Quote Originally Posted by Liam_Harper View Post
I imagine it's mainly that it's a negative downside of having a pet, but there aren't many upsides to pets. Sure it's "avoidable" but compare it to, say, AST that simply presses a GCD and it triggers just fine. It's not unusual that players find it preferable to play classes where oGCD's function in a straightforward manner rather than a class where half the oGCD's are tied to a mechanic that complicates them, with little unintended interactions to micromanage and avoid, but doesn't offer any benefit in exchange. Either way, regardless of my own opinion, it's a fact SCH popularity has plummeted this expansion.

Clipping for dps gains and potions are indeed issues too.
The obvious benefit in exchange is range and tempo. You have a second character that can handle mechanics entirely separate from what you are doing and can be in positions you can’t be in order to do so, but you have to think ahead if you want to have it react properly. The only functionally similar abilities to to what the fairy can do on AST and WHM are Medica II, Cure III, Asylum, Synastry, and Earthly Star, most of which don’t emulate the same range and require GCD input to take advantage of at all. Place still works the way it did in Stormblood. I think it’s fine apart from the issues we’ve brought up around their numbers lacking clarity and needing more tweaking to the current toolkit and AI. I’m in the camp that she needs to resolve her orders faster but otherwise functions fine given her constraints.