Tips for SCH? :)

[FoxyAreku]

Fairies are bad on auto because they blow cooldowns as soon as possible every time.

Selene used to be amazing on auto in 2.0 because she would cycle buffs, but since she got the esuna she went full stupid and now tries to esuna REZ SICKNESS of all things. XD

Just practice and it will be no trouble. Using pet abilities are really no different than just using your own abilities if you do it right (aside from being able to cast them while you're casting something else).

[Gemina]

Shields are heals. They are just heals that cannot be stacked. Every time you cast Adlo or Succor you are healing for 600 and 300 respectively, so long as damage is incoming within 30 seconds. If you shield before the damage is incoming, you are losing 150 potency or half of the heal. Players also have natural health regain. You can shield before the attack if it makes you feel safer, but its a 50% overheal. You are costing yourself 2 GCDs, when 1 would be sufficient. An exception would be when massive raid wide damage is about to go out, and you need the extra healing, like in Sephirot during the third phase with adds. Shielding with succor during the knockback. Virus. Emergency Tactics. Precasting Succor. Succor. Indom. But even that is overheal if you have a good healing partner. (Thats 150+300+300+400 x 8 potency in 6 seconds.) In MOST content, precasting a shield, when you could be DPSing is an overheal.

Typically though on a single target, if you Adlo for that 600 potency heal (your 616 heal, 616 shield,) your fairy will be given more time to assist you, having 1.5x as much time to help heal.

Go into a pull. Tank has adlo (maybe even SS).Spamming Embrace at even 100% health. Popping rouse as bio or aero enters your rotation. Fairy can't keep up. CS off. Lustrate. Adlo. CS on. Thats 1200 potency in heals, while the fairy helps to keep up. Its even easier at 50 and below content, because the fairy nerf drops embrace from 300 at level 50 to 200 at level 60.

Adlo and succor are effecient healing spells that focus on retaining the heal if it would be overheal, but are inefficient if you try to stack them on themselves.

I think you and I have completely different approaches to galvanize. I don’t see Adlo and Succor as heals. I see them as shields with a restorative number that lets you know how much dmg it is going to absorb. I have always been under the impression that a SCH’s strength comes from their ability to mitigate damage. My time as WHM has shown how much more difficult it is for SCH to repair the damage after it comes. When I need to heal, I use Physick, Lustrate, and I’ll have Indom soon for a true AoE heal. I make no mention of stacking Galvanize. There is no over heal with Galvanize because I am not casting it to restore hit points.

Also, I missed this one. Selene actually has a terrible AI for Fey Caress. The only time it would be effective is if you know you'll be put to sleep, so that Selene could fey caress you out of it, since you can't micromanage incapacitated. If someone even has weakness, she'll try to Fey Caress it, when they raise. You could make the case for her silence, but an interrupt macro is about as reliable.

You also want to aim Fey wind's duration for a time when you can maximize your 30 seconds of uptime. She'll use it whenever it goes off of cool down, even if the boss is invulnerable or if you're at the end of a pull.

Allow me to be more clear about Sic/Obey. I know that keeping our fairy on obey is the most effective way to utilize her tool kit. However, the question is: Am I am more effective having her on manual control? If a debuff that needs cleansed is sapping away at the group that Selene would have picked up long before I cast leeches, or if Fey Wind has been sitting off CD for x amount of time during trash pulls or boss fights, the answer is no.

We can bring up the faulty fairy AI all day, while human error for some reason is never mentioned. I can only speak for myself when I say I am not a perfect SCH by any means, but if any of these derps I mentioned sounds familiar, I wouldn’t throw Sic out the window. If someone needs a rezz and Selene is on auto, take her off it while you’re casting it so she doesn't waste FC. Simple. There is no set rule that says you can’t toggle Sic/Obey to increase your effectiveness. Toggling them, really is part of the micro managing. I seriously doubt SE gave the Sic command so players can be lazy.

I should also mention that I use a controller. The hotbar setup does not allow me to see all CDs, and when a lot is going on all at once, especially when solo healing, it is VERY easy to miss a CD. I will tell a SCH that manual control is the most effective way to use our fairies, but I will never tell a SCH to keep their fairies on OR off obey.

A good example of when I toggled between Sic and Obey was during Garuda story mode. I came in with Selene and left her on Auto. SD is ineffective towards her, and she causes no debuffs that need to be cleansed. So I eliminated my own margin for error by leaving her on Sic to maximize Fey Wind. At around 60% before Garuda uses her signature ability, I brought in Eos and put her on obey. This made it much easier for me to regain control after everyone except the tank dropped lower than 20% HP.

