I am stuck in a Scholar midlife crisis!

[LariaKirin]

Settings -> Character -> Control -> Target -> Untick "Disable targetting of pets and minions when in battle".

As for the other stuff, just read your buttons and try them out.

[Gemina]

This is the sort of heads-up I was also looking for. I see there is some nice stuff coming up, but it feels so clunky. I really do not even understand certain tooltips, as pathetic as that is. When I read "next galvanize..." and I am like "What is that? Where do I trigger this in the first place?!". In 2015, I had it all sorted out: These buttons are shields, this is the panic heal, this is the AoE heal, that needs Aetherflow.

Should I throw Catalyze in there as well (another shield) ;p

Galvanize is the status effect gained from Adloquium and Succor. This effect in all retrospect has it's own HP that can even stack on top of maximum HP to increase to overall HP of the player. It fades when the shield breaks or the generous timer expires. It does not stack with AST noct shield, however, it can be used with of other mitigation abilities such as tank cooldowns, your own Sacred Soil, and Catalyze (what I mentioned earlier), which you will learn later. When the tooltip says "next" Galvanize, it is just referring to the next Adlo or Succor cast by you will receive the benefit.

Now I have Aetherflow AND a cooldown on a skill, and this is so confusing to understand the logic. If am already gated behind stacks which are behind CD, why does the spell itself is also limited?

My friend, right here you bring up one of my biggest gripes with the game, and that is abilities that tap from multiple resources. Every job I play suffers from this except WHM, which used to suffer from it greatly tying many of their light-based skills like Tetra, Assize, Benison, and Asylum to the lilies. These have all been severed from the lilies and just have the CD now. This improved WHM drastically, and I would imagine all jobs currently suffering from this atrocity would also benefit.

The problem was exacerbated with the addition of job gauges in SB. It is flawed design to implement a gauge as a resource and then also gate its abilities with a CD timer. If we have to build the resource up, then a CD pretty much defeats the purpose of it. It is far more engaging to have multiple abilities use and share the job gauge resource so players can choose which ability fits the current situation. If an ability is so powerful that you have to slap a CD timer on it, then it probably doesn't belong in the set of job gauge skills.

I used to send my pet into the boss room or over places I can't reach during some mechanics. But I could see her by selecting her in the party list. Also, when she got damaged, I knew the guys there get damged, too, so I had great overview of the arena. Like "damage hotspots". I took care of special cases with my toolkit and Eos did First Aid and scouting. Now I am spending more time to move her around or get her back on my heels. Which adds to my entire confusing gameplay.

Yeah, these "damage hotspots" is a crutch you do not need, but thinking outside the box is a good thing, especially for a SCH. However, not being able to see Lily in the party list was a definite problem that thankfully got fixed. But pets have some glaring issues, and some have been around for quite some time:
- Ghosting
- Too long of a delay between use of fairy action, and reception of fairy benefit
- Taking pet abilities off of the pet hotbar
- Multiple resource abilities (Fey Blessing, Consolation)
- Wonky AI

This is along with several grievances that could easily be taken care between patches. SCH's accidentally sending away their fairy can be taken care of by having the ability grayed out when the SCH is in combat. Forgetting that you placed her and leaving her in the dust in dungeons and forcing the SCH to resummon her can be taken care of by simply having Lily teleport to the SCH once the distance is too great between them. This would also help tons in alliance raid arenas, that are like what? A thousand yalms in circumference? xD

As for your hotbar setup, I don't see why you can't organize them in a way that is satisfactory to you. You have so much more time on your RDM than your SCH, so you will need to give it a little bit of time for your hotbar setup to be as proficient as it has become for you on other jobs you've spent more time with. I play on controller myself and I tend to place instant/ogcd skills on the face keys, and GCD dependent skills on the directional pad. This is because for skills that use the directional pad, I have to sacrifice movement or use autorun, so it is best to place skills there where I have to do this anyway. From there I try to categorize them based on type of skill such a damage, heal, god abilities, etc.

[MrKusakabe]

I am just truly thinking Square Enix does not know where to go wit their skills with healers. Or it is not even user-friendly as it could be. This awkward half-empty but non-editable Fairy skill bar is a disgrace for this company.

However, not being able to see Lily in the party list was a definite problem that thankfully got fixed.

But we can't do anything with her from the party list. Have not tried it ingame, but last time I checked she even loses the name tag in battles, it is litreally just a 30x30px object on a 2550x1440px screen when scrolling out and/or having a topdown view. I don't have a problem with her leaving because I haven't left her behind so far (I had that happen a lot back in 2014 when summoning her took full 5 seconds instead of the half we have right now).

