Tips for SCH in T5

[Nichigo]

Hi all,

I've been hacking away at T5 for the last couple months with my static. I believe I'm doing what I should be doing in the turn and fulfilling my role adequately. However, I don't have the opportunity to see other SCH's actually run T5 (outside of videos), and am wondering if anyone out there can elaborate on the finer details of being a SCH in T5.

One common thing I notice in T5 videos is that the SCH is NOT spamming heals. I find myself spamming 80% of the fight. Not sure if it's due to my incorrect technique or the other healer (WHM).

This along with other aspects (like fairy management) are things I'd like to see elaborated on. Thanks in advance for the replies

[NintenPyjak64]

It's your other healer. WHM can deal with a ton of the damage easily minus a few situations where having a SCH is mandatory. What I would suggest helps out the group as a whole is Succor pre-fireballs, Aldoquim MT before Death Sentence, Lustrate after Death Sentence (Infirmary Debuff makes WHM useless until it wears off.). During Snakes I'd say is a good time to use Eos's healing potency buff as well as her AoE regen.
The last time I ran T5 our SCH (pug) didn't have Aetherflow stacks during Snake Phase and since I used Benediction earlier in the fight it wasn't available so our tanks dropped dead. Be sure to never waste Lustrate on party members unless you absolutely have to. Aetherflow comes back up every 60 seconds and DS every ~30-35 seconds meaning 2 Lustrates after DS and 1 for Sacred Soil or Lustrate on 1 other party member. Considering the interval of 45 seconds between Divebomb 3 and 4, there's really no excuse for not having 2 stacks at least (Sacred Soil for last set of divebombs to minimize healing at that segment) so if your WHM focuses one tank you can easily keep up the other until after 2 hour where healing becomes easier

Don't take everything I say for truth because I've never done SCH in T5, I'm only talking as a WHM that has never partied with a competent SCH in T5 (which is why I don't have a win yet)

And last thing I'll say is that SCH is not a WHM. You're a proactive healer that mitigates damage more then heals HP. If you're healing 80% of the time your WHM needs to step up their game.

[Al_Harrington]

It's your other healer. WHM can deal with a ton of the damage easily minus a few situations where having a SCH is mandatory. (Infirmary Debuff makes WHM useless until it wears off.).

I would have to disagree on this. When running WHM/SCH, the WHM is actually key in conflag phase. The WHM should be the one casting SS before DS and applying a C2 just as it hits for full strength. This will leave the tank at or near full HP for the incoming plummet or auto attack pre lustrate. A SS/C2/Lustrate is actually overheal on DS. While I love working with a SCH I have also done WHM/WHM with very little issue. The only time of the fight I will actually leave DS healing mainly to the SCH is in the last phase where I take care of the rest of the party with Regen/Medica 2. Now with all that said literally a 2 seconds hiccup in your timing on either SCH or WHM and a tank could die.

[Daenerys_Sedai]

few things to add:
1) focus target Twinny and have a virus macro: /ac "Virus" <f> for pre Aetherial profusion
--you're already going to be pressed for time getting tank topped off and putting aldo up, so a virus macro at the least should at least save some targeting time

2) some people place fairies, others don't, but for divebomb phase, you really need to be doing it. place fairy next to and to the side of crevice area.

[Lani]

Doing this fight on scholar is all about timing. Your main job is dmg mitigation on the tank. The biggest dmg is from plummets and death sentence. Plummets occur roughly every 10-15 secs. Death sentence ever 30-35 secs. You mainly need to focus healing up these two bursts of dmg. Plummet a simple physic will do the job. For death sentence a simple ado then followed by a lustrate will do the job. Even that is debatable if your whm is on their game you don't even have to lustrate after a DS. Beyond those heals for most of the fight I rely on rouse and fairy heals. Snakes is probably your most heal intensive time. For fairy the only thing I can say is that I find Selene much more useful. You can do with her whatever you like to be honest. I prefer placing.

[Nichigo]

Thanks for the info!

What i'm reading kind of goes with what I've seen in videos of T5 with scholar...there seems to be alot of time between casts. That brings me to a couple more questions:

*Ideally, what should the scholar be doing with the downtime? Should they be DPS'ing?
*What should the scholar be doing during the Divebomb phase AFTER the 2nd set of bombs when the tank is taking heavy damage due to stacks?
*Should the SCH be healing other party members, or focusing on the tank (in general)?
*Which fairy is better? Are there parts where switching fairies is ideal? (I've though of keeping EOS during conflags, then switching to Selene for snakes to help with the cast times during running as well as DPS output for Asclepius).

[Vid]

*Ideally, what should the scholar be doing with the downtime? Should they be DPS'ing?
*What should the scholar be doing during the Divebomb phase AFTER the 2nd set of bombs when the tank is taking heavy damage due to stacks?
*Should the SCH be healing other party members, or focusing on the tank (in general)?
*Which fairy is better? Are there parts where switching fairies is ideal? (I've though of keeping EOS during conflags, then switching to Selene for snakes to help with the cast times during running as well as DPS output for Asclepius).

Although I can only speak from the White Mage perspective my partner in crime is a scholar and she rocks, so I'll give some insight on what she does during the fight.


Downtime:
She tends to either throw out heals preemptively, getting Aldo's up on the tank, throwing out Physicks if she's expecting a big hit, etc. But she is also comfortable enough with my healing to throw out dots on certain enemies, such as the Conflags and the big snake when all 4 little snakes are dead.

