Help with SCH for someone new to healing

[NosamKin]

Been playing SMN since ARR - my summoner is lvl 70. My FC pointed out that due to the changes introduced in StormBlood with minimal effort you can be a Scholar also. So I've done that and now I'm a level 70 SCH - but I've never healed a day in my life.
I haven't found any guides for SCH that are current. I don't raid. So can anyone point me to SCH basics or provide some fundamental SCH info? Healing sounds scary.
Thanks in advance.

[dfm]

Speaking as a level 50+ SCH/SMN who abandoned it for AST/RDM once I finished the 2.x content.

Start with Hall of the Novice and low level dungeons like Sastasha. Then try harder dungeons as you get more comfortable and try out the new skills one by one. Be sure to manage your aetherflow stacks efficiently (use Energy Drain if you don't need them for anything else) and use aetherflow on cooldown. Make a habit of micromanaging your pet as well.

For role actions, take Protect, Esuna, Lucid Dreaming, Swiftcast, Largesse. Protect and Esuna can be swapped out later depending on the situation.

[Littlegreen]

Your go-to fairy will be Eos. She is your best friend but much like SMN egis she'll blow all her GCDs if you leave her on sic. Much like SMN you want to balance how you use your aetherflow so that you always have it when you need it. The bonus to being SCH is that using stacks reduces the cooldown of aetherflow by 5 sec so it's effectively on a 45 sec cooldown. The idea with SCH is to use your aetherflow and fairy abilities to keep the party alive while you dps.

A good start just before any pull is to use adloquium and excogitation on the tank. Adlo will provide a shield worth the amount you healed (I hit for about 7.7k at i321, so on top of that 7.7k heal the tank can now take 7.7k damage before their health starts dropping again) and excogitation is a 700 potency heal that will activate when the tank drops below 50%.

In a typical pull both adlo and excog give you more than enough time to throw out Miasma, Bio II and Shadowflare. From that point, depending on how much damage the tank is taking, you'll either need to start spam healing or you can leave it to the fairy. In either situation a Rouse+Whispering Dawn helps a lot and Lustrate is a strong instant heal in case the tank drops low. Excog is even stronger and will instantly heal much like Lustrate does if the tanks health is already below 50% so that's also an option if it's off cooldown and times are stressed. If you have time to dps, Broil II->Ruin II->Energy Drain is my "rotation". Ruin II works really well as a way to weave in aetherflow since it's a relatively cheap instacast.

Chain Strategem is a 15% increase to crit chance on a target so make sure to use that on bosses. It also meshes well with BRD and AST crit/damage buffs. If you happen to have Selene out using both Fey Wind and Chain Strategem is a strong boost to DPS.

If you want a good opener (but do keep in mind this is kinda overkill for typical dungeon runs, so don't sweat trying this out if it's intimidating), have Selene out before the boss is pulled. Adlo the tank, use Deployment Tactics to spread that adlo shield to the rest of the party, and just as the tank is running in use Fey Wind, use Chain Strategem after the tank grabs the boss, swiftcast+summon Eos out, throw out shadowflare between the GCD, miasma+bio II, rouse+whispering dawn (hit that button like 3-5 times to be sure), do the "rotation" 3 times, aetherflow, largesse+adlo, heal if needed, excog. Obviously that's a lot to do but I think if you play SMN as much as you say you're used to that kind of activity.

The biggest thing to keep in mind about SCH is that it's most effective when you know what to expect. People rip on this job all the time but honestly it's still a beast at damage mitigation. A critical adlo (or critlo as us in the industry call it) is so satisfying to deploy and watch as the raid boss doesn't even break through it, or how excog pops so instantaneously that it almost acts as another shield. And fairy HoTs are still strong despite the embrace nerf. People are just mad that SCH actually have to use physick sometimes now as opposed to ripping large pulls in Gubal HM to shreds while never once using lustrate. SCH is a very satisfying healer but you will need to work harder than, say, a WHM might have to, but where WHM is popping bene or tetra to dps longer you're making the tank feel real comfy with shields, excog AND regen at the same time (not that regens should be on while excog is since excog is on a timer and it's sad when it doesn't fet used) and hardly losing any mp over it.

Also, a handy macro:

/macrolock
/macroicon Protect
/echo You are now switching to Protect.
/aaction Swiftcast off
/aaction Protect on
/ac Protect <wait.3>
/aaction Protect off
/aaction Swiftcast on
/echo Protect has been disabled. The following skill has been restored:
/recast Swiftcast

This will make protect not a required role action. It will assign protect in place of, in this case, swiftcast, cast protect, then switch them back so that swiftcast is usable. I have this macro on for dungeons and simply ensure no one dies to preventable damage. In trials and raids I just put protect back on my hotbar since I have to assume people will die and need protect again. But pretty much no matter the encounter I have Swiftcast, Largesse. Esuna, Eye for an Eye and Lucid Dreaming, switching E4E for protect in raids. You can play around with that macro, for example, to replace E4E for protect and back again.

