deploying class files over SFTP for a Grails app

I realize that IntelliJ doesn't have a way to deploy a grails app to a remote tomcat server, so what I'm trying to do is use the deploy mechanism to copy over GSP files and class files using SFTP in the deployment tab. My overall issue is that the war file doesn't have controller code, just class files, so any change in the controller requires me to create a new war file, copy it over and deploy it. I'd like to be able to modify the contrller and copy over the modified class files. I don't mind restarting tomcat if I have to, I just don't want the whole war/copy process.

I setup my tools->deployment->configuration to use an SFTP connection and I mapped the grails-app/views to the WEB-INF/grails-app/views on the tomcat server. This part works fine, when the GSP file changes locally it gets depoyed to the remote tomcat server.

What I'm also trying to do, is map my output_dir/classes to the WEB-INF/classes directory, so when a file gets compiled locally, it gets copied over automatically. This doesn't seem to work, the class files get updated locally, but they are not getting picked up and copied. Is there some way for me to trigger that? Is there some other way I can achieve the same goal (using artifacts, or any other mechanism)?