Here is a file image though. Did they fix that - the name tag gone missing? Else the party list is useless if it's empty. I know if my Fairy is there if I have the Fairy Hotbar, so why having a party entry when it's unclickable?

Also, I keep playing this intro riff from "Galvanize" playing in my mind now for hours when going Scholar..

I decided to mix in more Scholar and get it to 80 and the profession quests done so I have all ready. Actually, I am a bit better now then the past two days where I was so close to ditch this profession. Having a hard time to visualize the abilities makes it hard. And I don't know why that is a thing. Imagine you drive stick fine and confident for 2 years and then I can't move 5 meters without stalling the engine..

Sincerely,

[Gemina]

They did fix it. She has her name tag on the battlefield, and she is in the party list. You still can't target her, or deploy adlo's off of her like we could in SB. They changed the fairy gauge as well. It is always present now whether or not you have Lily out. However, it still brings up a great point that there are multiple ways to tell if Lily is out, but seeing her in the party list is by far the easiest method to ensure she has been summoned and resummoned after Seraph leaves the arena.

A big issue with the fairy gauge is that it is underutilized, meaning that it spends a lot of time being full. Only two skills are tied to it, which are Fey Union and Fey Blessing. Union is just fine. You can activate it and deactivate it at will so long as you have some gauge built up. Blessing however is also tied to a CD along with the 10 point cost to the gauge. Blessing should have a cost that is coordinated with the rate that the SCH build the gauge through aetherflow. Right now, I believe we get 30pts every minute, and Blessing is on a 90sec CD, so the cost of blessing should be somewhere around 30-50 off of the gauge; or take the gauge cost away completely and leave it at 90sec. Either way, what SCH needs is another way to spend the gauge and have to choose between that and Union.

Glad to hear you're going to stick it out. SCH has always been the healer I use to do more difficult content, and it's DPS toolkit has always been lower on the list of why I get enjoyment out of those fights. Overall, I find it to be a very fun healer that has a lot of toys to fire off while dancing around teh AoE. It is just no longer equipped to satiate the thirst of those who want more DPS skills to use during their downtime.

[HyoMinPark]

Small correction to the above: Fey Blessing is a 60s cooldown.

[Rasikko]

They just don't want to properly fix healing in general.

I feel like they don't know how.

[Synaesthesia]

I feel like they don't know how.

It definitely feels like that.. I mean.. Who would look at people who play a pet based class where a lot of the fun is in you working together with your fairy and go

"You know what we should do in the next expansion? Make Scholar's partner dopey, sluggish and unreliable"

The weirdest thing is that they used to do much better than they do now..

Even if it wasn't perfect, some content like Dun Scaith had mechanics that made healing more engaging, like random Doom, Earth Shaker attacks that would hit random party members, rescuing people from falling off during the knockback attack from the first boss or the heavy hitting tank busters that the last boss would do in succession. Monsters being able to afflict slows, or lethal dots meant you had to try and respond as fast as possible if 3 people got hit and your triage was on a short timer.

Along with the more greater variety of attacks and buffs that healers had, Scholar and Astrologian's special job traits being more varied and engaging and that ogcds didn't outpace the content to the point of getting by on them alone, it was really enjoyable.

I don't think it's just the healer design that's less inspired now, it's also that the fight design doesn't offer a lot to keep healing engaging.. All 4 current Eden Savages have a healing design like "Tankbuster, group damage, tankbuster, group damage, lots of group damage near the end" that just repeats.. There's a brief moment during E2S where you have to identify 2 people with a debuff and heal them, then it's back to normalcy. E4S gets intense enough at the end that you have to focus and work but..

It's like we've been given this massive toolkit based around a few 60 second splotches of intense damage at the end game without consideration for how it feels to play the rest of the time..

[CrimsonGunner]

It definitely feels like that.. I mean.. Who would look at people who play a pet based class where a lot of the fun is in you working together with your fairy and go

"You know what we should do in the next expansion? Make Scholar's partner dopey, sluggish and unreliable"

The weirdest thing is that they used to do much better than they do now..

Even if it wasn't perfect, some content like Dun Scaith had mechanics that made healing more engaging, like random Doom, Earth Shaker attacks that would hit random party members, rescuing people from falling off during the knockback attack from the first boss or the heavy hitting tank busters that the last boss would do in succession. Monsters being able to afflict slows, or lethal dots meant you had to try and respond as fast as possible if 3 people got hit and your triage was on a short timer.