Big Snake:
With our setup our main tank only takes 1 stack of the debuff, its just how we position them, the 2nd tank however ends up taking three stacks. I typically take on all healing once all 4 snakes are dead, and she will throw dots on the Big Snake and focus on helping getting it down. However if needed she will throw out a Lustrate.

Raid Healing:
Phase 1 we both let the fairy heal people that are hit with fireballs, unless they are really low, we both focus on the tanks through this phase.

Phase 2 is mostly the tanks but she will help with Succors for Fireballs, although I will typically get people back up with Cure 3's and Medica 2's depending, so she can focus Lustrates on the tank when Death Sentences hit.

Phase 3 there's typically only 2 or 3 people getting hit, and in our case it's the Dragoon, Off-Tank and Main tank, she focuses on mostly the Dragoon and Main Tank, and we both periodically throw a heal on the Off-Tank but he doesn't get hit that hard until the 2nd set of snakes.

Phase 4 and 5 is all about communication with the other healer, if you are Stunned, being chased by Fireballs or the Black ball of death (in case your off-tank can't absorb it for whatever reason), your other healer needs to know so they can prepare to heal big hits and keep the tank topped off. As far as Raid healing goes try to position your fairy roughly in the middle to heal anyone running around, but for the most part I'll just toss Regens on people that need it and that pretty much takes care of it.

Fairy:
Honestly haven't paid much attention to this, but I don't think she changes it out, and if she does it's probably like you have described. Sorry I can't be more helpful on this subject, I'm usually to busy healing to pay attention to fairy switches if she does it.

[AmyNeudaiz]

My biggest tip is to always save a Lustrate for immediately after Death Sentence. This cuts out tank deaths by 56% guaranteed or your money back!

[Hysterior]

I only use my stacks on Lustrate
Adlo Tank before each and every DS
Lustrate as soon as the Death Sentence cast is finished (take few time to get the right timing)
I use EfE on cooldown
Succor before fireball
Fairy Rouse/WD pretty much on cooldown as well during phase 2

P3 I used i sacred soil on each spawn, focus on keeping the 2 tanks alive then, when things look clear, put some dots on the snake
Get in position and pretty much use all your mitigation: Succor, Adlo the tanks, Rouse/WD/Fey, Sacred Soild, Virus on Twin

P4 only focus on tank. No trouble unless she use DS straight after twister. I place fairy close to tank so WD can also touch him and Adlo/Lustrate before/after each DS

P5 Use everything you have you keep tank alive

[Tranquil]

Good advice here for the OP, mainly about lustrates and pre-DS adloing, pre-succoring fireballs, placing the fairy close to the 2nd neurolink during divebombs, as well as saving some stacks for the snakes -part. All stuff I agree with. Some other things to consider (didn't see them mentioned but if someone did, props to them):


- Pay attention to tank cooldowns and know what a given tank skill does coupled with its icon so you can recognize it. Eg. if you see that a tank has Sentinel up just before a DS, you know the next DS won't be so nasty. So depending on other variables such as having an E4E proc up on Twin or having a WHM-stoneskin up pre-DS, you might want to cast a Physick as opposed to Adlo (if the tank is topped off enough), so that the heal lands just as DS hits, applying the heal before Infirmity hits the tank.

- ...On that note, start casting a heal when you see Twin's castbar at the "D" -ish of "Death Sentence" for optimal timing to have a heal land post-DS hit, pre-Infirmity being applied. (Remember that doing or not doing this depends on how well you timed your Adlo just before she starts casting DS and or stuff like which tank CDs are up, if an E4E proc is up or not, if virus is applied or not; your priority is obviously to mitigate damage and if the tank gets one shot or comboed down before you can lustrate post-DS, that would not be good).

- Mitigation-wise it is better to have some form of mitigation for all DSs as opposed to mitigating one DS with all guns blazing and then not having any bangs for the next one. This depends a lot on how good your tanks are with their CD management, whether you are doing the solotank method (like us) or not, how many E4E casters you have in the party and so forth. Communication is key here, but for PLD-solotanking at least, there are certain situations wherein a tank will not have a CD for one DS (so our PLD tends to use a mega vit pot then), meaning more vigilancy is to be exercised. Communicate well and or camp the status bars of your party members and Twintania for cooldowns/stoneskin/E4E procs etc. In our party I am in charge of the virusing with our SMN sometimes doing one virus on Twin during mine being still on cooldown for 20 seconds~, when the Antibody buff has worn off and before the next DS. Just be careful that no one ever ruins your virus rotations; you will want to have it up if your tank is out of the big-boy cooldowns and if there is no E4E proc etc, to buffer those DSs a lot.

I tend to use Eos (we only do the solotank method so everything helps, DPS we have plenty of to begin with) and have her on both Heel and also placed. I place her when we stack for the fireballs in our groups, because IF you do get conflagged, she will move with you a bit and potentially not move back to stack tightly enough for fireballs. I then re-place her for the divebombs so she doesn't get hit and can keep healing while I dodge. After that, the next time I place her is for p4 so that WD reaches the tank when it is available for use (everything helps). As far as DPSing or not DPSing goes - only do it if you are truly comfortable and have the time. If you are doing it the solotank method, you will realistically never need to DPS, unless someone fucked up on divebombs and it seems like the snake-DPS is lacking.

That's all I can think of for now. Remember that communication is the key Good luck!