jobs, which detailed a design that would (in my opinion) improve the gameplay of each of the jobs. These designs may well not be the 'silver bullet' that fixes the job's woes overnight, but at the very least, I believe they would 'buy time' by generating goodwill from the playerbase, allowing the dev team to spend time further down the line to implement a more robust 'solution' to the problems the Healer role faces (eg, increasing how much healing we have to output, across the range of content the game has to offer).

Rather than link to the threads (which requires opening four separate tabs), I figure it'd be easier to just copypaste the thread OPs here, into one mega-thread, for ease of access to all four (rather than opening each in an individual browser tab). All of the OPs being in this one thread also makes it easier for SE to find, should someone from SE see this thread. Please note, these were written some 2 months before Dawntrail's Media Tour, and as such, listed potencies use Endwalker values as a baseline (and Dawntrail actions are not listed) have been sort-of updated with Dawntrail-related information, with some actions being reworked in function/balance to better fit the below designs (cough Philosophia). As per the game's terminology, actions are denoted as being either 'Spells' (on the GCD, affected by 'healing magic potency increases', etc), or 'Abilities' (OGCDs, affected only by 'healing action potency increases', etc).

I have tried to write the designs in a 'chronological' way, such that the tooltip for an action reads as it would when you are at that level, as I feel that it makes understanding 'how the job evolves with each level' more understandable. For example, Glare 3's tooltip at level 82 says it is 310 potency, despite being 330 at Dawntrail's endgame due to a trait at level 94. Square Enix's way of doing tooltips on the Job Action Guides, is to show the tooltips as they would appear at level 100, which leaves the player without some information about their ability's functionality at previous levels. For example, I can't see what the potency of Glare 3 is on the WHM Guide when I first learn it, as the tooltip for it says it is 330p, and the 94 trait mentions only that it is 'increased to 330p', but not what it is increased from. It only mentions the 310 potency in the 'Recent Updates' widget, but that doesn't inform the player if the 'update' was because of a buff to the action or because of the trait modifying the action.


Edit: The concept of Aetherblight (an idea to make the HPS of healing more important, without necessarily changing the healer kits)

Since there's not really a good spot anywhere else on the first page, I'll have to put it here in the first post: I have previously posted a few posts (in the actual Healer Strike thread, so they're kind of lost to the sands of time now) musing on the idea of something I would call 'Aetherblight'. In other games (like WOW), it's called a 'heal absorb', and is functionally the inverse of our SCH/SGE Barriers. Where an Adlo protects our 'real HP' from 'enemy damage', a Heal Absorb protects our 'missing HP' from our 'ally healing', so the way to deal with it is to just... heal harder. Since one of the largest divisions on 'how to fix the healer role' (besides 'does it need fixing at all') is the topic of 'should Healers get more damage actions, vs more healing required', I think this idea has merit, as it provides a way for SE to increase healing requirements in a sense, without necessarily having damage 'hit harder', or 'hit more often'. A post on the topic (as an example of what I'm trying to describe) can be found here:

For illustration, what I mean for Heal Absorbs (as it relates to a debuff on allies for a healer to deal with) is, quick paint diagram:



In this example, John Finalfantasy has a Heal Absorb for about 20k on himself, and various Barrier effects (Adlo, Divine Veil etc) for like 25-30k as well.

A heal used on John will first remove the purple section of the bar (the Heal Absorb), turning it back to grey (missing HP). Once the purple is fully removed, the healing starts affecting the grey 'missing HP' section of the bar again.
An enemy attack that hits John, as we know from current gameplay, would first take away from the orange (the barriers), and then start hitting the blue section (the real HP). The attack would ignore the purple section

Additionally, Heal Absorbs being a debuff allows for some of them to be designed as 'this can be removed instantly via Esuna'. As such, players would get a choice in how to resolve the mechanic: Is it more efficient to use healing to heal through it (eg if you have a DOT at the same time, WHM's LilyBell would be very good at clearing it), or is it better to Esuna the affected players? Target count also falls into this 'choice' factor, if there's 3 players out of 8 in a raid that got the debuff, is it worth AOE healing to solve it, is it worth just Esuna all 3, or is there a way to single-target heal them that makes THAT method more efficient (eg 3 Essential Dignities = one for each player, Benediction on one and Tetra on 2/3, etc)

Edit: You know how if you get a Barrier big enough to be 'more than your whole HP bar' it shows it as a small diamond? Well:



Same can apply here. John here has FOUR HP bars worth of Heal Absorb for you to get through before you can heal his actual HP bar!
(this is a hyperbolic example to illustrate how we can potentially have more Heal Absorb than our current Max HP. I would not expect the developers to make us heal 4 whole HP bars worth of Heal Absorb for one mechanic, we don't have the MP for it)

So, with such a mechanic added, healers would potentially get to have their own, role specific 'mechanic' to interact with, in the same way that Tanks get Interruptible Actions as something that they're meant to handle (theoretically, when SE remembers to use the mechanic). However, the design space opened up by adding such a mechanic is vast, and would allow much greater creativity with raid design. For example, soaking a tower could debuff the player(s) within, with Aetherblight rather than actual damage. There could be debuffs that interact with Aetherblight, such as DOTs that are active while you have Aetherblight and removed once the Aetherblight is cleansed.

Furthermore, Job actions could have specific interactions with Aetherblight. Going beyond the obvious 'You can remove Aetherblight with Esuna' (which gives struggling players a 'solve this instantly' panic button at the cost of a GCD), you could have things like 'AST's Essential Dignity considers the player to be at 1 HP for its scaling effect, if the player is afflicted with Aetherblight'. Or for SGE, perhaps something as simple as 'Kardia heals for double potency, if the Kardia target is afflicted with Aetherblight'. SCH could see some kind of guaranteed Critical Hit effect, such as 'Healing spells under the effect of Emergency Tactics are guaranteed to critically heal, if the target is afflicted with Aetherblight'. And of course, WHM would be incredibly well positioned to handle such a debuff, as Benediction would clear it instantly AND set the HP of the target to Max, perfect for any tankbusters that happen to apply high levels of Aetherblight.

Lastly, Aetherblight is, ironically, pre-explained in the current lore, so nothing needs to be changed in the story to justify it: Zephirin's spear could be said to have applied such a high amount of Aetherblight (and a DOT, cos of the hole in his chest) to Haurchefant, that Alphinaud, who was not very skilled as a healer at the time, could not heal through the Aetherblight fast enough to save Haurchefant (and he didn't think to use Esuna)

[ForsakenRoe]

The White Mage. The quintessential 'Healer' class fantasy in most of the singleplayer installments of Final Fantasy. Here, however, the lore has been written to depict the school of magic as being rather more... Destructive. As half of the duo that created a world-rending Calamity (the other culprit being Black Mages), White Magic in FFXIV has been told via the lore to be both able to bring succor to those in need of aid, and equally a practiced avatar of destruction against those that would seek to harm the Twelveswood. Nature's Warden, Nature's Wrath. Her Vigil and Her Vengeance.

With this design, I hope to capture the two sides of White Magic, both the incredible healing potential, with the power to heal almost any wound, and the devastating vengeance the White Mage can unleash upon Nature's enemies. To provide a White Mage that, not only could 'survive' in the War of the Magi (through the use of restorative magicks), but also fight back against the invading Mhachi forces, with equally destructive magic.

THE NATURE'S VIGILANCE GAUGE

(Please forgive me, I am not an artist)

The Nature's Vigilance Gauge is learned upon reaching Level 50, and completing the Job Quest 'Heart of the Forest'. Upon gaining access to the Gauge, many previously learned actions will now generate Vigilance, stored in the gauge (displayed as the 'stem' of the flower). Upon reaching 50 Vigilance (displayed as reaching the 'leaves' of the flower), the execution of Blessing of the Elementals will become available. This spell is a strong AOE healing action, which also grants three new 'buffs', corresponding to each of the three natural elements, Wind, Water and Earth (displayed as the 'petals' of the flower).

The Nature's Vigilance Gauge can hold up to two of each Petal, so spending 100 Vigilance back to back will not cause overcap. When a Petal is present on the Gauge, that element's spell (Stone/Glare, Aero/Dia, Water/Banish) will 'upgrade' into the ultimate Elemental Magic of that element: Quake, Tornado, and Flood respectively. These actions serve as a way to 'refund' the damage lost by casting Blessing of the Elementals, with the total increase over their base forms being equal to one cast of your current level of Stone/Glare (at max level, lower level potencies might be variable).

In this example, we can see the player has 60 Vigilance stored, and has two of each Elemental Petal ready to use.

WHITE MAGE ACTIONS

Level 1: Stone, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Earth damage with a potency of 170.

Level 2: Cure, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 500 MP, Spell
Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 450

Level 4: Aero, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Wind damage with a potency of 60.
Additional Effect: Wind damage over time
DOT Potency: 50
Duration: 12s

Level 8: Protect, 60s, Ability
Grants Protect to self and nearby allies.
Protect Effect: Reduces damage taken by self and nearby allies by 5%
Duration: 10s

Level 10: Medica, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1000 MP, Spell
Restores own HP and the HP of all nearby party members.
Cure potency: 300
NOTE: Radius increased to 20y

Level 12: Raise, 8s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 2400 MP, Spell
Resurrects target to a weakened state.

CLASS QUEST
Level 15: Water, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 15s Recharge, Spell
Deals Water damage with a potency of 210.
NOTE: On the GCD, but a separate cooldown, akin to Sonic Break on GNB, or Goring Blade on Paladin

Level 18: Stone 2, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Earth damage with a potency of 190.

Level 22: Water 2, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 15s Recharge, Spell
Deals Water damage with a potency of 230.

Level 24: Cure 2, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 500 MP, Spell
Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 700
NOTE: Cure 1 upgrades into Cure 2 via a Trait, saving hotbar space.

Level 28: Aero 2, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Wind damage with a potency of 100.
Additional Effect: Wind Damage over time
DOT Potency: 60
Duration: 12s

Level 30: Medica 2, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1000 MP, Spell
Restores own HP and the HP of all nearby party members.
Cure potency: 300
Additional Effect: Regen
Regen Potency: 100
Regen Duration: 12s
NOTE: Medica 1 upgrades into Medica 2. Heals for the same 700p as Endwalker, but one tick is frontloaded
to make the base potency equal to Medica 1's potency.

JOB QUEST
Level 30: Stoneskin, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1 Lily, Spell
Applies a barrier to target that absorbs damage equal to a heal of 400 potency.
NOTE: Lily Gauge is unlocked at 30 instead of 52

Level 35: Regen, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 250 MP, Spell
Grants healing over time effect to target.
Cure Potency: 200
Duration: 18s

JOB QUEST
Level 35: Presence of Mind, 120s CD, Ability
Reduces spell cast time and recast time, and auto-attack delay by 20%.
Duration: 15s

Level 40: Cure 3, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1500 MP, Spell
Restores own or target party member's HP and all party members nearby target.
Cure Potency: 500
NOTE: Radius is still 10y

JOB QUEST:
Level 40: Divine Seal, 120s CD, Ability
Increases healing magic potency by 20%.
Duration: 20s

Level 42: Aetherial Shift, 60s, Ability
Quickly dash forward 15 yalms.

Level 45: Graniteskin, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1 Lily, Spell
Applies a barrier to self and nearby party members that absorbs damage equal to a heal of 200 potency.

JOB QUEST
Level 45: Holy, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 140 to all nearby enemies.
Additional Effect: Stun
Duration: 4s

Level 50: Benediction, 180s, Ability
Fully restores a target's HP.

JOB QUEST
Level 50: Blessing of the Elementals, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 50 Vigilance, Spell
Entreat the Elementals for aid, restoring HP to self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 500
Additional Effect: Blooms one 'Petal of River's Rage'
Additional Effect: Blooms one 'Petal of Wrathful Winds'
Additional Effect: Blooms one 'Petal of Earthen Ire'
Additional Effect: Restores 500 MP

Level 50: Quake, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Earth damage to target and nearby enemies, with a potency of 250 for the first enemy, and 50%
less for all remaining enemies.
Can only be executed while a Petal of Earthen Ire is blooming in the Nature's Vigilance Gauge.
Consumes a Petal of Earthen Ire upon execution.
This Action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.
NOTE: Stone turns into Quake while a Petal of Earthen Ire is blooming.

Level 50: Flood, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Water damage to target and nearby enemies, with a potency of 290 for the first enemy, and 50%
less for all remaining enemies.
Can only be executed while a Petal of River's Rage is blooming in the Nature's Vigilance Gauge.
Consumes a Petal of River's Rage upon Execution.
Shares a cooldown with Water.
This Action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.
NOTE: Water turns into Flood while a Petal of River's Rage is blooming.

Level 50: Tornado, Instant Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Wind damage to target and nearby enemies, with a potency of 130 for the first enemy, and 50%
less for all remaining enemies.
Additional Effect: Wind damage over time
DOT Potency: 70 for first target, 35 for all remaining enemies
Duration: 12s
Can only be executed while a Petal of Wrathful Winds is blooming in the Nature's Vigilance Gauge.
Consumes a Petal of Wrathful Winds upon execution.
This Action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.
NOTE: Aero turns into Tornado while a Petal of Wrathful Winds is blooming. This DOT cannot be placed
on an enemy at the same time as Aero (they overwrite each other)

NOTE: Please see the Trait 'One with Nature' for more info about the Nature's Vigilance Gauge.

JOB QUEST
Level 52: Afflatus Solace, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1 Lily, Spell
Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 700

JOB QUEST
Level 52: Asylum, 90s, Ability
Envelops a designated area in a veil of succor, granting healing over time to self and allies who enter.
Cure Potency: 100
Duration: 24s

JOB QUEST
Level 54: Stone 3, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200MP, Spell
Deals Earth damage with a potency of 220.

JOB QUEST
Level 54: Water 3, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 15s Recharge, Spell
Deals Water damage with a potency of 260.

JOB QUEST
Level 56: Assize, 40s CD, Ability
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 400 to all nearby enemies.
Additional Effect: Restores HP to self and nearby allies
Cure Potency: 400
Additional Effect: Restores 500MP

JOB QUEST
Level 58: Tetragrammaton, 60s CD, Ability
Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 700

JOB QUEST
Level 60: Afflatus Tragedy, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1 Blood Lily, Spell
Deals unaspected damage to target and enemies nearby it, with a potency of 800 for the first enemy,
and 50% less for all remaining enemies.

Level 62: Thin Air, 60s, Ability
Next spell is executed without cast time, and without MP cost.
Maximum Charges: 2
NOTE: Yes this includes Raise

Level 64: Stone 4, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Earth damage with a potency of 260.

Level 64: Water 4, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 15s Recharge, Spell
Deals Water damage with a potency of 300.

NOTE: At level 64, Afflatus Tragedy's potency increases to 1000 via Trait, to keep up with the
increase to Stone's potency

Level 66: Divine Benison, 30s, Ability
Applies a barrier to target that absorbs damage equivalent to a heal of 500 potency.
Duration: 15s

Level 68: Plenary Indulgence, 60s, Ability
Grants 'Confession' to self and nearby allies.
Confession Effect: Reduces damage taken by 5%.
Additionally, upon being affected by the direct cast of Medica 2, Cure 3, Blessing of the Elementals,
Graniteskin or Afflatus Rapture, 'Confession' triggers an additional healing effect.
Cure Potency: 200
Duration: 10s

JOB QUEST
Level 70: Afflatus Rapture, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1 Lily, Spell
Restores HP of self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 300

Level 72: Glare, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 300.

Level 72: Banish, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 15s Recharge, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 340.

Level 72: Dia, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 150.
Additional Effect: Unaspected damage over time
DOT Potency: 70
Duration: 12s

Level 74: Afflatus Misery, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1 Blood Lily, Spell
Deals unaspected damage to target and enemies nearby it, with a potency of 1200 for the first enemy,
and 50% less for all remaining enemies.

