New Scholaring!

[YukariOro]

One big point to remember is that "reactive healing" is a bad term.

I would more describe WHM as being reactive, they heal after the big damage is done and don't really have a way to prevent it. Scholar, imo, is more about mitigation, using shields and such to prevent damage before it is taken even, as well as healing after the damage is done. It probably more closer to say, Discipline Priest in WoW, which is also a healer that relies on mitigating damage taken, in the way I view Scholar.

[YukariOro]

Selene makes a difference? I've never once heard anyone complain about me using Eos, but I have gotten complaints about me using Selene. At the very least, I'm in Cleric Stance a whole lot more when I'm using Eos.

There are times when Selene can make a huge difference. I used Selene 99% of the time recently when I redid Steps of Faith with my fc for the third time. Given that the trial is mostly a dps check, Selene's ability to speed up everyone's spell casting and abilities helped a ton in that fight. So yes, it can definitely make a huge difference, depending upon the fight, whether you use Selene or Eos.

[Cynfael]

I would more describe WHM as being reactive, they heal after the big damage is done and don't really have a way to prevent it. Scholar, imo, is more about mitigation, using shields and such to prevent damage before it is taken even, as well as healing after the damage is done. It probably more closer to say, Discipline Priest in WoW, which is also a healer that relies on mitigating damage taken, in the way I view Scholar.

Good WHMs anticipate damage, like good SCHs, and are already preparing to heal before spikes occur. When many players talk about "reactive" healing, they fall into the mindset of waiting for things to happen before they act. I would argue that it's even more important for WHMs than it is for SCHs to know fights and to anticipate correctly since WHMs are more constrained by their GCD and benefit enormously from planning even a couple of seconds ahead based on fight mechanics and enemy abilities.

I use a ton of macros that use embrace. I have embrace macro'd into leech, into Eye for an Eye, and Aldo. The reasoning, as a fellow scholar told me, for adding embrace to Leech, was that "If you're having to cleanse someone they are probably going to need a heal as well." I also have Rouse and Whispering Wind Macro'd together, and Rouse and Fey Covenant macro'd together.

I also have it set up so that my pet casts Fey Illumnation when I toss out Sacred Soil. Granted, sometimes Fey Illumination is on cooldown, but it's nice to have the pet cast it as well when it's not. Personally I find healing on Sch incredibly easy as a result of macro'ing in the pet abilities. I mostly have only macro'd in for Eos, not for Selene.

Still use my pet bar as needed, but I find those macros really do help a ton, and I think a lot of scholars under-utilize macros, tbh.

Also, if you have a WHM in your party, I never cast Protect or Stoneskin at the start of a fight, unless they for some reason aren't, since the WHM protect and stoneskin is buffed and the Scholar's is not.

Beware of being TOO macro-happy. Chaining your fairy's Embrace to too many of your own abilities tends to tie her down needlessly; the best approach is to use an independent hotkey for Embrace, especially with a mouse over macro for speedy split healing that doesn't require you to click-confirm a different target.

[YukariOro]

Good WHMs anticipate damage, like good SCHs, and are already preparing to heal before spikes occur.

I've been healing since FFXI, where I started out as Red Mage and later graduated to WHM. I had to do the whole Refresh, convert very 10 minutes and hope not to die, CC, DPS, Haste, and still heal, so I'm probably more situationally aware than some I imagine. I always target bosses for example when I heal, which helps.

Beware of being TOO macro-happy.

Originally I started out with only Embrace on Aldo/Physick. Only later, as I became more familiar with SCH, did I macro in the other stuff. That said, I am constantly keeping an eye on my pet and cooldowns. I'm a vet from FFXI, where the only way to easily play was to Macro, so I honestly don't approach macros the same as some others I suspect. In fact, in my WoW years, I never once macro'd anything. For me, using macros is more about doing a better job as a healer, not because I want to make the job easier. I rarely macro at all except on SCH and SMN in fact.