Scholar Aetherflow Shield Options

[Hatstand]

I'll preface this with the fact that I don't want this to take away from the discussions about energy drain. I am of the opinion that we need a aetherflow dump, but also...

It seems like SCH is more the OGCD healer than the shield healer at the moment. The only ability from aetherflow that mitigates damage is Sacred Soil, and the main attraction of using Sacred Soil is the heal. The only fairy shields we get are Seraphic Embrace (which we can't control) and Consolation (which is only available with Seraph). I think it would be nice to have some more damage mitigation options with aetherflow, so we could spend more time preparing for damage rather than mopping up after it with indom. (Ofc, we might need to nerf something somewhere to make up for adding this capability, but since it's another option for a limited resource hopefully it wouldn't make us too much stronger.)

Thoughts?

[Billythepancake]

I'm not against it but I also don't think it's necessary tbh. I'm all for more tools, but I doubt this would fix any issues with current scholar (if that is indeed the goal)

[TonberiScholar]

How in-depth do you want me to go?

Quick answer:

Adding a shield is one of the better of the non-damaging options I've seen, but I don't think they'd do it. They seem to vastly overvalue shields in non-Savage content and undervalue them in Savage (see: Nocturnal still kinda sucks, they removed Stoneskin and then added back Benison to WHM)

My personal preference would be Shadowflare or Bane back with an Aetherflow stack consumption and a 30-second cooldown or so. It's technically a "DPS" spender but with less general-applicability than pre-ShB Energy Drain. Tweak it so it's roughly the DPS equivalent of what Earthly Star would give AST or something (read: not much).

I think the most realistic thing we can hope for is something like a buff that grants a bit of Fairy Gauge when someone's hit. Something to be used in their continued crusade to pretend Fairy Gauge is an actual Job mechanic (because we apparently need 10 golf bags full of healing tools...)

Cynical answer: I almost don't want them to add one because it's going to end up being something useless that'll be used to justify an additional nerf down the line and more things being removed from our kit.

[Ceasaria]

SCH has already too much healing and shielding options.

"It seems like SCH is more the OGCD healer than the shield healer at the moment."

Instead of adding more shield, just reduce or remove some healing actions like Fey Blessing and turn in into Fey Caress or even a new trait for Angel Whisper (which means Seraph is obtained at lvl 76, and the trait at lvl 80).

[Hatstand]

As a note: I'm not proposing this as a fix to the current SCH. I think it has other problems that need fixing, especially quality of life issues and the downtime problem. I also wouldn't mind seeing current abilities replaced with shielding ones, since I agree we have more than enough healing tools. I think this should take lesser priority over fixing the mess that is scholar right now, but it would be nice for the future.

[NobleWinter]

I always thought that Indom should have been an AoE Shield that stacked with Galvanize although it's potency is a bit high right now for that. It's a ton of direct healing that feels unnecessary when we have Emergency Tactics. Our play style would be more preemptive if we relied on a quick raid wide shield and whispering Dawn to patch up the left overs while it lingered. It would drastically change our play style not being able to react to every raid wide attack with the current Indom but be reguired to prepare instead especially if the shield only lasted 10 secs. I think Scholars should struggle to provide raw healing but make up for it with effective but expensive shielding. That's just my opinion though.

[AvenoMatt]

Personally I'd really would like to see them double down on shields/mitigation for sch and removed some of it's burst heals.

Overall if I could I would make AST the regen healer with most of it's tool kit focusing on HoTs with very little shielding and burst heals and give back TD and old CU. WHM should be the burst power healer with strong heals to get the party back up fast which is basically already does.

[GrimGale]

Personally I'd really would like to see them double down on shields/mitigation for sch and removed some of it's burst heals.

Overall if I could I would make AST the regen healer with most of it's tool kit focusing on HoTs with very little shielding and burst heals and give back TD and old CU. WHM should be the burst power healer with strong heals to get the party back up fast which is basically already does.

I'd make AST a delayed burst healing healer and remove both sects altogether. Like, heal at the beginning and 15s later a blast of heal, kind of like a personal earthly star.