Level 76: Afflatus Bastion, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1 Lily, Spell
Applies a barrier to target that absorbs damage equal to a heal of 450 potency.
NOTE: Upgrade of Stoneskin

Level 76: Afflatus Sanctuary, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1 Lily, Spell
Applies a barrier to self and nearby party members that absorbs damage equal to a heal of 250 potency.
NOTE: Upgrade of Graniteskin

Level 80: Temperance, 120s, Ability
Increases healing magic potency by 20%.
Additionally, grants Temperance to self and allies, reducing damage taken by 10%.
Duration: 20s

Level 82: Glare 3, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 310.

Level 82: Banish 3, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 15s Recharge, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 350.

NOTE: Afflatus Misery's potency increases to 1240 at this level to keep parity with Glare 3's potency

Level 84: Holy 3, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 170 to all nearby enemies.
Additional effect: Stun
Duration: 4s

Level 86: Aquaveil, 60s, Ability
Reduces damage taken by self or an ally by 15%.
Duration: 8s

Level 90: Liturgy of the Bell, 180s, Ability
Places a healing blossom at the designated location, and grants 5 stacks of 'Liturgy of the Bell' to self.
Duration: 20s
Taking damage will spend a stack to heal self and all party members within 20y of the blossom.
Cure Potency: 400
This healing effect can only be triggered once per second.
Additionally, any remaining stacks at the end of the duration, or upon executing this action a second
time, will be consumed to cause an additional healing effect.
'Detonation' Cure Potency: 200 per remaining stack

Level 92: Glare IV, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 0 MP, Spell
Deals unaspected damage to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 640 for the first enemy, and 40% less for all remaining enemies.
Can only be executed while Sacred Sight is active.

Level 96: Medica III, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1000 MP, Spell
Restores own HP and the HP of all nearby party members.
Cure potency: 425
Additional Effect: Regen
Regen Potency: 175
Regen Duration: 12s

Level 100: Divine Caress, 1s, Ability
Creates a barrier around self and all party members near you that absorbs damage equivalent to a heal of 400 potency.
Duration: 15s
Additional Effect: Grants Divine Aura when barrier effect expires, or is consumed.
Divine Aura Effect: Healing over time
Cure Potency: 200
Duration: 15s
Can only be executed while Divine Grace is active.

NOTE: The 10s duration of the barrier is annoyingly small, so I've extended it to 15s for a little more lenience in timing

TRAITS

Level 18: Mastery of the Earth
Upgrades Stone to Stone 2.

Level 20: Maim and Mend
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 10%

Level 22: Mastery of the Rivers
Upgrades Water to Water 2.

Level 24: Cure Mastery
Upgrades Cure to Cure 2.

Level 28: Mastery of the Winds
Upgrades Aero to Aero 2.

Level 30: Secrets of the Lily
Enables the accumulation of Lilies on the Lily Gauge, with a new Lily blooming every 20s you are engaged in combat, up to a maximum of 3.

Level 30: Medica Mastery
Upgrades Medica to Medica 2.

Level 32: Freecure
Grants a 20% chance that after casting Cure 2, Stone 2 or Water 2, your next Cure 2 will cast instantly, and cost 0 MP.
Duration: 10s

Level 40: Maim and Mend II
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 30%

Level 46: Overcure
While Medica 2's Regen effect is present on the WHM, Cure 3's MP cost is halved.

Level 50: One with Nature
Enables the accumulation of Nature's Vigilance in its gauge by executing certain actions. 50 Vigilance
can be spent to execute 'Blessing of the Elementals'.

Stone and Quake grant 1 Vigilance.
Water and Flood grant 5 Vigilance.
Aero and Tornado grant 5 Vigilance, 1 when cast, and 1 each time the damage over time deals damage.
Holy grants 2 Vigilance per enemy hit.
Afflatus Tragedy/Misery grants 5 Vigilance.

Cure 2 grants 5 Vigilance.
Regen grants 10 Vigilance, 4 when cast, and 1 each time the healing over time triggers.
Medica 2 grants 15 Vigilance, 3 each time the healing over time triggers.
Cure 3 grants 10 Vigilance.

Level 54: Natural Mastery 2
Upgrades Stone 2 to Stone 3, and Water 2 to Water 3.
Additionally, increases the potency of Quake to 320, and Flood to 360.

Level 60: Transcendent Afflatus
Adds a Blood Lily to the Lily Gauge. Each Lily spent causes the Blood Lily to bloom by one stage.
After three Lilies are spent, the Blood Lily blooms fully and can be spent on Afflatus Tragedy/Misery.

Level 54: Natural Mastery 2
Upgrades Stone 2 to Stone 3, and Water 2 to Water 3.
Additionally, increases the potency of Quake to 290, and Flood to 330.
Additionally, increases the potency of Tornado to 140.

Level 64: Natural Mastery 3
Upgrades Stone 3 to Stone 4, and Water 3 to Water 4.
Additionally, increases the potency of Quake to 340, and Flood to 380.
Additionally, increases the potency of Tornado's damage over time effect to 75.

Level 68: Protection Mastery
Upgrades Protect to Plenary Indulgence.

Level 72: Infusion of Light
Upgrades Stone 4 to Glare, Water 4 to Banish, and Aero 2 to Dia.
Additionally, increases the potency of Quake to 400, and Flood to 440.
Additionally, increases the potency of Tornado to 170 and its damage over time potency to 90.
Additionally, increases the potency of Holy to 160.

Level 74: Afflatus Mastery
Upgrades Afflatus Tragedy to Afflatus Misery.

Level 76: Bastion of Light
Upgrades Stoneskin to Afflatus Bastion, and Graniteskin to Afflatus Sanctuary.

Level 78: Enhanced Asylum
Adds an additional effect to Asylum, granting 10% increased HP recovery for any allies within.

Level 80: Temperance of the Amdapori
Upgrades Divine Seal to Temperance.

Level 82: Mastery of the Light
Upgrades Glare to Glare 3, and Banish to Banish 3.
Additionally, increases the potency of Quake to 410, and Flood to 450.
Additionally, increases the potency of Tornado to 180.

Level 85: Healing Mastery
Increases the healing potency of Cure II to 800, Regen to 250, Cure III to 600, Medica II to 400,
Medica II's Regen effect to 150, Afflatus Solace to 800, and Afflatus Rapture to 400.

Level 88: Enhanced Divine Benison
Allows for the accumulation of charges of Divine Benison.
Maximum Charges: 2

Level 92: Sacred Duty
Presence of Mind grants 3 stacks of Sacred Sight upon execution.
Duration: 30s

Level 94: Fury Of The Elementals
Increases the potency of Glare III to 330, Banish to 370, Holy 3 to 175, and Afflatus Misery to 1,320.
Additionally, increases the potency of Quake to 430, and Flood to 470.
Additionally, increases the initial potency of Tornado to 200.

Level 96: Providence Of The Padjali
Upgrades Medica II to Medica III.

Level 98: Enhanced Tetragrammaton
Allows the accumulation of charges for consecutive uses of Tetragrammaton.
Maximum Charges: 2

Level 100: Grace Of The Divine
Temperance grants Divine Grace upon execution.
Duration: 30s

SIDE NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR

First off, I will state this: 'I hold the opinion that 'the Pure/Barrier split has not worked''. This is due to seeing that, for some duties, not only is SCH/SGE a viable composition, it can often be superior to bringing a Pure Healer at all. This is due to the combat design decisions leaning towards 'to make healing harder, we should make the hits hit harder'. What this leads to, is not 'more healing is needed', but instead 'more mitigation is needed'. The Barrier Healers have plenty of 'burst healing' in their kits, as it is needed for certain 'Pure Healing checks', such as Seat of Sacrifice's doom (HP is set to 1, Doom is cleared upon reaching Max HP).

As such, I find that the end result of the split, is simply 'WHM/AST are not able to complete challenging duties together anymore'. SCH/SGE can work together just fine. With this in mind, I would prefer that the concept of 'Pure/Barrier split' be removed, and a sort of 'sliding scale' be implemented, where the stronger a healer is at Pure Healing, the weaker it is at Barrier Healing, and vice versa. With the current way the healers are balanced/the tools in their kit, the order of WHM/AST/SGE/SCH (from most Pure to most Barrier) would make sense. Additionally, using a 'sliding scale' instead of a blunt binary of 'Pure' or 'Barrier' means that a new healer (if/when one is added) can be slid in on the scale at whatever position. For example, if it is perfectly balanced between Pure and Barrier (for example, a stance-dancing healer that shifts between maintaining Heal over Time effects, and maintaining a buff that delays damage allies take into a Damage over Time effect), the order would become WHM/AST/???/SGE/SCH.

By adding a Barrier option to WHM and AST (Afflatus Sanctuary and Aspected Selena respectively), this allows the devs to know that 'every healer has ready access to a Barrier', and so they can implement more... Let's call them 'Barrier Checks'. The opposite of a Heal Check (where you have to heal hard, like Harrowing Hell, or a White Hole-esque mechanic), a Barrier Check would just see if the players have used a Barrier to negate an aspect of an attack. An example would be Photon, in A11S and TEA. Your HP is set to 1, and you're suffering a DOT (fire floor/Nisi). If you do not have a Barrier, you will die to the next DOT tick. Another is Vulcan Burst, Ifrit's Knockback effect. If you have a Barrier applied, and it fully blocks Vulcan Burst, you don't get knocked back. As such, we could have things like, for example, a raidwide that does two hits: one small hit of say 200 'Unique type' damage, and a second hit of however much the raidwide should do. The raidwide damage could then apply a Doom that can be removed either by Esuna, or by hitting 100% HP. If the 200 damage was blocked because of a Barrier though, the Doom is not applied. This gives the players options, do they Esuna the Doom, do they use a Barrier to prevent the debuff, or do they power through it with Pure healing?

For this reason, I have included some shielding options in WHM's kit, albeit weaker than the Barrier Healers are capable of, or gated behind more strict timers (eg, where SCH can Pure Heal with Indomitability, but it has a 30s CD and costs Aetherflow, WHM can shield the party at the cost of a Lily). Additionally, when Afflatus Misery was made damage-neutral, it brought a gameplay I do not like: purposely wasting healing resources in order to prepare a Misery to keep it aligned with each 1min, so that one is always ready for the 2min window. I'd be fine with this, if the Lily spent was used on actual healing, but sometimes there just isn't healing required, and so the Lily just overheals. The Shielding alternatives, Afflatus Bastion and Afflatus Sanctuary, would provide a way for the WHM to get 'something' from the spent Lily, even if the party is full HP, as long as damage is taken within 30s.

The intention behind this design is to not only show that it's possible to keep WHM as 'the simple, easy to access healer', but for it to also have depth to the way it deals damage, for those that seek to optimize their damage (rather the current design of pressing Glare 11 times in a row). The general thinking of why Aero/Dia is reduced to 12s, and the addition of Water/Banish, is simply 'to reduce the amount of times we cast Stone/Glare in a row'. By doing these two changes, we go from casting Aero/Dia every 12th GCD (and thereby having 11 Glares in a row), to casting Aero/Dia on every 5th GCD (assuming the enemy will live for the duration of the DOT), and Banish on every 6th GCD. The staggered timers mean that we don't just fall into a rhythm, of something akin to 'Dia, Banish, Glare x 4, Dia, Banish, Glare x 4 etc'. Instead, their desynchronization from one another is intentional, to keep the player more engaged.

Additionally, a lot of thought was put into the potencies of the skills (at max level), such that the potency lost by missing an opportunity to cast these revamped spells (eg not refreshing Dia on time, or refreshing it early because of movement) is less punishing to players. This can be seen in how Water/Banish is only 40p stronger than the equivalent level of Stone/Glare, making each GCD you have Water/Banish ready but do not cast it, an average loss of just 6.6 potency. Additionally, the increased base potency of Dia (150p) means that, should the player need to move, using Dia to keep their GCD rolling is less of a damage loss compared to the current game, where it is 65p.

When Misery was made to be damage-neutral, it allowed for the optimization trick of putting it inside the 2min raidbuff window, which effectively 'transplants' 3 Glare casts from outside the window (the ones we lose by casting Solace and Rapture), to be 'inside' the raidbuff window, thereby increasing our damage contribution for the raid.

The same idea drove the concept of the refund mechanism for Blessing of the Elementals, allowing us to transplant one Glare from outside the 2min window, into it. Unlike Misery, however, it takes 3 spell casts to 'cash in' that refund, meaning that the difference in damage output between 'a player who does place Quake/Flood/Tornado inside raidbuffs' and 'a player who does not', is the damage of 'Glare inside raidbuffs, minus the damage of Glare outside raidbuffs'. In other words, a very small amount of potency, likely in the double digits. This means that, those who don't want to worry about keeping everything perfectly lined up, will lose almost no damage in doing so, and those who want to perfectly optimize, have another thing they can toy with.

Trying to make a healing plan that allows for the 'perfectly optimal' gameplay of going into the 2min window with everything ready, would mean your 2min window's execution would look something like this:

BOTE > BOTE > Presence of Mind > Banish > Tornado > Misery > Quake > Quake > Glare > Tornado > Banish

This is discounting the speed buff of Presence of Mind's effect on your rotation, as I am not clever enough to mentally envision its effect on your Recast speeds. Where the example says 'Glare', you would presumably fill with extra casts of Glare as needed.

I believe that this design captures the 'feel' and 'identity' of White Mage, as both a Warden of Nature, healing those that need aid, but also a fearsome avatar of Nature's Wrath, of vengeance against those that seek to harm it. We have seen, in lore and in cutscenes, that the White Mages were not passive in the War of the Magi, instead being very agressive against the invading Mhachi Black Mages. Additionally, in a cutscene as recent as Endwalker's release (6.0, in the Garlemald section of MSQ), A-Ruhn-Senna, a White Mage Padjal (and one of the Job tutors to an extent) interrupts an argument and potential scuffle by summoning a blast of air reminiscent of a tornado. Perhaps not strong enough to be Tornado itself, but it shows that, despite our abandonment of the elements in our current gameplay (in favour of Glare/Dia), White Magic is still related to the elements.

Additionally, the Red Mage uses spells created from the knowledge of White Magic (along with Black), using VerAero and VerStone. As such, it feels to some (myself included) that the 'Elemental' aspect of White Magic has been abandoned in favour of the new 'Light themed' WHM, without any lore explanation for why this is the case. Fans have created explanations of 'when we were in the First, the excess of Light meant we adapted our spells to use more Light', but to my knowledge, no official explanation was given (and the theory doesn't make sense, now we're on the Source (doubly so while we were in the Void)). While some prefer the Light theme, some also preferred the more grounded Elemental version, and are disappointed to see it gone. Some have even gone as far as to say 'the reason they removed the Elements from WHM, is so they can add Geomancer later', which, if true, would be quite disappointing personally, from the perspective of 'Job A had to lose a part of it's identity, so that Job B could later 'steal' it, something that happened (and players were extremely angry about, at the time) in World of Warcraft, with Warlocks losing the Metamorphosis ability (allowing them to turn into a demon), only for Demon Hunters to be added later with the ability to turn into a demon for a time.

With the design above, both sides would be covered, the Light being the majority of the damage-dealing gameplay (and any Lily healing required), and the Elements making a reprise via the damage refund system for Blessing of the Elementals. It's not an exact 50:50 split, and some would still likely complain that 'their favourite aesthetic (elemental/Light-based) isn't getting the better side of the deal', but I believe that having both aspects expressed is better than just going full tilt into one side and abandoning the fans of the other completely.

ADDENUM: DIAGRAMS/ILLUSTRATIONS

For the reader's pleasure, I have included some additional media, to help illustrate certain aspects of the design.



