I love Scholar but...

[NobleWinter]

Does anyone else find the reduction on the recast for Recitation to 60 seconds uncomfortable? I'm so used it being 90 seconds and lining up with Deployment in Shadowbringers. It also lined up neatly with Excogitation at 45 seconds so I could guarantee a crit Excog every other use. Now I find myself looking at Recitation and having no clue what to use it with since both Deployment Tactics and Excog seem to be nowhere to be found whenever it comes off cooldown. It's strange to me to have more uses of Recitation and no idea what to do with it. I've found myself using Crit Aldoquium for the hell of it in dungeons. The addition of Seraphism and the recast change on Recitation definitely makes me feel like I just have too many things to rotate between. It's a ton of powerful healing and no real reason to use any of it which doesn't feel very good. I want to make tactical choices and now it doesn't feel like I have any way to make a bad play. My satisfaction with Scholar seems to diminish the further I get from Stormblood and adding new stronger healing tools every expansion since has not helped. The DPS is boring and still over abundant and now the healing is easier than ever too. Where is the fun of class mastery supposed to come from?

[Aravell]

I personally think that Recitation being reduced in CD makes it a lot more flexible. Usually there's no reason to pop a deployed Adlo on CD, so if your deploys are 120s apart at least, you can throw out a crit Indom somewhere in the middle if needed.

As for the healing tools bloat, I've had the same opinion for a very long time. There's a reason I always said that healers don't get to make meaningful decisions anymore. The choice between pressing any of your multitude of OGCDs to handle something isn't really much of a meaningful choice at all.

There's really no way of failing to manage your CDs with modern healers unless you go out of your way to waste your tools. They've removed a lot of the skill gap for healers throughout the years and that shows no signs of stopping, tank players are demanding ever more agency over their own survival and now DPS players want more healing too.

[Sylvain]

I personally think that Recitation being reduced in CD makes it a lot more flexible. Usually there's no reason to pop a deployed Adlo on CD, so if your deploys are 120s apart at least, you can throw out a crit Indom somewhere in the middle if needed.

Yeah I agree with Recitation gives more avenue to be used for something else like Indom or Excog.

Regarding the healing bloat there's really an issue because we don't really have more options, we have more tools and get drowned into them.
For instance, Excog was an amazing addition because using Excog mean you're not using something else as you only have 3 choices per minute. However with Indom and SS having 30s CD it is usually quite common that the end result is simply 1 indom 1 ss and 1excog/ed per minute. What would be needed instead of just "a new button which grants free healing at no cost" is new ogcd tied to the flux, or the fairy gauge. Basically, something making you choose for real and not just "new free extra stuff".

We've reached a point where indeed, we have A LOT of options, but the biggest issue stays how gear trivialize any healing requirement by enhancing heal, raising max hp and lowering damage taken. Those 3 combines result in healing quickly going from "fine" to "yawn"

[Supersnow845]

I feel like SCH could have had Seraphism OR the change to recitation but getting both was too powerful

The reason why expedient was such a well designed ability is because it was a unique and incredibly powerful utility but it didn’t actually give SCH more raw healing. With the addition of Seraphism and now the increased power power of recitation SCH can now put out competitive HPS to the regen healers even using zero aetherflow heals

What’s really the point of having the ED choice when you can just overwhelm said choice with enough HPS to make it so the choice is moot anyway

[Carighan]

Seraphism as a whole is kinda weird. Scholar already has a "raw healing self-buff", and that was actually kept for whatever reason, awkward as munching the fairy has always been. Now there's a second one, that's for a mix of mobility and raw healing output. Why have both? That's just needless button bloat, if anything, make it one really strong button instead.

[Connor]

Recitation is a difficult one for me. On the one hand I love the flexibility having an extra Aetherflow and how insanely strong the forced crit is. Emergency+Adloquium+Recitation, maybe Protraction/Fey Illumination if you’re feeling spicy, heal someone for over 100,000+ HP in a single gcd for just 1000 MP. I’d like to see a Sage do that! We are the Black Mages of healing (yes I am aware Sage is literally higher HPS don’t @ me bro).

On the other hand, the miniscule cool-down now basically completely undercuts the entire point of Aetherflow because you no longer need to make a choice with how you use it outside of specific high end content. You put it all in Energy Drain and Recitation anything that comes up in between them. And I mean, probably a dps loss but if you desperately need Aetherflow that badly you can pop 3 instantly at any moment with Dissipation anyway, so we already had ways to subvert the need for managing Aetherflow healing


Seraphism would be a good skill on paper… in a different game . Unfortunately, that game isn’t FFXIV. It’s honestly kind of hilarious using it, swapping to absolutely hideous unforgivable monstrosity of forced outfit options, putting regen on the group. Use Accession, maybe Emergency Tactics if you want to make the WHM look like a weakling. That’s it you’re literally done lol you no longer need to heal for another 120s, enjoy having your entire character completely replaced for the remaining 15s or so left on Seraphism.

[Sylvain]

I feelThe reason why expedient was such a well designed ability is because it was a unique and incredibly powerful utility but it didn’t actually give SCH more raw healing. With the addition of Seraphism and now the increased power power of recitation SCH can now put out competitive HPS to the regen healers even using zero aetherflow heals

Yeh whenever I'd die and things go sour my co-heal would be like "I enter god mod"

[Laerune]

For me the one thing that they should change is skills that remove fairy. No fairy means I can't use a lot of skills.

[Sylvain]

For me the one thing that they should change is skills that remove fairy. No fairy means I can't use a lot of skills.

See that's actually something I'd rather see them expand on.
While I feel it is currently poorly designed and really clunky, the idea being "I loose my fairy to enhance some part of my kit" and "I get super fairy but don't get access to some other tools" is not only unique to SCH (things locking out part of the kit) but could imo make for an interesting fondation.

Like for instance, what if you have 4-5 fairies abilities with smart button like for the summoner.
Each spell is different depending on which fairy is out but the spells aren't just "Eos is AOE and Selene is ST or Shield", no like, a proper spread of skills in such a fashion that you'd actively want to swap around the fairy (which could be a 1min ogcd). I mean, that could make some interesting design where "Eos is out so I have those 5 abilities, but not the 5 from selene, next mechanic Selene X ability would be really neat to have but then I wouldn't have Eos to heal Y thingy after ... mmm.... " (oh and they'd share CD or gauge ressource)
Like you'd basically have to constantly decide which part of the kit you want available to you. Giving both at the same time the most and least options.
Seraph and Dissipation could become secondary stances where Seraph would give you 3 use of a strong ability among the 5 seraphic skills.
Dissipation would just turn into Seraphism enhancing the rest of the kit.

I really think that could actually make for a unique and interesting healer.

[Aedwyn]

Each spell is different depending on which fairy is out but the spells aren't just "Eos is AOE and Selene is ST or Shield", no like, a proper spread of skills in such a fashion that you'd actively want to swap around the fairy (which could be a 1min ogcd). I mean, that could make some interesting design where "Eos is out so I have those 5 abilities, but not the 5 from selene, next mechanic Selene X ability would be really neat to have but then I wouldn't have Eos to heal Y thingy after ... mmm.... "

I'm actually mad I read this because it sounds super fun and neat and will absolutely never ever happen. Would absolutely love a system like this as a SCH main, that'd be so much fun to have to work with. But it seems like the game is heading for simplification of jobs and something that actually requires thought like this would go against that.