Also Selene does not use Fey Wind every time it is off CD. She will cast it when the following conditions are met:

- Off CD
- Not silenced, slept, or other interruption
- Player is engaged in battle, or player is aggroed

She will not cast it outside of a fight. If she casts it towards the end of a trash pull, it’s on me for not taking her off of Sic, but considering that Fey Wind reduces cast times as well as CD’s, it not necessarily a bad thing if it is active between pulls, which are so ridiculously short you’re losing very little.

[Gemina]

Ah, okay. So, then, Selene on auto-pilot and switch to controlled Eos for bosses with invulnerable phases. Until I get comfortable with the class, at which point only do auto in low-stakes situations.

I wish it was that simple. With Eos it is because I honestly can't think of a single situation you would want her on auto, I had only said "mostly" in an earlier post incase anyone else who chimed in could think of a reason to not have her on Obey.

Selene's abilities are less situational as well as less consequential if miscast. If she miscasts Fey Caress, it sucks, but you still have leeches to back you up. How effective Selene is on Obey is entirely dependent on your ability to know what's going on at any given time, and use her abilities strategically. If you're missing debuffs and FW's cooldown, it might be best to keep her on Sic until through with the instance, or you gain the comfort and confidence to have her on Obey. But being fully functional with her on Obey is something every SCH should strive for. Practice, practice, practice.

[Nekotee]

The worst about auto EoS is that you blow up most of her cd in the wrong order
Making them even more useless

Each time I start a fight with a scholar with EoS and we start the 15 first second of the fight with everything on
I'm like... huh again a poor sch... who did not learn how his job work

One of my FC tank who tey to be heal told me that it was fine to have auto eos especially in dungeon
No... hell no
There is no excuse for a sch to be lazy like that !

[DarkmoonVael]

The worst about auto EoS is that you blow up most of her cd in the wrong order
Making them even more useless

Each time I start a fight with a scholar with EoS and we start the 15 first second of the fight with everything on
I'm like... huh again a poor sch... who did not learn how his job work

One of my FC tank who tey to be heal told me that it was fine to have auto eos especially in dungeon
No... hell no
There is no excuse for a sch to be lazy like that !

Well we now have two signs for the bad sch at the start of the fight:

1) the "blow your load on eos one" where they have her on sic and she uses every cooldown imaginable within 10 secs of the pull

2) the "deploy everything at the start of the fight" with the adlo deployed as well as eye-for-an-eye before the pull, even if they are going to achieve nothing due to the bosses moveset and not using an aoe within the first 30 secs.

[Vulcwen]

I think you and I have completely different approaches to galvanize. I don’t see Adlo and Succor as heals. I see them as shields with a restorative number that lets you know how much dmg it is going to absorb. I have always been under the impression that a SCH’s strength comes from their ability to mitigate damage. My time as WHM has shown how much more difficult it is for SCH to repair the damage after it comes. When I need to heal, I use Physick, Lustrate, and I’ll have Indom soon for a true AoE heal. I make no mention of stacking Galvanize. There is no over heal with Galvanize because I am not casting it to restore hit points.

The thing about adlo and succor being actually heals is that in the end of the day, after the damage is taken, the result is the same as if the damage was healed afterwards, as long someone would not die.
An example, with succor/medica as both have the same potency:

WHM:
Player is at 10k/13k HP
Player takes 3k damage -> 7k HP
Medica for 2k -> 9k HP
Player takes 3k damage -> 6k HP

Sch:
Player is at 10k/13k HP
Player takes 3k damage -> 7k HP
Succor for 1k + 1k galvanize -> 8k HP + 1k shield
Player takes 3k damage (raw) -> shield breaks, player takes 2k damage -> 6k HP

This means as a healing tool, succor is just as effective as medica, as long it's cast while no shield is already up, and the shield breaks within 30s.
Mitigation only has a real benefit over plain healing if someone would die without it, otherwise shields are simply a form of pro-active/delayed healing.

[JackFross]

I should also mention that I use a controller. The hotbar setup does not allow me to see all CDs, and when a lot is going on all at once, especially when solo healing, it is VERY easy to miss a CD. I will tell a SCH that manual control is the most effective way to use our fairies, but I will never tell a SCH to keep their fairies on OR off obey.

This goes for anyone who's playing on controller:
This is not a valid excuse for missing buffs.

