7.1 SGE is even worse than before

[Loggos]

Snip

(Btw I forgot to mention: for context I'm only talking about CC. I don't play FL much so I can't really comment on that.)

Thank you for the clarification! I understand much better now what you mean.

I suppose it comes down to preference. In something situational like PvP I don't think Accession being a GCD is inherently worse (unlike in PvE where everything is scripted and the perfect GCD usage can be mapped out for the entire fight).

Both Excog and Accession bring some contextual factors to the table that might make one preferrable over the other in certain situations.
For example, whereas I see your point with Excog's auto trigger, the Excog effect is only applied to people who stand within the ground circle when you place it, which spans 10y.
Accession is 15y though.
When you manually trigger Consolation it's also tied to Seraph's position. If the center of the fight moves too far away from Seraph it will decrease her impact.
With Accession you are basically a walking Excog and Consolation rolled in one, have better control when and where to activate it and can reach players with your heal that might not have been close to you when you initially cast your LB.
Even though you sacrifice a GCD of your 8k AoE attack for it, you are still doing more damage overall than you would before, where you could only cast single target broil I think?

On the flipside it also makes you more vulnerable because you'll have to be closer to the fight. Being able to place Seraph on a contested checkpoint while you are outside of the danger zone is a perk the old LB had.

I also see your point of stacking Adlo on top of Excog but here too I think the difference is more down to preference because the heals are shifted. Before 7.0 you could tank bigger hits with Adlo's 9k shield + your 8k Excog auto heal, that’s definitely true. You could then use Consolation for smaller damage.

Now recitation Adlo can be used to pad your team against smaller hits in advance with its 8k shield and you can use Accession as your big burst heal to remedy bigger hits.
So basically SCH became more reactive whereas the pre 7.1 focus was on preparation.


So I think SCH's strength just shifted from one scenario to another.

I can totally see though that this can significantly lower someone's enjoyment with the class because the old version encompassed SCH's job fantasy much better whereas Seraphism deviates from it quite a bit (I'm not happy I have to wear angel cosplay in PvP as well now :') ).
With the new LB you are much closer to WHM's style of reactive/post-damage healing whereas the old LB was all about planning.
If you put it like that it’s a shame that the devs sacrificed yet another job fantasy for the sake of streamlining classes. I’m sure there would have been a way to update SCH’s LB without taking the core element of planning and strategizing away. So yeah, that actually sucks.

For players who appreciate this kind of reactive control it's probably an improvement. But for people who prefer a playstyle of planning ahead I can see that the old LB is really better.

Though when it comes to Seraphic flight/nullifying status effects I'd still say the 30y reach is an improvement.

However, the previous healing spell (Adlo) also have a higher potency

I may be misunderstanding you here but I don't think the old Adlo is that much stronger than the new one? Or are you getting at something else?

(Isn't it like this?: The new Adlo (4k heal + 4k shield = 8k) "only" misses 1k compared to the old one (3k heal + 6k shield = 9k). Together with the damage reduction buff I don't personally see it as being that much worse. And as mentioned above under Recitation both have the same overall value of 12k, since in 7.1 Recitation doubles Adlo's shield (4k heal + 8k) whereas before 7.1 Recitation "only" increased the shield by 50% (3k heal + 9k).)

[Loggos]

Ok, having played many more matches and with the hype of everything being new and shiny wearing off I’ll gladly walk back on parts of my original post.

Scholar’s old LB was definitely more fun and I agree, I want it back over Seraphism. The new LB is very straightforward but the more I play the more boring it becomes. It’s really starting to be true for me that “press big heal” and spamming your AoE is terribly stale compared to actually planning your LB in advance and having to be smart about it.

(I am also becoming annoyed with that Seraphim dress… Having to see it every match is a bit irritating.)

Now my opinion of the 7.1 rework has become even lower. orz

I do have to admit that I still prefer being able to place Seraph as a healing turret outside of SCH’s LB. It feels good to be able to deploy her quickly during a fight or a tricky situation (she has saved me and other players a lot when we were as good as dead). Imo she makes the gameplay outside of SCH's LB more interesting (esp., the beginning of the match). I really enjoy this tactical element as part of SCH's common/non-LB gameplay.

I think I’d like it best if we still had the old LB (maybe update the range of Seraphic Flight and Excog a bit to be able to put those crucial buffs on players outside of the rather small circle) but remove the single-target auto heals/turret healing (placing the LB would still be important for Consolation). Turn the turret healing into a skill like we have right now. Maybe the normal healing turret could be Eos and Seraph* could still function as LB.

Perhaps instead of healing, the LB turret could take over the damage part of SCH's new LB (since the devs seem to really want SCH to do more damage during that phase). For example, she could periodically cast AoEs automatically. Either with numbers adjusted since you can still cast Broil yourself. Or alternatively with Seraphic Halo's original numbers but you can't cast Broil at all. So as a trade-off your damage would now be bound to a fixed location and you'd have to coordinate her damage ticks with using Consolation as well. Alternatively Broil could get replaced with a skill that works as a "remote control" where everytime you press it she casts Seraphic Halo. (So you'd have the same trade-off: damage at a fixed location and coordination with Consolation.) To balance it (since it's an advantage to place a strong AoE on a check point while you remain in a safe distance) you could consider giving it a long(er) GCD.

Like this you'd have the same power that SCH has now but the gameplay (incl. reverting Accession back to Excog + Consolation) would be in line with the old version.

* (If that's a problem lore-wise because technically Eos is Seraph and having both on the field at the same time wouldn't make sense you could also just turn the LB in a normal area of effect, like Mesotes. After all in PvE you can have your fairy and place a bubble simultaneously as well. The healing aspect of the area would tie in with the fairy aspect of SCH's identity and the damage would relate to its identity as a war tactitian. The AoE could be animated in the style of Art of War for example.)

[Sarlatane]

Could not agree more with the original post. Sage was done dirty with this pvp job update. I was maining sage before, sadly it's really unplayable at it's current state. It doesn't bring much value to the team compared to the other green jobs, it doesn't feel fun and smooth to play anymore, fragile as hell, damage nerfed. I don't think I've seen any sages above Gold rank and it kind of tells it all. I really hope some quick fixes can be implemented, otherwise it's doomed.