Healer Suggestions Megathread

[Picker]

They can’t just increase damage output or they will have to change mp costs for all actions and cd’s on the ogcd. Last tiers scholar 2.31 bis set ran out of mana after like 8 minutes, I know that’s hella optimized for dps, but if they had to heal 25% more (gcd heals) mana is poof. There would have to be a massive change in design philosophies and encounter mechanics, and I don’t think that’s happening. Healers just aren’t designed for attrition in this game.

Don’t get me started on the new radius of all healing abilities, it’s the laziest way to get around the encounter design I’ve ever seen.

It sucks and I hate it too, but for better or worse this is how healers are to be played in perpetuity, spamming 1 nuke and healing with ogcd’s.

For some context I’m a healer main, in every game, video or tabletop, for my whole life. I don’t main healers in 14 8(

[Sebazy]

The only issue with Barb is that it requires too much movement so you can't actually GCD heal. That means players that aren't as good with oGCD plans (OR if you have a "Dosis-spam" co-healer that won't even cast an oGCD heal - ask me how I know this...) are screwed and it becomes wipe city.

If they had Barb's damage profile with Rubicante's movement level, that would be a pretty well designed fight for the playerbase.

Eh, I assume you mean the Mario Kart bit between knuckle drums where you run in a circle with the group dropping markers? It's 3/4 GCDs depending on how brave you are with the first puddles. You can keep your GCD going throughout it with Lilies, case in point since I haven't personally got a recording online of it....

Literally the first video I found when I searched on YouTube for Barb EX WHM:

https://youtu.be/qNPYtq_h5g0?t=253

BarbEX's movement is fine and IMO removing that would really water down the pressure of the fight. For everything else, slide casting/1 Lilly is plenty quick enough.

*Edit* a good example of movement that's actually obnoxious for WHM to deal with is P7S. You just end up spamming aero =(

[Shurrikhan]

They can’t just increase damage output or they will have to change mp costs for all actions and cd’s on the ogcd. Last tiers scholar 2.31 bis set ran out of mana after like 8 minutes, I know that’s hella optimized for dps, but if they had to heal 25% more (gcd heals) mana is poof. There would have to be a massive change in design philosophies and encounter mechanics, and I don’t think that’s happening. Healers just aren’t designed for attrition in this game.

At present they aren't, sure (because we removed all the flexible tools previously available for that purpose, such as old Ballad/Bishop).
But they very easily could be, with as little as a single trait or just through %MP cost reductions, rounded to the nearest multiple of 50, or just a simple LD buff. It's not that big a barrier to address, design-wise.

The question is simply whether we want more significant healing requirements (especially, between bursts), alongside greater engagement in downtime, or just to keep the floor capsized to pander to those who can't handle even the mildest real healing pressure.



There's no need, for instance, for a single single-target heal to consume 15 seconds of natural MP regeneration, or ~7.7 seconds of MP regeneration when averaging in on-CD casts of Lucid Dreaming. (Note, Lucid Dreaming grants 38.5% MP per minute, while natural regeneration grants 40% MP per minute.)
Frankly, there's no need for Lucid Dreaming to be a thing, either, as there's too few competing CDs right now to create any priority conflicts in getting that LD out almost precisely on-CD-refresh, at which point it simply becomes luck-based additional punishment for one's death being too close after LD's minute mark. From which point, we may as well have our attacks/fillers be slightly MP-positive.

[Renathras]

This is Gemina "Yoshida's my uncle"-speak. "You MUST keep White Mage terribly designed...

Where did I say "White Mage"?

I've said before that it makes the most sense, but doing it with SGE (which has only ever KNOWN the current design) would also make some sense.

And I'm as much a Sylphie as you are a "not true healer", we've been over this.

Eh, I assume you mean...

There's also the bit with all the movement before the flare/stacks (happens twice, I believe), and the parts with all the tornadoes and random drop AOEs when you have the Heavy hair debuff and circle where you often aren't lucky enough to be able to stand still.

I'm saying that we can't have more fights like that for the game in general (content below Savage) because of that. A lot of Healer players in general content up to and including Extremes do not heal like Savage raiders do, so the fights have to allow the use of hardcast GCD heals, which BarbEx does not. BarbEx's damage profile I wouldn't mind and could see working its way into more general encounters, but it would have to allow hardcast GCD heals to do so - for example, to make it into a 24 man or 8 man normal.

At present they aren't, sure (because we removed all the flexible tools previously available for that purpose, such as old Ballad/Bishop).
But they very easily could be, with as little as a single trait or just through %MP cost reductions, rounded to the nearest multiple of 50, or just a simple LD buff. It's not that big a barrier to address, design-wise.
...

Very much this. MP costs (and regeneration tools) are entirely under the knife if encounter design is. And it's not like they don't tweak this all the time. WHM's 6.0 -> 6.1 Lily transition was a de-facto MP buff. Astrodyne was an entirely new thing added for more MP. And so on and so forth.

Also agree Lucid has almost no reason to exist. The only time it being an active ability rather than a passive increase to natural MP regen it is right after a Raise if you were the one KO'd - in that case you could use the boost, but that requires you hold it for cases where you're going to KO so it isn't already on CD, which isn't common since people generally don't plan out their own deaths as a matter of course in fights.

[TheDustyOne]

Well I'm back, this time with Yet Another Scholar Butcher Rework™ complete with more MS Paint flowcharts.

My main aim with this rework is to bring back something resembling Stormblood Scholar, at least in regards to the DPS kit, taking some inspiration from previous FF iterations of Scholar, while also giving more presence to shields and abilities that interact with the shields.

One new mechanic introduced is the Grimoire stances; White Grimoire will change your healing spells to shielding spells and summon Eos, while Black Grimoire will upgrade your DoTs and summon Selene. Swapping between the stances for when you need to reapply DoTs or shield an upcoming attack will be necessary for good Scholar play.

There'll be 3 DoTs; Bio, Miasma, and Kaustra. Bio and Miasma upgrade to Biolysis and Miasmalysis respectively while using Black Grimoire. Kaustra however is intended to be more of a refund mechanic for Scholar rather than a DoT to actively maintain, requiring the use of a heal or broken shield before it can be used, total potency being equal to 2 Broil casts. The idea being to disincentivise overhealing and staggering heals appropriately.

Eos and Selene now have distinctive abilities, both will share 2 base healing abilities, but their other abilities will be different. A general change to pets would be to decrease the animation lock for their skills considerably to make them much more responsive to inputs and prevent ghosting, swapping between the 2 faeries will be common with this rework.

Aetherflow abilities have been altered greatly, and many abilities that were standalone now require Aetherflow, many of the oGCD heals have also been removed or replaced.

