Tips for SCH? :)

[Fernosaur]

beep boop

A WHM swiftcasting SSII after a boss fight in a 4-man dungeon so that everyone can keep running like headless chickens. How is that bad? I will grant you that doing it on raids or big fights isn't a wonderful idea (specially summon), but it really shouldn't be that bad. It's like WHMs holding onto Benediction in trash pulls because they might need it in a boss fight.

You won't need it in a boss fight. Same with Swiftcast. I use Swiftcast on dungeons to put stoneskin on the tank after Adlo in between pulls, and I've never had a single time in which I needed it and didn't have it because of that. This advice is mostly intended for 4-man dungeons (hence the fairy switching), so you have to put it in context too.

[Gemina]

A smn/sch that swiftcast summon is as bad as a whm swiftcasting stoneskin II or a swiftcast shadowflare

Any one who answer me : there is time for the 1 minute CD to come back
I will stab back with : then why aren't losing 5 sec to cast which is 10 time faster

...

Also yeah in dungeon you have more time to reset a cd but it's better to have the rightful mind about it
Because if you do that in EX primal you will soon regret it XD
(Or the new 24man that is... death at all time)

There is value in swiftcasting nearly any ability where the cast time is greater than the gcd, it's just learning when to do it. This includes SSII and Summon. You can't really compare a 60 sec CD with a 5 sec cast time as the repercussions for using either are night and day. Losing the ability to cast all your skills for 5 seconds mid-fight is far more detrimental than losing one ability for 60 seconds. If you need to rezz someone 60 seconds into a fight, there might be issues that negates any usefulness out of swiftcast from a rezz standpoint. Saving SC for a rezz is so situational. It's an ace you want to keep in your pocket when you know there is a high percentage chance that someone is going to drop, which you should be able to evaluate during the instance.

As for EX primals, I can't speak on any of them. But from the primal instances I have encountered, there is no reason to switch your fairy mid fight. You make your choice and run with her. If there was a situation that calls for it, you would definitely want to swiftcast it as summoning mid-fight is essentially a rezz. Switching fairies for me has been the most useful in dungeons where I will use Selene for the run and Eos for the boss. Some groups are ok with you not burning up SC prior to the fight and just using a regular summon, but most charge in as soon as protect is up.

[DarkmoonVael]

A WHM swiftcasting SSII after a boss fight in a 4-man dungeon so that everyone can keep running like headless chickens. How is that bad? I will grant you that doing it on raids or big fights isn't a wonderful idea (specially summon), but it really shouldn't be that bad. It's like WHMs holding onto Benediction in trash pulls because they might need it in a boss fight.

You won't need it in a boss fight. Same with Swiftcast. I use Swiftcast on dungeons to put stoneskin on the tank after Adlo in between pulls, and I've never had a single time in which I needed it and didn't have it because of that. This advice is mostly intended for 4-man dungeons (hence the fairy switching), so you have to put it in context too.

Stoneskin II in dungeons for trash isnt needed as no one but the tank should be getting hit by aoes. In dungeons on WHM that swiftcast can be better used for something like Swiftcast Holy>Assize.

[Nekotee]

When I go as whm in dungeon my bénédiction is always on CD because it's a wonderful DPS tool.
You can go as crazy as you want in DPS and always fully heal your tank without getting out of cleric et no matter how much mana is left

And stoneskin 2 in 4man is most of the time pointless except on boss... and it depend if the boss have a wide aoe or not

@Gemina when you use dissipation as DPS booster or mana regen you have to have you're swiftcast for the fairy because it's so long to cast her
(Well if time correctly you can always fine a down time windows to slow cast her)

Mostly i great swiftcast for emergency, this isn't need to performance basic DPS/healing dance
And i'm not burning it to please à group that want to run 5second faster

[technole]

Some aren't used to the idea but fairy switching has always been rather strategic, and with the addition of Dissipation there is even more emphasis on it. You should never stick with the "I summoned this fairy, we are sticking with it" ordeal.

In extreme/savage level fights you should never have to hard cast a fairy. It'd also be pretty silly to blame your death to a movement mechanic because you wanted to be safe and "hold" your swift but yet not get into position on-time. Swiftcast saves even your own life. You just have to look at the skill as a toolbox.

[Zadocfish]

Alright, I have finally gotten SCH, and am on my way to making it my main class (19 levels before I catch up with my PLD!). I wanna post some things I noticed, so I can learn if they're true or not:

I have 3 bars: Healing, DPS, and Cooldowns/misc. The Healing and DPS are my main rotations, the third is for stuff like Protect, Summon, Sustain, and Resurrect: stuff I won't be using often, but occasionally. Both my Healing and DPS bars have my Eos commands on the left side, so I can Embrace whenever I need to manually.

