SCH Merit Speculation

[Malacite]

And here's part two, the SCH Merit speculation ^^b


Group I

~ Light Arts Recast
~ Dark Arts Recast
~ Stratagems Recast
~ Light Arts Effect ( Conserve MP and casting/recast times)
~ Dark Arts Effect
~ Modus Veritas Recast

Group II

Job Abilities

~ New Light Arts Stratagem(s)
~ New Dark Arts Stratagem(s)
~ Gain a new charge (15:00)

Job Traits

~ Increased skill levels from Light Arts (Lv 1 B+, Lv 2 A-, Lv 3 A)
~ Increased skill levels form Dark Arts " " "

[Karinya]

Arts recast would be rather pointless; it isn't really an obstacle anyway, IMX. The Art's activation time/animation delaying your following spell is more of a problem, but I don't see any simple way to eliminate that (through a merit or otherwise).

Stratagem recharge time and maximum stratagem charges are the obvious choices; group I might also include increased effect of {two similar stratagems per merit ability}.

I'm not sure what extra stratagems you expect to add; what can you modify about a spell other than its casting and recast times, MP cost, amount of effect and whether or not it is AoE? Resist rate would duplicate Elemental Seal. Maybe a "no hate" (or better, "redirect hate to target party member" - i.e., TA for spells) stratagem would see some use, but would it be good enough to spend charges on, let alone merits?

Since SCH is a primary mage job, it might get merit spells the way WHM, BLM, RDM, SMN and NIN did. I'm not really sure what they'd do, though (aside from paying merit points to get spells that other jobs already have, which doesn't seem like a winner).

[Sabaron]

Tier II Helix?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

And here's part two, the SCH Merit speculation ^^b


Group I

~ Light Arts Recast
~ Dark Arts Recast
~ Stratagems Recast
~ Light Arts Effect ( Conserve MP and casting/recast times)
~ Dark Arts Effect
~ Modus Veritas Recast

Not much point to lowering the recast to Arts, if there was a Arts Effect choice that lowered the cost of spells further, I'd definately merit that. Strategem Recast would be welcomed.


Group II

Job Abilities

~ New Light Arts Stratagem(s)
~ New Dark Arts Stratagem(s)
~ Gain a new charge (15:00)

Job Traits

~ Increased skill levels from Light Arts (Lv 1 B+, Lv 2 A-, Lv 3 A)
~ Increased skill levels form Dark Arts " " "
[/QUOTE]

New Stategems that covered other areas of magic would be more interesting, particularly opening up a list of Blue and Ninjutsu magic, but again very select spell list like our white and black magic spell lists were. Probably wishful thinking, but seeing as things like BLU merits inspired things like Accession, I've always wanted to see a viable use for AoE Cocoon.

An extra strategem charge would be nice, as weould increase skill levels in Light and Dark Arts.

[Coinspinner]

Improved helix accuracy... no, improved skill via Arts plus new gear would solve that. Weather spell duration... no, we should just have that. Eh, can't htink of much that hasn't been said.

Malacite's list is what I expect to see, minus the actual meritable Stratagems. I don't think we'll be getting spells, but if we do I hope it's not something another mage already has. Perhaps that can only be cast while in a specific weather condition.

Arts recast I am a bit torn on. There isn't much of a reason for us to switch arts that often. If you are healing, you pop Dark Arts after each battle so you can enfeeble at the start of the next one, then switch back to MB or when the fight is effectively over and you want to start resting. If you are nuking you only pop Light Arts to buff or when healing is needed. Still, every time I need to switch and see 20 seconds left on the timer I wish for lower Arts recasts.

[Zempten]

Personally, I would like to see merits that . . .

* Increase effect of Helix (duration or DMG) or better yet allow stacking with JT maybe.
* Somehow gain ability to get Double Weather
* Extra Charges or lower Strategem recast time per charge
* Modus Veritas enhanced (double dmg a tick, but not reduced duration)

I don't see SE making it so that we can get A in white/black magic with merits when they originally capped it at B+ so that the other mage jobs could retain their specialty.

Also I'm not sure if they can do anything more with Strategems. They already covered the fast cast, MP reduction, AE, and potency. . . . .at best I could think of is magic accuracy and that's it.

[Malacite]

There's plenty of options left.

They could easily invert some of the current stratagems like Accession (AoE black enhancing magic; hello warpga!) for example.

