Because why not: A Moderate Proposal - SCH

[Post]

MCH gets its capstone to its 123 at 64 (Heated Clean Shot), the same level they got them all in StB. MCH is weird leveling since ShB like many jobs, but at least they give em Drill early, which is bonkers overpowered for that level range.

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I'm glad the OP responded with what they see the issues of SCH as being. I think it's fun to sometimes imagine specific toolkits or adjustments, but I prefer to focus on what we enjoy and what we don't enjoy with what's there when trying to give constructive dev feedback.

So, here's a bit of history and how I felt about iterations on SCH over the years.

My first class in FFXIV was CNJ, cuz my bro invited me to the game and his group needed a healer, and it's the only one you can start as. Coming from a crappy WoW private server, I really liked how the game cut down on bullshit like waiting for MP to return, action tooltips that obfuscate how strong your actions are and make comparisons difficult, and healers that could contribute nothing if there was nothing to heal, which tended to happen the more geared your party got in WoW. I leveled both CNJ and ACN because the game let me (and forced me to get ACN to 15 for WHM anyways)! I also enjoy learning what all the jobs can do by trying em out. Eventually, I settled on SCH when we started raiding because we had another WHM and the simple idea on paper of a healer that focused on shields and using a pet to heal sounded intriguing, but since the game made it so easy to swap between them I'd tend to just play whichever, especially once my bro and his friends all quit and I did the PF thing until finding a static for second coils and beyond.

Briefly, I enjoyed WHM because it was simple and powerful, easy to react to stuff going wrong, and I enjoyed SCH because if you knew what you were doing, you could basically go forever and carry a group through anything (true of pretty much all healers to an extent) while contributing damage cheaply. I preferred SCH if I had the choice, but there were benefits to having both in a party.

SCH in ARR required more planning than WHM to heal effectively because actions like Adloquium and Succor applied shields (weaker than they are now; Adlo was 300 potency + 300 potency shield, less overall than WHM's 700 Cure II, and Succor was 150 healing + 150 shield, equivalent to Medica's 300, but weaker than Medica 2's 700 and Cure 3's 550). SCH's "feeling" was planning and mitigation, having a variety of different tools when compared to WHM between oGCD cooldowns that directly healed, greater MP generation, shields and a higher action economy because of the Faerie.

I wanna emphasize just how much more powerful the faerie was before. First, all pet actions were simultaneous, separate actions you could issue WHILE casting, no oGCD weaving needed. Embrace, Faerie's basic heal, used to be 300 potency, which was 3/4ths of a Physick. By synchronizing with their faerie target, it meant that a SCH could cast an equivalent Cure II heal every GCD on whatever target they wanted for the MP cost of Cure I (MP was a much bigger consideration then), or just get free healing every GCD while they continued dealing damage. Left to her own devices, she'd simply heal the target with the lowest hp% as she does now.

On top of this, Eos' Whispering Dawn, is currently 21 sec of 80 healing potency (560 total) where before it was 100 (700 total). SCH's kit emphasized this with Rouse, which buffed all your Faerie's heals by 40% for 20 seconds per minute (increasing Embrace to 420, and aligning with every Whispering Dawn to bring it up to 980 for the whole party). So basically, the Faerie wasn't just a fashion accessory or a proxy some of your oGCDs emit from, it was almost half your toolkit and contributed meaningful healing every GCD.

Eos also brought Fey Covenant (20% damage reduction to all allies from magic for 20 sec every 2 min) and Fey Illumination (20% healing output increase for all allies for 20 sec every 2 min), while Selene could bring Silent Dusk (a silence), Fey Glow/Light (30% spell/skill speed for all allies for 30 sec each, minute cooldown only one could be active at a time) as an alternative to allow for more dps if the healing wasn't necessary. In an alternate history, SCH would go on to get more faeries that do different things like the way SMN's pets used to work instead of them being stripped and consolidated.

Lastly, she had her own aggro table, and you could use her to gather adds or trash packs to tanks by proxy. Kind of less and less important in a post ShB tank stance, no bosses with simultaneous adds gamescape, but it was still a neat trick and a way to even let her tank for you when playing solo.

The Faerie felt much more a part of SCH's identity because you managed it constantly, even while casting, and it carried so much more of your healing and toolkit.

There were certainly complaints throughout the game's history that healers mostly just dps, and this older iteration of SCH was no exception (see this stupid memey flowchart guide to SCH from HW: https://imgur.com/TCdZ11H), but because of SCH's more varied damage options and its reliance on a pet that could heal as it focused on damaging, it felt like a more natural fit for SCH as it was then than it is now.