Scholar: Returning to Roots

[ty_taurus]

The common theme I've seen around what scholar does have is "cooldowns" and "resource management"

You manage your faerie, which while simpler then it used to be, is still a set of cooldowns that radiate from an external target. where not only are the cooldowns important, but also positioning.

You manage aetherflow, which even if in alot of situations is just dumped into Energy Drain, is still a resource that needs to be maintained, managed, and optimized in the use of, and the reward for doing so is mana sustain whether directly through energy Drain and the cd, or indirectly by healing for "free"

and Finally, you have fae guage, which while limited in what it's used on, is still a resource that you build by using your kit and spent on free healing.

This is the system I hope SE expands upon. instead of merely adding back old flavor spells for the sake of nostalgia and an extra button to press. SE has the potential to expand and the increase the synergies of these resources and make that the loop and complexity of the class.

The thing I ultimately want to see is a bigger emphasis on the fae gauge, give the scholar more ways to generate the gauge, while also giving the scholar more ways to spend it. For example, something simple like "Casting Broil on a target afflicted by your dot(s) generates 5 fae guage" If we want to add dots, they should not be there merely for the sake of having them, they should be something that the scholar is rewarded for maintaining.

We can even sneak a few of our old spells into the system this way, for example, making shadow flare an aoe aetherflow spender or making it faerie flavored and attaching it to Fae Gauge as a situational dump skill (name that comes to mind is Fae Hurricane, if you're wondering)

The scary thing we need to keep in mind when we theorycraft new tools or resource groups is that DPS trumps Healing unless that Healing allows more DPS than the DPS alternative (i.e. Aetherflow healing like Lustrate means less GCDs need to be spent on healing and thus are more DPS than Energy Drain, when used at the right times at least). The same would be true with damage associated with the Fey Gauge. That's not to say it can't play out, but we definitely need to pay close attention to costs and CDs because the second something like Fey Hurricane gets added is the second that Fey Gauge management now revolves around ensuring you have max uptime on Fey Hurricane.

[Brandedblade]

The scary thing we need to keep in mind when we theorycraft new tools or resource groups is that DPS trumps Healing unless that Healing allows more DPS than the DPS alternative (i.e. Aetherflow healing like Lustrate means less GCDs need to be spent on healing and thus are more DPS than Energy Drain, when used at the right times at least). The same would be true with damage associated with the Fey Gauge. That's not to say it can't play out, but we definitely need to pay close attention to costs and CDs because the second something like Fey Hurricane gets added is the second that Fey Gauge management now revolves around ensuring you have max uptime on Fey Hurricane.

Oh absolutely I do agree with that. That's the tricky spot the fae guage is currently in atm. theres alot of situations where the fae guage is just sitting at full unneeded but at the same time simply throwing a dps skill onto it without very specific restrictions would create the exact situations you described. I do believe that figuring out a way to provide players with a way to dump fae guage without making it the meta to never use it to healing would go quite the way to improving the way sch's toolkit flows together.

[Kabooa]

Well it's a different day, and since we're back on pets, letsgetatit.

While Fey Power is an adequate resource, I think one more fitting to the theme of scholar and that would fit better into having Eos and Selene being different is the idea of scrapping Fey Power and replacing it with a dual-incremental. We shall call it Stratagem.

Crappy MS Paint for reference.



We will borrow (Because, IMO, the base kit of Arcanist is always felt more keenly on Scholar in absence and additions) Egi assaults.

We'll call them "Eos Assist" and "Selene Assist". Two GCD actions with charges, instant cast. Button economy wise these replace Fey Union and Fey Small-AoE-Heal. Don't worry, those don't go away.

Eos Assist does some heal, Selene Assist does some derps.

Using Eos Assist gives +1 to the Stratagem gauge to Selene. The opposite is true for Selene to Eos. In addition, these serve as the Faerie swap. Activating Eos Assist brings out Eos were she not already. Vice versa for Selene.

Why? From a thematic perspective, the Scholar and the Faeries are entities on the battlefield and they work in tandem to achieve their goal, opening opportunities for one another.

