Whether you're fine with the current balance of things or not, it's undeniable that SCHs fall behind WHM and AST in both damage and healing. Are they unplayable? Absolutely not. Despite knowing they fall behind, they're still my personal favorite healer to play. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to see some changes.
But SCHs are in a poor place. Shield healing has been intentionally nerfed. They still have plenty of ogcd heals, but their DPS and HPS compete for resources. They now have the lowest healer DPS. Their capstone abilities don't work together, and their kit doesn't play nice with itself. And that's not even getting into the faeries or Seraph ghosting skills.
So, given the current state of the game, how do we give SCH a comfortable spot among healers without horning in on the identity of the other healers or completely throwing the balance of the game back to having a completely undesirable healer? After replaying FFVIII, I think I have an idea of how to do it. (And if you already hate this build up, there'll be a tl;dr at the bottom.)
I couldn't help but think of my main class while playing the game. Most especially Rinoa turning the flower petal into a feather reminded me of the aesthetic similarity between our faeries becoming/being replaced by Seraph. And this idea, specifically, came to me while building Rinoa post Sorceress powers.
Y'see, when you unlock Rinoa's 2nd limit break she goes into a state similar to Berserk. Her spells are 5x stronger than usual and her magic uses none of the usual resources. She'll only cast offensive magic she has equipped, which results in her often being built with one or two of the strongest spells that she'll only cast during LB and a load of healing/support magic for when you're building her LB up. I'm sure by now you can see where I'm going with this.
If WHM is all about consistent aDPS while healing, and AST the more support focused rDPS healer, SCH should be the healer with the "burst damage" window. By reworking the (mostly useless) Faerie Gauge, the SCH could build into a burst damage phase by using their healing Aetherflow skills. This would mirror the old SMN, would reward SCH for healing (which SE has stated is their desired goal for healers), and make building Faerie Gauge a far more interesting and rewarding part of our kit.
Obviously, changes of this magnitude wouldn't see the light of day until 6.0 (if at all), but I think if "Shield Healer" is no longer a route SE wishes to take, and since Pet Healer is buggy and either uninvolved (if the pets are too strong) or mostly flavor (if the pets are somewhat weak), this could be a valid path for the future of SCH.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I'm sorry in advance to all the people who are already mad at me for even suggesting it. Pls give Eos a gun. Thnx.
TL;DR: The SCH could be the healer with a burst damage form to contrast with the WHM consistent DPS and AST support focused rDPS.
Continue reading...
But SCHs are in a poor place. Shield healing has been intentionally nerfed. They still have plenty of ogcd heals, but their DPS and HPS compete for resources. They now have the lowest healer DPS. Their capstone abilities don't work together, and their kit doesn't play nice with itself. And that's not even getting into the faeries or Seraph ghosting skills.
So, given the current state of the game, how do we give SCH a comfortable spot among healers without horning in on the identity of the other healers or completely throwing the balance of the game back to having a completely undesirable healer? After replaying FFVIII, I think I have an idea of how to do it. (And if you already hate this build up, there'll be a tl;dr at the bottom.)
I couldn't help but think of my main class while playing the game. Most especially Rinoa turning the flower petal into a feather reminded me of the aesthetic similarity between our faeries becoming/being replaced by Seraph. And this idea, specifically, came to me while building Rinoa post Sorceress powers.
Y'see, when you unlock Rinoa's 2nd limit break she goes into a state similar to Berserk. Her spells are 5x stronger than usual and her magic uses none of the usual resources. She'll only cast offensive magic she has equipped, which results in her often being built with one or two of the strongest spells that she'll only cast during LB and a load of healing/support magic for when you're building her LB up. I'm sure by now you can see where I'm going with this.
If WHM is all about consistent aDPS while healing, and AST the more support focused rDPS healer, SCH should be the healer with the "burst damage" window. By reworking the (mostly useless) Faerie Gauge, the SCH could build into a burst damage phase by using their healing Aetherflow skills. This would mirror the old SMN, would reward SCH for healing (which SE has stated is their desired goal for healers), and make building Faerie Gauge a far more interesting and rewarding part of our kit.
Obviously, changes of this magnitude wouldn't see the light of day until 6.0 (if at all), but I think if "Shield Healer" is no longer a route SE wishes to take, and since Pet Healer is buggy and either uninvolved (if the pets are too strong) or mostly flavor (if the pets are somewhat weak), this could be a valid path for the future of SCH.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I'm sorry in advance to all the people who are already mad at me for even suggesting it. Pls give Eos a gun. Thnx.
TL;DR: The SCH could be the healer with a burst damage form to contrast with the WHM consistent DPS and AST support focused rDPS.
Continue reading...