Along with the more greater variety of attacks and buffs that healers had, Scholar and Astrologian's special job traits being more varied and engaging and that ogcds didn't outpace the content to the point of getting by on them alone, it was really enjoyable.

I don't think it's just the healer design that's less inspired now, it's also that the fight design doesn't offer a lot to keep healing engaging.. All 4 current Eden Savages have a healing design like "Tankbuster, group damage, tankbuster, group damage, lots of group damage near the end" that just repeats.. There's a brief moment during E2S where you have to identify 2 people with a debuff and heal them, then it's back to normalcy. E4S gets intense enough at the end that you have to focus and work but..

It's like we've been given this massive toolkit based around a few 60 second splotches of intense damage at the end game without consideration for how it feels to play the rest of the time..

that is just in savage tier ,what about the other content like MSQ or dungeons or normal raids even? it feels even worse there unless you actually got a really bad or inexperienced party/alliances members that will make you burn your heals.
their idea for healers is neat(having a pet class healer,card using healer and the classic healer) but their kit design seriously sucks, i said it once and i will say it again whoever in SE that was in charge of designing the healers kit in SHB designed it for a brain dead bot and not for a living and breathing human beings.

[GrimGale]

Scholar is the only class whose gameplay doesn't build up.

WHM: Slowly generate lillies. When you spend them you unlock a new powerful skill. Using it feels satisfying. A reward for keeping an eye on your resources and spending them. (Though arguably not that efficient to do so.)

AST: Collect seals by buffing allies. While buffing doesn't interact with healing, it still builds up to a strong CD ability. The animation is beautiful and its satisfying to fish for the seals to unleash the most potent version of divination. (Though AST lost much of its flavour and support by making every card a flat dps increase.)

SCH: A bunch of disjointed CDs you can use whenever which actually lock you out of other interesting abilities.
Dissipation> No fairy skills or fey gauge
Fairy tether> No fairy skills
Seraph>No tether or veil
Fey gauge is used for 2 mildly potent things, one of wich locks your fairy out of her strongest skills.

[Sloprano]

[FONT=Franklin Gothic Medium][SIZE=3]
But we can't do anything with her from the party list. Have not tried it ingame, but last time I checked she even loses the name tag in battles, it is litreally just a 30x30px object on a 2550x1440px screen when scrolling out and/or having a topdown view. I don't have a problem with her leaving because I haven't left her behind so far

It has been posted earlier in the thread, but in case you missed it: You can make Lily's name appear and make her targetable in combat by going to Settings->Character Config->Control Settings -> Target tab-> Disable targeting of pets and minions when in battle: Turn Off. It makes her easier to spot, specially if you change her name bar in "character config -> Display name settings -> Own -> Click on "Pets"".

This lets you spot her and target her in combat easier so you know where she is before using any of the commands. Still can't heal her or deploy off her nor fill out the five holes on the pet hotbar unfortunately.

Looking at Scholar it's like one of those talent trees in wow, rift and other mmos called "Healing/Restoration." Put all your points in there are and you are very proficent in healing, keeping everyone alive is no problem, but if you wanna do stuff solo it's kinda lackluster. Thats why you could spec into something else for fun. Whole thing smacks of SE wanting to make three specialization for AST, WHM and SCH: AST would also be able to further look into Time Magic or Card Enhancement, White Mages commuing even further with the Elementals or dwelving into the mystery of Lilies, SCH's could seek out K'rhid and K'lyhia for even more Arcanist tools or more training in Nymian Marine tactics to increase playstyle synergy with Lily.

Instead a notice was probably never sent, a yellow note was blown away, someone forgot, instructions were given to a designer who turned out were just there to deliver a fruit basket. Then at the day 5.0 went gold a dev went: "Oh no, we only managed to finish the healing specs! Ast, whm and sch gameplay will be utter trite!" "Worry not" said a senior dev, "we'll claim this was for Balance reasons, tomorrow all the healers will have forgotten they were only designed to HEAL with one nuke and a 30 second dot for 74 levels across hundred of hours of solo fights, duties and dungeons." Everyone at SE cheered and I'm reminded how awful Scholar is for each Broil III I cast.

Seeing as my assumptions for how 5.0 SCH came to be is reaching unhinged levels it is in hopes that this is the post that propels the Healer subforums postcount across the magical threshold that makes a klaxon ring at SE HQ and in a puff of smoke and sparks makes a Community manager appear, clapping as he goes: "Congratulations! You've reached the mandatory levels of posts, we will know read and acknowledge your concerns."