Art of War needs to change

I’m never going to stop saying this. Honestly Art of War is the laziest, most garbage looking and sounding ability. Doesn’t make sense lore wise.

Please adjust it to actually feel powerful, make it look like it fits with the rest of the kit, call it Aetherburst or something ffs

Thename Art of War fits fine as the scholar is a tactician. The graphic and sound are bit sad I agree.

Scholars can cast all of their abilities from a distance like a true tactician until they use a skill ironically called Art of War. So their best strategy is to stand in the middle of mayhem and use a skill that does nothing to stop them or anyone else from being hit. No slow, no stun, no paralysis, or blind. This is not the Art of War especially for a mage with a book that relies on a fairy. The book and Fairy both lend themselves to ranged attacks. Lorewise it defies all reason. Miasma 2 placed a dot at least which would mean you could run into the danger zone apply lasting damage and leave. Art of War annoys me in every way. It is ugly, and looks awkward to to slide across the ground while using it. The animation just takes too long for an instant spell. If we spun in a circle like a quick pirouette it wouldn't be so weird to be used while moving but punching the ground on bended knee is not movement friendly. It could at least extend the time on our single DoT by five seconds. That way we get a little bit of the flavor of bane back and it would feel more strategic.

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Originally Posted by NobleWinter

Scholars can cast all of their abilities from a distance like a true tactician until they use a skill ironically called Art of War. So their best strategy is to stand in the middle of mayhem and use a skill that does nothing to stop them or anyone else from being hit.

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SCH used to have Blizzard II which functioned the same way as Art of War. Actually, Blizzard II has a 2.5s cast time.

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Originally Posted by lulunami

SCH used to have Blizzard II which functioned the same way as Art of War. Actually, Blizzard II has a 2.5s cast time.

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Not to mention that sch has always been a “melee” healer due to miasma II weaving

Blizzard 2 binded enemies which made sense to me. The ice locked them in place. The point blank range of Miasma 2 was strange to me as well. Why would a ranged magical battle tactician ever put themselves in Melee range without an ability like Holy that stops all enemy actions. It just seems needlessly reckless even if fun to play.

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Originally Posted by lulunami

SCH used to have Blizzard II which functioned the same way as Art of War. Actually, Blizzard II has a 2.5s cast time.

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Blizzard II was a viable Flare-rotation alternative in ARR. It was then a bind-utility and situational (stutterstep) Flare-rotation alternative skill which saw increasingly little use. In ShB, most BLMs simply removed it from their bars.

It has never, however, been a 2.5-second cast time.

Gravity- beautiful, powerful, satisfying and has the benefit of distantly casting it

Holy- pretty, powerful, satisfying, and has the benefit of stunning

AoW- bland , unsatisfying, and has the benefit of no cast time. Then again so was Miasma II

Make AoW like Miasma II being a Dot because it’s poor design to spam somthing so close to mobs and their Aoes as a healer without stunning them

Just give it Bane but call it somthing else to fit the job like, Epidemic or Engagement Tactics

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Originally Posted by Feidam

Thename Art of War fits fine as the scholar is a tactician. The graphic and sound are bit sad I agree.

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I don't understand why alot of guy said this name fit for an action ability, this is the name of a book, and it fit more for a passive skill than an active skill, you don't mean SCH hit someone in the face with a book, don't you?

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Originally Posted by ShariusTC

I don't understand why alot of guy said this name fit for an action ability, this is the name of a book, and it fit more for a passive skill than an active skill, you don't mean SCH hit someone in the face with a book, don't you?

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New animation: twirl around and whack all enemies with your codex.

I'd merge Art of War with Shadowflare and rename it "Klaustra".

You place a pulsing sphere of darkness on the ground of 15y radius, it pulses every 2.5 seconds dealing 130 potency damage to mobs within and reducing damage done by 3% (Bosses immune to it).
Each pulse drains 400MP and lasts until canceled or SCH MP is spent.

I 100% agree. Compared to Holy and Gravity, the animation is terrible and ugly. It seems like they took a scratched dark knight skill and gave it to SCH as a last minute afterthought. I’d much rather have a ranged magic attack and a cast time. Sliding on the ground? What is this?

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Originally Posted by JonFarron

I 100% agree. Compared to Holy and Gravity, the animation is terrible and ugly. It seems like they took a scratched dark knight skill and gave it to SCH as a last minute afterthought. I’d much rather have a ranged magic attack and a cast time. Sliding on the ground? What is this?

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Funny I thought it looks/sounds like Unleash but without the emo spikes. Been leveling SCH so I don't know a lot, but about the only good thing AoW seems to have going for it is being instant cast, which is nice at least since SCH is so oGCD heavy.

