Thread: Scholar 5.0 Discussion

I dont want to count myself as a good SCH. I only picked it up as my go-to healer at the end of SB. But here's my two cents.

1) Let me see my fairy in combat. Removing it from the party list but allowing chocobos to remain in the party list? Removing its name in combat DESPITE having the setting to allow it's name to be displayed while in combat? I hate losing where my fairy is if I'm constantly having to place it in range for its abilities.
2) MP in AoE. Art of War is cool and all in name, but man it hurts to use it too much.
3) Aetherflow. Not being able to use it outside of combat makes SCH feel so clunky that it pains me, especially since combat is triggered when you either attack an enemy, or heal the tank after they pull. Delaying me being able to play is poor design IMO.
3a) Not having anything to spend aether on besides healing spells? I'm okay with that. Not 100%, but I get what SE wanted to do. But when you're sitting on one or two stacks when there's no healing going out and aetherflow is either far off from using again, or about to be? Feels bad. Why'd quickened aetherflow trait have to be removed?
3aa) If Aether abilities fuel the fairy gauge, it'd make sense to me to want to use more aether abilities to fuel more fairy gauge. All of which is done for healing, right? So why are SCH being punished for using their abilities too much? Either I sit on stacks, or burn through them too quickly, and have to dissipate to get more stacks for more healing... except the fairy's gone while dissipate is up so I have to wait for the fairy to come back just to use the fairy abilities? SCH needs a way to spend aether when healing isn't needed.
4) Fairy abilities being treated as oGCD player abilities. This makes no sense for SCH. Being able to prep a heal, cast it, and while casting it order Eos to use Fey Illumination was satisfying to pull off those embiggened heals. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't SCH supposed to co-function with their fairy, not order it around like a SMN pet?
5) Biolysis. Instead of giving AST an AoE DoT, they... take away from WHM and SCH their AoE DoT? This beggars belief.
5a) Bane. Not having an AoE DoT is... painful. I hate tab targeting each mob individually to apply Biolysis to help mobs die if I'm busy casting a GCD heal. Being able to deal damage to every enemy passively if I have to use a GCD heal helps the party and the dungeon clear more smoothly.
5b) Shadowflare. Sacred Soil can still not be used while another field effect spell is in use... which there is no other one now. What? Removed to reduce button bloat maybe? I don't feel like I wouldn't be able to find room for it on my hotbars if it were still around or readded. Plus that it was passive damage that was only effective as long as the enemy was within its area of effectiveness.
6) Succor. Why does Sacred Soil no longer have a chance of proccing a free succor? Would it be because having SS as a HoT while popping a free succor shield to boot is too powerful? Why actively nerf a healer's ability to heal?
7) Largesse. Why? Why was this removed? Break had its uses for me on RDM if I died, but I get why it and most of the other role spells were axed. But Largesse? If you want healers to focus on healing more, why take away an ability that made them BETTER at healing??
7a) Repose. In overworld content where it would be used, the cast time is too long I feel. Beyond which, just keep running from the enemy til it deaggros you anyway. Why would I want to stop, cast a long casting spell, just to sleep a mob to keep running when I can keep running to wherever I am going? Waste of time. Dungeons? Everyone is using their AoE/damaging abilities so literally pointless and useless. Bosses? See dungeons. Raids? If it's going to wind up like the Omega raids did... refer to dungeons. If it were to be reworked to act as an interrupt, that would be cool. Having interrupts on Tanks/Ranged Physical is nice and all, but if anyone would want to interrupt an enemy from doing more damage a healer makes sense to me. Just make this an interrupt spell that shares a cast speed with physick/cure/benefic.

That's all I can think of, but man. Taking SCH through the MSQ has not been enjoyable in the slightest.

The changes are startling. It shifted from an icredibly fast paced healer with engaging DPS abilities to a really really slow snooze fest. If you try to always be casting you run out of MP so you can't even try to make the boring dps rotation fun. Fates make me angry because all you do is DPS but Lucid and Aetherflow can't handle the drain. I won't say that Energy Drain needs to come back but something similiar needs to be there even if it only gives MP to sustain your DPS and doesn't do damage or restore health. I realized that they are trying to force us to use Physick more to counter the huge cost of every other spell and that is also why Aetherflow can't be used outside of combat and the Quickened Aetherflow Trait was removed. The old system gave us a lot more Stacks to use and now hard casted heals are a more important part of the kit... But nothing about this is fun. It is easier I admit since you aren't weaving Lustrates and Indoms between DPS abilities as much but even though Scholar functions amazingly well as a healer it is just NOT FUN at all. The only positive I have seen is that the fairy tops any party member who's taken damage off instead of waiting until they are below 80%. I wish the fairy didn't constantly unsummon itself and disappear tho. Without it being in the party list I have to zoom in and look for it way too often since I can't target her. This creates so many issues. Marking my fairy isnt possible anymore and that really helped people stay in range during hectic fights where we were seperated. More than anything though Tanks were done so well. They feel unique and engaging while none of the healers feel that way. WHM feels alright but Scholar and Astro feel so dead to play. They are easier to learn but I can't have fun on them like I can Tanking. Something has to give. Scholar is lacking the tactical planning and high speed gameplay that constantly bounced between healing and dps. MP cost needs to be addressed somehow and at least one more DPS option to seperated it from the other healers is needed. Bane, Shadow Flare, Another Dot anything. Just make it more engaging. Nothing feels more dumb than spamming a dot and a filler spell in a fate and running out of MP while using Lucid and Aetherflow on Cooldown with no need to use a single healing ability so you just overwrite the stacks constantly and still have to wait for your MP refresh. It's really bad design.