Character

There's a lot of buzz around new classes with the release of Stormblood in summer 2017. Red Mage, maybe Samurai, who knows. But it gets people talking about class ideas. And I really love that. I really want to see Dancer soon. But one class that peaked my interest is Chemist.

I started thinking about Chemist and what it might look like in FFXIV. If nothing else, it's just fun to imagine how it might be implemented and in what role.

Well, let's think of Chemist in previous FF titles. I really only think of FF Tactics. Chemists could throw items and restoratives and could use them to greater effect than other classes. They were backline teammates. So probably a Chemist in FFXIV would be a healer or DPS, depending how you look at it. Or actually, how SE looks at it. You have restorative items for sure. But there's also plenty of items that get thrown to cause damage or status effects. Bomb Arms and whatnot. Thinking of game mechanics, I personally think that Chemist would be a healer class though.

So, as healers, what would they look like? What would they wield?

Unlike current healer classes, Chemists are less mages, more scientists. So hopefully their garb would be less prone toward the white, flowing robes we see so often. But hopefully they wouldn't look like total nerds either. *coughScholarcough* But it'd be cloth and leather items for the most part I think.

Weapon is tricky. In Tactics, they used single daggers. I guess that's fine, but it doesn't DO much for the class you know? In Tactics it's like they only had daggers for self-defense if they were totally out of items and backed into a corner. FFXIV is very weapon-focused. I feel like there needs to be some sort of connection there greater than, "I stick 'em with this if they get too close." They need a weapon that could be used for defense, but also somehow enhances what they do. Mages use their weapons as arcane focuses, not really for swinging around. Chemists probably don't need to channel magic, so if they're using a dagger...it's just a dagger.

Okay, if we think of Chemists as scientists and scholars, what might they use. The magicked tome thing is DONE and DONE, thanks Summoner and Scholar. And if Chemist isn't really a magic class, it'd just be a....heavy book. Not exactly grabbing my interest. Hmm, a gun? Well, we have Machinist with guns. Specifically their big arse guns with the aetheric thing-a-mabob on the hip. But I think that's a big warmer. What about a kind of pistol. A miniature launcher. Chemists threw their items in Tactics. Presumably, the item then burst or activated upon hitting. Gloss over the details. Buuut what if Chemists developed a method of "distilling" items or essences into capsule form, which could then be shot via their special pistols? Hmm I like this. One drawback is that pistols are small, and FFXIV likes big, flashy weapons. And it makes sense. You work hard for your weapons and you want people to be able to see them. So that might be something that need to be addressed in some way. I do like this idea though, so let's run with it.

For abilities, I think Chemist would work in a way similar to Ninja and its Mudras. For example, there might be four basic "Components." Component A is your basic "restore." B might be your "increase" component. C is "purify" and D is "over time." So using the Component A ability, then the "Distill," you craft a capsule with basically Cure capability. But if you did Component A then Component D then Distill, you create a capsule with restorative over time, aka Regen. "Restore" and "Increase" would be Cure II. Then you have a separate ability like "Augmented Distill" that would create an AoE capsule, giving you abilities on par with Medica and Medica II. This would also allow Chemist to "Purify" in an AoE, removing debuffs of several people in an area. Or "Purify" and "Increase" would allow two debuffs to be removed at once. "Purify" and "Over Time" would create a "Protectorate" that would prevent a debuff within the time span. This would give Chemist unique aspects that the other healer classes haven't yet tapped.

So, envisioning this system, I also picture a device. An "Aetheric Distiller" that Chemists use to distill essences/components into capsules. Capsules are then loaded into the pistol and shot to the target. So the Chemist weapon would resemble Machinist in several ways. The firing mechanism and the aetheric mechanism. This could create interesting ways to introduce Chemist into the game lore.

So continuing with this "Aetheric Distiller" idea, the Chemist would learn an ability called "Altered Environment" that changes the inner workings of the Aetheric Distiller. "Restore" becomes "Deconstruct," "Purify" becomes "Infect," and perhaps "Over Time" and "Increase" are unaffected. This would work basically like Cleric Stance, allowing the healer to sacrifice healing in favor of dealing damage. This would give Chemist at least two tiered damage ability, a DOT, and an AoE DOT. A bonus of this system would mean Chemists could use the same component buttons for healing and damage, reducing clutter on the Hotbars.

Limitations would be easy to put in place. Like in combining "Restore," "Increase," and "Over Time," it becomes incompatible with "Purify." Or perhaps the Distiller simply can't manage all four components at once. In the latter case, it paves the way for both level sync and higher levels. Like synced to level 10, your Distiller can only handle one component because your mechanism is more primitive. The idea being that as you progress in levels, the Distiller becomes more complex. So at level 70, perhaps you've perfected the machine and it can handle four or more components at once, in which case there'd probably be some limitations based on Component compatibility.

Then, for other abilities, perhaps Chemists will develop "Infusions." These are introduced into the Aetheric Distiller and then augmented with certain compatible Components. For example, "Iron Infusion" would be introduced, but is only compatible with "Increase." The resulting capsule bestows a Protect-like effect. "Adrenaline Infusion" is only compatible with "Over Time" and benefits attack or attack speed. In this way, the Chemist's base abilities could be expanded to include certain buff effects.

Finally, it would be quite a bit of button mashing to Distill every single capsule like that. So I think each Distillation would need to create multiple capsules and those are stocked to a limit.

The other question that occurs to me is, "Well, if Chemists aren't technically mages, do they not use MP? Do they use TP?" And I think they'd still use MP. The Aetheric Distiller uses aether and they have to, I dunno, funnel it in there and blah blah blah. They'd kinda need to explain it, but probably not a lot. There are plenty of details sort of glossed over by FFXIV lore.

Anyway, I feel like the class could really work and it'd be really fun to play. And as I said, it would be different from the established healer paradigm. It'd probably require a lot of careful balancing, but what doesn't? The way I see it here, the Chemist class would be a viable class, remaining in the lore as Item Specialists, without requiring you to buy a ton of items to play it (looking at you Ninja and Ranger of FFXI).

By the way, Chemist's auto-attack would be shooting "Blank" cartridges for measly damage. Har har, shooting blanks.