I started as an Arcanist because I tend to like magic-using characters but the Thaumaturge's resource management and micromanagement turned me off. I also liked that Arcanists have a heal. I had originally intended to go Summoner until I discovered how amazing the Scholar was at soloing (which I spend most of my time doing). It's damage output is pretty good for a healer and simple to execute compared to Summoner and Thaumaturge (no managing funky cooldowns or "spells you can only use while this or that buff is up"), I get faster dungeon queues as a healer, and I get to dps much of the time. It just ended up being a win win all around.