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Originally Posted by JonFarron

I 100% agree. Compared to Holy and Gravity, the animation is terrible and ugly. It seems like they took a scratched dark knight skill and gave it to SCH as a last minute afterthought. I’d much rather have a ranged magic attack and a cast time. Sliding on the ground? What is this?

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The skill originally came from PVP where it made more sense considering CQC.

Art of War is my favorite AoE in the game. Feels so satisfying to just go up to mobs and punch the fudgin' ground to assert my dominance.

I have loved Art of War all the way to 80. Much more fun than messing around with DoTs. I've mained SCH since ARR and I've enjoyed all its iterations, this one no less than any of the others. But I have to say WHM is even more fun currently, and so are the instant queue pops for everything. Great time to be a healer who doesn't mind the changes at all

Now that they reduced the cost for Art of War, can they please give us Art of War a +10% slow debuff on adds to make it a little bit more useful... pretty please?

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Originally Posted by ksuyen

Now that they reduced the cost for Art of War, can they please give us Art of War a +10% slow debuff on adds to make it a little bit more useful... pretty please?

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Buff gravity first D: it's by far the worst healer aoe.

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Originally Posted by Izyla

Buff gravity first D: it's by far the worst healer aoe.

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Why not both? From all accounts, AST is in the worst state right now, and so should take priority over SCH, but AST, SCH, and perhaps MNK, are in the worst state of all the classes right now and honestly I think they should all be prioritised over things like GNB sound effects. Let's push for the attention healers sorely need right now.

I do find it surprising SCH doesn't take more advantage of the fairy as a means to deliver PBAoE effects. Not just having the fairy cast AoEs, actually channeling the SCH's own spells through them.

Not even as a trait at higher levels?

Probably a pipe dream.

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Originally Posted by Hatstand

Why not both? From all accounts, AST is in the worst state right now, and so should take priority over SCH, but AST, SCH, and perhaps MNK, are in the worst state of all the classes right now and honestly I think they should all be prioritised over things like GNB sound effects. Let\\'s push for the attention healers sorely need right now.

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Agreed :) you're right.

New AOE rotation : Art of war -> Art of war -> Art of war -> Art of war -> Art of war -> Art of war -> Art of war -> Art of war -> Art of war -> Art of war

SE know how to entertain us ! Even tank get more than 3-4 buttons ( DRK : unleash -> Stalwart Soul + Delirium -> Quietus + Flood of Shadow + Abyssal Drain for regen + Salted Earth + While having to use mitigation etc .. )

When I first saw the animation for Biolysis I thought it had been transformed into an Aero 3 style AoE DoT.

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Originally Posted by NobleWinter

looks awkward to to slide across the ground while using it.~~~~~~~~~ punching the ground on bended knee is not movement friendly.

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i basically agree with your post overall, but i have to nitpick this part
NONE of the abilities in this game are "movement friendly"
i absolutely despise the slip and slide in this game

i really wish they would update skeletons to move around while using abilities
i know the game is doing well
and i know it's still one of the best MMOs available right now
and yea, i know the game was torn down and rebuilt from the ground up from ARR

but.... holy BUTTS, i really wish they would keep up with the times and try to fix some of these clunky, lingering "old tech" concepts
i get that it's a lot of resources for just an aesthetic change, but it's just so disgusting to look at while playing such a gorgeous game

I won't lie and say that I've not had amusement with AoW; I think it has been the spell that I've had the most fun with this expansion. On some wall pulls, especially in The Twinning, rushing in to AoW spam is kind of exciting with the puddle dance. It's also kind of funny to imagine this being the ultimate Ace of a tactician's offensive assualt. I also find it fun to wonder what other players are thinking when they see me do this, and are unfamiliar with SCH's new ability.

But I do find it a bit wanting. Considering its namesake, there's nothing 'artful' about it. It doesn't enhance the battlefield in any way, except making things dead quicker. I guess that's an effective strategy in itself, but you'd think something else is happening besides damage. It should have been called something else at the very least.

However, being that AST's Gravity exists, I'm not really going to complain much about AoW, and just be thankful that we have the second best AoE healer skill. We've always had a point-blank skill, from Blizzard II to Miasma II. Gravity just sucks and feels bad all the time. It offers nothing except range, while also being the weakest of the three AoE spells, and before the patch, it costed more than Holy... for reasons... I think we healers should be talking about Gravity balance before AoW. Art of War is just not very exciting unless you have a big mob to play the puddle game, and even then, we have the skills to essentially null potential damage.

