I have seen groups take scholars over whms. Buff whms!
See what I did there?
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Because prevented damage is always superior to healed taken damage.
not really... having played numerous online games i prefer stonger heals to to absorption heals.. Between FF11, FF14 (both versions), Phantasy star, Aion, Guild Wars, everquest, and tons of free to play like shaiya, rappelz, free world int (ones that actually have healing classes)... and in all of them i talent (if able) to all solid heals and no absorption shields. besides absorption isnt healing.. its ABSORPTION... im sure thats a shock to some of you..
Yeah as a SCH I felt I needed Much Stronger heals yesterday when 3 guys from Shiva let me tank the adds in AK at last boss, and then complained that the DPS were dieing while I was healing the tank, and then tank dieing whyle I as healing the dps, Huehuehue.
Yes, absorption is not healing. In fact, as Apollo said, it is better than healing.
Absorption gives you two important abilities regular heals wont ever be able to match:
- Ignoring boss mechanics. With a decent absorb shield up, players are able to take hits that should (in theory) oneshot them. Especially important in fights with lots of AE in combination with heavy single target hits.
- Burst healing before damage happens. Usually (no matter the MMO), boss damage happens in spikes. Typically, large parts of boss fights will have relatively low damage done to the party, followed by periods of heavy damage or periods in which healing is made difficult/impossibly due to som mechanic. In these situations, being an absorb healer means having the MASSIVE advantage of being able to do some 'healing' before the damage happens, which hugely faciliates topping off the group during or after the damage period.
I'd say some boost to the AoE output would be useful, as well as improved Pet AI (or at least better control of their abilities through macros would be GREATLY appreciated) though otherwise I think scholars are fine. I feel they do taper a bit compared to Whm in terms of not wanting 2 in a 8 man, mostly due to the fact they don't have that big UMPH aoe heal. They are a bit behind i feel to WHM due to the aoe aspect, but far from being 'gimp'.
Gentle buffs, but no where near needing a big buff.
In my opinion, Scholar seems prefectly fine except for 2 major annoyances :
- Pet control/AI/lack of macros, should be remedied asap. I don't really mind not being able to control pet while casting, but at least give me te possibility to facilitate some stuff through macros.
- Shields from Succor and Adloquium not stacking. A relatively easy solution would be to turn any additional shields into minor HoTs. It prevents the possible OPness of stacking shields, but also prevents the gimping of having multiple SCH in a party. It'd be a different take on WHM's Medica, yet WHM's burst AoE heal would remain superior.
I really want to know how you play, as I never have any problems of fairy taking a long time to heal. Not counting the weird spots in some maps where she's apparently out of sight of the tank and won't do anything until you move her a bit. That's a bit annoying, but I've seen it happen only a couple of times.
In my experience, faeries start to heal at around 75-80%, and they should almost always be told to stand still. They won't die to random aoe, and letting them follow you will just decrease the time they're healing, and sometimes they will even interrupt their cast to follow you.