Damage Spells:

Broil III
Spell - 1.5s Cast - 300 MP
Deal unaspected damage to target with a potency of 250

Broil IV
Spell - 0s Cast - 800 MP
Deal unaspected damage to target with a potency of 250

Ruin II is now upgraded and is damage neutral, but will chew through your MP quickly, be careful not to overuse this.

Bio II
Spell - 0s Cast - 400 MP
Deal unaspected damage over time with a potency of 40 per tick, 21s
10% chance to reduce Fester recast time by 15s when damage over time is dealt
Cannot be stacked with Biolysis
*Changes to Biolysis while under the effect of Black Grimoire*

Biolysis
Spell - 0s Cast - 400 MP
Deal unaspected damage over time with a potency of 60 per tick, 21s
10% chance to reduce Fester recast time by 15s when damage over time is dealt
Cannot be stacked with Bio II
*Cannot be placed on the hotbar*

Miasma II
Spell - 2s Cast - 400 MP
Deal unaspected damage to target with a potency of 50
Unaspected damage over time with a potency of 50, 30s
10% chance to reduce Fester recast time by 15s when damage over time is dealt
Cannot be stacked with Miasmalysis
*Changes to Miasmalysis while under the effect of Black Grimoire*

Miasmalysis
Spell - 2s Cast - 400 MP
Deal unaspected damage to target with a potency of 70
Unaspected damage over time with a potency of 70, 30s
10% chance to reduce Fester recast time by 15s when damage over time is dealt
Cannot be stacked with Miasma II
*Cannot be placed on the hotbar*

Kaustra
Spell - 0s Cast - 1 Enlightenment
Deals unaspected damage over time to target and all enemies nearby with a potency of 100 for the first enemy, and 40% less for all remaining enemies, 15s

Should be damage neutral with Broil III after all 5 ticks are up. Up to 2 stacks of Enlightenment can be stored from healing spells.

Art of War II
Spell - 0s Cast - 300 MP
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 150 to all nearby enemies

Healing Spells:

Physick
Spell - 1.5s Cast - 800 MP
Restores target's HP with a potency of 600
Grants 1 stack of Enlightenment, can be stacked up to 2 times
*Changes to Adloquium while under the effect of White Grimoire*

Adloquium
Spell - 1.5s Cast - 1000 MP
Restores target's HP with a potency of 300
Create a barrier around the target, nullifying damage equaling 170% of the amount of HP restored, 30s
Create an additional barrier upon critical restore, nullifying damage equaling 170% of the amount of HP restored, 30s
Grants 1 stack of Enlightenment when Galvanize barrier is completely absorbed, can be stacked up to 2 times
*Cannot be placed on the hotbar*

Physick II
Spell - 2s Cast - 1000 MP
Restores own HP and HP of all nearby party members with a potency of 500
Grants 1 stack of Enlightenment, can be stacked up to 2 times
*Changes to Succor while under the effect of White Grimoire*

Succor
Spell - 2s Cast - 1300 MP
Restores own HP and HP of all nearby party members with a potency of 200
Create a barrier which nullifies damage equaling 200% of the amount of HP restored, 30s
Grants 1 stack of Enlightenment when the Galvanize barrier granted to self is absorbed, can be stacked up to 2 times
*Cannot be placed on the hotbar*

Because of the increased potency of Physick and the inclusion of Physick II, Emergency Tactics feels redundant and has been culled

Leeches
Spell - 0s Cast - 700 MP
Removes a single detrimental effect from the target
Grants 1 stack of Enlightenment upon succesful removal, can be stacked up to 2 times
*Changes to Inoculate while under the effect of White Grimoire*

Inoculate
Spell - 1s Cast - 800 MP
Removes one single detrimental effect from the target
If the target is not enfeebled, a barrier is created nullifying the target's next detrimental effect, 30s
Grants 1 stack of enlightenment upon successful removal or successful prevention, can be stacked up to 2 times
*Cannot be placed on the hotbar*

Inoculate can be spread via Deployment Tactics, so AoE cleansing will require some foresight and fight knowledge to make full use of.

Resurrection
Spell - 8s Cast - 2400 MP
Resurrects target to a weakened state
Grants 1 stack of enlightenment, can be stacked up to 2 times

Abilities:

White Grimoire
Ability - 1s Recast
Grants the effect of White Grimoire, upgrading healing spells and summoning Eos to your side
Effect cannot be used with Black Grimoire
*Shares a recast timer with Black Grimoire*

Black Grimoire
Ability - 1s Recast
Grants the effect of Black Grimoire, upgrading certain damage spells and summoning Selene to your side
Effect cannot be used with White Grimoire
*Shares a recast timer with White Grimoire*

Fester
Ability - 30s Recast - 2 Charges
Deals unaspected damage to target and all enemies nearby with a potency of 90 for the first enemy and 30% less for all remaining enemies
Potency increases if target is suffering from Bio, Biolysis, Miasma, or Miasmalysis, potency dealt for one effect is 150, potency dealt for two effects is 190

Unsure on the procs on the DoTs to lower the cooldown of this. But I figured it was a more fun way of including this more actively in the kit rather than just bursting both charges every minute.

Libra
Ability - 120s Recast
Analyse and locate a target's weak point, increasing the rate at which the target takes critical hits by 10%, 15s

Renamed Chain Strategem, using Libra to find and exploit weak points was Scholars gimmick in older games and I wanted to have it be represented in the kit somehow.

Tabula Rasa
Ability - 90s Recast
Allows the use of Grimoire spells without having to use that Grimoire, 20s

Aetherflow
Ability - 60s / 45s Recast
Restores 800 MP and grants Aetherflow III
Increases Faerie Gauge by 50
Recast timer is reduced by 5s upon execution of any Aetherflow abilities

Dissipation has been removed and Quickened Aetherflow returns. Faerie Gauge has also been implemented into the Aetherflow ability itself rather than on consumption

Conservation Tactics
Ability - 1 Aetherflow - 1s Recast
Drain Aether from the target, restoring 600 MP

Altered and renamed Energy Drain. Still functions as an Aetherflow dump, but won't have damage attached. Feel free to yell at me for this.

Deployment Tactics
Ability - 1 Aetherflow - 30s Recast
Extends Galvanize and Inoculate effects cast on self or target party member to nearby party members
Only the initial Galvanize or Inoculate will grant a stack of Enlightenment
When targeting an enemy, extends Bio, Biolysis, Miasma, Miasmalysis, and Sleep effects to other nearby enemies
Potency is reduced by 50% for all affected enemies, only the initial statuses will reduce the recast timer of Fester

Deployment Tactics is now also Bane, functioning closer to how it works in PvP. I figured combining the 2 effects would work well enough in PvE since most of the times the DoTs need spreading is when only the tank is taking damage. This also gives extra depth and consideration for bosses with add phases.

