Dev team, please consider bringing back SCH's Fey Wind.

[EaMett]

Aetherflow out of combat will accomplish nothing. I don't understand why anyone thinks they need it. You get it the second you bio any add/boss/etc, why do you need it earlier? If anything it'll just mean in raid settings everyone will need to wait for aetherflow to come off cd before pulling, which lets admit, was annoying. AF in combat was a good move.

[FoxCh40s]

Aetherflow out of combat will accomplish nothing. I don't understand why anyone thinks they need it. You get it the second you bio any add/boss/etc, why do you need it earlier? If anything it'll just mean in raid settings everyone will need to wait for aetherflow to come off cd before pulling, which lets admit, was annoying. AF in combat was a good move.

Because it allows you to have full stacks before and get an extra set of stacks in a single fight, not only that but it allows you to keep the cooldown going constantly thus maximizing on capabilities and resources.

Let's me guess, next you'll ask why we needed Rouse or Fey Covenant.

[Billythepancake]

I don't mind having to wait for aetherflow until combat, though I did prefer having it before. No, you didn't wait on SCH for their aetherflow, you waited on SMN. As long as SCH had a 20 second countdown before the fight started, a whopping 5 seconds longer than the current countdown in ShB, they were golden because they had quickened aetherflow. (a trait I desperately want back along with my fairy and dps buttons)

[Grimoire-M]

I don't want Quickened Aetherflow back. It was excessive. You could legitimately spam Indom and Excog on cooldown and have Aetherflow to spare, and it was the main reason they didn't have Piety issues whatsoever. SCH didn't need that trait back then, and still doesn't. The only reason I'd want it back is because it made Fey Union more spammable...which suggests to me Fey Union just needs to cost less while in use.

If SE gave more DPS cooldowns that were tied to aetherflow, I'd consider having it back, but as is, I'd prefer it if they just added more to the GCD DPS rotation, and something else to weave alongside heals when you want to conserve aetherflow.

[NobleWinter]

Who pitched Art of War as the new AoE move and got it approved. Does anyone remember how much mp it cost initially too? Like they really wanted us to stop dpsing cause we would run dry otherwise and just stand still with no energy drain and no AoE dot ticking away on enemies. I used to love Scholar and they took everything about it I loved away and called it a healer update for balance. I am not a WHM. That's not how a new expansion is supposed to work. I hate it here.

[Allegor]

Honestly, I barely even play SCH but even I find it insulting Selene was basically deleted. The silence was useless but an aoe Esuna and a haste buff made me feel I was more support oriented rather than an outright healer, that's what I liked about SCH as opposed to WHM, specially when DF paired me with other SCH who already had Eos out - it was like the job's version of AST's diurnal/nocturnal.

[NobleWinter]

Honestly, I barely even play SCH but even I find it insulting Selene was basically deleted. The silence was useless but an aoe Esuna and a haste buff made me feel I was more support oriented rather than an outright healer, that's what I liked about SCH as opposed to WHM, specially when DF paired me with other SCH who already had Eos out - it was like the job's version of AST's diurnal/nocturnal.

To be fair Slene was really fun when you left her on Sic and she just did her own thing. She only cast Fey Wind in combat, and if two Scholars used Selene they wouldn't cast Fey Wind if they were under the effect already so you didn't have to worry about overwriting each other. They also used their silence whenever possible on enemies you probably couldn't target fast enough on your own like in dungeons with giant pulls. The only drawback I found was that Selene would constantly try to silence atacks that couldn't be silenced which was odd and wasteful but you never really expected much from the silence anyway. The free Esuna was great too cause you basically ignore most debuffs to keep spamming DPS abilities. It's was a great time to be alive.

[Morningstar1337]

Aetherflow out of combat will accomplish nothing. I don't understand why anyone thinks they need it. You get it the second you bio any add/boss/etc, why do you need it earlier? If anything it'll just mean in raid settings everyone will need to wait for aetherflow to come off cd before pulling, which lets admit, was annoying. AF in combat was a good move.

