Trying to become a better scholar.

[Jerichai]

Hey all. I've been playing scholar for a while now (and reading these forums for advice for a fair amount of time). I feel like I have a good grasp of the basics, and I have been clearing content (both ex primals down, finished Alexander normal). That said, I feel like I'm not playing the class to its strongest potential, at least with regards to what I have read other people have mentioned on these forums. I was hoping to get some advice to further improve my play.

First is with regards to MP management. Now, I haven't found myself ever in a situation where I didn't have enough MP to cover healing. But I have found myself (in more challenging content) pretty low on MP, low enough at least where I hold back some on DPS-ing during down times to try and conserve. The feel I get from the forums is that in its current state, this should never happen. To that end, I'm not entirely sure where I'm going wrong. I try to:

-Be aware of my healing output and the amount of MP to achieve it. I try to avoid spamming adlo and succor unless the situation somehow calls for it, instead using physic and fairy heals to patch people up when appropriate.
-I try to make sure I'm popping aetherflow every minute. When crap hits the fan, I may loose track of it for a bit, but I will hit it as soon as I see it's up.
-If I have remaining aether stacks when aetherflow is up, I'll try to burn those on energy drains if the party doesn't need healing.

From that standpoint, I'm not sure what more I should do. I think part of the problem could be with DPS-ing. Broil does use a fair bit of NP. Are scholars still using Ruin in fights where there is a fair bit of healing? I'd hate to sacrifice DPS (since it's one of scholar's perks) if it's not the true cause of my perceived MP problems. Any advice would be welcome.

Speaking of DPS, I wanted to see if anyone had a recommended rotation they utilized when they have time to DPS. For me, I throw down shadowflare, my dots, and then cast broil (mixing in dots and shadowflare as they near the end of their duration). Just wanted to see if there was anything more I could be doing to maximize my dps in those moments where the opportunity presents itself.

Finally, I wanted some advice on solo healing 8 man content. I haven't really done it, and I'm not sure how to go about it, which makes me nervous to try. It's something I'd like to progress towards doing, at the very least so I can gain the confidence from seeing that I am capable. What are the major changes to one's approach when solo healing?

Thanks for any advice you can share!

[Sabeta]

It sounds to me like you're doing things mostly properly. You pointed out your main flaw right here. When shit hits the fan (read: periods of high MP consumption) you forget to refresh Aetherflow (your MP regen) and that cuts into your MP pool quite drastically. Keep in mind that our MP efficiency was heavily nerfed by the expansion, and that SE has acknowledged this and may adjust things soon. Make sure you use those Energy Drains when you can.

Solo-healing is fun. The biggest difference is that you need to be very mindful of your buffs and what will happen soon. Eos is your friend here.

[PetiteMalFleur]

Are you rousing your fairy? If you are using Eos are you using Fey Illumination? Both are good healing buffs. Fey Illumination not only buffs you but also buffs your fairy. If I have Selene I use rouse on CD. If I have Eos I couple Rouse with Whispering Dawn. Even if I don't expect aoe damage I sometimes use Eos for the extra HoT to sustain healing while I dps depending on how much support the tank needs.

I hold back on Broils at times because it does seem to eat my mana quickly.

[Tranquil]

Never lose track of your Aetherflow. Even when panicking (don't panic). Always minmax your per-minute stack usage, period. Rouse on cooldown for Selene (except of course if you have downtime to follow very soon). Use E4E liberally. Don't try to find sweet spots for it, but treat it as something that can make fluff and spikes alike significantly easier all the time. (You will have good uptime on this with just 2 healers [if SCH+WHM] and a single caster, moreso with a dual caster party).

Get into the habit of constantly - and I mean constantly - spamming Embraces out manually. This will drastically improve your HPS for the fairy. Don't let the fairy do stuff, make it do stuff. Doing the aforementioned, you will have higher HPS over the board with some easening up of the fluff, leaving more room to DPS. By always being 100% consistent with your Aetherflow usage, you don't lose out on total stacks over the time of an encounter as well as MP returns/DPS gains (Energy Drain).

Level your other healers. Just do it. If you know what the other healing jobs are capable of on the paper, that's a start, but actually playing them is important. If you have never played a WHM at 50/60 (ie. been at level cap and done content on it there), you don't truly know the feel of it for healing synergy as well. Part of your DPS-output will come from having good healing synergy, meaning calculated maintenance-healing being shoved for the other healer moreso than for yourself. This also minimizes overhealing. You just have to have a feel for this, though, there's that guy who is permanently in CS when their co-healer is struggling with MP; that goes beyond maintenance healing or calculated risk-taking.