Assault Tactics
Ability - 1 Aetherflow - 60s Recast
Guarantees the next damage spell will critical hit and cost no MP

Using Aetherflow for damage will still be a thing, but only once every 60s. Acts as an offensive counterpart to Recitation

Recitation Tactics
Ability - 1 Aetherflow - 90s Recast
Guarantees the next healing spell will critical restore and cost no MP

Renamed Recitation to be in line with the other Aetherflow ability names

Excogitation Tactics
Ability - 1 Aetherflow - 45s Recast
The next healing spell cast will be stored on the target(s). After 15s the stored spell will increase potency by 35%. 25s
The healing spell will be released when time expires or upon executing the action a second time

A complete rework of how Excog works, the idea of it is to now be able to store and hold a spell for upcoming damage, and proper timing means gaining extra shielding or healing.

The Aetherflow abilities probably aren't all that well balanced amongst each other, but I'm too lazy to math it at the moment, and that can (probably) be fixed with some number tweaks.


Faerie Actions:

Embrace
Pet Ability - 3s Recast
Restores target's HP with a potency of 200
*Cannot be placed on the hotbar*

Feedback on whether to incorporate an Embrace priority action similar to the Embrace macros of old i.e. Fey Union makes the Faerie focus Embrace on target until fully healed or the union is removed.

Fey Brilliance
Ability - 25 Faerie Gauge - 1s Recast
Restores target's HP with a potency of 600
*Becomes Angel's Brilliance while Seraph is on the field*

Replaces Lustrate

Fey Blessing
Ability - 25 Faerie Gauge - 60s Recast - 2 Charges
Restores the HP of all nearby party members with a potency of 400
*Becomes Angel's Blessing while Seraph is on the field*

Replaces Indomitability, but has a longer recast to be more in line with Assize on my WHM rework

Fey Illumination
Ability - 25 Fae Gauge - 30s Recast
Creates a designated area around Eos, granting increased healing recovery via healing actions to self and any party members who enter by 10%, 15s
Effect ends upon execution of other faerie actions, or upon expiration
*Shares a recast timer with Fey Sanctum*
*Becomes Fey Sanctum while Selene is on the field*

Fey Illumination has been completely reworked and is a channeled ability. It now costs Fae Gauge but has had its cooldown reduced to 30s

Fey Sanctum
Ability - 25 Fae Gauge - 30s Recast
Creates a dome around Selene in which party members will only suffer 90% of all damage inflicted, 15s
Effect ends upon execution of other faerie actions, or upon expiration
*Shares a recast timer with Fey Illumination*
*Cannot be placed on the hotbar*

Sacred Soil replacement, also a channeled ability.

Fey Expedience
Ability - 120s Recast
Reduces damage received by 10%, 20s
Increases movement speed, 10s

Expedient is now a Faerie skill, this allows for extended reach if the Faerie is well placed.

Seraph
Ability - 50 Fae Gauge - 180s Recast
Summons Seraph to fight at your side.
Seraph reduces incoming damage to all nearby party members by 10% and increases HP recovery via healing actions by 10%, 22s

Seraph has been overhauled completely and is possibly too powerful. All her abilities are on separate cooldowns from the 2 main Faeries while providing similar, stronger, or combined effects.

Angel's Kiss
Pet Ability - 3s Recast
Restores target's HP with a potency of 270
*Cannot be placed on the hotbar*

Angel's Brilliance
Ability - 30s Recast - 2 Charges
Restores target's HP with a potency of 700
*Shares a recast with Angel's Blessing*
*Cannot be placed on the hotbar*

Angel's Blessing
Ability - 30s Recast - 2 Charges
Restores the HP of all nearby party members with a potency of 500
*Shares a recast timer with Angel's Brilliance*
*Cannot be placed on the hotbar*

Removed Actions:

Esuna - Replaced with Leeches and Inoculation.
Whispering Dawn - An oGCD to cull.
Lustrate - Replaced with Fey Brilliance.
Indomitability - Replaced with a buffed Fey Blessing
Sacred Soil - Replaced with Fey Sanctum, regen effect is gone entirely
Emergency Tactics - Unnecessary with Physick changes and the inclusion of Physick II.
Dissipation - Good riddance. Quickened Aetherflow will make up for some of the lost Aetherflow stacks.
Aetherpact - Another oGCD to cull, we now have other things to spend Faerie Gauge on.
Protraction - While nice, our more frequent shields and the Fey Illumination rework makes this feel redundant.
Seraphic Veil - Replaced with Angel's Kiss.

Here's a basic, and badly made, flowchart of how this new Scholar might play.

The healing segment is very basic and doesn't go over other potential interactions. Such as Tabula Rasa allowing Selene to be present while shielding. Or how Excog can store the heal then let you swap stance for a later interaction. But it gives the gist of the general game flow of my Scholar.

Thoughts and feedback is appreciated, I find theorycrafting enjoyable, despite knowing it'll never happen.

EDIT: I've made a few changes based on feedback from Renathras and ForsakenRoe

Fey Wind and Fey Covenant have been removed and replaced with Fey Expedience, furthermore, Angel's Flight is also removed.

Fey Expedience
Ability - 120s Recast
Reduces damage received by 10%, 20s
Increases movement speed, 10s

Better to not fix what ain't broke; however, I'm still keeping Expedient attached to the fairy, as I feel it fits well as a Faerie buff and can increase reach to parties split across a large arena if the Faerie is placed correctly. Angel's Flight has been removed and Seraph can now use Fey Expedience normally.

White Grimoire and Black Grimoire recast timers have been reduced to 1s.

A nice QoL change to allow someone to quickly change their mind on whether to swap their stances back within a single GCD window.

Embrace and Angel's Kiss has been added to Faerie Actions.

Embrace
Pet Ability - 3s Recast
Restores target's HP with a potency of 200
*Cannot be placed on the hotbar*

Was always supposed to be here, I was just forgetful.

Angel's Kiss
Pet Ability - 3s Recast
Restores target's HP with a potency of 270
*Cannot be placed on the hotbar*

Seraph's version of Embrace, replaces Seraphic Veil.

[GrimGale]

Sexy stuff.

Oh you devil, you had me at Kaustra.

[Renathras]

I will never for the life of me understand people's fascination with DoTs...

Anyway, let's have a look.

36 abilities - some seem to modify from things, so maybe fewer Hotbar spots? My general rule in life is that a Job should have ~30 abilities, give or take, 25-35. 29 is EXACTLY how many you can fit on your bars and still have three spots left over for Sprint, Limit Break, and Potion (Mount in the field) and fit comfortably on two crossbar sets (32 total buttons) on controller. While Keyboard users have some more flexibility (and those people that swear about "press and hold" controller toggles, but I hate those personally and apparently so do a lot of other people), it still stands to reason that 30, or three times 10, is a lot of buttons, so a videogame class should generally not NEED more than that.

