Optional, yet better solution for Healing roles

[GrimGale]

I honestly think Weaving tools are the way to go. The ability to both heal and damage effectively by smartly using abilities into each other is what makes healing most satisfying. Weave buffs with healing or damage. Weave Debuffs or attacks into damage. Weave healing with a buff.

The current approach seems to favour this kind of approach, and I would love them to expand on it, honestly. I wish we had more damage tools to weave in of course, something we can always use to cast in between heals or damage. Not something that becomes useful or available once ever three minutes for a minuscule spike of usefulness.

That is why sub-identities would make things better. We have AST as a buffer. The cards are oGCDs which allows the weaving of buffs into both healing and damage spells. It's great (Althought I'd love them to expand on that too, I still think we cast Malefic too often.)

WHM should be weaving damage as often as SGE would. SCH should be weaving in debuffs as often as AST would. They all have secondary identities that are barely expanded upon and its such a waste considering they are all distinct and unique enough to counter the homogenization of their healing spells.

[ty_taurus]

I honestly think Weaving tools are the way to go. The ability to both heal and damage effectively by smartly using abilities into each other is what makes healing most satisfying. Weave buffs with healing or damage. Weave Debuffs or attacks into damage. Weave healing with a buff.

The current approach seems to favour this kind of approach, and I would love them to expand on it, honestly. I wish we had more damage tools to weave in of course, something we can always use to cast in between heals or damage. Not something that becomes useful or available once ever three minutes for a minuscule spike of usefulness.

That is why sub-identities would make things better. We have AST as a buffer. The cards are oGCDs which allows the weaving of buffs into both healing and damage spells. It's great (Althought I'd love them to expand on that too, I still think we cast Malefic too often.)

WHM should be weaving damage as often as SGE would. SCH should be weaving in debuffs as often as AST would. They all have secondary identities that are barely expanded upon and its such a waste considering they are all distinct and unique enough to counter the homogenization of their healing spells.

Once upon a time, SCH actually had quite a few debuffs that weren't just DoTs, because yeah, SCH had 7 DoTs in the beginning, but they also applied a bunch of other debuffs as well:

- Miasma and Miasma II would inflict Disease which reduced the amount of healing enemies received. Didn't matter much, but there were bosses that had regen mechanics like Garuda EX.
- Ruin II would inflict Blind that would cause auto attacks to miss.
- Shadowflare also applied Slow to all enemies in its radius.
- Virus was an OGCD debuff that reduced the enemy's Strength and Dexterity--this was basically moved to Feint on melee DPS.
- Eye for an Eye was an OGCD buff you'd place on an ally that had a 20% chance to reflect a damage dealt reduction debuff onto enemies that attacked them.
- Ruin naturally applied Heavy on enemies that slowed their movementspeed. Also very situational but super helpful against very specific bosses like A3S.
- Selene had Silent Dusk which inflicted Silence. Almost useless, except Silence wasn't ubiquitous on other roles, so if there were actions you were meant to interrupt, and you only had one other silencer in your party, it would greatly behoove you to work with them to alternate interrupting that action. The miniboss in Coil 1 was a wakeup call to this for me.

Honestly, I miss having more situational debuffs linked to actions that have more standardized uses like the Disease on Miasma. It adds a bit of flair and allows you to shine just a little more in certain situations.

[GrimGale]

Once upon a time, SCH actually had quite a few debuffs that weren't just DoTs, because yeah, SCH had 7 DoTs in the beginning, but they also applied a bunch of other debuffs as well:

- Miasma and Miasma II would inflict Disease which reduced the amount of healing enemies received. Didn't matter much, but there were bosses that had regen mechanics like Garuda EX.
- Ruin II would inflict Blind that would cause auto attacks to miss.
- Shadowflare also applied Slow to all enemies in its radius.
- Virus was an OGCD debuff that reduced the enemy's Strength and Dexterity--this was basically moved to Feint on melee DPS.
- Eye for an Eye was an OGCD buff you'd place on an ally that had a 20% chance to reflect a damage dealt reduction debuff onto enemies that attacked them.
- Ruin naturally applied Heavy on enemies that slowed their movementspeed. Also very situational but super helpful against very specific bosses like A3S.
- Selene had Silent Dusk which inflicted Silence. Almost useless, except Silence wasn't ubiquitous on other roles, so if there were actions you were meant to interrupt, and you only had one other silencer in your party, it would greatly behoove you to work with them to alternate interrupting that action. The miniboss in Coil 1 was a wakeup call to this for me.

Honestly, I miss having more situational debuffs linked to actions that have more standardized uses like the Disease on Miasma. It adds a bit of flair and allows you to shine just a little more in certain situations.

I'd rather not romantisize or return to the past. Super situational stuff, while impactful tends to be often be balanced in a way that the encounter design leaves it to the side and then we never get to actually use it. AST's card system is always useful, so the AST feels like they can use it whenever the CD is up.

I want something like that for SCH, a side mechanic that is always useful and feels aligned with the class fantasy. That is why I think SCH could stand to lose the Aetherflow system (or at least merge it with some sort of Stratagem system.) and instead gain a whole debuff, weakness exposing system to make SCH the rDPS shield healer.