Next job, scholar, looking for advice

[Aurius]

So, my problem is I'm a control freak, meaning I want to micromanage my pet. However, I play on gamepad and I don't think I have enough slots to allow this. I thought that I could put a few abilities that are rarely used on keyboard (I use both but I'm way better with gamepad) what are your scholarly thoughts? Any advice for setup to make this possible? I sucked when I ran kb and m, so I'd like to stay on gamepad. Thanks! Also, general advice is appreciated!

[LegoTechnic]

I keep everything on gamepad, including pet abilities, though primarily because I live the PS4 life. Assuming you're using a PS3 or PS4 controller you can bind all the fairy abilities to where you want on your crossbar, then find a place for Obey, Sic, Place, and Heel. These are ideally the only orders you'll want for fairies as you will not need Steady, Stay, or Guard as a SCH and Away can be done from using square button on the fairy's entry in the party list (or by eating it with Dissipation). Also make sure you're utilizing the crossbar function to its fullest. Personally I keep Obey, Sic, and Eos/Selene summon skills on a sheathed-weapon crossbar that is mostly identical to my drawn weapon crossbar, but has moves used infrequently on one side. Thus if I need to resummon a fairy I just need to hit the sheathe-weapon button (in my case L3) before resummoning (and I make sure basic heal abilities are the same on both bars in case of accidental sheathing).

You can also save space by macroing your fairy summon skills with the following notation.

/hotbar pet <pet skill> <hotbar> <slot>

This will let you overwrite Selene's skills onto the same slots you have Eos skills when you summon Selene and vice versa so that only the active fairies abilities are on bar, and in the same places. So for example to summon Eos you could use:

/micon "Summon"
/ac "Summon" ("Summon II" for Selene)
/hotbar pet "Whispering Dawn" #2 #5
/hotbar pet "Fey Covenant" #2 #6
/hotbar pet "Fey Illumination" #2 #7

And you can make a similar macro for the other fairy. If you're so inclined, you can also add /wait 7 followed by /pac "Obey" or "Sic" to your macro, but since I often swiftcast my fairy summon I prefer not to add pet command in my summon macro and do it myself.

Just as a side, note that if you intend to put Embrace on your hotbar, you'll have to make a separate macro for it (/pac "Embrace" <t>), as I don't believe there's any way to call Selene's Embrace to bind to hotbar (they're both "Embrace", and I can't figure a way to pull Selene's separate from Eos when binding, so I just use a general purpose macro for both which is loads easier).

Also when first summoning your fairy after logging in it will always default to Sic, so be sure to make it Obey if you're pulling Eos (Selene is usually fine to let Sic).

(and just in case, if on PS4 like me and using crossbars, you'll use /crosshotbar instead of /hotbar)

[Garotte14]

Although scholar is probably the most difficult job to play on gamepad, it is possible. I do it myself. First off, I presume you are using the expanded hot bar option. If not, then that's def something you need to start doing. The other would be using macros. All my pet abilities are macrod together separated by whichever fairy I'm using. I.E. Put whispering dawn and fey wind on the same macro, fey illumination and fey caress on another, etc.

[Mimilu]

I generally always have my fairies on Obey and Follow and only place them when it is absolutely necessary, like in A4 when healers have to split from the rest of the party.
Macros are a SCH's best friend. :-D
I have two versions of all my single-target healing spells, a normal-version and a macroed-version with Embrace on them, if a target needs more heals.
I also have Embrace on my normal pad, just in case. You can only have one Fairy's version of it but it works for both of them, you just won't get the cooldown.
Also, learn to switch between pads by hold the trigger button and pressing the corresponding button for that set.

[Kabzy]

Macros are a SCH's best friend. :-D

I completely disagree. I feel like when you start out with SCH it can feel like macros are amazing, but when you get to really knowing the job, and doing end game raiding, you'll see quite clearly that it is not the case. As you're on pad, obviously some macros will be useful, like Summon followed by a 7 second wait and then Obey. But these are things that you do before combat and won't make the actual fight clunky. I would really try to use all your tools without using macros at first, it might seem hectic but you will get used to it. I was still playing on PS4 around the time we were completing FCoB, so it is possible.

Also, please don't use the Rouse + Whispering Dawn macro. Yes they are both abilities that share the same CD timer, but Rouse can do so much more. For starters in a proper group composition, it'll be your co-healer taking care of the party wide HoTs, so generally unless they mess up you should never even need to use Whispering Dawn. (Switch to Selene.) And Rouse is amazing when you really need to focus heal a tank, so to bind it with one ability is a huge waste imo.

Realistically, as you're on pad I would recommend you probably macro physick to embrace to make fairy managing a little easier. But tbh that's the only macro, aside from party messages, that you should be using. And you mentioned you tried k+m but sucked, I would suggest sticking to it if you have that opportunity. I was terrible when I switched, never PC gamed before this, and now I would never look back. It will make your life easier for pretty much every job if you put in that time for a bit.

[Aurius]

Ok, I thought that macroing my summon to swap the fairy spells would be most efficient. I play on PC with an Xbox controller, and on my tanks I put my stances on hotbars and my actions on crossbars. Once I get there I'll try your suggestions, thanks!

