FFXIV Dawntrail: Initial Thoughts on Level 100 Scholar

Dungeon and trial spoilers used in the clips used in the video! if you have not finished the Dawntrail story do not watch the video! You can still listen though :D!
Here are my first impressions for Scholar (SCH) at level 100! Healing in FFXIV Dawntrail!
Twitter - / ffxivmomo
Twitch - / ffxivmomo
Intro 0:00
Initial Overview - 0:43
Chain Stratagem/Banefun Impacton - 1:36
GCD Potency (Broil) - 2:31
Recitation - 3:25
Seraphism - 5:57
Leveling Experience - 7:31
Scholar Overview - 8:30

[@dercuspercus]

one thing to note is that seraphism does not lock you out of dissipation. you can use dissipation and it just gets rid of seraphism

[@FFXIVMomo]

Oh I actually missed that what da heck, W commenter

[@SniperKing-O]

Lol, Scholar eats itself now! 😂

[@desubysnusnu]

​@@SniperKing-O Scholars are now the embodiment gluttony 😂

[@SniperKing-O]

@@desubysnusnu Or the Ouroboros! 🤣

[@carl493]

My opinion has arrived, thank you!

[@hassanmahdi5521]

Finally I know what I think about Scholar, I'm now content

[@brianmah5965]

I appreciate you pointing out that "Small inconvenient things" require you to go through extra effort to make it work. Classes are defined as much by what they can't do as by what they can, so while positive changes that remove some of the "can'ts" can rarely be argued against, it's important to note that too much of that leads to where we are in recent states of the game.

[@kataku8609]

Thank you for the Video Mr. Momo! I really like the new buttons we were given! I can't wait to press chain again to get rewarded to my new DoT, it also helped me to keep my chain up on cooldown and Seraphism saved me in a few of the new dungeons and raids!

[@jaesaces]

"Inconvenient" is a kind way to describe Scholar's kit. I've always used "janky" or "clunky." There are so many small things they could do to make it and its tools so much more usable.

[@jaesaces]

It bothers me for example how many abilities have hidden conflicts with one another that are not reflected in their tooltips. The newest one of course being Recitation vs Seraphism, as well as the expected Seraphism vs Dissipation.

[@desubysnusnu]

The fact that fae illumination & dissipation don't affect oGCDs still bothers me to this day..

[@ArborusVitae]

@@desubysnusnu that's just all effects with that wording- "healing magic potency" always only works on "spell" type actions.

[@Rush_Coil]

​@@jaesacesstarting to think the segregated kit is an intentional part of the design

[@jaesaces]

@@Rush_Coil The issue is that it's a convoluted system of undocumented interactions/non-interactions, as well as clunky abilities that need bandaid fixes like the Endwalker shielding change to "fix" Deployment Tactics.

[@thesatelliteslost]

Haven't lvled sch yet but great summary as usual. Awaiting ast video to both vent over and praise the changes.

[@Dae-Dae97]

I wish deploy was used on more skills. Like image using it on dots, aoe protraction, 2 target chain.

[@arcadema]

We literally used to have this. It was called "bane" and it used to cost 1 aetherflow, it would deploy all dots from one target to all surrounding enemies.

[@walpurgisnight7]

​@arcadema we also had a skill called Shadowflare. It made a dark Sacred Soil that did damage over time to enemies in the area and you had to choose between having it or SS on the field. We lost 90% of our tactical dps tools when Shadowbringers completely gutted our kit.

[@gbtygfvyg]

@@arcadema We still have it in pvp too lmao although it's still called deployment tactics there.

[@mrchards37]

Sage mains are contemplating life

[@DevilSeiji]

Yeah, but at least you dont lock yourself out of your own skills

[@Drago02129]

Is there any chance of getting a beginner to intermediate level guide for healers this expac? I’d love to start healing more seriously but a lot of what you said didn’t really take root because I’m just not experienced enough yet. 💜

[@AlexBearincess]

"Three stances that lock you out of others"... SB/ShB summoner, anyone? 😂

[@Forever18or21]

I forgot when did I start watching u Momo , I picked up Sch and mained through 4 expac because of you .

