They're just trolling SCH players now

[Truen]

From the Live Letter published June 3rd, the very first sentence reads: "Most of scholar's capabilities weren't significantly changed."

We all know that Miasma 2, Bane, Energy Drain, Shadowflare, Protect, and even Selene (who was lazily reworked into Eos) were deleted. How can anyone say with a straight face the capabilities of this job weren't "significantly changed?"

They say they're making the game simpler, why? Do they think their player-base is stupid and incapable of learning to finesse a job? Is that why they make statements like, "most of scholar's capabilities weren't significantly changed," and expect not to be called out for it?

Sure, the job will allow players to overheal virtually every encounter, but how many times can someone just mash <broil> all the while telling themselves they're doing anything even remotely challenging enough to call it fun? Appalling.

[kidalutz]

From the Live Letter published June 3rd, the very first sentence reads: "Most of scholar's capabilities weren't significantly changed."

We all know that Miasma 2, Bane, Energy Drain, Shadowflare, Protect, and even Selene (who was lazily reworked into Eos) were deleted. How can anyone say with a straight face the capabilities of this job weren't "significantly changed?"

They say they're making the game simpler by removing button bloat...who, do they think their player-base is stupid and incapable of learning to finesse a job? Is that why they make statements like, "most of scholar's capabilities weren't significantly changed," and expect not to be called out for it?

Sure, the job will allow players to overheal virtually every encounter, but how many times can someone just mash <broil> all the while telling themselves they're doing anything even remotely challenging enough to call it fun? Appalling.

Just find one thread and stick with it.

[Kabooa]

Really.

You put in Protect and Selene into this list?

[Risvertasashi]

Well it's true. Lustrate and Indom will still be there, still just as good. Chain strat is still there. Deploy critlo was weakened a little, but can now be available at will instead of requiring RNG. The capabilities are all still there. SCH will still probably be meta.

DPS is simplified and probably a bit weaker, and I can understand not particularly liking that, but with how OP SCH has been for years and years, something had to give.

[Ilenya]

That's the line you focused on as being "Trolling"? Not the one that goes "Instead of focusing on dealing damage while relying on the other healer to provide healing, both healers will be able support each other in the healing role. "?

[MPNZ]

From the Live Letter published June 3rd, the very first sentence reads: "Most of scholar's capabilities weren't significantly changed."

We all know that Miasma 2, Bane, Energy Drain, Shadowflare, Protect, and even Selene (who was lazily reworked into Eos) were deleted. How can anyone say with a straight face the capabilities of this job weren't "significantly changed?"

They say they're making the game simpler, why? Do they think their player-base is stupid and incapable of learning to finesse a job? Is that why they make statements like, "most of scholar's capabilities weren't significantly changed," and expect not to be called out for it?

Sure, the job will allow players to overheal virtually every encounter, but how many times can someone just mash <broil> all the while telling themselves they're doing anything even remotely challenging enough to call it fun? Appalling.

There probably are a few factors resulting into them needing to simplify the jobs...

The needs of controller players vs. keyboard & mouse usually favor the keyboard and mouse controls in terms of performance and speed and amount of inputs and ability to react to mechanics, quickly toggling through large target pools, and maintain DPS/HPS output. This result to button bloat issues for controllers that result in actions being pruned that parties may expect to be used like palisade and cover, and very different reactions to increasing or decreasing the number of player actions.

It might just also be that reducing the number of actions that players are expected to use through simplification: players will have more time to deal with mechanics instead of their parse, which could allow the dev team to focus on more mechanically intensive encounters

[LegoTechnic]

The point is homogenization. They want every healer to be just as viable in all content and therefore safely interchangeable with only minor differences. This is a stark contrast to how it was back when SCH was first introduced, where SCH had a devil of a time acting as main healer and WHM were almost bereft of mitigation and instant recovery outside of stoneskin and benediction. Healing classes originally had strengths and weaknesses, and they complimented each other near on perfectly.

