I am stuck in a Scholar midlife crisis!

[MrKusakabe]

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen,

my name is Zed and I am in a Scholar midlife crisis. Or whatever you want to call the annoyingly frustrating state (of mind) I am in right now. As hardcore Red Mage fan I usually commence my duties as a red-clad Jack of all Trades™. My secondy role has been Scholar since 2014. Yes, I took a long break, but still, Scholar was great and I had a 50/50 ratio between Black Mage and Scholar. When I returned a half year ago, I started Heavensward and played Scholar there exclusively. So it was a 100% Scholar ratio in dungeons and such. I enjoyed it pretty much (on my way to be a fully-trained Red Mage).

Then there was the big change of our stuff with Shadowbringers - you remember your skillbar with lots of crossed-out icons, right? - and since then, I am literally unable to get any further. As I wait for my cousin to catch up, I am basically a Level 60 Scholar playing dungeons around Level 60. All fine so far - except I can't get back to it. It's like I lost the golden thread and I can not really grasp the idea of the Scholar around/after Level 60. It's really hard to put in words what I am trying to say, but you realize: I am lost. And it frustrates me so much!

Yesterday I picked up the book and summoned my Selene for an Aetherochemical Research Facility run for/with my cousin. And boy, I hated it. We did not wipe, we had not had any vitality problems, but the flow was gone for me. I was so disappointed by the entire gameplay and that the spark did not ignite (read as: Being a Scholar was a joy and fun in the past years, yesterday I really loathed it) that my cousin tried and had to cheer me up over Discord. Go figure! Two grown men..

I absolutely love Red Mage. But I like to have a dedicated healer for a change, and Scholar is the way to go for me. Or was. But right now, I dislike the current gameplay and the future gameplay looks rather odd when I read trough the Job Guide.

I just can't find a real "theme" of how to set up my hotbar even, it's looking like a Swiss cheese since a couple of months. Do you see how confused I am when I am not even able to set up my skills.

It must be me for sure, so you can maybe give me a bit input, point a bit into the direction or, like, help me out of that?

Things I can't get over are:

* Fairy management - Fair enough, as Level 60, I am maybe right in front of the next class mechanic or something, but right now as I stand, I don't feel I enjoy the "fairy management". She is more of a nuisiance im terms of management and control, like those annoying "follow-AI NPC" in games that get you a GAME OVER (Golden Eye on the N64 anyone...?). Eos/Selene is great, and I like the design idea, but she is camouflage in the boss fights, blown all over the place which makes it hard to use her properly after you realizing she just cast her AoE in the corner of the boss arena, affecting NO ONE. Since she is hard to spot in the visual clutter, it makes it even worse to have my fairy as a companion instead of a toddler I have to supervise 24/7.

* I can't get any sort of flow into this profession. I may be spoiled by Red Mage, but I struggle so much to understand the flow here. Having a clean "plan" in mind is what I'd like, e.g. "When X happens, I can do A or B". Me ingame: "OMG, I heal-spam like a madman without any sense."

* I am not interested in any other healer. Pure White Magic is nothing I want and Astrologican is like someone else is doing the healing and I would be just the medium. I could understand that I am too dumb for Scholar (kind of a pun) and you would probably suggest White Mage, but I like Scholar in the past and felt well-prepared, why should that have changed?

* Is Scholar ... "less desired" compared to the others? Is the current (or future) stand of this profession getting worse by design? I don't know what Square Enix is going to do with this profession, but it feels as we are just the non-FF profession and they don't want "us". I feel much better dishing out two Vercures on my Red Mage then being the dedicated healer for 30 minutes.


So, the first portion is "Just me" sort of issue, but the latter one...? Help...

[vtndll]

I just can't find a real "theme" of how to set up my hotbar even, it's looking like a Swiss cheese since a couple of months. Do you see how confused I am when I am not even able to set up my skills.

Are you using a ps4 controller or kb&m? I personally use a ps4 controller and my layout is I have all my heals on left trigger and all my dps buttons on right trigger. I would take a screenshot of my layout, but it has a lot of redundant skills on it paired with a heavy reliance on macros.

I know some people talk about using the extended crossbars for more space and have great luck with them. Hopefully someone that uses it can explain their layout as well.

[Synaesthesia]

Scholar being "less desired" than the others? No, absolutely not. Is it getting worse by design? Yes.. But it's not being singled out.