Figure A: Two pie charts. The first shows a breakdown of each GCD spent on an ideal run of a duty, where the player does not need to dip into 'damage-loss GCD healing' (factoring in Presence of Mind's speed boost as giving roughly 2 bonus GCDs, meaning that each 2min we get 50 total GCDs to spend). The second shows a breakdown of that same ideal run of a duty, but under the design laid out above (again, 50 total GCDs due to POM's speed boost). The first pie chart shows the incredible disparity in how often we press Glare 3, compared to anything else that isn't Glare3. It's almost 75% of our total GCDs that get spent on that single action, leading to the feeling of 'samey-ness' in combat.

By contrast, in Figure A2, we can see that we are spending (per 2 minute loop) a mere 17 GCDs on Glares, along with 8 Dia, 6 Banishes, 2 uses of Blessing of the Elementals, 2 Quakes, 2 Floods, 2 Tornadoes, 6 Lily spells (Afflatus Solace/Rapture/Bastion/Sanctuary) and 2 Afflatus Misery. This results in a Glare-to-Total ratio of 17 Glares out of 50 GCDs, or somewhere around 33%, a much healthier balance to the rest of the kit, and more inline with the in-lore foil to the WHM, the Black Mage. If Quake is included in the Glare count (because they share the same button), it becomes 19 out of 50, which is still below 40% and a much better ratio than the ~70% we're currently working with

Figure B: A video of me playing this design on a dummy in Bozja, from the original post (hence the Abyssos BIS). Please do mute the video, if the button mashing bothers you (I was not practised at the 'new rotation', and so I was nervous). The Lost Action, Lost Banish III, allows for me to simulate the addition of Water/Banish to the kit (albeit with a cast time), and manually refreshing Dia when it has 18s left on its duration (so, 12s have passed) simulates the reduced duration of this design.

Thank you for reading. If there are any typos, please mention them.

To Square Enix, should someone from SE see this post: I give full permission for parts or all of this design to be taken and used for 8.0 or beyond, I do not ask for any credit.

[ForsakenRoe]

The Scholar. Unparalleled master of tactical warfare. Calling forth a faerie ally to assist and cover their metaphorical blindspots, a well practiced Scholar's control over the battlefield is unmatched, with a tool in their arsenal for almost any situation. Able to fend off countless invasions from Mhach, the Scholars, their Faerie companions, and the Marauders in the front lines, beat back the Black Mages again and again, often outnumbered, even by as much as 10 Mhachi forces to 1 of Nym's. A true testament to the incredible strategies, maneuvers and formations the Scholars employed in each and every battle.

In this design, I intend to capture that Scholar fantasy, of utilizing Tactics and Strategies to achieve victory. Bringing back some of the old 'stance dancing' gameplay of Cleric Stance, but with a much lower 'punishment' factor and much more thematically appropriate to the Job via Strategies. The example potencies of healing actions have been crafted based on the potencies of the Endwalker Dawntrail Scholar. As such, the barrier to entry (that being, 'keep the team alive') should be only as high as the Scholar design of Endwalker Dawntrail. Theoretically.

Additionally, I sought to bring back the DOTs the Job was known for, and retuned the potencies such that forgetting one is much less of a damage loss as compared to previous incarnations of the job. I have also returned Bane, allowing the player to easily apply their DOTs to a whole pack of enemies at once. I have also had a stab at reworking the oft-slighted Dissipation, so that the pain point of 'can't use Faerie Actions because the Faerie is gone' is addressed, allowing for more ease of use regarding that skill.

Finally, I fear that oftentimes we see our flying friend too much as another 'tool' in our kit, rather than as the 'healing partner' she deserves to be recognised as. For example, many of us simply refer to her as 'Eos' or 'Selene' (or sometimes when we wipe, 'stupid faerie' which is a little uncalled for, she's trying her best), but her true name (from the job quests) is Lily. So, by having our SCH gameplay interact more with Lily (via her Embrace/certain Faerie actions being modified by Strategies), I think it'd be nice to view her as 'the 9th member of the team', and (hopefully) foster a newfound appreciation within the playerbase for Lily and her hard work.

SCHOLAR ACTIONS

Level 1: Ruin, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 150.

Level 2: Bio, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage over time.
DOT Potency: 20
Duration: 30s

Level 4: Physick, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 500 MP, Spell
Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 400

Level 4: Summon Faerie, 3s, Ability
Summons your faerie ally, Lily, to your side.
Lily will automatically cast Embrace on party members, prioritizing those who need its effect.

NOTE: Lily will change aspects depending on your currently selected Strategy, taking the form 'Eos' when in Strategy: Emergency
or Strategy: Offensive, and 'Selene' while in Strategy: Defensive. This changes the effects of Embrace, please
see Embrace in Pet Actions for details.

NOTE: Summon Faerie changed from a Spell to an Ability, allowing for the player to 'get back into the action' faster after a death.
Alternatively, Lily could be made to automatically be summoned upon swapping to SCH, allowing for this action to be removed (saving hotbar space)

Level 6: Aetherflow, 60s, Ability
Grants 3 stacks of Aetherflow to self, stored in the Aetherflow Gauge.
Additional Effect: Restores 2000 MP

Level 6: Energy Drain, 1s, Cost: 1 Aetherflow, Ability
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 100.
Additional Effect: Absorbs a portion of damage dealt as HP
Additional Effect: Grants 10 Faerie Gauge

Level 8: Miasma, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 120.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
DOT Potency: 10
Duration: 24s

Level 12: Resurrection, 8s, Cost: 2400 MP, Spell
Resurrects target to a weakened state.

Level 16: Enthuse, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1000 MP, Spell
Restores HP of self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 250

Level 20: Whispering Dawn, 60s, Ability
Orders Lily to execute Whispering Dawn.
Effect: Gradually restores HP over time
Potency: 80
Duration: 21s

Level 26: ShadowFlare, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Envelops an area around the target, dealing damage to all enemies within instantly, and over time.
Initial Damage Potency: 100
DOT Potency: 20
Duration: 15s
NOTE: The AOE is centered on the targeted enemy. 5y Radius. Does not overwrite Sacred Soil.

JOB QUEST
Level 30: Strategy: Offensive, 0.5s, Ability
Increases the initial potency of Bio, Miasma and ShadowFlare by 20 while active.
Effect is active whenever no other Strategy is selected.
This action replaces the currently active Strategy on the hotbar.

JOB QUEST
Level 30: Strategy: Defensive, 0.5s, Ability
Adds additional protective effects to certain actions.
Action button changes to Strategy: Offensive while active.
Replaces any active Strategy when activated.

Level 30: Adloquium, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 500 MP, Spell
Restores target's HP, and applies Galvanize, a barrier equal to 100% of the HP recovered.
Cure Potency: 400
Additional Effect: If this spell critically heals the target, additionally applies Catalyze,
a barrier equal to 100% of the HP recovered.
This action replaces Physick while Strategy: Defensive or Strategy: Offensive is active.

Level 30: Succor, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1000 MP, Spell
Restores HP of self and nearby allies, and applies Galvanize, a barrier equal to 100% of the HP recovered.
Cure Potency: 250
This action replaces Enthuse while Strategy: Defensive or Strategy: Offensive is active.

JOB QUEST
Level 35: Rouse, Ability
Increases the potency of Lily's casts of Embrace by 50%, and orders her to focus on one ally.
Costs 10 Faerie Gauge per empowered Embrace delivered.
Lasts until cancelled, effect ends upon reuse, issuing another Faerie Action order or reaching 0 Gauge.
NOTE: If Lily cannot cast Embrace (eg her target is full HP), then no gauge is consumed while waiting.
She will, however, only focus on the target ally, so as long as that specific target is full HP, she will ignore
all other ally HP bars until Rouse is cancelled!

Level 38: Ruin 2, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 190.

JOB QUEST:
Level 40: Fey Illumination, 120s, Ability
Orders Lily to execute Fey Illumination.
Fey Illumination Effect: Increases HP recovered by 10%, and decreases Magic damage taken by 5%.
Duration: 20s

Level 42: Bane, 1s, Cost: 1 Aetherflow, Ability
Deals unaspected damage to target and all nearby enemies with a potency of 100.
Additional Effect: Spreads any active Bio or Miasma effect from primary target, to all secondary targets.
Potency of Bane is increased by an amount equal to the initial damage of Bio or Miasma, if said effect is present on primary target
Effect Duration: Time remaining on original effect
Additional Effect: Absorbs a portion of damage dealt as HP
Additional Effect: Grants 10 Faerie Gauge
NOTE: Energy Drain upgrades into Bane. Later, upon learning it, Chain Stratagem is also spreadable via Bane

JOB QUEST
Level 45: Lustrate, 1s, Cost: 1 Aetherflow, Ability
Effect varies depending on current Strategy.
Strategy: Offensive Effect: Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 600
Strategy: Defensive Effect: Restores targets HP, and applies Galvanize, a barrier, to the target.
Cure Potency: 600
Galvanize Potency: 300
Strategy: Emergency Effect: Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 900

Level 46: Art of War, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 400MP, Spell
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 150 to all nearby enemies.

JOB QUEST
Level 50: Sacred Soil, 30s, Cost: 1 Aetherflow, Ability
Shields the target area, causing allies within to take 10% less damage.
Duration: 15s

JOB QUEST
Level 52: Indomitability, 30s, Cost: 1 Aetherflow, Ability
Effect varies depending on current Strategy.
Strategy: Offensive Effect: Restores HP of self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 400
Strategy: Defensive Effect: Applies Galvanize, a barrier, to self and nearby allies.
Galvanize Potency: 250
Strategy: Emergency Effect: Restores HP of self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 500

JOB QUEST
Level 54: Broil, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 230.

JOB QUEST
Level 54: Bio 2, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage over time.
DOT Potency: 25
Duration: 30s

JOB QUEST
Level 54: Miasma 2, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 160.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
DOT Potency: 10
Duration: 24s

JOB QUEST
Level 56: Deployment Tactics, 120s, Ability
Spreads the effect of Galvanize and Fey Galvanize from target to all nearby allies.
Duration: Time remaining on original effect

JOB QUEST
Level 58: Strategy: Emergency, 0.5s, Ability
Reverts Adloquium to Physick, and Succor to Enthuse.
Doubles the HP restored by Physick and Enthuse.
Adds additional restorative or utility effects to certain actions.
Action button changes to Strategy: Defensive while active.
Replaces any active Strategy when executed.

JOB QUEST
Level 60: Synchronization Tactics, 120s, Ability
Orders Lily to execute Synchronization Tactics, with the following effects:
Lily will copy your cast healing spells, with a potency equal to 25% of your own.
Lily's copied spells will originate from her location, rather than your own (allowing for long-distance AOE healing).
If a barrier would be applied by Lily's copied action, the faerie-applied barrier is named Fey Galvanize,
allowing your barrier to stack with Lily's for additional mitigative potential.
Your Aetherflow are fully restocked upon execution.
Execution of 'Faerie Actions' is still possible.
Duration: 30s

NOTE: Lily will continue casting Embrace, and respecting Rouse targeting for Embrace. She will, however, cast single target healing on your
target, which can be different from the Embrace target! This means, for example, you could have Lily healing the OT with Embrace via
Rouse/Union, and simultaneously helping to heal the MT via Synchronization Tactics' effect (by healing the MT yourself with Adloquium/Physick)

NOTE 2: Due to Summon Seraph being changed to be an empowerment of Lily, rather than summoning a separate entity, it is possible for Summon Seraph
and Synchronization Tactics to be used together. Note that they would have no effect on each other's efficiency.

Level 62: Excogitation, 45s CD, Cost: 1 Aetherflow, Ability
Applies Excogitation to target. Upon expiration, or HP falling below 50%, Excogitation's effect is
triggered, restoring HP.
Cure Potency: 800
Bonus effect varies depending on current Strategy.
Strategy: Offensive Bonus: None
Strategy: Defensive Bonus: Additionally applies Galvanize upon cast, a barrier, to the target.
Galvanize Potency: 250
Strategy: Emergency Bonus: Additionally restores HP on cast.
Initial Cure Potency: 400

Level 64: Broil 2, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 260.

JOB QUEST
Level 54: Bio 3, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 20.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
DOT Potency: 30
Duration: 30s

JOB QUEST
Level 54: Miasma 3, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 160.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
DOT Potency: 10
Duration: 24s

Level 66: Chain Stratagem, 120s, Ability
Increases the rate at which target enemy takes Critical Hits by 10%.
Duration: 20s
Additional Effect: Grants 'Press The Advantage', allowing one use of Bane without cost
NOTE: Chain Stratagem can be spread by Bane (due to this version of Bane not resetting DOT durations, it prevents an 'infinite loop')

JOB QUEST
Level 70: Aetherpact/Fey Union, Ability
Orders Lily to create a Fey Union with target ally, empowering Embrace casts by 100% and focusing on that ally.
Lasts until cancelled, effect ends upon reuse, issuing another Faerie Action order or reaching 0 Gauge.
Costs 10 Faerie Gauge per heal delivered.
NOTE: If Lily cannot cast Embrace (eg her target is full HP), then no gauge is consumed while waiting.
She will, however, only focus on the target ally, so as long as that specific target is full HP, she will ignore
all other ally HP bars until Fey Union is cancelled!

Level 72: Broil 3, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 290.

Level 72: Biolysis, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 10.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
DOT Potency: 30
Duration: 30s

Level 72: Miasmalysis, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 220.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
DOT Potency: 10
Duration: 24s

Level 74: Recitation, 90s, Ability
Negates the MP/Aetherflow cost of the next Excogitation, Indomitability, Adloquium, Succor or Enthuse.
Additional Effect: Guarantees healing and shielding will be Critical for listed abilities

Level 76: Fey Blessing, 60s, Ability
Orders Lily to execute Fey Blessing. Effect varies depending on current Strategy.
Strategy: Offensive Effect: Restores HP of all nearby allies
Cure Potency: 350
Strategy: Defensive Effect: Transforms effect into Fey Warding, a Barrier. Upon breaking or expiring, Fey Warding
becomes Fey Blessing, restoring HP over time.
Fey Warding Potency: 150
Fey Warding Duration: 10s
Fey Blessing Regen Potency: 50
Fey Blessing Regen Duration: 12s
Strategy: Emergency Effect: Restores HP of all nearby allies
Cure Potency: 450

Level 80: Summon Seraph, 120s, Ability
Empowers Lily with a Seraphic soul, empowering Embrace into Seraphic Embrace.
Additionally, Fey Blessing is empowered into Seraphic Blessing, which has a separate cooldown.
This action changes to Consolation while active.
Cannot execute Fey Union while Lily is in Seraphic form.

NOTE: Lily does not 'leave', or 'get replaced', this is instead a buff on her which causes her model
to change state, rather than summoning a new entity. By doing so, Lily can still execute any ordered
'Seraphic' actions, even if the timer expires, should her ability queue still contain actions that have
yet to be executed (removes 'ghosting' as an issue).
NOTE: Seraphic form should have /petglamour text command options available, allowing Lily to take on
the form of other Fae entities, such as Feo Ul (requires miniquest at level 80), Statice (requires completion of Aloalo Island), etc.

Level 80: Consolation, 30s, Ability
Orders Seraphic Lily to execute Consolation.
Consolation Effect: Restores HP of all nearby allies, and applies a barrier equal to HP restored.
Cure Potency: 250
Maximum Charges: 2

Level 82: Broil 4, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 300 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 320.

Level 82: Art of War 2, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 400 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 180.

