A few questions from a new Scholar

1) Should I even bother keeping Sustain on a hotbar as a Scholar? Unlike Arcanist or Summoner, my fairies are never going to be engaging enemies directly, so the only source of damage they should be receiving is from AoE attacks (correct me if I'm wrong), and since fairies have barely half the amount of HP as a Carbuncle, it seems like Sustain would be a very poor method of healing any damage they manage to take when I could just hit them with a more powerful Physick for the same MP cost and GCD. What I'm saying is, if I'm hard up for convenient hotbar space, would I be gimping myself if I left Sustain out?

2) Is there any time when I would ever want to use Miasma II? I'm looking at it and thinking why I would ever bother. It has the same initial potency as Miasma (20), does less damage per tick than Miasma (10 vs 35), has a shorter duration (15s vs 24s), identical Symptom effects and costs more MP to cast (53 vs 38). The only thing it has going for it is that it's an instant cast and it affects all targets in a 5y radius. The former doesn't really seem to matter much since it still has the same GCD, and the later is rendered moot by Bane. Help me understand when/why I should use it, because I'm struggling to find a reason.

3) Has there been any word on when Obey/Sic might be fixed so that it no longer requires a nearby enemy target and doesn't root my fairy in place for some reason? I would love to take manual control of my fairies' abilities, but it's like SE has intentionally arrayed obstacles in the way of doing so. Every macro suggestion I've seen to get around the annoyances are easily broken, potentially just making things worse.

To answer your first point, there are two reasons why Sustain is better at healing your pet than Physick:

• It takes less time to cast
• You don't need to target your pet to cast it

Obviously these aren't huge make or break points, but they're worth noting. Pets don't often take enough noticable damage which they cannot heal themselves, but for fights like Titan Extreme mode, where they could be taking multiple plumes or bombs; it's worth casting.

Miasma II is only really viable for either casting on the move, since it's instant cast opposed to it's Miasma counterpart or when you need to apply heavy to multiple targets at once; if you were kiting a large group of enemies, for example.

Obey and Sic are rather broken right now. There are work arounds, but they aren't working as intended. This is something they're looking into; I'd like to link you to the post where this was mentioned, but I can't remember where I read it and wouldn't know where to start.

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Originally Posted by Keiichi81

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1. Sustain would be useful when you somehow manage to get your pet damaged to a critical condition and at the same time your tank needs an immediate heal. I would say this situation rarely arise in low level but as you go higher level, these unplanned situation tend to happen more often. Sustain can be places in your side bar if you don't want to put it in your main, Just somewhere you can reach and click it when you see your fairy's health isn't full.

2. IMO, i only uses Miasma II when i am comfortable with DPS, Dot them up, bane and then Miasma II. I only uses it when there are more than 2 mobs.

3. Click Obey and then click heel, this way, you can control your fairy and she follows you.

I may not be the best person answering your question and I'm sure the community will rebuke what I write, but I'll take a shoot at this.
1. Fairies tend to either pull aggro or bet hit in an aoe while casting. They can and will heal themselves though, but sustain is good for a quick regen instead of time taking to cat physick. I tend to use it.
2. In later boss fights dps isn't needed from healers, but an instant miasma II is a nice extra sometimes. Bane only hits 4 mobs at once while miasma II is infinite. You can replace it if you want.
3. Not that I've heard of. I asked it'll be fixed with next patch. I also hope they add a "follow" command too, but I'm just hoping.

1) Sustain is a "cast it and forget it" type ability. It's half the cast time of Physick and doesn't require you to target her. The fairy will still take some incidental damage, whether from aggro (a poorly-timed auto-cast Embrace right as an add spawns can do this, easily).

2) Miasma II is excellent for PvP. I'm assuming you're talking about PvE encounters, though, where it is slightly less useful but not useless by any means. There aren't many instances where you'll need to cast it, just keep in mind that it is one extra dot that stacks with all of your other dots, and it's instant, and it hits infinite targets. It's also got a Heavy on it, which is worthy in itself.

3) The unconfirmed rumor is that they're going to fix Obey so it doesn't require an enemy targeted, but I haven't seen any official response on this. We can only hope.

