Biggest disappointment as a Scholar.

[technole]

Yeah as it's been said, ideally you would have both healers switching the solo healing role at-times so they can both keep DoTs up. Cause White Mage is no joke in that department either. It's a great strat, but harder to execute without coordination. Then we can get into the bad details like finding out that main healer doesn't have any ACC melded, so they miss, and is it worth it, etc. But that is another topic.

The sense is since Scholar AoE is gated whether by cooldown or Aetherflow and that is why they are in the off-healer seat, and their stacks are best used for other purposes.

But to be honest, unless you are running something in a static or with friends you trust, you will not be DPSing 95-100% of the fight most of the time since a huge chunk of random players I find have trouble healing without help

I always said the Scholar judges their healing partner by how much they can or cannot dps in current end-game content.

But that is pretty much true outside of current extreme content like Seph Ex, and Midas Savage. Even then both healers can DPS at-times.

[FoxyAreku]

Nothing about the OP is true and you sound like one of those people who laughably think healers shouldn't DPS.

If anything, scholar takes more skill and strategy than the other two, because you not only have to keep up your DPS numbers but also have to shield for tank busters, preys, and help in heavy damage phases while also microing your fairy the whole time.

If you want to be a good scholar, anyway.

[HPDelron]

Nothing about the OP is true and you sound like one of those people who laughably think healers shouldn't DPS.

If anything, scholar takes more skill and strategy than the other two, because you not only have to keep up your DPS numbers but also have to shield for tank busters, preys, and help in heavy damage phases while also microing your fairy the whole time.

If you want to be a good scholar, anyway.

I don't think it is at all unreasonable that someone coming into a class labelled as "Healer" in a Heal/Tank/DPS trinity game would expect healing to be their primary and overriding role.

Sure depending on the exact class in the exact game you’re playing you might expect to DPS, Crowd Control (if that's a thing in a given game), use some kind of active buff system or do any number of things in addition to healing. However you could not at all be faulted for assuming those things would be secondary considerations to healing. In addition since the game has you levelling from 30 to 60 as usually the only healer in the group this further trains you into thinking of your self as first and foremost a healer, anything else a distant second. Sure with gear and experience you can learn how to offload to the fairy with a shield or two in the mix once even outside the newbie dungeons, but that probably means this isn't your first pass as a healer.

Then you get to the end game and it's not just you and the fairy healing, plus whatever you can fit in on the side. It's the fairy healing, you DPSing, shielding specific attacks and healing on the side when you have room for it... or so I've read.

I started with healing in this game with SCH because the pet was a novel concept and I love shielding mechanics. However when I decided I wanted to move into the endgame eventually the only thing I heard was stories exactly like the what the OP has put forward. "90% DPS", "You know you're doing your job right when you need to cast heals as little as possible", "My goal is to stay in cleric's stance as long as possible". Not something I wanted to test out by diving in the deep end on. I started levelling AST so I could actually be in a healing role once I start endgame, because that's my preferred role in games. This is in spite of really quite enjoying scholar and the depth and flexibility of the toolkit I've found with it so far.

This isn't to say that a DPS class with some mitigation tricks, that can also function to help carry healing during high pressure situations is a bad thing. However, it is certainly fair that someone might be a bit off put by it when they signed up to be a healer, green party icon and everything and were a healer-with-other-stuff-on-the-side throughout their entire levelling and pre-savage gearing experience.

If this isn't the case and Scholar does first and foremost dedicate most of their time and energy to healing, then the community is very poor at communicating this and is certainly able to push new prospects away from the class. At least from the point where you're standing at the end of your experience with levelling and roulettes about to dive into deep content, it looks like the game pulled the ol' bait and switch on you.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Wow. Reading comprehension, people actually grasping what it is specifically I was unhappy about. That's a rare sight.

[MidnightTundra]

You had to level a DPS class to 30 in order to gain access to SCH so I'm not sure what you expected.

If you're throwing out random Adlos, you sound like an inexperienced SCH anyways. If you don't like the SCH playstyle, find another job to play.

[Krissey]

I don't think it is at all unreasonable that someone coming into a class labelled as "Healer" in a Heal/Tank/DPS trinity game would expect healing to be their primary and overriding role.

Sure depending on the exact class in the exact game you’re playing you might expect to DPS, Crowd Control (if that's a thing in a given game), use some kind of active buff system or do any number of things in addition to healing. However you could not at all be faulted for assuming those things would be secondary considerations to healing. In addition since the game has you levelling from 30 to 60 as usually the only healer in the group this further trains you into thinking of your self as first and foremost a healer, anything else a distant second. Sure with gear and experience you can learn how to offload to the fairy with a shield or two in the mix once even outside the newbie dungeons, but that probably means this isn't your first pass as a healer.

Then you get to the end game and it's not just you and the fairy healing, plus whatever you can fit in on the side. It's the fairy healing, you DPSing, shielding specific attacks and healing on the side when you have room for it... or so I've read.

I started with healing in this game with SCH because the pet was a novel concept and I love shielding mechanics. However when I decided I wanted to move into the endgame eventually the only thing I heard was stories exactly like the what the OP has put forward. "90% DPS", "You know you're doing your job right when you need to cast heals as little as possible", "My goal is to stay in cleric's stance as long as possible". Not something I wanted to test out by diving in the deep end on. I started levelling AST so I could actually be in a healing role once I start endgame, because that's my preferred role in games. This is in spite of really quite enjoying scholar and the depth and flexibility of the toolkit I've found with it so far.

