Thread: Scholar 5.0 Discussion

People have already said it far better than I could but here are my two cents.

I don't think the new scholar is bad as a healer. The job isn't broken and it will most likely still continue to do well. But the main drawback is that it isn't fun anymore. Any form of control and decision making has been mostly removed. Every dungeon I have run after 70 feels like I am level synced and run Sastasha. Sure this is phrasing it a bit overly dramatic but this is how I feel.

Since other people already went over most of the abilities I just want to comment on something that I don't see discussed often.

I really am not a big fan of not being able to tell my fairy who to cast embrace on anymore. This feels so counter productive. Yes their simplified it but it wasn't necessary.
People who didn't want to put up with having extra control over the fairy didn't have to and the people who love to micro manage everything still could. I really don't get why this was taken away.

This is far and beyond the worst state healers have been in since the launch of the game. Even healing as a cnj/thm in 1.0 was more enjoyable than it is now. They managed to go from being the mmo where healing was far more fun and complex than pretty much any other mmo out there, an mmo where healers were actually not in that short of supply because of how fun and engaging they were, to now having the most boring and simplified design that I've seen in years.

I'm glad that I leveled everything to 70 in Stormblood, because I won't be playing as a healer anymore. Those days are dead and gone.

Originally Posted by AlphaSonic

Aethersink: Convert all your remaining Aetherflow stacks into mana and fey union gauge. Restoration depends on the aetherflow stacks.
1 stack -> 250 mana + 10 faerie gauge
2 stacks -> 500 mana + 20 faerie gauge
3 stacks -> 750 mana + 30 faerie gauge

Boom problem solved, and without any DPS buff involved.

Other then naming it Sublimation out of a strong desire to reference ffxi scholar, this is the exact kinda thing I'd rather see added to the class. I'd be slightly worried about the amount of MP restored being too powerful, but otherwise this is nice.

Just adding my two cents now that I've hit max and had some time to process it all.

As with others, main takeaway is that Sch is now Exceedingly Boring.

I found that my enjoyment came not from playing Sch, but figuring out the changes (which passed quickly) and from the story-line and new dungeons. As I'm a solo player who doesn't care to maximize exp, most of my time was spent spamming dungeons. Most of my time in dungeons was spent spamming Art of War after briefly dotting most mobs up. That's boring. There's no pay off. Even the routine "Dots up + Bane" actually felt semi-rewarding each time you pulled it off, because it has a set-up + pay-off attached to it. Spamming Art of War with Lucid Dreaming up requires no thought at all.

The new approach to healing is something I think I can see? It's hard to tell now, honestly. People are still getting used to skills/etc so a lot of the healing is likely to go away as players get more streamlined. If it sticks around, I think that's fine.

But Sch as it stands is boring. Your optimization comes from rote-memorization with 3 buttons involved now.

Let me tell Eos whom to heal and whomever decided to make Aetherflow combat only needs to reevaluate why they chose to involve themselves with Sch design.

SCH isn't even remotely fun anymore, especially in dungeons. Either I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel and am completely out of aetherflow trying to heal the tank or I'm casting broil/art of war over and over again while overriding a stack of three unused aetherflow with three more because I have no mana and don't want to stand there doing nothing.

That's just a tiny taste of the problems with this redesign.

What were they thinking?

Originally Posted by Stamps

As with others, main takeaway is that Sch is now Exceedingly Boring.

That's the issue. The Exceedlingly Boring element of it is purely a matter of opinion and preference. You have folks like me who are used to the more streamlined rotation and dont mind and even prefer it, from my own perspective the job feels about the same, you're still leaning on ogcd heals, and utilizing shielding and damage mitigation preemptively. It was just streamlined. One dot of a decent potency does the same job of two dots of a lower potency. As for the aoe, we did take losses in total potency but our kit is more streamlined. AoW is more expensive then Holy and Gravity but it's also stronger and instant cast.

But that's the other problem. What some people see as nuance and complexity can also be seen as clunkyness and needless busy work to others. As fun as it is to debate and discuss ultimately it's going to be futile no matter what the devs do. You're either going to please the people who want complexity and alienate everyone else, or you're going to please the everyone else and alienate those who want complexity.