Feedback on 4.0 Scholar

[AlphaSonic]

I think increasing the CD of Sacred Soil to 90 seconds and make it so it doesn't waste Aetherflow would be a buff since Sacred Soil is nearly always outclassed by Indomitability and at least it wouldn't compete with other skills with Aetherflow.

[Ezzelin]

Bluntly put, we have too many abilities that use Aetherflow stacks and not enough Aetherflow stacks to use all our abilities. Aetherflow interactions and mechanics should have been changed when Aetherflow was changed, just because nerfing it nerfed roughly half our kit without giving us anything useful in exchange.

[Riyshn]

Oh but you see, they did give us more Aetherflow stacks! The on average 0.5 extra casts over the course of a 10 minute fight (If I remember the math someone did, it will average at one extra cast over the course of a 20 minute fight, assuming all stacks are used in the first 30 seconds of it's cooldown and it is recast immediately after coming off CD.) from Quickened Aetherflow will fix all of our Aetherflow problems!

/s

Really, if they wanted to give us more stacks to use with our growing number of Aetherflow abilities, they should have just make the trait a flat cooldown reduction. I'd even accept reducing the MP return on it even more if that's what it takes to bring Aetherflow down to a 30 second cooldown. 5-7% Mp restored to keep the total about the same as the new nerfed value, but double the amount of stacks over a given period of time? Yes please.

[Milesian]

Sch has been my main since 2.0 and I've always loved the class but I'm really just not enjoying any of the changes - so many skills felt pointlessly taken away and what was given in turn was really lackluster as well as a bunch of hidden nerfs that made the class basically pale in comparison to Astro or White Mage. I'm pretty uncertain whether I want to even stick with the class the way it is right now and how much less fun it has been running content...I hope we eventually get some buffs or stuff put back because it's just kind of miserable to play esp seeing how much better the other healers are doing atm. In a raid environment it seems really pointless to be playing a sch...

[Wyntir]

I pretty much agree with everything said here.. I've been a sch main since turn 5 and while I enjoyed astro in HW, I always stuck to my beloved SCH. Now? I'm 70, and feel like I can barely keep up, so I'm leveling my astro to replace my sch. Sad times.

[Eloah]

There are quite a few changed that could be made so we are in a better place, some should just be done in general others would be nice.

For Adloquium if you want the new MP change make the heal stronger, or revert the MP cost back. The main reason SCHs accepted the high MP cost of some skills was because we knew our MP regen was in good shape. Now we are almost forced to bring Lucid Dreaming (that name). Adloquium was a great unique skill now its old and bland because of the shiny new AST changes.

Bottom line is we dont have an second tier heal, so we can't restore a lot of HP at once without Lustrate. But Lustrate isn't one of a kind anymore. Granted we can use it 3 times in 60 seconds, but then we lock out some of our other Aetherflow skills. We have Emergency Tactics but thats on a 30s CD, and the cost of Adlo and Succor is horrible compared to the other 2 healers. Not saying Lustrate itself needs a change, but if you nerfed us we need another way to generate big heals.

Succor is similar to Adlo, but in this case we don't have a first tier spell equivalent. Yes we have Indomitability, and it is a great skill on a decent CD, but thats just it its on a CD. The only AoE heal we can spam is Succor, and the heal is small, with a really high cost, shield or not. But again we didn't mind since we had good MP regen. Something should be done, either a slight potency increase or MP reduction. I mean ASTs Aspected Helios is the same potency that does a 150% shield, and it costs less. Why?

The other kind of skill we are missing is an instant cast spell. WHM has Regen and AST has Aspected Benefic. Now we have Lily, which is fine, she acts as a regen of sorts and opens up other abilities to us. But the nerfed her, now we have to work harder to recover from big hits if we dont have access to our other skills. It would be cool if we got a new spell that was a shield; we've been asking for more shields for a long time.

Both WHM and AST got cool new healing skills that heal for a decent amount. We got Excognition; basically a timed Lustrate that might never go off, and just becomes a wasted Aetherflow stack. Excognition needs to have its timer removed or have another effect added should the timer expire, the best thing would be some sort of shield.

Chain Strategem is not a good substitute for our lossed DPS and the CD is too high. AST are able to assist with DPS every 30ish seconds, we have to wait 2 minutes. The CD either should be reduced or the potency increased.

No buts about it, we NEED some kind of AoE spell. Our spells from SCH seem to be light based(aether); just my inference and the fact that the fairy skills have light adjectives; so why not a Holy and Gravity equivalent, maybe something like Radiance or Brilliance.

[Lildragora]

I would like to see the gauge value affect our heal potency and shield quality, and decrease a bit based on spell use, again being raised by aetherflow abilities. The gauge doesn't raise fast enough for this though. Excognition I can do without. Even on Susano EX I find 90% of the time for a tank buster or orbs its wasted due to mitigation or other healers. Just get rid of Union and give back my embrace potency. Either give aetherflow a direct lowered CD or bring back the MP restored and make the fairy gauge raise more per ability used.

[Miiu]

The majority of newly added skills as of now are a waste of space on the hotbar if I may be completely blunt.

Excogitation:
There is absolutely no benefit to using that skill over lustrate. Sure it has a slightly higher potency but I feel like I lose control/flexibility when I use it. I commit to something that might happen in the next 30 seconds and have wasted a Stack if it doesn't. Sure I could let the tank get under 50% on purpose but why would I do that?
I feel like the Aetherflow Cost should be removed or there should be an additional effect while the target is still above 50%.

Aetherpact
Maybe this is just me but again I don't really like using it because it takes away control over the fairy. Plus the short range and delay that can happen before the fairy cast it is also a huge burden. The potency doesn't feel appropriate for the amount of work it takes to fill the bar. Maybe there should be a chance for it to regenerate Stacks per tick or something. Or also have an additional effect while channeling.
I also like the idea about it maybe having an AoE version as the OP suggested.
Or heck let us have both fairies for the time being. 1 That channels the beam and the other still under our control. Obviously numbers would have to be adjusted but I am just brain storming here.

Chain Strategem
It's fine.

In terms of MP regeneration I don't think it is that bad. Sure I have to rely more on energy drain than before, if the situation allows, but it could be way worse.
The lack of dmg spells sure does make playing a bit more boring but this should be the case for all healers. At least it was really apparent on AST. (Only 62 though)

*EDIT*

The benefits of Excogitation will probably become evident in the Omega raid. I assume that is what it was intended for and situations like Alexander where the tank will DEFINITELY lose a lot of HP unless they are crit-shielded.

But how will Excogitation work in that scenario:
The tank has let's say 10.000 hp at 50% and has Excogitation applied, which will heal for roughly 2k dmg.
Now a tank buster hits for 11.000k dmg.
Will the tank be dead or still standing with 1k HP left?

My personal guess would be that the spell won't trigger because technically the hp never went below 50% but instead was instantly 0 (dead).

[zeopower6]

The benefits of Excogitation will probably become evident in the Omega raid. I assume that is what it was intended for and situations like Alexander where the tank will DEFINITELY lose a lot of HP unless they are crit-shielded.

[Supersun]

If a coming boss uses an attack like Nidhogg's Ahk Mourn that only targets the tank where he isn't hit with one single spike, but back to back heavy hits until the attack ends Excog could be useful.