Level 86: Protraction, 60s, Ability
Increases current HP and Max HP of target by 10%.
Bonus effect varies depending on active Strategy.
Duration: 10s
Strategy: Offensive Bonus: None
Strategy: Defensive Bonus: Additionally applies Perpetuation
Perpetuation Effect: Increases current HP and Max HP by 10%
Perpetuation Duration: 10s
Strategy: Emergency Bonus: Additionally heals upon execution
Cure Potency: 300

Level 90: Expedient, 120s, Ability
Grants Expedience and Desperate Measures to self and nearby allies. An additional effect is added, depending
on current Strategy at the time of execution.
Expedience Effect: Increased movement speed
Duration: 10s
Desperate Measures Effect: Reduces damage taken by 10%
Desperate Measures Duration: 20s

Strategy: Offensive Bonus: None
Strategy: Defensive Bonus: Reduces damage taken by 15% instead of 10%
Strategy: Emergency Bonus: Increases duration of Expedience to 15s

Level 92: Baneful Impaction, 1s, Ability
Deals unaspected damage to target and all nearby enemies with a potency of 100.
Applies Baneful Impaction to target and all targets near it, dealing damage over time.
DOT Potency: 140
Duration: 15s
Additional Effect: Spreads any active Bio, Miasma or Chain Stratagem effect from primary target, to all secondary targets.
Potency of Bane is increased by an amount equal to the initial damage of Bio or Miasma, if said effect is present on primary target
Effect Duration: Time remaining on original effect
Additional Effect: Absorbs a portion of damage dealt as HP
Additional Effect: Grants 10 Faerie Gauge
Can only be executed while under the effect of Press The Advantage.

NOTE: Baneful Impaction is an upgraded form of Bane, and replaces Bane on the hotbar, when under the effect of Press The Advantage.
While the player would still have to use Chain Stratagem to access Baneful Impaction,
the re-addition of Bane and the ability to 'spread' Chain Stratagem with it reduces the 'unintuitive' feeling of Baneful Impaction's DT implementation.

Level 100: Tabula Rasa, 180s, Ability
Upgrades Adloquium to Manifestation and Succor to Accession.
Additionally, increases the potency of Biolysis, Miasmalysis and Shadowflare's base casts by 20p. (Does not stack with Strategy: Offensive's boost)
Additional Effect: Restores HP over time to allies within 50y
Regen Potency: 100
Duration: 20s
Shares a cooldown with Seraphism.

Level 100: Seraphism, 180s, Ability
Upgrades Adloquium to Manifestation and Succor to Accession.
Additionally, increases the potency of Biolysis, Miasmalysis and Shadowflare's base casts by 20p. (Does not stack with Strategy: Offensive's boost)
Additional Effect: Restores HP over time to allies within 50y
Regen Potency: 100
Duration: 20s
Shares a cooldown with Tabula Rasa.

NOTE: Seraphism and Tabula Rasa are functionally identical, and their shared CD means that you can only use one or the other.
Effectively, they're a 'choice' for the player to choose the aesthetic they prefer for their SCH's level 100 action: Military Commander, or Angelic/Seraphic, rather than being forced into one by SE.

Level 100: Manifestation, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 400MP, Spell
Restores HP to target, and applies a Barrier equal to 75% of the HP restored.
Cure Potency: 900

Level 100: Accession, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 800MP, Spell
Restores HP to self and nearby allies, and applies a Barrier equal to 65% of the HP restored.
Cure Potency: 600

NOTE: The potencies of Manifestation and Accession work out to provide the gameplay of 'being in Strategy: Defensive, and Strategy: Emergency, simultaneously'.
Additionally, Seraphism/Tabula Rasa provides the DOT boosting effect from Strategy: Offensive, allowing players to have access to all three effects at once with a truly powerful capstone action

PET ACTIONS

Level 1: Embrace
Effect varies depending on Strategy.
None: Restores target's HP
Cure Potency: 120
Strategy: Offensive Effect: Restores target's HP
Cure Potency: 150
Strategy: Defensive Effect: Instead applies Fey Embrace to target, a barrier equal to a heal of 125 potency.
Barrier Duration: 30s
Strategy: Emergency Effect: Restores target's HP
Cure Potency: 175

NOTE: Deactivating all Strategies to get the '120 potency' listed here is only possible when synced below
Level 30 and unable to access Strategies. At Level 30 or above, Strategy: Offensive automatically activates
whenever you deactivate any other Strategy. Effectively, Strategy: Offensive is the new 'baseline' beyond Level 30.

Level 20: Whispering Dawn
Gradually restores HP of all nearby party members.
Cure Potency: 80
Duration: 21s

Level 36: Rousing Embrace
Focuses Embrace casts on a single party member, and increases Embrace potency by 50%.
Lily remembers the Strategy at time of execution, and behaves that way until Rouse is cancelled, even if
the Scholar swaps to another Strategy. (in other words, Lily will 'snapshot' the current Strategy)
Faerie Gauge is depleted by 10 for each cast of Embrace.

Level 40: Fey Illumination
Increases HP received via healing actions by 10%, and reduces Magic damage taken by 5%, for all nearby allies.
Duration: 20s

Level 70: Fey Union
Focuses Embrace casts on a single party member, and increases Embrace potency by 100%.
Lily remembers the Strategy at time of execution, and behaves that way until Union is cancelled, even if
the Scholar swaps to another Strategy. (in other words, Lily will 'snapshot' the current Strategy)
Faerie Gauge is depleted by 10 for each cast of Embrace.

Level 76: Fey Blessing
Effect depends on current Strategy.
Strategy: Offensive Effect: Restores HP of all nearby allies
Cure Potency: 320
Strategy: Defensive Effect: Transforms effect into Fey Warding, a Barrier. Upon breaking or expiring, Fey Warding
becomes Fey Blessing, restoring HP over time.
Fey Warding Potency: 150
Fey Warding Duration: 10s
Fey Blessing Regen Potency: 80
Fey Blessing Regen Duration: 12s
Strategy: Emergency Effect: Restores HP of all nearby allies
Cure Potency: 420

Level 80: Seraphic Embrace
Restores target's HP, and applies Seraphic Veil, a Barrier, equal to HP restored.
Cure Potency: 250
Barrier Duration: 30s

Level 76: Seraphic Blessing, 60s
Restores HP of all nearby allies, and applies Seraphic Vigil, a Barrier to them.
Upon breaking or expiration, Seraphic Vigil becomes Seraphic Blessing, a healing over time effect.
Cure Potency: 420
Seraphic Vigil Potency: 150
Seraphic Vigil Duration: 10s
Seraphic Blessing Regen Potency: 80
Seraphic Blessing Regen Duration: 12s
NOTE: Seraphic Blessing does not share a CD with Fey Blessing, so one use is always available when you use Summon Seraph

Level 80: Angel's Whisper
Gradually restores the HP of all nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 80
Duration: 21s

Level 80: Seraphic Illumination
Increases HP received via healing actions by 10%, and reduces Magic damage taken by 5%, for all nearby allies.
Duration: 20s

Level 80: Consolation
Restores HP of nearby party members, and applies a barrier equal to the HP restored.
Cure Potency: 250
Duration: 30s

TRAITS

Level 20: Maim and Mend
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 10%

Level 30: Strategic Mind
Enables the execution of Strategies, modifying the effects of some actions.
Strategies last until another Strategy is executed.
Upon execution of Strategy: Defensive, Lily will become the moon aspected Selene.
Upon execution of Strategy: Emergency or Strategy: Offensive, Lily will become the sun aspected Eos.

Level 35: Faerie's Flight
Enables the accumulation of Faerie Gauge, upon execution of any action that costs Aetherflow.
Faerie Gauge can be spent on Rouse, and later Fey Union, to empower Lily's Embrace spell for a time.

Level 38: Offensive Maneuvers
Upgrades Ruin to Ruin II.
Increases the damage over time effect potency of Shadowflare to 25.

Level 40: Maim and Mend II
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 30%

Level 50: Wisdom of Nym
For each SCH-based Damage Over Time effect an enemy suffers from, their autoattack damage is reduced by 2%.

Level 54: Offensive Maneuvers, Chapter 2
Upgrades Ruin II to Broil.
Upgrades Bio to Bio 2, and Miasma to Miasma 2.
Increases the potency of Art of War to 155.
Increases the damage over time effect potency of Shadowflare to 30.

Level 64: Offensive Maneuvers, Chapter 3
Upgrades Broil to Broil 2.
Upgrades Bio 2 to Bio 3, and Miasma 2 to Miasma 3.
Increases the potency of Art of War to 160.
Increases the damage over time effect potency of Shadowflare to 35.

Level 68: Rapid Deployment
Reduces the cooldown of Deployment Tactics to 90s.

Level 70: Faerie's Pact
Upgrades Rouse to Aetherpact, and Rousing Embrace to Fey Union.

Level 72: Offensive Maneuvers, Chapter 4
Upgrades Broil 2 to Broil 3.
Upgrades Bio 3 to Biolysis, and Miasma 3 to Miasmalysis.
Increases the potency of Art of War to 165.
Increases the damage over time effect potency of Shadowflare to 40.

Level 78: Enhanced Sacred Soil
Adds an additional healing over time effect to any ally within the area.
Cure Potency: 100

Level 82: Offensive Maneuvers, Chapter 5
Upgrades Broil 3 to Broil 4.
Upgrades Art of War to Art of War 2.
Increases the potency of Biolysis to 40, and the damage over time effect of Biolysis to 30.
Increases the potency of Miasmalysis to 250.
Increases the damage over time effect potency of Shadowflare to 45.

Level 85: Healing Mastery
Increases the healing potency of Physick to 450, Enthuse to 300, Offensive Embrace to 180, Emergency Embrace to 200, Defensive Embrace to 150, and Seraphic Veil to 200.
Increases potency of Adloquium to 450, the barrier potency of Adloquium to 125% the amount healed, Succor potency to 300p, and the barrier potency of Succor to 125% the amount healed.
NOTE: Current EW values have Adlo shield potency at 540p and Succor at 320p. These percentages give Adlo a shield potency of 562.5p, and Succor a shield potency of 375p.

Level 88: Deployment Mastery
Deployment Tactics can now spread Galvanize, Fey Galvanize, Excogitation, and Protraction.
When Deployment Tactics is used on Excogitation, the final heal effect is reduced by 50%.
When Deployment Tactics is used on Protraction, the 'Max HP increase' effect is reduced to 5%.
If Recitation was used on Excogitation to guarantee it critically heals, all of the Deployed Excogitation effects will also critically heal.
NOTE: Catalyze (Adlo Crit) and Perpetuation (Protraction under Stratagem: Defensive) cannot be Deployed.

Level 92: From Chaos, Opportunity
Bane upgrades to Baneful Impaction while under the effect of Press The Advantage.
Duration: 30s

Level 94: Fall Like A Thunderbolt
Increases the potency of Broil IV to 340.
Increases the potency of Art of War 2 to 190.
Increases the potency of Biolysis to 70.
Increases the potency of Miasmalysis to 280.
Increases the damage over time effect potency of Shadowflare to 50.

Level 96: Nymian Contingencies
Reduces the MP cost of Physick/Adloquium from 500mp to 400mp, and Enthuse/Succor from 1000mp to 800mp.
NOTE: The potency boost Concitation provides compared to Succor, is baked into the level 85 trait 'Healing Mastery'

Level 98: Enhanced Recitation
Reduces Recitation recast time to 60 seconds.

SIDE NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR

The intention behind the design of the Scholar here, is to evoke the feeling of a sense of 'tactical mastery' of the battlefield. Of 'everything is according to plan' when well-versed in the content. Of adapting Strategies depending on unforseen circumstances. Of Lily, the faerie, not just being a 'totem' from which certain actions are executed, but a full member of the duo that the SCH and their faerie ally are comprised of. By having some of the Faerie Actions, including the core spell Embrace, be modified by the current Strategy, this lends a feeling that the SCH and their faerie are working together under said Strategy, EG: if the current Strategy is Defensive, then both the Scholar and Lily's tools will be more Defensive in nature.

For the gameplay when healing is not required, the additions are much more simple as compared to the other 3 healer re-designs I've written. Simply, re-adding two actions that Scholar had and lost with the transition to Shadowbringers: Miasma, and ShadowFlare. Miasma is a single target damage over time spell, adjusted from how it was in Stormblood to have a lower potency per tick, but a much higher 'up front' damage, thereby making it a pseudo-replacement for Ruin2 (allowing that ability to finally see an animation update), but ShadowFlare is more akin to its Heavensward incarnation than the Stormblood variant, being capable of 100% uptime. The potency of ShadowFlare's cast is low enough to prevent repeated uses to be more damage than Art of War, but high enough via the Damage over Time component, that using and maintaining it during AOE situations is more damage than just spamming Art of War.

While it is true that there are more DOTs to manage (and thus complexity may seem higher at first glance), the damage difference between the DOTs and Broil IV is negligible. At max level, Broil IV is 340p, and Biolysis is 370p in total, Miasmalysis 360p in total, and ShadowFlare 350p in total. By ignoring the DOTs entirely, and only casting Broil for 2 minutes (since all 3 DOT durations line up at 2min), a player would lose 4 Biolysis, 5 Miasmalysis, and 8 ShadowFlares. That's a total of 300p lost. But these potency losses are over the course of two whole minutes, and a total loss of 'less than a single Broil IV over the span of 2min' is very lenient, in my opinion. By comparison, ignoring current Endwalker Biolysis entirely is a loss of 1620p per 2 minutes.

Additionally, with the extra DOTs to manage, trying to put those DOTs on every enemy one at a time would be a nightmare, and so Bane is readded, as an upgrade to Energy Drain, giving this action an extra use beyond 'use Aetherflow you don't need on it, for a little extra damage'. Unlike previous expansions, Bane here is not listed as 'reduces damage of Bio/Miasma by X%', as I do not believe they do enough damage to warrant such a reduction. Because the effect durations do not get reset by this rendition of Bane, it allows for an additional effect to be added: The ability to 'Bane' Chain Stratagem to spread it to all nearby enemies, allowing for our single-target raidbuff to be wrangled into being AOE (thereby making the DT addition of Baneful Impaction feel less weird, as it is an AOE DOT locked behind the use of a ST raidbuff action)

The Faerie Gauge is learned at an earlier level, to both get players more acclimated to having it (as learning it at level 70 currently is a bit weird), and to allow for the return of the fan-favourite skill, Rouse (albeit with some adjustments). Rouse (and later Fey Union) buff Embrace directly, and normally this would be an under-the-hood 'way it's implemented' change, but by doing so, it allows for the design to actually have Embrace's effect change based on your Strategy (with Defensive giving a barrier and Offensive/Emergency giving HP recovery), while still allowing Rouse/Union to affect it, since it's a percentage increase. As such, if you're applying Strategy: Defensive and Rouse Lily's Embrace casts, the barrier applied goes from 150p to 225p, a 50% increase just like the healing version would receive.

Deployment Tactics gets (quite late in levelling admittedly) the ability to Deploy more than just the barrier from an Adloquium. Being able to Deploy Excogitation and Protraction means being able to mitigate raidwide damage to the party, without being forced into using a GCD heal, more easily. It does potentially take more setup though, as you'd want to apply them both while in Strategy: Defensive, which may conflict with your desire to be in Strategy: Offensive at all times (for that juicy 20 potency boost). Originally, I considered making Deployment Tactics into Strategy: Deployment, causing Adloquium to become Succor, Lustrate to become Indomitability, Bio to become ShadowFlare, etc. to allow for a lot of hotbar consolidation, but it didn't make much sense when thinking certain interactions out. As such, Scholar has Strategies, as 'stances' that are permanent until executing another, and Tactics, skills that have their one-and-done effect, such as Deployment. I would rename Chain Stratagem to something like 'Optimization Tactics', to better fit the naming theme, but I think the current name's already implanted in people's minds (see: everyone calling the NIN raidbuff 'Mug' even though it's now called 'Dokumori')

Synchronization Tactics is my rendition at a 'rework' of Dissipation, a controversial skill due to it removing the faerie from the field for its duration. The main reason for this divisive stance, I believe, is the inability to execute Faerie Actions while Dissipation is in effect, such as Whispering Dawn or Fey Union. As such, by changing it to a more fitting Synchronization, putting our character and Lily in perfect synch with one another, we can allow the player to still execute those Faerie actions, as Lily is still present to receive the order. The Synchronized heal will be of the same Strategy type as the Scholar casts (so if the Scholar is in Strategy: Defensive, Lily's copied skill will also be the Strategy: Defensive variant)

While the idea of 'stance dancing' and memorizing the different effects each Strategy has on each skill may sound overwhelming at first, I believe that players will find it intuitive and easy enough to learn, especially new players, ironically, as they'd learn each skill one at a time, and internalize them over time as they level up, rather than having a whole kit change on them all at once as veteran players would. But then again, we have to suddenly get used to a whole different gameplay when certain Jobs get a mid-expansion rework (NIN 5.1, PLD 6.3, etc), don't we?

