fresh 50 sch looking for advice on how to up my game!

[DBthaONE]

Forgive me, this is lengthy...

- what's the progression of 8-man content i should be tackling right now (in order of difficulty, i guess) so i can up my scholar game?

Same order as you did for your monk. I will say get familiar leeching and refreshing aether stacks.

- is there some way on the ps3 that i can rearrange the party list so that i have MT in slot 2 and OT in slot 8?

Absolutely. In the Party Members menu, select a name and move it up or down using the d-pad. I do this eveytime, just so tanks are closer to my name.

- if tank is topped off and has an adlo/adlo+stoneskin on him, do i have enough time to pop into cleric's to get a bioII/miasma/bio on enemy? maybe even a bioII/miasma/bio/aero/shadow flare if my adlo crits?

In a healing intensive fight, no. You'll only get to really dps if the other Healer is comfortable solo-healing. You may find time then.

- because of the debuff it gives, should i be regularly using shadow flare or is it better to use my bubble for Sacred Soil?

Probably not, but it's a personal choice. Although the slow is nice on enemies, unless you have swiftcast available its cast time is generally too long. Even if you do have swiftcast, do you really wanna use it for this and not something more important like raising? At the same time do you wanna use an aether stack for sacred soil and not lustrate? It's your choice either way.

- for my super on-point scholars - about how much off-dps can a scholar clock in on the average 8-man fight while still being an effective healer?

Super on-point scholars solo heal everything, so I doubt there's much dps to be done. (Off topic, but a scholar in cleric stance does about as much damage as a summoner, discounting pets and fester.)

- i plan on getting my CNJ to 34 for stoneskin [+DAT UNICORN THO] but would playing CNJ/WHM to 50 really give me much insight on how to SCH better? [generally, i've always felt like playing other classes will make you better at your own i.e. learning to tank made me a better dps, etc.] because lvling cnj right now is just patience testing

They don't really play all that similar, at their core. Mages have to really watch their mp, while scholar begs for bigger aoe heals. Paying summoner will probably make you more of a better scholar than white mage will, since it will teach you how to manage aethers stacks. But it is nice to know more about the role your paying with. The point is, you won't be that much worse not learning white mage, but it is still nice.

- when is it more mp efficient to stoneskin the tank instead of adlo? how often will i have enough time to get both on him (assuming that i don't have the luxury of a whm in my group)?

It is only mp efficient to stone skin before a fight, otherwise the answer is never. I do cast stoneskin on tanks if I get an adloq critical just as an extra. You can't beat the shield + healing in adloq.

- for what fights is it better to have my fairy placed vs having him on heel?

Honestly, this is more of case by case thing. I really only place my pet if someone would be out of the range for an ability. For example, I place on T1 since I don't wanna get near Cad to make sure a tank gets whispering dawn. Otherwise, I don't place the fairy for fear of the party or them moving out of range and I hate moving my pet.

- any other general tips?

Allow me to elaborate...

Macro Rouse+Whispering Dawn and the other Eos skill (which I forgot the name) for max AoE heal and execute in one button.

Get Swiftcast - NOW! NOW! NOW!

The macro is Rouse + Fey Illumination + Whispering dawn. Monitor that it happens like it should, fairies will skip a macro command to cast embrace sometimes. This is one of the best macros you'll make. And get swiftcast!

[I]
If you are grouped with a warrior tank watch their debuffs, you can cleanse off their silence from their enhanced damage self buff. I forgot the name of their buff.

The buff is called Beserk. The debuff is called Pacification. It only lasts 5 seconds so I wouldn't worry about removing it too much (definitely not a priority to remove like Disease). Good warriors will let you know it's coming.

I am assuming since you have rosegold circlet on your wishlist, that you want both int and mnd and are going smn as well. The Vanya hats are better if you need the extra vit and hp for survivability. Choose one or the other depending on your needs and playstyle.

Both have the same vitality, mind, and critical hit rate. The circlet does have extra determination, which raises base heals, while Vanya has piety. Either is truly fine.

My personal advice is:
1. Become proficient managing aetherflow stacks. Don't save them too much. They're vital to mp management, which is one of the best things about scholars.
2. Don't spam adloq, it'll kill your mp, even if you're religiously refreshing aether. Physick should always be your go-to heal, adloq is for buffing.
3. Healing is more important than damage. Never forget that. If you spend an entire instance only healing you've done your job.
4. Don't forget virus (make sure it isn't on immunity by checking if the target has a spiral-like icon) and eye 4 eye. They're really good tools.
5. If you macro fairy embrace, Eos will fly to the healing target even if they're out of your range.

A few things about "embrace" macro:
Unless you're actually on PC, or you use a mouse (and I'm not certain about this), the "mouse over" command doesn't work for ps3. Your best option is to have your fairy heal whatever your target is. If you're locked on a different target than the one you're healing it'll revert back to the locked target for your fairy. You have to have like a 1 second wait before the embrace command.
Selene's "embrace" cannot be macroed on ps3. It's a bug that I hope gets fixed soon. Therefore, I actually no reason not to leave Selene in sic mode. She's pretty good managing the speed buffs, her silence can be unreliable (not happening exactly when you need it), and you can't macro her most important ability. However if you wanna macro it, you're more than welcome.


Good luck as a scholar!