There does need to be more ways for success in this game than the current "just get more damage". This will always be a requirement and something players will chase after, but there should be more strategies to killing a boss fight than only damage and having hands, most players are not skilled like this and never will be, while other players are skilled through intellect.
Supports really help broaden the pool of how many players are able to do boss fights while directly appealing to more player playstyles.
Supports also help create more interesting party compositions with mix and matching different kinds of classes together to discover new things, help new players get into the game (this is very important for long term game growth), help break the ice to push players into harder bosses and get them started and better at the game as a result, and just prevent burnout long term where someone has cleared a boss multiple times and gets tired of trying hard every week where this player can have the option to party with a support that is meaningful and purposefully strong in their utility to start enjoying the game again.
Really, this is to get the game back to being a game meant to have fun with and enjoyed by everyone, and move away from the current direction of only seeking bigger and bigger damage numbers. This is a game and not a calculator, so let's get back to the game being fun and allowing players multiple different ways to play and enjoy the game!
This specifically will be a mega-post collection of the healers in the game. There should be a lot more different kinds of supports and a lot of supports overall, both being brought up significantly to an appropriate and impactful level of power to do the support role properly, and introducing new jobs that are dedicated supports as well.
Two broad rules to be a healer:
1: They must be able to independently upkeep healing on the party as the only healer in that party.
2: Have at least one way for their own healing skills to ignore all anti-healing mechanics in some way for the party and sometimes themselves too.
These skill changes are only going to be based supportive skills, and not include anything else that the job may or may not need to make them play better. A big part of these skill changes is both improve the power of them for party play to really bring out that support fantasy, but also improve the user experience as well.
Bishop:
Category: Healer-Protector
Blessed Health:
New Skill:
Passive: Every 10% HP over healing that Bishop provides for party members grants them 1% HP Shield for 5 seconds, up to 50% HP Shield.
Heal:
Reworked:
Bishop deals damage to Undead Monsters. Bishop applies a healing buff to self and party members for 15 seconds (increased further with buff duration) that heals for 10% HP every second.
Cooldown: Removed entirely.
Hyper Passives added and replaces Holy Magic Shell's Hyper Passives.
1: Heal deals damage to all monsters.
2: Heal lasts for +5 seconds longer.
3: Heal heals for +5% HP more every second.
Holy Magic Shell:
Buffed:
Bishop heals self and party members for 100% HP and applies a buff for 15 seconds (increased further with buff duration) that blocks all incoming attacks and reduces damage from attacks that deal % HP damage by 15%.
Cooldown: 90 seconds.
On-target cooldown removed entirely.
Limited hit count is removed entirely, effect applies for as long as the duration lasts.
Dispel:
Reworked:
Bishop cleanses all abnormal status effects from self and party members, and then applies a buff for 10 seconds (increased further with buff duration) that causes affected targets to be immune to all abnormal status effects.
Cooldown: 90 seconds.
Holy Fountain:
Reworked:
Bishop places a fountain down for 60 seconds that heals self and party members that are near the fountain for 10% HP every second.
Cooldown: 60 seconds.
Decent Holy Fountain is removed entirely, players receive a refund in the form of the appropriate amount of node shards.
Holy Water:
Full Rework:
Bishop applies a buff to self for 20 seconds (increased further with buff duration) that increases her own healing skills by 30% and allows her healing skills to ignore all anti-healing mechanics against party members.
Cooldown: 120 seconds.
Benediction:
Rework:
Toggle: Bishop prays to either create a zone around her of a heavenly garden in Benevolence mode or create a zone of destruction around her in Vengeance mode, consuming 200 + 2% MP every second while active. Bishop cannot recover MP while active.
Benevolence Benediction: Increases healing from Bishop's skills by 30% +1% per 1,000 INT, restores 1% MP +1% per 10,000 INT every second for party members, and increases attack speed by 3 stages for self and party members.
Vengeance Benediction: Decreases healing from Bishop's skills by -75% to grant 30% Final Damage to self and 5% Final Damage +1% per 5,000 INT to party members. Every 50% HP Bishop over heals to party members in this state grants an additional +1% Final Damage for 5 seconds, up to +30% Final Damage.
Cooldown: 30 seconds, applies after effect is turned OFF.
