Alright so, since the release of these forums, I'm happy to see that a few of the issues I'm seeing in SCH are also noticed by others as well. That being said, rather then have 20 posts of complaints and suggestions, it might be better to keep everything in 1 organized topic. I'm glad Square Enix made these forums so we can better voice our oppinions and concerns, knowing that they will be seen and possibly considered.
I'd like to take a quick step back in time and look closely at the 75 cap. During the 75 cap, Scholar was a very diverse job, that was able to keep up with the damage and DoT of BLM, yet able to keep up close to par with WHMs (though whm was always the best healer, as it should be).
However, since the release of the 90 cap, I'm slowly but surely seeing Scholar to be much more underpowered then I remember it back in the 75 cap. With Black Mages having broken abilities like Enmity Douse (100% enmity reset), defensive capabilities like manawall, which are especially broken in places like abyssea where full merit abyssites gives you on average 1800 mp , and even more broken Elemental Celerity (average BLM/RDM casts at 30%), I feel the diversity of my Scholar is slowly diminishing with each and every update.
As far as healing goes, it's no secret that not only is SCH suffering from a lack of Cure V but so is RDM, (but since this topic is mainly about SCH, we won't discuss RDM issues). While I fully support the fact that WHM is the best healer, and it should be, I feel that the healing capabilities of SCH are much lower then they really should be, it really in most cases somes down to "Whm or your screwed" which is pretty discouraging.
All that being said, I'm not making this post for unrealistic requests like "Give SCH manawall and Enmity Douse" or anything like that, just suggestions to keep the job as diverse as possible, but not too strong that it steals the spotlight from jobs like BLM and WHM. Because right now it just feels very underpowered and a very undesireable job to play, I find myself on BLM more then i do SCH nowadays.
To name a few main things I'd like to see SCH get in future updates:
Elemental Celerity (Even if it's not as potent as a BLM's Elemental Celerity): Mainly because before BLMs had EC, they usually casted on average at around 65%, then with the mix of EC and the +2 trial staffs, and Goetia Petasos +2, it's not uncommon for a BLM to cast at 30%, even less if they /SCH and use Alacrity, which is a massive difference, when SCH is still casting at 50-55%. Yes, as SCHs as have Alacrity at our disposal, but I feel like it's a spit in the face that we have to use a stratagem to cast that fast and more or less sacrifice ebullience for conserving stratagems, when BLMs can just fire out nonstop 30% casts.
Comet: As Meteor was announced about a year ago for BLMs, it's pretty obvious they will be getting Comet first, now, since we're only at the 90 cap I can't say whether or not we're getting it or not, but I strongly hope that we do, otherwise it would just be another thing to add to my list of reasons why SCH has been feeling very underpowered lately.
Cure V: I really don't think this needs an explaination, but here you go. As the level cap is increasing, so is the power of the mobs we're fighting, Cure IV is no longer cutting it, I'm not just speaking for SCHs in this sense either but for RDMs as well. It's just pretty much gotten to the point where the mobs are dealing more damage then we can cure, so it's either WHM or Bust.
Merit Stratagems Cost reduced: While most SCHs always 5/5 Stormsurge, that leaves us with room to 5/5 one of the merit exclusive Stratagems, or in my case 1/5 Enlightenment and 4/5 focalization, though, even with 5 stratagems at my disposal, I have a very difficult time finding the benefit in using 2 stratagems for a single spell, I don't think it would be unrealistic to ask that those be cut to 1 stratagem costs.
Adloquium Boost: I love the fact that we get the only regain spell in the game aside from COR's Dice, but I feel 1 TP per tick is alittle underpowered, maybe 2 TP would be alittle better, I don't get alot of use from the spell and I don't care all that much for it, but it's just my oppinion that if it had just a tiny boost like that, more people would get more use out of it.
Storm II spells: While I can somewhat understand this could be somewhat game breaking, with BLMs having a nuking diversity of Agas, Ajas, AM II, etc., I don't really see Storm II spells stealing BLMs spotlight, but still I don't expect Storm IIs to be released anytime soon.
Helix Adjustments: helices are one of SCH's most usefull spells, and one of their strongest, but I'd like to see alittle more changes or gear enhancements toward them, MaB has little to absolutly no effect on Helix, it's soley based off INT that enhances it's based damage, but I'd like to see some sort of modifier that increases it's duration beyond it's current duration cap, or, perhaps in the upcoming 99 cap and the new merit-type system that was mentioned to follow it, there could be Helix IIs, that would allow multiple upgrades for duration.
So those are my oppinions in positive ways that Square Enix could take to improve SCH's functionability, but now I leave the floor to the rest of my fellow SCHs, I want to here your oppinions, what would you like to see for SCH in future updates? What issues do you see in SCH as it currently stands? 6-7 Years ago we would have never imagined we'd have a forum linked directally to square enix, so now that we do, take advantage of it and voice your oppinions!