SCH, 230 gear with Crit or 240 gear that doesn't have Crit?

[Korihu]

So due to my static needing a Scholar, I offered myself to switch to SCH to fill that in.

Now I'm gearing up my Scholar, and having just received my weekly token to upgrade my lore gear to 240, I realised something when I was looking at the pants upgrade.

What should I be prioritising? The crit in my gear or the ilevel for that base Mind? I'm used to playing AST where we didn't really have stat weights, so I never really cared and just took the higher ilvl item, but now that I'm a SCH I know that Crit is really important.

So which would be better?
230 pants that have Crit and Pie
or 240 pants that don't have crit and instead have Det and Spell Speed?

Or like
230 feet with Crit and Pie
or 240 pants with Pie and Spell Speed


I don't really play any other classes seriously besides my healer so I'm really clueless on how to weigh the value of these stats.

[Rawrz]

To me, the 240 pants from lore are better than the void ark equivalent, but the 240 top is not. If you have the chance to get the 240 Midan pants, if you would like the MP padding, transition from the 240 lore pants to the 240 Midan ones.

If crit is your highest stat, you're doing it right, but that doesn't mean you can have decent piety and spell speed.

[technole]

Yeah the lore pants made me itch so much, two stats that are just not so optimal for SCH. Every tier is like this where the raid pants are always the BiS for any healer. Another side to think about about higher ilvl lore pants over subsets is the vitality gain, and that is no joke to have when progressing A7S. But if you have good HP already, you can get away with those weeping 230 pants until you get the A7S Midan pants.

[Fernosaur]

the vitality gain, and that is no joke to have when progressing A7S. But if you have good HP already, you can get away with those weeping 230 pants until you get the A7S Midan pants.

If you're having an issue with HP checks, you could also temporarily meld Vitality onto your gear. If you're going for materia melds, Vitality comes first if necessary, then Accuracy. Crit is indeed important, but you won't die if a piece you get doesn't have Crit. Spellspeed actually helps Scholar quite a bit due to the sustained DPS coming from casted spells. Also, when your fairy crits you'll get a 20% SPS bonus, which scales better the more SPSD you have.

[technole]

If you're having an issue with HP checks, you could also temporarily meld Vitality onto your gear. If you're going for materia melds, Vitality comes first if necessary, then Accuracy. Crit is indeed important, but you won't die if a piece you get doesn't have Crit. Spellspeed actually helps Scholar quite a bit due to the sustained DPS coming from casted spells. Also, when your fairy crits you'll get a 20% SPS bonus, which scales better the more SPSD you have.

To the point, I do think vitality is the best materia for progression because even myself I have lived through mechanics that I thought I probably should have died to.

However, I doubt anyone seriously progressing through savage now is at minimum ilvls. With 240 gear being more accessible, plus having at-least a 230+ weapon you'll have plenty HP for even A8S and can go full ACC melds. Not only the pants, but a A7S gobdip lore weapon upgrade or upgraded 240 anima will add even more vitality. Plenty room to optimize at this gear level, especially with VIT being made up in other places.

Scholars aren't the only ones with the sub stat dilemma, Dragoons and Casters are also likely to use the 230 weeping chests as well until they get the Midan one because of the stat weights being higher. Crit is important to Scholar as it has more tangible benefits to the raid with shields.

[Fernosaur]

Crit is important to Scholar as it has more tangible benefits to the raid with shields.

Yeah, I totally agree. As a matter of fact I'm a crit-staking hoe myself and reached 1000+ Crit earlier this month. I do believe that not having Crit in one or two pieces isn't the end of the world, though. And Spellspeed does help a lot with SCH DPS too. Though I do favor Crit because I tend to do a lot of solo healing.

[Bdyer]

Question: I looked at stat weight posts and wouldn't the 5ish extra mind on the augmented lord gear outweigh or at least equal the secondary state preference?

[Werhusky]

Question: I looked at stat weight posts and wouldn't the 5ish extra mind on the augmented lord gear outweigh or at least equal the secondary state preference?

I think MND > ACC > Crit but if every 3rd Adlo crits... just too sweet. I have full critbuld which also means a lot useless piety... But I refuse to drop below 1k crit again DX

[Korihu]

Hey thanks a lot for the help guys. As much as Crit-hoarding sounds extremely fun I feel like maybe the extra mind and vitality might be better in the long run especially since I'm just starting out on Savage progression. So I'm gonna go for the 240 lore pants, but I didn't realise the WC chest was so good, so I'm gonna try to get that next week. I think I know a bit better how to measure gear and decide on which now, thanks!

[Aryn_Lastrov]

If you're going into progression, you should try to value piety above the other substats. You don't know what healing is going to be required, so you'll want to have as much mp as possible to handle whatever comes your way. For this reason, I would recommend getting the lore chest and the mhach pants. Then, once you have killed the fights, I would swap the mhach pants out for the augmented lore pants and get the augmented lore chest.

The mhach healer chest will increase your chance to crit by less than 2%. In my opinion, spell speed is almost a dead stat on sch apart from slightly increasing dps. The lore chest offers roughly the same damage dps-wise, more vitality and a LOT more piety. I would only recommend the mhach chest if you plan on going completely full dps and there is no chance you will run out of mp.