Quote Originally Posted by Feyona View Post
but because scholar has better damage dealing potential because of the dots left on target while the pet can heal. what other reasons why scholar is never considered a main healerI this may be because the heals themselves appear weak, combined with shied though it makes their healing just as effective as wmg.
This is entirely my personal opinion, but I think a lot of this expectation is grounded in 2.0 compositions. With a WHM and a SCH it was easier for the SCH to let the fairy provide the supporting heals while the sch DPS's, because hey, there's an AI doing the healing for you. There wasn't a third healer dynamic to make the composition be reevaluated. Both SCH's and WHM's have really useful tools in their kit, however, and I absolutely agree you could swap the identities, have the WHM be the "supporting/off" heals and the scholar "main" it, but people see the AI and go, well, AI.

That said (again my opinion) I've always felt like the extra stance dancing a WHM has to do to keep regens up (if you consider the HoT's the supporting heals in the same role as the fairy for a WHM/AST comp), is offset a bit by the potency of a WHM's attacks. A white mage can do more damage than any of the other healers if they have 100% up time on cleric stance (not counting mp limitations). But because they have to stance dance more often to provide the supporting heals (regen, medica 2, asylum, etc), because there's no AI, their damage could potentially average out to be the same as a scholar who doesn't have to drop CS as much, but has less potency.

Astro's are caught in this place where when they're in diurnal and thus paired with a SCH, they fall into the same mold left by the WHM composition from 2.0 (despite having a 5% GCD speed increase). And when they're in nocturnal with a WHM, they lose their supporting heal options, and gain a healing potency, that also ends up pegging them as the more "main" healer. It also helps that their big DoT is up longer, so it doesn't have to be refreshed as often.