Tips for SCH? :)

[Gemina]

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.

I've had some serious internet troubles the last couple days, but finally got around to giving this a try. I feel like I should have known about this a long time ago, but quite honestly, I can see how it can be missed. I had to swap between controller and mouse mode to set this up. And for someone like me who is less savvy with this kind of things, I never would have discovered it on my own. It's one of the less stand-out features despite being one of the most important to incorporate into gaming with a controller.



Just my initial set up to get things going. I still have to work with it a bit. But as you can see, only two of the twelve abilities I set are on crossbar 1 lol. Needless to say, I've been doing WAY more button presses than is necessary. So much so that I was still doing it after this setup. I have to break out of it now.

[JackFross]

Also - the most important tip for anyone using a controller in this game (ESPECIALLY if you're healing with a controller) is the extended hotbars. Under Character Config under Hotbars, not only can you adjust which hotbars are seen and not (so you don't have to switch to mouse mode to find them - can just turn them on/move through UI management), but if you go to the Cross tab, you have access to "Expanded Hold Controls"



This is incredibly useful. It gives you a full 16 extra buttons - 32 total - without ever needing to cycle hotbars. If you look at my post where I showed my bars, you can see how I have my 4 bar set up. All my Jobs use it similarly. I don't know if you DO or DO NOT use this feature, but it's an incredibly helpful one for managing the massive skill bloat in the game atm.

[Rawrz]

This is incredibly useful. It gives you a full 16 extra buttons - 32 total - without ever needing to cycle hotbars. If you look at my post where I showed my bars, you can see how I have my 4 bar set up. All my Jobs use it similarly. I don't know if you DO or DO NOT use this feature, but it's an incredibly helpful one for managing the massive skill bloat in the game atm.

I use extended but set my extended to be from the same bar. (8- Right) So either combination of pressing them, the same skills appear.

[JackFross]

That cuts down on half of the utility brought by the expanded bars. You lose so much real estate by limiting yourself like that. On my DPS Jobs (DRG and MCH) I have buff skills in the same spot (Triangle on both R2>L2 and L2>R2 - Heavy Thrust / Hot Shot) and a few other skills get the double-dip treatment (like I have Leg Sweep on both sides, and Gauss Barrel in the same spot - down on dpad) but I think it's strictly beneficial to have the two sides as being unique and then getting used to having 8 different skills on either side.

Like, for Scholar, my R2 is all my healing stuff (Physick, Adlo, Lustrate, Embrace, Emergency/Deployment Tactics, Aetherflow) and then R2>L2 brings up all my raid heals (Succor, Indom, Sacred Soil, etc). And then L2 is all my DPS stuff (dots, Broil, Energy Drain, Cleric, B2) while L2>R2 brings up extra DPS skills (Shadow Flare, Miasma II, Bane, etc). Virus is on the DPS expanded (since I'll generally be targeting an enemy when I'm on L2) while Eye for an Eye is on the healing extended (since more likely to be on a party member on the healing side).

It works for me, doesn't work for everyone. I just think it makes sense to set it up that way. I also know someone who plays on controller and has Physick macros for every person in the party <2>, <3>, etc to <8> not including <me> since it's easy to de-target and cast. He has Physick+Embrace mapped to the tank ones.

[Rawrz]

I have enough space as it is. Its just an additional option to consider. :O lol I map out my skills from 1-60 to plan where they go on paper and adjust the draft as i experience discomfort with it. SCH im completely comfortable with.

[Gemina]

The benefit of your way is that if you need another succor after, you don't lose any potency. This is especially good for level 50 content since you lack aoe healing outside of eos, if you're attempting to solo heal, since your healing partner could finish the aoe healing. At 60 you have indom and emergency tactics, to patch things up, so you don't lose any potency to galvanize and you have better Aoe healing alone, than at 50.

This might be where things got a little loopy. You have to remember that at this point in the game for me, I have always solo healed. I never wanted to turn this into my way is right, yours is wrong. Just pointing out the difference between being proactive vs reactive with galvanize. Over healing with galvanize isn't the same as a normal restorative spell because you still get the shield, and I think between your posts and mine, the end result pretty much evens out concerning gcds, amount restored, remaining HP, etc. But I think we agree for the most part, just from different perspectives.

Post 50 content, I already foresee myself having a lot of difficulty handing over main heal duties when playing SCH, but hopefully I can make things go much smoother, and ease some pressure of the main healer.

[Gemina]

Also - the most important tip for anyone using a controller in this game (ESPECIALLY if you're healing with a controller) is the extended hotbars. Under Character Config under Hotbars, not only can you adjust which hotbars are seen and not (so you don't have to switch to mouse mode to find them - can just turn them on/move through UI management), but if you go to the Cross tab, you have access to "Expanded Hold Controls"



This is incredibly useful. It gives you a full 16 extra buttons - 32 total - without ever needing to cycle hotbars. If you look at my post where I showed my bars, you can see how I have my 4 bar set up. All my Jobs use it similarly. I don't know if you DO or DO NOT use this feature, but it's an incredibly helpful one for managing the massive skill bloat in the game atm.

After your last post, I realized that I am just not as familiar with the configurations menu as I should be. So I spent some time and played around with all the options, and discovered this one. I did see how useful expanding the bars is, but have not put it to practice yet. Will see how it goes when I do my daily beast tribes today.