[Note: Effects only apply while within the realms of Benediction, negative and positive. New Holy Water effect will counter the negative healing of Vengeance Benediction for Party Members.]
Lynn:
Category: Healer-Protector
Focus:
System Change:
Lynn can no longer Focus herself, most skills are always self applied.
If Lynn is the only applicable target within range, then Lynn is considered to be the Focus target in these scenarios so that certain skills can still be used.
Buff:
Focus range is increased by roughly 100% or greater. This would greatly help in certain situations like Monster Park Party Quest, for example, where the map is ginormous!
[Focus] Heal:
Improved:
Duration increases further with buff duration.
Now always applies to self in addition to the Focus target.
[Focus] Support Flight:
Buffed:
Cooldown reduce to 5 seconds from 20 seconds.
Purify:
Improved:
Duration increases further with buff duration.
Nature's Providence:
Buffed:
Duration increase to 180 seconds from 90 seconds.
Ignore Enemy Defense increase to 50% from 30%.
Nature's Providence Boost:
Item Drop Rate increase to 20% from 10%.
Add on, grants +1 Attack Speed and Bonus Attack Speed Effect to self and party members.
Support Flight:
Buffed:
Cooldown decrease to 10 seconds from 30 seconds.
Mother Nature's Touch:
Improved:
Healing buff's duration increases further with buff duration.
[Focus] Forest Protection:
Significantly Buffed and Improved:
Skill becomes a full circle to fix the issue of when it was used while the target was in the air.
Skill radius increase by at least 100% to be better for current boss design.
Damage reduction increase to 40% from 30%.
New effect added: Increase healing from Lynn's skills for those inside the barrier by 30%.
Cooldown decrease to 30 seconds from 300 seconds.
Duration decrease as a result to 10 seconds from 40 seconds.
Death Prevention Effect:
Now applies as a lingering buff for 60 seconds for those that make contact with the barrier, refreshes with constant exposure to the barrier.
If the buff prevents death on the target, then that same target cannot receive the buff again for 300 seconds.
Nature's Grace:
Buffed and Improved:
Cooldown decrease to 120 seconds from 180 seconds.
Buff now allows for Lynn's healing skills to ignore all anti-healing mechanics against affected targets, allowing Lynn to always be able to apply the over-healing shield while active.
Kanna:
Category: Healer-Disruptor
Blossom Barrier:
Rework:
Kanna summons a cherry blossom barrier for 20 seconds that reduces all damage by 20%, including attacks that deal % HP damage, and causes her healing skills to ignore all anti-healing mechanics for self and party members inside.
Cooldown: 100 seconds.
Buffed:
Barrier size is increased to be at least 100% bigger to function better with current boss design.
Hyper Passive:
Cooldown reduction reduced to 50% from 90%.
Cooldown with Hyper Passive: 50 seconds from 10 seconds.
Lifeblood Ritual:
Rework:
Passive: Kanna's direct attacking skills heal self and party members for 5% HP.
Cooldown: 1 second.
Kishin Shoukan
Rework:
Kanna summons two demons for 60 seconds that ricochet a ball of energy back and forth between each other, dealing damage to struck monsters and stunning them for 3 seconds, including boss monsters, the same monster can be stunned once every 15 seconds by this.
Passive: Monsters that are stunned by Kanna take 10% increased Final Damage from self and party members.
Cooldown: 30 seconds.
Bellflower Barrier:
Rework:
Kanna summons a bellflower barrier for 20 seconds that grants 10% Final Damage for self and party members inside. Self and party members direct attacking skills while inside the barrier increases stun durations inflicted by Kanna by 1%, up to 100% increased stun duration.
Cooldown: 100 seconds.
Buffed:
Barrier size is increased to be at least 100% bigger to function better with current boss design.
Hyper Passive:
Cooldown reduction reduced to 50% from 80%.
Cooldown with Hyper Passive: 50 seconds from 20 seconds.
Bellflower Barrier - Persist:
Instead of increasing the duration of the barrier by +20 seconds.
Becomes increases stun durations by 2% instead of by 1%.
Falling Sakura:
Rework:
Kanna summons a cherry blossom tree for 15 seconds (increased further with summon duration) healing self and party members nearby for 20% HP every second.
