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Rune Scholar (Class)

! Replaces Ancient class

While the other bnnuys were partying and shipping, they studied the runes. Locked away drawing secrets from the Sacred Stones, these Ancient Scholars have finally emerged from their research expedition in the Deep Ruins. However, they noticed the guild's party finder post too late and are hopping into any expedition into the Moonlit Kingdom so the guild wouldn't notice. Ironically, they did not party enough.

Attuned to the runic and channeling arts, the Rune Scholars empower their pets to inflict debuffs on their foes and detonating them for massive damage. They have 6 Primary uses that apply a de/buff and can be reloaded with Special. Rupture is the main permanent debuff of this class which stacks damage everytime it is applied and can be destroyed with Special. It also comes with Jolt or damage over time debuff and Amplify buff to increase both of their damage. To allow this many skills, this class is also stance-based where the Defensive grants an empowered effect to the next skill once. Making sure all 3 are active, the empowered Special does more damage the more de/buffs you casted for that big damage.

Don't greed that Venom Hood or WItch's Cloak, the Rune Scholar will pvp rescue you.

CAVEATS:
- This class has fake cooldowns
Since every ability has two effects, both effects would be unavailable if the skill went into cooldown even if only one of them has to specially with Special and Defensive. The workaround is having a debuff timer that disables or reenables it. To make it more flexible, the debuff timer is based on the skill cooldown so Kappa Shield and Pajama Hat still work. However, this implies skills never go on cooldown to be reset by other effects like Crowfeather Hairpin. Another side effect is items that affect cooldown works but does not change the cooldown if it doesn't like Primary or Secondary. For example, Vega Spear adds the damage increase but not the cooldown. The idea is this class runs GCDs, not CDs.

- Debuff descriptions may be slightly misleading
Since every skill only highlights one status effect, having two status effects with different strengths and duration makes the description janky. Rupture is always permanent even if there is a time description associated with it. Just a limitation of the UI. EXCEPT for r1 and r2 since the duration is a safety fix for online multiplayer.

- Defensive invuln requires a slight delay to activate
Because the game has an 0.5s "animation lock" (hidden cooldown), using Defensive twice in a row can feel a bit janky and require a little patience.

- Only self de/buffs are counted for multiplayer balance
Meaning other classes applying debuffs on the target does not make Special or other effects stronger. Only s1, g4 and e4 provide tangible team buffs.

- The class only uses the pet attack.
Due to modding limitations, this only uses the pet attack so this can be unappealing and janky. To compensate at least, the attack radius is slightly larger than Heavyblade's base Primary.

- This class does not have strong late game scaling
The base item pool does not have good support for de/buffs oriented builds as such does not have as high DPS late game. To compensate again, this class is slightly overtuned to have relatively good consistent damage.

- Runic and Recharge is a debuff since it is a visual indicator
This would make Desert Earrings and Sunder broken otherwise.

- For modders, Rupture modifies the enemy's MultHbs for pseudo HBS vars.
Used in o3, this has no visible impact on the enemies or gameplay but worth noting.

DE/BUFFS:
- Rupture :: Stacking damage
Each time Rupture is reapplied on an enemy, the damage is added together. When it is destroyed by Special, the damage is applied.
- Jolt :: Damage over time
- Amplify :: Debuffs +40% damage

TERMS:
- 1 :: Primary
- 2 :: Secondary
- 3 :: Special
- 4 :: Defensive
- .b :: Base skill
- .R :: Runic skill

- 1.b :: Rupture
- 1.R :: Amplify
- 2.R :: Jolt
- 3.b :: Reload / Shatter
- 3.R :: Sunder

SKILLS:
- 4.b :: Runic Stance

- Primary 6 uses and these 3 effects consume 1 use
- 1.b :: Pet Attack + Rupture debuff
- 2.b :: Pet Attack + Jolt debuff
- 1.R :: Amplify buff

- 3.b :: Destroy Rupture + Reload Primary
- 3.R :: (Buffs + Debuffs) * Damage (12s CD)

- 2.b :: Pet Send / Follow
- 4.R :: Invuln + Dash (8s CD)

PLAYGUIDE:
This class has a simple playstyle of maintaining Amplify and Jolt uptime then applying Sunder when all de/buffs are active then doing Rupture filler. For loot, grab as many de/buff items to buff your Special. It goes without saying, greed Venom Hood and Witch's Cloak.

- Always do Amplify after Reload.
- Reloading early is better than not doing any damage
- Reposition is only a slight DPS loss but better than not hitting anything
- Refreshing Jolt is okay if Runic was triggered by accident
- Sunder if enemy is off screen to do damage
- If in doubt, Reload then do a filler loop to reset.

ROTATIONS:
This class is based on burst and filler reload cycles. Unload everything then do filler until the next cycle.

- Standard :: Amplify, Jolt, Rupture x4, Sunder, Reload
- Optimized :: Amplify, Jolt, Rupture, Sunder, Rupture x3, Reload
- Filler :: Amplify, Rupture x5, Reload
- Treasure :: Amplify, Rupture, Sunder

ADVANCED:
- If unlucky with loot, Opal and Emerald are good gems
- When multiple enemies are on opposite ends, changing targets can increase your range slightly as the pet readjusts closer to the target.
- e4 debuff happens before the de/buff counting so it boosts Sunder damage implicitly
- Trigger g4 right before Sunder
- r4 is considered debuff damage so Amplify and Venom Hood boost its damage
- Timestop does not stop the fake cooldowns
- Each gem upgrade is roughly calculated to be 60-80 DPS increase which you need if you miss or lose track

ISSUES:
- Not a complete "class" mod without custom art and icons but is tested to do solid DPS on solo Lunar (around 1.5k with okay loot)
- No Diamond mod/upgrades
- Only English localization

BUGS:
If you found a bug or issue, you can place it on the comment section so I can fix it.

DESIGNER NOTES:
After Star Sage's stance based design, this was my other design but it wasn't chosen because it felt more like an alternative fire function rather than a true stance. Aside from being a FFXIV Scholar main, this class was more inspired by Silent Bomber where the player plants bombs on the enemy and deals more damage the more they are stacked when detonated which is the whole Opal gem set. Since that game relied more on bomb variety, changing the bomb effect on attack made me revisit this design. Sadly I cannot reflect the various bomb types and had to rework them to the traditional ones.

It was easy coming up with the 3 debuffs: a stacking damage, DoT and damage multiplier. Sadly again, I cannot implement an enemy specific damage amplifier for status effect so it became a buff instead. This happy setback made me rework the damage of Special with buffs as well as allowing for more flexibility in loot and damage capability. Still creating new practical/viable status effects are tough without better support or even internal variables. I did consider something like fusion debuffs where activating say Jolt after Rupture creates a stronger Jolt but it felt too gimmicky when Amplify exists. The only real variety I can add is allowing multiple instances to harness Sunder damage and that is about it.

Several reworks and readjustments, this is one of the hardest classes I had to design, implement and rebalance for the fun factor and challenge. Hope you have fun with this class.

THANKS TO:
- alchyr (@Alchyr)
- tomeking (@garnet secondary)
- Chyromyr (@Chyromyr)
- xgit (@Neko/Niko)
- fuzzything44 (@#1 Spellsword Fan)

ICONS:
- FFXIV Scholar Dissipation
- Bootstrap Icons