Thread: Consolidated Scholar 4.0 Feedback Thread

Feedback:

Fey Union: The range really needs to be increased. 10 yalms is pretty small. The potency needs to be increased, its a fairly marginal gain over just Embrace-spam. I've also heard that Rouse doesn't work with it. Really????

Excog: This should be deployable.

Chain Strategem: This should be bane-able

It's kinda embarrassing how these new abilities don't even work with the SCHs existing toolkit.

Yeah, I got SCH to level 70, and I'm also really disappointed by the way it handles. I'll stay with the job because I love how healers have to juggle healing, mechanics, and DPS in this game in a way that pure DPSing never appealed to me, and the Cleric Stance changes have made it a lot more fluid to play, but if I were smarter than I was stubborn, I would be switching to WHM/AST. Already, I'm hearing anecdotes of SCHs being kicked from parties because it's now so much more difficult to be a SCH that can actually get people through content. My friend and I had to kick one the other day because their Physics/Aldos weren't enough to keep my tank friend alive even with all of their CDs used, even with only one pack of mobs at a time. And then another healer friend's Susanoo Normal party had to kick another SCH to clear because they kept on running out of MP. Because the potencies are so low and the mana management is so bad, it's a lot harder for newer players to jump into content compared to AST/WHM, but because there's much less that rewards skilled players who can exploit limited healing tools to make time elsewhere, now that DoTs upkeep is trivial, pet management is less impactful, and there's no AoE. I don't understand the design motivation behind making it both more difficult to play and less rewarding once you get past that difficulty.

What I would want, and I'm trying to be reasonable about the bare minimums they could do here:
- Revert Aetherflow to 20% MP so that we can rely upon it solely instead of bringing Lucid Dreaming. This goes hand-in-hand with my next change...
- Make Break AoE. WHM and AST have no reason to take it, because they have their much better Gravity/Holy. SCH now no longer has to take Lucid Dreaming, but is forced to take Break for an AoE. Boom, balanced.
- If Bane was too much, fine. If SE doesn't want to make the drop-off 50% like almost every other strong AoE in the game, at least make the splash drop off impact duration instead of potency. Right now, there's no way for me to see which mobs received the 20% potency splash. It would be much easier if I could see that one mob got only 6 seconds of a DoT, and then reapplied the DoT as it came off. Bonus is that we can now choose to spam Bane at different burst points, in exchange for sacrificing a whole bunch of Aetherflow stacks, as the highest duration will apply.
- Revert Aldoquium to its original MP cost, or at least make it the same shield potency as AST Aspected Benefic. I don't understand why SCH shields are weaker (or just about the same when it crits) AND more expensive AND have a cast time versus AST. It's entirely inferior. For SCHs into more casual gameplay, they're going to run out of MP using it while being unable to shield big hits with it because of its long cast time. For skilled players, there's no bonus in dealing with all of these cons when a better version is just a class change away - and believe me, people are going to pressure the shit out of SCH to change our healing classes from now on, especially in statics.
- Make Succor cheaper as well, while we're at it. I don't understand why a 150 potency heal and 150 shield is the same MP cost as Cure III, which is almost double the combined potency of Succor. And unlike Cure III, you can't just spam Succor. Even during repeated raid AoEs, you have to put some thought into timing it because the shields don't stack. Again, this is the same motif we're seeing with SCH now. More work than either of the two healers, for less reward.

Honestly the issues that SCH suffer are from the fact that both SMN and SCH share the same base class and it's clear that SE is not sure how to balance one and the other.

SMN and SCH AoE was a bit much - it did need to be nerfed. I don't know if I agree with the extent of which it was nerfed. And I don't mind pressing 2-3 buttons for DPS. I mean whitemage press 3 at most - stone and 2 aero dots. For AoE - holy, aero and assize. So across the board healers don't have many buttons to pressing when doing damage. That's not a problem (imo).

In terms of actually issues - mana management and healing potencies are not where they need to be. But unlike whitemage I don't think scholars issue with healing derives with design.

If SE buffs the potencies the class should be fine for a healing role. I think the skills and class mechanics can work if they're at a place where the healing actually works.

While I don't think SCHs can't clear content (my boyfriend has sticked to Scholar and we've been100% fine throughout the dungeons and trials while I tank), I also think there's way too many negatives piled up on the job now.


The AoE damage, as everyone's said, is negligible, and the healing potency went down while the MP costs went up. Someone explain to me why Broil II is so much more expensive than Stone IV and Malefic III even when tho SCH has now the same amount of DoTs as WHM?

It also seems that the devs think Eos and Selene are a SCH's answer to Regen and Aspected Benefic, but Embrace was always a SCH's answer to both the regens and Cure II and Benefic II. By gutting Embrace (the 50 potency nerf is felt much more due to the bad relative scaling of Pet attributes), we are left with a worse regen and a worse answer for Cure II. SCH's only answer to that is now technically Adloquium, by potencies alone, ET+Adlo directly, but with the MP cost being so high it can't be relied upon, and has been one of the main reasons a lot of Scholars have found themselves lacking for MP in levelling content. It's just horrible, horrible design.

Another thing that is terrible by design: Quickened Aetherflow. I've seen a lot of people defend it, but the unpredictable CD reduction makes it so you don't even benefit from it sometimes. When you're preparing for unknown mechanics, it is common practice to save up Aetherflow stacks until the recast is almost done, so if you do this and proc the trait you get absolutely nothing out of it. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo.

Scholar is garbage now.

Now that I have had a chance to get to level 70 on my SCH, gear a bit, and tackle some content, I feel like I can post in this thread.

- Shadowflare change allows me to use Sacred Soil more.
- I like Aetherpact, a lot.
- My mana seems completely fine and near infinite with Lucid Dreaming and smart casting.
- Even though Embrace had its potency reduced, I do not notice the difference at all in pre-Stormblood dungeons.
- Chain Startegem is cool.
- Excogitation is a great option when Aetherflow is about to come off from cool down and I have a stack left.
- I am okay with DPS nerfs. Before Stormblood I found myself getting salty when forced out of Cleric Stance because my DPS was useful. The DPS nerfs mean stopping to heal is not as consequential and I do not get salty over it anymore.
- SCH AoE DPS cannot be compared to WHM and AST. SCH AoE DPS is passive and practically mana neutral. AST and WHM cannot heal while doing AoE DPS and it greatly impacts their mana.