[@Mimz670]

REALLY wanna see the SGE video cuz it sounds like a shadow of what this kit is

[@DevilSeiji]

Excellent audio experience as I do not want to spoiler myself xD I really hope they give us recitation on manifestation cause it's the destination!

[@churchren3899]

did double shield for ex1 and ex2, very solid and in fact, i found it comfier than doing a pure with SCH or SGE. Seraphism and Philosophia are great tools for added sustain in these instances

[@marcusaurelius4777]

The tongue in cheek crapping on these horrid healer designs is like malicious compliance lol. I love it.

[@SubduedRadical]

My thought: Seraphis IS AMAZING. It's such a fun button. I use this when SHTF since it's just TONS of healing (the area HoT) while also allowing me to cast on the move POWERFUL shields. Great when having to raise people to be able to throw out instant cast Adlos on the weak raised party members and layer Succor2s on everyone else. I still hate Dissipation and don't even use it. I like Seraphism even better than Seraph, since it's easy to use and powerful. I dunno, I'm loving SCH so far. Honestly, I wish they'd just remove Dissipation already.

[@thomasnguyen4427]

2:55 people keep saying this, but the only situation where this presumption applies are to those who actually care about improvement, look & can take unsolicited advice without (deranged) retaliation, and such a niche is confined to those looking to engage in Raid Finder content. So rather than being a notable "change" it's just a repeat of the same reality we live in. Scholar players who love their glue & cocaine won't blink, and has 0 impact on their heal-only stand still & let things resolve playstyle. To me, this is preaching to the choir to the utmost extreme. It's just funny that every time a healer job changes for each expac always has the script say this line verbatim.

[@jeremylong8535]

Do one for AST next please!

[@xAshe10x]

ty

[@AjaniGoldmaneFFXIV]

I think my only worry is the mana regen during seraphism. Right now it's fine because bis has a lot of piety. But idk how it's gonna be when we have nothing but crit det. Also this is a more general thing for all healers. It feels weird that our AOE heals all got pretty new changes and out single target ones didn't haha

[@walpurgisnight7]

My opinion is that Scholar is the strongest healer. However, we have paid for that strength by losing any semblance of a consistent design philosophy. Our kit thematic makes no sense. Our old Miasma is now on a 2-minute timer. We are now divine beings instead of military geniuses, and our kit lost all of our DPS options in favor of using 1 DoT and spamming the same button rather than our old kit having Shadowflare , Bane, and Miasma. Our kit makes no fucking sense and Square has made it clear they don't care about fixing the inconsistency.

[@DevilSeiji]

I have small hopes for sch in 7.1 but not so much for smn

[@nozelxo6514]

I think AST is in the pair with SCH tbh

[@hippotippo3159]

Yeah the jobs thematic identity is an absolute mess. The outfit is still military strategist and the new skills keep pushing towards the fairy. I guess its supposed to show the teamwork the SCH's of nymia had but ehhh idk its weird

[@walpurgisnight7]

@@hippotippo3159 I'm fine with fairy magic, that's been in the kit since 2.0! My issue is whatever strange turn they took in Shadowbringers that took away half of our DPS buttons and gave us an... angel? In the same expansion where a Pixie/Fairy Queen was present???

[@iPlayOnSpica]

As enjoyable as Baneful Impaction is to use, it does suck to know that it is the weakest attack out of the other healers'. SCH - 700 max, less if target dies or withdraws before duration expires WHM - +310 gain per gcd x3 = 930; it does have aoe falloff AST - 860 no strings attached SGE - 600 x2 = 1200, albeit one is not under raid buffs

[@Funguspower2]

Getting hit by stuff but my shields to big no vuln stacks ;3

[@yreon0359]

If we compare zoe and reci wouldn't we need to calculate pneuma in? There is nothing sch has to compare that other than reci or am I overseeing sth 🤔

[@nickopkins]

Scholar stays winning! We finally have our own 'nahhh' button to high in succession raid damage (that's also better than the others!)

