So are we going to have to wait until after Savage releases to expect changes?

[CaesarCV]

I don’t think SE needs statistics from Savage Content to make adjustments to AST right now.... SCH and WHM will have more light shed on them through out the raid tier, but AST is already at such a huge disadvantage, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a major overhaul, similar to WAR at the start of SB.

I mean, I agree with you that they deserve and need it but I would be surprised if they got an overhaul. Healers just seem to not be much of a priority for the Dev team at this point. I mean, we saw the fruits of the effort they put into balancing despite it being supposedly the reason for not getting new classes two expansions in a row. They've only done revamps for like, WAR, which seems to be a pet class of one of the devs given how much attention it gets. Healers get almost no attention in comparison.

[Seraphor]

If only there was someway for us to give feedback before they release an expansion. If only Square were able to release tooltips in advance, gather player feedback and adjust things before the launch of a new expansion. Oh well, that's not really possible. The only way to revise or edit a class is to wait multiple years. That's how long it takes to process player feedback and design animations for skills. Roughly two years.

By the time they release tooltips, it's already too late.

[Seraphor]

Well most jobs have rotations, and, as long as it's somewhat technical one, i'm fine with that. But two buttons is just nooope, i mean, it's not even (121212) like lvl 4 pld has ><

Given that you're ignoring the entire healer toolkit and focusing entirely on their dps skills, it seems like you never wanted to play a healer anyway, and only put up with SCH because it was practically a dps job with a pet to heal for you.
Now that SCH is in line with the other healers it sucks?
You never liked healing.

[Videra]

Probably, yeah.

[Johaandr]

I honestly get why most people are upset.
But... uh SCH pretty much feels the same for me without the annoying timer on certain dots and weaving with Energy drain. ED was bea in all honestly but i never felt it as a risky tool to use. Embrace macro sure was optional but meh pressing hard on my touchpad for it was lol.

Also stop attacking people who enjoy the current SCH. You are not entitled to pass on the so called «majority» judgment.
As for now SCH feels the same without this so called «complex» which was not to begin with. Sure 1 dot and 1 dps 1vs1 spam. I mean misama > II/bio(timer)> ED > broil that wasnt complicated was it?

They could rework the AF and mayby bring back Energy drain to maintain the MP. But it doesnt have to be dps.

[AikenDrum]

Given that you're ignoring the entire healer toolkit and focusing entirely on their dps skills, it seems like you never wanted to play a healer anyway, and only put up with SCH because it was practically a dps job with a pet to heal for you.
Now that SCH is in line with the other healers it sucks?
You never liked healing.

You'll have to give me a job where you'd use your healing kit at least 50% of the time if you want me to focus on it. But as long there's no such job in this game, just 3 support dps, I'm gonna focus on the part of the kit I was using the most.

Btw in 4.0 pld optimized about ignoring the enmity toolkit and focusing entirely on their dps skills, does it mean those of us who weren't spamming rage of halone combo never liked tanking?

[RegularJoe]

Given that you're ignoring the entire healer toolkit and focusing entirely on their dps skills, it seems like you never wanted to play a healer anyway, and only put up with SCH because it was practically a dps job with a pet to heal for you.
Now that SCH is in line with the other healers it sucks?
You never liked healing.

I don't think that's the case. SCH went from a very active and dynamic job to something really simple. Yes, SCH did need to be knocked down a few pegs, but going from managing pets, DoTs, Aetherflow stacks, and shielding, to just shield then spam one or two buttons is a real downpour. SCH is still very powerful and the only thing that's in line with the other healers is that we have less to manage: one DoT, one AoE, replenishing resource equivalent (WHM: Lillies, SCH: Aether Stacks, AST: nerfed Balance Cards). SCH still reigns high in damage prevention and healing, and SCH shields are unmatched. It's still OP, just not very fun because SE wants all healers to have the same dps 'flavor'. So, when you've practically made the party invincible, you don't have much to do besides Broil or Art of War spam.

Sure, popping Illuminate, Recitating your Adlo, Whisper, Soil, then Excog, and reveling in your handiwork is satisfying, but it's the downtime afterwards. If all goes well, and your fellow party members are not participating in glowing circle activities, you could spend 30 seconds to 1 min of not healing.

Our downtime used to really tie nicely to our previously DoT-focused dps management. Weaving in between DoTs and heals really helped make the class feel unique and exciting. It also gave us something to do with our Aether Stacks when we didn't need them. The DoTs didn't need to be as powerful as they were, but SCH was all about planning and preventing. We had something for every occasion to always keep us busy. They could easily give healers something else to do that's not dps-focused for downtime, and I'm sure everyone would be happy, but as of this moment, they just simply took away our options, or completely butchered it, in the case of AST.

FFXIV, outside of very few instances, isn't designed for full time healing; it's just not that kind of game. Everyone in this game is part-time dps. So when we have nothing else to do, because SE likes to give buffing abilities to Ranged DPS, there's not much else to do besides use our DPS portion of the kit. Having so much pared down is a bit disheartening. Doesn't matter if Art of War Spam is powerful or effective, just mashing one button is boring. And our shields are crazy strong, so having even less to manage makes it all the more mind numbing. On the WHM front, they can easily get someone from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds, without even putting a dent on their MP resources, and then they go back to Glare/Holy Spam. AST has it a bit rough, however.

[Seraphor]

You'll have to give me a job where you'd use your healing kit at least 50% of the time if you want me to focus on it. But as long there's no such job in this game, just 3 support dps, I'm gonna focus on the part of the kit I was using the most.

You've just described AST.

Healing output (across the board, but specifically for AST) is harsher, meaning more heals are required.
In addition it's entire Card system is it's own DPS rotation, but applied via padding other DPS players damage.

I've done runs, specifically places like Qitarna Revel, where I'm healing upwards of 70% of the time. Some trash pulls have me healing so much, that Lightspeed is used for healing instead of Gravity spam. Proper use of Earthly Star and Horoscope is required.
It's made healing far more interesting in my opinion.

[Dogempire]

I really don´t get, why the rotation of a healing job is only defined by its dps spells. I don´t do that. Thats probably the reason im ok with how Sch is atm. (can´t talk about the others, since i didn´t lvl them yet)

Because it kills the complexity of the job and leaves little room for optimization, which in turn makes the job boring and unattractive to play.

When a job's skill ceiling drops so low it hits you in the head, you start looking for another house.

[Lannybaby]

SE would silence so many scholar complaints by readding energy drain and the ability to use aetherflow out of combat. That said, I weep for scholars and astros. I wish those two jobs ended up like dragoons; mostly untouched with a few new toys to play with.