Veteran opinions on Scholar?

[Hysterior]

Based on all the response I'm getting, I get that the job is viably not fun to play at the moment.
I'm a dps and quick-action person myself, I guess none of the healers available right now is for me, Sage however seems quite promising as they heal through doing damage. Thanks all!

In the meantime I'll try out the support class Bard.

You forgot one important element: When you level your SCH you also level the DPS job:Summoner.
And for that alone, it is worth leveling up and giving it a try.

It's the only job that gives you both a DPS and a healer in one go - which is super valuable, especially at the start of an expansion to be more flexible.

[Asari5]

before you try it you cant really know if you like it or not. there are people who enjoy schoolar a lot. when i started i tried every class available, took a while, the very last class was pugilist. didnt seem to be my type... but i tried it anyway and monk became my main in HW... loved the job.

[Anhra]

before you try it you cant really know if you like it or not. there are people who enjoy schoolar a lot. when i started i tried every class available, took a while, the very last class was pugilist. didnt seem to be my type... but i tried it anyway and monk became my main in HW... loved the job.

The only People who enjoy SCH, are the ones who dont play it frequently enough or are straight up new to the game. And sooner or later, they WILL come to the same conclusion as most of us here did.

[CaptainLagbeard]

1. Certain fights punish tremendously with two SCH in the party. (which what the other healer player plays is out of my control)

Fights punish 2 SCH because the intent kind of is to have one SCH or Nocturnal AST and one WHM or Diurnal AST.
Shields for blocking damage before big hits, and a healer to regen after the hits and to maintain the tank(s).

It's not a bad design, but with how things are balanced, the shields are not strong enough for it realistically.

2. Choice of fairies are purely cosmetic and their AI is not the best.

If they gave both faeries all their skills back, SCH would get some nice additional utility. Adding what is essentially Dark Missionary/Heart of Light to the current set of skills, and for Selene to get a group-wide haste buff, an situationally useful AoE Esuna and an interrupt.

[Gemina]

You forgot one important element: When you level your SCH you also level the DPS job:Summoner.
And for that alone, it is worth leveling up and giving it a try.

It's the only job that gives you both a DPS and a healer in one go - which is super valuable, especially at the start of an expansion to be more flexible.

This adds value to the player, not the SCH. And that is what the OP is inquiring about. He wants to play SCH, not SMN. At least that is the impression I am given.

[Deceptus]

You forgot one important element: When you level your SCH you also level the DPS job:Summoner.
And for that alone, it is worth leveling up and giving it a try.

It's the only job that gives you both a DPS and a healer in one go - which is super valuable, especially at the start of an expansion to be more flexible.

This is kinda my take on it. I level SMN/SCH first, then a tank and I have all 3 main roles covered.

[technole]

Part of the issue is Scholar is still the same job in most respects and that breeds staleness. No real fairy changes aside from making it more responsive, but even then the dedicated players already accepted how it played and that doesn't change that much.

In a sense they had reigned in the OP parts of the job over time from the removal of fast aetherflow, to the more recent energy drain potency nerf (which in-turn gives back less MP). But once again it has raid utility job along with Astro. White Mage and Sage are the selfish healers so there is that balance where Scholar has a place because Chain gets a little stronger now.

Having a new "sprint + shield samba" skill is nice for progression, because there are certainly areas of fights you could imagine having it. Think of E12S Diamond Dust if you had it during the first weeks, another layer of mitigation and getting to the ice crystal positions you need to be at may have saved hours of progression time. The value in that cannot be understated. If I can save my raid group hours of prog and seeing more of a savage fight sooner, than it did it's job.

Lastly, healers had to wait about six years for another job. That's a long time.

[CaptainLagbeard]

Lastly, healers had to wait about six years for another job. That's a long time.

The main reason for that particular part is the lack of unique mechanics they could add to a new healer, as they do seem to try to minimize overlap between different jobs. Like for Sage the big new mechanic seems to be having heals or shields tied to attacks to make a more offensive healer...

[DragoAskani]

The main reason for that particular part is the lack of unique mechanics they could add to a new healer, as they do seem to try to minimize overlap between different jobs. Like for Sage the big new mechanic seems to be having heals or shields tied to attacks to make a more offensive healer...

I mean if you want to call Kardia that sure. But its basically just an embrace you move around, and if you have to do anything other then dps then you are losing healing per second. So it will always be less overall healing in a given encounter then the fairy if you have to stop dpsing for even one or two globals. The control of where you put the healing is its strongest aspect. There are no shields tied to damage.

Not that the hps difference matters in ff14, but if we are playing the numbers game thats how it would work out.

[Cithaerias_pyropina]

Dunno, I personally think Scholar has Sage beat in multiple obscure ways; Scholar has significantly more personal mobility, once you're out of Icarus on Sage you're a sitting duck and Sage's Ruin 2 equivalent is locked behind Addersting stacks so if you need to move for prolonged periods of time as Sage and don't have any stacks of Addersting well rip your dps. Scholar still has Chain Stratagem which will almost always be better than Sage's personal DPS.

Regardless of how janky Scholar plays it will likely still reign supreme and probably tear Sage apart by miles because it has Ruin 2 on demand and also still has Chain Stratagem. Scholar also has better MP economy than Sage but that's if MP costs and MP regeneration don't change from media tour to live.