It looks like Bio, Miasma, Adlo, Succor, Leaches+, and the Faerie Abilities seem to have a lot of combining, so the total is probably around 30?

Likes:

- I LOVE modifier buttons, ESPECIALLY on SCH, which seems to play into the tactician class fantasy. While most people have hated it, I've loved Emergency Tactics since the time we got it. I like the idea of buttons that get more mileage out of other buttons, and de facto give you several more abilities for the price of one. For example, ET gives you a Cure 2 version of Adlo and a Cure 3-ish version of Succor. Eukrasia gives SCH three more abilities for the price of one hotbar slot.

- I KIND of like that you reworked Aetherflow to be more your "Tactics Gauge" that enables use of various strategems (said modifier abilities)

- I somewhat like the Grimoires. I think (and am guessing this was your inspiration) that it was how SCH worked in FFXI, which a lot of people seemed to generally like. In essence, a Red Mage that leans itself more towards either Black or White Magic at any given time. On the one hand, this could be Cleric Stance problems, but it doesn't penalize your healing, per se, as you still have the base version of your healing spells and have your Faerie heals. And it has a really short CD, so it generally won't be too damaging if you use it at the wrong time as you can still use Physic 1/2 while waiting to swap over to White, and Black doesn't affect anything other than your base two DoTs, so you don't have any real reason to need to sit in it all the time such as for general Broil Spam, so it doesn't have the Cleric "you need to be in this all the time" issues. Overall, a good take on that system that's much more thematically consistent and pays homage to Scholars of Final Fantasies Past.

- This version of Broil IV is much like the Ruin 1/2 interplay in ARR where Ruin 2 did the same damage and was more trading MP for mobility. Personally I'd make it AOE that spreads DoTs, but you have Deployment Tactics doing that and it doing more damage than Art of War would make THAT ability meaningless.

- Button Bloat, while initially seeming to be there, may actually not be bad at all considering how much double-duty various buttons are getting/giving to others and how the Faeries work.

Neutral:

- I like Chain Strategem as a name (comes from Sun Tsu, very fitting for the tactician class fantasy), but I also like Libra. I'd rather have them both as separate abilities, but I'm neutral towards this change.

- Kaustra does 2x Broil 3's worth of damage? Seems like Energy Drain now, but meh, I don't hate this, just kinda neutral about it. It does have non-Deployment required cleave, which I suppose is nice.

- While the Aetherflow modifier effects are interesting, it might be TOO MUCH to put on AF, and like you say, I'm not sure if they're balanced against each other. I do like them in general (the abilities) as I said above, though. Just not sure if they should all be AF spenders.

- You didn't include levels, but I have to wonder how this will feel to play in synced content or while leveling up for new players. Right now, it's a little weird, but you have Whispering Dawn for low level content and Eos generally will heal dungeons below level 20 with just a rare Physic for touch-up healing. Without Embrace and Whispering Dawn...how's that work? Granted, Physic and Physic 2 could fix that problem if they were gained at low levels like Cure and Medica, but...I dunno, just something to consider.

- This may have one of those things like SMN where it feels too intimidating to new players since there SEEM like a lot of buttons, but once worked out, it's actually far simpler. That's not inherently a bad thing, just something to note.

- I like that you work both Eos and Selene into the mix, although a part of me likes being able to Faerie-Glamour. Though SMN allows that for the Egis, so maybe that could work here as well where you could make them have whatever appearance but it's "officially" Eos and Selene, respectively. Again, I like the Grimoires, so that's cool they're tied to them AS LONG AS you can have them up all the time...and they still both have Embrace...but.........well, I'll get back to that.

Dislikes:

- You removed several abilities that I actually like - Emergency Tactics (as I said above; though I do understand why), Whispering Dawn, Sacred Soil (WHICH IS ICONIC), and Expedient. While you replace SOME of these, I don't like how they were done. For example, I don't like Expedience's movement speed being tied to Black Grimoire and split up.

- It also appears that you've removed Embrace/Faerie auto-heals? I kind of dislike that...a lot. That's ALSO been iconic to SCH, and is one of the things that makes SCH enjoyable to play in things like solo Deep Dungeon runs or even general field content like Maps or Eureka/Bozja exploration content. It's useful if you're stunned/frozen, since she can still act independently, which has some niche uses (like if you get frozen by the big tree Hunt Mark in Garlemald, she will continue healing you and party members), and plays into SCH working differently than WHM/AST (which have to cast a Regen spell in advance) or SGE (which has to actively cast damage spells to generate Kardia). Likewise, cases where you need to heal someone from afar, like standing on the Atamos platforms in Crystal Tower where you can send Eos forward to heal the Tank out of your range, and where you can do this in general encounters NOT ONLY for her abilities to be where they'll hit party members, but also to heal people outside of your own normal reach. Embrace is one of the cool things about SCH that people often overlook, but has a lot of neat uses, and I wouldn't want to lose that.

- Removing iconic abilities and mechanics is not going to go over well with everyone (SEE: SMN rework), and I don't think I'd like all of that as a result, either.

- While I like the idea with GCD heals/raises/shields refunding damage (2x Broil 3 means it is damage neutral as long as you aren't overwriting it early), the shield breaking bit seems just a bit TOO homogeneous with SCH. It might work better as just "when cast" instead of "when the shield breaks".

- You didn't fix the problem of 1.5 sec Broil 3 cast making Ruin 2 redundant. Might have been before you started posting here, but in the "Healers: Then and Now" thread, I pointed out that making Broil 3 1.5 sec cast removed Ruin 2's use for GCD weaves and LARGELY as a movement tool. Broil 3 should probably be 1.7 or 2 sec cast (the former would still allow weaving) or something. But as the former seems weird and the latter makes oGCD weaves clip...I guess we're stuck with it either way. But without some additional effect. Ruin 2/Broil 4 won't really see a lot of general use.

- I generally dislike DoTs. I don't mind them AS MUCH if they are working into the kit as a whole (as this seems to do), but even then, I don't love them, I at best tolerate them.

- I'm not a huge fan of procs or proc-like effects, especially when I'm focusing on something else. Damage procs on a Healer are generally going to be annoying. While the Fester and Aetherflow aren't QUITE that, they're somewhat close TO IT. So unless the Job Gauge somehow displays when they're ready, I generally won't like it. BLM Xenoglossy I don't mind since it's easy to track with the gauge, but RDM Verfire/Verstone Ready are not, and I dislike those. Same with BRD Mage Ballad reducing the cast time on your single target and AOE oGCD attacks, since it's not super noticeable unless your eyes are down on your hotbars, which I think is generally bad design since it reduces awareness of the gameplay field and fight mechanics. (It's ALSO why I hate DoTs since they tend not to display well on the native UI of literally any MMO I've ever played...)