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Originally Posted by RegularJoe

But I do find it a bit wanting. Considering its namesake, there's nothing 'artful' about it. It doesn't enhance the battlefield in any way, except making things dead quicker. I guess that's an effective strategy in itself, but you'd think something else is happening besides damage. It should have been called something else at the very least.

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Last Twinning run I was the only one dead because of... Art of War.

I don't understand their thinking to make it a melee range... seriously. It's called an art of war - it should be tactical long range based, not a brute close range spamming spell... ouch ><"

I agree with the name, but the name doesn’t match the effect. Now if they gave us back the effect of BANE and reworked it into a new form and called it Art of War...THAT would make sense to me

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Originally Posted by jmocubes

I agree with the name, but the name doesn’t match the effect. Now if they gave us back the effect of BANE and reworked it into a new form and called it Art of War...THAT would make sense to me

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Ofc, this would require giving back Miasma, too (and nerfing biolysis accordingly) since there's not much point to spreading a single instant cast DoT except on huge groups.

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Originally Posted by Hatstand

Ofc, this would require giving back Miasma, too (and nerfing biolysis accordingly) since there's not much point to spreading a single instant cast DoT except on huge groups.

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Honestly I’d take nerfing Art of Wars potency instead to somewhat balance out the AoE kits and bringing back some of the original ‘tactician’ playstyle with spreading DoT even if it’s only Biolysis getting spread around at the cost of aetherflow.

I'd say AoW is fine now that they've lowered the MP cost.

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Originally Posted by Hatstand

Ofc, this would require giving back Miasma, too (and nerfing biolysis accordingly) since there's not much point to spreading a single instant cast DoT except on huge groups.

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i mean, if it was just a secondary effect of spamming whatever this new "Art of War" that person was talking about, it wouldn't matter if there's "not much point"
it's still extra damage, regardless, packed onto the already monotonous task of spamming it in its current state

as long as Art of War is at 150 potency, and Broil 3 is at 280, you're still doing more with Art of War on 2 targets

and Biolysis dealing, what, 600? if they reduced that by half or something like they normally do to some AoE skills, on 2 targets, a main target Biolysis with subsequent Art of Wars would be the exact same as casting two Biolysis, because you would hit for 300+300, which is just the 600 from Biolysis, itself

current SMN Bane is also 60%, meaning if they took that, it'd just be better, period

then, obviously, that number grows as mob size increases

now, if they did something fancy, like made the Biolysis ping-pong off each target, to basically "refresh" their durations....or, just, you know, simply have it refresh the duration, then we'd have some mildly interesting AoE damage, not anymore "complex" at all, since it's just throwing out one DoT, but still, plus, that would also mean on ST rotations, we could still throw that in for the DoT refresh on top of being able to output the extra 150 instant potency

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Originally Posted by Archwizard

I do find it surprising SCH doesn't take more advantage of the fairy as a means to deliver PBAoE effects. Not just having the fairy cast AoEs, actually channeling the SCH's own spells through them.

Not even as a trait at higher levels?

Probably a pipe dream.

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It would be cool if AoW would be channeled through the fairy instead. Perhaps with a slight radius buff. SCH could then either place the fairy in the middle of the pack or aoe the old fashioned way.

My only issue with AoW is the visual which is, as many people pointed out, a bit bland.

I would also like every healer AoE skill to have an additional function, because currently Holy feels a bit too powerful compared to Gravity or AoW

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Originally Posted by Sylvain

My only issue with AoW is the visual which is, as many people pointed out, a bit bland.

I would also like every healer AoE skill to have an additional function, because currently Holy feels a bit too powerful compared to Gravity or AoW

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Its additional function is it being instant cast and thus can be used as a weaving tool ontop of an aoe tool.

Are we really on the point of arguing for a spell name or the "lore of the skill"
Come on...

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Originally Posted by Clouse_Cleyra

Are we really on the point of arguing for a spell name or the "lore of the skill"
Come on...

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To a lot of people the lore of their class and their abilities is a big part of the experience, it helps with immersion.

Personally idc what the ability is called, but i still dislike it. I cant stand tools that are entirely situational, it's why I don't really miss bane all that much, but why I truly miss miasma II. I want my tools, at least on the dps side, to be useful no matter the situation I'm in.

But miasma 2 wasnt a dps gain unless aoe. Art of war is pretty much the same thing.
What I do miss is shadowflare, but well... Lets w8 for the raid

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Originally Posted by Clouse_Cleyra

But miasma 2 wasnt a dps gain unless aoe. Art of war is pretty much the same thing.
What I do miss is shadowflare, but well... Lets w8 for the raid

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It was better to use to weave than ruin II is now, that's why it had a use in single target and aoe, art of war is literally only good in aoe and that's just, blah.