The rationale behind nerfing WHM and SCH?

[Annah]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but is there an actual explanation behind Yoshi's team nerfing the WHM?

I thought they wanted a WHM to be a pure healer right? Not sure I understand why they've removed so many of their healing and protection aspects.

[Kabzy]

They didn't really nerf WHM, they just didn't give them much. The only issue of WHMs they addressed was mana recovery.

SCH got nerfed hard. But even sadder is how much its gameplay has changed because our DPS is essentially a carbon copy of WHM now. Maybe they wanted to make SCH terrible so that it's competitive with WHM at least. Cause we all know AST is god tier atm. xD

[Ametrine]

It does feel like Scholar is being put in an identical spot as White Mage. So far, though, I like this newer Scholar.

But why is Astrologian so broken now?
Have our complaints over the near useless unless you pull a balance card RNG given them the wrong idea that Astrologian was unappealing or too weak, still??

[MomomiMomi]

SCH needed a nerf. I'm not sure if they went a little too far, but it wasn't unreasonable to nerf them.

WHM didn't really get nerfed, but if they were trying to make it the "pure healer" they were way off the mark. That's also a terrible design for a healer.

I'm not sure what they're thinking with AST though. I'm sure it's going to get some adjustments to it, but I don't know what they could do.

[Risvertasashi]

WHM didn't really get nerfed,

Divine Seal was flat out and pretty heavily nerfed.

Less directly but still... WHM also lost the most with the new cross role system.

[Lambdafish]

SCH needed a nerf. I'm not sure if they went a little too far, but it wasn't unreasonable to nerf them.

If anything, AST needed the nerf. Instead, it got buffed.

[Elfidan]

My friend quit today after looking at his whm... pretty grim changes to be sure.

[LunaFaye]

They didn't really nerf WHM, they just didn't give them much. The only issue of WHMs they addressed was mana recovery.

SCH got nerfed hard. But even sadder is how much its gameplay has changed because our DPS is essentially a carbon copy of WHM now. Maybe they wanted to make SCH terrible so that it's competitive with WHM at least. Cause we all know AST is god tier atm. xD

Nah they wanted you guys to feel the pain that WHM experienced in 2.x. AS they weren't allowed or taken and it was SCH slot. Then as WHM and AST got still nailed throughout 3.x, SCH's didn't have to worry 'bout a thing. Now with 4.0 it's SCH's turn. At least SCH and WHM can both sit outside on the bench, would suck if we just single out WHM again.

[Verdan]

It does feel like Scholar is being put in an identical spot as White Mage. So far, though, I like this newer Scholar.

But why is Astrologian so broken now?
Have our complaints over the near useless unless you pull a balance card RNG given them the wrong idea that Astrologian was unappealing or too weak, still??

The Ast's bad design means this is going to keep happening forever. It can't be a copy of the white mage with shields, that's just never going to work. It'll either be too weak because they're trying to balance for utility and choice, be too powerful because it has the same capabilities but additional utility.

Or they could somehow fail amazingly and make it too powerful because it has stronger heals, shields, AND the good cards while everything costs less mana. That could happen too, but who would manage to make THAT mistake? No developer would ever do that! Either way, the Ast will always be a problem until they rework the class. Maybe in the expansion where they add a tank and a healer to figure out DPS class balance they'll get rebuilt to make sense. For now, it's best to pretend it doesn't exist if you don't wanna play it.

[MomomiMomi]

The Ast's bad design means this is going to keep happening forever. It can't be a copy of the white mage with shields, that's just never going to work. It'll either be too weak because they're trying to balance for utility and choice, be too powerful because it has the same capabilities but additional utility.

The problem lies with WHM mostly. The fact that all they have is heals means that every healer ever will be "WHM plus more."