.

Overall, despite the negatives, I don't hate this. A few tweaks - don't remove iconic abilities, consider some abilities not costing Aetherflow, less restriction on beloved abilities like Soil/Expedient, try to cross the streams a little less with SGE, etc - might make it pretty workable. And I do like the call-backs and homages to past FF Scholar incarnations.

Overall, not at all bad.

[NobleWinter]

Well I'm back, this time with Yet Another Scholar Butcher Rework™ complete with more MS Paint flowcharts.

This seems like it would be a ton of fun to use. I think what appeals to me most is the refund for any healing and support GCD used thru Kaustra. Being able to maintain both shields and Inoculate without losing DPS would feel very safe. It might even turn Scholar into a progression healer much the same way we see WHM. The fact it is unlocked far earlier than Sage would make this reasonable. Of course I can see it being tuned weaker than Sage for DPS potential to balance out the relative safety it provides but it's all hypothetical anyway. Healing as a healer just shouldn't ever feel like a bad thing and unfortunately for most of the healer role we have healing skills that feel bad to use. Saving Assize for healing is a DPS loss. Using Aetherflow for healing can be a DPS loss. Saving Earthly Star for healing is the same issue as Assize. Sage loses all benefit of Kardia if they resort to GCD healing and fishing for procs with barriers is still a DPS loss. Healing should be encouraged and this design for Scholar actually does that. It feels very well done.

[TheDustyOne]

I will never for the life of me understand people's fascination with DoTs...

Personal preference mostly, I dislike standard cooldown attacks that don't offer any interaction with other abilities. DoTs meanwhile on their own still have some thought in how many mobs need to exist before it's better to do my AoE rotation, or if the mob will exist by the time the DoT becomes damage positive. I find it more engaging overall.

It looks like Bio, Miasma, Adlo, Succor, Leaches+, and the Faerie Abilities seem to have a lot of combining, so the total is probably around 30?

31 overall buttons (I think) compared to the current 33. Scholar at the moment feels way too bloated, I wanted to try and keep the current capabilities that Scholar offers in a more condensed fashion, while adding more depth to the abilities overall and making the damage rotation less dull.

- I LOVE modifier buttons...

I KIND of like that you reworked Aetherflow to be more your "Tactics Gauge" that enables use of various strategems (said modifier abilities)

Likewise for modifiers, I prefer it when abilities have some interplay amongst each other as opposed to shoving many effects into 1 ability or having a generic "here's a new cooldown that does damage/heal".

I somewhat like the Grimoires. I think (and am guessing this was your inspiration) that it was how SCH worked in FFXI, which a lot of people seemed to generally like...

Overall, a good take on that system that's much more thematically consistent and pays homage to Scholars of Final Fantasies Past.

XI was definitely the inspiration for the Grimoires. Scholars in XI and III had some overlap with Red Mages in that they were users of both Black and White magic. The Grimoire system however I thought would give people who liked old Cleric Stance something to enjoy while not being as punishing as it used to be, better calls back to previous incarnations of Scholar throughout the series, and helps keep the button count down amongst the spells and faeries.

This version of Broil IV is much like the Ruin 1/2 interplay in ARR where Ruin 2 did the same damage and was more trading MP for mobility. Personally I'd make it AOE that spreads DoTs, but you have Deployment Tactics doing that and it doing more damage than Art of War would make THAT ability meaningless.

I mostly just wanted to keep Broil simple; here's the version you spam, and here's the one you use to move or double weave. Anything else I think would overcomplicate the filler or would make other parts of the kit redundant. There is some potential in the idea of Art of War having falloff damage and having it be used in single target similar to how Miasma II worked back in Stormblood, but to make it non-spammable would mean raising MP cost or adding a cooldown, which wouldn't feel good in dungeons. Better I think to have Broil remain simple.

Kaustra does 2x Broil 3's worth of damage? Seems like Energy Drain now, but meh, I don't hate this, just kinda neutral about it. It does have non-Deployment required cleave, which I suppose is nice.

Can't say I see the Energy Drain comparison, it's mostly there to replace a Broil cast, refund the lost Broil used on a heal or shield, and have a timer to prevent overhealing and/or encourage using Aetherflow abilities to get the most out of a single heal cast.

While the Aetherflow modifier effects are interesting, it might be TOO MUCH to put on AF, and like you say, I'm not sure if they're balanced against each other... Just not sure if they should all be AF spenders.

The balancing is mostly around numbers; the main thing really is to try and make Excog > Succor still worth using even with Adloquium > Deployment still being available. At most I'd probably give a potency increase to Excog and increase the cooldown for it so as to make it more desirable over over Adlo > Deploy.

You didn't include levels, but I have to wonder how this will feel to play in synced content or while leveling up for new players. Right now, it's a little weird, but you have Whispering Dawn for low level content and Eos generally will heal dungeons below level 20 with just a rare Physic for touch-up healing. Without Embrace and Whispering Dawn...how's that work? Granted, Physic and Physic 2 could fix that problem if they were gained at low levels like Cure and Medica, but...I dunno, just something to consider.

My main concern was to try and make something I'd like to play at endgame, that said I could probably look through and see how I would distribute the abilities over the levels. As for the loss of Whispering Dawn (I'll get to Embrace later), Physick II would be available at the same time as Medica on WHM, so AoE healing early on would still be available and would be as viable as WHM that early on. As odd as it sounds, I wouldn't have the faeries until level 30 content, as that's when I feel jobs should start branching out into their unique mechanics, and early dungeons can nearly be healed entirely with just Embrace, Scholar is actually TOO good in lower levels and it can form bad habits if someone takes it into Sastasha to learn it. The first 15-25 levels are mostly to get the bare bones of the role understood in party play.

I like that you work both Eos and Selene into the mix, although a part of me likes being able to Faerie-Glamour. Though SMN allows that for the Egis, so maybe that could work here as well where you could make them have whatever appearance but it's "officially" Eos and Selene, respectively.

I'd definitely still keep Faerie glamours, I like having Carbuncle more now that I've had him.

You removed several abilities that I actually like - Emergency Tactics (as I said above; though I do understand why), Whispering Dawn, Sacred Soil (WHICH IS ICONIC), and Expedient. While you replace SOME of these, I don't like how they were done. For example, I don't like Expedience's movement speed being tied to Black Grimoire and split up.

Can't say I agree on Sacred Soil being iconic, up until Shadowbringers added the regen it wasn't worth using compared to Indom outside mitigation possibly saving someone. I only really used it back in Stormblood while synced below Indom levels. Even in large pulls I found Lustrate was better than the mitigation. I never really use Emergency Tactics currently outside my party running around like headless chickens in AoEs or with heal to full mechanics. Ironically it would get more use in my rework, but would be made redundant with new Physick and Physick II. Whispering was culled mostly because I wanted to cut down on oGCD heals in general, but I wouldn't mind bringing it back for Eos and giving Selene something else. Expedience criticism I think is fair, but at most I'd probably just combine Covenant and Wind again and still keep it as a Faerie skill.