The sad truth is that healers in general are neglected and seemingly undesirable to Square's attentions. Astrologian's lore and gameplay was gutted even worse than Scholar's. White Mage is left with several useless skills, basically the same gameplay depth they've had for years and was only at the top of the pile at the start of the expansion by the grace of not being gutted during their reworks. None of them got any particularly good love in Shadowbringers.

They just don't want to properly fix healing in general.

[Saefinn]

Welcome to the healer forums. You're not the only one. There are those who still like it, but this section of the forum has had its fair share of complaints for healers and what you're highlighting with Scholar is among them.

For perspective, I was a SCH main from early access of 2.0 all the way around to the start of Stormblood, I loved the job, I swapped to RDM for a bit to do something different for a change and once the novelty of playing RDM died down, I jumped between playing the two. RDM has the really nice advantage of flowing really well, so I can totally see how there is a stark contrast with SCH when coming from RDM. I didn't like SCH in SB too much as it's where I was started to get bored but was excited to see what ShB would bring and now I'm a DNC main and if I heal, I heal on AST. AST doesn't flow well either (probably less well than SCH), but it has more to do and that helps keep me from being bored.

But if you're struggling to get back into it and the abilities feel confusing, maybe break it down and even try lower level content to get back into the swing of it. Starting with lower level abilities and working up until you get back at it and stuff should start piecing together.

[Gemina]

I am not quite sure if a DPS minded player would enjoy SCH much in its current state. It used to be the best healer for a DPS player to transition to since it had the most offensive buttons to push. Now it is probably the least favored. At least know that you are not alone, and the frustration is felt by many SCHs, both new and veteran.

I want to tell you it gets better, and from a healing perspective it does. You learn some really cool abilities 60-80, and SCH is without question a top-notch shielder, and mitigating damage can be very gratifying, and there will definitely be times where a well-timed shield makes the difference between whether or not that player survives the hit. Rezzing players is it's own mechanic really, and while there is nothing to it but to do it when Swiftcast is up, when it is not; it can force you make some tough choices. They have powerful heals through their aetherflow, and with Energy Drain back, you have something to dump those stacks on if heals are not needed.

It is still a pet class, and there are still issues that need to be addressed with the pet classes. Never the less they are still effective in combat. A tip I can give you is to use place if you are not sure where your fairy is at. She obeys your place commands no matter how much distance is between you and her. You can also always call her back to your side so she follows you around again as well.

When it comes to your DPS though, I am sorry; it doesn't really get better. A DoT, a nuke, and an AoE is all you get. You just get updated versions of them as you level except the AoE. I've been playing SCH since ARR, and I still love the job despite how badly it's DPS skills were gutted. A reason for this is because I DPS as healer because there is nothing else to fill my downtime with, not really because I get any kind of gratification out of it. Even when SCH had more DPS buttons to push, it was still nowhere near as engaging as an actual DPS job, and I found I love doing one or the other; not a half-arsed hybrid of the two.

In short, you kind of have to get enjoyment out of healing to like present SCH. But an issue with that is healing requirements are still pretty much the same, and we have these huge windows to toss in DPS. I personally rectify this by visiting a nearby PUG where I have no clue who is going to get hit by what. Big pulls in dungeons can also leave you drained of MP and ogcd both, and can feel pretty good when your dance-with-death-tank makes it out of a multi-mobpack onslaught alive when he would have otherwise died in less than three seconds.

I wouldn't be playing healers if I didn't enjoy them, and I am still here. That doesn't mean everything is a-ok, but yeah. Perhaps you will find something you enjoy about the job as well if you stick with it. Up to you though.

[Sloprano]

Welcome to Healer Forums, Zen. No, you're not alone. Many of your sentiments coming back to the job has been expressed here since details about Shadowbringers were revealed. When 5.0 came along we found the job had been bludgeoned to forget half it's spells and the word "BALANCED" carved into it's forehead.

There isn't much fairy to manage anymore unfortunately, she's immortal and can't be commanded directly expect positions. If you find she's way out of range, can recommend making sure she is on "Heel" keeping your head on a swivel to make sure she's right behind you before using any commands or manually place her in arenas where she'll hit everyone with the spells. I don't know how much you played of earlier iterations, but I feel it currently flows like a river of bricks after losing control over it's petGCD. You either wait for someone to take damage or fill the empty pauses between with Ruin/Broil, occasionally refreshing Bio.

