Tips for SCH? :)

[JackFross]

I don't understand this bit.

Eos affords much more benefit to AoE healing than Selene does. Fey Illumination massively buffs your Succor, and Rouse>Whispering Dawn is the single most potent AoE heal in the game besides Cure III, especially when buffed by Fey Illumination. It can really help if you're struggling at surving/recovering from raid AoE.
At level 54, you learn Indomitability, an instant-cast 400 potency heal, which makes it a lot easier.

That's the only thing I don't completely agree with.

It's not novelty AoE. It's significantly more powerful than Broil in the majority of dungeon pulls. It's a drastic gain to pps and dps to pack Blizzard II with you. Stoneskin is /never/ necessary to be on a Scholar. If you need additional weakness padding, just give that person an Adlo before the big damage spike. If you're deploying Adlo, it's already enough for them to survive, especially if it's crit or buffed by one or more of Defiance/Convalescence/Fey Illumination.

Why do you have aetherflow on three different spots?
Also not sure I agree with completely ditching stoneskin, as I use it a lot pre-pull in dungeons. But dungeons aren't that important anyway.

Those two horizontal bars are just buff trackers. I never click anything on them - the only buttons I use are the ones on the x-hotbar. I have 2 things for Aetherflow and then one on my main thing because I suck at tracking the AF cooldown, so it helps me not fail and miss it.
As far as SS pre-pull in dungeons - Adloquium has a shorter cast and a stronger effect in all situations. My i215 SCH can drop Adlos that are stronger than Stoneskin on a near i240 PLD. Completely worthless cross-class, imho, at least on Scholar.

Yeah, it's certainly not an important skill, but it does let you dps a little longer in dungeons so that's the main reason I have it.

I mean. As a Scholar, you only need 1 pre-pull GCD for Shadowflare followed by 4 other GCDs (B2>M>B1>[Bane]>M2) to be performing well enough in any trash pull. After that, I generally will Lustrate>Adlo the tank before going into Broil or B2 spam. Stoneskin wouldn't extend that margin by a reasonable enough amount to make me not need to drop cleric for an Adlo in a larger pull (I never drop in 3-4 mob pulls). It's a discrete difference - not a fluid one. More health is nice, but doesn't realistically change an encounter. I will never let my tank fall below 3k either way unless I get distracted, so it's really not changing anything, especially when 1 Stoneskin is quite literally 2 attacks from mobs - and in a mob pull of 6-7, that comes in three-fold every 3 seconds. :0

[Gemina]

This goes for anyone who's playing on controller:
This is not a valid excuse for missing buffs.

See the following (my SCH setup):

You my friend, are godsend! Not being able to constantly monitor CD's was not only my strongest argument towards using Sic, but also my biggest frustration playing FFXIV. I had no idea the UI could be set up this way and I can't wait to log in and reconfigure my settings. Previously, I figured the only to constantly monitor CDs is with a mouse+keyboard set up. Ugh, I feel like such a dingbat for not knowing about this

FTR, I wouldn't leave Selene on Sic because I'm lazy, or just gave up. I just wanted to be a more effective SCH and was missing a lot of CDs, and it was frustrating. So I compensated as much as possible by toggling Sic/Obey. You have saved thousands upon thousands of button presses in the upcoming days, and made my job a whole helluva lot easier! Thank you so much

[Gemina]

The thing about adlo and succor being actually heals is that in the end of the day, after the damage is taken, the result is the same as if the damage was healed afterwards, as long someone would not die.
An example, with succor/medica as both have the same potency:

WHM:
Player is at 10k/13k HP
Player takes 3k damage -> 7k HP
Medica for 2k -> 9k HP
Player takes 3k damage -> 6k HP

Sch:
Player is at 10k/13k HP
Player takes 3k damage -> 7k HP
Succor for 1k + 1k galvanize -> 8k HP + 1k shield
Player takes 3k damage (raw) -> shield breaks, player takes 2k damage -> 6k HP

This means as a healing tool, succor is just as effective as medica, as long it's cast while no shield is already up, and the shield breaks within 30s.
Mitigation only has a real benefit over plain healing if someone would die without it, otherwise shields are simply a form of pro-active/delayed healing.