[Nataka]

There's plenty of options left.
They could easily invert some of the current stratagems like Accession (AoE black enhancing magic; hello warpga!) for example.

Oh my god |Yes, please.| :D

[Zempten]

There's plenty of options left.
They could easily invert some of the current stratagems like Accession (AoE black enhancing magic; hello warpga!) for example.

That's not really a stratagem issue though. The idea for AE <insert_whatever_magic> is there with Accession & Manifestation. It's just SE that doesn't want to put some of those spells into that category. Shouldn't this just be a petition to SE?

[Malacite]

No, because petitions don't work/aren't taken seriously over the internet.

[Coinspinner]

Manifestation should work with all Enfeebling and Dark magic. Accession should work with all Healing and Enhancing Magic (save perhaps Raise/Reraise). MP an cast time should be affect by Arts as they usually would. I don't see how it would be overpowering. And I don't see why it should be a merit. (Merit points for Spikes-ga? Lame. White debuffs maybe...)

How about Stratagems that add spells to your list during the 60(?) second duration of the Stratagem? Perhaps... White: Haste, debuffs; Black: Sleeps, Tier 4s. I like this idea better than having spells only available while under a certain Arts, because you generally only cast that category of spell while under that art anyway, there's not much of a drawback. But getting them via Stratagem allows you to be less dependent on your subjob while having a significant drawback of it's own (uses a charge.)

Edit: No Refresh via Stratagem though, because that'd be the only one we got to use.

Edit 2: Other possible stratagem modifiers.

No detection from spell casting by creatures that detect by magic.

Enmity reduction on next spell.

Magic Accuracy bonus, perhaps with a penalty of some sort.

Modifies a spell so it lowers resists to another element, a la Ancient MAgic or Tonjutsu.

Spell costs HP instead of MP.

Helix gains an additional effect. Silence on Anemohelix for instance.

[Zempten]

I really like the "Spell costs HP instead of MP" and the "Helix gains additional effects". Those seem like something SCH like

[Lmnop]

Meanwhile, I like the other suggestions.

1) Either the AF for SCH will have to be really robust, or there will be situations where a SCH's magic skills likely won't cut it (I'm thinking landing helices on HNM, for instance -- I don't know much about them, but it looks like they may at least be subject to duration resists). So I think some means of increasing M.acc would be nice (they also need added to the list of Nashira-equip-able. Why aren't they!?)

2) The idea of not getting magic aggro (for instance, 3 minute duration buff, 15 minute recast) is actually really nice. It's very much in-line with Tomahawk for WAR (typically useless, situationally wonderful).

3) Enmity reduction would also be nice. There are 2 ways to look at this, though:
Pessimist: The helices and early access to Regen mean you shouldn't really have a lot of enmity
Optimist (which is also rather pessimist, so we'll call it Optimus instead): This goes right along with the flavor of SCH. Also, realistically, they don't have a lot of defensive means nor the incredible -enmity access.

Overall, I like it. Ideally a duration buff.

4) Jumping to the top of Coin's post. Being able to cast Haste once every 4 minutes is interesting, but I wonder if people would just cast hastega every 8 minutes and never do anything else with their charges. I dunno how to feel about that. Not entirely efficient... not entirely useless.

[Neomage]

Just some brainstorming:

Group 1:

Stratagem Recast(-8 seconds per upgrade)
Modus Veritas Recast(-20 seconds per upgrade)
Light Arts Potency(-2% MP/Casting/Recast Time per upgrade)
Dark Arts Potency(-2% MP/Casting/Recast Time per upgrade)
Helix Schema Potency(+3% MAB per upgrade)

Group 2:

Stratoaura Maxima(Enables Tier II Light-Based Weather Spells[+5% Duration per Merit])
Stratovoid Maxima(Enables Tier II Dark-Based Weather Spells[+5% duration per Merit])
Azure Arts(Increases Blue Magic Skill to C[+1 "level" per merit{i.e. C > C+ > B-}])
Sealed Arts(Increases Summoning Magic Skill to C[+1 "level" per merit{i.e. C > C+ > B-}])
Zeal(Light Arts Stratagem: Increases next spells duration by 50%[+5% per merit])
Euphoria(Dark Arts Stratagem: Increases next spells duration by 20%[+2% per merit])