Looking for Tips, Tricks, advice for beginner healing and Scholar-specifically

[Corbeau]

You cast very, very, very few GCD single target heals, so macroing those for mouseover is no great loss. It would be more of a problem if the healing model was good.

[EmmetOtter]

Be a Healer, they said. Instant Queues, they said. So much Fun, they said.
THEY are evil.

Healing is a pretty cool change of pace.
First dungeon as a healer was an epic disaster (so many wipes), although I did warn everyone up front about it being my absolute first time healing and the party was OK with everything. Then spent all day yesterday dungeon spamming (rockin' those insta-q's), was upfront with everyone about my healing-nuubness, got some great advice and learned many things about the games. Today, I've stopped telling people that I'm a new healer because I want to keep up with the normal tank pulls.

Stayed away from nearly all macros (except for Resurrection with announcement) since the reason i considered them at all was helping with target-switching between enemy and party-member and my HUD layout made that issue moot.

I worked out most issues but I could still use some advice on these things.

1. Stupid pet occasionally goes AWOL! I can understand re-summoning after i die but it seems to just disappear on its own mid-dungeon. Not sure why.
2. Haven't mastered good positioning. I generally stand behind the boss (opposite tank) just outside its hit box because I feel like I need to be near melee if I need to use an AOE heal to help several allies but it sometimes leads me to waste time dodging mechanics that could have been avoided by initially standing farther away.
3. Can't always keep up with the tank. I use sprint but sometimes they just keep going and going and getting farther and farther away and right now I don't have instant cast heals that can reach the tank always. I usually save swiftcast for those situations but that's a relatively long CD.
4. Mana/MP management. I've nearly run out of MP in 1 or 2 longer fights. I try to alternate Adloquium and Physick on the tank and others and I use Lucid Dreaming as much as possible of course and I have ether pots. Is that something that will just fix itself as I get higher in level and more gear with mind/piety?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

[Jaelommiss]

1. Your pet should only disappear if you Place it and then run away. Beyond a certain distance from you it'll despawn. I've been playing for years and still do this occasionally after bosses. Remember to hit Heel after a boss fight. You generally won't need to place your pet during trash pulls.

2. Directly behind the boss is the best place to stay when nothing is happening. You'll want to be there unless you are prepositioning for a mechanic (if you know the fight) or moving in response to a mechanic. If anyone is out of range and needs healing, that's a them problem. You can Rescue them to you if you feel generous.

3+4.
What level are you? I can't be certain without seeing either video or a log, but I generally only hear about these problem from healers who try to keep the tank at max HP. It could also be that you, or your tanks, or both are undergeared. What percent do you try to keep the tank at? If you're topping off the tank constantly then you're wasting both your cast heals and your pet's heals.

A tank will almost never need healing until after they're done pulling. Almost every pull in every dungeon will be a double pull. In a few cases it might be a triple pull. When you see the tank approaching the second set of mobs it's usually safe to stop moving.

If you're level 45+ you'll have access to your aetherflow heals. While you can use it for Energy Drain to optimize your damage later on, while you're learning it's usually best to spend it on healing. Have you been using Whispering Dawn liberally? 60 secs is a short enough CD that it'll be available for most trash pulls. It's incredibly strong and will do a ton to help keep the tank healthy even if no one else is taking damage. It's better to use an aoe heal CD on a single target than to not use it at all. Holding "emergency" CDs manufactures emergencies. These Abilities (as opposed to Spells) have no MP cost.

If you're on Primal I can run some dungeons with you to see what's going on. Alternatively, if you post of video of you running a dungeon I could give you more specific feedback.

[EmmetOtter]

I wrote the above post when I was level 44 and and I just turned level 45 as scholar (level 45 class quest still in progress). Looks like the new abilities should address 3 and 4.

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

I haven't used SCH as my primary healer since HW but I'm pretty sure the basis is still damage mitigation over straight healing. So shields often. IMO SCH is better utilized as a pre-emptive healer (any healer using shields is, really) but it has been given some pretty useful tools for oh shit moments too.

Advice for starting out? Shields don't generate aggro like regen does unless you cast right as the tank is pulling so feel free to succor or even adlo before mobs.

Don't make the mistake of ever getting rid of Physick. I had a build where I used adlo exclusively (back in HW) and didn't even have physick on my bar but with the higher MP costs that's just not feasible. I know it seems like a weak ability but it's one of your most potent direct heals.

Emergency Tactics + Succor/Adlo is your friend for fast-high potency heals (I assume anyway, pretty sure it still works the same). Lustrate is decent but I feel like it's potency isn't what it used to be. That should really be saved for tanks anyway or your fellow healers

Keep your DoT up. Always. Also Art of War is awesome. You should use it as much as possible with mobs.

Don't forget role actions. Make sure you have Esuna/swift cast/surecast at least. Also you have access to Lucid Dreaming now which is nice when your mana is waning and you're waiting on Aetherflow to come off CD.

Honestly, I barely use the pet or seraph in normal content. The mitigation skills alone are sufficient unless you're just with a trainwreck of a group. But to each their own. I hope you find it as exciting as I did back in the day.

[EmmetOtter]

When i read the descriptions of succor and adlo it says that the shield is 125% of the amount of hp restored. Unless the description is inaccurate and the shield counts overheals it doesn't seem beneficial to cast those before the tank starts running.

For example, if the tank is at 900 health out of 1000 max and adlo would have healed for 500, is the shield based on the 100 the tank is missing or on the 500 adlo could have healed for?

[Urthdigger]

On positioning, I generally stand CLOSE to the rear of the boss but not literally on them. Just outside of melee range essentially. That'll keep you out of most circular AoEs centered on the boss (not that there's many of them) while keeping you close enough to AoE heal, or to run in for "donut" AoEs.

As for running out of MP, there are a number of possible causes. Gear is one cause, but looking on the lodestone yours is good enough. The other possibility is simply that your tank isn't doing a good job of using their cooldowns (they should try and have at least one up whenever doing a big pull) or folks are eating too many avoidable AoEs. The last possible issue is that you're overhealing. Make use of Whispering Dawn over Succor whenever possible, use Lustrate over Adloquium, get a bit more confidence in letting tanks get lower, and if you need to heal a single DPS try to either let your fairy handle it or use Physick: The shield from Adloquium is just a waste of MP if it's not someone who should be taking damage soon.

Edit: The shield DOES count overheals, so it can be useful to cast Adloquium before damage, especially if the fight hasn't started yet or you're in a boss transition where you can't attack the boss anyway.

[oblivion238]

This is a pretty good SCH guide https://youtu.be/wE1Ay8mmVB8

[xsis]

thx....need some guide for sch,,

[glamazon]

I play all three healers and scholar by far is the one it takes the most to keep the tank alive. After a big pull I need to use everything pet included. We don’t have a lot of single targets and a handful of our spells are tied to the gauge and useless if it’s down. You could always kamikaze the fairy though. Fun times