If you're having trouble setting up your hotbars I recommend finding a training dummy, hit it to start combat so you can use Aetherflow and stand in front of it as you put out every skills you have on the hotbar, read the text of each one and use it plenty of times so you can reach a skill without looking at your hotbar. Then take it to plenty of parties and dungeons to get a feel for what skills you use the most and reposition them for easier access to them.

If you're thinking it's less desirable in parties or by the devs themselves. If it helps, it's still perfectly capable of healing anything I've come across so far, even so well I find myself using Broil/Art of War more than my healing skills. For the latter, it's a toss-up at this point, they haven't been keen to deign a response yet.

[Lodi]

tl;dr: healers suck. Real bad.

The feeling of disjointedness in your kit isn't just you, all healers just get a ton of healing abilities with little to no synergy and that's it.

[Hysterior]

I prefer SCH this expansion than during Stormblood where I completely fell out of love with the job.
I do agree however that, like SMN, it is still clunky and SE has clearly not mastered the 'pet' classes yet.

[MrKusakabe]

Thank you for your time guys. It is actually helping me a bit that I am not alone. Else I'd just put my book next to my Bard clothes - in that dusty chest in my inn room in Gridania and never go back. But now, I am maybe overreacting in my mind.

Are you using a ps4 controller or kb&m?

I am using keyboard and mouse. Tried to use an XBOX controller but when you are a PC gamer and used to have all the skills accessable either by tapping a key or by clicking on it I found it hard to have it in seperate bars. It's muscle memory since September 2013 and I don't think I can change.

Scholar being "less desired" than the others? No, absolutely not. Is it getting worse by design? Yes.. But it's not being singled out.

The sad truth is that healers in general are neglected and seemingly undesirable to Square's attentions. Astrologian's lore and gameplay was gutted even worse than Scholar's. White Mage is left with several useless skills, basically the same gameplay depth they've had for years and was only at the top of the pile at the start of the expansion by the grace of not being gutted during their reworks. None of them got any particularly good love in Shadowbringers.

They just don't want to properly fix healing in general.

Scholar is great by design. When I read the official job guide I linked in my opening post, I am so like "Yes, yes, yes!!". The lore was always very stupid and probably the worst ever: Tomberry stares into the sea for 15 quests and you do some stupid errand quests. Or rescue "Alka Zolka The Suicidal". You can really feel Square Enix can't write a lore around them.

[...]For perspective, I was a SCH main from early access of 2.0 all the way around to the start of Stormblood, I loved the job, I swapped to RDM for a bit to do something different for a change and once the novelty of playing RDM died down, I jumped between playing the two. RDM has the really nice advantage of flowing really well, so I can totally see how there is a stark contrast with SCH when coming from RDM. I didn't like SCH in SB too much as it's where I was started to get bored but was excited to see what ShB would bring and now I'm a DNC main and if I heal, I heal on AST. AST doesn't flow well either (probably less well than SCH), but it has more to do and that helps keep me from being bored.

But if you're struggling to get back into it and the abilities feel confusing, maybe break it down and even try lower level content to get back into the swing of it. Starting with lower level abilities and working up until you get back at it and stuff should start piecing together.

Unlike Scholar, Red Mage has a beautiful flow. It is like going into the kitchen with random ingredients and mange to get something tasty out of it, no matter if sweet (ranged) or spicy (melee). Some nice sauce (Vercure) and dessert (Verholy) are also ready to enjoy. On Scholar I feel unprepared. I walk into the enemy to do some "Art of War" blows which is such a bullshit skill and my healing skills are not feeling to match each other. If you take the cooking analogy, my Scholar rotation is resulting in:

(This is a Zelda: Breath of the Wild reference when you put random shit into the cooking pot and the result is what you see above)

I also thought of systematically go back to milestone dungeons. The problem there is that I am fine up to the Aetherchemical Research Facility - which is Level 60. But I just Physick-spammed trough it. I used to the need to create Sacred Soil and HP-shields and all that in the past, but these are too easy and the later dungeons might be too tough if I can't get the synergy done between my upcoming skills. Unprepared as said..

[...]
I want to tell you it gets better, and from a healing perspective it does. You learn some really cool abilities 60-80, and SCH is without question a top-notch shielder, and mitigating damage can be very gratifying, and there will definitely be times where a well-timed shield makes the difference between whether or not that player survives the hit. Rezzing players is it's own mechanic really, and while there is nothing to it but to do it when Swiftcast is up, when it is not; it can force you make some tough choices. They have powerful heals through their aetherflow, and with Energy Drain back, you have something to dump those stacks on if heals are not needed.