I’m not sure how medica II comes into play? I’m not looking at a succor vs medica II healing comparison. I am talking about dmg mitigation and the comparison of having galvanize up vs not having it up when the damage comes. It would be better in this case to compare Adlo to Physick. In which case, I totally understand where you're coming from as far as healing is concerned, and agree. In the case of succor, I will use your numbers and format. Forgive me for a couple small changes:

SCH (reactive galvanize):

Player is at 10k/13k HP
Player takes 3K damage -> 7K HP
SCH cast succor for 1K + 1K shield -> 8K +1K shield
Player takes 3k damage, shield breaks, 1k absorbed -> 6k

SCH (proactive galvanize)

Player is at 10/13k HP
SCH cast succor anticipating incoming dmg for 1K +1K shield -> 11K HP + 1K shield
Player takes 3K damage, shield breaks, 1K absorbed -> 9K HP
SCH casts succor for 1K + 1K shield -> 10K +1K shield
Player takes 3K damage, shield breaks, 1K absorbed -> 8K

A 2K difference. If pushing DPS is the argument, this is 2K HP that does not have to be patched up with MP that can now go towards DPS. And this is without mention of other factors such as Fey Illumination and galvanize crits.

Proactive/delayed healing is kinda how the job is set up. We can compare Physick to Adlo, in which case they essentially replenish the same amount of HP, but the double MP cost of adlo and only a possible chance of a crit makes Physick the superior and more efficient healing tool when you need to heal. You can cast Adlo first for the initial heal, but it's all Physick after that until the shield breaks or wears off. There is no point comparing Succor to Indom as they are 150/400 potency respectively.

Unless my logic is flawed, I’m not sure why this is even a debate. Is my head in the clouds here?

[Rawrz]

Unless my logic is flawed, I’m not sure why this is even a debate. Is my head in the clouds here?

You somewhat had a skewed example. As long as you aren't overhealing their max HP, it's just as well. Using succor during downtime (invulnerability mechanics or prepull) is a good way to prepare, but during active combat, if you are overhealing someone at 100% health, it's less than efficient.

She is comparing medica (not medica II, because it has the same healing potency, without a galvanize effect.)

SCH (reactive galvanize):

Player is at 13k/13k HP
Player takes 3K damage -> 10K HP
1 succor>SCH cast succor for 1K + 1K shield -> 11K +1K shield
Player takes 3k damage, shield breaks, 1k absorbed -> 9k

SCH (proactive galvanize)

Player is at 13k/13k HP
1 succor>SCH cast succor anticipating incoming dmg for 1K (overheal) +1K shield -> 13K HP + 1K shield
Player takes 3K damage, shield breaks, 1K absorbed -> 11K HP
2 succor>SCH casts succor for 1K + 1K shield -> 12K +1K shield
Player takes 3K damage, shield breaks, 1K absorbed -> 10K

Doing this ,you spent two gcds on your succors for only 3/4 of the healing potency (450 between shields and heals that weren't overheal.)

It's not novelty AoE. It's significantly more powerful than Broil in the majority of dungeon pulls. It's a drastic gain to pps and dps to pack Blizzard II with you. Stoneskin is /never/ necessary to be on a Scholar. If you need additional weakness padding, just give that person an Adlo before the big damage spike. If you're deploying Adlo, it's already enough for them to survive, especially if it's crit or buffed by one or more of Defiance/Convalescence/Fey Illumination.

Played around with it more and I do take back that Novelty comment. I had a friend parse in Ampa Hard in Expert and had a pull of 2200 DPS (With slip ups on my end.) It kinda fluffed the whole run, since I beat everyone but the BLM at almost 1250 (BLM was 1275.)

What I want to say is: Bliz II is powerful, but it is not useful. It has very few real places that you can use it, where as Stoneskin, gives you the ability to capture inactive time and turn it into Active healing. It also has general other uses, like those moments where tanks need more than Adlo or giving to a DPS with weakness, since it has a duration of 30 minutes and instead of adloing them specifically before heavy raid damage incoming, I can treat them with a general succor (In case deployment is down. You don't really plan death.. in most cases xD.) In Roulettes I will probably tote around Blizz II, but in content that does not have a noticeable portion of adds, Stoneskin will be there. (Now if only they could macro turning on and off certain cross class skills D: </3)

I mean. As a Scholar, you only need 1 pre-pull GCD for Shadowflare followed by 4 other GCDs (B2>M>B1>[Bane]>M2) to be performing well enough in any trash pull. After that, I generally will Lustrate>Adlo the tank before going into Broil or B2 spam. Stoneskin wouldn't extend that margin by a reasonable enough amount to make me not need to drop cleric for an Adlo in a larger pull (I never drop in 3-4 mob pulls). It's a discrete difference - not a fluid one. More health is nice, but doesn't realistically change an encounter. I will never let my tank fall below 3k either way unless I get distracted, so it's really not changing anything, especially when 1 Stoneskin is quite literally 2 attacks from mobs - and in a mob pull of 6-7, that comes in three-fold every 3 seconds. :0

Stoneskin pushes back your need to heal by 1 Embrace on a tank(In a sense as it is a little more than an embrace). Adlo really only pushes it back by 1.5 so it almost keeps up, but Blizz II gives you numbers lol.

