Essential moments to use Sacred Soil?

I'm wondering if there are any specific situations where sacred soil is very beneficial to use. I feel like I'm using it in situations where it's not really a necessity like just soiling the tank by himself. If it's just the tank, wouldn't it be better to save the aether flow for lustrate?

Large AoE events - Such as Titan stomps.

Large pulls - Grabbing the whole corridor between second and last boss in WP.

Aether flow off cooldown - When you have one Aetherflow left and you want to top up your MP, waste it on Sacred Soil and top back your 3 stacks + MP.

Special assistance - Warrior.

Trolling - Just because it looks like a force field from star trek, makes it a cool way to spam around.

It really depends on whether you want to use personally. If your heal target is surrounded by 10-20 hostile targets, it is often wise to use Sacred Soil. However, if your heal target is being hammered on an inconsistant basis, Lustrate would be useful since Sacred Soil can't be up forever.

Ignore what other people are telling you on which is more effective, just throw those thoughts away. It is very much a personal choice. if you ask me, I would pick Sacred Soil.

P.S. However, whatever you do, ALWAYS keep one aether flow as backup. That stack is used for your oh-shit moments. Only use/waste it when you have Aether flow off cooldown.

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Originally Posted by Pharmacies

I'm wondering if there are any specific situations where sacred soil is very beneficial to use. I feel like I'm using it in situations where it's not really a necessity like just soiling the tank by himself. If it's just the tank, wouldn't it be better to save the aether flow for lustrate?

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If Aetherflow is up and you want to refresh, it's usually better to drop Sacred Soil f you don't have any need to lustrate because the damage mitigation will last well into your next set of stacks.

Any fight where people stack for damage is a great place to use it. Garuda's transitional AOE's, Titan's post-heart AOE, Ifrits post-nail aoe, Twintania's Fireball...etc.

I use it when there's massive spike damage incoming or when big AoEs are about to hit (e.g. Titan's Tumult/Geocrush, Ultima's Tank Purge, etc.) - so in other words, all the time.

Any time you've got attacks hitting the entire party, it's a good idea.

I'll drop it on just the tank if they're taking heavy damage, such as on Caduceus when stacks start to get high, or in Garuda-X when sisters are up.

There's also a lot of predictable attacks you can use it for, like stomps on Titan, Garuda's transitions, Ifrit's Hellfire, Mog's Momento, popping orbs on Ultima, and so on.

Its quite good in solo targeting healing as well.
I tend to rotate it with virus and E4E.

I love paying way more attention to Acheron than I strictly have to and tossing down a SS after Megiddo Flame and... the small conal AoE he uses. Moonfall Slash or something? He always uses the mapwide AoE whose name I forget but hits for a fair chunk of damage after Megiddo Flame, and then he always uses Quake III after Moonfall Slash. I always feel awesome when I can head off the really nasty mapwides, even though it's really not necessary by any stretch of the imagination, it's pretty good practise for catching bosses' tells and getting SS down in time.

I have found it useful in T4 when tank has both Dreadknoughts on him and I have aetherflow off cooldown. I tend to go 1 ald:2 phys for the tank during p5 and p6, and like to have a large mp pool for it.

There really aren't any situations where Sacred Soil beats Lustrate for utility and mana efficiency.

However, as mentioned above, it does save the WHM (who is usually in charge of party-wide healing) some effort and possibly prevent the need for Ballad. However, it takes quite a bit of coordination for the WHM to know when to break from routine and use a more MP-efficient cure when Sacred Soil is in effect.

u might wanna use this combo, sacred soil, succor, fey covenant, this will mitigate a good amount of damage

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Originally Posted by AldoVonAlexandros

u might wanna use this combo, sacred soil, succor, fey covenant, this will mitigate a good amount of damage

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Would generally be better (in Titan EX at least) to rotate these (Covenant, Soil, and buffed WD) instead of using them all at once. Succor is a given.

You don't really "need" sacred soils for anything but Whicked Wheel on garuda ex if your tank is debuffed by the dot so it eat up your adloquium. Its a good help on last phase in turn 4 where you got 2 dreads to heal and Selene out, just ask someone to use Virus on the right dread when hallowed ground of your tank is down, then put soils + virus on the left dread when you see the debuff on the right one, and then use eye for an eye when you see the virus's debuff on the left dread.

Its mostly to save mana. On Titan EX what I do is the following : puttin soils in a fashion that take the tank and the dpsers in. End of soils is like at 2 meters maximum from Titan's rear, that way you make sure that everyone is gonna be stacked up for the plumes after.

