Regarding the question of whether or not Physical Training needs to be removed:
Physical Training, as a skill, provides a second weapon category to the troubadour on top of their first category. We already have a system for assigning additional weapon categories to a class, and frankly we should be using that instead. This change would result in a minor reduction in weapon availability for the troubadour while allowing them to have a proper class skill that is capable of factoring into their ability to contribute in a tactical discussion.
The sub-ability of Physical Training, additional growths to STR and MAG of 10% each, does nothing to further that goal. While other classes benefit from their class skill more or less immediately, depending on the level of situationalness that such skills are occasionally subject to, the benefits of this bonus growth are both muddy and ever in the future. They never contribute to moment to moment decision making in game terms. While, on average, it represents a bonus of +4 to both stats in the very endgame, I think its very fair to say that this minor contribution does not do enough for the troubadour itself. The troubadour instead is forced to rely on building in very specific ways or relying on specific equipment in order to compete with classes that have better thought out class skills.
Some people have asked: Why healing flow?
Healing Flow was designed to facilitate the possibility of troubadours being able to recover health on multiple targets at a time instead of performing a full heal all at once. This can have the benefits of pre-emptive healing in the case of healing an ally about to enter a fight where they're expected to be damaged but (hopefully) not downed, or to heal someone already in combat who has taken relatively light damage and is expected to take more. Either way, health recovery continues to be a thing turn to turn, which allows the troubadour to either tend to other allies or even attack enemy targets. Obviously this skill has solid applications for troubadours.
Other people have risen the argument: Why not take Self-Healing, and push it somewhere else?
Okay I kind of get where we're coming from with putting Healing Flow on Priests and giving Troubadours Self-Healing because 'priests stick to the rear' and 'troubadours are armed so they do more fighting'. I am not in this camp and I will seek to explain why in as concise a manner as possible while being comprehensive. First off, troubadours do not need sustain any more than a standard combat class. Yes, they will occasionally get hurt, and sometimes they will channel Genji and need healing. This is true of all classes. What is not true of all classes but is true of the troubadour is that our mounted healing class has a mount. They can heal and pull behind the front line away from damage sources, or attack whatever they were planning to attack and pull behind the front line and away from damage sources.
Priests cannot do this. And often, priests will need to move to the secondary line in order to heal tanks or damage classes, putting them in vulnerable range of archers, mages, or any schmuck with a flexible range weapon. This is compounded by the fact that the priest is the only staff class that has no weapon access, which makes them an even more inviting target for any enemy. So the priest has to gormlessly sit there until his next turn before he can slink away from where he's fighting, which is fine because they have self-healing and can recover reasonable amounts of damage provided they survive until their turn. Wait a minute-
Oh noSo putting Healing Flow on Priests shoves them in the very rear of the party so hard it'll make their teeth rattle. They can't control their engagement space and won't be able to recover damage to their tantalizingly vulnerable torsos short of medicine or another healer. Maybe another priest who'll also be stuck back there for the same reason. On the other hand this makes the Troubadour so self reliant I'm not sure why you'd play any other healer at all. Being able to passively heal and control your engagement space means the only time the troub is going down is if they seek it out by willfully overextending. As soon as their HP drops, they have to retreat back for about a turn before running back out and being a dedicated combat class like everyone else. At least maids have to dedicate a turn to healing an Ally to recover their health.
Why is the new skill focused on healing? Why can't it be focused on ailments or buffs?
Well the short answer is because troubadours will be focused on healing regardless so they may as well get something that they'll actually use. The long answer is that, because sources of healing are limited and because HP pools are shallow relative to damage received from an individual enemy, Healing is super super busted and basically is required to be. This is because multiple units per turn are likely to be damaged. There will almost always be more damaged units than healers as soon as one turn into an engagement with a group of enemies. So a healer needs to be able to heal one ally up as high as possible, usually their HP cap, and move right along to the next suffering warrior. And because otherwise you may as well have another fighter, healing is much, much better than hurting.
Heal does 10+MAG recovery, obviously. Let's point out really quickly that this is an E rank staff. Do you know what other E rank weapons have what is essentially a MT of 10 while still interacting with a damage stat? Devil Weapons, and that's it. Some of the heavier categories get to 10 or above at rank D, but lighter weapons have to wait for as high as B class before seeing what is essentially 10 MT. Mend is double that and no weapon short of
Armageddon, which is an S rank tome and is probably going to be thrown out can match 20+STR/MAG.
This may sound like I am pushing for a nerf to healing. I am not. Without major structural changes (nerfing MT across the board or increasing HP or both) healing in its current state is needed for groups to be functional the way we play this game. This is just an explanation of why your healer only ever seems to do healing instead of using buff or ailment staves, and why having a skill focused on either of those things would likely end up being wasted effort.
Anyway the discussion has been moving fairly quickly for a bit and I just wanted to address some questions that have come out of the recent poll.
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Topic: The Fire Emblem on Forums Hub! 10 Years of FEF! (Read 297594 times)