SCH is a mess, thematically and visually, and needs streamlining

[Succor]

isn't it annoying SMN job stone is green while SCH is blue.

Yes, absolutely! I know green has been associated with SMN in past games, but it's so annoying, nothing about SCH is blue, skills are either green/red or other random colours. Adding that to the list.

Also, guys, I appreciate that the thread is getting attention, but can you please not highjack it to discuss ED and other skill reworks for SCH? We already have a thousand threads on ED, here I was only pointing out the lore and aesthetic inconsistencies of the class.

[ty_taurus]

Yes, absolutely! I know green has been associated with SMN in past games, but it's so annoying, nothing about SCH is blue, skills are either green/red or other random colours. Adding that to the list.

Also, guys, I appreciate that the thread is getting attention, but can you please not highjack it to discuss ED and other skill reworks for SCH? We already have a thousand threads on ED, here I was only pointing out the lore and aesthetic inconsistencies of the class.

Broil and Biolysis have become blue though, as well as Chain Stratagem, and that's 95% of SCH right there.

[Iedarus]

The simplest change would be to shave off unnecessary heal buttons and give unique DPS buttons. With the existence of Protraction, it's clear the devs are running out of ideas for ways a Scholar can fill a health bar; they are so adamant on the "no healer dpsing" philosophy despite the hardest content in the game requiring healers to dps. As for Aetherflow, I honestly think they should just give it the hammer. Sage has a significantly better version of it so Scholar needs something else to set it apart that doesn't cause conflicting ability interaction.

[ty_taurus]

The simplest change would be to shave off unnecessary heal buttons and give unique DPS buttons. With the existence of Protraction, it's clear the devs are running out of ideas for ways a Scholar can fill a health bar; they are so adamant on the "no healer dpsing" philosophy despite the hardest content in the game requiring healers to dps. As for Aetherflow, I honestly think they should just give it the hammer. Sage has a significantly better version of it so Scholar needs something else to set it apart that doesn't cause conflicting ability interaction.

I actually like Protraction conceptually, however, I have a couple issues with it:

1. It doesn't last long enough. Increasing max HP can be a a really unique form of mitigation as it's essentially a refillable barrier, but that value needs time to actually benefit from that functionality.

2. I think it suites the pure healers better. As I mentioned, it's essentially a barrier in concept--one that can be refilled through regens, perhaps. I think it would feel a lot more interesting if pure healers didn't have any barriers, but could instead extend max HP and allow their regens to more effectively keep these max HP "barriers" in functionality refilled as a way to approach the issue of needing mitigation. Meanwhile, barrier healers shouldn't have max HP extension buffs, but just have their much larger barriers.

That said, I also think a concept ForsakenRoe brought up in another thread in the past about putting the healers on a scale from pure to barrier, where WHM is the dedicated pure healer, SGE is the dedicated barrier healer, SCH could be the barrier healer who could be a pinch pure healer with Eos or play more into their mitigation role as Selene, and AST balances the two roles evenly. Meanwhile Healer #5 we get in like 6 or 8 years from now would be a pure healer who could be a pinch barrier healer in some fashion, like with the SCH example of having Eos fulfill some pure healer duties. It's certainly one way the healers could develop in a more satisfying way.

[Wasselin]

This happens with White Mage too, which does have a "holy" theme but also an elemental/natural theme as well. Most of the older jobs are kind of inconsistent as things have been added and taken away over time, kind of diffusing the original identity.

It's not necessarily bad though, it gives it more flavor and nuance than the newer jobs like Sage. Maybe one day Scholar will get a rework like Summoner and it will all become more coherent again-- until the next expansion adds a few new skills with a different flavor.

[fulminating]

Perhaps nym being a maritime nation has something to do with it? Otherwise you may as well ask about the rationale behind half the other soul crystal colour schemes. What colour would you have chosen? Brown is generally avoided as an attention grabbing colour so that’s out.

Frankly a lot of the new jobs don’t have coherent identities, particularly when compared with the base game ones. Summoner and healers being gutted has done a huge amount of damage to the identity, but it’s still clearer than gunbreaker or sage.

[Raikai]

I'm fine with SCH's visual direction...

But I have to say that Seraph looks completely out of place. It came in an expansion that featured fairies, they had more thing to have inspiration for an 'advanced fairy form' rather than an angel.

In all honesty, I wish instead of a Seraph, we had both aspects of Lily being manifested at once... But I suppose the game doesn't support a pet job with more than one pet entity at once.

[Calysto]

I'm fine with SCH's visual direction...

But I have to say that Seraph looks completely out of place. It came in an expansion that featured fairies, they had more thing to have inspiration for an 'advanced fairy form' rather than an angel.

In all honesty, I wish instead of a Seraph, we had both aspects of Lily being manifested at once... But I suppose the game doesn't support a pet job with more than one pet entity at once.

Having 2 pet entities may not be possible, but what is possible is a "twin model" with both (like twin butterfly or nouliths)