Live letter expectations.

[Semirhage]

I can't speak up for anything before Stormblood, but i think it would have been a way better design choice to further improve both WHM and AST back then, in a way that both have qualifying features which the other Healers do not have, instead of just going full easy street and just nerf the most powerful one

I was on the forums back then. I recall a lot of vague "yeah, improve WHM" sentiment.

Alongside a lot of "wellllll...but not buffs because that's Astro's thing. Or damage because that's Scholar's thing."

I'm wondering exactly what future Scholar mains envisioned when their competition should have been improved, but not like *improved* improved in any way that group content cares about. I still maintain that Scholar (well, Arcanist really) suffocated job design. It's the DoTs class. No wait the pets class. No wait the smart book wizard class. No also the damage king. No wait also king of tactics. It legitimately hogged a wide variety of identities to itself. Scholar's identity, as far as I can tell, was "good at everything this game's combat system asks a job to do". That's not a sustainable identity. It precludes any other job being brought up to its level, because then you'd be treading on its toes after all.

Scholar was annihilating both the damage and heal numbers on the Site That Shall Not Be Named, and Scholar mains were still on these forums and Reddit whining and moaning that Embrace "felt so weak". Skipping mechanics with deployed critlo. Enabling shenanigans the other two healers couldn't dream of. Healer design needs to be brought up from where it is now, definitely. But oldschool meta-warping bonkers OP Scholar I'd rather see never return.