Also, the above applies to tanks as well. I truly recommend leveling tanks and playing them too. Trust me, this will help with your healing. Instead of roughly knowing "yeah that's this and that icon" for tank cooldowns and what they do and how they impact your healing - you will get a feel for it in the bigger picture, will know/remember everything better and your understanding of the game just becomes more profound. A great healer is able to synergize with the tanks as well as their co-healer. This is a big thing in truly maximizing your throughput and not being panicky at times, which might result in a waste of resources via overhealing and other endeavours.

Don't be ashamed to resort to using Ruin or Ruin II instead of Broil at times. If you are dealing with a healing-intensive fight and can't put that much resources into off-DPS - you should then conserve your MP as you see fit, whilst still doubledipping for extra damage. That damage is never wasted. Still, you will probably have more time and space for Broiling if the fluff is dealt with accordingly (good healing synergy, good maintenance healing [including Embrace-spam] and free mitigation used well). Also on that final note, always map out an encounter for Virus rotations. Even if it might seem insignificant, just do it. You will have those moments where you will want to have Virus up, but there might also be as many as 2-3 other times to use Virus in the fight, so that it is back up when actually needed, without Antibody also being a problem. Everything helps and adds up over time.

For your DPS-rotation, it's pretty straightforward, just keep your dots up and use Broils/Ruins as your filler. If you can't do Broil, do Ruin II if you can also autoattack. If autoattacking isn't feasible, do Ruin. (Except when moving or weaving something in). Weave your EDs in after instant-cast dots (Bio + Aero), or Ruin II. Put your dots up in the best PPS order (leaving Shadow Flare for last). Never use Miasma II on single-target or even two targets (as of 3.0).

I guess that's about it for what I feel like brainstorming.

[Sabeta]

I have Physick and Adloquium bound to a macro that lets me split-heal with Eos/Selene. It's quite handy. I lose a small amount of HPS while in Cleric's compared to manually casting Embrace because I have to 1) cast my offensive spell and 2) quickly after click my Macro so that it triggers Embrace.

I use Embrace with <mo> commands, and I activate the other Pet Actions as clickables. I have a lot of extraneous mouse movement, but it works out well for me.

[sackm]

Getting the most out of Scholar is extremely reliant on your healing partner. If you get paired with a crappy healer, dont expect to be able to DPS much. Make sure you throw out Miasma 2 as well in aoe situations.

[RiisWolf]

Learn to never rely on Lustrate for what a simple Aldoquium or Physic can do. If you are low on MP, use energy drain. Even better if you've saved the Aethercharge CD at the time.

Eos for AoE Regen, Boosts healing, and magic defense. Use Eos if everyone is constantly getting hurt, and/or if survival IS the problem.

Selene for MILDLY better attack speed (discount Lightning Grease 1 for all those near Selene) and AoE esuna. Do NOT use if surviving is an issue.

Save Swiftcast for revive or resummoning.

Barriers are extra HP bars and are a defensive boost. Make great use of Aldoquium. Same with Succor if the entire party will be hit.

Heal first, DPS later. Unless it's those final DPS or die moments like the ending of Odin.

It's bad practice to start healing the tank after he's below 25%. Easy way to kill their faith in you, ultimately slowing things down, as it is a sign of poor judgment.

[Khyan]

Just manage your aetherflow better. You will never have mp issue unless if you ressurect X people of course.

[Wizarus]

Snip

Just wanted to point out that using Ruin 2 twice over 1 Broil is not only a DPS loss, but a MP loss.

[Tranquil]

Just wanted to point out that using Ruin 2 twice over 1 Broil is not only a DPS loss, but a MP loss.

I didn't claim otherwise. If it was unclear, I am mainly advocating using Broil at all times, except for movement/weaving/autoattack-induced Ruin IIs during the aforementioned. There isn't is a situation where you for some reason can afford spamming Ruin II (and don't have to move), but where spamming Broil isn't feasible, because of the MP/DPS -ratio you mentioned. In those cases where you can't afford Broil spam and there isn't other hindering factors, just going conservative and not losing MP on top is the best, ie. using Ruin.

That being said, if resources aren't a huge issue, Ruin II has the benefit of being instant cast for better fluidity for de-clericing into Lustrating or something. Having to cancel a cast mid-cast (of, for example, Broil) for clutch heals will likely leave you in a worse situation from an efficiency standpoint.