Binding Tempest:
Rework:
Kanna throws a charm to deal damage to up to 15 monsters and stun them for 6 seconds, including boss monsters, the same monster can be stunned by this once every 45 seconds.
Cooldown: 60 seconds.
Veritable Pandemonium:
Adjusted and Buffed:
Stun duration increased to 12 seconds from 15 seconds.
Increased because the new Bellflower Barrier can increase the stun duration to a whopping 24 seconds.
Spirit's Domain:
Rework:
Still is a giant summon that periodically deals damage to monsters inside.
The summon lasts for 60 seconds by rank 30.
Stage 1: Increases the damage reduction of Blossom Barrier and Final Damage of Bellflower Barrier by 33% while inside Spirit's Domain. Increases healing by Kanna by 33% for self and party members inside.
Stage 2: Increases the damage reduction of Blossom Barrier and Final Damage of Bellflower Barrier by 67% while inside Spirit's Domain. Increases healing by Kanna by 67% for self and party members inside.
Stage 3: Increases the damage reduction of Blossom Barrier and Final Damage of Bellflower Barrier by 100% while inside Spirit's Domain. Increases healing by Kanna by 100% for self and party members inside.
Cooldown: 180 seconds at all ranks.
(NOTE: Increase by 33/67/100%, for example, is making the base 20% damage reduction and 10% Final Damage into 26/32/40% and 13/16/20% values respectively for clarity.)
Blaze Wizard:
Category: Healer-Buffer
This involves reworking Blaze Wizard's current dead and useless skills into support skills. This will allow the skills to be useful for the first time ever and not have to increase Blaze Wizard's damage by any significance or disrupt their current gameplay style.
Flame Bite:
Full Rework:
Toggle: On Orbital Flame attack, consume additional MP to deal a flame attack forward, dealing damage to monsters and healing self and party members for 10% HP.
Attack Cooldown: 1 second.
Toggle Cooldown: 1 second.
Flame Vortex:
Full Rework:
Toggle: On Orbital Flame attack, consume additional MP to deal a swirling flame attack forward, dealing damage to monsters and applying a debuff to struck monsters, reducing their Fire Elemental Resistance by -10% and All Other Elemental Resistance by -5% for 30 seconds.
Attack Cooldown: 10 seconds.
Toggle Cooldown: 1 second.
Flame Tempest:
Full Rework:
Toggle: On Orbital Flame attack, consume additional MP to deal a surging flame attack on both sides of Blaze Wizard, dealing damage to monsters and healing self and party members for 50% HP.
Attack Cooldown: 5 seconds.
Toggle Cooldown: 1 second.
Controlled Burn:
Rework for the Active:
Blaze Wizard heals and restores HP and MP for self and all party members equal to 100% of Blaze Wizard's Max MP, healing from this ignores all anti-healing mechanics.
Cooldown: 20 seconds.
Phoenix Run:
Modified and Buffed:
Buff now also applies to party members.
Self Duration: 1,800 seconds, still increased with buff duration.
Party Member Duration: 180 seconds, increases with Blaze Wizard's buff duration.
Cooldown: Reduced to 300 seconds from 1,800 seconds.
Now has an on-target cooldown if the death prevention effect occurs of 300 seconds.
Effect will replace the death prevention potion effect, and the death prevention potion cannot be used on a target with this on-target cooldown effect is currently taking place.
Cinder Maelstrom:
Full Rework:
Summon the power of the phoenix to rise around Blaze Wizard, dealing damage to struck monsters and apply The Mark of the Phoenix to struck monsters for 20 seconds, the same monster can be marked once every 45 seconds.
Self and party members that attack monsters with The Mark of the Phoenix deal 50% increased Final Damage, if the target was a boss monster then The Mark of the Phoenix vanishes after it loses 5% of its total HP.
Cooldown: 60 seconds.
Burning Conduit:
Very Mild Rework:
Passive: Blaze Wizard gains 60% Damage, +1 Attack Speed, and Bonus Attack Speed Effect.
Active: Blaze Wizard creates a pentacle on the ground for 30 seconds (still increased further with buff duration), granting only Party Members 10% Final Damage, +1 Attack Speed, and Bonus Attack Speed Effect while standing above the pentacle, effect lingers for 5 seconds if the party member leaves the pentacle.
