Because why not: A Moderate Proposal - SCH

[Renathras]

Hmmmm.......

They're also moving away from the Ruin name (for SCH), and Miasma would mean they could have Ruin 2 just be shared with ACN (not in a game backend sense, as SCH's are based on Mind, but in a "conceptual for new player" sense of going from ACN to SCH). In fact, I suspect if they do a major rework of SCH, it will start by making levels 1-30 line up CLOSER to ACN (or splitting them completely, though I dislike that idea FAR more). Giving SCH Outburst and having it become Art of War (which...would be ranged at that point and have an icky cast time... <_<) or making Energy Drain the Aetherflow button and having Fester be what Energy Drain is...but that's a whole other hassle. I don't think they're going to do that (even though making it more intuitive would probably not be BAD for newer players) since they split SCH completely from ACN back when ShB launched/5.0.

At some point they may make the base cures straight upgrades other than for SGE, since it has Eukrasia. Not saying it's a sure thing, but notice how none of the PvP kits on ANY of the Healers have Cure 1/Benefic 1/Physic. If they're relatively MP neutral vs the lower level spells, and have the same cast times (Benefic II already does this), then there's no reason to retain the lower level one in a world of "fighting button bloat".

How would Lustrate being Excog without a CD change how you heal?

They removed ED in ShB, and that IS possible. But my point with this was an olive branch to the people here I'm constantly butting heads with because they want all the Healer Jobs to be DPS Jobs. I'm trying to see if some kind of neutral ground can exist, and I honestly kind of like a lot of these changes.

Just leaving the pet out during Dissipation would effectively fix ALL the problems people have with Dissipation. And it's not like it's a hard thing for them to do mechanically to make it NOT remove the pet and resummon it. It should actually be easier for the game's backend to handle, honestly.

Energy drain is still the core of scholar’s mp management, inflicting sage’s peculiarities upon scholar doesn’t help there. If there are people who can’t see this, frankly their opinion should be discarded.

Wait, it is? I thought they changed that?

Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 100.
Additional Effect: Absorbs a portion of damage dealt as HP
Additional Effect: Increases Faerie Gauge by 10
Aetherflow Gauge Cost: 1

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/jobguide/scholar/

How is ED related to MP management, as it neither consumes nor generates MP?

I'm also curious how shunting Energy Drain to compete with Aetherpact is "inflicting sage" onto SCH? I don't think any other Job has a spamable oGCD to burn 2-4 times from its gauge 0-100 resource that can ALSO alternatively be used for healing and which they generate by DoT upkeep and primary resource consumption. That would be unique across all Jobs in the game right now, wouldn't it?

For the most part the changes seem agreeable, I've got a few niggles with it but I don't think there's anything that couldn't be tweaked out.

Genuinely glad to hear it.

The only real oversight I can see is upgrading Lustrate into Excog. That leaves SCH in a bit of a unique position where it doesn't really have a dependable single target instant cast heal with good reach to get someone topped if they still need more HP for an incoming hit but are over 50% so Excog won't fire in time. It's not that uncommon for people to dodge AoE heals in Savage so I could see this being a bit annoying.

Ah, but that's the beauty of the Aetherpact change. Since it's a micro-Lustrate, it covers that gap. Consider that Lustrate is 600 Potency. If Aetherpact is 300, that means you could use it (and it's an oGCD weave) to heal half of that. Unless someone needs MORE than half the Lustrate heal, then Aetherpact is your go-to. And costing only 10 Gauge means even with liberal Energy Drain use, you should always have enough to throw out an Aetherpact or two in a pinch. We could remove the internal GCD on it and just make it an oGCD for Eos (I think that's how that works mechanically, anyway), but it more or less should patch that problem. If the person needed more healing than that, you could use an Adlo instead, I suppose, but this shouldn't happen often.

You also can use your AF tools more liberally, so you COULD use an Indom (less good option) or Soil (better option), which you might be doing anyway if expecting a big spike of damage. Likewise, you could use the new Fey Dawn/Blessing to top that person off and apply a HoT to the party. Blessing's up front 350 heal + Aetherpact's 300 is around the same potency as Lustrate's 600 now (given pet potencies and all that.)

Granted, we'd want to give Aetherpact at a much lower level.

I mean, we could also just put a heal on the front end of Excog, but I'm trying not to make it MORE powerful.

Personally I think you should be bolder with Dissipation, make it detonate or even refresh existing shields or something as a burst of healing or damage so that the name still makes sense.

Maybe, but I'm more just thinking something that doesn't rock the boat too much but makes it feel less bad to use.

As for Energy Drain, IMO I think the ability is beyond cursed at this point.

Maybe, but I (the anti-DPS person I am) like ED existing. I just don't like it fighting with all these great healing tools. Fighting with Aetherpact is a much more fair fight. As you note, we shouldn't even be mentioning it with Soil and Indom, so this change addresses that. It's also why it's important to me that there BE a spender. In ShB, before they gave ED back, I suggested Lustrate being given a shield like Divine Benison - it made sense to me that the OG shield healer should have a...shield...using its main healing resource. And shields are VERY rarely wasted, so it would make a good AF dump. Excog makes a good alternative as its heal is also rarely wasted (especially on a tank/off-tank), but the CD gets in the way of that. Without the CD, not only is Excog more flexible, it ensures we have an AF dump without needing the cursed fight with ED.

Merging Blessing and Whispering Dawn makes a ton of sense, Blessing in it's current form is pretty worthless if you ask me, but adding it's up front HPS to WD and sidestepping the

Your sentence got clipped there, but yeah, glad we agree.

Lastly, Broil IV spreading dots? Yeah I can get behind that. Good idea and a nice homage to Bane.

Wow! Thank you! Genuinely mean that. I'm trying to keep the idea that it costs SOMEthing to use (foregone Art damage on the other enemies + short cast time vs Art's instant), but fulfills the old Bane's objective while not adding to button bloat nor adding to Aetherflow competition. This was what came to mind. Glad you appreciate it.

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Honestly, even though I'm not a gung-ho DPS guy, I think these changes I could live with. It's CLOSE-ISH to leaving SCH alone (an objective you guys know I've had), but does make the DPS a bit more involved and engaging, raises the skill cap some, and mainly smooths over a lot of SCH's clunk/rough edges/anti-synergies.

If SCH could be like this, I would find it agreeable. Glad some of you feel that way, too.