With a recent doublecheck of potencies and effects, those who lament that their gameplay as a SCH would be upended, or that they'd be 'forced' to play differently, need not worry, as the potencies and effects of actions while using Strategy: Offensive have been rewritten to be functionally identical (and in some cases, stronger) to the effects and potencies we see in Dawntrail. Thus, 'stance dancing' would be an entirely optional gameplay choice, for those who wish to eke out a little more effect from their tools.

Thank you for reading. If there are any typos, please mention them.

To Square Enix, should someone from SE see this post: I give full permission for parts or all of this design to be taken and used for 8.0 or beyond, I do not ask for any credit.

[ForsakenRoe]

The Astrologian. Able to divine the fate of their allies, and slightly bend that fate to create a better future, the Astrologian is recognizeable by their trusty Deck of Sixty, a set of cards thought to have 'Traces of the Gods' within.

With this design, I intended to make more use of the Deck of Sixty, by allowing for the Minor Arcana skill to draw any of the 6 Suits. For the sake of the player, the value of the card is ignored in terms of gameplay, only the suit is relevant. The value is only there for 'flavour', to allow the player to feel like they're drawing from a full deck of 60 cards. For example, when drawing 'The 6 of Cups', the player would only need to care about having drawn 'The Cups', as all of the cards in the suit of 'The Cups' have the same effect. Each of the Minor Arcana suits provides a similar, but weaker, effect to their Major Arcana counterpart. For example, the Spire grants a 10% bonus to Magic Damage. The Crowns, as the suit the Spire leads, also grant Magic Damage, but in a much smaller way. The Minor Arcana have also been balanced against one another, such that no one card should be 'the best' compared to its peers.

This Job is, more than any other, recognized and known by it's 'RNG'. It is a core aspect of Fortune Telling and Tarot, drawing random cards and utilizing them in the divination of someone's fate. As such, in almost direct contradiction to SE's Dawntrail design, which seeks to remove the randomness from the cards and make them wholly predictable, this design instead keeps the RNG, while still mitigating the 'bad RNG' with certain aspects, such as potency tuning and the readdition of Redraw and Royal Road.

THE ARCANA GAUGE

To begin, the Arcana Gauge would be different (again). It would look something like this:



It looks confusing at first, but the AST Gauges have always looked like impossible to understand at first glance. The first part to note is that the Seal Gauge is gone, because Astrodyne and the Seal systems have been removed.

There are two slots for Arcana, and those two slots have a slot behind each of them. These are the Major (left) and Minor (right) Arcana Gauge. When a card is drawn, it is displayed in it's appropriate slot. To the sides of these slots are numbers, 27 and 12. These are the timers for the next Major Arcana and Minor Arcana to be drawn, respectively. If you have a card drawn, and the timer fully ticks again, you will draw that second card into the 'behind' slot, referred to as the 'Spread'. Once you have an actively drawn card AND a Spread card, that Arcana type (Major or Minor)'s recharge timer will stop counting (similar to the Lily timer on WHM). In this example picture, the player has a card in the Spread for both Major and Minor Arcana, and so the timer would pause and disappear. The timers in this example are for the sake of illustration. As such, it's best to use those cards proactively to avoid overcapping the timer.

To the side of the drawn Cards (between the Card and the Draw Timer) is an icon showing which Role the card is most suited to. Here, we can see the drawn Bole is best leveraged by playing it on a Tank (indicated by the shield icon). The drawn Minor Arcana, the 5 of Crowns, however, shows us that it is best used on a Caster (hence the lightning bolt icon). Healers would be represented by a green cross, Melee by a red sword, and Ranged by a bow, or perhaps an arrow like in our character info's Classes/Jobs section.

Now, the main 'confusing' part of the design: The Minor Arcana. Why has the example player drawn a 5 of Crowns? Why do they have a 2 of Rings in their Spread? The number is for flavour, or 'lore' reasons, the important aspect of the card is the suit it belongs to, in this case, the Crowns and the Rings. To explain the lore a bit, the AST uses a deck of cards, known as the Deck of Sixty. Within that deck are 6 suits, and each suit of cards is made up of the 'leading card' (The Major Arcana we know, such as Balance/Spear etc), and then the 9 Minor Arcana cards, numbered from 1 to 6, then the Knave, the Lord, and the Lady, representing 7, 8 and 9 respectively. You can see the suits, and what they represent (be it classes in society, elements, etc) in the table below:



So with this in mind, I always found it quite bizarre that we use Lord of Crowns and Lady of Crowns as our Minor Arcana. In fact, it makes very little sense to me why Lord would be damage, but the Lady of the same suit is a heal, and the 'leading card' (Spire) is the same flat damage buff as the other 'leading cards', and before that, restored TP (Dawntrail edit: It now applies a barrier?). There doesn't seem to be consistency within each suit of 'what effect that suit has', doubly so now that (in SHB/EW) each Major Arcana has the same core effect (6% damage on correct target, 3% on incorrect).

To that end, I sought to create a design for the cards that utilized the Arcana to their fullest. If we would have Minor Arcana as part of our kit, I would allow the player to use the full Deck of Sixty. Learning the card interactions would be made intuitive, via hints on the Gauge (eg a small icon next to each card, showing the 'best target' for it. We have this now with current cards (Blue border = Melee card, Purple border = Ranged card)). To keep the player from being overwhelmed by having 54 cards suddenly dropped on them upon reaching the level to learn Minor Arcana as an action, the 'face value' of the card is irrelevant to the gameplay, and only remains to add to the 'lore' and 'flavour' of the Job. However, should the displaying of these 'face values' prove to be confusing to players, removing them entirely and referring to the card only by its Suit (in this case, just displaying 'Crowns' and 'Rings' to the player) is completely fine by me too.

ASTROLOGIAN ACTIONS

Level 1: Malefic, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 150.

Level 2: Benefic, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 500 MP, Spell
Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 450

Level 8: Lightspeed, 60s, Ability
Reduces Cast Time of Spells by 2.5s
Duration: 15s

Level 10: Helios, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 800 MP, Spell
Restores own HP and the HP of all nearby party members.
Cure potency: 300
NOTE: Radius increased to 20y

Level 12: Ascend, 8s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 2400 MP, Spell
Resurrects target to a weakened state.

Level 15: Essential Dignity, 40s, Ability
Restores target's HP, increasing in potency depending on target's current HP.
Cure Potency: 400
Cure Potency (60% HP or less): 700
Cure Potency (30% HP or less): 900

Level 26: Benefic 2, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 500 MP, Spell
Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 700
NOTE: Benefic 1 upgrades into Benefic 2 via a Trait, saving hotbar space.

Level 30: Aspected Benefic, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 250 MP, Spell
Restores target's HP, and grants healing over time effect to target.
Cure Potency: 200
Healing over time Effect Potency: 200
Duration: 15s

JOB QUEST
Level 30: Play Major Arcana, Ability
Plays the currently held Major Arcana card.
NOTE: Please see 'Card system details' section for details on Major Arcana effects and how they work

Level 34: Aspected Helios, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 800 MP, Spell
Restores own HP and the HP of all nearby party members.
Cure potency: 300
Additional Effect: Regen
Regen Potency: 100
Regen Duration: 12s
NOTE: Helios upgrades into Aspected Helios. Heals for the same 700p as Endwalker, but one tick is frontloaded
to make the base potency equal to Aspected Helios' potency.

JOB QUEST
Level 40: Redraw, 15s, Ability
Returns currently drawn Arcana to their respective decks, and draws anew.
You cannot redraw an arcanum of the same Royal Road pairing as the one being returned.
Maximum Charges: 2
NOTE: The pairs are the same as the Seal pairings we have in Endwalker. Balance/Bole, Arrow/Ewer, Spear/Spire.
The same pairings apply to the suits for the Minor Arcana, Staves/Rings, Knives/Cups, Irons/Crowns.

Level 42: Aspected Selena, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1000 MP, Spell
Restores HP to self and all nearby allies.
Additionally, applies a barrier to self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 300
Barrier Potency: 200
Duration: 30s
NOTE: A simple Barrier alternative to Aspected Helios. Weaker than the Sage or Scholar equivalent, this
is just to fill a gap so that AST has access to some kind of partywide shield, as I think all four healers
should have an AOE shield (it opens more encounter design-space, eg Barrier-Check mechanics like A11S Photon)

JOB QUEST
Level 45: Gravity, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 400 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 120 to target and all enemies near it.

Level 50: Synastry, 60s, Ability
Creates a bond with a party member. Each time you use a single-target action, the same action is applied to
the bonded ally, at 50% effectiveness.
Does not transfer the effect of played Arcana.
Duration: 10s
NOTE: This is reworked to include OGCD effects, and 'additional effects' such as the Regen from Aspected
Benefic, the healing of Essential Dignity, the mitigation and heal of Exaltation, or even the debuff removal
of Esuna! It does NOT include cards!

JOB QUEST
Level 50: Play Minor Arcana, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Plays the currently drawn Minor Arcana card.
NOTE: Please see 'Card system details' section for details on Major Arcana effects and how they work.
Yes it is a GCD, it's explained in the details

JOB QUEST
Level 54: Malefic 2, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 170.

JOB QUEST
Level 56: Celestial Opposition, 60s, Ability
Restores HP to self and nearby allies, and restores HP over time.
Cure Potency: 200
Regen Potency: 100
Duration: 15s
NOTE: Celestial Opposition used to make sense being at level 60, as it was a 'time stop' of sorts, and the
quest NPC you fight in that quest uses a 'time stop' move. Now that Celestial Opposition is 'an OGCD Aspected
Helios cast', it can be freely moved elsewhere in the levelling progression.

JOB QUEST
Level 58: Collective Unconscious, 60s, Ability
Creates and channels a celestial ring around the caster.
Duration: 18s
Applies Wheel of Fortune to all allies within the ring.
Wheel of Fortune Effect: Restores HP over time
Wheel of Fortune Potency: 100
Wheel of Fortune Duration: 15s
Additional effect: Applies Collective Unconscious to all allies within 30y, reducing damage taken by 10%.
Duration: 5s
Effect Durations on allies and self are refreshed continuously while they remain within.
Movement, facing another direction, or using another action, will cancel the channel.

JOB QUEST
Level 60: Divination, 120s, Ability
Increases the damage dealt by self and nearby allies by 6%.
Duration: 20s

JOB QUEST
Level 62: Earthly Star, 60s, Ability
Places an Earthly Star at the designated location. Upon a second activation of the skill, the star detonates,
dealing damage to all enemies within, and healing all allies within.
Duration: 20s
Damage Potency: 250
Healing Potency: 540
Additional Effect: Upon placing the Earthly Star, once per second, a stack of Dominance is gained, up to
a maximum of 10. Upon reaching 10 stacks, Dominance becomes Giant Dominance, and the Star visually expands.
Detonating the star consumes all stacks of Dominance, boosting the damage and healing done.
Damage Potency per stack: 5
Healing Potency per stack: 20

NOTE: this is to alleviate the 'punishment' of pressing Detonate at 8-9s, and losing out on the bonus potency
(especially the healing). You will still want to time it to detonate at 10 stacks for max damage.

Level 64: Malefic 3, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 190.

JOB QUEST
Level 70: Royal Road, 1s, Ability
Sacrifices the drawn Minor Arcana card, to empower the next played Major Arcana card. See each Minor Arcana for which empowerment they provide.
'Empower' effect: Increases the potency of the Major Arcana effect by 50%
'Extend' effect: Increases the duration (or number of stacks) of the Major Arcana effect by 100%
'Echo' Effect: Repeats the 'Echo' Major Arcana's effect at 50% effectiveness, upon playing your next Major Arcana upon a different ally.

Level 72: Malefic 4, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 230.

Level 74: Celestial Intersection, 30s, Ability
Restores target's HP, and applies a Barrier to them.
Cure Potency: 200
Barrier Potency: 400
Barrier Duration: 30s

Level 76: Horoscope, 60s, Ability
Applies Horoscope to self and all nearby allies. Can be empowered into Empowered Horoscope, by healing affected party members with Aspected Helios or Aspected Selena.
Upon expiration, or reactivation of this action, heals for an amount dependent on Horoscope effect.
Horoscope Potency: 200
Empowered Horoscope Additional Effect: Restores HP over time
Regen Potency: 50
Duration: 12s
NOTE: Empowerment still heals for the same 400p, but half is as a heal over time, creating opportunity to
avoid overheal. Horoscope Helios renamed, due to the addition of Aspected Selena.

Level 80: Neutral Sect, 120s, Ability
Increases healing magic potency by 20%.
Additionally, when casting Aspected Benefic, an additional Barrier effect equal to 250% of the HP restored
is applied. When casting Aspected Helios, the Barrier effect of Aspected Selena is also applied.
Aspected Selena becomes Aspected Helios while under the effect of Neutral Sect.
Duration: 20s

Level 82: Fall Malefic, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 200 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 250.

Level 82: Gravity 2, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 400 MP, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 130 to target and all enemies near it.

Level 86: Exaltation, 60s, Ability
Reduces damage taken by self or an ally by 10%.
Duration: 8s
Additional Effect: Restores HP upon expiration
Cure Potency: 500

Level 90: Macrocosmos, Instant, 180s Recast, Cost: 600 MP, Spell
Applies Macrocosmos to self and nearby allies. Deals damage with a potency of 250 to all nearby enemies.
Action changes to Microcosmos upon execution.
Macrocosmos Effect: For the duration of the effect, 50% of damage taken is compiled. Upon expiration or
execution of Microcosmos, HP is restored equal to the compiled damage, plus an additional heal of 200
potency.
This action does not share a cooldown with other actions.
Recast of this action is not affected by gear attributes or status effects.

Level 92: Oracle, Ability
Calls upon the power of the Twelve, dealing elemental damage to target and all enemies nearby it, Twelve-fold.
The element of each strike corresponds to the deity who's power is channelled.
Potency: 70
Can only be executed while Divining.

NOTE: Many smaller hits means less damage swing due to Crits/DHits (since each strike would have a chance to Crit/DHit).
Each of the strikes is tied to a member of the Twelve, resulting in 2 hits of each of the 6 elements.
The VFX of the action could be made to change based on your Patron Deity, eg someone who picked Rhalgr might have a Purple-tinted Oracle animation, whereas someone aligned to Oschon could have a Green-tinted one

Level 96: Helios Conjunction, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 800 MP, Spell
Restores own HP and the HP of all nearby party members.
Cure potency: 425
Additional Effect: Regen
Regen Potency: 175
Regen Duration: 12s

Level 96: Selena Conjunction, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Cost: 1000 MP, Spell
Restores HP to self and all nearby allies.
Additionally, applies a barrier to self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 300
Barrier Potency: 250
Duration: 30s

Level 100: Sun Sign, Ability
Reduces damage taken by self and nearby party members by 10%.
Duration: 15s
Can only be executed while Suntouched.

CARD EFFECTS

Playing a Major Arcana is an Ability (OGCD). Playing Minor Arcana is considered an instant Spell (GCD). Redraw and Royal Road are Abilities (OGCD).