All of the rest of the subjects have been answered quite satisfactorily, so I will leave them be. On the matter of Miasma II though, I suspect there will be some opposition to this, but I would definitely keep it around for the following reason: It stacks with Miasma I. As simple as that. It won't always get use; in fact, it's unlikely to get use 70% of the time. But in situations like Demon Wall and easier boss fights, it's one more DoT you can have ticking away while you are busy healing. It's place as an AoE heavy also can't be under-stated. I often use it in Wanderer's Palace when the pudding adds spawn, it keeps them from chasing the target quickly.

You have most likely noticed that all of my examples are for relatively low difficulty content. Indeed, I would certainly not suggest using Miasma II (or more than a cursory application of DoTs in general) on the top tier of content. For when to use what, while I applaud your initiative to ask your fellow healers, that is something you will have to pick up through personal experience and experimentation.

Sustain.

EXTREMELY useful. I use this at least once or twice a boss fight. Your fairy prioritizes herself last, so if people are taking constant damage, she probably won't ever get around to healing herself outside of using whispering dawn. It has such a short cast time, you just stop for a sec, cast, and continue moving. Almost like an instant cast, lol. I also use it if a tank derps and faces the boss/mobs toward the fairy and she gets smacked by an AoE. Boss attacks DO hurt the fairy quite a bit. Coil bosses can actually one shot her. (Stone-skinning your fairy is also a good idea for damage prevention before encounters). I've also had her pull aggro with a whispering dawn right off the bat in boss fights. Fun, lol.

Miasma II.

Use it during dungeons on mobs after you bane them, then Blizzard II spam.

On a single target mob, it's a DPS loss. Bio>Ruin II>Misama II on single target. Don't ever use Miasma II on single target.

Miasma II is very ineffective single target but potent against 3 or more

SUSTAIN: As mentioned by other, it's a "cast and forget" ability. There are only a few times I've ever had to use it, but I was always glad that I had it on the hotbar. Having your fairy die lessens SCH healing output. Not to mention, re-summoning them mid-fight kinda sucks if you don't have Swiftcast, especially if it's a mobile fight.

MIASMA 2: I use it when I can since it can be on a mob with Miasma. However, I do recommend only using it when there's 3 or more mobs. Maybe it's just me, but I'm totally comfy with running through a pack of mobs the tank is holding just to cast it, then go right back to healing. Of course, I also suggest only doing that when the situation allows you to -- considering all the arguments about when healers should and should not dps. >_>

OBEY/SIC: It's still broken. The best you can do as far as I know at the moment is to use a macro to minimize the time clicking around.

/micon "Obey" pet
/tenemy
/pac "Obey" <t>
/wait 1
/pac "Heel"

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Originally Posted by JonFarron

On a single target mob, it's a DPS loss. Bio>Ruin II>Misama II on single target. Don't ever use Miasma II on single target.

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I'm actually going to respectfully disagree with this, though the difference is academic.

If you are comparing what a SCH can do in a single GCD window, Miasma II is statistically slightly better than, say, Ruin II (SCH's best single target ability once normal DoT rotation is done [I'm incorporating secondary effects, like the fact that it is instant cast]). Miasma II is 170 Potency over it's duration, which is quite short, close to guaranteeing it will get its full effectiveness. Now, this is all assuming you actually have the time to put up Miasma II, which is not always the case. It should, of course, be your last priority, far below healing, buffs, other DoTs, maintaining your fairy.... But technically it's better than throwing out a Ruin/Ruin II.

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Originally Posted by Hulan

Stuff about Miasma II

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While this is true, I still prefer Ruin II over Miasma II because of the Blind effect possibly reducing some damage. Of course the other DoTs should be cast before either Ruin II or Miasma II is even considered. However, in terms of Instant cast spells, Bio is always the best option for damage when you find an opening to cast an attack. (Unless you don't have to move, where Bio II is the best option)

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Originally Posted by JonFarron

While this is true, I still prefer Ruin II over Miasma II because of the Blind effect possibly reducing some damage. Of course the other DoTs should be cast before either Ruin II or Miasma II is even considered. However, in terms of Instant cast spells, Bio is always the best option for damage when you find an opening to cast an attack. (Unless you don't have to move, where Bio II is the best option)

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Yeah, and as I said, it's academic. The difference between Miasma II and a single Ruin II is going to be 100~200 damage in even the best gear, if my napkin math is correct. In the grand scheme of things, if you are to the point where you even have the chance to use Miasma II or Ruin II, you are doing quite well for yourself.