How SE Can Fix SCH

[Sebazy]

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This is probably the game waiting on a dot tick to register? Theoretically Ruin II should be instant every time although I could be wrong!

[OmegaSinX]

Only agree with point 1 and 3

Bane is pretty meaningless with 1 DoT and Shadowflare was a fire and forget DoT with a CD so it wouldn't add anything to SCH in terms of making the class more interesting. I'd take Energy Drain over both since then I have something to dump excessive Aether Stacks with to help me build up fairy gauge on top of being a nice MP sustain tool being infinitely more useful to SCH as a whole than either Bane or Shadowflare ever were.

Bane saved GCDs spreading dots one by one. Precious time you could be using on something else. Shadow Flare had chance to slow enemies; minor but it was added damage + mini utility we lost with its removal. This would definitely make SCH more interesting if it didn't compete with Sacred Soil ( we could then have both up: Slow + Dot + 90% damage + Regen).

If they wanted to make SCH dot management more simple, they could have combined Bio II & Miasma III into the new Biolysis spell (100 potencies combined maybe?) similar to Tri-Disater on SMN.

[Jerichai]

This is probably the game waiting on a dot tick to register? Theoretically Ruin II should be instant every time although I could be wrong!

Honestly you're probably right. I'm so used to opening a fight with setting up dots that I was just doing that out of habit. I'll given ruin 2 a try when moving with the tank.

[Avih]

The other thing that annoys me to no end with the "aetherflow only in combat" thing is:

There seems to be a variable amount to time from when you damage an NPC to when aetherflow becomes available for use. I've had times where I'll throw a dot and the ability is immediately up. Other times I'll don't and it seems to take a second or so for the game to fully realize that I'm in combat and the ability should be available. This just adds to the clunky nature of the change in my eyes.

To be more specific. "Aetherflow only in combat and you have to be on the hate list(rank doesn't matter)".
Currently, if you don't do anything in the combat, you won't be able to cast Aetherflow. So even in the combat there's a situation Aetherflow is unavailable.
This is very frustrating. SE should at least let us cast Aetherflow once your PT member gets on the enemy's hate list.

[OmegaSinX]

if you don't do anything in the combat, you won't be able to cast Aetherflow. So even in the combat there's a situation Aetherflow is unavailable.
This is very frustrating. SE should at least let us cast Aetherflow once your PT member gets on the enemy's hate list.

This is extremely annoying, to get around this I have to use Biolysis on the mob as tank pulls. Theres have been times I've was taking damage and still couldn't use aether.

[Yulja]

I think your points are pretty good and I really think SCH needs Bane + Miasma back, so Biolysis + Miasma 3 could be a thing again. Why is SE so scared of castable DoTs?

My brother played a lot today(DRs) to test SCH, AST and WHM. His points are pretty clear:
The identity of SCH is completely gone, SCH feels unfinished and clunky. Not having Aetherflow before a fight is making no sense at all, it just gives SCH a less good feeling, not seeing the fairy in the party is horrible. He didn't even notice that Eos was gone today and had to call her back and you know what he said? "It doesn't even matter if she is there".
Today we were playing with a lot of really horrible tanks and some good. Even with the horrible tanks he was DPSing in Alliance Raid around 90% of the time. DPSing = Broil. It feels not engaging, it feels unfinished, the identity(and this is a mmoRPG, which means identity is IMPORTANT, espacially in a game with Job quests) and the healing is just instant heals and then Broil again.
He said that it feels like losing the core skills on a job because not seeing the fairy, not really having a Pet Hotbar makes Eos/Selene feel like a turret which just passive heals and you yourself use skills but not the pet. This is different from what SE was expecting, SCH doesn't feel like having a Pet anymore. I am SMN main, for SMN it is the same, not seeing the Pet, not having the skills on the Hotbar, using 2 skills for the Pet, is feeling weird, but for SCH the problem is that the Fairy feels unnecessary and weird.

Also seeing Healer in Need explains a lot.
He is very disappointed and I see no way that SE is changing the PvE content that you heal nonstop because you do not do so in synced DGs this means lowcrew and mediocre gameplay is dead for SCH.