The Major Arcana Gauge draws a new Arcanum every 30s. If an Arcanum is held and the timer reaches 0 again, a second Arcanum (which cannot be the same as the held Arcanum) is drawn. This second Arcanum is placed in the Spread, and moves forward to the Draw slot once the currently held Arcanum is played or discarded. If the Draw and Spread slots are both filled, the timer is paused.

The same applies to the Minor Arcana Gauge, but the timer draws a new Minor Arcanum every 15s.

MAJOR ARCANA EFFECTS

Balance: 10% damage, 15s

Bole: 20% damage mitigation, 15s. Additionally, grants 3 stacks of Bole's Bulwark, causing the enemy that strikes the bearer of this buff to take 10% of that ally's Max HP as damage and consuming one stack.

Arrow: Grants 12 stacks of 'Arrow's Assault' (16 if the target is Ranged), increasing Autoattack rate by 400%. One stack is consumed for each Autoattack dealt under it's effect, and upon consuming all stacks, the Autoattack rate returns to normal.
Additionally, if the target of this card is the AST, grants 4 stacks of Arrow's Assault, speeding up the recast time of the AST to 1.0s for the next 4 GCD attacks, and making cast times of those spells instant.

Ewer: Grants 1000mp over 15s. Additionally, if the target is a Healer, grants 4 stacks of Ewer Overflowing, causing the next 4 casts of Glare/Broil/Malefic/Dosis dealt by said healer to strike a second time for 100% of the spell's potency. This second strike cannot be Critical, or a Direct Hit.

Spear: 10% Physical damage, 15s. Additionally, if the target of this card is the AST, all magic damage dealt by the AST is instead considered physical for the duration, allowing them to benefit from this card's effect

Spire: 10% Magic damage, 15s

Note: Additional effects have been added to the effects of the cards, to allow for the AST to make use of all of the cards in solo play. Using the card on the 'correct' target will always net more damage than playing it on the AST.

MINOR ARCANA EFFECTS

The Staves: Increases the next 5 attacks dealt by the target ally by 60p. When used with Royal Road, grants 'Empower' to the next Major Arcana played.

The Rings: Deals 100p in counterattack damage each time the target ally is struck, up to 3 times. When used with Royal Road, grants 'Empower' to the next Major Arcana played.

The Knives: Causes the next 5 Autoattacks to deal a second strike for 60p. When used with Royal Road, grants 'Extend' to the next Major Arcana played.

The Cups: Causes the target's next 3 Glare/Broil/Malefic/Dosis casts to cost half MP, and to strike a second time for 100p. Additional effects are not applied twice. When used with Royal Road, grants 'Extend' to the next Major Arcana played.

The Crowns: Increases the next 5 instances of Magic damage dealt by 60p. When used with Royal Road, grants 'Echo' to the next Major Arcana played.

The Irons: Increases the next 5 instances of Physical damage dealt by 60p. Additionally, if the target of this card is the AST, the next 5 instances of magic damage are instead considered physical, allowing them to benefit from this card's effect. When used with Royal Road, grants 'Echo' to the next Major Arcana played.

TRAITS

Level 20: Maim and Mend
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 10%

Level 26: Benefic Mastery
Upgrades Benefic to Benefic 2.

Level 30: Helios Mastery
Upgrades Helios to Aspected Helios.

Level 36: Enchanced Benefic
Grants a 20% chance that after casting Benefic 2 or Malefic 2, your next Benefic 2 will be a guaranteed Critical Heal.
Duration: 10s

Level 40: Maim and Mend 2
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 30%

Level 54: Malefic Mastery
Upgrades Malefic to Malefic 2.

Level 64: Malefic Mastery 2
Upgrades Malefic 2 to Malefic 3.

Level 68: Fates Entwined
Allows the accumulation of charges for Synastry.
Maximum Charges: 2

Level 68: Faster than Light
Allows the accumulation of charges for Lightspeed.
Maximum Charges: 2

Level 72: Malefic Mastery 3
Upgrades Malefic 3 to Malefic 4.

Level 78: Enhanced Essential Dignity
Allows the accumulation of charges for Essential Dignity.
Maximum Charges: 2

Level 82: Malefic Mastery 4
Upgrades Malefic 4 to Fall Malefic.

Level 82: Gravity Mastery
Upgrades Gravity to Gravity 2.

Level 85: Healing Mastery
Increases the healing potency of Benefic II to 800, Aspected Benefic to 250, Aspected Benefic's Regen effect to 250,
Aspected Helios to 250, and Aspected Helios's Regen effect to 150.

Level 88: Enhanced Celestial Intersection
Allows for the accumulation of charges of Celestial Intersection.
Maximum Charges: 2

Levle 92: Fates Foretold
Grants Divining upon executing Divination.
Duration: 30s

Level 94: Malefic Mastery 5
Increases the potency of Fall Malefic to 270, and Macrocosmos to 270.

Level 96: Conjunction
Upgrades Aspected Helios to Helios Conjunction, and Aspected Selena to Selena Conjunction.
Additionally, while under the effect of Neutral Sect, casting Helios Conjunction applies the barrier effect from Selena Conjunction.

Level 98: Enhanced Essential Dignity 2
Allows a third charge of Essential Dignity.

Level 100: Suntouched Soul
Grants Suntouched upon executing Neutral Sect.
Duration: 30s

SIDE NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR

The main driving force behind this design, was that I wanted to make the card effects be unique again, like Stormblood/Heavensward, but the issue of 'people will just try to Redraw to get the best damage card' popped up. But I've long been an advocate of the statement 'AOE Balance was not strong because of Balance, it was strong because it was AOE'. If we had seen Stormblood's AOE Balance, and nerfed The Balance to curb its stranglehold on the meta, people would have just shifted to fishing for the next best card (in this case, the Spear). If, however, the effectiveness of the AOE was reduced (eg it transferred only 25% of the card effect instead of 50%), then there would be a much bigger shift in the 'meta gameplay', and Extend or Enhance might come to the forefront as being better options (depending on party composition). Regardless, I hold the stance that, to keep cards easier to balance, we keep them as single target buffs.

We can simply look at Stormblood and Shadowbringers cards, and see the pros and cons of each, to create a good solution.
Stormblood was good because the cards were unique, but bad because everyone 'fished' for the Balance because it was the highest damage.
Shadowbringers was good because the cards all gave damage, but bad because they had to lose their unique flavour to do so.
So, if we take the good sides of both of these, we get 'make all cards give damage, but give them unique effects'. So, why not make the damage itself be unique to each card?

That's the intention behind this design. By making each card deal its damage (which is tuned to be roughly inline with each other, so that no one card is 'the best'), we can not only bring variety, flavour, and 'reacting to what fate dealt us' back, we can also bring back the Stormblood gameplay element of 'playing cards on someone that is not a DPS'. As an example from EW, Bole was a Ranged card (for some reason), we played it on a Ranged DPS, and the same was true of the Spire and the Ewer. Three cards, and their effects were all effectively 'use this on a Caster for the most damage'. But with this rework, Bole would cause a counterattack each time the Bole'd player is struck, dealing damage back to the attacking enemy based on the card target's Max HP. As such, Tanks, with their naturally higher HP pool, would be a better target for it than a DPS. By making the effects thematic like this, all five roles (Tank, Healer, Melee, Ranged, Caster) get a card that is 'best for that role', with Balance remaining an all-round boost, a sort of 'wildcard' that can be used on anyone (ideally a DPS).

The return of Royal Road (at level 70, for players to have a chance to fully internalise the Minor/Major effects) allows for more of that 'Stormblood feel' to return to the Job. The three effects, Empower, Extend and Echo, all improve the power of the Major Arcana cards, but also come at the cost of sacrificing a 300p Minor Arcana (which you'd then replace with a 270p Malefic, for a total 'cost' of 30p). This presents a meaningful choice to the AST player, yet is a much lower 'price' than Stormblood's 'sacrifice a Major Arcana' design. Additionally, where Stormblood's iteration had 'Expand' as Royal Road effect, causing the next Major Arcana effect to be AOE at 50% efficiency, I did not include this effect. I believe that it was not Balance's effect (10% increased damage), but Expand's effect on the Balance (turning it into 5% damage for everyone in the party), that caused Stormblood AST to be so powerful, and to have such large damage variance because of RNG. As such, a more moderate 'the card repeats itself, the next time you play a card' would keep the card effects' power in check, and add additional optimization to the Job. For example, maybe the player would want to play an Echo Bole on a tank with the Major Arcana 30s before the Divination window, such that the next cards they play (likely on the DPS) would cause the Echo effect to trigger within the duration of Divination, adding a pseudo-'third Major Arcana' into the Divination window.

The Minor Arcana are intended to break up how often we press Malefic. Their effect can be summed up as being 'a baby version of the leading card of that suit'. For example, where the Spire is 10% increased Magic Damage, the Crowns suit that the Spire leads, also increases Magic Damage, albeit by a much smaller amount. The Minor Arcana are all tuned to deal 300p (compared to Fall Malefic's 270). Learning the Minor Arcana effects listed here sounds daunting at first, but, there's only 6 effects to learn, and they are the same effects as the Major Arcana (just smaller). With each card having a 'best target' for its effect, I believe that learning the effects and who they're best to place on would be intuitive. Additionally, just as the current Endwalker Arcana Gauge has 'hints' as to what to do with the currently drawn card (blue outline = melee, purple outline = ranged), a similar 'hint' could be used to guide the player as to which role the card is suited to (eg if a Bole/Rings card is drawn, a shield icon could be displayed next to it, indicating 'this card is best suited to use on a tank', etc)

There should also ideally be a way for us to return Esuna to Exalted Detriment's animation, and/or to return Lucid Dreaming to 'Luminiferous Aether'.

Thank you for reading. If there are any typos, please mention them.

To Square Enix, should someone from SE see this post: I give full permission for parts or all of this design to be taken and used for 8.0 or beyond, I do not ask for any credit.

[ForsakenRoe]

Legends have been passed down of a wanderer named Hippokrates, whose name was etched in the annals of history when he stayed at a particular village while travelling. Every day, beasts would attack the village, and those who were able-bodied enough to fight, would take it upon themselves to drive the beasts back, day after day, night after night. But this came at a cost, as no battle is won without injuries, and in some cases, fatalities. The next day, having seen the constant struggle these people had to endure just to live for one more day, Hippokrates took it upon himself to walk to the local fresh springs, to draw drinking water for the village in place of the villagers, and to gather a herb that grew nearby that the villagers used in their cooking and their poultices alike. Despite their protestations, that 'a guest should not burden themselves with such menial tasks', Hippokrates set off, accompanied by some of the more able villagers who volunteered to defend their guest from beastkin attacks, and to help carry the water back.

Sure enough, while filling up the containers with fresh water, it was not long before slavering beasts set upon the party, and the villagers scrambled to defend their seemingly defenceless guest. Hippokrates, meanwhile, seemed completely unconcerned with the beasts attacking, and instead carried on drawing water from the spring. After a seemingly short battle, the villagers hurriedly looked around, to make sure no more beastkin were lurking, and to check their guest was still alive. To their surprise, not only was Hippokrates completely unharmed, seemingly unfazed by all the commotion, but all of the water containers were already full and ready for transportation back to the village.

It was only upon returning to the village, with the carcasses of the slain beasts in tow, and fresh water from the springs in hand, that the truth of that day was revealed, what events had transpired. Discussing the bizarre events of the day, the villagers could not make sense of what had happened. They should have died, the beasts were too many. The villagers could tell 'something' was helping them in their fight, but from their position within the battle, the dust and the noise, they couldn't tell what. One that fought in the battle made mention of 'faint whooshing sounds, as if a dagger was thrown so fast it cannot be seen', and others noted the peculiar marks left on the corpses of the beasts that were slain, unlike anything ever seen. Burn marks covered the corpses in strange patterns, some in vertical lines, some horizontal, and many in very small circles, as if some manner of Fire magic had been focused into a point.

Answers would have eluded the village to this day, had a strange happenstance not occurred: A youth of the village had snuck out to follow the party on their journey, hoping to see the combat prowess of the elders firsthand, that he might learn some techniques from watching. But the youngling saw a lot more than martial prowess that day. The boy was adamant in his recollection of the battle, it was Hippokrates that turned the tide, and it was Hippokrates that caused those strange burn marks with his weapon. Somehow, without moving, without looking, while still filling water containers, Hippokrates was attacking, defending, supporting the villagers. At first, most refused to believe the young lad, thinking it a child's overactive imagination, until one elder stood and simply said 'I believe him. I took a claw to the gut, and I can still feel the ache. But look.' And when the elder revealed his stomach, there was no wound, just a fading turquoise glow over a roughly claw-shaped part of the man's abdomen, barely visible even in the dark of the night. So, the elders bade the young lad continue his recollection, seemingly convinced that there was more to the tale than first suspected.

The young boy told his tale, of 'silver swords flying through the air', of the 'swords shooting lines of light from their tips at the beasts', and of those same swords 'drawing circles of light around people and making walls of light'. The next day, as Hippokrates was thanking the villagers for their hospitality, making ready to leave and continue his journey, the young boy asked him 'Did it really happen? Can you make swords fly and shoot light, without even looking at them?' Hippokrates simply smiled, and a Noulith floated up out of his travelling knapsack, then another, and another, until all four were circling him in synchronized patterns.

He explained he had been working on the creation a new discipline of Magic, one able to forgo lengthy incantations in favour of immediate response to the ever-shifting state of the battle. His goal was to create a discipline that was able to balance both healing and protecting allies, with a powerful onslaught of attack magics to debilitate the enemy and keep them on the defensive, further reducing the risk of allies being harmed. He explained how his 'silver swords', the Nouliths, are controlled by the user's aether fluctuations, and that with practice, the user could control the Nouliths without moving their own body, as if they were simply another limb. He explained how they function as a focus for the user's aether, to amplify healing magics via specific formations. And finally, he explained the concept of Kardia, of how the Nouliths could re-absorb a portion of the aether used for attack magics and divert it as a healing effect to an ally. How he was working on creating new formations, with that battle being the perfect situation for him to test a formation he had tentatively named 'PanKardia', a temporary Kardia Augmentation that, instead of diverting healing to only one ally, dispersed the healing aether to all allies nearby.

At last, it was time for Hippokrates to leave and continue his journey across the land, but the young boy had one more thing to say. 'Thank you for everything, Mister Hippokrates! Please take some of this medicine, to help any travellers that look like they need help!' Hippokrates smiled at the boy, and asked 'This is made with the same herb that was used to season the meat from last night's meal, yes? Quite a versatile plant... What did you say it was called?' The boy smiled back and said...

'The elders say it's called Sage!'



In this design, I intend to capture the essence of that story, the idea of a master Sage player being able to heal their allies and deal damage to their enemies, without ever having to stop to cast a dedicated healing spell. By enhancing and expanding the Kardia system, and adding new actions to further modify how Kardia functions, my hope is to create a design wherein the 'skill ceiling' for the class is not necessarily in the damage rotation, but in trying to maximize your healing efficiency, between Kardia, Addersgall and your default Abilities (OGCDs).

In practice, the gameplay of Sage would be more fast paced. The Sage would accomplish this by having many opportunities to 'weave' Abilities (OGCDs) between attacks, vastly increasing the APM of the job. In a sense, it could be considered the 'Gunbreaker' of the Healer Role. Additionally, due to several design decisions (such as basic attacks costing no MP), there is plenty of room for Spell Speed to be a very strong secondary stat choice for the Job, increasing the speed even further and allowing the player to build and spend their 'burst phase' gauge even more often.

GAUGE CHANGES

Before we get into actions, it's important to note the changes to the gauge.



