Quote Originally Posted by IDontPetLalas View Post
regarding AST- well technically correct if are counting keystrokes, otherwise "Draw & Play" aren't useful in and of themselves so I wouldn't add in 'draw and play" for AST. In addition, Minor Arcana is subject to RNG (only Lord of Crowns is a DPS skill) , and Astrodyne is also subject to RNG.

Okay, I went back and edited that because someone is likely going to correct me and say 'well, yes- but you're going to play a card", which is quite correct.
The thing that I try to factor in when I consider how many tools do each Healer actually have for their offensive gameplay, I try to think with the mindset of "what tools are you always going to press regardless of the situation?" For example, regardless of whether you get Lord of Crowns or Lady of Crowns during Minor Arcana, you are still going to use it every minute on cooldown. Maybe you try to save the Lady to heal with in some circumstances, but you're trying to use that on cooldown. Similarly, card plays and Astrodyne are things you want to use as often as possible, though in those examples there's more emphasis on using them during burst windows when possible. But even that judgement I use doesn't perfectly describe every situation.

For example, do we count Draw and Play as separate since they're different actions? I listed them as "Draw & Play" because I personally consider them to be the same action, just one continuous action over 2 weaves rather than a single button press. There's also an argument for considering Afflatus Solace/Rapture since you have to use them in order to get Afflatus Misery. I definitely wouldn't count them as two different actions in the way that Presence of Mind and Dia are different, but I can see an argument for considering them as one extra part of your gameplay. Because what I care about are aspects of your gameplay that are always relevant, regardless of whether you're soloing the MSQ, in group content going smoothly, or in group content going horribly.

As Roe mentioned, I ignored Toxikon because it's a disgrace, and Ruin II because it's basically worthless. But I would've considered ARR Ruin II as a noteworthy action to reference. If they had kept that consistent for Scholar, or in other words Broil IV and Ruin II would look like this:

Broil IV: 295 potency, 400 MP cost, 2 second cast time
Ruin II: 295 potency, 800 MP cost, instant cast

I would consider Ruin II separately, because even though the DPS is the same, there's a lot of opportunities to take advantage of Ruin II in all forms of content. While you certainly could have situations in which you aren't casting it, because it offers a lot of flexibility and choice, I think that holds value for Scholar's gameplay. Sadly it's been gutted repeatedly for no good god damn reason, so alas, it got ignored from my list.

But yeah, TLDR, I was counting actions that you can depend on using as often as they allow, generally. There are some actions that are debatable I think, but Sage loses to all three other healers regardless.