What should be done: Energy Drain back, with DMG and MP, Miasma back, Bane back and AoW DoT based instead of this horrible thing.

I really hope SE is changing this.

[AureliaF]

There seems to be a variable amount to time from when you damage an NPC to when aetherflow becomes available for use. I've had times where I'll throw a dot and the ability is immediately up. Other times I'll don't and it seems to take a second or so for the game to fully realize that I'm in combat and the ability should be available. This just adds to the clunky nature of the change in my eyes.

Very true, and I've had the flipside annoyance happen as well: I'll go to hit Aetherflow when the final mob in a pack has 5-10% HP left, and I'll even hear the Aetherflow sound effect go off, but presumably because the mob died just before the game registered I'd hit my skill, I don't get a stack. Ugh, it's made me want to flip a table the stupid combat-AF thing.

[Cabalabob]

I don’t mind that they got rid of shadowflare but I do think we should get bane back as a 30 second cooldown (no aetherflow cost) just because spamming art of war gets really boring and having just 1 thing to mix it up a little wouldn’t be the worst thing.

Another thing I want back is energy drain. Even if they make it deal no damage and just restore mp, it was nice to have something to spend aetherflow stacks on when aetherflow was coming off CD, I’ve found myself throwing out sacred soils at random and never healing outside of using lustrates just to try and get through my stacks. Would also help sch mp since I find myself burning through it on dps cause I just don’t need to do anything else.

Totally agree about adding the fairy back to the party list, I always find myself wondering if she’s still around since I can’t personally see her.

Also agree about using aetherflow outside of battle, I get why they did it, they want to remove the whole “you need to wait 30 seconds before you pull for my cooldown!” stuff. But it’s very annoying having to get yourself “registered” as in combat just to access your oGCD heals which you’ll need ASAP when the tank pulls big.

Finally, i’d like whispering dawn and fey illumination back on the pet hotbar, if people like having them on their personal hotbars, fine by me, but I liked having them on the pet hotbar. It’s not like they even got rid of the pet hotbar, it’s still there, it just doesn’t do anything now.

On a semi-related note, why did they keep Selene? Could they not just make a fairy glamour system? Seems really silly to have a separate button that is literally just a palette swap. While I’d prefer they brought back Selene having distinct abilities and just focused on making them more viable, I wouldn’t be too bothered if they just get rid of her entirely as a separate entity and made her a glamour.

[WaxSw]

I'll add to that give back Energy drain and quickened aetherflow, those skills helped to make AE a more interesting mechanic while also allowing us to not waste resources like we do now (lustrate spam) also the quickened aetherflow trait helped us tu build fairy gauge better making it a more realiable mechanic. There are more changes that could be done like giving us back Selene but right now Sch is such a mess that I think it needs those changes asap.

[Silver-Strider]

Bane saved GCDs spreading dots one by one. Precious time you could be using on something else. Shadow Flare had chance to slow enemies; minor but it was added damage + mini utility we lost with its removal. This would definitely make SCH more interesting if it didn't compete with Sacred Soil ( we could then have both up: Slow + Dot + 90% damage + Regen).

If they wanted to make SCH dot management more simple, they could have combined Bio II & Miasma III into the new Biolysis spell (100 potencies combined maybe?) similar to Tri-Disater on SMN.

And hitting Bane after Bio 2 and spamming Art of War for 30 seconds is somehow interesting? Are you serious? Same thing with Shadowflare. Neither ability would break the monotony of SCH's current situation in any meaningful way and would do nothing for serious content and be of minute benefit in casual content since you'd only use them once every 30/60 seconds and just twiddle your fingers for the rest of the time in between. It's more damage but that's all it realistically offers SCH at all. Energy Drain would offer the same while being more beneficial to SCH's toolkit as a whole by being a MP management/Aether Stack burner tool on top of damage without being stuck on a CD. It's offers a much more meaningful addition to SCH's toolkit than Bane or Shadowflare can ever hope to match.