Designing a SCH that plays like SMN for fun

[ty_taurus]

SMN is a bit of a hot take in the DPS world right now, and this isn't exactly the place to get into that discussion, but I will say that my own opinion of SMN is that it's good fertile land for the job to grow, though feels a little incomplete right for level 90.

Having said that, I immediately started thinking about how SCH could look if it took inspiration from this new concept to better streamline the new player Arcanist experience (which is kind of a confusing mess).

What I came up with is... something, lol. I think it's actually got a lot of interesting points that could be worth building upon, but it was really difficult to balance it. It would likely need to be tuned in a prototyping environment to really get close to something more realistic (assuming we could ever see healing treated like a real role in the future). Even still, it was a fun concept that I'd like to share and see what parts people like or don't like.

Below is an overview of how the concept turned out.

[ty_taurus]

If anyone's interested in digging through the full action list, here's the link under the Scholar tab: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

It's a dense read, though, so here's what the level 90 SparkNotes looks like...

What if SCH played like SMN

Basic Resources
How this SCH works should feel like a hybrid of the current SCH and the current SMN with a bit of a twist to better support the situational nature of healing and utility offered by the faeries.

Summon Actions:
To begin as SCH, you start by summoning Lily to your side, a new, basic version of your pet similar to Carbuncle, though she's less window dressing and can use the bulk of all your standard faerie actions.
Embrace has also changed to be a 30 second HoT that you place instead of being an auto-casted action, which is to help with the faerie's responsiveness. You can keep it up indefinitely, but only on one person at a time.
When you summon Seraph, you get her phase followed by the ability to summon Eos and Selene. Both Eos and Selene work similarly to your Ifrit/Titan/Garuda summons, though they will stay out until you use their enkindled action.
Eos will use Whispering Dawn when summoned for a light HoT effect while Selene will use Whispering Dusk, a new 5% damage reduction buff.
Each of your summons is a GCD action that grants 1 stack of Aetherflow.

Aetherflow:
Aetherflow's purpose has been reworked to be a form of DPS return when summoning or using GCD faerie actions. You can store as many as 3 like you can now, but you'll only ever get 1 at a time. You can spend 1 Aetherflow on the new action Libra, which will transform Broil IV, Biolysis, and Miasmolysis into new actions for 1 cast. Additionally, when you spend an Aetherflow, you'll gain 10 Faerie Gauge.

Faerie Gauge:
Currently, your main OGCD healing tools are Lustrate, Indomitability, Sacred Soil, and Excogitation. These actions are repurposed elsewhere, and the Faerie Gauge instead has your pet use similar actions for a cost of 20 Faerie Gauge to function as your main source of OGCD healing. Pet responsiveness is the key component here.

Button List
I'll be doing a brief list of your buttons without going too deep into detail for the sake of keeping the explanation light, but if you want to know specific numbers and such, check out the spreadsheet above. The numbers are highly experimental and would probably need a lot of tuning to get it right if it were put into practice.

DPS Buttons
Libra: OGCD, costs 1 Aetherflow to change your Broil, Biolysis, and Masima spells for 1 cast. Also restores MP.

Broil IV: Your standard GCD Nuke. Under Libra, turns into Meltdown which is twice the potency in a line in front of you (50% dropoff).
Biolysis: Your instant cast GCD DoT. Under Libra, turns into Pain which is a slightly stronger, third DoT
Miasmolysis: Your single target GCD DoT. It has a cast time. Under Libra, turns into Bane which spreads your DoTs and inflicts Toad on dungeon trash.
Art of War II: Your standard AoE Nuke. Now grants you a 5% critical chance up for 45 seconds, giving it some use outside of AoE.
Shadowflare: An OGCD DoT Bubble every 60 seconds. When in effect, the button turns into Diabolism which, when activated, deals damage to enemies standing in Shadowflare once per use and decreases their damage dealt briefly.

GCD Heals
Note: Your 3 basic GCD heals will be more niche to the skilled healer, but all of them grant 20 faerie gauge to help casual healers keep their head above the water when panicking.
Physick II: Upgraded with more potency, removes 1 detrimental effect (Esuna is removed in this example), and generates 20 faerie gauge
Adloquium: Same heal with a barrier. Also generates 20 faerie gauge and grants 1 Aetherflow when landing a critical heal.
Succor: Same AoE heal with a barrier. Also generates 20 faerie gauge.

