SCH Adjustment Ideas

[Lrron]

There are only a couple things I'd like to see as real adjustments on. Bearing in mind the recent changes/nerfs, I'm going to leave those alone as things SE wants in Sch. Numbers tuning is something else that can always be fixed if certain actions are not meeting the adequate demands of encounters. So that's no biggie for me.

Firstly, I'm not all that big a fan on how the Faerie Gauge is tied to our Aetherflow usage. It seems like the point of that is to encourage scholars to use their aetherstacks more quickly to charge it up (in a world where Fey Union is good :3). The RNG trait seems to push scholars in that direction as well. I'd like to see this link detached. For scholars, I think of aetherflow usage as critical smart plays rather than spending charges just because we have charges. If that is a goal to the job, I'd like to see that reinforced. If not, then so be it.

To that end, I'm not sure if Excog ought to be an aetherflow ability in the first place. At a 60s cooldown, it rarely plays a part whereas a simple lustrate will do in that same pinch. Is that extra 50 potency really worth the cost and the unreliability? To its defense, I will say the concept of Excog is good and unique. It plays a role in our belt of utility tricks. The problem is it plays too similar a role to lustrate. It needs to function differently from our other tools to have true purpose.

I think a simple fix is to make it a shield with no heal (as pointed out by others), but also to keep the same requirements in that it goes off at under 50% health. So what happens is it effectively protects a player after the big hit so they have a bit of leeway to receive heals. Obviously, that is not the most desirable situation, but I think that plays into sch's style of protection without being a simple copy of Adlo. In order to make sure Excog is always useful, have it pop the shield when it expires (maybe at one-half potency to encourage smart usage), regardless of HP value. That way, it ends up as either a useful shield, or a random bit of mitigation so the CD isn't a complete waste.

For the Faerie Gauge, I'd like to see embrace healing fuel it. I know that is awful sounding and awful in practice, but I think the Faerie Gauge was a real missed opportunity to exemplify our pets. It would've been a nice feature to have it charged by our faerie, then consumed by our faerie to boost a variety of her abilities. If the boosted versions of their abilities ended up being highly desirable, it could motivate the micro management of our faerie to maximize the gains. To try and picture it, imagine each successful hp restoration of embrace gives 5 points. Then each of the Faerie's abilities highlight into a boosted form at certain thresholds. Say 30/50/80. Once used, that much gauge is consumed. In such a design, Fey Union could still be kept as that powerful single-target channel. Though at least this way there would be other options to spend the gauge resource on. The lack of options makes the Faerie Gauge criminally underwhelming.

As far as what these boosted abilities could possibly be, I leave that open to interpretation. There have been many offered ideas on changes to Faerie abilities throughout the forums already. Typically, the ideas are more potent than the existing abilities. As such, I bet many could be plugged in as upgraded forms to the basic abilities by using this idea as the foundation. As a side note, wouldn't it have been nice if the Faerie Gauge was unlocked in the early 60's and we slowly gain access to their boosted abilities as we progress to 70? It would've been a good teaching mechanism on how to manage the gauge as well as encourage more faerie interaction before capping it with Fey Union.

All in all, I'd like to see a push in our unique strengths as SCH. As our kit gives us more to do than simply healing, and that is the joy of SCH.

[Riyshn]

To that end, I'm not sure if Excog ought to be an aetherflow ability in the first place. At a 60s cooldown, it rarely plays a part whereas a simple lustrate will do in that same pinch. Is that extra 50 potency really worth the cost and the unreliability? To its defense, I will say the concept of Excog is good and unique. It plays a role in our belt of utility tricks. The problem is it plays too similar a role to lustrate. It needs to function differently from our other tools to have true purpose.

I think a simple fix is to make it a shield with no heal (as pointed out by others), but also to keep the same requirements in that it goes off at under 50% health. So what happens is it effectively protects a player after the big hit so they have a bit of leeway to receive heals. Obviously, that is not the most desirable situation, but I think that plays into sch's style of protection without being a simple copy of Adlo. In order to make sure Excog is always useful, have it pop the shield when it expires (maybe at one-half potency to encourage smart usage), regardless of HP value. That way, it ends up as either a useful shield, or a random bit of mitigation so the CD isn't a complete waste.

I actually like the idea of letting it do both. Keep it on Aetherflow and leave the numbers the same as they are now (except maybe the CD), but allow it to pop as a 650p shield if it times out. This allows it to be either a tank buster safety net with the triggered heal, or a psudo-critlo (twice the strength of a normal Adlo shield, but lacking the crit modifier and also not effected by healing boosts) to deploy that requires both an Aetherflow stack as well as planning it out 30+ seconds in advance and keeping the target above 50% for that entire time.

[Lrron]

I actually like the idea of letting it do both. Keep it on Aetherflow and leave the numbers the same as they are now (except maybe the CD), but allow it to pop as a 650p shield if it times out. This allows it to be either a tank buster safety net with the triggered heal, or a psudo-critlo (twice the strength of a normal Adlo shield, but lacking the crit modifier and also not effected by healing boosts) to deploy that requires both an Aetherflow stack as well as planning it out 30+ seconds in advance and keeping the target above 50% for that entire time.

