I really don’t know anymore….

[Renathras]

Uh, that's perilously close to being hyperbole sir

No. It's not.

Look guys, this is the THIRD person trying a "gotcha" here. And every one has been wrong in doing so. So just stop.

And the fact is, it's not even that you care. You just want to call me a hypocrite to diminish what I'm saying, you don't give an actual damn about hyperbole being bad (if you did, you'd join me in calling people not named Ren out for it, which you do not), nor have any of you correctly identified its use on my part. It's pure vindictiveness, not anything else, and destructive to actual conversation. If you really feel hyperbole is bad, call everyone out for it, not just Ren. If you don't think it's bad, then don't call it out. Otherwise you're holding a double standard. "But so are you, Ren!", except I'm not, because as noted, what I've used isn't hyperbole. :eyeroll

When I talk about people attacking me, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. "Let's try to catch Ren breaking his hyperbole rule!" "Will that prove him wrong?" "Well, no, but we can call him names like hypocrite and pretend like everything he says can be ignored now!" "But...weren't we doing that anyway?" "Yes, but it will surely really annoy him!"

.

Anyway, so you have two posts from a gamefaqs and a Reddit thread with net 0 upvotes (meaning likely negative votes) and the comments all talking about how WHM/SCH is the superior comp:

"While scholar may be "better" for most of the end game content, it requires people who know the class well enough to do the correct action at the right time. One mistake that isn't remedied or caught by the other healer will often result in a wipe."

"The whole idea of one being burst/aoe and one being shield/single target is why the synergy is so great in groups with one of each. There's no reason to nerf or buff anything, they work so well together."

"OP completely forgets about WHM traits: the thread."

"Yeah, this is a great point. Traited Stoneskin and Protect make a huge difference in raid damage mitigation.
When I play a SCH next to a WHM I always feel like such a scrub sitting there picking my nose waiting for my buffs, but seriously, why bother even casting when the WHM cranks out stronger everythings?"

"It's really not about which is necessarily better, it's about working together to make the fights easier on everyone."

"For me, SCH/WHM combo is the way to go. WHM increases healing from the 3% MND buff they bring, while SCH buffs PIE for the group. Having 2 scholars isn't ideal due to adloquium not stacking."

"Try turn 4 with double WHM with both WHM keeping regen up 100% on both tanks.
Just as effective as double SCH or WHM+SCH, if not more so.
Poor regen uptime seems to be the main cause for people thinking WHM is lacking in coil."

"I disagree with just about everything you say.
You use a lot of phrases like "very difficult without proper cooldown management" to make it seem like White Mages are inferior to Scholar; what you don't realize is proper cooldown management is a part of the White Mage's playstyle. That would be like me saying "Scholars need to know how to use their Aetherflow stacks efficiently" and listing that as a negative of the class. It just doesn't make sense.
Let's talk real endgame for a WHM, as the game stands now:

Ifrit HM: Solo-healed, minimal effort required.

Garuda HM: Solo-healed, minimal effort required.

Titan HM: Solo-healed. AoE healing is not difficult, as stomps don't interrupt Medica/Medica2's cast.

Caduceus: Not difficult for healers. Stoneskin mitigates big hits while Regen takes care of other party members.

ADS: Not difficult for healers. Medica II takes care of the room-wide AoE. Swiftcast available for the few times you actually have to cast on the move (even though you only move a few steps every minute).

Turn 4: Not difficult for healers. Not terribly mana-heavy for a White Mage if he knows when to use Shroud (can get three in during the fight's duration); no Ballad required. Stoneskin makes healing MT through double-dreadnaught phase easy, while Regen helps ease the burden on the offtank.

Twintania: Medica II makes conflagration phase a cakewalk. Stoneskin mitigates a huge chunk of Death Sentence, making it easily possible for a WHM to solo-heal a tank back up to full even with the debuff on. Lustrate does make the fight easier, though.

Of the fights you listed, I think a Scholar is a clear-cut "better class" in only ONE of them -- Twintania.

I fully agree that Scholars are the better class for Twintania, and that a huge part of a group's success relies upon the Scholar's skill. Lustrate is a godsend for after Death Sentence, and the rest of the tools a Scholar has at their disposal really does make that fight easier.

Other than that, though, endgame healing really isn't that hard at the moment. Any endgame WHM worth their salt will know when to use their cooldowns and how to conserve mana.

As far as I'm concerned, the only real "fix" I would like to see for White Mages would be a decrease in cast time for Stoneskin. If I can be really greedy, Stoneskin would get a mana reduction as well.

With my gear (full BiS i90, determination-based), Stoneskin's cast is longer than Death Sentence's; I have to keep a separate timer marked at 30s so I can pre-cast Stoneskin on the tank before Twintania begins casting Death Sentence. Stoneskin's longer cast time and higher mana cost relegate it to a support skill, while I think it would be more fun (and more useful) as a spell to use in regular rotation. Adloquium splits the difference nicely with a small heal and small shield; it'd be neat if WHMs get the option of Big Heal or Big Shield to compensate.

That's it, though. I don't think it's nearly as imbalanced as you say it is. Twintania's the only fight where healing class really makes a big difference."

.

...whether you agree with the people or not, the majority seem to not agree with the "SCH/SCH is superior" argument. Per the thread you, yourself, linked.

You can prop up your ARR raid bonifieds all you like, it seems that your position was not one held by people at the time by and large, regardless of the anecdote of how many people you talked to hanging around Wineport.

Though I suppose we'd need old fflogs data (which requires a subscription, so I can't pull it up) to see what people were doing at the time...except...it didn't exist at the time. So...there's no real way to prove your point either way. I suspect the general use case was WHM/SCH since it seemed logical to the way the game was designed, and most people kind of ran with it.