Scholar and Seraph

[P0W3RK1D]

so i main scholar and shadowbringers has left ya boi dissapointed. Seraph was kinda cool, but SCH being a pet-based-healer type class it is severely underwhelming when you take the time to compare it to its brother, the SMN class.

without making this post long and confusing, i have a suggestion i think would be a neat idea to help, or at the very least fix SCH.

problem 1: Scholars have plenty of wasted resources in the topic of down time and Aetherflow.
Idea: Add a skill to SCH called "Tactical Advance". Tactical advance Costs 1 Aetherflow and can be used when either targeting one self, an ally, or targeting Eos/Seraph. Ill get into what it does to Eos/Seraph in [Problem 2]. Tactical Advance, when targeting oneself or an ally Tactical Advance refreshes all of the target's cool downs by 6 seconds per Tactical advance cast.

Idea: Add a skill to SCH called "Sun's Knowledge"(the name is a reference to a quote from Sun Tzu). Sun's Knowledge costs 1 Aetherflow and can be used either targeting an enemy, an ally, or targeting oneself. Simply put, when targeting an enemy everyone fighting the enemy gains the ability to see an enemy's elemental weakness and strengths. When targeting oneself the knowledge of how to attack the enemy is placed upon yourself -- if you can currently see the enemies weaknesses, the damage-type of all of your dps spells change to that weakness for 20 seconds -- if you cannot see the enemies weakness then all of the spells change to a random damage type for 20 seconds. This works the same way if you use it on an ally.



Problem 2: Seraph is pretty underwhelming (20 second duration, uncontrollable heal, 2 minute cool down), Seraph is sorta useful, but by the time its cast both constelations the time she will be up is just about over, knowing this i dont even bother taking the time to casts whispering down and fey illumination while seraph is up since it does nothing special and it would be an actual waste of time .

Idea: Tactical advance (as mentioned above). When used on selene/eos, it reduces their spell's CD by 10 seconds per Tactical advance cast.
When used on Seraph it Extends her summon time by 10 seconds per Tactical advance cast.


Problem 3: Unlike SMN, seline and eos are all we get, they dont even do anything diffrent from eachother. So I say , if all were going to get is skins, can we have a better variety of skins.
Idea: Allow SCH to glamour their fairies to be any one of the Fey creatures found in Il Mheg, since the fairies are fey anyways.

[Billythepancake]

TBH, I love the idea of Seraph, I think, in concept, she is really cool, with SCH having their own version of Bahamut, but in practice. Eh, she's okay, but she's not game changing, if you took her away from me I could do any high end content no problem. I really wish she had more of an impact.

[Brandedblade]

Shes basically rouse with a slightly better effect and free (pet potency) Succor she could serve to be more impactful but it doesn't kill me that she isnt.

[Mhaeric]

Problem 2: Seraph is pretty underwhelming (20 second duration, uncontrollable heal, 2 minute cool down), Seraph is sorta useful, but by the time its cast both constelations the time she will be up is just about over, knowing this i dont even bother taking the time to casts whispering down and fey illumination while seraph is up since it does nothing special and it would be an actual waste of time.

Seraph's cooldown lines up exactly with Fae Illumination and every other Whispering Dawn, so I treat her as a Rouse replacement. Since it's an oGCD there's very little reason not to. This result in a rotation of sorts on the AoE regen: double buffed regen - normal regen - repeat. Her free Succors are useful in a handful of situations, so the only time I'll do something different is if I know I want her bonus Succor stacker like for a boss ultimate or an ahk morn or something.

[Hanayumi]

Yeah have to agree seraph is basic rouse with shields. Give seraph a passive effect similar to pheonix, "angelic aura" or something, and have it increase damage everyone's damage by like 2-3% while she is out.

[Billythepancake]

Yeah have to agree seraph is basic rouse with shields. Give seraph a passive effect similar to pheonix, "angelic aura" or something, and have it increase damage everyone's damage by like 2-3% while she is out.

The problem with that is, she would be required to have out every time she's up, otherwise it's a dps loss, which I don't think is the solution. I think it'd be better if all the versions of her abilties, not just rouse, were stronger, or if they had seperate CDs from the other fairies. Also if she had anything else to do while she was out, instead of just succor.

[Connor]

What if Fey Blessing became Fey Wind when Seraph is summoned? Could still have a fairy gauge cost for balance and lets us use Blessing for something when Seraph is out. Either that, or maybe it could have 2 charges that are shared with Consolation to make calling Seraph feel more worth using when you don’t need the extra shielding. It’d be nice to have it back in some form since I loved being able to support the party if we didn’t need the extra healing. If the Haste buff if too powerful, maybe it could just be a direct damage buff at like maybe 5%?

I really like the idea of a support type Aetherflow ability. We kinda have one with Sacred Soil, but that’s more of a healing/Regen ability. The cooldown reduction one does sound fun with the interaction with fairy/Seraph, but if it was useable on any other target it’d risk being extremely overpowered. I think maybe some sort of crit buff would be the most fitting for a support Aetherflow ability, since it would synergize with Chain Stratagem and could be used on self to get more crit Adlo chances. I feel like something defensive would better fit the toolkit overall, but we already have Sacred Soil, so it’d probably be too much to have more.