Sorry, it's a lot and my explanations are kind of all over the place, but that's because there's a lot to SCH. But since you've been playing SMN once you get the gist of healing I think you'll quickly catch on. Just remember to warn your pug tanks in roulette or bring an fc tank along until then.

[Elisaveta]

I'm a newbie scholar and have been working my way through leveling dungeons. Now that I have hit the 40s I have noticed things are getting a bit tougher. My main issue now is my mana pool. if I'm dpsing as much as I can I'm having some mana issues during trash. I'm managing aetherflow well I use tap when I need to and the ability to spread my dots when there are aoe groups.

My question is at my current level should I be using Adlo much or only when really needed? I don't worry about using it when I feel it's needed on boss fights but on trash I'm a bit confused. Going pull to pull with dps and healing when needed, adlo is a huge expense. Worth it or no? I try and not go below 20-30% MP just in case things go really bad.

[NorthernLadMSP]

I'm a newbie scholar and have been working my way through leveling dungeons. Now that I have hit the 40s I have noticed things are getting a bit tougher. My main issue now is my mana pool. if I'm dpsing as much as I can I'm having some mana issues during trash. I'm managing aetherflow well I use tap when I need to and the ability to spread my dots when there are aoe groups.

My question is at my current level should I be using Adlo much or only when really needed? I don't worry about using it when I feel it's needed on boss fights but on trash I'm a bit confused. Going pull to pull with dps and healing when needed, adlo is a huge expense. Worth it or no? I try and not go below 20-30% MP just in case things go really bad.

Are you using Lucid Dreaming? You should have no MP issues if you are using it properly.

[Gemina]

I'm a newbie scholar and have been working my way through leveling dungeons. Now that I have hit the 40s I have noticed things are getting a bit tougher. My main issue now is my mana pool. if I'm dpsing as much as I can I'm having some mana issues during trash. I'm managing aetherflow well I use tap when I need to and the ability to spread my dots when there are aoe groups.

My question is at my current level should I be using Adlo much or only when really needed? I don't worry about using it when I feel it's needed on boss fights but on trash I'm a bit confused. Going pull to pull with dps and healing when needed, adlo is a huge expense. Worth it or no? I try and not go below 20-30% MP just in case things go really bad.

Are you using Adlo as your primary heal spell?

For trash pulls, you should cast it pre-pull and then use Physick and fairy to keep your tank up. Adlo during trash and bosses can be an emergency heal before you get Lustrate, or after you obtain Lustrate but are out of Aetherflow stacks. The heal + shield combine for 600 potency and will buy you, your fairy, and the tank some time to adjust. You can also use Adlo on someone or yourself if you know a big hit is coming.

Are you using Eos as your primary fairy for dungeons and managing her CDs properly?

At level 40, you get some HUGE MP savers: You get Rouse, and you also get Fey Illumination. Combining these with Whispering Dawn creates a potent AoE regen and costs you 0 MP. Rouse and Whispering Dawn share a 60 second cooldown, and you should almost always use them together. They should be available once per pull unless DPS is really high. Fey Covenant is also very useful for when you know unavoidable AoE is coming.

Are you using your role skills?

Both Lucid Dreaming and Largesse save you MP. The former does it directly via MP refresh, and the latter does it indirectly similar to Fey Illumination by increasing the potency of your heals so less GCDs need to be used on them.

Other than that, make sure your gear and weapon are up to date and also be sure to properly place Eos so that she is healing steadily and not sitting in a corner, or following you around. Those last few levels before 50 can be really tough, and the gear and skill of your tank will always dictate how much healing you need to do. If everything I mentioned above checks out, and your still having MP issues, then this is likely the case and getting through these kind of instances will only make you a better healer.

Best of luck!

[Littlegreen]

I'm a newbie scholar and have been working my way through leveling dungeons. Now that I have hit the 40s I have noticed things are getting a bit tougher. My main issue now is my mana pool. if I'm dpsing as much as I can I'm having some mana issues during trash. I'm managing aetherflow well I use tap when I need to and the ability to spread my dots when there are aoe groups.

My question is at my current level should I be using Adlo much or only when really needed? I don't worry about using it when I feel it's needed on boss fights but on trash I'm a bit confused. Going pull to pull with dps and healing when needed, adlo is a huge expense. Worth it or no? I try and not go below 20-30% MP just in case things go really bad.

Adlo is not the SCH main heal (ideally it would be lustrate while Eos does the bulk of it),but pre-pull it's super handy so the tank isn't at 50% by the time they stop. Once the tank has pulled top them off with physick, then rouse+whispering dawn and that should keep a well-geared, cooldown-using tank up for a while. If things get really dicey adlo can provide that second you need to lustrate and start a physick cast, but again adlo is not to be spammed.

Also, like the person above, lucid dreaming should solve any mp issues you might have. I also like using energy drain while dpsing as it almost completely offsets the mp used to dps, but take care not to drain yourself of aetherflow in case you need that emergency lustrate.

[era1Ne]

I'd also recommend to use lucid dreaming at around 70% mana in most cases, since you can get more ls usage in an fight, if you don't wait to long and many new healers have an hard time to recover, because they use it when their oom (=out of mana) basically. Don't make the same mistake