From a mechanical perspective, it feeds into the idea of Defense Fueling Offense and Offense Fueling Defense.

You'll also gain Eos and Selene specific Stratagem actions. These are context actions, changing based on the amount of Stratgem available to each Faerie.

This is where actions such as Fey Union, Whispering Dawn, and other, more offense oriented Fey actions will go. There are implicit cooldowns assigned to each as they are limited by the amount of Assists Eos and Selene have available through charged action cooldowns.

As an example

Eos Stratagem 1: Fey Blessing
Eos Stratagem 2: Whispering Dawn
Eos Stratagem 3: Fey Union

Selene Stratagem 1: Bane
Selene Stratagem 2: Shadowflare
Selene Stratagem 3: Fey Union But Its A Laser Beam.

But what about Seraph?

Executing Eos and Selene Stratagems contribute to the Scholar's own Keikaku.

Upon reaching the requisite amount of Scholar Stratagems, the Scholar performs the Delta Attack - Bringing both Eos and Selene out, accompanied with Seraph.

This would be a steroid phase. However one might wish to do this.

In my mind it morphs Eos and Selene assist to include all three Faerie into the mix, resulting in much more potent actions while also quicker filling of the Stratagems. Seraph would then mimic, at higher potency, executed Stratagems.

End result: Lasers. So many lasers.

[Eloah]

You could probably argue about that one endlessly. Is it a ground target aoe? But it deals tick damage, so is it a DoT?

While I agree with this, the simple fact that Shadowflare couldn't be used in tandem with Sacred Soil shows it's considered more of a ground target than a DoT.

[ty_taurus]

While I agree with this, the simple fact that Shadowflare couldn't be used in tandem with Sacred Soil shows it's considered more of a ground target then a DoT.

So Shadowflare did NOT do damage over time, is what you're saying.

[NobleWinter]

No, we all know it's a DoT but in terms of design considerations it seems it was more important that the visual didn't overlap with Sacred Soil.

[ty_taurus]

No, we all know it's a DoT but in terms of design considerations it seems it was more important that the visual didn't overlap with Sacred Soil.

I can understand that sentiment but the reason we were talking about semantics wasn't really weather or not Shadowflare and/or Sacred Soil belong together, but just listing how many DoT spells the Scholar has had access to over the lifespan of the game. Yes, Shadowflare did damage over time, so it makes perfect sense to include it in the conversation.

[Eloah]

So Shadowflare did NOT do damage over time, is what you're saying.

Really?

It's right there in what I said "considered more of a ground target then a DoT." I never said it didn't do damage over time, just that system-wise its function was as a ground target. Most offensive ground targeting skills use a damage over time effect, but no one ever refers to them as DoTs in the same sense as Bio, Thunder, Aero. Most ground targets are also oGCD, Shadowflare was unique in that regard until SB, where it was turned into an oGCD. No one ever referred to Flaming Arrow, Doton, or Salted Earth as DoTs. The easiest way to to look at it is that not all ground targeting skills are DoTs and not all DoTs target the ground.

[ty_taurus]

Really?

It's right there in what I said "considered more of a ground target then a DoT." I never said it didn't do damage over time, just that system-wise its function was as a ground target. Most offensive ground targeting skills use a damage over time effect, but no one ever refers to them as DoTs in the same sense as Bio, Thunder, Aero. Most ground targets are also oGCD, Shadowflare was unique in that regard until SB, where it was turned into an oGCD. No one ever referred to Flaming Arrow, Doton, or Salted Earth as DoTs. The easiest way to to look at it is that not all ground targeting skills are DoTs and not all DoTs target the ground.

Does Shadowflare do damage over time or doesn't it? That was what the conversation was about. Please, explain to me how going "um, actually it's considered a ground target AoE and not a DoT" impacts the conversation of "How many damage over time effects did SCH have at each stage of its design?" Because I'd love to know how this seemingly useless to the conversation fact is so important-so absolutely necessary that we would be completely inaccurate discussing ways the SCH could do damage over time otherwise.