See the following (my SCH setup):

Extended bars:

Tapping R1/RB cycles this and the first:


My summon macros swap hotbars and junk to set the Eos or Selene skills on my bars based on who I summon. Embrace macro is:
/micon "Embrace" pet selene
/macroerror off
/pac "Embrace" <t>
/pac "Embrace" <tt>
/pac "Embrace" <me>

(I have one for each Fairy because I'm a loser don't judge me;;; )

Also have my Whispering Dawn macro that shows up when I have Eos out:
/micon "Whispering Dawn" pet
/ac "Rouse"
/pac "Whispering Dawn"



I personally advocate Obey 100% of the time under all circumstances. Every fairy skill can be queued up while you're casting spells. You don't need to pause anything at all to activate them. Yes, training yourself to watch Fey Wind is hard, but that doesn't mean you should just give up and use Sic because it's easier/"just as good" - especially in a raid environment. When fighting bosses, Fey Wind will go off on cooldown, which is almost never the proper timing. It'll activate when adds spawn in A7S, for instance! What's the point of that?


Also - some tips I personally have for SCH. Can't be arsed to read the whole thread, so I'm gonna hope this stuff hasn't been covered.

1. Establish early on whether you're the main healer or the off-healer. If you're the former, don't be afraid to use Eos pre-54. When you get Indomitability (and, later on, Emergency Tactics), you won't need Eos anymore for raid heals. Indom is lovely, ET>Succor is quite powerful.
2. Use your kit. Don't be afraid to push buttons.
-- Deployment Tactics is amazing if you use it properly (ie: don't spread Eye for an Eye on the pull against a boss who only uses magic attacks and doesn't even use any raid damage in the first 30s...). Generally, this means NOT wasting it on the pull. Succor is good enough for early mitigation. You wanna save DT>Adlo for more serious situations.
-- Emergency Tactics is a godsend. ET>Succor can make or break a run if you heal properly while the other healer has their thumb up their ass and heals 3-5s too slow (as usually happens).
-- Indomitability is a fantastic use of stacks (if you haven't already used them all on Energy Drain) to quickly heal back from raid damage. It's only on a 30s timer, too, so it's pretty much on-demand as needed.
-- Sacred Soil in current content is approximately as potent as an Adloquium that didn't crit when used for proper situations. That's nothing to sneeze at. Don't be afraid to drop it.
-- Adloquium is a life saver - you shouldn't bench it just because Physick is cheaper. Adlo > Physick is a safer, more effective way to heal a tank at low health.
-- Dissipation is not a no-no button! It's your OH SHIT button! It drastically improves your heals AND gives you 3 free Lustrates for that awkward moment when you burned your last stack at 30s on AF's cd and you NEED a Lustrate or Indom right now.
-- THE FAIRY is a very powerful healer. In dungeons, you should only ever have to heal if your DPS are standing in bad or when the tank pulls more than a single group of mobs. Don't discount how powerful it is and be sure to study that through your own testing before you rely on her, naturally.

Uh... I'm really tired so I forget the rest.

Last point: dump Stoneskin from your cross-class. It's worthless for SCH to pack.
Cleric Stance > Aero > Protect > Swiftcast > Blizz II in that order.

[tENAxc]

Thanks for the responses, guys!

don't be afraid to use Eos pre-54

I don't understand this bit.

I recommend doing challenging solo content to practice.

What kind of solo practice do you recommend?

[Nekotee]

Oh god i forgot the pretty deploy

The best is when the use it on a full magic boss and pop EfaE
Like... why ? It won't work !

There is one more kind of meeeeh sch (but also work for whm, smn and Blm since it's a cross skill)
The use of EfaE

Use it on magic attack and I will judge you
Use it when a tank buster is coming and I will judge you harshly

Why do people great it like an emergency CD when it's a preventive one that must be use long before the big hit is coming !
I'm always lost and confuse when I see that....

[Rawrz]

Last point: dump Stoneskin from your cross-class. It's worthless for SCH to pack.
Cleric Stance > Aero > Protect > Swiftcast > Blizz II in that order.

That's the only thing I don't completely agree with. In places that weakness padding is needed, extra tank mitigation like green orbs from a6s or prepull in 4 man dungeons it's amazing. (Just to list a few uses) Comparative to blizzard II that competes with miasma II (as far as crowd control, both aren't the best in this aspect lol) and 4 or more targets are needed to outweigh broil, with a heavier mp cost. I really do commend SCH that use it effectively, even if only for novelty aoe. xD.