SCH in Crystal Tower

I've run CT a few times with White Mage, but now I'm planning to run it in SCH.

The thing is, the fights in here are all over the place and the arenas are huge. Lots of running around. Any tips on where I should be placing my fairy?

When I play sch, I mostly just use Selene on Ct. During poison area (exception of undead dragon) I'll just keep her with me. Undead dragon I'll place her right behind the dragon so I can heal dps who are around there and I can wander off and heal other people since the area is large. During Atmos, I place it next to Atmos to heal tanks and buff dps on Atmos. With Thanatos, I guess I do whatever. Depending on how the dps likes to spread out, I might keep her in the middle, but usually I'll just have her follow me. Usually to heal me in case I get an add on me, healing as they spawn. I keep her with me during the bomb fight and place her in the center during behemoth. I switch to Eos during that one fight only for the regen heal. Other people will recommend placing her next to someone on a tower. I don't like doing that cause it kinda limits to just healing that tank when I can just adlo them and they are good for a while.

Final fight, back to Selene and just do whatever at that point.

I mostly use Eos for CT, though I suppose Selene does fine too. I just like to make use of Rouse+Whispering Dawn as it's more regen/coverage that your WHM (or another SCH) might not be getting. I also like Fey Illumination too.

Anyway, I've ran CT a loooot on SCH, and have been doing it a few times on WHM too. I definitely miss Medica II when I'm on SCH hehe, but our Lustrates are fantastic in every moment of the whole thing.

For the first part (the 3 sections where you fight the succubi, dragons, etc) I still place her somewhere, hopefully not getting hit by any aoe. The last of that 3 section is in a shape of a cross and it's easy to put her in the middle. Just remember that she'll take dmg from the purple water, so be mindful of that. :> (Though ironically, she is totally invincible to King Behemoth's Meteor ;p)

The Bone Dragon fight, I don't actually put her on the dragon platform itself as she'll get hit by the grasping hands I think. So I place her on the closest pad to the inner circle, to cover any melee or tanks we have on there (off to side a bit, never on the pad directly behind the tank). I'll sometimes move her a pad or two around as the fight goes on, depending on where the biggest cluster of my party is. For this I guess you could have her following you, but placing her does mean she can help cover an area that you're not at yourself. :) I'll try to use Rouse+Whispering dawn when the eyes spawn at the end, but prior to that, myself and the other healer are *generally* enough to cover anything that happens. Oh, apart from if they kill 2 skeletons on the same pad, and then yes the aoe dmg I will try to use Whispering Dawn on, too. I'll use Shadow Flare on the Bone Dragon continuously, and occasionally might use a Sacred Soil when the eyes spawn. I try to be very attentive to the red triangles on the alliance (usually means Disease in this section) and cleanse those when I can. I know how annoying it is as a dps to have your movement slowed.

For Atomos, I will actually switch to Selene here, and position her near the maw. This is to help speed up the dmg of the players attacking the maw (Fey Glow, etc). As we and the healer sit on the platform, we should be enough to cover heals fine. I'll also put a Shadow Flare down halfway or so between the maw and our platform, to Slow the mobs - and usually the tank will realise to position them inside it. Here I've got into practice of using Cleric Stance too. :) On WHM I'll use Stone1, Aero, then repeat Stone1 until it's dead (usually only get a second Stone1 off and they're dead anyway), with a Fluid Aura if they get right next to the platform; to interrupt any aoe. On SCH, often it's just Bio1 and Ruin2 spam. ;o Every little bit helps.

Thanatos is where I *do* have her follow me because everything is always constantly moving. You'll enjoy this a bit more because it feels like snap-heals are more needed here, for example with the pots, where our Lustrate is brilliant. Also I think because the pots have a huge amount of hitpoints, that if you see one being attacked by a sandspawn or something, using a stoneskin first, and then healing it, seems like a good idea. I *think* they have 10,000 hp, because a Lustrate seems to do 2250 hp. As stoneskin is % hp based, even our shoddy 10% version lets it buy a bit more time before you start healing. And the WHM version of stoneskin obviously is very strong on these. :) Even though I guess it does no dmg when you're not ghostified, I still use Shadow Flare on Thanatos when I can, because of the slow. (Obviously we're not really using Shadow Flare for dmg anyway :p)

The triple Vassago fight is pretty straightforward. More Shadow Flare, and I put faerie behind him.