It also appears that you've removed Embrace/Faerie auto-heals?

Don't worry, Embrace wouldn't be gone, I kinda just forgot about it. However I do have criticisms over Embrace at the moment; it's way too passive and over the course of a fight, would regen more than the regen healers if downtime allows for it. This is especially bad in early dungeons where, outside large pulls, you can literally do nothing and the tank will still be near full health. Kardia at least I have to think about swapping to another player when they get hurt, regens on WHM and AST have to be cast and maintained if you want a permanent regen, while Embrace just exists. I'm fine with keeping it since it's still something that competes with Kardia, but I find it not particularly interesting outside the scenarios you mention where you can't act at all.

Another problem I have with Embrace, although I'd have this fixed with my rework, is the animation lock it causes. If Embrace is being used but I really need that Fey Blessing or Fey Illumination out before a raidwide comes, it may well be too late, and it's out of my control. I could be mistaken and this is less of an issue now, but I remember it being really annoying last expansion.

Removing iconic abilities and mechanics is not going to go over well with everyone (SEE: SMN rework), and I don't think I'd like all of that as a result, either.

The big difference in comparison to SMN and my SCH is that it restores some of the lost abilities we used to have, and tries to remain mechanically similar in most regards. Aetherflow still makes use of abilities we already have, and Faerie Gauge has more going for it rather than as Aetherpact dump. The SMN rework meanwhile has very little in common with its previous incarnations outside Aetherflow, which is mostly just oGCD burst fodder.

While I like the idea with GCD heals/raises/shields refunding damage (2x Broil 3 means it is damage neutral as long as you aren't overwriting it early), the shield breaking bit seems just a bit TOO homogeneous with SCH. It might work better as just "when cast" instead of "when the shield breaks".

It would depend on how I handle Sage, I don't consider the shield break mechanic to be homogenous any more than I consider Addersting procs to be a copy of The Blackest Knight proc. It's about what the proc unlocks rather than the existence of the proc, Kaustra is a different enough ability from Toxikon to make it feel unique.

I'd personally look into making Toxikon oGCD, but I'll save that for if I get to reworking Sage.

You didn't fix the problem of 1.5 sec Broil 3

I don't really consider it much of a problem, the amount of oGCD uses in my rework from Grimoire dancing and Aetherflow would make it far too MP intensive if you had to use Broil IV frequently. Broil IV is for movement and double weaves. I think I'd prefer WHM to have long cast times as part of its mechanical complexity instead of the other healers, maybe Sage as well.

I'm not a huge fan of procs or proc-like effects, especially when I'm focusing on something else. Damage procs on a Healer are generally going to be annoying...

This was my main concern with Fester, it's why I kept the proc chance relatively low. However, if I didn't have the procs, I'd rather just cull Fester and move the potency into the DoTs themselves. It's moreso to give one extra thing to look out for during Broil spam to prevent myself falling asleep between DoT refreshes and shields.

I believe Bard Song Gauge pulses slightly when it procs, having a small pulse around the Aetherflow or Faerie Gauges would help with visibility, as well as a sound effect. The problem you have with the procs I think is moreso around usability rather than mechanically, which is a fair criticism, but not one that's wrong with the kit itself and more with the UI visual and sound design.

Overall, despite the negatives, I don't hate this. A few tweaks - don't remove iconic abilities, consider some abilities not costing Aetherflow, less restriction on beloved abilities like Soil/Expedient, try to cross the streams a little less with SGE, etc - might make it pretty workable. And I do like the call-backs and homages to past FF Scholar incarnations.

Overall, not at all bad.

I could probably combine Fey Sanctum and Fey Illumination so that stance doesn't matter for the mit/heal boost. But I'd need at least 2 more abilities to keep Eos and Selene distinct. Remember that the heal boost from Fey Illumination would affect the shields, so it's still a mitigation effect similar to Fey Sanctum and would give a boost to your co-healer.

That said, glad you liked it despite your criticisms.

Boy this got longer than I expected.

[Renathras]

Boy this got longer than I expected.

Nothing wrong with that. Good discussions.

I want to note the Neutral stuff I am legitimately neutral about. So not complaints, more notes/things to consider.

Can't say I see the Energy Drain comparison,

Oh, I was thinking about it in the sense 3x Energy Drains per minute NOW is approximately equal to one Broil cast. The more I read and thought about it, though, it seems more like I should be thinking of Kaustra like Toxicon instead. Getting a charge on shield breaking should have keyed my brain into that sooner, don't know why it didn't. Probably because Toxicon ISN'T damage neutral, lol. So it's more like Misery, I guess, just 2x damage of a Broil instead of 4x of a Glare, and requiring the full DoT duration to be damage neutral, meaning you don't want to overwrite it, meaning you don't want to overcap on it, meaning you don't want to use TOO many GCD heals that generate it TOO quickly, but it's more a repayment (that can, like Misery, be a DPS gain under buff windows). So now that I've got my head around it better, while I still dislike it in a way because I hate DoTs, I like what it's trying to be, which is a damage neutral return on using GCD heals (like WHM's Lilies) but with a decidedly "debilitating mage" SCH flair. So I find it agreeable (even if I probably wouldn't want to play it, personally) because I can appreciate a design obeying a thematic consistency and class fantasy, even if it's not one I, personally, like best.

The balancing is mostly around numbers;

Agreed, but also making sure not to lock too many fun abilities into the same resource such that people feel they can't use them.

My main concern was...

I do get that. It's just always a concern I'm aware of due to how FFXIV works, both for bringing in new players (which happens far more often than most of us realize) and that sometimes you get synced content. Personally, I think low level SCH isn't bad in the sense of "green DPS" since it's the Healer Job that most teaches beginner players to "do damage when you can as a Healer" (what everyone says is the way Healers work in FFXIV) more than any other aside from possibly SGE, which you can't unlock until way later anyway. Eox doing so much healing teaches the budding SCH player that they can, personally, do things like focus on damage, but keeping an eye on the Tank's health just in case they need a little more attention. This is far more what SCH players need to learn than to run to GCD heals. That's already a big enough problem with big enough traps as it is (*cough*Freecure*cough*) to mislead new Healers, and say what you will, it IS definitely what makes SCH distinct. Right from the jump in the lowest level dungeon you can que for, WHM and AST play shockingly the same, but SCH plays and feels different. Even SGE having Kardia CAN feel and play like WHM and AST in Sastasha since Diagnosis and Prognosis work like Cure/Benefic and Medica/Holos. Only SCH is really really distinct, and gives you the feeling from level 4 on that you're not alone, working with your healing partner to get the job done.

