Scholar Advice

Hi, I main the scholar and am looking for some advice on how to play the class better. I feel I may be missing something but I want any experienced scholars to come and share their wisdom. My most concern is how to go about using "Adloquium" properly compared to physick. I usually end up burning mana fast. How to handle big pulls in dungeons? etc

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Originally Posted by Camz

Hi, I main the scholar and am looking for some advice on how to play the class better. I feel I may be missing something but I want any experienced scholars to come and share their wisdom. My most concern is how to go about using "Adloquium" properly compared to physick. I usually end up burning mana fast. How to handle big pulls in dungeons? etc

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gotta use Adloquim in such a way, so its shield does not go to waste. like imagine situation - tank is at 50% hp in a dungeon trash pull, you use adlo, which heals him up to 65%, so next skill you wanna use to get his hp even higher - is Physics. then, when you see shield drop and tank recieved once again enough damage to justify healing him - you use adlo again, back it up with physics, rince and repeat.
of course, when you are at high level Physics usually avoided as much as possible. proirity goes to Exogitation and Lustrate to heal tank, and indomitability to heal the group
also helps casting adlo pre-pull, it will leave you with enough time to place dots+Bane the pack before he will need healing again. of course, that will depend on the encounter and tank himself too, but normally it works just like that

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Originally Posted by SilentVoice

gotta use Adloquim in such a way, so its shield does not go to waste. like imagine situation - tank is at 50% hp in a dungeon trash pull, you use adlo, which heals him up to 65%, so next skill you wanna use to get his hp even higher - is Physics. then, when you see shield drop and tank recieved once again enough damage to justify healing him - you use adlo again, back it up with physics, rince and repeat.

also helps casting adlo pre-pull, it will leave you with enough time to place dots+Bane the pack before he will need healing again. of course, that will depend on the encounter and tank himself too, but normally it works just like that

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Thank you very much.

How I prepare for big pulls is by using Adlo and Excogitation to give the tank a shield and strong heal that pops once they drop below 50% to give me enough time to apply DoTs and place the fairy somewhere near the tank, then I use Rouse and have Eos use Whispering Dawn, Bane my DoTs if I haven't already before spamming the everliving crap out of Miasma II while having the tank targeted in case I need to Lustrate them.

Fey Union is also really helpful in keeping the tank alive when you know they are going to get hurt something fierce, usually worth saving for big pulls rather than boss fights.

In case you are facing a situation where the tank is taking unreasonable amounts of damage, you might want to considering using Largesse and altering between Adlo and Physic for best mana efficiency, unless the damage is so high that Adlo's shield breaks before you can cast Physic, in which case you might want to keep spamming Adlo and using Aetherflow solely for Excog/Lustrate.

Adlo is a bit on the expensive side compared to Physic, but technically it has 600 potency due to the shield, not to mention that the shield is doubled if you land a crit, i.e: If you crit with Adlo for 10k, the shield will have 20k.

Addlo isn't a spell you'll use very frequently. Especially not in remplacement of physicks.

The main two main situation where you want to use addlo is before a pull (dungeon, trial, raid, leveling, everywhere) and when a heavy single target damage is coming, mostly on a tank. You can totally use excogitation on top of it, espcially in dungeon, it'll buy a lot of time to set up your DoT apocalypse that way. You will also use it to spread it but that's kinda obvious.
But there's something not that well know about that spell is that its cast time is significantly shorter than physicks. That makes it spell you can use if you want to throw an OGCD behind, without losing any uptime at all. It's really good in stressing pulls when you anything but healing were the tank is gradually getting lower and lower. You use that get it back to full HP with something like Lustrate or Exco.
Be carefull as it also mean that you can press a GCD just after addlo and it will not cast as global cooldown is still there. You may have encoutered that situation where you pressed a skill and it didn't cast, that was certainly the reason.

In general, it's better to use to other SCH tools to get stronger healing than physicks. Mostly lustrate, exco and the fairy. They don't cost mana, so it saves some troubles.