Its a psychological thing, it work. 95% of the time people get under soils because they know they ll take less damage, other than that granted that its like 700dmg on 8 persons a couple of times, that the first hit will be mitigated by adloquiums from succor (understand by that, do a succor when Titan is doin the landslide that is always before stomp pre heart), and that soils mitigate 10% of the total, its not really something a whm would be upset about if you forget to use it.

Single target mitigation, rotate Virus E4aE Soil,
Repeated AOE damage, or AOE DoT - Rouse + WD + Succor
Group mitigation for 1 big hit, Swift EOS out for Fey Ilu and Fey Cov, then I tend to start throwing aldos out in order of Healer, SMNs, ARC, other melee dps then BLM (Manaward puts them here), then tanks.

Sacred soil, while it looks cool, it does not give a significant benefit. I use it on Ultima HM and Titan Ex, but I ask myself at times, why? I could have used a succor and saved my Atherflow for lustrate or mana drain.

How could Sacred Soil be better?

Sacred Soil offers a chance to give a free succor, but SCH is already extremely mana efficient. What they need is an random stronger cure instead. Image if instead of a random free cure, you got a random cure of succor with double potency. I'd definitely use sacred soil more then.

In short, while Sacred Soil can offer distinct benefits in certain situations, its benefits are not high enough to be a necessity.

Sacred soil while not amazingly effective, you have to remember it is sustained AOE mitigation, insta cast.

Sacred soil will not beat lustre nor can it beat succor at end game. So it shouldn't be use very much in general. Only situations where they have a decisive advantage is in T4 double dred, t1 3stacks, etc.

That doesn't mean it shouldn't be used. The hardest part about sacred soil is when you want it off CD(aoes) and when you have stacks to burn (nothing is happening and you can just keep spamming physick).

Holding stacks in resevere for lustre and using then before the 1minute CD is a juggle that you just have to learn from content to content.

There are times you think "it is nice to have" like primal jumps or such, but at end game level gear, a whm+sch is such a powerful combination you will heal everything right up with or without sacred soil.

Lustre is the Ultimate secret weapon of sch, and good sch will know not to waste that card on frivolous things.

A SCH should not be using lustrate, it is an "o shit" skill. The fact you are saying it is something you rely on, tells me you are potentially inadequate at healing.
I use Sacred Soil, as other than drain, my stacks would be wasted.

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Originally Posted by Sanguisio

A SCH should not be using lustrate, it is an "o shit" skill. The fact you are saying it is something you rely on, tells me you are potentially inadequate at healing.
I use Sacred Soil, as other than drain, my stacks would be wasted.

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All your Aetherflow charges should be used for Lustrate, except for the situations noted in previous posts here where damage mitigation through Sacred Soil is useful.

Energy Drain: Not Even Once.

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Originally Posted by Sanguisio

A SCH should not be using lustrate, it is an "o shit" skill. The fact you are saying it is something you rely on, tells me you are potentially inadequate at healing.
I use Sacred Soil, as other than drain, my stacks would be wasted.

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wtf are you talking about, with lustre, you essentially have 3 way healing, (MT-aqu OT-lustre DPS-fairy) and still not rely on ballad. A good sch can go through an entire T4 without a single ballad by using lustre in combinations with low power heals like physics and rouses.

Lustre is the what you bring a sch for. All other skills are nice to have, but nothing another whm can't compensate. With lustre you not only have a dodgable heal, it's bypasses all debuffs like infirmary, and cost no MP.

In T1, if you can rotate your lustre with physicks, you will be able to heal your tank all the way to the end without a single drop of MP problem. Who needs sacred soil when you can top of your tank with a 99% rate of upkeep and sustainable mp cost.

Yes you can pop a sacred soil if you have stacks dragging around, but guess what, it's content. Sacred soil is just a frivious thing and completely waste of a lustre if you know the content, because your MP is that much more abundant.

Lustre + physick is so efficient, and succor is such a strong pre shield, only pansies live on bards. Who needs sacred soil unless you have a specific point that needs to be done.

Lustre can be used as an "o shit" skill, bu it should not be used as an "o shit skill". That's what the whm is there for. The sch's job is to make it so it's possible for the whm to get off those "o shit" cures.

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Originally Posted by Sanguisio

A SCH should not be using lustrate, it is an "o shit" skill. The fact you are saying it is something you rely on, tells me you are potentially inadequate at healing.
I use Sacred Soil, as other than drain, my stacks would be wasted.

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How's that turn 5 win going for you?

t2 enrage, works fine