The two bars in the center represent Addersgall and Toxikosis. Addersgall, represented by a 0-100 gauge, fills up automatically by 1 per second. This allows for the accumulation of 4 uses of Addersgall moves, compared to the current 3. The lower, purple gauge, is Toxikosis, the 'side effects' of applying your medical knowledge. It is also a 0-100 gauge, and it fills by 1 each time you heal via Kardia, and an additional 4 when a Kardia Augment stack is consumed (Soteria, Zoe, Krasis, Pankardia). You also generate 5 Toxikosis each time you use Eukrasia or Pepsis. 50 Toxikosis can be vented by using Toxikon, allowing the SGE to freely use Neuralgia and Myasthenia, without consuming stacks of either. Because of the bonus potency gained by alternating the two, Toxikon provides a similar gameplay to RPR's Enshroud (Cross/Void Reaping), or MCH's Hypercharge (Gauss Round/Ricochet). Consuming Toxikon stacks additionally increases your Addersgall by 4 per stack consumed. Finally, at level 70, the SGE will be able to use Pneuma, which deals more damage than Myasthenia or Neuralgia, but fully vents all remaining Toxikon stacks. As such, the SGE will want to use Pneuma last, after having already consumed all four Toxikon stacks.

Eukrasia grants 5 Toxikosis upon execution. Pepsis grants 5 Toxikosis upon execution.

The five meters at the top represent the current available stacks of, from left to right, Soteria, Krasis, Toxikon, Zoe, and Pankardia (as the letters imply). By adding these elements to the job gauge, it helps alleviate the strain on the 'buff cap', reducing the chance of running into issues wherein certain status effects cannot be applied correctly (looking at you, Hello World). Lastly, the blue diamond in the center shows if Eukrasia is active or not.

In this example picture, at a glance we can see that we have:
2 stacks of Soteria
1 stack of Krasis
1 stack of Toxikon
3 stacks of Zoe
2 stacks of Pankardia
75 Addersgall
25 Toxikosis
Eukrasia is active

SAGE ACTIONS

Level 1: Dosis, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 150.

Level 2: Diagnosis, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 400

Level 4: Kardia, 1s, Ability
Applies Kardion to target.
Kardion effect: Restores HP whenever the SGE lands an attack.
Cure Potency: 150
Additional Effect: Increases Toxikosis by 1 when Kardion heals

Level 10: Prognosis, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Restores HP of self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 300

Level 12: Egeiro, 8s, Cost: 2400 MP, Spell
Resurrects target to a weakened state.

Level 20: Physis, 60s, Ability
Restores HP over time to self and nearby allies.
Regen Potency: 100
Duration: 15s

Level 26: Phlegma, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 40s Recharge, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage to target, and all enemies near it, with a potency of 350 for the first target and 30% less for remaining targets.
Maximum Charges: 2
Recharge time is unaffected by status effects or gear attributes.

Level 30: Eukrasia, Instant, 1s Recast, Cost: 500 MP, Spell
Augments the effect of certain actions, by adding additional effects.
Dosis is augmented into Eukrasian Dosis.
Diagnosis is augmented into Eukrasian Diagnosis.
Prognosis is augmented into Eukrasian Prognosis.
Phlegma is augmented into Eukrasian Phlegma.
Does not share a Recast Timer with other actions.
Upon execution, this action's Recast Timer will be applied to all other spells.
Grants 5 Toxikosis upon execution.

NOTE: Eukrasian variations of a spell are equal to the base form, plus a bonus effect. Thus, if Eukrasia is used accidentally, the player does not need to remove the status, as the base spell's potency is still present. Potency values are adjusted to reflect this.

Level 30: Eukrasian Diagnosis, Instant, 1.5s Recast, Spell
Restores target's HP and applies a barrier equal to 100% of the HP healed.
Cure potency: 400
Additional Effect: If this spell critically heals the target, additionally applies Differential Diagnosis,
a barrier equal to 100% of the HP recovered.
This action replaces Diagnosis while Eukrasia is active.

Level 30: Eukrasian Prognosis, Instant, 1.5s Recast, Spell
Restores target's HP, and applies a barrier equal to 75% of the HP recovered.
Cure Potency: 300
This action replaces Prognosis while Eukrasia is active.

Level 30: Eukrasian Dosis, Instant, 1.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 150.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
DOT Potency: 25
Duration: 30s
This action replaces Dosis while Eukrasia is active.
NOTE: Same total damage as current, but more is frontloaded to make the base cast equal to regular Dosis (in case of misclicks)

Level 30: Eukrasian Phlegma, Instant, 1.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage to target and all enemies near it with a potency of 350, and 30% less for remaining targets.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
DOT Potency: 25
Duration: 15s
Shares charges with Phlegma.
Maximum charges: 2

NOTE: this DOT is the same as Eukrasian Dosis, this is a way to apply the DOT in AOE (and not via 'Eukrasian Dyskrasia', since the two terms are an oxymoron). The damage of E.Phlegma's initial hit is reduced on secondary targets, but the DOT effect is not reduced. In a burst window, ideally you'd use one E.Phlegma and one Phlegma (or two, if you have a Phlegmatic charge banked). The animation for this is the one used in Endwalker for 'Toxikon' (the one Alphinaud uses in the trailer)

Level 32: Neuralgia, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 20s Recharge, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage in a line in front of you, with a potency of 170 to the first target, and 50% less to secondary targets.
Additional Effect: Inflicts Neuralgia
Neuralgia Effect: Reduces the autoattack damage of the enemy by 3%, or 5% if Myasthenia is present upon execution. Neuralgia overwrites Myasthenia.
Duration: 20s
Recharge Timer is not affected by status effects or gear attributes.
Maximum Charges: 2

Level 35: Soteria, 5s, Cost: 1500 MP, Ability, Spell
Grants 4 stacks of Soteria to the job gauge.
Soteria effect: Increases the healing effect of Kardion by 50% of the damage dealt by the attack that triggers Kardion.
Additional Effect: Increases Toxikosis by 4 when a stack is consumed

Level 38: Myasthenia, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 20s Recharge, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage in a cone in front of you, with a potency of 170 to the first target, and 50% less to secondary targets.
Additional Effect: Inflicts Myasthenia
Myasthenia Effect: Reduces the autoattack damage of the enemy by 3%, or 5% if Neuralgia is present upon execution. Myasthenia overwrites Neuralgia.
Duration: 20s
Recharge Timer is not affected by status effects or gear attributes.
Maximum Charges: 2
NOTE: Myasthenia (weakness of muscle) and Neuralgia (nerve pain) overwrite one another, but upon doing so, empower the effect of each other.
Additionally, they grant a small potency bonus (from level 62 onwards) when overwriting the opposite debuff. As such, alternating between the two is preferable.

Level 40: Icarus, 45s, Ability
Rush to a targetted enemy's or party member's location.
Unable to cast if bound.

Level 42: Toxikon, 5s, Cost: 50 Toxikosis Gauge, Ability
Grants 4 stacks of Toxikon to the job gauge.
Toxikon Effect: Allows for the execution of Neuralgia and Myasthenia without requiring a Charge.
Additionally, the Recast timer is set to 1.5s when Neuralgia or Myasthenia consume a Toxikon stack.
Additional Effect: Grants 4 Addersgall per stack consumed
NOTE: Because of the potency bonus when Neuralgia overwrites Myasthenia or vice versa (from the trait learned at level 62), alternating the two (ala RPR) during Toxikon is preferable.

Level 45: Druochole, 1s, Cost: 25 Addersgall, Ability
Restores target's HP.
Cure Potency: 600
Additional Effect: Restores 500 MP
NOTE: Addersgall/Addersting gauge changes are listed in the Gauge section, later on.

Level 46: Dyskrasia, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 160 to all nearby enemies.
NOTE: this really ought to be named something else, so as not to conflict with Eukrasia

Level 50: Kerachole, 30s, Cost: 25 Addersgall, Ability
Shields nearby allies, causing them to take 10% less damage.
Effect cannot be stacked with Taurochole.
Duration: 15s
Additional Effect: Restores 500 MP

Level 52: Ixochole, 30s, Cost: 25 Addersgall, Ability
Restores HP of self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 400
Additional Effect: Restores 500 MP

Level 54: Krasis, 5s, Cost: 1500 MP, Ability
Applies 4 stacks of Krasis to the job gauge.
Krasis effect: Reduces cast time of spells by 3s
Additional Effect: Increases Toxikosis by 4 when a stack is consumed
NOTE: Krasis level vastly lowered, and reworked to open up much easier access to 'doubleweaving'

Level 56: Zoe, 5s, Cost: 1500 MP, Ability
Grants 4 stacks of Zoe to the job gauge.
Zoe Effect: Additionally applies a barrier to Kardion target, equal to 25% of the healing delivered. Up to 4 applications of the barrier may stack, with successive applications adding to the barrier's strength. Does not stack with Eukrasian Diagnosis or Eukrasian Prognosis.
Additional Effect: Increases Toxikosis by 4 when a stack is consumed
NOTE: This allows a player to apply barriers without interrupting damage, if there's enough time to. Eukrasian Diagnosis/Prognosis remain as the easily-accessible 'I need barriers, now' solution, if there's not enough time to prepare a Zoe Barrier.

Level 58: Pepsis, 5s, Cost: 500 MP, Ability
Dispels Eukrasian Diagnosis, Eukrasian Prognosis, and Second Opinion from self and nearby allies, healing based on the buff that was dispelled.
Eukrasian Diagnosis Potency: 400
Eukrasian Prognosis Potency: 300
Second Opinion Potency: 250
Grants 5 Toxikosis upon execution.
NOTE: Second Opinion, learned via a trait at level 68, is a new buff left behind for 6s after E.Diagnosis, E.Prognosis or Zoe breaks. This allows Pepsis to be quickly used right after damage is taken, as a sort of 'GNB Continuation' off of the enemy's attack rather than our own

Level 60: Physis 2, 60s, Ability
Restores HP over time to self and nearby allies.
Additional Effect: Increases HP recovered by healing actions by 10%
Regen Potency: 130
Duration: 15s
NOTE: the two effects are bundled into the same buff, to alleviate pressure on the buff cap. Because of this, the duration of the HP recovery effect is increased from 10s to 15s.

Level 62: Taurochole, 45s CD, Cost: 25 Addersgall, Ability
Restores target's HP, and applies Taurochole.
Cure Potency: 750
Taurochole effect: Reduces damage taken by 10%
Effect cannot be stacked with Kerachole.
Additional Effect: Restores 500 MP

Level 66: Pankardia, 5s, Cost: 1500 MP, Ability
Applies 4 stacks of Pankardia to the job gauge, and 4 stacks of Pankardion to all nearby allies.
Pankardia effect: Transfers all effects granted by Kardion to all allies affected by Pankardion, with potencies equal to 50% of the original effect
Additional Effect: Increases Toxikosis by 4 when a stack is consumed

Level 68: Haima, 120s, Ability
Creates a stacking barrier effect on target. Once a layer of barrier is broken, another layer replaces it. A total of 6 layers are applied.
Barrier potency per layer: 300
Duration: 15s
If any layers remain upon duration expiration, a healing effect is applied.
Cure potency per remaining layer: 150

Level 70: Pneuma, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Deals unaspected damage in a straight line before you with a potency of 400 for the first enemy, and 50% less for remaining enemies.
Upon execution, all remaining Toxikon stacks are removed.
Additional Effect: Increases Addersgall by 4, and by an additional 4 per Toxikosis stack remaining at time of execution (if any)
NOTE: Toxikon turns into Pneuma when used, after learning the 'Oath of Hippokrates' trait.
Pneuma's damage and healing components are separate actions, so Pneuma's cool animation isn't 'wasted' on 'damage neutral heal'.

Level 72: Dosis 2, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 280.

Level 72: Eukrasian Dosis 2, Instant, 1.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 280.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
Potency: 30
Duration: 30s

Level 72: Phlegma 2, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 40s Recharge, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage to target, and all enemies near it, with a potency of 450 for the first target and 30% less for remaining targets.
Maximum Charges: 2
Recharge time is unaffected by status effects or gear attributes.

Level 74: Rhizomata, 90s, Ability
Negates the MP cost of the next Kardia Augment, and grants 25 Addersgall.

Level 76: Holos, 120s, Ability
Restores HP of self and nearby allies, and applies a barrier equal to the HP restored.
Cure Potency: 300
Barrier Duration: 30s
Additional Effect: Reduces damage taken by self and nearby allies by 10%.
Effect Duration: 20s

Level 80: Panhaima, 120s, Ability
Creates a stacking barrier effect on self and nearby allies.
Once a layer of barrier is broken, another layer replaces it. A total of 6 layers are applied.
Barrier potency per layer: 200
Duration: 15s
If any layers remain upon duration expiration, a healing effect is applied.
Cure potency per remaining layer: 100

Level 82: Dosis 3, 1.5s Cast, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 300.

Level 82: Eukrasian Dosis 3, Instant, 1.5s Recast, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage with a potency of 300.
Additional Effect: Damage over time
Potency: 40
Duration: 30s

Level 82: Dyskrasia 2, Instant, 2.5s Recast, Spell
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 160 to all nearby enemies.

Level 86: Phlegma 3, Instant, 2.5s Recast, 40s Recharge, Spell
Deals Unaspected damage to target, and all enemies near it, with a potency of 500 for the first target and 30% less for remaining targets.
Maximum Charges: 2
Recharge time is unaffected by status effects or gear attributes.

Level 90: Soma, 120s, Ability
Restores HP of self and nearby allies.
Cure Potency: 900
NOTE: The heal is equal to the potency of Zoe-Pneuma, due to the reworking of Zoe.

Level 92: Psyche, 30s, Ability
Deals unaspected damage to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 300 for the first enemy, and 50% less for all remaining enemies.
Additional Effect: Triggers an instance of Kardia healing on your Kardion target.
This Kardia instance does not consume, nor benefit from, Soteria, Zoe, Krasis or PanKardia. Additionally, this Kardia instance does not generate Toxikosis.

Level 100: Philosophia, 120s, Ability
Instantly grants 4 stacks of Soteria, Krasis, Pankardia and Zoe to the Job Gauge.
Additionally, grants 4 stacks of Philosophia.
Philosophia Effect: Increases the next spell's healing magic potency by 20%. If the spell triggers Kardia, then that instance of Kardia healing is increased by 20%.
Philosophia Effect Duration: 20s

TRAITS

Level 20: Maim and Mend
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 10%

Level 40: Maim and Mend II
Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 30%

Level 42: Toxikosis
Enables the accumulation of Toxikosis in the Toxikosis Gauge. Toxikosis can be spent on Toxikon, allows for free execution of Neuralgia and Myasthenia.
Toxikosis is generated via healing with Kardia, or by consuming stacks of Kardia Augments.

Level 45: Addersgall
Enables the accumulation of Addersgall in the Addersgall Gauge. Addersgall can be spent on several healing and mitigation actions.
Addersgall is generated automatically over time, or by consuming stacks of Toxikosis.

Level 54: Somanoutic Oath
Upgrades the potency of Dosis to 240, Eukrasian Dosis to 240, Phlegma to 400, and Eukrasian Phlegma to 400.
Upgrades the potency of Neuralgia and Myasthenia to 260.

Level 58: Phlegmatic Protection
Upon Eukrasian Diagnosis barrier on target, or Eukrasian Prognosis barrier on self, being fully consumed, grants Phlegmatic to self.
Phlegmatic Effect: Allows the use of Phlegma or Eukrasian Phlegma, without consuming a charge. Phlegmatic is consumed before Charges.
Duration: 40s

Level 60: Physis Mastery
Upgrades Physis to Physis 2.

Level 62: Neuralgia & Myasthenia Mastery
Grants Neuralgia and Myasthenia an additional effect.
When consuming Myasthenia by applying Neuralgia, Neuralgia's potency is increased by 10.
When consuming Neuralgia by applying Myasthenia, Myasthenia's potency is increased by 10.

Level 64: Somanoutic Oath 2
Upgrades the potency of Dosis to 260 and Eukrasian Dosis to 260.
Upgrades the potency of Neuralgia and Myasthenia to 280.