Firstly, adlo should be casted pre-pull. If you cast it during the pull before the tank has established agro, you will pull hate. If you don't/can't get adlo off pre-pull, then wait until the tank has gained agro on the all the mobs present. A good technique to use that helps is to begin casting Adlo when the last mob is about to die. Timed right, your tank will have a fresh shield to continue pulling without either of you missing a step.

Second, adlo does heal, but it is primarily used as a shield. It's great to cast on anyone who is targeted for a big hit, including yourself to mitigate the damage. This will take practice. Apply the same concept to Succor, when raid wide damage is coming. However, if you need to spam heal, it is more optimal to use Physick.

Big pulls in dungeons are a prime example of why you want cast Adlo pre-pull (you also want to do this for bosses). Once the pull has started, you'll want to pay attention to the tank to make sure he isn't just sight-aggroing the mobs, and uses an enmity skill before you take any action. You'll also want to pay attention for adlo crits, as this powerful shield will buy you more time before you need to do any actual healing, but don't fish for them. The shield will likely expire, or break by the time the pull is done, so feel free to refresh it once all the mobs are gathered, and that will likely be the last time you cast it for that particular pull. All healing at this point is taken care of with Embrace, Whispering Dawn, your OGCDs, and if unavailable, Physick.

tl;dr? Adlo to shield. Physick to heal (after other healing sources have been exhausted).

Weighing the benefits of using Adlo, Physick, Lustrate, or Excog is difficult because they each restore HP but is it worth wasting the extra MP on Adlo for slight amounts of damage? Is Physick strong enough to sustain the tank? Is Lustrate going to be a waste of an Aetherflow Stack? Will Excog even go off before the timer expires? You have so many tools at your disposal for single target healing and the options grow as you level. I have found that experience in the level roulette is best. You really have to be able to measure the risk to your tank by instinct and respond accordingly. Largesse and Fey Illumination both increase your healing output so don't be afraid to use them either. Some tanks will force you to use every single ability in your arsenal so don't be discouraged if it seems a bit overwhelming. Scholar can handle everything but experience is really the only way to learn just how to go about handling every niche scenario.

Put the fairie's abilities, except Embrace, on the hotbar if you have her on obey. You get a special hotbar if you're using a PS4 controller like I do, but I find it disruptive from getting to the rest of the skills.

How I have my bars set up is 1- DPS with the most basic healing spells as well. Bar 2 is my entire healing kit, with the fairie's abilities on one side. I used to have bar 3 be the exact duplicate of bar 2 except with Selene's abilities. But you'll find yourself not using Selene that much, so I got rid of it.

(note this post is primarily talking about 4-man dungeons. 8-man pugs, coordinated groups and alliance raids all have their own naunces)


Your first line of healing should be Eos. She should always, always, always be on manual control. Good use of Rouse & Fey Illumination can let her pick up more slack than you'd think. Atherpact/Fey Union can be used liberally on dungeon pulls when you get it. Don't forget you can end it early. This means you don't have to save it for when the whole bar can be used. Even just using 30-40 points in the bar can leave you a lot of room in to feel comfortable in a big pull.

Your next go-to should be abilities like Lustrate & Excognition that don't consume MP or Cast Time. If those still aren't enough you can relieve some pressure with Adloquim. If that somehow is still leaving your chain-casting or losing ground on the tank the tank is probably doing pulls too big for your gear or not using their CDs properly. You'd be within your rights to request they slow down. That said, if you get that point alternating casts of Adloquim and Physick should make it that none of the shield goes to waste and your mana bar is preserved as much possible.

Basically time is your most precious resource, until you start running out of mana. Preserve the former as much as possible until folks would start dropping. Doing an aldo between pulls is always a good idea since it is basically free both in terms of mana and time (you can even burn swiftcast to get it off if you need to keep up with a sprinting tank).

Whispering Dawn is a powerful AoE heal and often all you need on the group for most bosses. Particularly if you combine it with rouse and/or Fey Illumination. Be sure to position Eos so she catches everyone. Make sure you stay aware of your party member's movements, particularly Red Mages and Bards who tend to go all over the place.



