Anyone else feeling a hit to SCH?

[LegoTechnic]

SCH was never OP, it was unique. When the AST class was designed they cloned a lot of the WHM's core mechanics; Luminous Aether was Shroud of Saints, Gravity was Holy, benefic and helios were analogous to cure and medica, Benefic II was Cure II, synastry was a variant of divine seal, and so on. You don't have this issue with SCH which was built around a unique aetherize mechanic with a different movepool. While Physick is indeed a clone of Cure I, Succor is quite different from Medica, they have no Cure II, Aetherize replaces the refresh mechanic for mana regen, and so on. HW specifically made lengths to even this out, but the way they did it was still interesting and, most importantly, fun. WHM got a lustrate on a longer cooldown, and SCHs could turn Adlo and Succor into Cure II and Medica on a 30 second cooldown with Emergency Tactics, which let them each have a bit of the other's utility with a bit of cost added to it, but even here AST just took a variant of what was given to WHM with Essential Dignity (different potency but same cooldown and use compared with Tetragrammaton).

And this is what I think the biggest issue is and has always been. In ARR you had WHM and SCH and they were perfectly balanced and complimentary to the other. You could run WHM/WHM or SCH/SCH but each would have clear demerits, and WHM/SCH just worked so well together. Then AST was introduced and it was meant to be able to fill in for both jobs, but card mechanics aside it played almost just like a WHM. Even in Noct stance they just converted regens to shields and called it a day, but that's only the most cursory level of what playing a SCH is like; the mechanics, costs, and resources are still quite different! So is it any surprise that SCH was in every raid composition despite AST having shields when AST is so much like a WHM already? Just giving a WHM shields doesn't address any of the other aspects that made SCHs unique, so of course their role wasn't in any danger.

I never really felt that SCHs were OP because effectively they aren't, but they can do things that the other healers can't, and this is less because they're special and more because the 3rd class just wasn't designed to have its own core with healing abilities. It's a WHM with cards and occasionally shields, but it's still a WHM. Or at least it was until WHMs were completely reworked into whatever they are now in SB.

[Arcana]

SCH was never OP, it was unique.

Ehm, excuse me but that's not true.

[Eloah]

Ehm, excuse me but that's not true.

SCH were considered OP maybe in ARR, but when HW was released they evened out what made them considered OP, without changing their core gameplay. The Devs just indicated that throughout HW SCH was considered the in demand healer because of its utility.

[LegoTechnic]

Ehm, excuse me but that's not true.

I guess before I go further I should specify they were never OP as in "over-powered". There was no content you couldn't do without a SCH save progression raiding, and that same content couldn't be done with double-SCH due to their lack of consistent large heals. And I'm speaking of low-ilvl progression raiding, because as gear increases restrictions on what healers you bring ease off.

If you're wanting to argue that they were "over-played", then I won't refute that. They had a strong off-healer niche with lots of powerful ogcd abilities and their competitors were shallow for the same role, but what can you expect when AST played like a clone of WHM and for much of HW had crippling mana issues if it tried to DPS like a SCH? However SCH DPS was actually quite lacking comparatively whenever burst was required with the weakest direct damage spell available, making them the worst DPS contributor during most add phases (since they rarely lived long enough for dots to tick fully). They excelled in sustained damage both because dots tick away while you're otherwise busy, but also because aetherize mana return and stack abilities allowed to do so safely without running out of juice, a luxury long envied by WHM/AST. That didn't make them overpowered as they have their fair share of weaknesses, but it certainly gave them a guaranteed raid spot.

[Valknut]

I guess before I go further I should specify they were never OP as in "over-powered".

They have been OP for all of ARR and 90% of HW, take off the WAR goggles.