what's the deal with sch?

Hello everyone! as a new player to FFXIV I could only say I can't wait to play SCH, currently been playing DPS Class/Job(s) until about a week ago I tried my first healing Job I went with AST as my first try, currently lvl 51 and hopefully I'll be able to cap this one... hopefully.

I think the issues with Scholar are very complicated.

Part of the reason a lot of players are either finding Scholar weak or seem dissatisfied with it relates not to pure power, but to a significant shift in playstyle that's not immediately obvious upon viewing the changes. Their playstyle used to be a lot more focused on proactively using Shields , utilizing the Fairy for large healing gains, and having a more complex, DoT focused rotation than the other healers. Stormblood made their Shields prohibitively expensive and weaker than Noct-sec Astrologians, significantly weakened the Fairy, and simplified their damage rotation. Instead, optimal Scholar play is now firmly focused on utilizing their Aetherflow stacks effectively, which to many is less interesting/fun than the previous Scholar.

Coupled with some long-standing issues being unaddressed (Dissipation), and a lack-luster capstone/gauge mechanic in Fey Union, many players feel dissatisfied with the current state of the Scholar. Unfortunately, it might be difficult to address some of these concerns without reexamining the job's kit in detail. Some players would likely prefer a heavier focus on the Fairy, since it's a very unique part of it's identity and a key part of its story quest. Others would prefer the shielding become the primary focus of the job, while others probably prefer the "Aetherflow emergency healer" style it has currently.

Most negative feedback for the Scholar has its roots not in the pure power of their abilities, but in an unwanted shift in playstyle.

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Originally Posted by Claymore65

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Can confirm from my 2.0 and on Sch perspective that power isn't a primary focus. Play style shift from shield healer with respectable dots and a high skill ceiling to "Aetherflow Healer" has not been fun.

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Originally Posted by Claymore65

Most negative feedback for the Scholar has its roots not in the pure power of their abilities, but in an unwanted shift in playstyle.

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While I think you're right if it was just SCH in isolation, there is also the relative balance with the other healers to consider. Even aside from the hot topic of SCH vs N.AST shields, both WHM and AST got buffs to their basic single target healing, while SCH got two different nerfs; three if you count Physick still being equal MP cost to Cure and how healing for less. Content can only really be balanced for one of the sets of numbers - either bosses/mobs do damage intended for SCH's lower single target healing to be able to manage and WHM/AST just breeze through it, or damage is scaled for WHM/AST and SCH have to struggle to keep people alive on what should be easy stuff.

Even the addition of Lucid and bringing Aetherflow down to 10%, while numerically a buff (Lucid is available every 2 Aetherflow (before Quickened), and restores more than twice as much, at least at current Piety levels.), still feels terrible, compared to how fluid just having Aetherflow/Energy Drain for MP management used to be.

Then there's the removal of Cleric Stance, which straddles the line between balance and playstyle. While having DPS spells scale off Mind is technically a buff to all healers, WHM and AST benefit from it far more than SCH, because SCH was already a class designed (or at least played) around the idea of exploiting Cleric through shields and passive healing to get maximum DPS uptime. Realistically just about all the Cleric/Mind change opened up for SCH was a return to being able to Lustrate in between DPS casts without having to worry about the extra button press of Cleric, while for the others, WHM in particular, DPSing has completely opened up in a way that just wasn't really available before.