Quote Originally Posted by Jonnycbad View Post
DoT+Bane made sense back in ARR and HW when SCH did not have a GCD AoE. It wasn't until SB that they got Miasma II with good upfront initial damage (was 25 potency in ARRh+/HW, 100 potency in SB). What they managed to do was roll in all the DoT damage from Bane'd Bio II/Bio/Miasma/Shadowflare and put it into Art of War (160 potency, no drop off). SCH therefore now deal more AoE damage now than they ever did, and with no drop off.

In ARR you had:
Bio II: 35 potency/tick
Bio: 40 potency/tick
Miasma: 20 potency up front, 35/tick
Shadowflare: 25 potency/tick
Miasma II: 20 potency upfront, 10 potency

Sum: 140 potency upfront followed by 145/tick on remaining enemies. later on they added a 60% drop off in damage for multiple enemies.

Art of War: 160 potency every 2.5s, no drop off. Why do you want Bane and DoTs again?
Uh Miasma II was there since day 1 for Summoner and Scholar. It wasnt until it was removed at the start of SB and people complained that it was reinstated for Scholar only.

As for Bane, it's not so much about functionality but about style and theme. There's a difference in the style of spreading DoTs vs a single AoE, and literally no one was asking for that to be changed. Functionally, Art of War is fine, but it is probably one of actions in the game most devoid of any theme, lore, or personality. What does "Art of War" even mean? What am I doing as the Scholar to inflict damage on multiple enemies? Astrologian is crushing several enemies with a sphere of intense gravity. White Mage is conjuring pure light aether to sear and briefly disable nearby enemies. What's Scholar doing?

I'm not saying we need to discredit functionality and care only about aesthetics, but in JRPGs, that's something many people care about. When 5.0 first released, I remember there was a thread someone made about their disappointment to the changes to AST's Celestial Opposition action because the new effects made no sense based on the lore of the move. It was supposed to be the AST tugging at the thread of fate to skew a fight in their favor, and stunning enemies while increasing the duration of all their buffs made sense with that in mind, and then it was converted to just another AoE regen or shield, AKA Aspected Helios 2.0. Yeah it's OGCD so it has an additional use to it, but that's the kind of lore many players want not only in their job's design, but in their actions as well. Proper game design is about effectively uniting style and functionality to create something that flows and fulfills the fantasy of the player.