King Behemoth is often fun. ;p I think you would probably be okay having faerie follow, but I still place her. Often in the middle, but it depends on where my party is clustering again. If they're bringing the Iron Giant towards one side *all* the time, I'll put her off-center, but towards that direction. If the MT is in my party, I will put her to the side of KB actually, so she will favour healing the tank more than the others. When KB casts Meteor, I'll heel her, run behind a comet and use Rouse+Whispering Dawn again with the intent of hitting everyone. When that's on cooldown I'll use Fey Illumination to buff my and the other healer's base heals. Typically this fight is more manageable if you have at least 1 WHM in your party, hehe. Medica II makes this less of a stressful fight for sure! I'll still often do Succor to help mitigate that continual DoT, but it gets used up fairly quick by it. :< I am quite a conscientious healer and will keep an eye on both the MT and OT in this fight (and any other fight) even if they're not in my group. So I'll put down a Shadow Flare on KB, and when an Iron Giant is up, I'll put the Shadow Flare on that. I'll also be ready with Lustrates on either of them (or anyone else, if I have a full stack and no CD on aetherflow). For example if someone has the Burns DoT from the comets/giants, and if they're below 50%, I'll Lustrate then Leeches them. I hate that DoT!

Acheron is pretty straightforward. Again, more Shadow Flare on him, and just Succor (or Swiftcast+Succor), and Lustrate (on MT or not), as needed. I'll place faerie behind him, and use Rouse+WD sometimes when he does the AoE sword move on everyone. Later in the fight that seems to get a bit stronger, so I definitely use it then. When we go back to the platforms for Flare, I'll use a Shadow Flare on our own platform to help with the Giant. (When I go WHM, I'll sometimes use Holy to stunlock it, because often when it does the sword swipe it can easily get 4-5 ppl into half life if we're all the wrong side of it). Both Acheron and Vassago fights are pretty straightforward if you have a WHM using (DS+)Medica II. :)

Some more key points for all the fights:- your Eye for an Eye is on a shorter cooldown. I use this excessively on our primary tank in my party. Always. On any fight. Virus is also on a shorter cooldown I think, and has the more powerful effect than when it's cross-classed. I use this on cooldown always. Often I am putting it on KB or the Giant (or Thanatos, Acheron, etc), depending on if someone else has used it (say if KB has the anti-body effect on). I use Shadow Flare on *everything* - because I think the Slow effect probably helps more than we realise, or I hope. I barely use Sacred Soil, because using aetherflow stacks for Lustrate is too good to pass up - and I think it bypasses the Disease that is common in several of the fights. Anytime there is a mob that is moving or needs picking up, like various adds in most of the fights (i.e. Iron Giants in KB fight), I'll try to use Miasma (or Stone1 on WHM) to inflict it with Heavy. This is very helpful when a lot of the time they're chasing a healer or a dps. Even when nothing is going on for a few seconds (..lol), I'll be throwing Bio and/or Aero on any add that is close to me (Purobouros, Dira, Sandman, even the main bosses, etc). The dmg is probably neglible, but every little bit helps I think. :> Never forget to refresh your Aetherflow stacks prior to any fight - it makes me sad when we start big fights and SMN/SCH have like 1 stack or so going into it. ;x

Hope that helped a bit! If you have any questions at all, ask away.

Since 2.1, I now have my fairy (usually Selene) on follow. I use Obey-> Heel, and manually designate Embrace targets with mouse-over macros while manually commanding the speed auras as well. It's a bit more work, but with proper control a manual fairy is much better than a placed one.

I usually just tell my fairy to heel. The place is fairy easy to heal, even if you gotta solo heal your group, and I find there's a lot of AoE that isn't reduced when it hits her.

Thanks everyone for the useful tips. I'd give you all commendations if I could :D

Hope this thread can also be helpful to SCHs looking to tackle Crystal Tower

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned here that I do a lot on King Behemoth is I will place Eos (or Selene, depending on if the other healer is a SCH) near the tank managing the tower. If I have Obey on, I will turn it off. If you do that, you can completely ignore the tower tank, as Eos will cap him or her off as soon as they dip below ~70%. That frees up a lot of concentration you can spend on healing the rest of the party and the other tank, who chances are is fighting a much nastier enemy than a blinking light.

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Originally Posted by Lilysparkle

Never forget to refresh your Aetherflow stacks prior to any fight - it makes me sad when we start big fights and SMN/SCH have like 1 stack or so going into it. ;x

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I disagree with this.. If you have one or two stacks of aetherflow before going into a fight and aetherflow is off cooldown then you effectively are starting the fight with 4 or 5 stacks of aetherflow. If you refresh them before you start then all you have done is waste those one or two extra stacks. The only time it is better to refresh before a fight is if you expect the battle to start longer than about 45 seconds from the time you refresh, since your aetherflow timer will have time to reset, or if you have zero stacks going in.

I prefer to be a SCH in CT. I can just Cleric Stance and DPS nearly the entire run (if neither tank is MTing) and let Selene do all the healing. Most fights all the healing I need to do is Lustrate, and CS doesn't affect that. Should I need to heal seriously, I just click CS off, heal, then go back to DPSing (or throw DoTs down then heal).

Yes, there are exceptions (the first room I often need to spam Leeches since tanks like to play dumb, and of course the whole Behemoth path I need to heal) and during Behemoth and Thanatos I will bring out Eos for that extra bit of healing.

