Is there a reason a hefty chunk of SCH heals are unaffected by buffs

[Krovoc-The-Destroyer]

With 4.1 coming out, and no fix to this in sight, I thought I should ask if this is intentional or an oversight.

A fair bit of the healing I had been putting out as SCH pre-SB was from Lustrate, but most of it came from some sort of spell-based sort, so I didn't really care too much. However, now, with the nerf to Embrace, and the addition of Excognition most of my heals are coming from abilities as opposed to spells. WAR/SCH pairings were a bit troublesome before for this reason, since Defiance's heal buff does not affect Lustrate, but again most of my healing was coming from spells so I didn't care too much. I wouldn't call it truly problematic since I've never been in a situation where I was in any serious content with a pair of warriors and another scholar (WAR/WAR +SCH/SCH), but it is still an issue that seems like it needs addressing. To add insult to injury, we now have Largesse as a role action, which does nothing to boost ability healing.

I'm happy to see Succor's shielding increase, this was a sore spot for me, but the MP un-nerf from Adloquium seems unnecessary now. I've never really had issues with SCH's MP before, so it seems like a wasted jesture (pun intended) when what really needs to happy is a change to how Largesse, Defiance, Fey Illumination, and the other similar buffs that I can't think of off the top of my head.

So, is there a reason for this? Is SCH unbalanced otherwise? When one tank/healer pair is so much worse than another, that doesn't seem like you're balancing anything.

edit: In general, I'm satisfied with SCH kit, it just that there are some significant disparity in some cases, most significantly 4-man dungeons with a WAR tank. This seems to be a significant balance issue since healing a DRK or PLD as SCH is largely trivial in these dungeons, but a WAR is actually a bit of a challenge if I actually want to get DoTs in. To clarify, and give a concreate indicator, if the tank is a WAR, I can barely get DoTs in. Sometimes, if that tank isn't geared as well as I'd like, I can't even get all my DoTs in. Otherwise, with the other two, I'm spamming Broil II.

[Tridus]

I suspect the reason is "because it's always worked that way and nobody has gotten around to looking at changing it" honestly. It's one of the fiddly things from earlier in the game's life that mostly serves to confuse people who don't understand it. It makes Largesse weird, as well, since it says it increases your healing but doesn't do a good job of explaining that it doesn't work on half your heals.

The Largesse side of it may prove an issue, but I don't think it'd be the end of the world if Defiance worked on all healing. (It'd also help stuff like Tetra when used on a Warrior.)

[Krovoc-The-Destroyer]

I've thought about Tetra, but WHM has enough, and beefy enough, heals that Tetra is an added bonus. Or it would seem that way. Ditto for Essential Dignity. I'll admit that my WHM is only level 57, so perhaps things change latter, but for AST, which is the first healer I got to 70, most of my healing is coming from spells. The issue with SCH is that most of my heals are coming from abilities. With AST, healing a WAR is just marginally more annoying than healing a PLD or DRK.

Also, I'm not going to touch on the issue of Fey Union + Rouse. That may have been intentional. Seems silly since the pet has to stop casting Embrace which DOES benifit from rouse, but meh. Whatever. Fey Union is still more potent than Embrace + Rouse + Fey Illumination + Defiance + Convalescence... by 5 points.

edit: To be clear, it seems as if to make the situation with WAR better you'd need to buff something, but SCH heals for PLD and DRK are just fine, which would make SCH OP.

[Tridus]

My point is simply that it's not just a SCH thing when it comes to Defiance, although it hits them the most. But since it affects every healer in some way, I don't think it'd be a big deal if they changed Defiance to not work that way anymore and have it affect all healing. So I'm agreeing with you.

[Krovoc-The-Destroyer]

Tridus, seeing as how you have WHM listed as your main, how much of your healing comes from abilities? As mentioned my WHM is only 57.