As a final note, just keep a cool head. You don't have a ton of efficient tools for keep everyone topped off all the time. The big hits on the group generally come at set predictable intervals, don't be afraid to let folks linger at around ~50% hp while Eos gets around to patching them up.

I'm in the same boat too, had a few questions. It seems I see a lot of people basically saying Adlo/Succor is 'bad' and you should avoid using it. Then some say don't use Physick, its not that great. It makes it sound like I just shouldn't heal! But I know that's not right... >_<

Should I just remove Succor from my hotbar? Just AoE shield with Deployment Tactics Adlo?
Should I stop using Emergency Tactics with Adlo since its intended to be a shield at a high-ish MP cost? Does that go for ET-Succor as well?
Is there a right situation to use Dissipation? Killing Eos sounds bad lol
Should I hold on using Chain Strategem on a boss/raid? Saw not too long ago that using it right away is apparently what idiots do. *Ahem* =/

Sorry for the questions or being annoying haha. I just don't like feeling like such a hindrance. I like how different SCH plays and enjoy the more strategic aspect to it, even if it comes with a learning curve. A big thank you to anyone who happens to respond! xD

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Originally Posted by Obsidia

Should I just remove Succor from my hotbar? Just AoE shield with Deployment Tactics Adlo?
Should I stop using Emergency Tactics with Adlo since its intended to be a shield at a high-ish MP cost? Does that go for ET-Succor as well?
Is there a right situation to use Dissipation? Killing Eos sounds bad lol
Should I hold on using Chain Strategem on a boss/raid? Saw not too long ago that using it right away is apparently what idiots do. *Ahem* =/

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1 No.
2 Depends but in my opinion it's a waste because if you need to use E.T with Adlo you're better off using Lustrate/ Exco instead but that's just my opinion.
3 It has niche uses. I believe someone out here should be able to answer that question better than I would.
4 You should always try to allign CS with Battle Litany/ Trick Attack.
A lot of the questions you ask have already been answered anyway on the forum and if you need further informations, The Balance Discord is very good. Oh and take a look at this guide named "The Way of the Scholar" on mooglemedia.

Adlo is often a better option than lustrate/physics before you have access to Broil, assuming the target doesn’t already have a shield and you don’t need instant cast. This is because the alternative use of aethstacks, energy drain, does 150 which is quite good early game. 50% better than ruin and only about 300 net mana more expensive. Adlo also works with the +healing role action buff, unlike lustrate, which along with the crit bonus makes the potential potency higher.

Late game, the big healing aetherstack abilities are better assuming you have them. If no aetherstacks, and there is a shield, emergency deploy adlo is best unless mp is really tight.

Praise Hydaelyn for this thread, and the Scholars within them. OPs concern is the exact reason I dislike calling Adlo a sCHs main heal. Everyone has given some really solid advice, and at the moment I can't think of a single thing to add.

For dealing with big pulls in dungeons as a SCH, and healing everything in general, you need to start having a mentality of prioritizing your abilities depending on their importance relative to your entire toolkit. I haven't seen it get mentioned too much here, but the fairy abilities, particularly Whispering Dawn from Eos, are incredibly important to aid the tank's survivability in trash pulls, while also saving you a good chunk of MP that's better used on DPSing as much as you're comfortable with. I'll make a list of what I personally think is SCH's order of priorities within its toolkit.

1. As said before, Fairy abilities: Whispering Dawn, Embrace and Fey Union -when it's available to you at level 70 and once the gauge is loaded,- are what bear the biggest brunt of your healing, both in handling the tank's HP and sustained survival in trash pulls, and healing the party up to safe levels of HP during boss fights of any kind. Remember to always pair Rouse with Whispering Dawn, as the later is much, much weaker without it. As a matter of fact, the reason SCH's MP costs on Adlo and Succor are so high is precisely because these abilities exist in the first place. They are "free" for most intents and purposes, since they don't cost MP or a GCD to use, and in the case of Whispering Dawn, it can even be used while you are casting. The main problem with these abilities is that they all consist of healing-over-time effects, on top of being abilities that do take a pretty long time to start-up due to the sketchy fairy AI the game runs. Your priority in trash pulls should be to set up Rouse+WD as soon as able, but be mindful that it won't happen quickly due to these factors. This is where the next step in the priority list comes in.
   
