Arum Vale first boss

my fiancee just recently hit 50 with his scholar so weve been trying to get him through AV and well the first boss is giving him a hard time. He doesnt have swiftcast yet but feels if healers really need it they would have had it. he also thinks cross class abilities should not be nessessity. He was a white mage in 11 and when we kept wiping on the first boss he blamed everyone else. i pointed out i think it was more heals and got mad. then procceed to rant about how 14 was selling oput and how its like every other mmo and how Se ruined it and the Ff name any how i was wondering iof anyone had any advice for Scholar healers in AV. he says they are gimped but i dont think so. i knwo many scholars who got through Av no issues. I am trying to get him some help so i can show him scholar isnt gimped. his playstyle is a lil weird though if a dps runs out of his range he doesnt chase after them re refuse to. and he seems to have ppl running out of range in the firtst boss fight alot.

also to note i think most was said out of anger but i have no idea as a scholar what he is doing wrong. any help will be appreciated

The first boss for AV is naturally hard as hell for SCH due to the way SCH works and how the boss mechanics work. Since there's no way to remove the DoT from your pet, she'll eventually die, thus reducing your healing power of your SCH. Swiftcast can alleviate that as it allows him to resummon his fairy quickly. It also helps for him to micro his Fairy to just keep healing the tank constantly and ignore her own pain as she'll just be constantly healing herself otherwise for no reason since she can't out heal the DoT damage after four stacks. It's possible to do without swiftcast, but will probably require him to pay attention to everyone's stacks of poison and start to resummon when the Tank is near topped off and everyone removed their DoTs via fruit. I noticed your ARC 50 so you can help alleviate some of his stress by using Mage Ballad as he'll probably need to eat through his MP to keep everyone up effectively without his fairy out.

It's by no means an easy fight on SCH and is one of the most skewed fights for healer balance in the game due to the nature of the beast. Still, it's doable, but will be taxing on the player as there's a lot of information to consider (and consider quickly).

[EDIT] As for your husband not moving, I consider that a bad form of play. A healer's role is to have that awareness to know where his party is and how he can react to their movements and play styles. Part of the fight requires players to move to a fruit to remove the stack. Though you can have the healer on the fruit just to the left of the entrance, there is another fruit that one of the DPS will need to take that requires a bit of a walk to get to it, so it's important for the healer to consider that and react accordingly.

thanks ^^ i have been paladin though as of late but will try bard ^^

I think this fight gives most SCHs some trouble. But it's because of that that it is so valuable. I wouldn't trade my time running AV for anything. The first fight is very healer intensive. One of the biggest things you can do is make sure you know ahead of time when things are going to get messy (this is a skill that all SCHs need to pick up at some point). Once you get that down, you can start tossing out buffs just before things get nasty and use that time to keep the DD alive. It's been a while since I've done that fight, but from memory, a good example would be casting Ad Loquium on the tank just after the 2nd poison stack, and hit Eye for and Eye. That will keep the tank up long enough to eat a fruit and cap off the other DD before going back to focus on the tank. If he's still having trouble, try using Succor near the DD and keep and Ad Loquium shield up on all party members. If your MP can take it, that's a great way to avoid disasters where everyone needs healing at the same time.

You can complete the first boss of AV as Sch without Swiftcast, I highly recommend that you get it but if you're going about it the wrong way, the ability wont help you that much it will just make it easier.

If your DD's are not staying out of the yellow pools, and red-AoE circles then they're making it much harder for you. You should not be healing through that damage.
As a Sch in this fight you should not be spending your Aetherflow stacks on Sacred Soil, instead use Energy Drain between GCD actions this will help heal you a bit through DOT and keep up your MP. Use Sustain regularly when under 1-2 stacks of debuffs on your fairy so she spends less time curing herself. When your fairy has 3 stacks consider if you can resummon her, if the tank is healed toss an Aldoq and do so ... make SURE to have time for this if she ever reaches 4 stacks as she just became worthless.


DPS can stagger when they grab fruit (1, 3, 5) and (2, 4, 6) this will help slow just how much raid damage is being taken. The tank will also (likely) have to stun locksmith to be able to pick up a fruit. So they may be on a different timer than everyone else altogether.

As mentioned by Ghishlain, this fight is naturally hard for SCH.
The SCH (and SMN) pets die of Goldlung. As far as I know you cannot debuff them.

There is little that you can do about this, but for a Scholar this means you lose part of your healing potential. Swiftcast would definitely be useful if you want to re-summon it, making that near instantly = more time to focus on healing others.

As far as positioning goes, I think the best position for the healer is near the fruit that is to your left when you enter. You can reach everyone from there most of the time. If you move just a little you should be able to reach them everywhere. You could also position your fairy close to one of the other players (for as long as she lives anyway).