The real things it needs are to get Lustrate WAY earlier and to have a short CD Faerie ability early (like if Whispering Dawn/Fey Blessing had a 30 sec CD "starter" version at low levels) so that players would get in the habit of using THOSE spells. Indeed, one thing that really helped me learn to use my oGCDs on SCH was noticing when I did very low level dungeons, my only AOE heal was Whispering Dawn. Which then got me to realize how short the CD on it was and that it should be one of my go-to heals. Up until I made that realization, I had been using Succor in higher end (at the time, this WAS ARR, so "higher end" for me was like Aurum Vale or Crystal Tower 24 mans) content, and it was then that I really started to realize the power of SCH's oGCD kit and really started to employ it more. By replacing that with Cure-Benefic-Diagnosis/Medica-Holos-Prognosis, it removes what makes SCH so distinct and teaches the budding SCH bad habbits instead of keying them in to how they can play far better, both at the low end and in higher end content.

IMO, this is a good thing, and something we shouldn't be so quick to abandon.

Can't say I agree on Sacred Soil being iconic,

The single reason I picked up SCH in ARR (the ONLY other Job I had to 50 already was WHM) was because of Soil. I saw co-healer SCHs (which I often was paired with) in Castrum/Praetorium and Labyrinth of the Ancients (this was probably patch 2.4) using it, and the idea of being able to generate a protective field for my allies appealed to me. A lot. To high end raiders, Soil is useless before level 68 and iffy above it, but to casual players, midcore players, and people just looking at Jobs to play or seeing other players in group content and thinking about other Jobs they want to try, Sacred Soil is probably SCH's most iconic single ability. It's like Paladin Passage of Arms or AST Collective Unconscious or WHM Lilies or RDM's Verraise Dualcasting. It's something distinct, immediately recognizable when someone sees it, understandable for what it does, and that is highly associated with just that one Job. Even with AST trying to steal its thunder a bit with Collective, Soil is still distinct and most players in the game know what it's for and who casts it. I think that's how one would define the term "iconic" in this sense.

The only other thing as iconic to SCH's is having their Faerie companion; but note I said of Soil "most iconic single ability". Eos is a slate of abilities and mechanics - also entirely iconic.

If someone was just playing the game and probably only knew a little about each Job, what they'd know about SCH is "It has a faerie that helps them heal and it has Sacred Soil".

Whispering was culled mostly because I wanted to cut down on oGCD heals in general, but I wouldn't mind bringing it back for Eos and giving Selene something else. Expedience criticism I think is fair, but at most I'd probably just combine Covenant and Wind again and still keep it as a Faerie skill.

One thing that I think often is good for rework ideas is to think of "lower level abilities that upgrade". For example, Rage of Halone into Royal Authority or Jolt into Jolt II. This lets you keep iconic abilities people like AND give low level players those resources, but lets you upgrade them into something more useful by the end-game which incorporates its effects while improving on it. For example, We don't just get Sacred Soil at 78 with mitigation and a HoT. We get it at 50 with a mitigation and at 78, it upgrades to the HoT. PLDs don't just get Holy Shelltron at 82, they get it at 35 and it upgrades to Holy Shelltron at 82 to add the bonus first 4 second "reactive mitigation" bonus and the heal. This also lets players tinker with abilities at lower levels and - when done well (like Shelltron) - it's useful during the leveling process as well as at the level cap. (Granted, Soil isn't USELESS before 78, it's just MORE useful and a heal gain over Indom and such by then).

For example, I've proposed before Whispering Dawn be like it is now, but at level 76, instead of getting Fey Blessing as a separate ability, you get a trait that upgrades Whispering Dawn INTO Fey Blessing where it has the effect of Blessing's heal + Dawn's HoT (like how Medica 2 works). This gives leveling players the tool to work with as they level, doesn't remove an iconic and loved ability from the game, but improves it at the top end into something really useful.

I'd say that's an idea for how to deal with some stuff like this. It obviously doesn't work for everything, but it can work for some stuff.

Expedient is more complicated because it does a lot at once - most people think "SCH zoomies" but forget it's ALSO a Soil level of mitigation (which, I think, stacks with Soil, despite them having different wording for some reason). But in the short time it's been here, it's ALREADY iconic and VERY well received. It's the ability people mocked in the Job Actions trailer, but astute people even then were pointing out how it was a gamechanger, and it's spurred conversations into "good kinds of utility" for Jobs to have that aren't "just a buff to damage dealt or mitigation abilities or raises", which, up to now, have been the only real kinds of "utility" we've had. Movement speed is something that's not inherently OP but is also a different direction, and when paired with the damage mitigation, has already made it an extremely popular ability.

I'm not sure the answer on that one, I just felt it should be pointed out since it's one of the changes to Healers in 6.0 that people HAVEN'T actually been complaining about. And given HOW MUCH people have complained about Healers in EW, I think pointing out something they HAVEN'T been complaining about is basically the equivalent to pointing out a standing ovation at this point. If people are complaining about everything, but not that thing, it probably means that thing is a success/good thing.

Don't worry, Embrace wouldn't be gone, I kinda just forgot about it...

Ah, good.

I guess re-read what I said about it to maybe see a different perspective?

I think this is a case (like Soil) of a thing not mattering that much to you or not being your kind of gameplay (passive), so you don't realize how much other people might actually and genuinely like that. It's like I hate playing Melee. I level them (slowly), and have played SAM a little. When they removed Kaiten, I remember thinking "Is this really such a big deal?". But while I joke sometimes about SAMs just not shutting up about it, I'm not really going around rubbing it in people's faces or saying it's good it was removed, because I realized rather quickly that some people ABJECTLY loved it and the gameplay it brought to them. I don't get it - just as I don't get DoTs and don't get the love affair with Energy Drain and Dissipation with some people - but I recognize that some people do like it. It's also why my own SCH change proposals keep Energy Drain and its heal/damage trade-off because I get some people DO like that, I just shift it to Faerie Gauge personally to give that a purpose and to free up AF heals that people, right now, feel horrible about using.

It's important to remember, in designs, that while some things may seem completely meh to us, that may well be the thing that others absolutely LOVE about a given Job and, were it removed, it would kill the Job to them.

Another problem I have with Embrace, although I'd have this fixed with my rework, is the animation lock it causes...

I feel this way with both SCH and did with SMN when Carby cast damage spells - I think the solution is to make what they do instant cast. Whether abilities (oGCDs) or spells (GCDs), I'm not sure quite on (since I'm not entirely sure how pets operate the two distinctly), but being instant cast would mean there'd never be more than a 0.7 sec delay at the most. I feel like that's something Eos needs now in game, and I feel like SMN Carby needs it, too, since otherwise it's nothing but a glorified cheerleader and totem for...uh...Radiant Aegis; since that's literally the only thing it does now.

