So...Can a SCH tell me how SCH's are right now relative to WHM and AST?

[Alovon13]

What the title says.
I want to level a healer class and i would want to know if SCH is good right now, because i do want to level SMN after that healer class. Can a SCH give me info?

[ScorpiusO-Ra-E]

Ignore the doomsayers and try it. A lot of us (yes me too) are butthurt that it's not primarily a shielding class anymore, and more of an emergency heal type. In no way are we main-healers but we can make most situations that would be reactionary for the other healers proactive for ourselves. We hardly have to worry about damage while our DoTs tick, and our fairy is simply a glorified regen with some special effects. To have fun as a SCh you gotta look at the class as a whole rather than a walking turret with healbot.

[Amenako]

SCH right now is better when the SB started. They were pretty weak at the start of SB casue they got hit with the bat on all fronts. With the new patch the add of misama to our kit again is really nice we needed another dot to help with our damage not saying it was bad but having only 2 real main dots and spamming broil 2 after just wasnt that great.
I think the abilities they touched up on some were okay and some should have been focused else where. like excog needed to be fixed in a way that still gave you something if it doesn't proc. Indom increase potency could have been directed towards adlo, succor or physick mainly either on adlo or physick, there potency just doesnt cut like the other healers main heals.

[Amenako]

the fix to fay union and aetherflow trait was great but fairy still needs to be tuned a bit better and maybe increase the amount you gain on the fairy gauge because it takes to long to get and goes away really fast when used. so far they are walking towards the right direction in fixing the sch i hope.
ohh also they need to fix dissipation.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I still feel Scholar is presently the weakest healer overall, primarily because the sheer amount of damage from V4 makes White Mage wonderful. Once prog settles a bit, White Mage may be less dominate, though it's in a surprisingly good spot at the moment. All this being said, Scholar is far from weak, and can absolutely handle everything thrown its way. I know this sounds a bit cliche, however play whichever healer you're comfortable with. We've actually reached a point where one isn't noticeably lagging behind the other. You could even make a strong case for WHM/SCH, which was easiest the weakest comp before 4.05. I'd take a comfortable Scholar over an uncertain White Mage that switched any day.

[Cynfael]

SCH is fine, but I enjoy it less than I used to. Its playstyle is increasingly mirroring that of the other healers, and the two aspects of the Job that I enjoy most (barriers and pet management) have been consistently de-emphasized since the end of 2.x.

Putting aside for the moment questions of what was or wasn't OP, the fact remains that the faerie makes less of an impact and AST barriers are measurably superior.

TL;DR: SCH is fine, but it isn't the same. Your mileage may vary. Some people may even like it better now. *shrug*

[Silver-Strider]

Honestly, leveling my WHM and then SCH was like night and day.
Things my WHM found a minor nuisance were flat out nightmares on my SCH.
I'd find myself utilizing every available CD on my SCH just to try and make it thru without dying and considering that, unlike my WHM, my SCH was better geared at the onset of some of the encounters due to having my WHM's hand-me-downs, that's very problematic.

I didn't feel it immediately mind you. Up to 64, apart from getting used to the MP changes, I didn't believe any of the doom and gloom. Level 65 in Bardum's Mettle immediately changed my mind and soured my entire view of SCH to the views of the Doom and Gloomers. The Herculean pulls some tanks made were just too much for me to handle in most cases (note: this was prior to tank accessories with STR and tanks having 270 strength accessories in place instead of VIT gear.) The only times I'd be able to handle the pulls was with overgeared tanks that used CDs, else I'd just fail every time.

Fast forward to now, recent experience after the patch and don't notice much of a difference, apart from Excogitation being more helpful. I'm still using every CD available, spamming Lustrate like it's going out of season on large pulls, not feeling like anything has fundamentally changed except some QoL upgrades. It feels really bad to see my emergency heals needing to be used just get thru pulls my WHM just pulled off with ease.

[BloodRubyXII]

Every healer is "good" right now, we just all of our individual niggling problems that we're all begging SE to fix. SCH happens to have more of those problems than anyone else, but they aren't really performance crippling - just annoying.

[giantslayer]

I didn't feel it immediately mind you. Up to 64, apart from getting used to the MP changes, I didn't believe any of the doom and gloom. Level 65 in Bardum's Mettle immediately changed my mind and soured my entire view of SCH to the views of the Doom and Gloomers. The Herculean pulls some tanks made were just too much for me to handle in most cases (note: this was prior to tank accessories with STR and tanks having 270 strength accessories in place instead of VIT gear.) The only times I'd be able to handle the pulls was with overgeared tanks that used CDs, else I'd just fail every time.

A full-pull Bardam's run is probably the worst thing you can base your opinion of a class on. Tanks who haven't upgraded past 270 get torn to shreds by small pulls in that dungeon. Healing a big pull with a poorly geared tank in that dungeon is incredibly hard. On my Bardam's run, the tank did big pulls and it was the hardest dungeon I've healed since the 2.x days before they started designing dungeons to limit how much you could pull at once.

It also sounds like you did this before the 4.05 SCH buffs, which really made a huge difference.

Back to the OP, all 3 healers are good. Go for whatever you like best.

[Iveriad]

I can't really speak much about comparison between SCH to WHM and AST since I only have SCH at 70, WHM at 50, and AST at 60(through jump potion, since AST is boring to level).

But I can say that compared to the other two healers from the bits I played, SCH is the most DPS oriented one. Sure, SCHs are/were "Mitigation healer", but thanks to that and the fairies, I feel that I have a lot more downtime compared to the other two healer class where I'll just wait for the shield/excogitation status to fall off before reapplying it, a time where I could just DPS by applying DoTs and spamming some Broil/Ruin before returning to healing and shielding.

Out of all the runs I did in Susanoo EX, I feel a significant difference in how fast we killed Susanoo when I was playing SCH compared to as a DRK or as a RDM.
While usually my party only managed to get Susanoo down to around 79-82% before the Sword Phase.
As SCH (with 5-10 iLv lower gears compared to the other two), I DPSed whenever I can, and the party always managed to get his HP down to 75-77%, no matter the composition.