[@Piper0185]

are you doing SAGE too???

[@kneegrowontharun]

Why crit adlo over crit exco on the tank?

[@JayeDidAThing]

Crit adlo can be spread to the other party members

[@kieragard]

​@@JayeDidAThingno it can't, that was removed two expansion ago.

[@this_epic_name]

Until overgeared, I think crit excog is just fine, as you're nearly guaranteed for it to go off for full potency. Once geared up, the likelihood of excog going off for full potency (or at all before the timer ends) declines, so beefy shield can be better. What I don't understand is why he said he followed up a crit adlo on the tank with an adlo spread during trash pulls. Unless you're anticipating party damage, why not just cast adlo on the tank again?

[@kneegrowontharun]

@@this_epic_name hes saying he will shield the tank and himself BEFORE there are mobs to hit. then when the tanks shield is gone, he deploys himself. this allowing full uptime as deploy of off gcd.

[@this_epic_name]

@@kneegrowontharun aha! thx

[@magicmangoes6127]

Seraphism makes me lose my bunny ears, literally unplayable

[@DevilSeiji]

We shouldnt have asked for viera hats T.T

[@masteriveyletsplay2339]

Previous AST main here, literally since it came out. I am not a SCH main, I cannot stand the new AST...

[@ORenIshiio]

Momo

[@MrJammers]

Recitation should just make the follow up skill be instant cast

[@zeening]

wut? no the fuck would you trade a 100% crit for a shitty instant cast that we already have an assload of!?!?!?!?!? actual dumbest comment of 2024 lol

[@viktoriapocze4412]

Thank you for the video Momo! I think it shows it is high time that Scholar needs a rework. Thematicly it's all over the place, past examples show (khmmenergydrainkhmmm) they are afraid to anger the players and feels like they actively have to restrain the job to not have the Stormblood levels of giga shields. The joke is that I don't think they will be able to make SCH great with a rework. But the job is in a great need of harmonization of its own skills. One thing I disagree on is the 5-yalms aoe range - for me it's not a skill expression or strategy on how to deploy, just simply stupid. When the target's hit box is bigger than your aoe (big adds in dungeons), it is clear that they didn't consider the two factors against each other.

[@zeening]

they didn't consider alot, the recitiation not affecting half the abilities it lists when using your keystone lvl 100 ability.. seraphim canceling fking dissipation... how the fuck did that get past a SINGLE ROUND OF TESTING?!

[@SayuIchi]

My takes are quite different. This is a non-timetable warrior POV. Maybe the math works out, but the feel doesn't. Sure Baneful is nice, until you see its not back when everyone else uses their buffs, or for the next pull of mobs. GCD Potency increase is the lowest of the bunch. In the MSQ I would have enjoyed a little more burst especially, cause the mobs just take a bit too long like this. Recitation is nice, actually comes back up in time when you need it since your healing output overall feels worse or the tanks are idk. Hope this isn't the difficulty SE talked about. Theres nothing difficult about spamming GCDs. Once upon a time Aetherpact was very noticeable, now its not keeping up anymore. This somewhat goes through most abilities at this point sadly. Seraphism just has barely any use. It doesn't help with death recovery. Gives way to a heavy MP drain, bundled with frequent deaths in DF trials you quickly end up with low to no MP. I didn't notice yet that a HoT is active honestly. Then again, Physis II already is a higher potency, so its not a strong HoT to begin with. Moving is nice, but not a selling point when I can also play SGE if the fights need me to move frequently. And worst of all: Yeah its flashy, but doesn't feel like you heal much more. Its just promotes spamming GCDs -> draining MP. That said I still enjoy Scholar. They didn't remove anything, so its the same with some rather sad additions. SGE will be next of my healers to level though, the additions there looked more promising. And WHM with a AoE shield on a oGCD also sounds very nice! So I need to see if this SCH iteration can live up to those. Unrelated, but I'm curious: Whats your opinion on the fact that AST and WHM can stack pretty much everything on top of each other. I think even WHM+WHM can stack HoTs, but SGE and SCH will negate each others shields? I feel like they should stack or be auto converted to heal whatever was left of the weaker shield.. just make them not a total waste. I know you can ET, but especially in Duty Finder you don't know what the other shield healer will do, so you have to make a bet that WHM and AST just don't have to deal with.

