Things currently wrong with frontlines that the community would like to see fixed

[Houston009]

I main DRG for pve. The potency for any of their skills, regardless of being executed in a combo or not, is more powerful than Ruin II. Ruin II is severely underwhelming.

I use Ruin III.

[lovelikewinter]

I use Ruin III.

teach me senpaiiiiiiiiii

[Kyani]

1): - Benefic II + Aspected Benefic is 2 global cooldowns, not one. In a unfavorable comparison (Scholar uses Adlo -> Lustrate -> Lustrate, but not a second Adlo, is not under the effect of Dispersion or Fey Illumination, and Eos does not heal the same target.), Scholar's 1800 potency loses out to Astrologian's 1901 (312.5 + 125 + 406.25 + 1058). With Dispersion alone, Scholar pulls back ahead (1920 vs 1901).

For a single-GCD comparison, though? Synastry Benefic 2 is 630 potency, modified to 756 by +20% healing.. increased by 40% to 1058 on the single Synastry target. Which has to be in your party. This is less than the 600+600 (1200) Adloquium + Lustrate provides in the same global cooldown. This can additionally be used across multiple targets, or on targets not in your group, both of which are very relevant to triage healing.

2) You have (at best) 9 instantly accessible Aetherflow charges. It is not difficult to roll into important fights with 6 (Aetherflow + Dispersion), and many times you can easily hit 9 or 12 in a prolonged fight. Using one on Indomitability is a direct improvement to Lustrate, because it is healing for more raw health among affected players, such that it is almost always correct to use Indomitability even when triage healing your own group. Shielding vs Healing isn't really a choice, either - unless you're trying to heal a DRK with Living Dead up, shields are significantly better than heals on focused targets in all but the most stringent edge cases.

Additionally, you seem to be ignoring Astrologian's hard limit on casts - it can cast one spell every global cooldown, with only two exceptions to this rule - ED and Retrogradation. Scholar is not tightly bound to this rule when its cooldowns are active, allowing it to get off as many as three heals in the same global cooldown even without Eos. This allows it to match even White Mage in short bursts - Indom + Swiftcast Succor + Lustrate on a focused target is something that Astrologian has absolutely no analogue to, and White Mage needs Cure III to see a similar single-GCD effect.

3) Cards are and have always been RNG. Balance is fantastic, as always, but it's also the only one of those cards which affects burst in any way. Now, Astrologian's offensive utility is better than Scholar's, but you didn't even think to mention that - Celestial Opposition and Stella are both fantastic tools compared to Scholar's native options, and most of Astrologian's cards have some sort of useful impact in battle - but only Balance actually provides burst pressure in itself.

It is absolutely true, however, that using Energy Drain reduces your healing throughput - but it can be worth the loss of Lustrate to remove an enemy AST or WHM from the fight! It's one of the few options in Scholar's toolkit - Scholar has the weakest native toolbox of the three healers by far, and I will never argue that point.

4) No. Retrogradation is a slightly souped-up combination of Assize and Fey Caress, whose unique trait is sometimes removing an important buff from someone close to you. How often do you actually remove a key buff from someone with it? Because I get knockdown value out of Aura Blast in easily 80% of my matches. Retro is probably actually the worst of the 3 healer special abilities - White Mage would barely function against melee without Sacred Prism.

But hey, what do I know? Maybe i'm just getting carried by Astrologians.

[Kyani]

Also, Astrologian is "the meta of healing" because it's what you plan around - it requires the most specific counter, and punishes bad players far more than Scholar or WHM could ever hope to. That doesn't make it actually the best at everything.

[xxczx]

Retro is probably actually the worst of the 3 healer special abilities

Did you read the tooltip wrong brah?

Love seeing some unprotected SCH and wiping their AF stacks

[Kyani]

Did you read the tooltip wrong brah?

Love seeing some unprotected SCH and wiping their AF stacks

Yeah? The upper bound of Retro isn't all that high - you'll strip a buff off of half a dozen players, but the stars have to align for it to strip multiple priority buffs, even against Scholar (succor, deployed e4e, regen, WD/Illu).

Compared to the high end of Sacred Prism (tank 5 melee as a WHM) or Aura Blast (DIRECTLY WINNING THE GAME), it's really not all that exciting. How often do you say to yourself "Man, we totally won that fight because of Retro's dispel!"?

[Houston009]

SE thought mana draw was for healers/raised casters, nah. its for more Ruin IIIs.

[xxczx]

Yeah? The upper bound of Retro isn't all that high - you'll strip a buff off of half a dozen players, but the stars have to align for it to strip multiple priority buffs, even against Scholar (succor, deployed e4e, regen, WD/Illu).

Compared to the high end of Sacred Prism (tank 5 melee as a WHM) or Aura Blast (DIRECTLY WINNING THE GAME), it's really not all that exciting. How often do you say to yourself "Man, we totally won that fight because of Retro's dispel!"?

You're comparing it directly to healer PvP skills as if it was 1 vs. 8.

The fact remains there is not ONE skill in the game that heals, gives damage, removes one debuff and removes one buff. If I needed a pushback, I'd ask the many classes that already have this, same for damage reduction because people seem to think tanks are only there for the VIT buff amiright? I am not saying Prism or Blast is shit, they are good skills but Retro gives so much CC on such a short cooldown. If you find yourself targeted too much to be using Sacred Prism/Aura Blast on cooldown or else you'd die, you might need to rethink your healer positions.

[TheWaywardWind]

Anyone who genuinely believes that Aura Blast, a skill which only serves use in niche situations, is more useful than Retrogradation, a skill which can strip a buff off a maximum 48 people at once (although that's a stretch), seriously doesn't know how to play Astro. Sorry.

[Kyani]

Do you guys.. really not have anyone who uses Aura Blast offensively on Chaos? It's far from a niche skill. It (and Mythril Tempest) are the best engage tools available to break high-ground nodes, and Aura Blast is way more likely to knock people off the edge thanks to its 15y knockback.

And no, removing buffs in a 15 yard radius is really not that powerful - the only buffs you can gank that will change the tide of the game are Infuriate and Aetherflow, and to put it mildly: you are really unlikely to hit more than one or two of those even if you hit a dozen enemy targets. No one leaves a game against an Astrologian thinking "man, Retrogradation is really powerful! Their use of it was a major reason why we lost!" - it's way down the list of things that are powerful about Astrologian.