SCH vs AST?

[Tashim]

Lol don't worry about being that guy. If it not "use search" its "don't necro" or "don't derail"

Question though, how does it have less 'oh-shit' stuff than SCH?
AB is instant on gcd
ED is instant
Benefic II is a proc for instant
Light speed causes several things to be instant

I guess where im coming from is AST definitely doesnt throw out WHM heals, but SCH doesnt either and is still considered good. SCH has lustrate saves, but AST has access to more AoE than SCH and its saves are more accessible

As a sch, I usually out-heal a whitemage, but maybe thats not the norm.
SCH instant heals don't lower healing potency by 25%
Sacred Soil, can be used twice a minute, allows scholar to keep casting and moving. Larger radius than Collective Unconscious too
Shadow Flare (aoe slow)
Fey Illumination: 20% healing buff
Fey Convalescence: 20% magic resistance
Dissipate: 20% healing buff
Lustrate/Indominability
Eye for an Eye
Virus

AST has a slightly higher mana pool than SCH, but vastly smaller mana recovery options.
An instant cast benefic2 doesn't help increase healing throughput, it simply gives you the heal at the start of the GCD instead of after it.
This is good for times when a dps accidentally takes a hit they shouldn't, and somehow barely survives, but its not good when you need *burst* healing for 20 seconds.
Essential Dignity is amazing, but its the only real emergency tool that AST have.
Not having eye for an eye is a huge drawback, but it doesn't surprise me that many people fail to see its value.

AST doesn't have any cooldowns to increase potency, only to decrease it. Arrow card on self is the only way they can increase their effective healing throughput, or a bole card, which is less effective than sacred soil. Neither card can be reliably used for an "emergency" without negating the only real support that they can offer.

AST can heal within normal range just fine, its when you try to push the limits of what is possible that their shortcomings show clearly. Try running a dungeon where you pull 4 groups of trash at a time, watch the tank pop cooldowns, and the AST, try as they might, have a very hard cap on how much healing throughput they can do in a 30s burst window. Both WHM and SCH will leave them in the dust.

Hopefully SE will address their shortcomings before savage comes out. It is a fun class, it just feels handicapped right now.