[@bloodbane93]

It’s super weird that two classes basically cancel each other out, it’d be like if Viper and Reaper had to compete for who gets their damage taken debuff. I get they probably don’t want everyone running around with 200% shields, but it’s just strange that in 2024 you’d have class design limited like this. Even more so when there’s only 4 healers to begin with.

[@ArceusShaymin]

The issue with allowing double-shield stacking is the fact that it would instantly become the dominant strat in any optimized setting (as if SGE/SCH isn't already). Mitigative shielding is just better per-pound than its reactive regen/raw healing counterparts due to its capability to overheal. For a practical example, if a tankbuster would bring a tank from 100-0 with raw damage, a shield has the potential to save them whereas a regen/heal would never be able to save them. Dual regens might be too good if fights were designed with constant, small amounts of damage outside of mechanics, but as we all know, fights in FF14 are notoriously *not* designed around that, and so their use remains more niche. Could they get around this with something? Probably. It'd be nice if getting another shield healer in DF didn't feel awkward since you aren't nearly as coordinated as the combos want to be. But allowing full double regen isn't really an issue given the current landscape of FFXIV fight design.

[@RyouEmerald]

I'm still baffled that Energy drain as it is currently exists. I think that is the most annoying and least fun part of sch, and part of why I dislike playing sch sometimes. I'm jealous of their level 100 skill though, Sages is... nice but it doesn't feel like a 3m CD or some kind of ultimate thing.

[@zankies8735]

Seraphism as an ability is great. I however dislike how it looks. Doesnt really scream "SCH". Feels like a WHM transformation and gets rid of tails and ears :(

[@VesperOfRoses]

There are no catgirls or bunnyboys in the kingdom of heaven

[@walpurgisnight7]

Square refuses to let us be the military geniuses they introduce the class as. When did my arcane grimoire turn into a fucking biblical text lol

[@kieragard]

Level thirty, they turn into codex.😂

[@PrincessOfMeat]

@@walpurgisnight7 Every expansion I keep wishing they'll lean into the tactician vibe for Scholar's visuals, but we keep straying further and further into angels for some reason.

[@michaelhenry4845]

More 1 1 1 1 1 1 gameplay though :( wish they would add something more complex.

[@omensoffate]

Hey watch out summoner gets a 2 min cd heal 😂

[@althyk]

I have cleared the 2 ex trials with scholar. Some skill and spells are useless. Seraphic veil, energy drain, fey illumination...

[@1Meepman]

They just need to incorporate a hotfix where they remove Protraction and Fey Blessing and replace it with Miasma II and Bane. Make Biolysis an 18 second duration and Miasma II a 15 second duration. Scholar will feel so much better to play, as a result.

[@KaullorFist]

So going back to what the class was back in HW I be down for that added bonus if they give us back Shadowflare. But all these are wishful thinking.

[@kyeda]

One new button to push fucking sucks. almost every job sucks to play now. I'm tired of pretending the game isn't dogshit.

[@xhephergaming]

Take a break

[@bryantalexander2359]

Man is acting like he’s being held hostage. Unsub and go do something else

[@silxer3154]

It's simple, if you don't enjoy something then stop and move on.

[@Ktjnn]

At least the story was goo- oh wait.

[@EWGFenjoyer]

Try wow bro