Unpopular Opinion: Your failure to understand Energy Drain's Usage

[Silver-Strider]

Point 1. I wont argue that certain aspects of scholar's kit doesnt make sense. Energy drain is not it. Not being able to use Fey Blessing or union during seraph is an example of where I see the conflict that doesnt make sense. Players who wanted Scholar without Energy drain got Sadge. I cannot understand the community's push to make Scholar a mirror of Sadge. Some of us enjoy the planning ahead aspect of Scholar. ED falls in line with this, along with seraph and dissipation.

Point 2. This "Using Aetherflow on anything other than ED is a DPS loss" mindset is one meant for clean barse groups. Not your average player nor your midcore statics doing clears/reclears. We agree that there is an opportunity cost to using an aetherflow on ED or a heal. What makes scholar fun is knowing which situation your in and adapting accordingly.

They push it because SCH is a jank class with outdated mechanics that don't synergize with itself. Dissipation has needed a rework since its inception and is little more than a roundabout DPS CD at this point, while the heal buff it provides affect all of 3 skills, one of which is pointless. Energy Drain is little more than padding for SCHs DPS numbers. Without it, SCH falls behind in terms of their DPS so each time a SCH has to heal with Aetherflow, their numbers go down and no, using a heal to save a DPS is not a DPS gain. It means that something is wrong. Are they too far for AoE heals/buffs? Did they stand in stupid? Is their gear on par with everyone else's and/or is it repaired? Did their food buff wear off? Regardless, you now have to take the L and heal them.

SCH is not "complex". It lost all semblance of complexity between SB and ShB. Energy Drain vs Aetherflow Heals is no more complex than a WHM deciding between Glare and Afflatus spells. It's a DPS loss, period and the minute people stop their BS about Energy Drain adding a layer of complexity that doesn't exist, then maybe we can discuss how to actually fix the job.

[Irenia]

I think there is a question that should be asked:
Should the damage and healing kits be quarantined from each other?

The big reason I don't play AST is that their core card mechanics don't intersect with the rest of their kit. There was a bit in the past, yeah, but you never really wanted to use it. It's why I hope for SE to figure out how to make a GCD healer work.

If ED does stay, then the other Aetherflow skills need to be designed with it in mind.

[Recon1o6]

removing energy drain breaks sch's kit

Do you really trust SE to replace it properly given they havent each time they deleted it?

[Silver-Strider]

removing energy drain breaks sch's kit

Do you really trust SE to replace it properly given they havent each time they deleted it?

That just shows how poorly designed the class is if the removal of 1 skill breaks it.

[Recon1o6]

That just shows how poorly designed the class is if the removal of 1 skill breaks it.

i mean summoner is in a similar situation, remove carbuncle adn it breaks

[Silver-Strider]

i mean summoner is in a similar situation, remove carbuncle adn it breaks

Debatable since the Carbuncle is pretty much useless at this point and only has a purpose for the shield and raid buff it provides, both of which could be redesigned to function without the carbuncle. The reason removing ED breaks SCH is because of both Dissipation and the Fairy Guage. The Carbuncle could be completely phased out and not really impact SMN much at all whereas you'd need to redesign at least some small part of SCH's toolkit to do the same.

[ty_taurus]

Debatable since the Carbuncle is pretty much useless at this point and only has a purpose for the shield and raid buff it provides, both of which could be redesigned to function without the carbuncle. The reason removing ED breaks SCH is because of both Dissipation and the Fairy Guage. The Carbuncle could be completely phased out and not really impact SMN much at all whereas you'd need to redesign at least some small part of SCH's toolkit to do the same.

I actually like the idea of making Carbuncle SMN's personal support, but it needs to have more than a situational barrier and a 2 minute buff window button. Carbuncle historically has just been supportive up until FFXI and FFXVI, so if they develop that concept, I think it would be fine. SMN's issue has to do with an lack of depth to its DPS and it being too mobile/too heavily taxed for its mobility.

[Silver-Strider]

I actually like the idea of making Carbuncle SMN's personal support, but it needs to have more than a situational barrier and a 2 minute buff window button. Carbuncle historically has just been supportive up until FFXI and FFXVI, so if they develop that concept, I think it would be fine. SMN's issue has to do with an lack of depth to its DPS and it being too mobile/too heavily taxed for its mobility.

It'd be nice if Carbuncle had more purpose to it as well but considering the state Selene has been in since she got lobotomized, it's unlikely Carbuncle will fair any better.

[RinaShinomiya]

Point 1. I wont argue that certain aspects of scholar's kit doesnt make sense. Energy drain is not it. Not being able to use Fey Blessing or union during seraph is an example of where I see the conflict that doesnt make sense. Players who wanted Scholar without Energy drain got Sadge. I cannot understand the community's push to make Scholar a mirror of Sadge. Some of us enjoy the planning ahead aspect of Scholar. ED falls in line with this, along with seraph and dissipation.

This is a strawman argument. I haven't said it doesn't make sense, I said it suffers from conflicting Priorities.
Dissipation is supposed to be a Emergency button for heals from both GCD & AF, but instead it's a DPS button that gives you 1 Broil every 180s. And because the fairy is gone you're not even gaining Fey Gauge.
Energy Drain is supposed to be a button for AF stack dumping (that'S literally the only reason Players wanted it back, because pressing AF while still having stacks felt bad), but instead it's a DPS button that actively punishes you healing with your AF heals. This is a problem that was fixed before and only cropped up again because Square couldn't pay attention to their own fixed from a few patches ago.
Seraph is supposed to be a supercharged fairy but it's just a stepping stone for Consolation and locks you out of using Fey Union for spaghetti reasons.

Also this might be a crazy concept but you can ask for the removal of ED without asking for homogenization. If it were to me I'd nuke the AF system entirely and put more Focus on the Fey Gauge.

Point 2. This "Using Aetherflow on anything other than ED is a DPS loss" mindset is one meant for clean barse groups. Not your average player nor your midcore statics doing clears/reclears. We agree that there is an opportunity cost to using an aetherflow on ED or a heal. What makes scholar fun is knowing which situation your in and adapting accordingly.

Scholar planning ahead which heals to use isn't a gameplay aspect unique to Scholar and arguably Astrologian actually has a better healing kit designed around "predicting the future" and "preparing heals ahead of time", i.e. Earthly Star, Horoscope, Exaltation & Macrocosmos.
Just because the majority of playerbase doesn't minmax isn't an excuse for why aspects of a class should be left broken like that. Do you want Scholar to end up like White Mage? because that's how you ensure Scholar ends up like White Mage.

[Deceptus]

While I understand "technically" it is a "dps increase" to use Dissipation as a DPS CD, let's be honest here:

300 extra potency every 3 min (which is essentially a single broil) is stupidly small, and it is in virtually no way impactful. Capstone abilities should feel rewarding to press, not prohibitive.