Scholar Ability Additions and Revisions

[Ekfebet]

This post is huge, but I really enjoyed writing it and couldn't help myself. Let me know what you think, but know that these suggestions are just that, suggestions, so they may not be balanced at the moment.

As someone who’s played and enjoyed scholar since ARR beta, I feel as though the changes and new abilities given to them in Stormblood have made it less entertaining and effective to play in some circumstances, which is a huge issue since healers are already a minority in the game, and could potentially become even more scarce given the allegedly dissatisfying changes in this expansion (particularly for white mage and scholar). Below are just a few suggestions I have for revising abilities or adding new ones to scholar that make the class feel more satisfying at level 70.

First, it’s important to consider what scholar offers a team that other healers don’t. With the current buff to astrologian, their shields overpower scholar’s and also costs less mp. If shields were meant to be scholar’s specialty, then this raises some concerns, especially since they increased the mp cost for adlo without increasing its potency. However, if scholar’s specialty is meant to be team utility, then it still loses to astrologian, since their cards add enormously helpful buffs to their team. Lastly, if scholar’s specialty is mean to be dps, its lack of consistent aoe (because of its lost dots, shadow flare nerf, and mp issues), causes it to lose out to both white mage and astrologian yet again. Finally, if scholar’s specialty is meant to be a pure healer, then it also loses to the other two classes because the entire point of having a pet that also heals is that you can multitask a little more effectively than other classes. At present, I think scholar excels at damage mitigation with deployment tactics, sacred soil, etc., but new abilities for white mage and a buff to astrologian have potentially dethroned this specialty as well.

With all of that said, it’s important to note that astrologian (arguably the most powerful healer in the game right now) can switch between sects to either provide regens or shields, and I believe that Selene and Eos could offer scholar a similar versatility. It would be neat to specialize the faeries further. Eos offers more healing potential, as always, but Selene could offer more dps potential, which is lacking with the SB expansion. That way, a scholar could decide which utility it requires more and plan accordingly. Choosing one fairy means losing out on everything the other offers.

These suggestions I make below reflect my feedback above and they aren’t necessarily meant to be balanced, but do reflect a few concerns that players have mentioned elsewhere. I think changes such as these would make the class feel more impactful and fun. They are also meant to make the scholar more of an off-healer that specializes in damage mitigation and dps.

Fey Union: Gradually restores HP of party member with which faerie has a Fey Union.
Cure Potency: 550
Faerie Gauge is depleted while HP is restored. Faerie cannot execute other actions while Fey Union is active. Party member must be within 15 yalms.
Additional Effect: 15% chance of causing Fey Tithe, which grants one Aetherflow. Cannot exceed four stacks.

Comments: Scholars have been wanting another Aetherflow stack for ages. This ability, like summoner’s Ruin IV, gives the class potentially more utility without making them too powerful or adding another button to their hotbar. This would also be the only way to obtain a fourth Aetherflow, meaning that using Aetherflow when you already have stacks will still only result in three overall. Lastly, the range and potency of the ability have been increased to make it feel more impactful.

Fey Wrath/Blight (new ability for Selene that replaces Silent Dusk or Fey Caress): Summons a puddle of corrupted Aether, dealing damage with a potency of 50 to any enemies who enter.
Duration: 15s
Additional Effect: For every tick of damage, there is a 10% chance that Bio 2 and Miasma deal 100% of their total damage to target. Effect can only occur once per cast.

Comments: This move effectively replaces Shadowflare, which allows for that ability to become scholar’s new aoe nuke. It also gives scholar back some of their dot potential.

Shadow Flare: Deals unaspected damage to a target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 150 for the first enemy, 10% less for the second, 20% less for the third, 30% less for the fourth, 40% less for the fifth, and 50% less for all remaining enemies.

Comments: Basically a less potent Holy or Gravity for scholar so that they don’t just reapply dots if there are more than three enemies. The potency could be less as well, if dots are buffed.

Parma Equestris (replaces Dissipation): Infuses Faerie with aether. Each time you use an action on a party member or target, the faerie will execute Fey Lavish on the party. (or just one party member if it turns out to be too strong)
Faerie Gauge is depleted with every cast of Fey Lavish. Faerie cannot execute other actions while Parma Equestris is active. Party members must be within 15 yalms.
Aetherflow Gauge Cost: 2

Fey Lavish: Restores target’s HP.
Cure Potency: 350
Additional Effect: When Eos is summoned, Galvanize potency is increased by 25%. When Selene is summoned, damage dealt is increased by party members in range by a set amount. (I have no idea what would be balanced, but something like 2% per cast)

Comments: My main issue with Dissipation and Fey Union are that they don’t seem to compliment one another; one forces you to get rid of your pet and the other requires your pet to use. With these changes, you still get the extra healing (or dps, depending on what you need at the given time) without having to lose your faerie or spend mp summoning them again. This ability essentially becomes the scholar version of Summon Bahamut. It also costs Aetherflow and has a long cooldown. This move is meant to make scholar compete with astrologian’s card buffs. I also think it adds synergy to scholar and faerie while making succor a little more viable for large aoe healing. Perhaps you could even combine this ability with Emergency Tactics.