On AOE, I usually open with (Precast) Bio II> Miasma> Bio > Swiftcast > Bane > Shadowflare> Miasma II. You don't suffer the extra .5 GCD cast time from Shadowflare and it doesnt clip the GCD if you swift then Bane. If 4 or less targets that will survive more than 18 seconds Aero Spam, and if 5 or more I'll Blizz II.

[Zadocfish]

Alright, this thread has helped me a lot! I think I might stick to WHM until I get more used to high-level healing, then come back to SCH after I get better.

Everyone, thanks for the tips.

[JackFross]

You my friend, are godsend!

The ONLY caveat - PS3 does not have horizontal and vertical hotbars. The PS4 does, though, which makes things just as easy to manage as a PC if you have a mouse for more accurate HUD manipulations.

Played around with it more and I do take back that Novelty comment.

Agree to disagree to an extent! I won't argue that Blizz II is worthless in a raid scenario. It absolutely is! My only serious argument is that I can personally never justify spending the mana on Stoneskin for anything. Anytime I want a Stoneskin, Adloquium is both faster and more effective. I'm not gonna SS the whole party, Adlo is both quicker and more effective (esp followed by Lustrate) to pick up the random DPS who eats Height Error during the A8N intermission...

But it comes down to personal preference. Nothing wrong with using Stoneskin, at all, I just don't personally like it on my Scholar. C:

(Now if only they could macro turning on and off certain cross class skills D: </3)

There actually IS a way to macro this. It's /additionalaction or something along those lines. Look it up in text commands when making a Macro. You can remove one skill and add another. I have that set for my DRG when I swap between PvP and PvE - I keep Mantra on for PvE, and I use Foresight instead in PvP. I can get you the actual macro lines I use for it tomorrow! C:

Stoneskin pushes back your need to heal by 1 Embrace on a tank(In a sense as it is a little more than an embrace).

Not sure why you're talking in Embrace terms, especially since that happens independently of me. It's more logical to discuss in flat damage amounts - a Stoneskin on a 27k health PLD (my friend has this much at near i240) will mitigate 2700 damage - a bit more than 2 auto attacks. In a 3 mob pull, this could delay your heals by a GCD... if you ever needed to heal in the first place with a pre-pull Adloquium (which I don't ever have to). In a larger pull, this will have a negligible effect on it - mitigating +2 AA's in a group that's dropping 8+ per 3 seconds isn't gonna change anything. You'll still barely have time for your DPS GCDs!

That said - it's whatever works for you. If Stoneskin works, has worked, and continues to work, use it! I'm not gonna tell someone how to play, just offering my views on the cross-class. <3

[Nekotee]

Alright, this thread has helped me a lot! I think I might stick to WHM until I get more used to high-level healing, then come back to SCH after I get better.

Everyone, thanks for the tips.

I would highly not recommend this since scholar and whm work in a complete different way.

If you want to play SCH you have to force yourself to find your path and tempo
Working with the fairy and being able to manage her efficiently to allow her to heal while you do something else (dpsing, raising, shielding)

Whm is the most boring healer where you simply heal the damage done and basicly do nothing else (beside throwing DPS and HoT)

...

@FoxyAreku
I'm surprised you didn't go for the crafted torso which has massive crit
And that you can add 27 crit and 18 acc (cheap meld)
To reach 97 crit and 110 piety (18 acc bonus)

[Zadocfish]

I would highly not recommend this since scholar and whm work in a complete different way.

If you want to play SCH you have to force yourself to find your path and tempo
Working with the fairy and being able to manage her efficiently to allow her to heal while you do something else (dpsing, raising, shielding)

Whm is the most boring healer where you simply heal the damage done and basicly do nothing else (beside throwing DPS and HoT)

That's kind of why I don't feel like it's the class for me right now. What that means is that as a SCH, you're always pressing around twice as many buttons as a WHM. More effective and flexible, perhaps, but I just don't find that kind of coordination and intensity FUN...

[Nekotee]

I don't think you press less button as whm than SCH
Since the whm must use many cooldown that the SCH doesn't

The thing is as whm you're alone in the heal/DPS balance
While the SCH got an indépendant unit to support him in this
But the big difference is that scholar is prediction/prevention while whm is reaction

And remember
A healer do not heal his team, he keep them alive while dancing wih them in the battle

[Zadocfish]

The thing is as whm you're alone in the heal/DPS balance
While the SCH got an indépendant unit to support him in this

That's the problem, from my perspective: You DON'T have an independent unit, you have an extra set of commands you need to use while still maintaining walls, DOTs, and heals. If Eos or Selene could do their job alone, it would be hands-down the funnest-looking class in the game... but as many posts previously established, both are completely incompetent when you're not directly controlling them.