SUM wanting to switch to SCH needs some tips

[spf1200]

As the title says I am a long time SUM (been one since around heart of ice) that would like to switch to SCH main, since I've come to realize that I prefer support classes. The main questions I have are
When should I use each fairy?
Is one better than the other (like Garuda is for SUM)?
should I control my fairies or auto them (I assume control but I've been wrong before)?
Are there any must have macros?
And any other tips anyone can think of.

[Zari]

ALWAYS keep your fairies on obey.
As for which one to use, it is personal preference really, though Eos would be better for a beginner SCH as you get used to SCH's healing style since the extra healing and defensive buffs can be nice. Once you are used to healing as SCH it is really just personal preference. I generally like to use Selene instead myself.

As for macros, there are not really any necessary ones despite what some people might say. Do not listen to the guys saying macro embrace to your heals, it will just fuck with your skill queues and you really dont need huge combined heals from the fairy healing the same guy at the same time. SCH isnt WHM

[_slowpoke_]

When should I use each fairy?
Is one better than the other (like Garuda is for SUM)?

Both fairies have their uses, although the go-to fairy should be Selene, since she brings a small attack speed buff (Fey Wind) and can AoE despell once every minute. Eos is the heavy-healing fairy, which is really only needed during progression or specific phases with heavy damage, such as the last phase of Nidex. Your goal should pretty much be to not need Eos in a fight, but she has her uses.

should I control my fairies or auto them (I assume control but I've been wrong before)?

Outside of Extreme or Savage content, it's almost always fine to leave the fairy on auto, although some people consider it lazy. It's also okay to do so while you get comfortable with the rest of your toolkit. For endgame content, however, you should absolutely learn to micromanage her, especially if you need to use Eos.

Are there any must have macros?

There's no mandatory macros for healing, and I would advise against relying on macros for most of your heals. I have a few utility macros, such as a mouseover macro for Leeches, so I can despell without changing targets, target-of-target macros for E4E and Virus, and macros for summoning my Fairies which place their respective abilities on my hotbars and put them on Obey. I can post them later if you are interested.

And any other tips anyone can think of.

Learn how much your fairy can handle on her own, and learn to trust her. One of your greatest assets as a SCH is the ability to heal with your fairy while doing something else, be that DPSing in Cleric Stance, handling mechanics, or shielding people in preparation for big hits.

Also, if you plan to do organized endgame content, communicate liberally with your co-healer. Since you are usually the off-healer, tasked with assisting the main healer when required, you should ask them when and where they need you to step in, and when it is fine to have them solo-heal so you can pump out more DPS in the meantime.

[Rongway]

As far as macros go, it really depends on your choice of manipulanda. If you're a gamepad player or a keyboard player, there are fewer useful macros. If you're a keyboard+mouse player, you can consider macroing your heals to <mo> so you can put your mouse on top of the party list and heal anyone without changing your target.

/ac Adloquium <mo>
/micon Adloquium


For any control scheme, a Lustrate macro with fallthrough to Aetherflow is useful so you don't spam your Lustrate button and have nothing happen due to having zero stacks.

/ac Lustrate <mo>
/ac Aetherflow
/micon Lustrate


And Eye for an Eye and Virus macros with multiple targets so that you can use them quickly without having to switch target.

/ac (Eye for an Eye) <mo>
/ac (Eye for an Eye) <t>
/ac (Eye for an Eye) <tt>
/micon (Eye for an Eye)


SMN and SCH both benefit from macroing your summons to auto obey and to replace hotbar buttons with the current pet's abilities, though choosing an ability association is not as simple on SCH. On SMN, each pet has a single target attack (Wind Blade / Rock Buster / Burning Strike), an AoE (Aerial Slash / Mountain Buster / Flaming Crush), an interrupt (Shockwave / Landslide / Crimson Cyclone), and a support ability (Contagion / Earthen Ward / Radiant Shield), so sticking all the corresponding abilities in the same slot every time is easy. With Eos and Selene, their ability sets aren't so parallel so deciding how you want to pair the abilities is a matter of preference. But the macro goes something like this.

/ac (Summon II)
/hotbar pet (Embrace) (Selene) barnum slotnum
/hotbar pet (Silent Dusk) (Selene) barnum slotnum
/hotbar pet (Fey Caress) (Selene) barnum slotnum
/hotbar pet (Fey Wind) (Selene) barnum slotnum
/wait 8
/pac (Obey)
/pac (Steady)
/micon (Summon II)

(type in your chat box "/? hotbar" for details, or if you're on controller, "/? chotbar")

[Rawrz]

I tried to pull some Quotes from a few threads. You can click on the quote to look at their original threads. There are allot of little things that can help and I hope you find some of them here. :3

General Tips:

The single most effective thing you can do as a scholar:

Embrace. Spam it. Every second that it's not on cd, be using it. She normally won't trigger unless the target is below 80%. If you can get used to keeping embrace active, you'll be a more effective healer. This also caveats it's way into being a better dps, if you choose to take that SCH lifestyle.

