Picking a Healer

[Orihara_Izaya]

I'm having a hard time picking a healer. I've read countless topics on the forums and I've come to realize that they are mostly similar, with one class slightly better then the other on different things. So based on what information I give you, perhaps you guys could help me decide.

I have a level 50 arcanist which I have taken summoner and tbh I haven't been really drawn to my Scholar. The DPS for the class feel's lacklust when I'm doing solo content, and mirco managing my fairy in dungeon's is a pain in the arse. Not to mention the moment I don't micro manage my fairy it feels like my party decides to always die, and I have to blow fairy cool downs to keep them alive only to find out my fairy skills are on cooldown. On a positive note I really like the whole barriers and preventing damage aspect of the scholar but that's it. I often feel like I just can't put out enough healing in high stress situations.

[Orihara_Izaya]

I have yet to play a white mage but what I do like from what i've seen is that they get a staff, can use holy, and can do on demand heals. I'm aware that they are MP heavy and stuff.

Well that's all I hope you guys can shed a little light, right now i'm leaning towards just leveling a white mage and just seeing if I like it more. But i'll wait till I get some responses

Edit: I think what would be most helpful for me is telling me what healer you enjoyed the most and had the most fun with, I kinda of have a idea of what each can do.

[Karnage720]

I personally did SCH because I've always found WHO boring since ffxi. I already had my SMN to 50 and unlocked SCH JUST for the sake of having it unlocked....unfortunately I fell in love with it. I have done couple end game items, titan, turn 1 etc and I've never felt that my heals weren't enough. During dungeons like AK it is extremely fun. With cleric stance on, you will do really good damage. Remember, you still have access to shadowflare, and all the other SMN dots plus thunder and aero. Just play both roles and see which you like more. They both compliment each other really well.

Actually just remembered, the ONLY time my heals didn't seem like enough was during WP SRs, those things are crazy lol. Harder than Titan HM for me.

[Sinaloa]

One healer is as viable as the other for any content. If you like to continiue playing your summoner go for whm. Spares you the decison to gimp one slightly.

Else if you like AK more go for Sch. If you like WP more go for Whm. But in the end it doesn´t matter - Both can do both with ease. Just more fun with the according class.

Whm got more crybabies in the forums so they will propably get a buff sooner than the Sch.

[Sebazy]

Sch don't really mature as a healer till 40+, they get most of their important tools quite late. Whm are the opposite getting a decent spread of abilities early on. As a sch you'll feel like a turret healer, as a whm you'll never feel like you have enough mp =)

At 50 it really boils down to whm being better at healing damage that's been taken and is more of your classical old school mmo healer, whilst sch is far more suited towards limiting the damage before it even happens, if you played a disc priest in WoW you'll be right at home.

[YuiSasaki]

Else if you like AK more go for Sch. If you like WP more go for Whm. But in the end it doesn´t matter - Both can do both with ease. Just more fun with the according class.

That sounds wrong. I hate AK, WP is way more funnier, and shorter, and less annoying <.<

[Sinaloa]

That sounds wrong. I hate AK, WP is way more funnier, and shorter, and less annoying <.<

Feel free to actually read my post.

[harkinate]

-snip-

The only thing I can say about WHM compared to SCH is that they have bigger heals and are generally easier to play as, but they do have MP issues.

For your concerns regarding SCH, there's a couple things I can say here:
1 - DPS is lackluster, yes, but it's a healing class. It's still 2x better than WHM DPS against single targets, so there is that. Make sure you use Cleric Stance. I just flip to SMN when doing solo quests/grinding that don't require you to be SCH (ie, relic quest).

2 - Micro Management for the fairy is easy once you get the hang of it. It's pretty much required to be a good SCH healer in later content. It's especially important to put the Fairy heal at the very least on your keybinds, as by default they will only cast the heal when a party member is at 80%hp or less. Once a Fairy is summoned, if you click 'Steady' on the pet bar, then select an enemy and click 'Obey'. This will ensure that the Fairy doesn't blow its 3rd and 4th cooldown automatically and you will be able to keybind those and use them when needed. This doesn't prevent Eos from using Whispering Dawn unfortunately.

3 - What I usually do for big heal situations is Adlo + Fairy Heal at the same time. They don't share the GCD so that's one good benefit of having a fairy. If Rouse is active, the Fairy's heal is actually pretty decent. Don't underestimate having a free heal in general that can be cast seperately from (and as often as) your own heals. Also don't forget about Lustrate - it's a huge heal when used on Tanks - but make sure you keep your eye on Aetherflow stacks and don't blow them all too quickly on longer fights (energy drain helps a lot with MP management)

4 - Keybind Place and Heel. If you don't use Place (or Stay, but I prefer Place) your fairy won't cast heals if you keep moving, since it tries to stay with you. They receive very little AoE damage from bosses so you usually won't have to move them out of 'red stuff'. If you use Place/Stay don't forget to Heel before you move to the next fight or it'll desummon once you get to a certain range.

[Karnage720]

4 - Keybind Place and Heel. If you don't use Place (or Stay, but I prefer Place) your fairy won't cast heals if you keep moving, since it tries to stay with you. They receive very little AoE damage from bosses so you usually won't have to move them out of 'red stuff'. If you use Place/Stay don't forget to Heel before you move to the next fight or it'll desummon once you get to a certain range.

Is this still true? I've tested this out on several occasions and never found my pet NOT to heal when I'm moving.

[harkinate]

Is this still true? I've tested this out on several occasions and never found my pet NOT to heal when I'm moving.

The pet can't heal while it's moving to catch up to you. If it's already casting it won't move until the cast is complete...but it won't start a new cast until it stops moving. This isn't too bad until you get to highly mobile fights like Ultima Weapon/Titan/beyond (haven't been to Coil yet)