In addition, the faerie’s appearance changes to the one from limit break 3 while the ability is active, so that your teammates know you’ve used the ability). Also, it would look amazing and give astrologian's fancy Earthly Star graphics a run for their money.

Excogitation: Causes damage taken by party member under the effect of Galvanize to reflect a set amount of damage back at the target.
Aetherflow Cost: 1

Comments: Excogitation in its current form is just a slightly meatier Lustrate and, as a result, doesn’t feel impactful. This ability encourages scholars to heal while still outputting some damage.

Chain Stratagem: Increases rate at which party member or target takes critical hits by 15%.
Duration: 15s

Comments: This move is already really great, but allowing a scholar to cast it on a party member once again gives them the utility to aid in either heavy healing or bolstering dps, whichever is required at a given time.

Eye for an Eye (replaces Eos's Fey Covenant): Erects a magicked barrier around a single party member or pet.
Duration: 20s
Barrier Effect: 20% chance that when barrier is struck, the striker will deal 10% less damage
Duration: 10s

Comments: I don't think Eye for an Eye should be a cross-role ability because it's a net nerf to scholar's Deployment Tactics and requires them to choose it while the other healer classes don't. This change allows a scholar to equip another cross-role ability, but at the cost of Fey Covenant. I wouldn't say it's necessarily a buff, but a change that I'd like.

Obviously, these changes would require further changes, like maybe getting rid of the lackluster level 68 trait we get, but I think scholar would feel more like a healer with dps potential. As a result, scholar would once again feel effective, impactful, and--most importantly--fun.

[Gemina]

Unfortunately, post restrictions on these forums (my post is way too long) prevent me from saying everything I want to, but I made a post on Reddit about possible revisions and additions to the scholar class that would make them feel more impactful.

If you're interested in changes they could make and/or have feedback of your own, give it a read and let me know what you think!

My post is located here and I look forward to hearing from you here or there!

https://redd.it/6ihgmp

Welcome to the forums! Just to give you a heads up, you can bypass the character limit by editing your post. Just type up your post, highlight and cut nearly all of it, then submit your post. After that, edit and paste in what you cut and submit again.

[ZaqueXIII]

My main issue with Dissipation and Fey Union are that they don’t seem to compliment one another; one forces you to get rid of your pet and the other requires your pet to use.

I think this is my biggest issue with SCH right now is that we keep running into this conundrum. I think this entire post is great but I will say that I'm opposed to some ideas, mostly just based on the fact that I would rather see the fairy gone and have more focus on SCH's ability to use shields and assist the party.

That said I'm sure more people would be mad if they out right removed the fairy but I personally never felt the fairy added to the SCH appeal (to me at least).

[Ekfebet]

That said I'm sure more people would be mad if they out right removed the fairy but I personally never felt the fairy added to the SCH appeal (to me at least).

I would agree that the pet can feel very clunky at times and I think adding another healer with a shielding specialization would be really neat!

[Llynd]

Really like the idea of Selene being offensive. ( and sch being a shielder /dps itself, in fact) lol
And the changes to shadow flare is pretty much a buff btw. Mostly in aoe since it is pretty bursty now, it will tic fully in every mob pack you got. And being an ability it allows you to cast more Broil II.
Personally, for starting parsing, i found my dps on single target was pretty high. Higher than before it fact. ( I'm always above the MT now, for exemple)

[LegoTechnic]

I think this is my biggest issue with SCH right now is that we keep running into this conundrum. I think this entire post is great but I will say that I'm opposed to some ideas, mostly just based on the fact that I would rather see the fairy gone and have more focus on SCH's ability to use shields and assist the party.

That said I'm sure more people would be mad if they out right removed the fairy but I personally never felt the fairy added to the SCH appeal (to me at least).

The fairy's primary role has always been to give the SCH some of the abilities generally tied to other classes. The SCH itself only has direct heals, specifically ability heals with a single variant of cure and additional weak heals that generate a galvanizing shield. Their magic comes from an unknown, not fully understood source which is alluded to frequently in their class quests and is thus a separate healing energy than that of Conjurors and White Mages. They have no regens at all, and previously had no method of "spiritual refresh" (though I guess they do NOW...), and they have no connection to the spirits as WHMs know them at all, instead entering into a "partnership" with a fairy of unknown origin (which they continually avoid having to delve into in class quests due to distractions).