If we have the MT in our party, yes, I will be healing primarily. But generally, I don't have the MT so I can just DPS away (although, if I'm playing with one tank in particular I can pretty much ignore him as he MTs and only throw a Lustrate at him occasionally).

Yeah, I'm a bit of a lazy healer in CT...but except for Behemoth (especially if both your tanks are tanking), your tank is MTing, or if everything goes wrong, you really only need one heal for the most part. Extra DPS as long as people are fine is never wrong.

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Originally Posted by Mhaeric

I disagree with this.. If you have one or two stacks of aetherflow before going into a fight and aetherflow is off cooldown then you effectively are starting the fight with 4 or 5 stacks of aetherflow. If you refresh them before you start then all you have done is waste those one or two extra stacks. The only time it is better to refresh before a fight is if you expect the battle to start longer than about 45 seconds from the time you refresh, since your aetherflow timer will have time to reset, or if you have zero stacks going in.

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Eh, I disagree. I think it's best to always refresh. I see it like... how often do you really need all of your stacks (or any, for that matter) at the beginning of a fight? More often than not I find it's better to refresh, because by the time things get to the point where stacks are needed aetherflow will undoubtedly be off CD, giving me the full 6 effective stacks to use as needed.

OT, I don't bother placing in CT. I just keep the fairy on heel, whichever I'm using.

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Originally Posted by Mhaeric

I disagree with this.. If you have one or two stacks of aetherflow before going into a fight and aetherflow is off cooldown then you effectively are starting the fight with 4 or 5 stacks of aetherflow. If you refresh them before you start then all you have done is waste those one or two extra stacks. The only time it is better to refresh before a fight is if you expect the battle to start longer than about 45 seconds from the time you refresh, since your aetherflow timer will have time to reset, or if you have zero stacks going in.

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By the time it takes to start an encounter and use up 3 stacks, the cooldown on the skill will likely already be finished. If it's like any of my CTs, it usually takes about 5-15 minutes for everyone to get from the trash and into position to fight the boss.

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Originally Posted by Reyno

Eh, I disagree. I think it's best to always refresh. I see it like... how often do you really need all of your stacks (or any, for that matter) at the beginning of a fight? More often than not I find it's better to refresh, because by the time things get to the point where stacks are needed aetherflow will undoubtedly be off CD, giving me the full 6 effective stacks to use as needed.

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Meanwhile, I get a free Sacred Soil and/or Bane and/or Lustrate at the start of every fight, or heck, even an Energy Drain. All of the abilities I use in the first 15-30 seconds or so of the fight are also free because of the Aetherflow refresh so soon in the fight. Aetherflow isn't something you should be waiting until you need the abilities that function off of it. It should be used as often as it is available, with any left over charges used instead of lost to a refresh.

That said, CT is a bit of a special case which I sort of alluded to in my post with mention of delays before a fight starts, since there's lots of running (and usually waiting) between boss fights, so I do refresh my stacks as I start running towards the next boss since I can expect the cool-down to be complete long before that fight starts. As a general rule of thumb, however, most dungeons there isn't that waiting period between fights, not even before the bosses, so I don't refresh until I use up all the charges.

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Originally Posted by Mhaeric

That said, CT is a bit of a special case which I sort of alluded to in my post with mention of delays before a fight starts, since there's lots of running (and usually waiting) between boss fights, so I do refresh my stacks as I start running towards the next boss since I can expect the cool-down to be complete long before that fight starts. As a general rule of thumb, however, most dungeons there isn't that waiting period between fights, not even before the bosses, so I don't refresh until I use up all the charges.

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You've said what I was going to reply with. :p Yes, my comments were stated explicitly regarding CT only, where time between fights is much bigger than in a normal dungeon (where I agree with your initial point a few posts back, and I wouldn't refresh willynilly). But in CT, the cooldown is usually reset (with more time to spare) before the boss is pulled. :) It's during these times where I feel sad that someone only has 1 stack or so, which was my point initially. It's not a big deal, just an observation. :>

i use eos but no need to place it, i have macroed embrace on my healing skills, CT is huge and when i try to heal some one that is far i wont heal but eos will fly to the target and heal it, with behemot i place her near one of the tanks in the towers and depends if one of my tanks is the MT or if they are to separated, macroing is better than placing i belive, works for me

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Originally Posted by Avette

Since 2.1, I now have my fairy (usually Selene) on follow. I use Obey-> Heel, and manually designate Embrace targets with mouse-over macros while manually commanding the speed auras as well. It's a bit more work, but with proper control a manual fairy is much better than a placed one.

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This is exactly what I do. I also prefer Selene in almost every circumstance other than a heavy aoe fight and there really is not much of that in CT. Hell, EOS comes out for Extreme Titan and Ifrit... that is about it now. I have not had any issues with the fairy dying even during double plumes with obey>heel