[odym82]

I honestly don’t play SCH but i will say that visually at least, Seraph is very underwhelming in comparison to the SMN demi-primals. Still sexier than the egis tho (unless you really have a thing for animated crumbs of food, hence carbuncle glamours)

[Hanayumi]

The problem with that is, she would be required to have out every time she's up, otherwise it's a dps loss, which I don't think is the solution...

I dunno I feel like I'd ok with that to be honest, kinda been doing it on fights where folks know groove of a fight, most of the time just toss her up so can dps away with little worry of healing. Unfortunately better heals aren't the best incentives when runs get cleaner... D:

[Rivxkobe]

problem 1: Scholars have plenty of wasted resources in the topic of down time and Aetherflow.

We have Energy Drain back now. This is not an issue anymore and if you still feel you have "downtime" (which you never should) or "wasted resources" then that's a you problem.

Idea: Add a skill to SCH called "Tactical Advance". Tactical advance Costs 1 Aetherflow and can be used when either targeting one self, an ally, or targeting Eos/Seraph. Ill get into what it does to Eos/Seraph in [Problem 2]. Tactical Advance, when targeting oneself or an ally Tactical Advance refreshes all of the target's cool downs by 6 seconds per Tactical advance cast.

Okay. So, two things.

1. We don't need more things to spend Aetherflow on.

2. I see issues with this. Reducing CDs by 6 seconds, depending on who you target, may not be worth the loss of an Aetherflow AND this would cause things to misalign for anyone you target with it. And if this was seen as a strong ability to help one player get their damage window up faster again (ie. SAM) then SCH would be completely imbalanced. Because it would be highly sought after so it can just spam one move whenever it had Aetherflow up, greatly reducing what groups would expect from it, giving it less flexible and agency. But I don't think this would ever happen, more likely everyone would just ignore this ability.

Idea: Add a skill to SCH called "Sun's Knowledge"(the name is a reference to a quote from Sun Tzu). Sun's Knowledge costs 1 Aetherflow and can be used either targeting an enemy, an ally, or targeting oneself. Simply put, when targeting an enemy everyone fighting the enemy gains the ability to see an enemy's elemental weakness and strengths. When targeting oneself the knowledge of how to attack the enemy is placed upon yourself -- if you can currently see the enemies weaknesses, the damage-type of all of your dps spells change to that weakness for 20 seconds -- if you cannot see the enemies weakness then all of the spells change to a random damage type for 20 seconds. This works the same way if you use it on an ally.

Again we don't need more abilities to spend Aetherflow on.

Also, after reading this, I seriously have to ask if you even play FFXIV. You say you do but, like... Elemental strengths and weaknesses? Weird things that happen with elements and somehow this not only mattering, but your abilities elements changing to random ones for... some reason?

Problem 2: Seraph is pretty underwhelming (20 second duration, uncontrollable heal, 2 minute cool down), Seraph is sorta useful, but by the time its cast both constelations the time she will be up is just about over, knowing this i dont even bother taking the time to casts whispering down and fey illumination while seraph is up since it does nothing special and it would be an actual waste of time .

She's fine. Delaying Whispering Dawn and Fey Illumination casts is a you decision.

Idea: Tactical advance (as mentioned above). When used on selene/eos, it reduces their spell's CD by 10 seconds per Tactical advance cast.

Why? They have two abilities and neither are even that long. Not only would this be a complete waste but its insanely difficult to target your fairy now anyways.

When used on Seraph it Extends her summon time by 10 seconds per Tactical advance cast.

Why? What would this even do for anyone?

Problem 3: Unlike SMN, seline and eos are all we get, they dont even do anything diffrent from eachother. So I say , if all were going to get is skins, can we have a better variety of skins.
Idea: Allow SCH to glamour their fairies to be any one of the Fey creatures found in Il Mheg, since the fairies are fey anyways.

They aren't even the same though. Eos and Sleene are Faeries. Not even sure if they are "fey" in FFXIV. The Il Mheg fey are pixies and Nu Mou.

I'd like Glamour but SMN can only glamour into Carbuncles so its different.

Also, they use to be different but one fairy or the other was never used, depending on balance, because the other was just flat out better.

I think maybe some sort of crit buff would be the most fitting for a support Aetherflow ability, since it would synergize with Chain Stratagem and could be used on self to get more crit Adlo chances.

This would be a waste. We can already force a critAdlo and using it for a critAdlo would be a DPS loss.


Everyone needs to stop suggesting damage increasing support abilities for SCH. Not only is that an AST thing, for the most part, but if you added one to the current SCH they would easily become the "must have" healer for every group... Again. We have Chain Statagem, this is enough.

I know a lot of you don't want to hear this, but: SCH is fine being a position where it isn't blatantly the most overpowered Healer. It does not need to be the "must-have" choice so WHM and AST fight over the second spot while it sits comfy. SCH is fine for the most part, it needs to be ironed out but it is currently decent. And being decent is perfectly reasonable with the current state of things. I know its hard, SCH has been riding high since its release basically but chill, it doesn't need to be the best every expansion.