Any word on SCH healing potency?

[Deceptus]

4.X also gave us Aetherpact/Fey Union. While not a bad ability - merely disappointing as a capstone - it has introduced a new problem to the class's gameplay as well as exacerbated an old one. The Pet AI in this game is terrible, and just about every SCH/SMN player has known this for a long time. Fey Union has brought this even more into the spotlight than it was before by giving SCH an Enkindle equivalent; a skill that is not a direct pet ability, but instead a player ability that commands the pet to take an action. This, for some reason, does not seem to properly enter the pet's GCD queue, so it is entirely possible for the Fairy to decide to just.... not tether to your target, and instead just continue casting Embrace on random people who are going to be topped up by regens anyway. Fey Union also has negative synergy with Dissipation, last expansions even more disappointing capstone ability. While Dissipation doesn't 0 out the Fairy Gauge like some have claimed (It removes it from the UI because the Fairy isn't present anymore, but after resummoning the gauge will still be at whatever level it was before), it does give you full Aetherflow stacks and incentivize you to use them immediately, while also removing access to the resource that is built specifically by using those stacks.

This, so much this.

[Dregenfox]

I'm sorry, but no.

I agree with Lustrate only coming until lvl 50, so our reliance on oGCD healing takes a while to arrive, but SCH has Eos and Selene literally from lvl 4. Any SCH can let their fairy do the healing job alone up until Stone Vigil, which requires more attention on the tank compared to other levelling dungeons even if the tank is going slow. Whispering Dawn comes early enough that you can use it in Sastasha, and you get Rouse just in time for Stone Vigil too.

Uhh SCH starts at level 30. It doesn't matter that the pet can heal satasha because the earliest dungeon they are doing after getting SCH is Brayflox longstop, which does require adlo/physick, especially with uncapped gears. At that point a WHM would give SCH a try and conclude it's "a weaker WHM with pet heals".

[Riyshn]

Uhh SCH starts at level 30. It doesn't matter that the pet can heal satasha because the earliest dungeon they are doing after getting SCH is Brayflox longstop, which does require adlo/physick, especially with uncapped gears. At that point a WHM would give SCH a try and conclude it's "a weaker WHM with pet heals".

You appear to be assuming that no one would ever want to run Leveling Roulette as SCH or level sync down to do FATEs with a newbie friend.

[Dregenfox]

You appear to be assuming that no one would ever want to run Leveling Roulette as SCH or level sync down to do FATEs with a newbie friend.

You miss the point. It still does nothing to teach a SCH proper AF usage. I don't think I've seen a SCH in-game who's ever used dissipation and some of them use physick even at level 70.

AST is nice in the fact that it slowly builds up the class mechanic all the way up from lvl 30 and the expectation is set right there.

If they moved aetherdam III down to lvl 30, they could easily switch Lustrate and Adlo around, and set SCH's on the right path right from the get-go.

[Riyshn]

I would prefer they swap it with Succor, honestly. ...and do something about the Lv40 skill gap, but that's another thing entirely. Swapping Lustrate and Succor would give new players more time both to learn to use oGCDs for the bulk of SCH's healing, as well as that your "basic" AoE heal isn't Succor, it's Whispering Dawn.

[Teraluna]

The Pet AI in this game is terrible...........

This, so much this.

It's frustrating that it's been this way, and hasn't changed. The 4.0 Scholar revisions only served to highlight the issue.
Prior to that, the way the Scholar worked tended to overshadow the pet control deficiencies. But now, with the way they have gone with the class, it's brought the pet AI to the fore.

It's not the only area that needs looking at as there are several clunky mechanism synergies, but it does need attention.

[Sebazy]

Personally I think the pet AI was actually a little better in late ARR.

You could use hold command to interrupt a fairy cast and push your own command through pretty reliably.

Now, she potentially just starts casting another embrace faster than the next line in the macro gets executed. I sometimes found trying to tightly time a Whispering Dawn when she's surrounded by low HP targets to be a bit of a nuisance especially when I had my own GCD tempo going that didn't really align with hers.

A simple option to make manual pet ability casts override auto embrace would make a massive difference to the quality of pet play for SCH. But then I'm not really sure SE's class team even realise that, such is their limited understanding of the healer jobs.

[Dayala]

You guys must be playing a different sch than I am because I litterally have 0 issues in OS raids or in big dungeon pulls. Excog, Fey Union and roused WD is probably the best thing to happen to sch. Miasma 2 actually makes me feel useful again for dps, still want bio 1 / aero / blizzard 2 back though. /sadface.

Understanding how your toolkit works with understanding its timing delays will help you figure out sch better IE: the fairy wont cast what your ordered her to do if you're moving, so place her first before spamming buttons and running out of AOEs. Fey Union won't click immediately if she's topping people off or moving to your target (takes 1-3 seconds sometimes, long time when there's a mechanic incomming). The AI is a bit stupid so micro managing the fairy with macroes or just button mashing helps out a lot. That's about my only complaint.

Also the lvl 60 ability is still useless af.

The mp cost to succor and addlo needs to be adjusted to be more on par with AST's cost and maybe have it proc a bit higher than AST so they stop overriding our shields in raids, 'cause that's annoying when the AST doesn't flip off noct when there's a sch in the group. Rood much. Edit: I know, I know, if that happens then no one will want AST, etc. I get it. Still the shield overriding thing is basic annoying stuff.

[NorthernLadMSP]

LOL, wow so now I'm reading (from someone a page or two back) that SCH needs buffs because some people suck at healing?

[Kabzy]

Selene needs to be made relevant, and Dissipation needs adjustments (preferably a move that promotes Faerie swapping).

Apart from this, I see no real need to touch Scholar. They don't need to go back to being #1, and the nice thing about healers right now is that they seem to be the most balanced they have been since 3.0s AST release.