Noob Scholar seeks help with dungeons...

So, this is my first mmo Ever. I have tried to read forums on how to maximize my scholar to the best I can, especially in dungeons but the "gaming" short hand has me confused. Can anyone nicely give me advice in simple terms? Maybe even give me a quick lesson in the lingo as well lol. Stuff like "pulls", "cool down" and all that make me flustered. For now I am playing on a console if that makes a difference. I know there is a lot I can do with the placement of my fairy and making sure my tank doesn't die.... HELP! :p

Unfortunately, scholar is a class that requires you to use a lot of skills. So, this might be a long lesson.

First, use 'place', 'steady', and 'guard' skills to control your fairy and place it at key locations (usually near the tank, but not where an enemy might aoe it). This will greatly increase your healing ability and help control your pet. You may also want to put 'heel' on to your crossbar so you can quickly have your pet follow you again. The reason you want to place your pet is so that it will cast more heals. If you have it on follow, it will spend time following you around as you dodge attacks, which it may not need to (especially if you position it correctly).

Second, many of your heals are actually preemptive. This is very different from the WHM healer, who is more reactive. It is no coincidence that the story claims scholars as strategists. Your best healing comes when you preempt big attacks with adloquium and succor to mitigate the damage to the party. You will notice that all bosses and enemies have certain patterns they use. Once you know those patterns, your healing gets a lot better.

Third, learn to make use of macros. It may be helpful to set up specific macros to heal certain party members. As a PS3 player, you will want a macro that will automatically target the tank with a heal. Also, learn to use filters so you can quickly toggle between enemies and allies if you need to target a specific target. You may want to set up a macro using a combination of skills so you can minimize the amount of skills you need to place on your crossbar. Feel free to ask if you need a specific macro for a problem or dungeon. I'm sure one of us will be able to provide something.

Fourth, you will benefit greatly from the cross-class skills, stoneskin (conjurer 34) and swiftcast (thaumaturge 26). Although not required, I would recommend getting them asap. It will make your life much easier.

As for terminology, 'pull' is used to describe when a player is drawing the attention of an enemy and pulling the monster towards them. It is usually used by tanks, although players who overcome a tank's enmity can be said to pull the mob from the tank. In such a case, you will usually want to do 1 of 2 things: run towards the tank or stand still and stop healing. As a scholar, you can stop usually healing and have your fairy do the work for a while. Paladins will prefer if you run towards them so they can pull the mob from you. Warriors can take the enemy's attention from range without much trouble. This is because positioning is vital for paladin survivability, and running to you can literally kill a paladin unprepared for it.

When players say a skill is on cooldown, it means they cannot use it for a while. In many cases, where the skill is a buff or ressurection, it means you will probably want to wait until that skill is available before initiating an attack or you have to wait that long before the player can use that skill again. Most of the time though, players have those macro'ed so party members are aware of the rotation and what to expect in terms of defense or damage.

Excuse me, my ability to understand english is way better than writing by myself.

Some Terms for you:
pull: (mostly used for tank) means to get the next mob group.
mob: "mobile object block" -> Enemy NPC (in most cases with the ability to move... but yeah - some rare "mobs" are "obs" and get still called "mobs" ;-)
NPC: "non player charakter"
PC: "player Charakter"
CD: (or "Cool Down") means one of the (posters) abilities can't be used, because it is recharging.

Hope i could help you a bit.

for scholar the tips I can give you is be proactive not reactive.
don't wait for the tank to fall down to half of his HP before you decide to heal.
Spam that adloquim on him to continuously keep him up.
Also if the tank looks like he's being taken care of by the fairy (which you should always place near his vicinity) then help him and the team out with some viruses and DoT debuffs!
Your role as a scholar is to protect and THEN heal rather than just healing like a white mage. Also remember to keep an eye out on your fairy once in a while. If she goes down that's half of your healing power cut off.

Also be sure to watch your MP. You have a lot of it but you need to make sure you Aetherflow appropriately and not completely run out (which in the heat of the battle I have sometimes tended to do :P)

If being "too busy" as a healer is just too much for you, then you're probably best off as going for White Mage instead!

You'll also see cooldown used as a noun, e.g., "the tank needs to use a cooldown," "blow your cooldowns." In this context, it means abilities with long recast times that provide significant buffs and help to make a situation much easier (and/or survivable at all). Swiftcast, for example, or Rouse, would be considered cooldowns.

Something you may not have caught just yet. Even if you don't know all the class icons, you can tell who the tank in your party is by the color of the icon in the party list: blue. Healers are green, DPS are red. If you open up the social list once you're in a dungeon, you can rearrange the other party members into any order you like. I always put the tank on the bottom.

Mob: Mobile something. Generally, it means a monster. Some people also use it to refer to packs of monsters.
Trash: The groups of "normal" monsters in a dungeon in between bosses.
Pat: Patrol. A mob that moves along a larger path in a dungeon than most others. You'll notice most packs/mobs stay in roughly the same place. Some wander much farther, and are intended to catch you off guard if you're not ready for them (the floaty ladies in Haukke Manor, for example).
DPS: Damage Per Second. Could refer to either a player's damage output, or their role (AKA DD, Direct Damage or Damage Dealer).
CC: Crowd Control. Using abilities on mobs to take them out of the equation for a while. Repose/Sleep are the big ones in this game.

Thanks for all the feedback! I do have swiftcast and stoneskin...and being "too busy" as a healer is not a problem for me :) I never thought of it as being proactive instead of reactive..I think that right there is very key advice and will change the way i look at this job. So, when I cast Ad...will any icons pop up next to the life bars so I would know when they wear off??

One of the best ways to learn your class is to level off dungeons and quests rather than fates. Run them over and over until you are sick to death of them and feel you've explored every possible way to down that instance using your class. John duty finder primal fights. Find groups who will let you join them to run instances with. Joining a FC with helpful people willing to answer questions and posting here with specific questions will always bring you useful feedback.

To answer your question, you will get a HoT (healing over time) indicator with Ad on the target's health bar.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crystalpistal

So, when I cast Ad...will any icons pop up next to the life bars so I would know when they wear off??

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Yep you will see a light green-ish icon next to everyone's status. Be aware of that Adlo wears off very quickly off the tank because he's always the one taking the most damage. Expect to adlo him several times, especially when you are healing a warrior.