And this is where the fairy comes in, because the fairy is responsible for the SCH's spirit magic. Much like how Arcanists don't have anything to do with Black Magic, SCHs aren't White Mages, so it's Eos, the fairy of dawn who is responsible for CNJ effects such as regen, divine seal, and shell. And as a duality, Selene of dusk takes on DPS role features similar to a Bard with a haste buff and a silence, though in HW she also gained an AoE dispell to replace the loss of her alternating skill/spell speed buffs. This is part of the class design, as the SCH is specifically Shields-Only, relying on technique and unusual application (see: Virus) to fill their role, and their heals themselves are at best only moderately powerful without tactical manipulation, so they use the fairy to cover abilities that they themselves do not have.

Or at least it was supposed to be that way until someone decided all healers should start to play the same. Hopefully they've done their worst and the trend will not continue further down the Knucker Hole. >_>;

[ZaqueXIII]

Eos, the fairy of dawn who is responsible for CNJ effects such as regen, divine seal, and shell. And as a duality, Selene of dusk takes on DPS role features similar to a Bard with a haste buff and a silence

Thanks a bunch, its actually been forever since I've looked back at the SCH class lore. Although I guess more what I'm saying is that I don't enjoy the pet, not that I cant manage it as they only have a few abilities to really deal with and their AOE's have quite the range. More so I just don't like having to have a pet to be able to reliably compete, I personally don't see why we couldn't have stance similar to AST focused on support or shields, but, as I say that I realize the last thing we need is full homogenization. In the end I have no say in the direction SE wants to take their jobs but I cant help but wish that classes I like aligned more with how I wanted them to be... Oh well.

[LegoTechnic]

Thanks a bunch, its actually been forever since I've looked back at the SCH class lore. Although I guess more what I'm saying is that I don't enjoy the pet, not that I cant manage it as they only have a few abilities to really deal with and their AOE's have quite the range. More so I just don't like having to have a pet to be able to reliably compete, I personally don't see why we couldn't have stance similar to AST focused on support or shields, but, as I say that I realize the last thing we need is full homogenization. In the end I have no say in the direction SE wants to take their jobs but I cant help but wish that classes I like aligned more with how I wanted them to be... Oh well.

In a lot of ways SCH was an experiment. Whereas SMN was largely a variation of WoW's warlock in design focus with simple role-focused pets and heavy DoT focus, SCH was a creative spin on a healer with similar role-pets and a focus on preventative shields to set it apart from the WHM. One of the reasons I liked the class when it came out was it just felt so different from healers I've played in other MMOs, as it was kind of a fresh idea in a lot of ways.

It's true the fairy takes away some responsiveness of using abilities since it needs to "process" your orders, but they're fun utilities to play with and almost like extra party members at times. It was a "moment" when we discovered that Brute Justice held them in such high regard that he would purposefully aim his massive laser at them specifically. ;-]

[Amenako]

I think this is my biggest issue with SCH right now is that we keep running into this conundrum. I think this entire post is great but I will say that I'm opposed to some ideas, mostly just based on the fact that I would rather see the fairy gone and have more focus on SCH's ability to use shields and assist the party.
That said I'm sure more people would be mad if they out right removed the fairy but I personally never felt the fairy added to the SCH appeal (to me at least).

if they took eos out of the equation in terms of the SCH class. they would have to do a lot of rebalancing for SCH and increase a lot of its potency across the board in terms of healing and we would either be button bloated or a lot of the skills just taken away from us permanently. Eos is a great balance to the SCH not having great of heals as the other two classes it covers up for what we lack in.

[LegoTechnic]

One of the things I most love about the fairies is that it's extremely easy to macro their moves to the Summon I and Summon II skills, so that when Eos is out her moves are on my crossbar but when I have Selene her abilities replace the same moveslots. It's like having my own miniature multi-spec feature.

But I digress, let's talk about the OP's post.

A lot of your new ability suggestions are overpowered. I'm all for readdressing the fairies and giving them new abilities, though. A passive stance buff to Eos and Selene would be interesting, or even a 5th move to let them graduate from Pokemon-tier.

Your change to Shadowflare is a flat out No. We don't need it to be Holy, we don't need further homogenization. Let SCH have a unique SCH-like AoE and not just another version of Holy like copypasta ASTs got.

Similarly your excogitation idea is questionable. Seriously, damage reflection would either be a massive waste or an aetherize stack, or the most broken anti-tankbuster mechanic in the game. The current idea of Excog is fine how it is, though if it needs any change then it would be something to address the "fail to reach 50%" condition.

If you're going to make Chain Strategem target a player, then it's all or nothing. Don't make it single target, as then it will not only be just an extremely limited battle litany, but it will encourage all sorts of FFLog padding nonsense. A party buff would be nice, but then it really would just be Battle Litany.

Eye for an Eye gets cross-roled because honestly it was one of the few skills ACN had cross to begin with and there's just no other options available. NO ONE wanted Ruin, and we only keep it because we had nothing better, and while Virus was hot stuff it's gone forever now, given to DPS because of "reasons".