I do enjoy this idea a lot. It solves everything. I am a little hesitant about it actually going through though. I'm not sure the design team wants to make an ability in which we'd choose it over a similar ability (in this case, lustrate), 100% of the time. It would likely necessitate them putting it on a 2 minute CD or longer to balance it. X_x

[Riyshn]

I mean, we already have Indom and Sacred Soil, which pretty much directly compete for stacks. Giving it a 2 minute timer would sync it up with Deployment Tactics if it gave a shield, but that would also pretty much cement it as "you use this with Deploy only", where leaving it at 1 minute allows it to be used for the heal portion as well. Remember that it does/would still cost an Aetherflow stack.)

Honestly, it does feel a bit like SE has lost the original vision of SCH and what the Aetherflow stacks are supposed to be for. We currently have 6 Aetherflow abilities. 2 of them are Energy Drain/Bane from ACN. Then we have the original SCH ones from ARR, with Lustrate and Sacred Soil. Heavensward introduced Indom, which is simply better than Sacred Soil in something like 95% of situations (I can't think of any time it would actually mitigate more than Indom heals, so it's only real value is if the mitigation from a single hit is enough to stop a death), and SB gave us Excog, which in it's current state directly competes with Lustrate, as a situational but stronger heal (At first glance. Then you realize that the lack of crit means that on average Lustrate will heal for more.)

[KDSilver]

Deployment Tactics doesn't need any change.

[Riyshn]

No one is suggesting any changes to Deployment Tactics itself. I suggested a change to Excog to let it be conditionally either a heal or shield, instead of just the conditional heal it is now. In doing so I had to acknowledge that unless they gave SCH a second shield buff other than Galvanize, it would be an indirect buff to Deployment Tactics, becuase it would mean having a 650p shield at our disposal that's not reliant on crit.

[Shurrikhan]

Just a couple other ideas to throw out here for some feedback from you guys.

Note: I don't have SCH at 70 yet. While I have healed as SB SCH, the issues I've seen from SCHs in my own parties when tanking, heard about in detail from teamspeak, discord, ls chat, vids, reddit threads, and so forth, are the majority of my understanding.

Fey Union & the Pet Gauge:

• I'd rather Pet Gauge were generated from the generation, not consumption, of Aetherflow stacks. While this could either include or not include stacks replaced when/if Aetherflow is used early, I feel like this would give earlier access to an immensely important tool, that I actually think would serve better as an opening effect, rather than a sort of final holding skill or one that needs to be prepped for future pulls in dungeons.

  An extreme version of this would be for the "gauge" to be simply pet mana, and for Aetherflow to also affect the pet. In this way, one starts with full gauge. As the ramping gauges are the devs' most recent pride project, this would never occur, but I feel like this would have made decent sense.

• I'd like for Eos/Selene to become invulnerable (essentially a non-unit or one without any hitbox) during Fey Union, and to simply hover above the target or follow it continuously at x range.
• I'd like to see differences between the Fey Union granted by Eos and Selene. In this way, Selene could become an amazing single-target Fey Wind support or Esuna-bot, or Eos a single-target Magic Defense or healing-taken enhancer, all in addition to their healing. Ideally, I'd like to see short duration, stacking-benefit versions of each skill become available at gauge cost while Fey Union is active.

Dissipation:

• Effects now vary with the Fairy consumed. If having consumed Eos, your Attack and Healing Spell Power are increased by 10%, all healing you deal generates a HoT equal to 20% of its effect over 15 seconds, and Dissipation becomes Fey Covenant*, available at Aetherflow cost. If Selene is consumed, the Attack Speed is increased by 20%, and all healing you deal generates Skill Speed and Spell Speed equal to 3% of the healing dealt on the affected targets, and all damage dealt generates Skill Speed and Spell Speed on yourself equal to 3% of damage dealt. (Effect is increased based on Skill Speed or Spell Speed already present on the target, and reduced with bonus amounts added via this effect reducing later bonuses.)**

  *Names to be revised
  **Formula to be determined.

Of course, I'd also like to see some changes to Bane and Broil, or any other sources of SCH spammable AoE.

Bane: Increases the duration of your periodic effects on the target and all enemies within 8 yalms thereof by 200% and then spreads these effects evenly across all enemies within 8 yalms, rounding to the nearest tick. Inflicts Plague.

Plague: Upon death, this target will spread all periodic damage effects with which you had affected it to all enemies within 8 yalms.

Broil: Deals 170 potency of unaspected damage and causes all enemies within 5 yalms to take damage equal to half the potency of periodic effects on the target.

Broil II: Deals 210 potency of unaspected damage and causes all enemies within 5 yalms to take damage equal to half the potency of periodic effects on target and on themselves.