Level 68: Second Opinion
When a Barrier effect from Eukrasian Diagnosis, Eukrasian Prognosis or Zoe is fully consumed, it is replaced by Second Opinion for 6s. Pepsis can be used to consume Second Opinion to heal the recipient of the buff.

Level 70: Oath of Hippokrates
Increases the healing potency of Kardia to 170.
Additionally, allows the execution of Pneuma after executing Toxikon.

Level 72: Offensive Mastery
Upgrades Dosis to Dosis II, Phlegma to Phlegma II, and Eukrasian Dosis to Eukrasian Dosis II.
Additionally, increases the potency of Eukrasian Phlegma to 450, and the damage over time of Eukrasian Phlegma to 30.
Additionally, increases the potency of Neuralgia and Myasthenia to 300.

Level 78: Enhanced Kerachole
Kerachole applies Second Opinion to all allies affected for 15s.
Pepsis heals for 400p when consuming this Second Opinion buff.

Level 82: Offensive Mastery 2
Upgrades Dosis II to Dosis III, Eukrasian Dosis II to Eukrasian Dosis III and Dyskrasia to Dyskrasia II.
Additionally, increases the potency of Neuralgia and Myasthenia to 320.

Level 85: Healing Mastery
Increases the healing potency of Diagnosis to 450 and the base heal of Kardia to 200.
Increases the barrier potency of Eukrasian Diagnosis to 120% the amount healed and Eukrasian Prognosis to 110% the amount healed.
NOTE: Current EW values have E.Diag barrier potency at 540p and E.Prog at 320p. By using these percentages, we can have the Eukrasian versions
of these heals heal for the same as their base counterparts, and have the barriers be equal strength to the EW values.

Level 86: Phlegma Mastery
Upgrades Phlegma II to Phlegma III.
Additionally, increases the potency of Eukrasian Phlegma to 500, and the damage over time of Eukrasian Phlegma to 35.

Level 92: Feedback Cycle
Consuming a stack of Toxikon restores 100MP.
Casting Pneuma restores 100MP.

Level 94: Somanoutic Mastery
Increases the potency of Dosis III to 310, Eukrasian Dosis III to 310, and Pneuma to 420.
Additionally, increases the potency of Neuralgia and Myasthenia to 330.

Level 96: Precise Prognosis
Upgrades Eukrasian Prognosis to apply a barrier equal to 120% the HP recovered.
NOTE: This is equal to what DT's 'Eukrasian Prognosis II' applies, but with a slightly more flavourful name than 'Eukrasian Prognosis II'

Level 98: Physis Amplification
Increases the Healing Over Time effect of Physis 2 to 150p.
NOTE: The 'HP restoration increased by 10%' effect's duration being increased to match the HOT is already baked into Physis 2 from Level 60 in this design.

SIDE NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR

The main goal of the design is to allow for a master of the Job to be able to heal through an encounter, even very difficult ones such as Savage or perhaps even Ultimate, with as little interruption to their damage output as possible. If SGE is the 'can heal by doing damage' healer, then I want that to be at the forefront of the gameplay. Being able to heal by dealing damage, and using Augment Abilities to modify Kardia's behaviour to fulfill the requirements of the fight.

To alleviate 'skill floor' concerns, I made the decision to make only the Augments cost MP. For a player who does not want to, or does not feel confident in using the Augments and relying on Kardia so much, they can still cast the 'regular spells' (Diagnosis, Prognosis, Dosis, etc.), and they will all cost zero MP. Additionally, the MP cost of attack spells, and any Eukrasian variants of spells (attack or healing), are also zero MP cost. The MP cost for applying barriers (eg with Eukrasian Prognosis) is on the use of Eukrasia. Additionally, to alleviate accidental 'misclicks' of Eukrasia, the base form of the spell will have it's potency reflected in the Eukrasian variant. For example (at max level), where current Endwalker gameplay has Prognosis at 300p, and Eukrasian Prognosis at 100p, with 320% barrier, this design instead sets Eukrasian Prognosis at 300p, and 120% barrier, meaning that if a player misclicks Eukrasia, Eukrasian Prognosis will still heal the same amount of 'actual HP' as Prognosis. The only thing 'lost' is the MP cost for Eukrasia.

I set the MP cost of the Augments (Soteria, Krasis, Zoe, Pankardia) at 1000 MP, just as an example value. I don't know what would be a good value, what would be balanced, etc, as the idea of having a healer that doesn't spend MP on its basic attacks is not something we've seen in FFXIV before. However, I think it'd be quite interesting if the MP restoration from within the healer kits was strong enough, and MP economy sturdy enough, that we could remove Lucid Dreaming as an action, since it's a button we just 'press once per minute, every minute' without much thought. (I have since updated the MP cost of these actions to 1500MP, as part of trying to balance damage potencies)

Toxikon was reworked, due to the current design of Toxikon being, effectively, 'Ruin 2 with extra steps'. With this, there is much more interplay within the kit, and Toxikon's current use case of 'allows the player to weave/move' is instead covered by Krasis. Neuralgia and Myasthenia serve to break up the 'Dosis Spam' somewhat, with an RNG cooldown reduction effect to keep each pull slightly different. Toxikon, however, allows for rapid execution of these two skills, ideally alternated for the bonus potency, in a gameplay similar to Reaper's Enshroud (complete with a cast time finisher, for a big final hit). However, since the Pneuma is a stronger action than Dosis, it could prove to be advantageous to use it to empower a Zoe-based shield, adding potential depth to the decision on 'when' to utilize a Toxikon window.

The 'barrier break' interaction that allowed us to accumulate Toxikon in the live game, I do find somewhat interesting as a mechanic, and so it remains, but now grants 'Phlegmatic', allowing the player to use one use of Phlegma without consuming a Charge. This is still a damage loss in single target (2x310 = 620, one Phlegma is 500), but less so compared to the current Toxikon. Additionally, it might be a damage gain to put that extra Phlegma into raid buffs, depending on your party's composition, for an additional factor for optimization-minded players to consider and optimize around.

Pankardia is added as a skill, to nobody's surprise. It was also announced in the Dawntrail Job Actions Live Letter, to nobody's surprise. Of course, it's almost a given that it'd be added, since it just makes perfect sense to add to round out the kit. Where SE's version will likely come has been given a large Cooldown of 180 seconds, I'd prefer to allow the player to have ready access to it, and instead gate its use behind a resource. In this case, MP. By allowing the player almost constant access to the skill in this way, it becomes much more feasible for the player to handle more of the required healing via just Kardia, especially in content like Roulettes, which would serve to reinforce the identity of the Job and make its gameplay feel different from its peer, Scholar. And for higher-skilled players doing lower-skill-level content (eg a Savage raider doing EX roulette to cap their tomestones for the week), 'Can I heal this EX roulette using Kardia and Kardia Augments as my only source of healing?' could be an interesting self-imposed challenge to attempt.

Soteria/Krasis/Zoe have all had their effects changed, to better suit the 'Kardia Augment' direction of the class design. The instances where Zoe would be used on something other than Pneuma were few and far between, and so the heal potency of Pneuma was boosted to match the Zoe-boosted value. The healing up of Krasis, in my experience, was additionally very... situational, mainly finding itself applied to the MT in conjunction with Soteria, to double-boost Kardia. The new Krasis grants SGE a massive boost to mobility, and also allows for faster recovery from deaths via Egeiro, as it reduces the cast time of Egeiro to 5s. At least, as long as you have the MP spare.

The rationale behind 'Eukrasian Phlegma' is simply 'Eukrasian Dyskrasia sounds stupid'. The two words refer to the opposite of one another, and so the term 'Eukrasian Dyskrasia' is something of an oxymoron, it's contradicting itself. Eukrasian Phlegma gives us a reason to see the Toxikon animation, the one displayed front and center in the Endwalker trailer, once again. The potency is the same as a regular Phlegma (so misclicking Eukrasia does not have as much negative effect on the player), and at max level, has the same DOT tick potency as Eukrasian Dosis would. As such, ideally you would want to use Eukrasian Phlegma inside the 2min window to refresh the DOT and simultaneously deal burst damage via Phlegma's strong on-hit potency, and the player would be free to choose to either use their second charge on a regular Phlegma to conserve MP (as using Eukrasia to apply the DOT via Eukrasian Dosis gives a 30s Duration, rather than the 15s via Eukrasian Phlemga), or to use it on Eukrasian Phlegma again 15s later, to refresh the DOT once more, snapshotting the buffs of the 2min window for its duration.

Due to the changes to the gauges, Rhizomata is changed to instantly grant 25 Addersgall. This is functionally identical to the current gameplay, as 25 is enough for one use of any -Chole action. Additionally, it negates the MP cost of the next MP spender, which makes using it, and the Addersgall spender it provides, all the more relevant to your MP economy.

Lastly, Pepsis. Rather than deleting it entirely (and it was tempting), I've instead created Second Opinion: a buff that is left behind after a barrier from Eukrasian Diagnosis, Eukrasian Prognosis, or the Augment effect of Zoe, are fully consumed. Pepsis can be used in the same fashion as the live game, consuming barriers to heal, but it can also consume Second Opinion. I believe that being able to hit Pepsis right after a raidwide attack hits the party, to immediately respond to the damage and start healing allies back up, would feel very fun and add massively to the engagement of the Job. This gameplay technically already exists in the live game, as you can hit Pepsis right before a raidwide attack hits, which will 'snapshot' the barriers being active on the party and use the healing effect on the party, but because of... animation delay? Server unresponsiveness? Whatever it is, this narrow window means that Pepsis doesn't actually consume the barriers, the raidwide attack does, but Pepsis still activates after the raidwide as if the barriers were consumed, letting you get both the protection of the barrier, and the Pepsis healing. Second Opinion would simply extend that already-existing window, turning it from the pseudo-exploit grey-area it currently sits in, into an actual gameplay mechnanic we can reliably utilize.

All in all, I believe that this SGE would be very fast paced, easy to learn and hard to master, with players able to easily and instantly dip back into using a GCD healing spell to cover barrier requirements if they don't feel confident in preparing the barrier via Kardia. Juggling resources in a cycle, Addersgall spending feeds MP, MP feeds Toxikosis generation, and Toxikosis spending feeds Addersgall, means that the player would always have resources for something available. And with 'spend MP to get damage via Toxikosis', it might turn out that Piety is a stat that contributes an unexpected amount of extra damage to the rotation. Couple that with Spell Speed allowing for faster attacks (and therefore faster Toxikosis generation), and maybe a Piety/SpellSpeed stat build could unseat Critical Hit from its 'undisputedly the best and nothing comes close' throne?

Thank you for reading. If there are any typos, please mention them.

To Square Enix, should someone from SE see this post: I give full permission for parts or all of this design to be taken and used for 8.0 or beyond, I do not ask for any credit.

[Blixie]

Well done!
Thank you for taking the time and caring enough to pull this together.

Many of our healers have worked very hard to articulate the issues and make detailed suggestions about possible fixes. I hope this thread will help prevent that work from being buried under the rubbish heap.

[ty_taurus]

I would rather focus on "what can be done now?" Because large sweeping reworks, as nice as they could be, are not likely to happen until we get to 8.0 anyway, and that's the main pain point for me is I want to enjoy Dawntrail now, not in 2-3 years. Something I've said elsewhere is that what we can do now is simply take attack spells each healer already has and make them more frequent with relatively small adjustments, because this is something more realistic for changes that could be made right away, or within a patch, and doing so will at least make the experience more enjoyable consistently through DT content. I've just talked about DPS tools before, but I'll include some adjustments to healing actions here as well. Naturally, the potency of filler spells (Glare/Broil/Malefic/Dosis) as well as certain other spells would be adjusted to compensate for the below changes.

WHM

• Return Aero III at level 52; it deals a burst of damage in an AOE; tics of Aero II have a 15% chance to proc a use of Aero II; up to 3 procs can be held at a time; PoM grants 3 procs of Aero III upon use
• Reduce PoM's cooldown to 60 seconds
• Aero III upgrades into Glare IV at level 92
• Change Divine Caress to a spell on a 60 second cooldown that costs 1 lily and nourishes the blood lily; the regen effect only occurs when used during Temperance.

SCH

• Reduce the cooldown of Bio spells to 12 seconds
• Return Miasma at level 8; it is a hardcast DOT that lasts 24 seconds
• Return Shadow Flare at level 52; casts of Bio and Miasma spells grant 1 buff stack to a max of 5; Shadow Flare deals a burst of damage and consumes 5 stacks
• Miasma upgrades into Miasma II at level 52; becoming AOE (stays ranged)
• Miasma II upgrades into Baneful Impaction at level 92
• Add the ability to toggle off transformation glamours for Seraphism and RPR's Enshroud

AST

• Return Stella at level 52; GCD spell that deals a burst of AOE damage; has a 25 second recast time with 2 charges.
• Return Astrodyne at level 52; GCD spell that grants a buff that increases own damage dealt by 5% and reduces spell cast/recast time by 5%; lasts 30 seconds and can be extended to 60 seconds; grants 1 charge of Stella upon use
• Stella upgrades into Oracle at level 92
• Reduce the recast timer for Astral/Umbral Draw to 30 seconds and the MP restored to 10% on activation (We're presumably getting something like this anyway)
• Remove the mitigation on Exaltation; now provides the healing effect on the target when you next play a card on that target
• Synastry upgrades to Celestial Intersection at level 74, now additionally healing the target after the use of single target healing or barrier actions (not just spells)
• Extend the duration of Suntouched granted by Neutral Sect to 60 seconds

SGE

• Reduce the duration of Eukrasian Dosis DOTs to 15 seconds
• Reduce the cooldown of Phlegma spells to 20 seconds; Phlegma spells have no MP cost and restores 7% of your MP
• Make Eukrasian Dyskrasia available at level 46; increase the radius of Eukrasian Dyskrasia to 10 yalms; allow it to stack with Eukrasian Dosis spells
• Reduce the cooldown of Psyche to 30 seconds
• Adjust the potency of Toxikon spells to be 50% higher than Dosis spells; both DOT spells have a 50% chance to proc an Addersting
• Remove the 7% restore MP from all -chole abilities
• Remove the regen on Kerachole and replace it with a barrier

These are probably pushing the envelope a little for what can be down now, but I do believe these aren't drastic the the point of feeling like complete reworks.

WHM's is the most straightforward, and gives them a tool not only to break up glare spam, but also gives them a bit of potential mobility. Divine Caress becoming more usable as additional mitigation is also important for properly covering WHM's biggest weakness, and gives you a little more to spend lilies on.

SCH's is just a soft evolution from where they were in Stormblood.

AST's is a bit more ambitious, I'll admit, but I wanted to find a way to make it feel a little more distinct and also to make the utility cards feel more usable. By making Exaltation and Celestial Intersection tools in support of the cards rather than tools that fight with the cards, you can make better use of utility cards in general. There's more I'd like to do, but even that might be a lot to ask for mid-expansion changes (I hate that that's the case, but I have little power otherwise)

SGE's is meant to feel more like PVP SGE with faster cooldowns and what I could think of for a better way to make Toxikon actually rewarding without deviating too much from the status quo.

[Hellebore_Ghrian]

I agree with these designs so much that they make me even sadder when I see healers in the game now.

[Iedarus]

Those Scholar changes...just yes.

I was initially worried because I had fairly recently warmed up to Dissipation, however seeing that decision making be placed on the strategies makes it all worth it. Of course, the new Synchronization Tactics still offers decision making for how to utilize your Aetherflow, but it no longer removes the fairy from the battlefield. I am also in utter AWE of how well you cleaned up any potential button bloat; the way you handled the Eos/Selene dilemma by leaning into them being two halves of Lily was a stroke of genius. The way you interact with your fairy now makes her feel like a companion rather than a living oGCD. I would 100% rally behind this.

[JamsC]

I would pay double my current sub price if Square Enix just lifted ForsakenRoe’s designs and put them in the game.