Question for the veteran scholars

Hey guys, I'm new here but hope to hang around quite a bit.

My question revolves around aoe healing with SCH. I'm almost 62 right now with SCH and I still struggle a lot with massive aoe damage.

A good example is last night I was in Sohm Al and the area before the first boss it was everything I had to keep the party alive. Poison stacks were 3-4 on everyone and the damage coming out was overcoming Succor as soon as I would cast it. Granted I should have probably had Selene out for the esuna effect and the poison wouldn't have gotten out of control, but it seemed Rouse + Whispering Dawn was my only saving grace.

How do you guys handle damage that succor can't shield and WD and IND are on CD? I've got to be doing something wrong. Most times I'm fine with SCH but it's just those few instances where there's too much damage for Succor and I really need the aoe heals that I'm used to with WHM.

Thanks guys!

Tbh, cleansing those poison is probably better than trying to outheal especially in sohm al.

As for aoe healing in general : Emergency Tactics + Succor, Fey Illumination helps, Fey Covenant helps if it's magic damage AoE. Sacred Soil can be useful sometimes.

Neither AST or SCH can match WHM's aoe heals tho

At that level, it's pretty much what you're probably already using (since you mentioned WD and IND):

- Indominability is really powerful: 500 potency (compare to 550 of Cure III and 300 of Medica) instant heal available twice every minute
- Whispering Dawn is available once every minute and can be combo'd with Rouse every time and Fey Illumination every other time
- Don't forget Fey Covenant also lowers magic damage taken by increasing magic defense by 20%, and Sacred Soil reduces all damage by 10% (I almost never use SS as SCH though unless it's a real emergency or huge AoE hit)

Other than these, you don't really get any more help with AoE damage until at higher-than-Sohm-Al (I'm assuming you talk about the normal mode) levels (Deployment Tactics for Adlo spread at 56, Emergency Tactics for boosting Succor HP recovery and removing shield at 58), and only Largesse of your role actions boosts your Succor (and other heals).

However, I don't remember there being all that much unavoidable poison in Sohm Al? If this is just a case of your group members eating all possible damage they can, I wouldn't worry too much about it...

Poison is very dangerous. I have a tendency to prioritize it, and no you don't need Selene for that.

Just when you see Poison, prioritize it. Esuna has a really fast cast time.
You're probably also using your aoe heals too early when paired with Esuna.

So rather than trying to overheal it via Succor and Indom, you save them. Esuna a few times, while someone gets to about 30%, then use Indom. Esuna a few more times, then Swiftcast+Emergency Tactics + Succor (essentially turning Succor into Indom). If you don't have ET, a Swiftcast +succor can still help a lot to get an instant heal after getting Esuna out of the way.

It's hard to give more precise help because I don't remember having trouble with poison stacks in any HW/SB dungeons and Sohm Al was so easy it's forgettable. I think the only HW/SB content that made me worry about poison is one of the A ranks when we only had 1 party there.

Could also be your party members are eating too many avoidable things, which there's only so much you can do.

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Originally Posted by Relhon

it seemed Rouse + Whispering Dawn was my only saving grace.!

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The way you write that, it's almost like you think it's a bad thing. Part of being a scholar is making effective use of your pet.

Also be sure to Place or Stay your pet, especially if you're doing a lot of dodging. If she's on follow (Heel), then anytime you dodge, she's not healing. She can't heal while moving.

Everyone else pretty much already covered it - but I'll add a few notes.

Brute-forcing doesn't work with SCH like it does with WHM. Spamming succor won't do you any good, so you have to outsmart the damage and utilize all your tools effectively. Esuna when you can spare a moment to reduce the incoming damage. After your initial Succor, Adlo + Deployment Tactics for another fast shield that takes less mana. Indominability is very important, use it when you can make use of all 500 potency. As others have mentioned, Succor + Emergency Tactics makes essentially a second Indominability. Abuse the crap out of your fairy, Rouse + Whispering Dawn is very very powerful when used at the right moment.

By the time you have exhausted all of your CDs and resources, the threat should be dead. If it's not, well, your dps are bad. Lol

You're not in fault, you're suppose to kill some plants in first few Somh Al pulls, or they will spawn explosive things that poison everyone. You're not supposed to heal through this, even Selene's AoE esuna wouldn't be more helpfull.
If you managed your way through this at that time of the game, it means you're doing fine.

But what you're talking about is pretty inherent to SCH kit. You can play arround this by using CD sparsely but in general 8-player party is more your alley than 4-player.

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Originally Posted by Squintina

The way you write that, it's almost like you think it's a bad thing. Part of being a scholar is making effective use of your pet.

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No not at all, I love Rouse+WD. I just meant that rather than switching to Selene for the esuna that aoe regen was more important at the time.

Thanks for the tips guys. In this particular instance I was synched to 54 to I didn't have DT or ET to utilize, but sounds like I could just use a little more practice making efficient use of my tools during a large pull.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Relhon

No not at all, I love Rouse+WD. I just meant that rather than switching to Selene for the esuna that aoe regen was more important at the time.

Thanks for the tips guys. In this particular instance I was synched to 54 to I didn't have DT or ET to utilize, but sounds like I could just use a little more practice making efficient use of my tools during a large pull.

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Can still try to use a Swiftcast+Succor, but mostly it sounds like you just need to Esuna more. Maybe for WHM they can get away with ignoring Poison and just spamming aoe heals, but I go after Poison like it's the biggest boss fight in the game :P

Oh I use esuna all the time, but at this particular moment I couldn't break from healing long enough to esuna everyone because their HP was falling too fast, probably because I didn't esuna the poison off fast enough!

But I agree, I'm always scanning the party list for debufs that I can esuna off, just got to be too much this time around.

Don't underestimate sacred soil in a case like this. People will probably be stationary enough to stay in it, and the damage reduction adds up fast to help you stay caught up.

I have Rouse+WD on Macro so I just have to press one button and they both happen. That helps save some time. You won't be able to overpower this the same way a WHM can with raw HPS, so you'll want to remove that poison ASAP. It also helps if the tank pulls everything over to the big plant, so it dies faster and fewer poison plants come out. Less poison makes things a lot easier.

That's an excellent idea to have them on macro. Right now I only have a raise macro but I'll make another one for Rouse +WD. Every little bit helps!

Fey Illumination and Largesse are really powerful in these situations. It is the only way a Scholar can really amp up their healing especially at such a low level. I personally prefer to use Whispering Dawn and Rouse together and then wait until it is over to use Fey Illumination or Largesse since all of them together are really overkill in every situation unless you are solo healing a Savage 8 man fight somehow. Using the Cool Downs wisely can make or break you in those pinch situations.