   
2. Aetherflow abilities: Lustrate, Excogitation and Indomitability are undoubtedly some of the most powerful skills in the game. Low cooldowns, heavy healing power and instant oGCD casts are very big advantages. However, they all come attached with an opportunity cost in the form of Aetherflow stacks, which can be transformed into Energy Drains for more MP and damage. This is a very negligible and debatable "disadvantage," however, since the fact that all of these help you heal without spending MP and GCD actions is already a form of MP and action economy in itself. Without going into too much more nitty-gritty details of why these skills are good, let me just tell you that the moment you get Lustrate at Lvl 50, your entire life as a SCH changes. Lustrate is possibly one of the strongest emergency healing tools in the game due to being very readily available so long as you manage your Aetherflow stacks wisely, and it's what will help you stabilize the tank's HP most easily while your fairy is doing all the positioning, reacting and casting to set up the buffed healing-per-second provided by Roused Embrace+Whispering Dawn. If the tank's HP falls low while the fairy's working, then you Lustrate. Once you reach Lvl. 62 and you get Excogitation, you can be a little bit more proactive by just using Excog as a safety net to cut your fairy some slack while she catches up to your commands. Similarly, if you're in a boss fight and the party takes damage, try to heal it with Rouse+Whispering Dawn first. If it's on CD and it's not coming up anytime soon, or if more party wide damage is coming in quick succession, just use Indomitability.
   
   
3. GCD healing spells: Namely Adloquium and Succor. The reason these are the last line of defense in your healing kit, so to speak, is precisely because of their high MP costs. SCH has a bunch of efficient tools to support your healing, so it's not that Adlo and Succor are bad, and more that SCH has a lot of other options that are just better at reaching the job's baseline role requirements. You should NOT take them off your hotbars, nor should you delete Physick either, but you should try and get into the habit of not relying on them as your go-to healing skills. Use them only if you find yourself in a situation where a) all of your healing cooldowns (Lustrate, Indom, Excog) are unuseable due to not having Aetherflow stacks or the skills being on CD, and you are in need of healing NOW, or b) if you are trying to save Aetherflow stacks for a specific reason, be it that you will need them in the future to handle a specific mechanic or what have you.
   
   
4. Physick. You really could group Physick up there with Adlo and Succor, but the reason it's the least used heal for SCH is simply a matter of raw healing power. It's not necessarily a bad spell, it's just the weakest healing spell among the three healer jobs, and it really should be relegated to the last resort healing tool you have. Situations that force you to use Physick WILL arise, given the unpredictable nature of Duty Finder tanks making even the most predictable content surprising at times, and Phyisck will always be there to be ushed in moments of MP droughts imposed either by mistakes or by high healing demands from a particular fight, or because you have literally exhausted everything in your kit up to that point. This can, and will likely happen if you get a really bad tank doing massive pulls.
   
   
5. Emergency Tactics gets a special mention because its use is very situational. It's a skill that sees very little use in daily roulette content save for very specific scenarios, but that's not to say it's useless. If the party takes a lot of damage, you don't have neither Whispering Dawn or Indom, and you're unsure if they will take more damage soon to need a shield, then you can throw in Emergency Tactics into the mix, just to make the best use out of Succor's HP-per-MP. an ET Adlo can also be a huge healing bomb on a tank during trash pulls if you feel uneasy about their HP being low. Sometimes a tank will just be getting hit hard, and it will be hard to stabilize their HP through pure Physick alone. For this purpose, you can pair up a regular Adlo to shield, then an ET Adlo to bring their HP back up to more manageable levels, of course, provided that you are locked out of using Lustrate or Excog over not having Aetherflow stacks.

