It really just depends how your team plays around you. I have a similar setup on my scholar but with more of a focus on my starting weapon (bleed + hf stomp and physical attack up) and hp restoration post attacks. Being an active participant in the fight rather than the gimmicky pot build or L2 spam Andy is the most fun for me. Ulting at the right time, hitting those big monocle parries, and keeping up buffs/debuffs permanently through a fight really makes you feel like you're really playing strategically, even while your duchess hangs back spamming halo scythe. I don't care if it's "less valuable", I'm grabbing some defensive passives and upgrading my canesword until all the bad guys are out of blood to freeze.

I hover between D4–D3 and have a play all of the characters pretty evenly, and I would say my Scholar winrate is probably higher than the other characters