Let's talk Scholar: Changes, Class fantasy and Abilities

[StealthPaladin]

Top 5 Scholar Wishlist Wishes

1. Give Selene back. All her moves, her look, everything. But especially haste. Still devastated to this day.

2. They made Sage what Scholar should be largely. Should at least return the Fester combo to us and taking job learnable skills like Cleric stance was a mistake across all classes.

3. Chargeable shields - add physical, magic or pure mitigation to adlo with an ability similar to Focus. As in depending which fairy you have out, an ability precharges the adloquium shield.

4. Anything that rewards forethought. This is what made Scholar a Scholar, yet it was never continued in that direction after the very beginning. I feel like this is one area the team never quite understood which they inherited from pre-ARR days. Reward forethought with real DPS opportunity or if not pushing a phase then reward with adding leeway to the current phase.

5. Would be great if the book did something with a big flashy spell... really feels like we are due both a flashy attack and a unique ultimate scholarly skill. They even took away Shadow Flare.. it has been so hard to keep going but these tomes wont read themselves..

[SenzorialBoundries]

Dissipation is a great cooldown. I seriously don't get the hate that it gets, and it being the major reason for people to say SCH is "clunky" or a job that "fights itself".

How hard is it to use it after you've already blown your Fairy heals?

Or during the end of a pull, so that Fairy returns at the start of the new pull?

Or during approach of boss phase transitions, giving you ample time to wait for the 30s return timer to keep on ticking.

People have been complaining about how simple healers are, and Dissipation is one of those powerful abilities that requires thought to use well, and the masses seem to crap on it because they can't figure out how that skill can benefit them..

dissipation is alright but it only buffs a part of our kit that we dont often use, if it buffed everything rather than adlo and succor only it would be in a perfect spot as a tradeoff they could reduce it to 10%.

[Vortuna]

Remove energy drain and I'll switch back to sch from sge.

[Tobalito]

Remove energy drain and I'll switch back to sch from sge.

Im hoping its repurposed. I just want to be able to use my kit and not sacrifice it for damage, not when I see the counterpart doing both effortlessly

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Rummaging through the forum and I think this is an appropriate thread to bump to share some ideas and wish list for SCH. I hope this isn't much of a necro'ing.

Keep in mind that all these are assuming the SCH is at lv90 & numbers are obviously going to be whacky & unbalanced:

Basic kits changes & Traits

• New Trait: Nymian Trick
  SCH's generated shields now comes with certain amount of probability to proc "Overflowing Aetherflow" that alters certain action. Once expended, this trait cannot be proc'ed again for the next 30s.
• Physick
  Starting lv30 and higher, the button will morph into "Adloquium" so long as the SCH's MP pool is higher than 1000.
• Adloquium
  Breaking Adloquium's Galvanize shield has 15% chance to proc "Overflowing Aetherflow". Breaking Catalyze shield is guaranteed to proc the trait.
• Succor
  Breaking Succor's Galvanize shield has 3% chance to proc "Overflowing Aetherflow".
• Broil IV
  Potency is reduced to 270p. If target is suffering from Biolysis OR Chain Stratagem, potency is buffed to 290p. If both Biolysis and Chain Stratagem are active, potency is buffed to 320p and each cast generates fae gauge by 3p.
• Art of War
  Under the effect of "Overflowing Aetherflow", this action morphs into "Shadowflare."
• Shadowflare
  Instant cast GCD. Create a patch of corrupted soil that inflicts damage over time with potency of 60p, lasts for 15s. If target is suffering from Biolysis AND Chain Stratagem, generate fae gauge by 10p and inflicts "Nymian Seal". Costs 800 MP. AoE is 6y in radius.
  Nymian Seal = Party member absorbs 3% their damage dealt as HP recovery from this target. Lasts for 20s.
• Ruin II
  Removed.
• Miasma IV*
  Instant cast GCD. Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 50 & inflicts damage over time with potency of 60p, lasts for 12s. Costs 600 MP.
• Emergency Tactic
  Moved to lv35.
• Deployment Tactic
  Can now be used against a foe to spread Biolysis, Miasma IV, and Chain Stratagem at 50% potency fall off.
  