IIRC One tip in dungeons is to use Aldo+Ecog prepull, something that is impossible for the first pull without being late because the latter is tied to Aetherflow.

Though that could be changed by simply not tying it to Aetherflow

On the topic, I'd prolly bring faeries closer to SB with how embrace interacts with the GCDs, then bring back silent dusk as a shared skill (for slight utility and thematic paring with Whispering Dawn also shared because I think the regen was a significant factor in favoring the Eos aspect), bring back Fey Covenant and have that and Blessing be Eos-only skills and then bring Wind and Caress back as Selene only skills.

[Connor]

They Fey Wind skill was pretty great to use. I actually kinda enjoyed back in 2.0 when Selene’s buffs were split between magic and physical and you could rotate between them (or leave her on Sic and have her do it more efficiently than a human ever could lol). Not that I don’t prefer the more convenient form of just all at once

Fey Caress was a good skill too, but then I could probably count the amount of times the full party has been inflicted with a status ailment on one hand.

The silence was kinda ‘meh’ but I’d rather have that than nothing lol. I think it’d be really cool if it was the same skill but just gave a damage down debuff to the target, since it’s a more useful effect with essentially the same function (stop the enemy hurting everyone as much)

I always thought it’d be really cool if Eos and Selene had separate abilities again, but then when Seraph is summoned they get enhanced. Like maybe Selene’s silence or whatever could come an AoE stun, or Fey Wind could get a small damage buff attached. Whispering Dawn could apply a DoT effect to nearby enemies and Fey Illumination could reduce the enemy’s defense (I’d like to say enemy magic defense so it’s the same as the standard one but that might be annoying in a full phys party lol)

On a side-note it always triggers me going into trust dungeons and seeing Alphinaud’s Carbuncle throwing out damage buffs. Why does his fox-rat have more interesting abilities than my super angel fairy?

[ty_taurus]

WARNING! UNPOPULAR OPINION INCOMING!

Lol, sorry. But yeah, so I actually would prefer Scholar not get Fey Wind back, and for Chain Stratagem to either get changed or turned into a selfish debuff.

WAIT! Before you gut me with your pitchforks, let me explain.

So back in 2.X days, Scholar was the DPS healer or off-healer. We didn't have potent AoE healing tools like we do today, and we largely left that responsibility up to the White Mage. That in combination with our Faerie's free healing and our ability to mitigate damage received through shielding allowed us to maximize our usage of DPS spells.

It's no secret that we are still fairly divided when it comes to whether or not Healers should DPS, even if we can all agree that we're spending at least way too much time mashing the Glare/Broil/Malefic button in most content. This is why I think rDPS contribution should still be a thing, but that each healer should contribute to it differently to cater to these different play styles.

This is why I would consider removing Scholar's support--to return them to being the defecto "Green DPS" who tries to use DPS GCDs as much as possible. The caveat to this though is that we need a more interesting DPS rotation as a Scholar. If it were me, I'd consider rebuilding the Scholar's kit a tad and just reorganizing things. I'd make Aetherflow oGCDs all utility tools like Sacred Soil and Excogitation while things like Lustrate and Indomitability get merged/added to the faeries kit and make the faerie all about oGCD healing.

I know not everyone wants a DPS heavy Healer which is why I'd rework Astro to have GCD offensive buffs that are more valuable than Malefic casting (that could also be applied to themselves for soloing), to make them the "Support-Only" healer who maybe just keeps Combust up and throws buffs around to make everyone else stronger. White Mage would be somewhere it the middle, building upon the new lily system and focusing on extreme burst damage gated behind GCD healing--burst damage that would out-perform Glare spam. So they would DPS less, but get to toss out huge numbers every so often, not unlike White Mages casting Holy in other Final Fantasies.

So I know most Scholars would probably still want Fey Wind and to keep Chain Stratagem the way it is, but that's just my 2 cents.