One last thing to note is that it's usually not good practice to spam Adloquium over and over, since you will very likely be losing effective HP by not being able to overwrite the previous shield. That is, I feel, the main purpose behind the design philosophy of Emergency Tactics, but more importantly, this ties in deeply with the most important part of SCH's toolkit, which is to say the Fairy's sustained healing. Remember that she's always spamming her little heart out in hugging the tank back to good HP levels, so most of the time, even if the situation looks dire, you don't need to bear the entire burden of healing on yourself. Just give your fairy a hand and she'll prove to be quite capable herself, specially when Roused.

Sorry for the long post, I hope it helps!!

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Originally Posted by Camz

Hi, I main the scholar and am looking for some advice on how to play the class better. I feel I may be missing something but I want any experienced scholars to come and share their wisdom. My most concern is how to go about using "Adloquium" properly compared to physick. I usually end up burning mana fast. How to handle big pulls in dungeons? etc

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In dungeons:

- Your Atherflow abilities are really powerful: Before we pull, I like to cast Adlo on the tank that way I have some time to do a little DPS before his HP is below low. As a Scholar, you have a lot of burst healing so its ok to let the Tank get to about 70% before you start healing. Unless its a Big pull, then you have to be really on your toes. And if you need to heal quickly, Excog or Lustrate. If Excog is up, use it over Lustrate for the Bigger Potency if the target is close to 50%.

- SCH have oGCD Burst Healing Use it to your advantage : If the Tank pulls small, I will usually let him get to 60~70% HP then: Physick > Adlo > DPS. Watch to adlo to wear, let him get to 70% then repeat. If it's a small pull I don't use Excog because most of the time, it will be wasted, especially if you party with a WAR since they have multiple self Healing options.

- Prep for Big Pulls : If the tank Pulls Big, which they will in Endgame Dungeons, I recommend casting Excognition, Eye for Eye, and Adol at the beginning of the fight. This can be done in less than 4 seconds. Because E4E and Excog are oGCD. This we help you immensely because sometimes healing can get intense especially if you're under geared. Lustrate is your Oh S**T button, and Excog too if its up. When you get to level 60, you will be king of burst healing when you get Dissipation. This skill gets alot of flak but it is extreme powerful for when you need to do Burst healing. Out of stack and Low on MP? Use Dissipation. Still dont have enough healing, use Fey Union to help out. If all that isnt enough, The tank prolly pulled to big, or you may be undergeared.

- SCH are more powerful than most people thing: Most people look at SCH potentency and thing they're weaker than WHM, but in fact, the very comparable when you factor in your pet potency. For example Physick + 650 potency (well not really since pet doesnt scale as much as you do, but you get my point). This also lies SCH strength in comparison to the other healers: You can heal MP free and Heal and DPS simultaneously. Sure eos heals are pretty weak on their own, but when coupled with other abilities Eos is not laughing matter.

- Don't heal like a WHM. You should Anticipate Big Hits and protect against them versus reacting to them after the fact. Big AOE incoming ? Then Sacred Soil > Adlo > Deployment Tactic ? Know a big hit is coming and it wont kill party ? Boom indomitability > Whispering Dawn after it hits (All the Savage content is a good example of this). Tank Buster Incoming? Excog > Eye for Eye > Adlo.

- Dont Spam Succor & Miasma II (Too much) These are your biggest MP Killers. In general, you shouldnt be having too much MP issues with Aetherflow/Dissipation/Energy Drain/Lucid Dreaming in your toolkit. Seriously, The only time I have MP issues is when I spam these abilities like its the end of the world or If im back to back Rezzing people. I use Adlo quite modestly(when it wears off) and I dont have issues with MP.

- Bonus This is just a preference for me, use it if you want. Create a macro that couples Embrace with your DPS abilities e.g bio, miasma, bane, etc.:

/ac "Broil II" <t>
/pac embrace <tt>

Sure it might over heal, but its free. This allows healing and DPS simultaneously without thinking about it to much. It works well for me as I am able to dps just a bit longer before I heal. Sometimes, EoS is enough for me to dps the whole fight.

