With the eventual inclusion of 4th jobs, Extended jobs will find themselves once again put on the backburner for current content due to not being able to 'keep up'. In addition to what others often suggest, such as max level/job level increases, I would like to propose changes that help a class stay relevant. For this post I will be speaking exclusively about Soul Reaper. Please keep in mind I do not intend to attach hard numbers for the sake of not pretending I can 'balance' a class, but mostly to suggest changes that would benefit the class as a whole. My reasonings are underlined at the end of each suggestion. That said, here are my suggestions;
Taekwon:
- Flying Kick: Make this skill directly targetable on party members, dealing no damage but serving as a gap closer. Only make this functionality available to Soul Linker/Soul Reaper. //Why? Because there's not a lot of utility for SR's in the TK tree. Most of the skills are aimed at SG/SE.
- Sprint: Make this skill provide a 'spurt' state to Soul Linker/Soul Reaper, regardless of whether they have a weapon equipped or not. The 'Spurt' state in this situation will grant the user increased SP Regen similar to Magnificat. //Why? Same as mentioned before.
Soul Linker:
- LARGE CHANGE: Consolidation of Spirits with the same base type. Instead of Monk Spirit and Priest Spirit -> Spirit of the Divine (Monk + Priest), etc for the other classes. //Why? Because there's too much skill bloat with niche skills in SL, and there always has been. One of the things that holds them back is having to pick and choose who and how to support. This is not a good thing.
- LARGE CHANGE: Allow Class Spirits to be used alongside SR Souls //Why? Because class spirits largely don't matter with a few exceptions, so nobody really uses Spirits for parties/combat unless they *are* one of those exceptions.
- For each of the 'Class Spirits', also grant an additional flat-stat buff based on the class. For example; -5% VCT to Mage tree, +5% healing to Aco tree. //The spirit shouldn't be completely restricted to a singular spec within a class. What good is Sage Spirit if you don't use Autospell? This gives them all some utility.
- Remove '1st Transcendent Spirit', its useless. //Why? It's useless.
- Create a new spirit; 'Spirit of the Intrepid', which works for Extended Classes & also consolidates Super Novice Spirit. Examples of the effects for Extended classes;
* Ninja no longer consume materials to cast Ninjutsu, CSS lasts for an additional 2 attacks
* Gunslingers gain all their coins and no longer expend them on skills.
* //Why? Because Extended Classes need representation as well. - LARGE CHANGE: Esma now works as ammunition. When using a skill that grants access to Esma, it will now instead grant a charge of Esma. This stacks up to 3 times. Esma can be used at any time as long as you have a charge. //Why? Because outside of granting access to Esma, Estin & Estun are useless. When you get to using Espa instead, you don't want to use Esma because Espa is better. What will we do with Esma at that point? Look to the new SR skill!
Soul Reaper:
- LARGE CHANGE: Eswhoo now works as ammunition. When using a skill that would grant access to Eswhoo, it will now instead grant a charge of Eswhoo. This effect stacks up to 3 times. Eswhoo can be used at any time as long as you have a charge. //Why?In group content, a lot of the time you don't get to use Eswhoo because you have to cast other skills first. Now you can save up your Eswhoo to be cast when you want, improving the rhythm and improving the feel of combat.
- Esha now grants a charge of Eswhoo instead of Esma. //Why? Esha is an AoE skill, and its weak. It should at least grant you access to the better AoE skill, not the older single target skill.
- Espa now grants a charge of Eswhoo and Esma. //Why? Espa is a better Esma, so it should also grant access to Esma. However you also shouldn't be forced to use the new version of Esha in order to be able to use Eswhoo, so it can now do both!
- LARGE CHANGE: Soul Unity is no longer a casted buff. It instead creates an area effect on the ground that persists for 10 seconds. Walking into the effect will grant the Soul Unity buff, and will also refresh the duration of Spirits & Souls. This is not restricted to the party. //Why? Soul Unity is slow, and party members are often outside the AoE because the AoE is small. This will now indicate to them 'GET IN THE BUFF AREA SHINJI', and also make rebuffing souls & spirits less of a pain in the butt. That will be important for the hybrid play you will now be capable of due to the reworked damage skills.
- Soul Reaper effect has been merged in with Soul Collect, and does not require existing Souls in order to activate, and also doesn't have a cooldown. //Why? Collect = Reaping. It's the same thing, it should be in the same skill. Also there are too many points required in the tree as is, this will save us 5. Also, having to keep a Chen Muffler around so you can reactive Reaping (assuming it was off cooldown, because its cooldown is currently long af for some reason) feels terrible. Now you don't have to!
- Eswhoo & Espa are now only 5-point skills, with the same strength as their 10 point current versions. //Why? Need to reign in some of the point expenditure in case we don't get a job level increase.
- Curse of Wicked Souls now has 100% Curse chance at level 5 (up from 80%). //Why? Putting 5 points into a skill that eats 3 souls and can still repeatedly fail, feels absolutely terrible.
- Kaute can now be cast on allies that do not have Soul Unity active, will only cost 3 souls instead of 5, and will cost only 2 souls on a target that has Soul Unity active. //Why? Kaute is VERY RESTRICTIVE. Needing to have 5 souls, and a buff active, AND sacrificing 20% of your HP (we are one of THE LOWEST HP CLASSES TOO) - is too costly for a dinky 20% SP regen. This won't make it as good as Soul Change for Sorc, but it will go a long way to making it better.
- NEW SKILL - The Hallowed Harvest: (Passive, 5 levels) - Enemies that die with Curse of Wicked Souls active will have a 15/25/35/45/55% chance to grant a soul. Additionally, each soul generated while at max souls, grants 1 charge of Esma & Eswhoo - once per 15 seconds. //Why? New synergy with the proposed charge/ammo system, and also more access to souls that is thematically tied to the fact that we are SOUL. REAPERS. WE REAP SOULS Y'ALL.
- NEW SKILL - Not Yet Time: (Active, 3 levels) - Consume 9/7/5 souls to resurrect a dead player. //Why? Because we are thematically responsible for fulfilling fates wishes. Sometimes someone dies that is not meant to yet be dead, and that falls into our domain too.
- NEW SKILL - Soulfood: (Active, 1 level) - Consume a soul to instantly generate 10% of your max SP. //Why? Its the cirrrrrcle of deaaaaath. Sometimes the only thing a soul is worth is nourishing a superior being.
- NEW SKILL - Hocus Focus-Fire: (Active, 1 level) - Activates a 1-time buff. The next time the player uses Espa, all charges of Esma will be expended on the target for 1.5x damage each. Consumes 6 souls. //Why? Hey look! Esma is good again! We can do more damage finally!
But why?
Honestly? I like the class. I think its a shame that SR's are so few and far between - mostly because their effects have always been very niche. With SR they were given more broad and notable effects - but compared to other Support classes such as the Performers & AB, they lacked both the arsenal and rule-set to be able to keep up. With the changes I'm proposing, they will become much more effective supporters, deal with fewer restrictions, and really just open up the playstyle to be more fluid. It also opens up the ability for us to not only use our old buffs for something useful, but keep them up without increasing our workload. In fact, our workload is now significantly more fun because we get to pew-pew while we support.