Other important things:
1) Use your weave time. If you're in cleric stance and need to lustrate or idom, Ruin II, cs off, lustrate, cs on, back to dpsing.

2) Make room for pots. It's your free dps boost. Your fairy gets the mind bonus to heal with too, so it's great for openers.

3) Use a warrior like a slave in 8 man content that begin with AoE (think sephirot). His defiance and conva give you +40% shield, along with a monks mantra and you're up to 60%. A +60% crit shield lets your healing partner get out a full opener.Tanks aren't the brightest bunch all the time, so ask nicely. .~.

4) Treat virus like a heal(or shield). This is your old lustrate. You can be in cleric stance and still gain wonderful mitigation at no loss. Just make sure antibody isn't up.

5) Sprint is your best friend ever! In dungeons, As the last mob is about to die and you can't fit in another GCD, instead of Ruin II'ing the overkill, you can Stoneskin, then Adlo the tank for the next pull, or Stoneskin, Sprint a distance ahead, but not near mobs, then adlo. You want Adlo applied last, because it will fall off first from slow tanks. If your tank is too quick for you to Stoneskin between pulls, just adlo. :O

Place her, if its a boss fight and if you can remember to move her after, you can place her during trash. She won't try to move to keep up with you, if you have her sitting somewhere, so embrace won't be delayed. It takes a while to get used to calling her back. When I sprint, without a target, she is removed from place and follows me.

Also remember, the more Eos/Selene Embraces, the higher chance she'll proc the 20% enhanced pet actions buff and increase your SS. Any extra DPS counts.

1. Establish early on whether you're the main healer or the off-healer. If you're the former, don't be afraid to use Eos pre-54. When you get Indomitability (and, later on, Emergency Tactics), you won't need Eos anymore for raid heals. Indom is lovely, ET>Succor is quite powerful.
2. Use your kit. Don't be afraid to push buttons.
-- Deployment Tactics is amazing if you use it properly (ie: don't spread Eye for an Eye on the pull against a boss who only uses magic attacks and doesn't even use any raid damage in the first 30s...). Generally, this means NOT wasting it on the pull. Succor is good enough for early mitigation. You wanna save DT>Adlo for more serious situations.
-- Emergency Tactics is a godsend. ET>Succor can make or break a run if you heal properly while the other healer has their thumb up their ass and heals 3-5s too slow (as usually happens).
-- Indomitability is a fantastic use of stacks (if you haven't already used them all on Energy Drain) to quickly heal back from raid damage. It's only on a 30s timer, too, so it's pretty much on-demand as needed.
-- Sacred Soil in current content is approximately as potent as an Adloquium that didn't crit when used for proper situations. That's nothing to sneeze at. Don't be afraid to drop it.
-- Adloquium is a life saver - you shouldn't bench it just because Physick is cheaper. Adlo > Physick is a safer, more effective way to heal a tank at low health.
-- Dissipation is not a no-no button! It's your OH SHIT button! It drastically improves your heals AND gives you 3 free Lustrates for that awkward moment when you burned your last stack at 30s on AF's cd and you NEED a Lustrate or Indom right now.
-- THE FAIRY is a very powerful healer. In dungeons, you should only ever have to heal if your DPS are standing in bad or when the tank pulls more than a single group of mobs. Don't discount how powerful it is and be sure to study that through your own testing before you rely on her, naturally.

Minor Controls:

Allot of PC players swear by Mouse Over macros as an option, so I'm sure someone will bring that up. I use 2 Macros to heal tank 1 and tank 2. I have an untargeted Embrace as well, but if i see a dps is low on health, Ill stop commanding her for a Global Cool down and she'll pick up the DPS. (If not it might be time to pop an indom if multiple dps are low.) Its very easy to hit a button, while you're casting Broil or another cast bar skill (Honestly you can do it, while still weaving in Energy Drains, between Bio and Aero.) Thats how I deal with it. I'm also on PS4.

As an extension to Rwar's post, here's a guide another poster made on the healer OF some time ago that might be a good reference point for macro'ing a Fairy.

I'm personally also a fan of a macro that constantly uses Embrace "tank 1" or "tank 2" and a third macro that is a single use Embrace that is mouse over macro for any non-tank target. [EDIT] With that being said each individual SCH should play around with what they feel comfortable with. Micro managing your Fairy is an important part of your skill set and you should find a way to do that which suits your style of play.

Emphasis on finding what feels natural to you. This is just a suggestion that a few SCH use.

/pac embrace <2>
Use your keyboard (I hope you have one. They work on PS3 and really help chat, even if playing with controller) repeat the line 14 more times. I use the macro icon for the 1st blue shield. You can select this from a list if you click on your blank "M" icon next to the title of the macro.

It should look like this:

/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>
/pac Embrace <2>

For the 2nd tank slot
/pac embrace <3>
Repeat again. I used the 2nd blue shield.

