It’s also all but a given that the expansion will include at least two new jobs.

[ADVSS]

The problem goes a little bit deeper. Noct stance got buffed too, but here's the core issue: AST is a white mage reskin. Imagine White Mage, but where Regen gives a shield instead of a HoT, and Medica II also gives a shield instead of HoT.

Does that sound like something that would replace SCH?

Because that's what AST noct stance is. SCH is so much more than a single target shield and an AoE shield.

Some other misc notes: HW improved SCH's AoE healing quite a bit. While it might not contend with WHM in something like T12, I don't know of any HW content where SCH can't AoE heal sufficiently (if they can be bothered to turn cleric off).

And, SCH fairy heals are free. It has a (re)cast time, but those don't cost the SCH a GCD like Regen costs a WHM a GCD. There's even a divine seal equivalent: Rouse. Let me know when embrace costs 600 MP per 7 'ticks', then I'll agree fairy heals have a cost.

yeah hold on

ok so sch has no physik 2, whm does, the point of supplemental healing from the fairy was to give the sch an equivalent of the edge of having no upper tier potency spell, to bridge the gap. again this is 2.x this is before hw. The "new" skills for sch sort of do this, you are correct, but so do the new whm skills give them things like lustrate(in a sense) and sure rouse is like a half a divine seal for just the fairy, eos has a party wide divine seal as well, on a cooldown, as well as scholars only regen ability locked behind just eos. I think youre on to something quite crucial to what ive been saying about HW but the design for the most part for the new job abilities, for both, is to make them more like the other, to me. Maybe im the only one that sees this, maybe im crazy but again, it isnt our decision it was the dev teams to do so. Also Dissipation. Scholars now can get big potency by losing the fairy for an entire minute, then using as much mana as casting a res off resummon in, for what a 20 sec buff when the summon lockout is a minute? Like what? Im not gonna comment, i know this skill gets use, but its just not something id do, just to give it faux whm burst personally from a design pov.