  *Replaces Ruin II as a DPS neutral mobility tool when extended movement is needed & an option to zerg pack of mobs when used in conjunction with Biolysis & Chain Stratagem with the help of Deployment Tactic.

Next it'll be about the notorious Aetherflow Gauge:

Aetherflow
Aetherflow action is removed entirely. All the current AF-based actions will be adjusted as follows:

• Lustrate
  Now behaves as a charged-based action, recharges every 30s. Recast stays at 1s. Maximum charge: 2
• Indomitability
  Now behaves as a charged-based action, recharges every 30s. Recast is lowered to 5s. Maximum charge: 2
• Excogitation
  Now behaves as a charged-based action, recharges every 45s. Recast is lowered to 15s. Maximum charge: 2
• Sacred Soil
  Now incorporated into one of fae-related abilities. Read more below.
• Energy Drain
  Now incorporated into one of fae-related abilities. Read more below.

That wraps the Aetherflow Gauge, now moving on to the Fae Gauge lastly:

Fae Gauge is rehauled.
Free from Aetherflow Gauge, Fae Gauge will now become the prominent focus of SCH's resource management. The cap remains at 100p. There are 5 ways to generate fae gauge which is as follow:

1. Fairy's Embrace casts: 2p/cast
2. Seraph's Veil casts: 4p/cast
3. Broil IV (special condition): 3p/cast
4. Shadowflare (special condition): 10p/cast
5. Energy Drain: 30p/cast

With that in mind, the following abilities will be altered:

1. Energy Drain
   Deals unaspected damage with potency of 150. Generates 30p Fae Gauge, restores 10% of Max MP, and absorbs 10% of damage dealt as HP recovery. Recast timer is 30s. Learned at lv20.
2. Whispering Dawn
   Now costs 20p to execute.
3. Fey Illumination
   Now costs 30p to execute. Deploys shield with potency of 200 while reducing damage taken by 5%. Damage reduction remains intact as long as the shield is up. Lasts for 30s. Cooldown is 60s. Healing magic buff is removed. Each of these shield has 20% to proc "Overflowing Aetherflow" when broken.
4. Fey Blessing
   Removed.
5. Fey Union
   No longer belch out tether to the target. Fairy's Embraces will now be focused at target & each casts will consume 4p of fae gauge until turned off. Fairy can still execute other abilities without breaking the Aetherpact.
6. Fey Wind
   Increase self and party member's direct hit rate by 6% for 15s. Costs 50p to execute. Cooldown: 90s. AoE is centered around the fairy.
7. Sacred Soil
   Now costs 40p to execute. Radius is extended to 10y. The dome is placed on where the fairy is stationed at the time of cast.
8. Dissipation*
   Now costs 60p to execute. Reduce recast timer of Lustrate, Indomitability, and Excogitation by 30s while increasing damage dealt and healing action potency by 10% for 15s. Also recovers 15% of Max MP. Cooldown is 90s. Does NOT remove fairy upon use.
9. Seraphic Veil
   Breaking this shield has 10% of proc'ing "Overflowing Aetherflow".
10. Angel's Whisper
    Does not cost fae gauge to execute but still shares the same cooldown as its weaker counterpart. Radius is extended to 20y.
11. Angel's Illumination
    Does not cost fae gauge to execute but still shares the same cooldown as its weaker counterpart. Radius is extended to 20y.
12. Consolation**
    Now comes to with a buff that increases HP recovery by healing actions by 8% for 20s. Radius is extended to 25y. Each broken shield has 20% chance to proc "Overflowing Aetherflow".
    
    *Yes, this is stolen from PvP SCH's Dissipation.
    **Healing received buff is added is to ensure 2nd Consolation shields will always overwrite the 1st Consolation's, effectively extending the window of which shield can stay active unless critical'ed.

I know I know, it's painfully useless but lemme just fantasize and let these thoughts out ;_;

[elioaiko]

In the end, the problem really boils down to ED and Aetherflow existing together and preventing SCH from using stacks for healing. The whole excuse of "healing opportunity" is BS.

