No love for Sch

[RyuDragnier]

Genuinely don't understand why people are in such disarray over SCH.

Because they outright admitted they don't know what they can do for the class anymore. The devs outright admitted they don't know what to add to one of the base game classes. That means that not only do they not know how to fix it, but that it's likely going to get hit with a rework sometime either in EW or by 7.0.

[Euphares]

Because they outright admitted they don't know what they can do for the class anymore. The devs outright admitted they don't know what to add to one of the base game classes. That means that not only do they not know how to fix it, but that it's likely going to get hit with a rework sometime either in EW or by 7.0.

What about it needs fixing though? Its a shield healer that has strong mitigation and shields with a pet that enhances its mitigation and shields. Current SCH covers that just fine.

That segment doesn't read to me like "this is broken" more that "this job is meeting all our design goals and we are unsure how to be innovative with additions without losing the identity we want." They would be right, there isn't a whole lot they can add to the job without it becoming cluttered, so they defaulted to unique utility that is still in-line with the theme (new movement speed ability.)


Summoner gets changed so much because prior to its upcoming iteration it didn't seem to ever meet its intended design identity, SCH isn't nearly in the same boat.

[RyuDragnier]

What about it needs fixing though? Its a shield healer that has strong mitigation and shields with a pet that enhances its mitigation and shields. Current SCH covers that just fine.

Dissipation removes your fairy and gives you Aetherflow stacks. But you need your fairy out to get Fae Gauge buildup using Aetherflow stacks. You need your fairy out to use Seraph, your level 80 ability, which will then lock out the Fae Gauge moves. You need your fairy out to use one of your party regens and a party mitigation, which do not get stronger when you use your limited time Seraph form of your fairy. Fae Gauge only has 2 moves, neither of which are used much at all despite this, one of which is the weakest AoE heal in the game and has a 60s cooldown, the other a tether to a single target that the fairy will end the second you use any other fairy ability. Lustrate, Excogitation, Sacred Soil, Indomitability, Energy Drain, are fighting to use the 3 Aetherflow Stacks. The entire kit fights with and contradicts itself instead of working together.

[ToodlesElNoodles]

Are there situations in which you need to pump all 3 (Dissipation, Fey Union, and Summon Seraph) at the same time?

Genuinely curious.

[RyuDragnier]

Are there situations in which you need to pump all 3 (Dissipation, Fey Union, and Summon Seraph) at the same time?

Genuinely curious.

I've had to use Summon Seraph, Fey Union, and Dissipation one after the other while panicking in a very bad run. It was a very VERY hectic run of a trial, leading to a very close clear...with me out of aetherflow, out of the gauge, out of MP, and almost everybody in the party having Brink of Death. I don't think I've ever used Lustrate that much since Heavensward was current content.

[Euphares]

Dissipation removes your fairy and gives you Aetherflow stacks. But you need your fairy out to get Fae Gauge buildup using Aetherflow stacks. You need your fairy out to use Seraph, your level 80 ability, which will then lock out the Fae Gauge moves. You need your fairy out to use one of your party regens and a party mitigation, which do not get stronger when you use your limited time Seraph form of your fairy. Fae Gauge only has 2 moves, neither of which are used much at all despite this, one of which is the weakest AoE heal in the game and has a 60s cooldown, the other a tether to a single target that the fairy will end the second you use any other fairy ability. Lustrate, Excogitation, Sacred Soil, Indomitability, Energy Drain, are fighting to use the 3 Aetherflow Stacks. The entire kit fights with and contradicts itself instead of working together.

Dissipation not letting you build gauge seems intended to me, the whole point of the ability is to sacrifice your pet in exchange for making the Scholar more powerful, which it achieves. Its not contradictory more-so its just a tradeoff for using the ability. Scholar is supposed to be a tactical healer and sacrifice is part of tactical gameplay.


Seraph letting you use gauge moves on top of also having enhanced fairy abilities and Consolation would most likely require a re-tuning of the class which would probably include nerfing the default fairy and its abilities.


The fairy gauge is only underwhelming because nothing in the game requires so much healing, blessing could get numbers tuning, and union just suffers from crappy pet ai but is still often used to prevent reliance on gcd heals to recover from tank damage.


Aetherflow abilities are fine because you are supposed to make a tactical decision with your resources. These abilities are balanced by the fact that you cannot use all of them and the ones you do use you can only use sparingly. If you could just fire and forget them, the job would once again need re-tuning which would result in all of them getting watered down which wouldn't be pleasing to anyone. And this design falls in line with the tactical, shield/mit healer identity.

The only aspects of SCH's kit that is underwhelming are fey blessing due to being undertuned, and Lustrate due to never needing to ST heal so much, in addition to overall bad pet ai due to the game engine. None of these are symptoms of SCH's design not creating a solid identity and none of these issues warrant a groundbreaking rework or the addition of groundbreaking new tools.

[BaconBits]

Its a shield healer that has strong mitigation and shields with a pet that enhances its mitigation and shields.

A shield healer that has more direct heals and regens than it does shields...

Welp, into the fire it goes.

[Euphares]

A shield healer that has more direct heals and regens than it does shields...

Welp, into the fire it goes.

One spell that applies a shield to the entire group with no cooldown and several mitigation spells, it is a healer so by nature it has to have abilities that heal, they cannot make every spell a shield that would be nonsensical. Its identity is still in-tact, even more with the addition of the new ST enhancement spell its getting.

[Dogempire]

One spell that applies a shield to the entire group with no cooldown and several mitigation spells, it is a healer so by nature it has to have abilities that heal, they cannot make every spell a shield that would be nonsensical. Its identity is still in-tact, even more with the addition of the new ST enhancement spell its getting.

It's intact sure, but why take a scholar when sage will probably be better than it in every way?

I don't know if you've tried clearing a relevant savage raid in barely passable gear with 2 white mages, but I guarantee you that it's way more smooth to have a SCH/AST and a white mage, and if sage does indeed end up being much more mitigation focused and Scholar remains largely unchanged then you just know that people are going to only want to accept sages in PF.

Raw healing stops being valuable the moment people's health is full, but there is no such thing as overshielding outside of when you just outright don't need to worry about damage and your shields fall off

[Euphares]

It's intact sure, but why take a scholar when sage will probably be better than it in every way?

I don't know if you've tried clearing a relevant savage raid in barely passable gear with 2 white mages, but I guarantee you that it's way more smooth to have a SCH/AST and a white mage, and if sage does indeed end up being much more mitigation focused and Scholar remains largely unchanged then you just know that people are going to only want to accept sages in PF.

Raw healing stops being valuable the moment people's health is full, but there is no such thing as overshielding outside of when you just outright don't need to worry about damage and your shields fall off

So the problems lie with the potential for Sage to be overtuned.


Which has nothing to do with SCH having no identity/bad design/a lacking kit.



Assuming they make content reward having an abundance of healing SCH will be favored, in content where you want more damage Sage will be favored. This seems fine to me, especially considering you can still take SCH in optimization settings and you can still take Sage in prog settings. You just won't be the best (in theory.)


Why does SCH have to be the best at both? Its okay for a job to be unfavored in certain situations. Especially so if despite that it is still viable.