Is doing the MSQ as Arcanist/Scholar fun?

So I actually originally came into this game planning to play Scholar. I saw a pet healer, thought it looked interesting and I love using a book as a spellcaster. Then when I saw what was happening in patch 5.0 I ended up deciding against it. I didn't fully understand the changes but the general consensus seemed to be that it just didn't feel fun/right. Now with the 5.05 changes I'm considering giving it a shot like I originally planned. However I am wondering if doing the MSQ as a healer is actually fun. Yes I could do it as ARC->SMN instead of ARC->SCH but I would prefer to go through the main story as my main class.

The reason I ask is twofold. Healers (obviously) have lower damage potency than DPS, so does it make doing quests where you need to kill things painfully slow? Secondly, healing DPS seems to be limited to 1 ST attack, 1 AoE and 1 Dot aside from each job getting its own little thing here or there. This is fine because in group Content you need to focus on not just damage but healing as well but I'm wondering if it makes certain major bossfight moments anticlimactic? The example I have is I played a very small amount of time on a white Mage getting to the golem bit. All I could do was spam Stone while keeping Aero up which felt anticlimactic (though to be fair killing story bosses with any move but the end of combos or your biggest hits feels anticlimactic to me as well). Worse than that though was I ran out of MP and had to put the thing to sleep so I could let it come back and keep fighting. Killed any and all tension. Is this an issue with Scholar?

If the main story isn't all that fun as a healer as I said I'll just do it as SMN I guess but I'd prefer to do it as my class of choice.

It's pretty painful on any class, tbh, but healers have it the worst in my opinion. You may think you need to focus on healing, but the heal checks in this game are so lax you're only spamming your 1 dps attack over and over and over for 80% of the time.

For me its still fun, i main SCH, done all msq on SCH, halfway through i change to AST, its still fun since the msq is interesting.
If its hard to do quest as SCH u can still change to SMN since they share same exp.

I'd say the advantage of SCH is that you get SMN alongside it. So if you find that like people here including myself that you're not enjoying it when levelling it or during MSQ then you can fall back on SMN, which a busy job as far as its DPS moves go. And there is another advantage of doing it this way too is when you need to do story dungeons, SCH will give you a nice queue boost.


I mean, whilst there's a lot of people who're dissatisfied, I generally say to decide for yourself, you may find yourself among the people who enjoy it. But I suppose it is worth reading over threads to see why people dislike it and see if what they dislike is what you're more likely to dislike or something that may not bother you. Though I realise being newer to the game, that's hard to do without prior experience in the game.

I play all three healing jobs and I enjoy them all... but especially with today's 5.05 patch!

I have never felt weak while doing the msq as a healer

Just my two cents -- but personally, while the buttons do change obviously, SMN/SCH holds onto its base class identity pretty well across both jobs. I've been swapping between the two for solo purposes, because like you, I prefer to quest on my main class but get really bored with healer DPS after a while lol. Swapping over to SMN to, for example, beat a MSQ instance that is easier with a lot more burn ... I don't really feel like I swapped to another class. I feel like I just changed up my bars/kit and summoned a different pet. (Maybe it helps that I have her in two very, very similar glamours with just a color scheme change haha.)

I played the whole msq as Scholar and I enjoyed it a lot - except for one fight only where I had to switch to the Summoner :)


SPOILER !!!!!!! (The spoiler tag wasn't working for me...)
for anyone who is wondering: it's the fight against Zenos in the post-stormblood msq. It was such a pain playing it as a Scholar because I simply wasn't doing enough damage in those 10 seconds

Eh, yeah, you will be spamming the same dps skill for everything. In a way, SCH may even have this worse than other healers, as you'll have a fairy out providing some small heals to keep you going, no need to pause to heal yourself up (though once any job has some oGCD heals, maybe less of a difference).

As anyone's said, you'll at least have SMN if you want to swap and feel like you're actually doing things for damage. But, SMN's also a bit of a mess right now. Although, perhaps, for MSQ purposes, maybe it's not so bad. For overworld/instanced stuff, you'll at least have instant cast dots, and plenty of oGCDs to spam while running around dodging mechanics.