With each expansion this lessons a little, but it didn't start so bad. HW was great for SCH, giving them a super useful AoE lustrate, though the inclusion of AST muddied things because rather than serving a third role, it just sort of tried to be a poor-man's version of both the other two. They did not have a solid design idea for a 3rd healer other than a more varied focus on Selene-esque damage buffs (the cards), and certainly not one that could fit into the extremely complimentary balance of SCH and WHM from ARR, so they tried to make a class that could switch between roles. The end result was that first the class was garbage, and by buffing it as they did they made WHM less appealing.

SB exacerbated the issue as classes began to homogenize so that duty-finder could drop you into a double SCH or double WHM party without fear. Whereas in ARR you really felt the value of a SCH shield on a tankbuster or a WHM medica after an AoE, now it didn't really matter who you had healing, and identity shifted to whoever could do it better. Benefits like card damage buffs and weaved DPS gained massive weight, especially since healer DPS was so beneficial in early clears of raid encounters.

Finally with Shadowbringers, we have almost maximum homogenization, and I really mean that. The kits are all so similar it really doesn't matter what class you play, because outside of visuals they have even less functional identity. SCH still has more shields and their aetherflow stacks, but they have a ton more AoE heal options, complete with a shorter emergency tactics cooldown, and no longer have any damage design focus at all (damage rotation is almost identical to AST's in SB). WHM still has a healing focus and very few shields, but they have a lot more ogcd burst heal and have gained aetherflow stacks on a timer (new lily system) making them much closer to SCHs. AST are still the middle child, and all three classes play almost the exact same with a few minor individual gimmicks.

These differences will cause no small amount of debate, but in the end it won't matter, because the classes are no longer intended to be "complimentary", but "interchangeable". This is the design focus, and what must be accepted by current players. If you enjoyed the complimentary design from the early era of the game, then you have to accept that it is largely going away one step at a time, and there's nothing we can do about it.

[Arrhin]

"The point is homogenization. They want every healer to be just as viable in all content and therefore safely interchangeable with only minor differences. This is a stark contrast to how it was back when SCH was first introduced, where SCH had a devil of a time acting as main healer and WHM were almost bereft of mitigation and instant recovery outside of stoneskin and benediction. Healing classes originally had strengths and weaknesses, and they complimented each other near on perfectly."



So much this! I was SCH in late 2.0, my SO was WHM and we were the healing dream team in 8 person stuffs. But I had a heck of a time in some 4 person content where they would just breeze through, you really had to be on yer toes with ARR SCH and gods help ya if it was a firs run for that content. I did well, and was well regarded but oh my the "We're screwed, she's a SCH" comments. I do miss those days as it was fun bein the underdog healer and yet makin it work. I also don't miss those days as it was at times very tiring just existing :/

ps Who remembers the WHM recasting Protect? SCH was only physical mitigation xD

[Bonbori]

Well it's true. Lustrate and Indom will still be there, still just as good. Chain strat is still there. Deploy critlo was weakened a little, but can now be available at will instead of requiring RNG. The capabilities are all still there. SCH will still probably be meta.

DPS is simplified and probably a bit weaker, and I can understand not particularly liking that, but with how OP SCH has been for years and years, something had to give.

Then why didn't they target the "OP" parts instead of everything that made its gameplay fun, engaging and unique in comparison to the other two healers?

All of the OP stuff? Still there. Barely touched. All the fun stuff? Mostly gone.

Or was Energy Drain, Shadowflare and Bane in some way breaking the game? Last I checked, none of those abilities was facilitating ignoring mechanics or reinforcing the meta.

[Sebazy]

Then why didn't they target the "OP" parts instead of everything that made its gameplay fun, engaging and unique in comparison to the other two healers?

Because that would involve them understanding what makes the job OP.

Figuring this out would entail having someone on the small job design team that has more than passing understanding of the healers and how they play out when played at a high level.