I have seen no reason to use the "Place" command/"Heel" command. It's faster to just walk where I need my pet to go in the automatic "heel" mode. There is very rarely reason for me to move and interrupt her; I can just park near my party and Eos will Embrace away. 25y isn't too short of a distance, really.

I had no idea how easy micromanaging Eos would be! She casts Embrace automatically, so I very rarely have to tell her to do that. I still have it on the bar, because sometimes you need to manually get her to prioritize the tank. Mostly, it's just the cooldowns; and yeah, they're crazy easy, especially since Whispering Dawn has a pretty short cooldown.

Basically, in average dungeons, it feels like I'm two classes. I still keep the party alive thanks to MP-less Embrace spamming, but I can devote almost the whole dungeon to being an extra DPS; in Cleric Stance, I have the same power as I did when I was ACTUALLY a DPS as an ARC. That means that the dungeon goes significantly faster, because it's like having a Healer AND a third DPS. Also, when I DO need to heal, I basically heal twice every GDC because of Eos, and I have a nifty heal/barrier spell as well. It feels way better than playing as a WHM for me; it feels like there's a massive safety net.

So, that's my first thoughts on playing SCH. Feeling pretty good, so far.

[Ragology]

Alright,

I have seen no reason to use the "Place" command/"Heel" command. It's faster to just walk where I need my pet to go in the automatic "heel" mode. There is very rarely reason for me to move and interrupt her; I can just park near my party and Eos will Embrace away. 25y isn't too short of a distance, really.

The place/heel thing is mostly for fights like Titan Extreme where frequent movement interrupts the Fairy's healing.

[Gemina]

@zadocfish, you will commonly find that place is highly recommended to maximize the healing of your fairy. I recommend saving a video of one of your runs and monitor your fairies behavior when you view it. You will likely find moments where she's moving when she should be healing.

Now, that doesn't mean you must always place her, but the more you do it, the more relieving it will be knowing she's spamming embrace while you got free reign to do your thing.

It's like you said, being sch is almost like bringing two jobs into the instance. So keep that healer mentality intact, and try to place your fairy in the same position you would put yourself in if you were running as another healer.

[Gemina]

Alright, I have finally gotten SCH, and am on my way to making it my main class (19 levels before I catch up with my PLD!). I wanna post some things I noticed, so I can learn if they're true or not:

I have 3 bars: Healing, DPS, and Cooldowns/misc. The Healing and DPS are my main rotations, the third is for stuff like Protect, Summon, Sustain, and Resurrect: stuff I won't be using often, but occasionally. Both my Healing and DPS bars have my Eos commands on the left side, so I can Embrace whenever I need to manually.

So, that's my first thoughts on playing SCH. Feeling pretty good, so far.

Last post was from my phone, but there are a couple more things I wanted to bring up:

Not sure if you're PC or controller, but keep in mind that your pet already has its own bar. When you have less skills, it can be easier to hotbar some of your pet's abilities so you don't have to access the pet hotbar, but as you acquire more, I believe you will find the hard set pet hotbar much more convenient.

Basically, in average dungeons, it feels like I'm two classes. I still keep the party alive thanks to MP-less Embrace spamming, but I can devote almost the whole dungeon to being an extra DPS; in Cleric Stance, I have the same power as I did when I was ACTUALLY a DPS as an ARC. That means that the dungeon goes significantly faster, because it's like having a Healer AND a third DPS. Also, when I DO need to heal, I basically heal twice every GDC because of Eos, and I have a nifty heal/barrier spell as well. It feels way better than playing as a WHM for me; it feels like there's a massive safety net.

Actually, you have more power! The SCH soulstone provides a significant increase to your MND stat, which in-turn translates to a higher INT stat when you activate Cleric, that's without mentioning that as your item level increases, the MND stat for SCH seriously inflates. SCH DPS can significantly reduce the time spent in an instance, but always remember that healing and DMG mitigation are top priority. I wish you happy travels on your Eorzean travels!

[Zadocfish]

Alright, been trying it out a little more, reading up, and came up with a new question. Under what circumstance would I ever use Miasma 2? It seems almost completely worthless. Ruin 2 is a straight upgrade to replace Ruin 1, Bio 2 is a great thing to add to the rotation along with Bio 1... But Miasma 2 has a small range for an AOE, doesn't do much damage over time (roughly 1/4th of Miasma 1 per target), and Miasma already turns into an AOE with smart use of Bane... and the sheer difference in damage means it's more useful just spreading Miasma 1 to each enemy one-at-a-time; one casting of Miasma can lead to about 300 total potency, compared to 70 for Miastma 2... so, you'd need to cast it on a minimum of 4 opponents, and recast it much sooner, to get as much damage in. Miasma 2 is Instant, sure, but you still can't do anything in the GDC...

Is there something I'm missing...? It seems like the most worthless level-up spell in the game I've seen so far, being literally worse in almost every way than its first version.