But hey. If you enjoy healing, and don't mind spamming your few damage skills while you weave in all your oGCD heals, go for it.

The opinions you're getting here are from people who have run every piece of content a hundred times. In that context, going through the MSQ again is boring on any job.

Going through dungeons, trials and raids for the first time as a new player is vastly different because you're just getting used to the game and don't know what to expect.

In terms of following the MSQ, you do less DPS, but nothing is painfully slow.

In terms of MP management, slot the role skill Lucid Dreaming and get used to using it as soon as it becomes available. This habit will serve you well in the future.

my Alt was a ACN main
i hated it for ACN
but once i was a SCH it picked up and became more enjoyable

Fun? No. But you'll be happy you've stuck with a healer when the MSQ forces you use duty finder. Quick queue times are the only bonus.

I played SCH/SMN primarily in 2.0 and left then recently came back and restarted. The only thing that sucks about MSQ as heals is the iffy tanks. As in the ones not synched with gear from 10 levels ago trying to pull half the instance. You will save them from the first pull by blowing all your cooldowns and mana but then they will go for #2 when you are OOM with no cooldowns.

I played the entirety of the Shadowbringers expansion as Scholar and enjoyed it, I didn’t feel like I was seriously bored during fights. But I’m beginning to think I might be the only who feels like that lol

SCH has been my main since ARR began, I have done all of the MSQ on it and it has been fine. Certainly no issues with kill speed or with boredom. It was all very enjoyable first time through. I've levelled alts since and, yeah, parts of it drags when you're doing it for the umpteenth time, but that will be true on any job. I've had no issues with the job ever and neither have my friends/ FC healers, don't believe all the drama you will read on the forums. Certainly don't let it stop you from playing any job or role, it's much better to make your own decisions on what you enjoy

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Originally Posted by Billythepancake

It's pretty painful on any class, tbh, but healers have it the worst in my opinion. You may think you need to focus on healing, but the heal checks in this game are so lax you're only spamming your 1 dps attack over and over and over for 80% of the time.

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but you are immortal on any 1v1 boss that make it ridiculas, with healer you can kick ass lvl 80 boss when you are 70 or lvl 70 when you are 60 :D

still remember my duel with zenos when SB lauch on lvl 60 :D or it was 61

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Originally Posted by Dynia

still remember my duel with zenos when SB lauch on lvl 60 :D or it was 61

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Me too. :D Raubahn was all, I'm so sorry you lost, and I'm like, but I was winning until the fight just randomly ended. His health kept going down and my MP was stable.

Honestly, there's not not that much fighting in the MSQ, so you can really do it with any class.

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Originally Posted by Dynia

but you are immortal on any 1v1 boss that make it ridiculas, with healer you can kick ass lvl 80 boss when you are 70 or lvl 70 when you are 60 :D

still remember my duel with zenos when SB lauch on lvl 60 :D or it was 61

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That, doesnt counteract anything I said, you're still sitting there spamming 1 button, occasionally stopping to heal yourself.

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Originally Posted by Billythepancake

That, doesnt counteract anything I said, you're still sitting there spamming 1 button, occasionally stopping to heal yourself.

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and you think tanks have any better spaming not 1 but 3 buttons ?
wow dragoon is boring too, spaming 4-5 buttons all the time
hell every class is boring that way

like I said, playing healer can give you some ridiculas funny situacions you will remeber for long time

also that was also answer for op and for thread that is forum for is it not ?

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Originally Posted by Dynia

and you think tanks have any better spaming not 1 but 3 buttons ?
wow dragoon is boring too, spaming 4-5 buttons all the time
hell every class is boring that way

like I said, playing healer can give you some ridiculas funny situacions you will remeber for long time

also that was also answer for op and for thread that is forum for is it not ?

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I'd rather hit 3-5 buttons over mindlessly spam broil/melefic/stone all day. :^)

Besides you responded to my answer on the post so I responded back.