This commands her to heal the target once, while queuing her to do so. All you have to do is press it during cast bar times. It works very well on an extended hotbar. After you're used to it, it'll become part of your DPS. The more and earlier she heals, the longer you can cleric stance, and the more likely shell proc the SS buff. You can also make one that is

When doing 24 man content and healing when there isn't an off tank

/pac embrace <tt>

If you're playing on ps4 be sure to unlock your extended hotbar.

Make 2 hotbars for both of your fairies, one for healing and one for dps. (Meaning eos has a dps and healing hotbar, as does selene.) On your dps hotbar I would still keep your lustrate, succor, physick and adlo for healing. Finally, make a back hotbar with lesser used skills, like protect, pull macros, and summons. I also have a party wide Stoneskin macro back there for the luls.

Little stuff that helps you break it all down. :3

A small macro to help you sync between 54+/- content, where broil is unavailable. Clicking it once will place the appropriate skill for your level.

If your Broil is on hotbar 1 on slot 1. If on PC type hotbar instead of chotbar.

/chotbar action Ruin 1 1
/chotbar action "Broil" 1 1

Cross Class:

You have 4 mandatory Cross Class skills. They are Protect, Aero, Swiftcast and Cleric Stance. You may choose bewteen Stoneskin and Blizzard II. If its an encounter with more than 4 mobs at a time, like most 60 dungeons, then go for Blizzard II. If it is for single target only, cross class Stoneskin. Level 50 dungeons you should definitely bring Blizzard II, as 2 or more targets is a DPS increase over Ruin.

A useful macro to keep on your back hotbar for quick switching between queues:

It's a one button push switch from Stoneskin to Blizzard II or vice versa with a notification of what is changing. I chose the lightbulb for my macroicon.

If your Blizzard II/Stoneskin is on hotbar 1 on slot 1. If on PC type hotbar instead of chotbar.

/Macrolock
/echo You are switching your cross class skills. The following skill will be disabled:
/recast "Stoneskin"
/recast "Blizzard II"
/aaction "Blizzard II"
/aaction "Stoneskin"
/aaction "Blizzard II" on
/chotbar action "Stoneskin" 1 1
/chotbar action "Blizzard II" 1 1
/echo Your current cross class has been changed to the following:
/recast "Stoneskin"
/recast "Blizzard II"

DPS/Opener:

Single Target Opener:Adlo tank - Place Shadow if it makes sense BEFORE COMBAT so that the boss will step into it, but won't pull boss - (POT- if you have time to both pot and precast Bio II . SCH love pull macros <3. As you're casting Bio II activate Fey Wind. I'll usually place her during the Bio II or miasma cast as well) Bio II ~> Miasma ~> Bio ~> Energy Drain~> Aero ~> Energy Drain ~> Broil ~> Broil ~> Ruin II (pot should end here. My spell speed sometimes lets me also get my energy drain in.) ~> Energy Drain ~> Aetherflow.


Single Target without precast Shadow Flare:

(POT- if you have time to both pot and precast Bio II .) Bio II ~> Miasma ~> Bio ~> Energy Drain~> Aero ~> Swiftcast~> Shadow Flare ~> Energy Drain ~> Broil ~> Ruin II ~> Energy Drain ~> Aetherflow.

If saving MP don't use your last energy drain, until you refresh your Bio then Aetherflow. You'll be topped off.


Refresh Dots as necessary. Do not place a DoT unless it can tick for 15 seconds, the two exceptions being Aero and Bio if you can weave an energy drain with them, but they still need at least 9 seconds to beat ruin II, or if you're bane-ing.

Level 50 AOE:
Bio II ~> Miasma ~> Bio ~> Swiftcast ~> Bane ~> Shadow Flare ~> Miasma II ~> Aero targets if 3 or less and that will survive ~15 seconds. Blizzard II if they won't live through aero or if there are 4 or more targets. You may choose to aero if 4 targets, only if they will survive the entire duration.

Level 54+ AOE:
Bio II ~> Miasma ~> Bio ~> Swiftcast ~> Bane ~> Shadow Flare ~> Miasma II (3 or more only) ~> Aero targets if 4 or less and that will survive ~15 seconds. Broil if 3 or less or if they won't survive aeros duration. Blizzard II if 4 or more.

Using Swiftcast before bane buffers bio, so its not skipped with bane, while not cutting into your gcd.


Your skills are competing with each other in priority to see who can deal the most at the current time. Picking the right one ups your dps.

You can change these up to fit your needs, but they will give you solid DPS.

[Eloah]

One of the biggest things to remember is to watch your aetherflow stacks. You get 3 every 60 seconds. Use them sparingly, in a sense, but dont be afraid to use them when needed. And once Aether flow is back up, use Energy Drain to do some DPS, ideally on Clerics Stance, and regain MP. CS isnt as important as the MP, but the MP restored doesnt change. This is how Scholars have great MP regeneration.

Also as for macros, while everyone hase their preferences. I have Whispering Dawn and Fey Wind ma roed with Rouse, since they share a CD and since those are the 2 skill you will mostly use everytime they are up. You can even set it to ding oncethe skill is up again.