Summon Buttons
Summon Lily: Gets your basic pet out. Replaced with Embrace when you have any pet summoned.
Summon Seraph: Goes into Angelic Trance and Summons Seraph who still casts Seraphic Veil. When she's gone, allows you to summon Eos and Selene once each until you summon her again. Grants 1 Aetherflow and ensures your next Adloquium or Succor critically heals.
Summon Eos: Summons Eos who uses Whispering Dawn, an AoE HoT. Grants 1 Aetherflow, 2 Dawn Attunements, and 1 Dawn Favor.
Summon Selene: Summons Selene who uses Whispering Dusk, an AoE damage reduction. Grants 1 Aetherflow, 2 Dusk Attunements, and 1 Dawn Favor.

Standard Faerie OGCDs
Embrace: a 30 second HoT with a 5 second recast. Only 1 party member can have it at a time like with SGE's Kardia.
Fey Glow: Single Target OGCD heal from your faerie. Costs 20 faerie gauge. Similar to Lustrate
Fey Blessing: AoE OGCD heal from your faerie. Costs 20 faerie gauge. Similar to Indomitability
Fey Covenant: AoE Damage reduction and HoT. Costs 20 faerie gauge. Similar to Sacred Soil, but it's not a bubble and applies the effects upfront.

Faerie Phase Actions
This is the stuff largely build from SMN's design. Reminder that you have 2 Attunements and 1 Favor when you summon Eos and Selene. These are all cast by you, except for Nymian Enkindle

Feyshine: Consumes 1 Dawn or Dusk Attunement. The effect changes depending on your pet. (Both of these start out as Dawn Lustrate/Dusk Lustrate but upgrade later.)
With Eos summoned, becomes Protraction: Single Target GCD heal that increases max HP for a short duration. Grants 1 Aetherflow.
With Selene summoned, becomes Excogitation: Single Target GCD barrier that also grants a weaker Excog effect (you get potentially 2 per summon). Grants 1 Aetherflow

Fey Brilliance: Consumes 1 Dawn or Dusk Attunement. The effect changes depending on your pet. (Both of these start out as Dawn Indomitability/ Dusk Indomitability but upgrade later.)
With Eos summoned, becomes Auxiliary: AoE GCD heal that increases HP restored. Grants 1 Aetherflow
With Selene summoned, becomes Exordium: AoE GCD barrier that grants an effect which makes the next single target spell you cast on one person to give everyone else with the Exordium effect 50% of the benefits. (Meant to kinda replace Deployment Tactics). Also grants 1 Aetherflow

Nymian Flow: Can only be used while in Angelic Trance or while you have 1 Dawn or Dusk Favor and changes depending on your pet.
With Eos summoned, becomes Serendipity: OGCD AoE buff that increases max HP and increases HP restored
With Selene summoned, becomes Expedient: The same OGCD combat sprint and damage reduction we have now.
With Seraph summoned, becomes Elysium: A GCD AoE that deals damage to enemies (the same as your Broil), and grants an effect to all party members in range that gives them a barrier every time they take damage worth 10% of the damage they took.

Nymian Enkindle: Can only be used while you have a pet and commands them to use a special action that changes depending on who is summoned.
With Eos summoned, becomes Fey Advent, a potent AoE OGCD Regen that dismisses Eos and resummons Lily after.
With Selene summoned, becomes Fey Spark, a small AoE OGCD DPS button that also restores a little MP to the party. Also dismisses Selene to resummon Lily after.
With Seraph summoned, becomes Consolation, an AoE OGCD heal with a barrier.

Other Buttons
Chain Strategem: Same Critical buff as usual. Disconnected from other resources since there's already a lot going on.

Total Buttons
Job Actions: 22
Role Actions: 5 (Esuna was merged with tier 1 heal spells)
Sprint/LB: 2
Place/Heel: 2

Honestly, could probably simplify slightly to reduce bloat a bit more, but all-in-all it was fun to think about even if it's a little all over the place.

[Silver-Strider]

I'm not going to lie. I feel like SMN plays more like SCH now than it ever did in the past, even in ARR.
Then again, that might just be because SMN has as 1 button macro that does their whole rotation and still parses Purple, whereas SCH is just stuck spamming Broil all day.