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

[Connor]

Back in the day, I'd say DoTs were a pretty big part of SCH gameplay and there's ample opportunity for them to be more interestingly involved, but imo it'd be far from ideal to just throw the DoTs and Bane back onto the kit, improvement though it would be.

This is how I feel as well. I’m not suggesting DoTs aren’t important part of Scholar’s identity but I also believe part of that is that there’s more to them than just the application of damage over time abilities.

Personally, I’d be happy with just Biolysis and a Second DoT, Miasmalysis lol? (Not that I can imagine how one would cause the breakdown of miasma lol). But to me, what’s most important is that they have a tactical purpose beyond simply applying them, like affecting damage taken or dealt, critical hit resistances, Slow, etc. Then with things like adapting Deployment Tactics (and giving it 2 charges lol) those tactical usages can influence how/when you use them, like refreshing them early to spread them to adds on spawn and making the most out of the debuffs (and damage over time). With buffs and debuffs competing for Deployment Tactics Scholars would (theoretically) have meaningful decisions to make over whether to spread buffs, debuffs, or try to spread both based on the context.

Of course there are some issues that arise, like ‘what’s the point of being able to spread debuffs when 90% of content is against a single enemy’ lol. Plus, buffs/debuffs getting math’d into oblivion so you have to use the ‘superior’ ones all the time every time. Not to mention the obvious issue of, if the debuffDoTs can both the applied together you just stick them on every X seconds and that’s it. If they’re mutually exclusive, then it’s still basically just using 1 DoT at a time, you’re just switching it up every so often. I won’t claim my idea of where Scholar should go are foolproof or flawless (not that many things are lol), but I personally believe that kind of design is what would see Scholar’s identity flourish most as a ‘versatile, tactical support healer’

Also as an aside, remember Miasma had that weird status effect tacked onto it in 2.0 - 4.0? I want to say it was Disease but I don’t exactly remember lol. I feel like this was part of their half-baked idea for ‘DoTs that function to weaken/debuff the enemy’, similar to the Slow effect on Shadow Flare. And likewise with shielding covering the ‘buffing’ aspect, even though it’s probably more accurately categorised as ‘healing’