The big difference in comparison to SMN and my SCH is...

Partly true, but keep in mind many of the complaints about SMN (and SCH) are those iconic abilities being removed over time. SMN's rework isn't attacked just on a gameplay front. Many people LIKED old Tri-Disaster. Bane. Shadow Flare. And those things weren't half as iconic as Sacred Soil is. I'm not saying you can NEVER do it, but I'm saying that reworks get a lot less pushback when they aren't tinkering with iconic abilities. And when they remove them (SEE: Kaiten), it generates holy hell. If you want a pitch to be acceptable, it hast to avoid the trap of alienating large amounts of people. Like imagine a SCH rework that removed Adlo and Succor. Or an AST rework that removed Cards. Or a WHM rework that removed Holy. Even if they were net positives, people would still go nuts over it.

The best solution is often to just avoid doing that if it's avoidable, which it is in this case, I think.

Remember: Job design isn't just a spreadsheet of mechanics. It's how it FEELS to people, how it LOOKS, how it achieves their class fantasy, and how it appeals to their nostalgia. Your own name change of Chain Strategem to Libra should tell you how important this is. It's enough that you'd make that change - with no good reason besides sentimentality - because of how good that sentiment would feel.

It would depend on how I handle Sage, I don't consider the shield break mechanic to be homogenous any more than I consider Addersting procs to be a copy of The Blackest Knight proc. It's about what the proc unlocks rather than the existence of the proc, Kaustra is a different enough ability from Toxikon to make it feel unique.

Maybe. It's the only "on shield break, allows use of X ability" in the game right now, though. TBN technically does this, but it doesn't really. You can use Edge of Shadow/Flood of Shadow without TBN breaking. It's a bonus to using TBN well, but those abilities exist independent of it and are part of the standard rotation even without it. Toxicon and Kaustra are not that, though Kaustra generating from Esuna and Raise are good distinctions.

Though in retrospect, I probably should have put that in the Neutral category. I don't really DISlike it, but I don't LIKE it, per se. I like what Kaustra is doing in general - like Lilies, allowing use of a GCD heal without a damage penalty/penalizing healing with reduced damage. So I'm not opposed to it. Hence why I said I'd personally have it proc just on casting those spells. I get you're going for the higher skill ceiling thing here, though, like TBN. It's like my own WHM proposals have included things like removing Lily abilities and just having all WHM's GCD heals nourish the Blood Lily so you get the same effect but actually want to stand to cast them (of course, because that doesn't work in modern FFXIV...) since I would like the choice of what heal to use be based on the situation at hand, not if it will be a DPS loss or not. By making them damage neutral, it returns the choice to what it should be - what's the best heal for this situation. Some people don't like that, because they like the skill cap of pushing more damage, but personally, I dislike the idea of that trade-off and prefer skill to be how efficiently you heal, not how little you heal.

I'd personally look into making Toxikon oGCD, but I'll save that for if I get to reworking Sage.

I feel like that defeats the purpose of it, though, since it seems to be designed more for a movement tool (and AOE burst/cleave), though it should probably do at least 1.5x the damage it does, and ideally 2x so it IS damage neutral.

I don't really consider it much of a problem...

For this design, I agree, which is why I came to the ultimate conclusion I did. The reason I noted it is, under current design, it's why SCH casts more of its standard nuke (Broil) than any of the other Healers. Despite the meme being "Glarespam" and "Glaremage", it should actually be "Broilspam" and "Broilmage" since WHM at least breaks up its GCD rotation with Lilies and Misery where SCH only breaks its own up with Bio and nothing else if it doesn't have to use Ruin 2 for movement. (AST is in a similar boat). But given this SCH build has more GCD damage spells to hit and damage neutral healing spells (like WHM Lilies are) to work in, it kind of fixes that problem somewhat on its own.

This was my main concern with Fester, it's why I kept the proc chance relatively low. However, if I didn't have the procs, I'd rather just cull Fester and move the potency into the DoTs themselves. It's moreso to give one extra thing to look out for during Broil spam to prevent myself falling asleep between DoT refreshes and shields.

Again, this all depends on presentation. If it's given some kind of icon on the Job Gauge that's really distinct and easy to see and track, that might make up for it. I agree that it's more a presentation/UI/visual/sound design issue. It's one thing I LOVE about Addersting on SGE - when a shield breaks, you hear that proc. You don't even have to look at your Job gauge, much less your Toxicon button on your hotbar, to know it's ready for a use. That's an example of good design, imo. Some Jobs also make that "chinky" sound like SGE when you get another Addersgall or NIN when you get over 50 Ninki (I think WAR does this with Rage as well) so you can tell something is ready without having to glue your eyes to your hotbars.

I could probably combine Fey Sanctum and Fey Illumination so that stance doesn't matter for the mit/heal boost. But I'd need at least 2 more abilities to keep Eos and Selene distinct. Remember that the heal boost from Fey Illumination would affect the shields, so it's still a mitigation effect similar to Fey Sanctum and would give a boost to your co-healer.

Fair enough. I dunno, could have Whispering Dawn for Eos and the same thing for MP for Selene (she was always the more Support one of the two), though not sure that's "allowed" under current FFXIV design. granted, maybe none of this is, so it's a moot point. But that could be your "other" ability; HP regen or MP regen for the party. Bonus that it plays into that issue from before with Whispering Dawn. Alternatively, Selene having her old AOE Esuna back, though I think most people have realized modern encounter design makes that kind of pointless, it would still be...something, I guess? XD

That said, glad you liked it despite your criticisms.

Yes, very much so.

As I say, I probably wouldn't play it personally, since it's not really my thing, but I could see a lot of people liking it, and I say all the time my big complaint about Healer Jobs right now is they're all TOO IDENTICAL. Having some differences would let people who don't like them right now have something they enjoy. I'm not the selfish/heartless dastard some in this subforum pretend I am. I genuinely do want people to have options that make them happy, and have said so many times. I get that means some things won't be for me, but if they're good designs that work with the game and are balanced (neither OP nor UP), I think that's good for the game and for the playerbase. Having "boring" Jobs isn't so bad if there are options of "not-boring" Jobs for people that want them. Likewise, having "overcomplex" Jobs isn't so bad as long as there are "sensible" Jobs for people to play instead if they don't like the former.

I think your ideas have merit and are definitely a distinct and interesting take. My criticisms were offered as constructive ones, and I hope (and it seems to be) that you took them that way. I don't think the Devs read this, but if they do, who knows? Something that makes Healer Jobs more distinct and can make people happy is something I think would be good.

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Oh dear...this was ALSO terribly long, wasn't it? XD