The only time I had problems healing 30-40 is my own l2p issues. Usually it was me having problems keeping the tank in range (specifically in Brayflax final boss) while also keeping myself and my fairy out of AoE's. I never felt like I was missing Leeches before I got it.

My tactic for healing through the tough parts where everyone takes lots of damage, even before i got succor, was to target the tank, and manually cast embrace on the tank, and then set up physick or adlohoweveritsspelt as a mouse-over macro and I would cast that either on the tank or whoever needed it. And just do that over and over again. And if I have to run, I still cast embrace so at least some heals got out.

I've run plenty of below 30 dungeons level syncing down my scholar, and didn't find it problematic to only have physick for those.

I actually split stacking into INT and MIND as an arcanist, cos I heard on the forums that having some extra points in INT was still good cos it got you more out of Energy Drain. Now I just stack MIND. Sometimes I solo level with cleric stance, other times I forget. I honestly don't notice that much of a difference. I do notice other classes kill things a lot fast than me, but I figure, I'm a healer so that makes sense.

But yea - I have no complaints about leveling a scholar, only times I've had problems is cos I'm being dumb/bad/still learning how to best use the faerie.