As a scholar main since Heavensward, here's my two cents. You're all bitching over nothing, genuinely.

Scholar has always been the strongest healer, period. Shields are just overpowered in a game with little utility options. Damage prevention > damage healed. And they aren't weak healers at all (really confused me when they said that on the livestream) Swiftcast, ETactics, Succor, Indom can easily full heal a party in one global with healthy crit.

Who cares bane is gone? If you're complaining about your dps, you don't understand the healer role. Broil is a filler spell, DoT's give us something to track to increase the complexity. I couldn't care less if we can't bane trash mobs anymore because the boss fights are what matter.

And the loss of energy drain is curious, I'll grant you. However, they are reworking mana use for the ENTIRE game. We have no idea yet how that factors in. Energy drain has probably become redundant.

Now for observations, there have been big boosts across the board. If you hadn't noticed, galvanise has been BUFFED and now doesn't interact as harshly with astro. Big thumbs up here. Sacred soil has been BUFFED. We can use these spells in ways we couldn't before, they have higher priority.

With the way things are looking, potency's increasing and what not, I'm hoping there'll be more focus on healing so healers can do their job more consistently. I want to be focusing on mechanics, I want to be prepping spells for big hits, I don't want to be stood there watching Bio run out and hitting broil until a tank buster.

TL;DR: You're all getting in a twist over nothing, Scholar's looking the best it's ever been.