SCH need buffs

[Brandedblade]

Primary purpose of healing? As long as there is an ED around with some DPS potency on it it has the dual purpose of dealing damage and healing. Making ED do no damage makes it useless; what's the point of burning AF stacks for just more MP?

I cannot stress enough that Aetherflow heals having a solid DPS opportunity cost is a good thing.
Heals should not all be either OGCD with zero DPS cost (save weaving) or GCD.

Here's the thing. I agree. I like that system of scholar. But I'm trying to put myself in the dev's shoes on the matter.

They seem to have removed energy Drain because they wanted to make Aetherflow a healer centric mechanic, but then realized that they needed a dump skill to use up excess stacks. So they implemented Energy Drain back. And while it gives Scholar a healing priority again, People here seem to have issue with this, considering they complain about the existence of the cost. So the solution seems to be either remove the dps component and make it purely an excess dump, or simply reduce the potency to the point using it to heal does not feel as punishing as people are making out to be.

[Rilifane]

Here's the thing. I agree. I like that system of scholar. But I'm trying to put myself in the dev's shoes on the matter.

They seem to have removed energy Drain because they wanted to make Aetherflow a healer centric mechanic, but then realized that they needed a dump skill to use up excess stacks. So they implemented Energy Drain back. And while it gives Scholar a healing priority again, People here seem to have issue with this, considering they complain about the existence of the cost. So the solution seems to be either remove the dps component and make it purely an excess dump, or simply reduce the potency to the point using it to heal does not feel as punishing as people are making out to be.

Stating that something is a dps loss isn't the same as complaining about it. Nor does it make SS or other AF heals bad skills.
Yes, it IS a dps loss, that's a simple fact.
But it doesn't have to be a bad thing because as Volkaj stated, it gives the healer kit some depth. Something the healer kits desperately need. It gives you the opportunity to get better, leaves room for optimization and gives you an incentive to learn the fights even better so you can use your AF more effectively. Miscalculations can lead to "ah shit, should've saved that one AF stack" situations and that's fun for most people because getting not even a little bit punished for miscalculating your resources would make the job even more dull.

[Volkaj]

snip

Look. Here's my real, honest to god opinion on this. A huge chunk of the people here have no idea what they're talking about.

This thread is about how SCH needs buffs. SCH doesn't need buffs. As Billythepancake said SCH can dish out respectable rDPS and HPS. Plus there's always gonna be someone on the bottom of the totem pole unless you have perfect balance and that just isn't gonna happen.

I spent at least half a dozen posts in another thread trying to explain that you should use CU rather than SS when possible, since the latter has a plain, obvious DPS opportunity cost that the other one does not have. And DPS matters a lot when optimizing healing, since there is so little healing to do.

And the last idea posited here is to remove (or render completely useless) ED. Exactly how it was at the start of ShB, which got reverted after community backlash. Mainly because it rendered the whole Aetherflow management aspect of SCH completely moot.

SCH, heck, all healers, do not need numerical buffs or nerfs. They need significant gameplay improvements.
Having to manage a whole bunch of DoT timers (past SCH) might not be your jam. That's fine. But it is still more engaging gameplay (more buttons to press, more timers to manage). Spamming one nuke for an entire fight is simply not fun.

As for SE's perspective, it is pretty clear that they simply do not care, or do not listen to healers.
Out of all the feedback given prior to SB, the only point that got "fixed" was WHM lilies.

I remember clear feedback threads in SB from new players saying they really loved AST's cards.
Threads pointing out that SCH had a nice, high skill ceiling that was satisfying to reach (as it was OP).
Threads asking for a Selene rework, as Eos was all-around better.
Threads asking for mobility and raid DPS utility for WHM.

All SE had to do for ShB was:
- Fix WHM lilies.
- Eliminate Balance fishing (making Draw only useable in combat + nerfing Balance potency for instance).
- Rework Selene.
- Adjust numerical potencies to balance everything rDPS + HPS wise.

Instead, what we got is what dumb DPS and tanks wanted. More healing tools (which we have no use of), and less DPS tools (which we have a desperate need of).
Because they believe that will make healers heal them out of oneshots mechanics.