Look at WHM, Misery is a loss and even more so since they fixed the weaving. People swore up and down that the 1.5s cast time would fix their issues except it didn't. It only cleared up clipping and some freedom in movement.

Lilies will always be a loss when you have a coordinated party.

Using Aetherflow heals cuts into ED, a way for you drop stacks before a refresh. In a nutshell this is a "reward" when you realize that you should everything not under Aetherflow before you use touch the stacks because why use an Indom, when you can either use Fey Blessing, Expedient, Whispering Dawn, Seraph? And even when you exhaust these options, you still have Recitation.

The current Aetherflow needs to be only for buffing/debuff with ED as the reward. Attaching healing to damage has done way more harm than good because the devs almost always, don't make it worth it because they're not DPS neutral.

Toxicon should never be fished for so you only have it for prepull and downtime (which we didn't have much of this tier).

Misery is a loss now that WHM can weave and move properly. And the requirement for 3 lilies before for a Misery is bad design. Same with Toxicon where you can get this during downtime or long movement.

Lord of Crowns is 50/50 with a heal so you can never count on it to be ready. But at least it's not attached to GCD healing right?

The perception that these are "rewards" for healing is tragic. They can't be rewards when you get punished for even using them. Either make them DPS neutral or detach them from healing all together.

The devs want this design of "rewarding through healing" when it should be rewarding free healing for correct dps gimmicks. The game has and will always revolve around DPS checks so every job is a dps in some capacity and the faster something dies is the best form of mitigation. Kill it faster than it can kill you.

[Silver-Strider]

The devs want this design of "rewarding through healing" when it should be rewarding free healing for correct dps gimmicks. The game has and will always revolve around DPS checks so every job is a dps in some capacity and the faster something dies is the best form of mitigation. Kill it faster than it can kill you.

It's not so much that rewarding through Healing can't work but the way they've set it up is done poorly and they haven't done enough for it to be rewarding. They have a foundation with the Lily System and Addersting but haven't gone far enough with either system to make them really a reward, resulting in both being just lackluster refunds. SE had actually fixed ED being used as a DPS tool in ShB by making Ruin 2+ED on par with Broil so that SCH had a Weave/Mobility tool that didn't harm the job in terms of its DPS but with the cast time changes, Broil now provides the same benefits while also making ED a DPS gain again. Lord and Lady of Crowns making a return just caused Button Bloat issues for AST while also increasing the likelihood of RNG screwing them up.

The Devs just need someone to sit down and reevaluate healers from the ground up because it's very clear they can't be bothered to do it themselves.

[ty_taurus]

Top 5 Scholar Wishlist Wishes

1. Give Selene back. All her moves, her look, everything. But especially haste. Still devastated to this day.

2. They made Sage what Scholar should be largely. Should at least return the Fester combo to us and taking job learnable skills like Cleric stance was a mistake across all classes.

3. Chargeable shields - add physical, magic or pure mitigation to adlo with an ability similar to Focus. As in depending which fairy you have out, an ability precharges the adloquium shield.

4. Anything that rewards forethought. This is what made Scholar a Scholar, yet it was never continued in that direction after the very beginning. I feel like this is one area the team never quite understood which they inherited from pre-ARR days. Reward forethought with real DPS opportunity or if not pushing a phase then reward with adding leeway to the current phase.

5. Would be great if the book did something with a big flashy spell... really feels like we are due both a flashy attack and a unique ultimate scholarly skill. They even took away Shadow Flare.. it has been so hard to keep going but these tomes wont read themselves..

I would love to see Selene receive her own tools once more, but they cannot be what she had before. AoE Esuna is cute for the literal 1 mechanic per expansion we get where it actually does something, but cleansable debuffs are so incredibly rare in this game these days and only continue to get rarer as the combat design team continues to forget it's even a thing. It's just not worth dedicating a button to that when Esuna is already forced. Haste is a buff that not all DPS want or even benefit from it. In some cases, Haste can actively desynch a DPS's rotation. If Eos and Selene got some kind of rework to how they're implemented, perhaps with some inspiration from SMN's Design, I could see Selene absorbing Chain Stratagem if she gets a phase that's ideal for burst windows, but it would take a specific type of rework to make that happen.