Scholar Help

[KanonShirogane]

Hello, for awhile now, when I healed it was with WHM but I got my SCH to 60 because it seemed like the job had more versatility then WHM. Now I understand that SCH is a preventative healer, but I'm having a hard time utilizing SCH's tools properly. Like when I should cast Adlo on the tank, when I should use stacks of aetherflow, or when I shoul recover mana. I also get confused on when I can DPS safely, and when I can leave healing up to Eos. Some advice on strategy and stuff would be really helpful. Thanks.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

Well, for a quicker and more compact response: everything you do as a scholar will be obvious when you know exactly how each encounter goes

[Lastelli]

Actually SCH has the best tools to act as a very reactive healer, namely Indomitability and Lustrate.
Anyway, SCH has a lot of tools that aren't really needed for easy content, you'll see the true power of skills like deployment/emergency tactics, sacred soil, rouse, fairy skills and so on if you try savage content. For expert roulette you can basically apply galvanize on the tank, dots, bane, shadow flare on mobs and then cast physick when needed. Adloquium is generally used if your tank is low on health because you were watching tv instead of healing (adlo->physick spam or alternate the two) or before a tank buster or hard hits in general. Eye for an eye can be used whenever available, preferably in large pulls.
If you're setting your fairy on autopilot, please use selene.

[Risvertasashi]

A lot of that stuff you pretty much just have to experiment with and, as Lyrica said, learn the encounters. When a big hit is coming (on the tank or on the raid), you have a variety of tools that can greatly reduce the incoming damage. These tools depend on whether you want raid-wide reduction or single target, physical or magical or both. Some have things like RNG dependence.

Perhaps look up a few SCH PoV videos for encounters you want to do and check what they're doing. If you have any specific questions on why they use a certain ability at a certain time in that encounter, then come back here and ask about it.

And thoroughly read your tooltips so you know what everything does.

[Anova]

Bosses and encounters are very heavily scripted. Just keep an eye out on the tank's health and the boss' attacks. You will learn the moves sooner or later and it becomes muscle memory.

If you're tackling new content, SCH can actually use adlo to estimate how much damage the tank takes in x seconds. Using that, you can estimate the amount of healing you need to putting out (because the adlo shield is roughly the same amount of hp you heal with physick). When the rotation repeats itself, you have a good idea how many adlos and physicks and embraces you need to throw out. Maybe it's enough for your fairy to heal it, so you can dps. Maybe there's a huge damage spike, so you cast adlo again after because you know it'll finish right after the tankbuster hits.

For emergency save your lustrates as that is easily a full tank heal. If you notice aetherflow is going to be available soon, spend them on energy drain if you need the mp. Otherwise, save them. Those really are the basics to playing a SCH.

Alternatively, there are a lot of good boss guides that explain mechanics and tell you how specific boss rotations work. Use those to find out when is the best time to cast Adlo and then just practice the fight until you find a cue that works.

[samkitwood]

Adlo shield isn't the same as physick it's the same as the adlo heal, a succor before battle acts the same way as ss2 which can help give ya a head start so can dps alot more then ig ya have aether stacks to burn click of CS -> ET succor -> indom -> lust on tank -> swifcast succor, everyone will be full hp, shielded n your free to put CS back on for more dpsing

[zuzu-bq]

People had given some good info and tips already so I'm just gonna say a few things I like to say to new Scholars:

Don't think on Lustrate being a emergency heal, it can work godly as one of the best emergency heals of the game but SCH actually depends on constant Lustrate to keep healing without using too much mana. I recommend you learning about your fairies, read their skills and use fairy on obey so you can get used about using their cd skills. Don't get stuck on only one fairy, use both so you can feel how powerfull they both are. Once you get used to them you'll start of casting manual Embraces without even noticing. And last but not least, when aetherflow comes out of cd just burn your stacks whatever you like but thats a good opportunity to Energy Drain and get a bit more mana back.

Good studies fellow Nymian Acolyte.

[Veve]

With regards to dpsing as SCH I tend to adlo the tank before each pull as it gives me time to throw my dots up and bane (if multiple enemies) and put down my shadow flare, then if needed I go back to healing. I'll always pop the tank an adlo if I'm about to go into cleric again and I have my fairys macrod to heal target of target to give me more dps up time. The more you play the class, the more comfortable you will be stance dancing, it's all situational.

If you're running a bit low on MP then use energy drains on enemies, especially if your aetherflow is off cooldown and ready to use. It will save you from wasting stacks and you should really not run into much MP problems if getting into the habit of doing this. You also don't have to be in cleric stance for this either as it will recover the same amount of MP regardless.

[Sailysium]

You also don't have to be in cleric stance for this either as it will recover the same amount of MP regardless.

I believe it's still better to ED when in CS. While mp recovery is constant I believe the hp recovery scales with the amount of damage dealt by ED (suppose to be around 50% damage dealt as hp recovered). Of course if your health is fine it wouldn't matter but it's still better to develop a habit of using ED in CS whenever possible.

[Jamillion]

My pre-pull prep on trash goes: SS on tank, Adlo on tank, eye for an eye, rouse, virus the hardest hitter after tank pulls, CS, swiftcast -> shadowflare, dots, bane and broil spam, refresh dots, rebane and just maintain. If I know everyone is going to be taking damage I drop deployment tactics pre-pull as well. Scholar cooldowns have relatively short recast times so you can normally cycle available cds as they come back up. As someone previously noted, lustrate should be used pretty often but don't be afraid to stack lustrates before huge pulls.