It is still a pet class, and there are still issues that need to be addressed with the pet classes. Never the less they are still effective in combat. A tip I can give you is to use place if you are not sure where your fairy is at. She obeys your place commands no matter how much distance is between you and her. You can also always call her back to your side so she follows you around again as well.
[...]
I wouldn't be playing healers if I didn't enjoy them, and I am still here. That doesn't mean everything is a-ok, but yeah. Perhaps you will find something you enjoy about the job as well if you stick with it. Up to you though.

This is the sort of heads-up I was also looking for. I see there is some nice stuff coming up, but it feels so clunky. I really do not even understand certain tooltips, as pathetic as that is. When I read "next galvanize..." and I am like "What is that? Where do I trigger this in the first place?!". In 2015, I had it all sorted out: These buttons are shields, this is the panic heal, this is the AoE heal, that needs Aetherflow. Now I have Aetherflow AND a cooldown on a skill, and this is so confusing to understand the logic. If am already gated behind stacks which are behind CD, why does the spell itself is also limited?

I used to send my pet into the boss room or over places I can't reach during some mechanics. But I could see her by selecting her in the party list. Also, when she got damaged, I knew the guys there get damged, too, so I had great overview of the arena. Like "damage hotspots". I took care of special cases with my toolkit and Eos did First Aid and scouting. Now I am spending more time to move her around or get her back on my heels. Which adds to my entire confusing gameplay.

You know, I am not as incompetent as I seem in the OP, but right now, I am. So there must be something I am missing

There isn't much fairy to manage anymore unfortunately, she's immortal and can't be commanded directly expect positions. If you find she's way out of range, can recommend making sure she is on "Heel" keeping your head on a swivel to make sure she's right behind you before using any commands or manually place her in arenas where she'll hit everyone with the spells. I don't know how much you played of earlier iterations, but I feel it currently flows like a river of bricks after losing control over it's petGCD. You either wait for someone to take damage or fill the empty pauses between with Ruin/Broil, occasionally refreshing Bio. [...]

The problem is that I place her a lot all over the place as this is the reason why I have a pet in general: A companion to work in a team with. I think it's super idiotic when I command her to be on spot X and she is moved way, she should move back to spot X. I mean, I commanded her to be exactly there, not anywhere else. If I place her at X:15 Y:20, and she finds herself a t X:0 Y:15, she should move back. That'd help a lot and would be true to the "Position" command. It is just awkward she is unselectable. I play on 2550x1440p, it's so difficult! Like I am playing "Where is Waldo".

tl;dr: healers suck. Real bad.

The feeling of disjointedness in your kit isn't just you, all healers just get a ton of healing abilities with little to no synergy and that's it.

The synergy is really a problem! Phew, I am not the only one in that matter.

The reason why I am doing this that I like Scholar. Very much even. I am not a fan of White Mage at all. To me it is always like White Mages are from a Christian St. BlaBla hospital with pictures of god and crosses over the door in every room, while Scholars are doctors from an University Hospital, trusting in themselves and their knowledge instead of another entity. And Astrologicans are playing Yu-Gi-Oh. So I want to stay a Fairy Master. But I struggle so much. Not by the numbers, the healing is fine. It's so clunky. I can't get anything in order. Look at the difference of my two professions:

Sincerely,

[Lodi]

It's not hard to sort healer skills, imo. Mine are sorted in three lines - damage, single target heals, and aoe heals- and then a square hotbar where I put all my CDs.


The real problem with healers is that, when you get a new action, you don't ask yourself what does it do. Instead, you ask yourself what will it replace.
A healer's kit doesn't expand with levels, it just gains free actions so your lv1-50 spells progressively become less and less needed.

Tetragrammation? Free Cure II every 60s.
Afflatus Rapture? Free Medica every 30s.
Celestial Opposition? Free Aspected Helios every 60s.
Horoscope ? Free Helios every 60s.
Earthly Star? Two free Helioses 60s.
Lustrate? Free Physick up to three times every 60s.
Indom? Free Succor up to two times every 60s.
Fey Blessing? Free Succor again every 60s
Consolation? Free Succor AGAIN every 60s.


"All my friends got a new phone for christmas, and what I got was the model I already have but with a different colour" sums up the healer situation quite nicely. Zero surprises, only different colours .