[Eloah]

Like someone else mentioned I use the expanded hotbar, with one section having Eos's abilities and the othe bar having Selenes. The only "command" ability I have on those hotbars is obey as I rarely need to use place or heel, and when I do a quick flick of the tab and the oet bar is pulled up. My set up is something like this.

--------(Whispering Dawn*/Silent Dusk*)-----------|----------------------------------(Obey)
(Bane)--------------------------------(Protect)-----|------(Fey Covenent/Fey Caress)-------------(Embrace)
-----------------(Cleric Stance)---------------------|-------------------(Fey Illumination/Fey Wind*)

(Fairy abilities are ordered based on shared CDs)

I have Rouse macroed to Whispering Dawn and Fey Wind, since those abilities you will use as often as they are up and they share a CD timer. I also have the macro set up to notify when the ability is back up for use; though if you are on PS4 you can have the icons on the side too. Be careful though sometimes if you hit the button too quick after using one of your own abilities Rouse might not take on the first try but another press is okay.

As for the other moves I have on my expanded hotbar. I have protect here because its a "set it and forget it" move so no reason it should take up space on my move active hotbars. Bane is there so I can use it regardless of what stance or hotbar I am on, and Cleric Stance is for effect less switching in battle.

Its a great system and I'm sure a lot of people have very similar setups.

[Tsurayu]

I've main'd Scholar for a long time, and am a PS4 player, previously PS3.

It is something I have learned to "cope" with for the last couple years.

Probably the one single thing that helped me the most was expanded hold controls.

I usually have L2 >R2 mapped to Fairy actions, and R2 > L2 mapped to pet controls.

I found it useful that way I "technically" only have two pages to cycle through. First page is essentially my healer bar, and my second is for DPS. I have a third bar, but it is only rarely used for actions such as sprinting, mounting and Dissipation because well... who uses that skill except in a pinch, if at all.

I completely disagree. I feel like when you start out with SCH it can feel like macros are amazing, but when you get to really knowing the job, and doing end game raiding, you'll see quite clearly that it is not the case. As you're on pad, obviously some macros will be useful, like Summon followed by a 7 second wait and then Obey. But these are things that you do before combat and won't make the actual fight clunky. I would really try to use all your tools without using macros at first, it might seem hectic but you will get used to it. I was still playing on PS4 around the time we were completing FCoB, so it is possible.

Also, please don't use the Rouse + Whispering Dawn macro. Yes they are both abilities that share the same CD timer, but Rouse can do so much more. For starters in a proper group composition, it'll be your co-healer taking care of the party wide HoTs, so generally unless they mess up you should never even need to use Whispering Dawn. (Switch to Selene.) And Rouse is amazing when you really need to focus heal a tank, so to bind it with one ability is a huge waste imo.

Realistically, as you're on pad I would recommend you probably macro physick to embrace to make fairy managing a little easier. But tbh that's the only macro, aside from party messages, that you should be using. And you mentioned you tried k+m but sucked, I would suggest sticking to it if you have that opportunity. I was terrible when I switched, never PC gamed before this, and now I would never look back. It will make your life easier for pretty much every job if you put in that time for a bit.

And much agreed.

Macros can help ease you being overburdened as you are first learning the class, but you should look to ween yourself off of them as you level and become more comfortable with managing, and micromanaging, the class by yourself.

On the whole, macros do more harm than good, especially when you are talking about higher level content such as raiding.

For example, a popular Scholar macro is to tie your Physick with Eos/Selene's Embrace. While at face value that seems like a no brainer to control incrase your healing output on a target, it can actually become a hindrance. The cooldown for your Physick and their Embrace is different. Meaning the more times you use this macro, the further out of sync the abilities will become, which defeats the purpose of the skill to begin with, and can prevent your fairy from using other abilities that would be better used at any given moment.

Besides, macros have a tendency to break, especially when you queue multiple macros in quick succession. It's wiser to use them sparingly, if at all. And that doesn't just apply to Scholar.

[Gamer3427]

I'm a PS4 player myself, and I have all of my abilities to the gamepad. That being said, I don't micromanage as much as other players, I suspect. If I'm using Eos, I just let her do her thing, since if I have her out it's a heavy healing situation to begin with, where I want all her skills active as soon as possible. I'm normally using Selene though, and I have her attack speed buff, and group esuna both on my hotbar, but leave silence off. I can't usually use her silence anyhow since I have latency issues and there's a delay between telling a pet to do something and them actually doing it most of the time anyhow. IF I'm in a situation where I can use it, (and it would be useful to use it obviously), I just tap R1 to switch to the pet hotbar and use it from there. I do also have a third hotbar set up which I switch to if I need to with R1+Square, which is just for summoning Eos or using Sustain, (normally my AoE heals will keep Selene out of danger, so Sustain was just taking up hotbar space on my main bars). Also, the only macro I use is a simple "/yell (Reviving <t>)" command on Resurrection so that people don't waste their swift-revives on the same person.....

Don't know if this helped or not. I'll try to upload pictures of my hotbars tomorrow, (er today), at some point just to give you an idea of what the set up is like......