This isn't to say that a DPS class with some mitigation tricks, that can also function to help carry healing during high pressure situations is a bad thing. However, it is certainly fair that someone might be a bit off put by it when they signed up to be a healer, green party icon and everything and were a healer-with-other-stuff-on-the-side throughout their entire levelling and pre-savage gearing experience.

If this isn't the case and Scholar does first and foremost dedicate most of their time and energy to healing, then the community is very poor at communicating this and is certainly able to push new prospects away from the class. At least from the point where you're standing at the end of your experience with levelling and roulettes about to dive into deep content, it looks like the game pulled the ol' bait and switch on you.

Okay so...I though the same as you...when did Scholars get side-lined into off DPS with a side dish of healing? I thought they were main healers spending most of their time healing? What happened? When? Why?

To put it in terms of another game - Are you something like a Shockadin or Ele Shaman with semi-strong off-heal capabilities but main role DPS now? Or DPSing Holy Paladin using Holy Shock for main DPS and only healing on the side? I thought Scholar was supposed to be like Discipline Priest - mostly healing/shielding/helping and would sometimes toss out a smite or something when/if they could?

I'm used to there also being the set up of: Tank healer and Raid Healer. Tank healer has strong single target heals and spot heals the raid, while Raid Healer covers everyone else.

[Priya]

Snip.

This is exactly why I no longer play a SCH. I stick to being the "main healer" class now; I play trinity MMOs specifically because I want to heal. If I didn't, there are plenty of non-trinity MMOs out there to choose from.

Yes, I still DPS as a healer; I follow the meta even though I wish SE would change it: It's on SE to either create raid fights that require constant healing or rework their healer classes in such a way that healers can contribute in other meaningful ways that aren't DPS-based.

[AriKitae]

As a baby scholar all I want is for people to be able to commend Eos or Selene. They make me look so good!

More on topic: Scholar is fine, IMO. The Job was never intended to be heals heals heals all the time. It was always Heals/Support. Now the Meta is Heals/Support/DPS, which just means you are not as limited as before. If no one is dying and you're using your shielding stuff correctly, you can and should DPS. There's nothing wrong with helping your party in more than just one way.

[HPDelron]

As a baby scholar all I want is for people to be able to commend Eos or Selene. They make me look so good!

More on topic: Scholar is fine, IMO. The Job was never intended to be heals heals heals all the time. It was always Heals/Support. Now the Meta is Heals/Support/DPS, which just means you are not as limited as before. If no one is dying and your use your shielding stuff correctly, you can and should DPS. There's nothing wrong with helping your party in more than just one way.

Scholar can be "fine" and have comfortable, well-balanced and important niche in the game, while still being presented & introduced in a way that can feel misleading or disappointing to newcomers. If scholar had purple icon the label "Support" and was grouped with another class that had a similar play style (A hypothetical Red Mage, Geomancer?), rather than being a healer presented as in the same category as White Mage that would go miles to set expectations.

The Ninja, Monk & Dragoon are all grouped together as melee dps, and they're all primarily focused on hitting things first and foremost even if they have a sliding scale of secondary utility in addition to hitting things. They really in the same category and fill the same role.

The Paladin, Warrior & Dark knight are all grouped together as tanks and they're all primarily focused on tanking things first and foremost, even if Paladin & Dark knight have a secondary focus of being jealous of warriors. They really are in the same category and fill the same role.

The Black Mage & Summoner are both grouped together as caster DPS and they're both primarly focused on casting spells to hurt things. Even if there are huge differences in approach and style. They really in the same category and fill the same role.

The White Mage, Scholar & Astrologian are grouped together as healers. Healing is the primary focus of White Mage and Astrologian and the Scholar kind off doing in their own thing. They aren't really in the same category filling the same role. It doesn't matter if the Scholar role is unique, essential, engaging and rewarding if someone came to looking for something else.

[FoxyAreku]

snip

There has literally never been an MMO where healers weren't expected to do DPS in downtime, the only thing that varies is how widely accepted healers not DPSing is. Some MMOs (WoW comes to mind with discipline priest) even had entire healer jobs where them doing damage WAS their healing.

I'm sorry but it's a team game where the goal is to kill the enemy, and if you're ever just standing there doing nothing and not contributing to the goal in some way, then you're either completely out of mana, or you're lazy. There's no in between. (This applies to all healers actually, not just scholar.)

Though I will say, as an endgame scholar who did all of coil and has done up to A6S, the ONLY fight I've ever had where I had to DPS 90% of it is A5S, only because there's like barely anything to even heal in that fight. I still keep my dots up in all fights, but this is the only one where I'm literally spamming broil with an occassional succor and nothing else just because there's nothing else to do. I'm not sure why they put so little healing in this fight....

You had to level a DPS class to 30 in order to gain access to SCH so I'm not sure what you expected.

If you're throwing out random Adlos, you sound like an inexperienced SCH anyways. If you don't like the SCH playstyle, find another job to play.

Also this.