And of course make sure that everyone eats the fruits as soon as you have 2 or 3 debuff stacks (amount of stacks is preference).

And ummmm, I don't think it would hurt if he would be a bit more accommodating. And swiftcast is really useful.

Sustain can help keep fairy going through a few stacks. Otherwise apply Succor generously; having pre-Succor before stacks even start gives you a decent buffer.

I would also advise Cleric Stance DoTs to help end the encounter faster (at least before DoT stacks start piling on) so healing isn't as much of a problem, but that might be stretching it. I know some players are sensitive about being asked to do more than heal as a healer. Non-cleric DoTs are a waste of MP, however. If you have time to do even a Bio, you have time to activate Cleric generally.

Swiftcast would be strongly recommended to bring fairy back up with no downtime, but if tank and healer coordinate you can try to strike a balance to make up for it; have Adlo up, pre-summon before fairy is about to die, have tank pop cooldowns. Stuff like that.

When I first read this I thought it was a FC mate (3am here) and was going to suggest you find a new scholar who didn't have tantrums.

Doable? Yes. If you're really determined to get him through this content and he can't even get past the first boss get a pre-made group with WHM, to carry him.

Cross class abilities are not necessary while leveling, though eventually you'll get to content balanced around the assumption that you took the time to get them (after Ifrit HM, apparently). That said, Swiftcast would make resummoning Eos (not really a fight to use Selene on) midfight when she dies a lot easier. Might still be able to manage it with a hardcast right after fruits are eaten + tank topped off, though. Swiftcast is also amazing to use with Resurrection midcombat, so your fiancee should definitely get it soon (after hitting 50 is fine) if he plans to keep playing SCH/SMN (or even WHM).

Have the dps (and healer) come a bit closer to the boss (only moving out to eat their fruit and then coming back in) so that the SCH can hit all 4 party members with Succor. Use it liberally as the shield portion drops off, as it'll be more MP (and time) efficient than trying to Physick everyone separately.

Energy Drain to keep MP up to fuel Succor spam. Most easily done after fruits are eaten before the first stack of the dot has been reapplied by the boss.

Really, the biggest thing is for everyone to not be too spread out so that Succor isn't a waste, which requires cooperation from the party. Resummoning the pet really helps (especially if they're all hit by her aoe HoT from all being near the center - placing the pet intelligently helps here as well), but the fight can be finished without the fairy even in rather weak gear (at launch I got to 50 on SCH with a weapon weaker than the 44 GC weapon and grinded AV a lot for those last few levels).

All in all, it's a great fight to learn your strengths and weaknesses as a SCH and how to work with them. Rite of passage, if you will.

This topic http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ane-of-my-life got me through the hell that is Aurum Vale.

tldr;

This fight is the best practice to get used to scholar mechanics. A scholar has to watch the buffbars, predict hits and keep an eye on the pet and her buffs.

As he starts the run with aquo on everyone and 3 stacks up he should only have to heal the tank. As the first dots hit he might want to rebuff aquo on the party. That will buy him time to use his stacks (energydrain is good here course aquospam is expensive) As a second dot emerges he might want to top if the tank first aquo the group (even if they took few damage -the shield will give im the time to eat a fruit). Basicly the fight repeats this all the time.
As Eos has 4 stacks she will get useless over time becourse she heals herself or dies. This is a good spot to practice pet micromangement. She was set to obey so far. Pull of your healing-CD for her then her healing-cd. She will drop obey and cast her hot. This hot will be strong enough to heal the group giving the scholar plenty of time to summon a new one. She will continue to heal the tank while the sch is doing this.
As the new Fairy is up start aquoing the group again.

If the tank is moving out of the aoes the group will be at 100% 90% of the time. The last fight will get harder becourse its reactive and thats more of the whm resort.

It sounds like your fiance needs to stop having temper tantrums and do what everyone else has been doing to be successful.

Swiftcast is necessary as a healer. Doesn't matter where you get it from..he needs to get it. He can flail his arms about the fact it should be acquired automatically all he wants - it doesn't change things.

Other than that, yes, it was a tough boss fight as a new SCH. I learned a lot from it.

2 suggestions...1) watch the Youtube. That is a mechanics intensive fight and watching other successful groups (more specifically how other SCHs do it) the better he can plan what he's going to do to be successful too. 2) Cross class abilities help make the class what it is...if he's not getting them, that's an attitude problem. Getting those abilities will give him a chance to see how other classes work to see if he might like something else better. "Bare bones"ing a job does not put his best foot forward and will make the fight harder then it needs to be.