Anyone else feel Scholar is underpowered?

[Disclaimer:] Most of my Scholar Experience is based on the default game mode, not Deep of Night (Where Deep Relics rng could make him more viable).

On the surface, his character design is cool, his Arcane stat is useful when it comes to normal enemy encounters, and I love the idea of making items like throwing pots or wraith calling bells more useful. His Ult is also incredibly helpful for the more annoying group encounters like the Evergoal minibosses or some phases of Nightlords (Or in the dlc's case, The Balancers an awesome gank fight imo).

My issues mostly stem from the Following... The Analyze Ability (Which I can see being useful in Debuffing the enemies, but I have no idea why that Ally Shield he can give only lasts for 1 second, granted it is a garunteed blocked hit, but 1 second?). It also takes a little too long to charge up sometimes for the mediocre payoff.

• His own weapon is pretty crap, unless you imbue it with an ailment (Preferably Bleed or Frost), even then its damage is barely better than some rapiers you can just find (Now yes, same case can be said for other Nightfarers, but at least they have some extra versaility, like Wylder's Fire Greatsword Follow Up, Duchess being really fast with her Dagger or Executor being able to do more than 1 ailment at once with his Katana. Thankfully in this recent patch, Revenant can now have a useful incantation from the start, so she is now more viable, thanks).

• I am aware that there is a Deep of Night Relic that can up his Dex stat, to rival someone like Executor and Ironeye, but those two have far more useful weapons and movesets (Hell they would do better with his weapon type).

• His Item gimmick like making throwing pots do way more damage is great, but you can only reliably get Fire Pots, and unlike normal Elden Ring you cant craft your own Lightning, Freezing or Swarm Pots. Meaning at best, he'd be useful in bosses weak to Fire like Calligo and Gnoster (Without relying on RNG or friends dropping items for you). Other bosses that resist fire or take no extra damage, like Gladius or Adel. Good luck (This isn't even mentioning the Day 1 and 2 Boss fights that might resist fire too, like the Demon Bats or Mohg)

• I also feel the single thing that needs get buffed in a patch if possible...Scholar's Dodge, might be the 2nd worst in the game. Now granted, I am playing on PS5, maybe PC people can tell me there's some input lag there, but for comparison. Imagine a dodge like the Recluse's but it goes half the distance and/or the Ducchess' dodge but you can't mash it as quickly as her. Like it feels like a slightly better Guardian dodge at best...and Scholar doesnt have a shield he can hide behind to tank.

TLDR; Cool Ideas, and in certain scenarios he can be useful, but he has too many downsides when you really start to break him down. Fun in Co-Op (Best as a Support build, like providing healing and buffs), but pretty subpar if you want to bring him into Solo or dedicate him to damage. If people find new strats for him, then I hope to be wrong.

At least Undertaker has been Fun as Hell, fantastic new character, with her hammer moveset, Ultimate and ability to tank and get a better dodge.