Cooldown: 45 seconds.
Final Damage is a controlled value, you know exactly how much damage it is giving.
Illium:
Category: Healer-Protector
Lucent Brand:
System Change:
Now always applies to party members and no longer only during the Resonant Wings skill.
Crystal Skill - Resonance:
Rework:
Toggle: Consume MP every second to create a healing beam between Illium and the Elder Crystal, healing self and party members for 20% HP every second and applying a stack Lucent Brand, while also applying a stack of Umbral Brand when making contact with a monster.
Cooldown: 1 second.
This is no longer linked to the Crystal Charge system whatsoever and is now simply a toggle skill that can be turned on and off whenever you want, allowing Illium to always be able to heal the party and apply Lucent Brand to them.
Longinus Spear:
Modified:
Now applies a buff to struck party members for 5 seconds, allowing Crystal Skill - Resonance to ignore all anti-healing mechanics against them.
Crystalline Bulwark:
Buffed:
Cooldown reduce to 90 seconds from 180 seconds.
This way, it will function like a more extreme version of Holy Magic Shell making Illium more desirable for party play.
Crystalline Spirit:
Modified:
Party members can now receive 5% damage reduction, including from attacks that deal % HP damage, up to 10% damage reduction when standing near a crystalline spirit.
Crystal Gate:
Modified and System Change:
Party Members can now use the gates to teleport between them.
On-target cooldown applied of 5 seconds before the same character can use the gates again, instead of applying a 5 seconds cooldown to the gates themselves. This is so with the addition of party members using the gates, it does not negatively decrease the play experience for the Illium user.
Lara:
Category: Enchanter-Healer
Dragon Vein: Manifestation:
New Skill:
Allows Lara to create a Manifestation Skill upon skill use based on the type of Dragon Vein the skill was used on.
All manifestation skills have their cooldowns removed entirely allowing them to be created with a single key press instead of three separate key presses.
Manifestation: Where the River Courses:
Full Rework:
Passive: Lara manifests the power of the river within a Dragon Vein for 300 seconds, restoring 2% MP every second to self and party members while within the area and allowing self and party members to quickly dash in one-of-four directions by double tapping that directional key.
This skill is the same size as wind and sunlight manifestations.
The novelty of the current river manifestation is nice and all, but you use it once and never again because it is not very useful or good. Allowing Lara to give herself and her party a dash, kind of similar to Battle Mage teleport, grants her more unique utility to see desired play while drastically improving the user's play experience and create a more enjoyable play experience for Lara.
Manifestation: Wind Swing:
Modified and Buffed:
The width of this skill is increased by 100% or greater and the height of this skill is increased by 100% or greater so that it can be useful for current boss designs.
Duration is increased to 300 seconds, duration of the self and party buffs are unchanged.
Cooldown is removed entirely.
System Change:
How to fly is changed to simply hold jump; instead of hold up and jump at the same time and then can just hold jump. Removing an unneeded step.
Holding jump to fly while dashing from the new river manifestation skill will instantly cancel the dash in the case of accidental dashes.
Manifestation: Sunlight-Filled Ground:
Buffed Significantly:
The width of this skill is increased by 100% or greater and the height of this skill is increased by 100% or greater so that it can be useful for current boss designs.
Duration is increased to 30 seconds, duration of the self and party buffs are unchanged. Duration is shorter for this skill so that Lara somewhat feels like an active healer.
Cooldown is removed entirely.
Healing increased to 20% HP every second from 10% HP every 2 seconds.
Mountain Embrace:
Modified and Buffed Slightly:
Size of the skill is increased significantly and will now also apply the damage reduction to party members within the area.
New Effect:
Self and party members being affected by this skill causes Manifestation: Sunlight-Filled Ground to ignore all anti-healing mechanics.
Now this is not every job that can heal the party, just would be the ones that are dedicated healers.
A healthy state for the game would be about roughly 20% of jobs to be meaningful healers. This is for multiple of reasons, some of which involve more play styles of players that want to be a healer to choose from and make it easier for players that are searching for a healer to party up with are able to do so somewhat easily enough.
