I Might Be a Terrible Scholar

[Rigelvox]

I think everyone can agree that Scholar is a unique healing class. It's priority system is complex and its abilities and skills are incredibly diverse. I think I might just need to admit to myself that I'm bad at it! After years of healing in World of Warcraft and Tera, both games which will go down in infamy for being too easy, I might have met my match. While only level 42, Scholar healing is one of the hardest healing experiences I've ever encountered. In Stone Vigil, it's a struggle to keep my tank alive when he pulls rooms of mobs!

I scoured the Lodestone forums for advice about technique. I place Eos. I micromanage her (to the most of my ability). I pop Adloquium, then follow up with a Physick and repeat the cycle until at 100%. But there comes a time, just about when my tank is at 50% health, that a minor panic attack sets it. Madly attacking my 1 and 2 keys, I spam Adlo/Physick to try and keep him alive. Rouse. Whispering Dawn. Fey Covenant.

Then he dies.

Then I die.

Then we all die.

Maybe I'm prioritizing my abilities wrong. Maybe I'm under-geared. Or maybe Scholar is one of the most surprisingly difficult classes to master effectively. And that just makes me want to keep trying all the more.

Is there something that I'm missing? Healing for 450-ish with Physick isn't really working, obviously. I'm committed to sticking with the job, especially since it has the lowest numbers of any job on my server, but I'm not satisfied with mediocrity. So what am I missing about this class that makes it so powerful?

[Hulan]

My first piece of advice, from reading your post is that for that level, your healing seems to be about right, though it sounds like your gear is a little out of date perhaps [it's been a while since I was that level, so I don't remember exactly what I was curing for, but I think my Physick was notably higher than that]. But, unless you forgot to mention it, you are missing out on an important toolset for SCHs. You have a whole set of debuffing tools that go a very long way towards keeping your party alive.

Ruin II causes Blind, which will allow the tank to take up to 30-40% less damage, if you're having trouble keeping a tank alive, throwing out a - basically free - Ruin II will go a long way.

Virus further reduces incoming damage, and can be a great supplement when you know a big attack is on the way.

Eye for an Eye isn't quite as good, but I keep it in my rotation, since it fills out the time when Virus and Sacred Soil is down.

Sacred Soil (which you don't have yet, but soon will), is a great way to protect the whole party from AoE damage.

Between those four things, you can reduce the damage your tank is taking at any given point by between 30-60%. The name of the game on SCH is prevention. If you can prevent damage from ever happening, you're way ahead of the game. Don't be afraid of Ad Loquium, it is your friend, and as you get higher in level, it becomes more difficult to run out of MP, making Ad Loquium even more useful. Now, if you happen to have a SMN in your party, chances are at least Ruin II will already be on the mobs, so you should make sure you have a good idea of the capabilities of your teammates. With that said, on reflection, I really do think you might be a little undergeared. Check your book, make sure it is within ~5 levels of your current level; you can make ~10 work, but it's pushing it.

[Garnatian]

90% of your healing as a SCH is just Physick spam. I am pretty sure that doesn't constitute as "complex".

Just wait until you're level 50 (when you get Lustrate), then keeping a Tank up will be easy. Also make sure that you're mashing the Embrace key 24/7 on the Tank. Physick/Lustrate/Embrace will account for 99% of your Healing.

[Findel]

Stone Vigil is really kind of a difficult dungeon if you're not max level for it. And even when you are, it can be a challenge if the tank is pulling more than a single group at a time.

If you haven't already gotten it, maybe take a break from scholar and level Thaumaturge to 26 so you can take Swiftcast. This will help you out in a pinch more times that you will be able to count.

[Sinaloa]

In situations when the tank is eating tons of damage physick wont work anymore. It will pull out the highest number for you (for now) but it doesn´t give the best effect. If you gonna spam aquo in such situations you will heal less but also shield him. Untill you next aquo is casted the shield is eaten up allready. If it isn´t it was no critical situation anyway. Keeping up aetherflow and weave in some drains are important for that. Aquo-spam is one of the few things you can do to screw your manaballance

Don´t start your fairys CD-s with the heals but with the buffs.

You might want to try start the fights in clerics stance with rouse active. That way you can help focusing one add away blinding others and in most trash not have to heal at all. (Works even better with seline since she packs some more damage and interupts the enemy)

Use your debuffs. Virus and Eye for an eye are very strong and the cd´s are reasonable enough to use them on trash either.

[Rigelvox]

90% of your healing as a SCH is just Physick spam. I am pretty sure that doesn't constitute as "complex".

Touché. Maybe complex was the wrong adjective to use.

[Hulan]

This comment may get me kicked out of the fraternal order of SCHs, but I also think too much emphasis is placed on fairy mircoing, at the expense of your own extremely powerful toolset. Especially at your level. Eos will handle herself just fine - though not quite as well as you can manage her - by herself. If you are taking attention away from your own casts to manage Eos, you are actually hurting yourself more than helping. Fairy microing should only be done, once you are comfortable with your own skills and rotations. High level SCHs tend to forget that not everyone has the same experience they do, and pet management is not a so easily picked up skill, especially considering the relatively small improvement in cure throughput it provides.

I don't mean to dismiss the benefit of fairy micromanagement; it will markedly improve your cure throughput. But not necessarily as much as you are hurting yourself by trying to do it before you are ready.

[Nettle]

I agree with the above for leveling. Through Ifrit HM I never once had to manually cast embrace, and never had trouble completing anything. The faerie does a fine job on her own if she is smartly placed. None of the leveling content really needs Eos' other abilities either, to the point where I exclusively used Selene.

It's possible you had a bad experience in SV with a poorly geared tank who never used their cooldowns, or possibly you need to upgrade yourself as well. I don't recall SV being particularly difficult in comparison to the dungeons before it.

[FinagleABagel]

This sounds like a tank problem. You are actually doing way too much.

If you want to place your fairy, great - but it isn't necessary. If you are having problems keeping a tank up, put Embrace on your hotbar and manually control your fairy's primary heal.

There's some bad advice in here. Eye for Eye is probably in the top 3 best support spells in the game. You want to use it when your tank is getting hit from multiple sources. You can cycle in Virus if you are having real issues.

Do not have Adlo in a static rotation. It's a pure situational skill. Your primary benefit as a SCH is near endless mana. Thus, sitting on Physick most of the time allows you to have all options open to you (including DPS). Always cycle Aetherflow. If you have Aether off CD and you have stack - blow em and recast Aether.

Stone Vigil is a bit of a wall, mostly in that one person just can't straight carry. You need proper tank, dps, and healer play.

[SeraviEdalborez]

If tank is getting hammered, alternate Adlo and Physick. Physick spam should be enough most of the time, but Stone Vigil hits exceptionally hard. Tank SHOULD be conserving their cooldowns though, especially for pulls with 3+ heavy hitters.

If you don't have melee DPS (or if they're an understanding type), one minor track is to have the tank circle strafe when fighting ice elementals. This makes their spells fizzle.

Fairy management beyond Place (and Steady if using Eos) shouldn't be all too necessary.