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Originally Posted by OmegaSinX

- Bonus This is just a preference for me, use it if you want. Create a macro that couples Embrace with your DPS abilities e.g bio, miasma, bane, etc.:

/ac "Broil II" <t>
/pac embrace <tt>

Sure it might over heal, but its free. This allows healing and DPS simultaneously without thinking about it to much. It works well for me as I am able to dps just a bit longer before I heal. Sometimes, EoS is enough for me to dps the whole fight.

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Question about this macro: this just forces Eos/Selene to cast Embrace on the lowest HP person right? Or whatever the default parameters are.

Manually controlling the fairy helps. I always place the fairy near the tank during pull. This allows me to move around, dodge AOEs, and get close for miasma 2 without disrupting the “embrace” casts. I macro both “heed” and “place” commands to one button. This allows place (left click) and follow (right click).

It is okay for the fairy to take a couple hits from mobs (it prioritizes healing others anyway). They will rarely get killed and it is free mitigation. Don’t bother healing the fairy. It is quicker just to quick cast resummon or use dissipation if the fairy gets too hurt.

Another good macro is linking rouse to whispering dawn and hitting it every pull when on cooldown.

I also macro a button to embrace player 2. This allows you to start healing before 80% hp. It takes 2 seconds to cast, so starting it early is always helpful; even if the tank currently has full health, some damage will land during cast and is better than the fairy doing nothing.

With this macro you will cast Broil on an enemy and then have your fairy cast embrace on the target the enemy is attacking which is most likely the tank. It wont necessarily be the person with the lowest HP.

I don’t like linking my actions to the pet actions (except rouse and whispering dawn) because macros don’t allow queuing, are sluggish executing, and it tends to lower the number of actions instead of increase them.

I only hit the embrace macro if I see it not moving on cooldown (fairy not doing anything) and at the start of a pull before the tank goes below 80% health. Otherwise I let the fairy handle embrace herself. The fairy global cooldown is seperate than your own so you can use your keyboard to trigger your actions while using a mouse to manage the fairy actions at the same time without conflicts.

I see no reason to use TT targeting because I want EOS to always target the tank, even if I am not targeting an enemy at the moment. Instead, I just hardcode the fairy to heal “player 2” (and another for “player 3” for the other tank in 8-man content) since I only use it when things are already under control (hp is already above 80% for everyone). If everyone is hurt, I don’t manually embrace; I let the fairy handle it herself.

In general, you want to keep health high for everyone at all times early in a battle since scholar has a harder time then others at “spam healing” in an emergency and you run the risk of a KO. The shield is great since it is hard to over heal with it and it is kind of like having an instant heal at the ready in case of a crisis. If the crisis doesn’t happen, you can ease off and go full DPS the second half of a battle. Basically reapply Adlo whenever the shield falls off after your dot/bane opener and then weave miasma 2 and broil/ruin between aldos. If you have time you can pre-adlo before the fight for extra mitigation time to apply the dots. Don’t wait for health to drop to a certain level to begin a heal, like with white mage. After some enemies die and damage/risk decreases, you can stop the Adlos and just DPS the rest of the encounter with a lustrate or exco if needed.

The macro I use is just:

/micon Embrace pet eos
/pac Embrace <2>

It is needed because you need a target. The fairy will heal herself every time if you used the pet hotbar instead. Of course, you also want the fairy on “obey” at all times and trigger the other fairy abilities yourself or the fairy will be very dumb using them. Never use the default “sic” mode! The others don’t need a target so you don’t need a macro for them. I like rouse + whispering dawn since they have the same cooldown and should always be used together, but you could just click two buttons instead of a macro if you don't want to risk a macro misfire/delay. The timing is not critical as long as rouse is up before dawn.

I reaaaally don't recommend tying macros to your GCD actions, specially not macros that order Eos to cast Embrace, since the length of your GCD is different from hers. If you use a macro like that, you will make your own casting of spells, and hers, way more sluggish.