So...Can a SCH tell me how SCH's are right now relative to WHM and AST?

[Lildragora]

Scholar: Relies more on amount of actions performed in between decent dps, healing, and pet management per minute. With a wide array of OGCD tools and utilities for most situations and decent mitigation for most situations.
White Mage: Multiple OGCD heals and potent GCD heals provide a great saftey net with awesome DPS options
Astrologian: Has Single, and party wide buffs that are RNG based but fairly reliable in getting something useful. While lacking in OGCD heals somewhat its GCD heals and shields are the most potent out of the three.

TL/DR: In terms of raw healing and damage WHM is the better. In terms of party utility and basic GCD heals/shields potency AST is better. In terms of support healing and tool variety for situations SCH is better.

Overall they all feel good, although im still salty about SCH its a fun to play and feels excellent when you do well. Scholar will remain one of if not the best proactive healers in the game, due to a wide variety of instant cast heals and tools to deal with upcoming mechanics. WHM is reactionary and as such comparing both isn't as cut and dry where AST is a little of both with party buffs.

[Muziko]

Having both SCH and WHM at 70 and my AST just dinged 68 I think, once I am done with that, that i will go back to focusing on scholar. I personally like where it is right now. I don't feel useless. I can aoe heal pretty well. The tether fix was nice and permanent excog is a god send. Really, I pop aetherflow, put that on the tank then just dps till it procs or falls off and if it falls off and you're using your aetherflow right you're ready to cast it again. If it does proc it means you may need to stop dpsing for just a sec and focus on your party/tank. Miasma 2 is <3. Being able to run in the big groups of enemies, pop that, then spread dots again as need; Maybe toss off a heal or fairy regen as needed. I want adlo to be bigger but I think sch has always wanted more shield. I do find I am using eos more though. Maybe because I have had her regen instead of selenes dps buff is why. To be frank though, I feel like fey wind just isn't worth as much anymore.

-Keyo Reinhart

[Silver-Strider]

A full-pull Bardam's run is probably the worst thing you can base your opinion of a class on. Tanks who haven't upgraded past 270 get torn to shreds by small pulls in that dungeon. Healing a big pull with a poorly geared tank in that dungeon is incredibly hard. On my Bardam's run, the tank did big pulls and it was the hardest dungeon I've healed since the 2.x days before they started designing dungeons to limit how much you could pull at once.

It also sounds like you did this before the 4.05 SCH buffs, which really made a huge difference.

I'm not basing my opinion on just that pull. I'm basing it on everything that I've experienced since the SB release and the subsequent patch. The recent patch hasn't changed how SCH functions because all it did was buff Excogitation/Indom and grant more liberal usage out of Aetherstacks due to the changes to Quickened Aetherflow but the core healing kit was left completely untouched.

Large pulls are still more troublesome on SCH just because they don't have a better spammable heal than Physick and even with SCH's mitigation tools, it's often not enough, leading you to use Lustrate just to keep up. The only leeway I found at all was Rouse + Whispering Dawn being as potent as it's ever been and with it up the pull is much easier but the problem is that it isn't always up and due to the sometimes unresponsive nature of the Fairy, it can take several attempts to get it out, making the task just that more frustrating. I am much harder pressed to try squeezing in some DPS on my SCH than I've even been on my WHM because my WHM has so many safety nets that I can afford to let the tank take a few extra hits before I need to heal him but SCH's safety nets are all locked behind Aetherflow stacks and I don't have a bigger base heal up to match Cure 2 outside of E-tactics/Adlo every 20 seconds.

I like SCH and I won't argue that it's still possible to play the class but the skill ceiling for SCH has shot up significantly and considering that OP is asking for advice on the role, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's not a healer class that he should be involved with until he gets more experience as a healer in general because of it.

[Sylvain]

Honestly, they're in a good situation right now.
They may be slightly less potenty than WHM overabundance of heal and AST buff-fest, but you can't say a group is gimped because they have a SCH unless you aim for first-second week AS clear.

Since you ask I assume this is not your case which means that by the time you'll attemp OS4, if you ever do, your group should have more than enough gear to compensate for any comp. So at this point skill >> comp.

The few % minmax only really matter when you aim for server first and gear is scarce.

I often heal with a sch friend (I'm ast), we can't play much so we know that by the time we'll reach OS4 we'll be 330+ ilv. So our wipe will be caused by players skill and not the fact there is a SCH or a MCH in the group.

So as some people said, just play what you enjoy, ultimately, your group play will be what matter.
(A bit like those 315+ilv susano group who can't kill it because they keep failing all strats)

[Fernosaur]

If you're planning on only doing dungeons, WHM outperforms SCH and AST by miles in that terrain.

IMO, for dungeons it's WHM >>> SCH > AST. You really gotta learn how to manage your fairy to get a good safety net with SCH on dungeons, though. If you don't learn to prepare Whispering Dawn, Fey Illum, Fey Union, etc ahead of time for each pull, you're gonna have a really hard time trying to keep up, like some posters have mentioned before. SCH needs to always be three steps ahead of the situation to fully utilize their kit. However, this doesn't mean they don't have tools to handle emergencies.

SCH really can handle whatever the hell it's thrown at them, you just gotta be really good at knowing your job, I'd say even more so than AST or WHM, since they have more potent healing tools that are readily available at any moment, WHM even more so, of course.

That said, this doesn't mean SCH and AST are shit for dungeons or anything like that, I just think they don't perform as great in there as WHM because the later has the esiest time handling trash, both healing and DPS wise.

[kartana]

If you're planning on only doing dungeons, WHM outperforms SCH and AST by miles in that terrain.

All the normal content is easy regardless of healing class. For dungeons etc, play what you like. All perform the same.

[Fernosaur]

All the normal content is easy regardless of healing class. For dungeons etc, play what you like. All perform the same.

I didn't say SCH or AST can't do dungeons, WHM just has a much easier time in them.

[Iveriad]

All the normal content is easy regardless of healing class. For dungeons etc, play what you like. All perform the same.

^This. I never had any problem with putting my Eos on Auto in dungeons.
SCH might need to be steps ahead, but that's on post game EX or Savage content.

[RajaVamberaux]

snip

Scholar probably does have the highest skill ceiling of the healers. I just want to mention though that frequently using Lustrate in large pulls is actually how Scholar should heal. Physick is a last-resort heal. If you blow two stacks on Lustrate in order to get DoTs in and Bane then you're doing it right not wrong.

To say that SCH is disadvantaged for having to do this is not accurate since they don't have to use a GCD to Lustrate or Excog.

[seekified]

Better now, but still needs changes. Selene is still as dull and niche as always, MP management is still pretty tough compared to how it was before, and it feels like the actual shielding part of the job is disappearing. Excog could've easily just been made a really strong shield instead of a heal.