[Tridus]

Tetra is the only non-AoE. It also impacts Assize, Asylum, and Plenary Indulgence. I feel it primarily on Tetra because it's effectively an instant Cure 2 on PLD/DRK but on WAR Cure 2 is 140 potency stronger. That's pretty noticeable. Certainly less than it impacts SCH (Lustrate could really use that extra oomph with the size of a WAR health bar), but it's there.

[Ametrine]

This does look like an oversight, but it may very well be that the SCH kit can keep up a WAR in all content, even if it's touchy. I find it further interesting considering Lore implies SCH/WAR is a powerful synergy, but numbers can't lie.

Ah, but, what about Emergency Tactics? The dropped MP cost of Adlo allows us to rely on it more easily, but Emergency had it's cooldown lowered in the last series of adjustments. While it still counts as an "ability" heal, trading the sheild for a double potency heal can absolve some of the issues.

[Kabooa]

This does look like an oversight, but it may very well be that the SCH kit can keep up a WAR in all content, even if it's touchy. I find it further interesting considering Lore implies SCH/WAR is a powerful synergy, but numbers can't lie..

Lustrate used to be a straight +25% of the target's health, ignoring Healing reduction. Guess which Tank got the most 'raw' healing from that :P

[Eloah]

While the healing buff issue is real, and could turn into a major problem if not watched carefully, it's not that much of a concern compared to other things. Because of Lily SCH's had their "buff" similar to WHM and AST, though withe her nerf and the other changes that is no longer that case; seriously SE you should of adjusted the scale again not the potency. But anyway, the real issues are the skills SCH has that are becoming useless more and more, if they were ever used at all. Primarily Silent Dusk and Dissipation are the big two, Deployment Tactics and Sacred Soil are up there but still "okay", Adlo and Succor are being addressed in 4.1, and they are checking on Excog; it's better than its initial iteration but still meh.

For the most part SCH is "okay" now, they just have reduced skills like the rest of the jobs; the main issue with that and why things feel sluggish and underwhelming is because SCH was very rotation oriented compared to the other Healers. Whereas the other healers would heal and use a single attack over and over until more healing was needed, SCH, since it branched off of a DPS class, shared that DPS rotation, and they alternated between their heals and DPS rotations. (And stance dancing don't forget stance dancing, how i sorta miss it too, T.T) That's not the case anymore, so they feel less engaging. And it doesn't help that WHM and AST got skills to make them more engaging.

[Krovoc-The-Destroyer]

Lustrate used to be a straight +25% of the target's health, ignoring Healing reduction. Guess which Tank got the most 'raw' healing from that :P

I'd certainly be happy with a return to percent based healing. After all, my complaint is disparity, not the actual amount of healing done.

This does look like an oversight, but it may very well be that the SCH kit can keep up a WAR in all content, even if it's touchy. I find it further interesting considering Lore implies SCH/WAR is a powerful synergy, but numbers can't lie.

Ah, but, what about Emergency Tactics? The dropped MP cost of Adlo allows us to rely on it more easily, but Emergency had it's cooldown lowered in the last series of adjustments. While it still counts as an "ability" heal, trading the sheild for a double potency heal can absolve some of the issues.

The issue isn't whether a SCH CAN keep a WAR alive. I know I can. The issue is that there is a large disparity with the specific combo of SCH/WAR that does not exist for other heals or tanks. Of the nine possible combinations, this is the only one that has this much of a problem. Again, it isn't game breaking, but it is very noticeable.

The other side of it is that the lack of support for healing abilities (vs spells) by these various buffs (not just Defiance, though it is the most significant in my opinion) impacts SCH far more than the other two. As a tank, I throw up Convalescence expecting to get extra heals from my healer. Fortunately, I'm a DRK, not a WAR, but if I was a WAR, I'd be concerned if my SCH healer was aware of the fact that his or her heals won't actually heal any better.

On a side note, the post length restriction on this forum really is a bit ridiculous.