I'm bored when I heal because I need more complex DPS rotations

[Connor]

SCH more DoTs, SGE more damage rotation

I do agree with the idea overall, But isn’t this ultimately just the same thing?

If Scholar goes back to being a dps heavy DoT Plague Demon, doesn’t that make it ‘the dps rotation job’? We can argue one way or another, but DoTs still ultimately end up as conveyor belt rotations, Bio II, Miasma, Bio - Bio, Miasma, Bio II (the variable durations meant you simply reversed for reapplication times lol). Where does that leave Sage? Likewise if Sage becomes the premium dps healer, what does that make Scholar and its DoTs? I’m not sure ‘does the same but with with slightly more consistent numbers’ is enough of an identity for a job.

Moreover, the game’s sole remaining DoT class has just two damage over time abilities, has never had Bane lol , and uses a single button. It no longer has any interactions between DoTs and damage abilities (i.e old Sidewinder) and they don’t even affect procs anymore. Ultimately, I find it difficult to envision them adding Miasma, Bio I, Miasma II, Bane, Fester, and Tri-Disaster to Scholar when actual dps jobs aren’t even being asked to manage DoTs in such a way.

Which then leaves the question of ‘What do we do with Scholar?’ Apparently the devs answer to that is/was ‘absolutely nothing’ lol. Personally I believe Scholar should do what it says on the tin.

I don’t have the exact quote, but when Alka Zolka is asked what a Scholar is, he describes them as ‘taking the role of support’ and utilising ‘powerful healing and restoration magicks, which were hardly uncommon at the time’, and that ‘it was the use of fairies and the manner in which they employed them’ that set them apart as military tacticians capable of leading a small contingent against a significantly larger force. The Scholar should be a job with poorer healing and damage output than the others, but through tactical use of buffs/debuffs and working in synergy with the fairy they can empower their allies through fights they may never have otherwise survived. It can distinguish itself from Astrologian through focusing on buffs and debuffs that are more ‘utility oriented’ than Astrologian’s damage-focused cards

What’s what I think, anyway. Not that I won’t concede the most obvious point though, that ‘but that’s just Astrologian!’. Plus, everyone would ofc just stack the two support healers (or the two dps healers lol). But I feel like building on the identity Scholar has already tried to set out for itself will work better than forcing it into a SB Summoner shaped hole (which we all know is what the new caster will be lol)