[Sabeta]

Some things I want to contribute to here.

First, I would like to address ZadocFish

Scholar actually has the lowest skill floor for a Healer. When I say skill floor, I mean that you have the easiest time keeping people alive. That goes doubly true for 4-man dungeons, as Eos' stats are often-times enough to completely solo-heal the dungeon. Do not be intimidated by the idea of having to micro-manage her, as her Embrace spam will help make up the difference until you've gotten better at managing her. This all being said, Scholar also has the highest skill-ceiling at the same time. That is to say, because Scholar finds healing so naturally easy, it follows that there is also a lot more that a Scholar can do with their "free-time" to stand above and beyond other healers. It takes zero skill as a Scholar to keep people alive in a dungeon. It takes quite a lot to make use of every resource and contribute nearly as much DPS as a Summoner. I personally often parse higher than other DPS in Dungeons (although that may say more about DF and less about my personal skill level)

Now then, for other things.

Stoneskin is useless on a Scholar. There are literally 0 situations where I would want it over Blizzard II, and yes that holds true for situations where I don't even use Blizzard II. Blizzard II was 100% mandatory for my group to clear A2S during Progression, and is a massive DPS gain in most Dungeons. Anytime there are four or more Mobs to fight, Blizzard II is superior to Broil. Just think though, that once upon a time it only took two enemies to make Blizzard II viable. Blizzard will always be a staple Scholar skill in the same way Aero is (unless we get a 210+ Potency spell next expansion. We can call it Broil II). At any time that I would ever want shielding on anyone, one of the two following situations will always be true. A) Adlo is enough, or B) The WHM/AST already did it.

About Succor. People are seriously overvaluing the detriment of overhealing. Succor was critical in surviving A1S during progression. It did not matter if the group was at full health or not, you applied AoE Galvanize or you risked everyone dying. Medica II would also be applied and after that you would not burn another GCD repairing health, as Medica II would bring them up to full before the next big hit. Overhealing matters quite a lot more for WHM or Diurnal AST because it every point of overhealed health is 100% waste. For a Scholar or Noct (lol) AST, overhealing is not a bad thing. The end result is that you raised someone's effective HP higher than their maximum and can thus more reliably survive whatever comes next. Mathmatically there isn't much difference either or, but the "live" result is often life or death for your DPS.

Lastly, listen to JackFross. They seem to know what they're talking about, and is probably better than me. I'm speaking from 2.1 experience up until 3.0 as a progression Scholar. Unfortunately I had to unsub from the game in the middle of Gordias A3S. Same thing happened during Final Coil, but I heard that one was super easy anyway. Oh well, work and life come first. That being said, some of my information may be a bit dated, but should hold up.

One more thing. Literally nobody cares if you participate in dungeons as a Scholar. If you do, you're trying way to hard. The place to tryhard is Raid. Dungeons are for relaxing after raid and goofing off. Eos on Sic will blow all of her cooldowns and keep the tank alive through most pulls, even some of the big ones if you help out with Rouse. I for one tend to /Follow the Tank and then watch youtube or whatever.

[Nekotee]

I'm confused

Sabeta's post is quite good
I mean at first i was like "oh ! A good lala..."
Then you read the very last part and you go "...is a boiled lala !"

So much good point ruin by the worst advice ever of LAZY healer !

[Sabeta]

There's no reason to try hard in dungeons. Telling people that they HAVE to go 100% in dungeon runs is a quick way to scare them away from Scholar, like you almost did to ZadocFish. Dungeons are the opportunity to learn your class, make mistakes, and experiment with new things in a live situation. I've recently re-optimized my hotbars in order to make controlling Eos in CS easier, for example. While I was working the kinks out of it I went as hard as I could in the dungeons, properly keeping up my cooldowns, micro-managing the fairy, and contributing significantly to group DPS.

But if I didn't? Nothing would have really changed. The dungeon would have taken maybe two minutes longer to complete. End of story.
So I'm sorry if my 50th trip through Antitower is a "lazy", but to be quite frank I just don't care.

Like I said, a well-geared Scholar doesn't need to contribute ANYTHING to clear dungeons. Eos is enough, and sometimes so is Selene.
My point here is that it's your choice to DPS in dungeons. Most tanks I run into don't use cooldowns. Most DPS I run into don't know their AoE rotation. Why should I be forced to try 10x harder than everyone else because some guy called me a "boiled lala"
Raid is the only place where I would suggest that you ABSOLUTELY MUST DPS. Anything easier than that and it's optional. Lately however, I have been giving dungeons my 100% because I'm trying to rebuild my skills after a long hiatus. Keep in mind that for quite a long time Scholar's DPS was regarded as a "neat little bonus". My DPS contributions were the difference between 1 bee or 2 in T6, but certainly not the end-of-the-world if I didn't participate. As such, I never really mastered my rotation, I just sort of applied DoTs and then sort of forgot about them afterwards when I went back to healing. It is an extremely recent trend that people have started to care about just how much DPS you're able to parse, and so I've been giving it my all to finally learn my rotation and push myself to the limit.

Once I'm there though I'll probably start slacking off again. At the very least late in the week when I'm tired of roulettes.