Scholar Guide/Stormblood
What you do
The Scholar's spells are about shielding and healing. At low levels, Aetherflow is mostly a mana-management strategy, while at higher levels it unlocks new and powerful spells for instant healing or damage mitigation.
At any given moment, a Scholar gets to pick from a few things to do:
- Use an Aetherflow charge
- Shield or heal someone
- Manage your fairy pet
- Support the DPS
Using Aetherflow
Aetherflow charges are consumed by five spells at 70: Lustrate (a hefty single-target heal), Indomitability (an area-effect instant heal), Excogitation (places a 30-second buff on a single target that heals them automatically if they are below half), Sacred Soil (an AOE damage reduction), and Energy Drain.
Lustrate is your go-to spell for snap single-target heals. It has no cast time and no cooldown. If you just resurrected someone, a Lustrate will typically take them from 20% to 50% HP instantly. If the tank is getting hammered, one or even two Lustrate casts should let them survive.
Indomitability is an instant-cast AOE heal. Use this after a boss's party-wide attack hits everyone, or if a bunch of people stood in fire.
Sacred Soil is more situational. Because it lingers, you don't want to cast it in movement-heavy fights, or during movement-heavy phases. If your group is stacking up and about to take damage, cast it at that time.
Aetherflow gives 3 charges at 70, and has a cooldown of 60s. Because of this, you can cast one of these heals every 15-20 seconds apart if you want to pace yourself. After level 68, each Aetherflow action will reduce the cooldown by 5s.
Shields and heals
Adloquium and Succor are your shielding spells. The shield you place on a target is called Galvanize. This can be spread to other targets with Deployment Tactics, or you can cast a spell that heals instead of shields with Emergency Tactics.
In general, if a target is at 75-85% of total HP, you want Adloquium. If they are below that, you want Physick.
Shields are awesome. Shields solve the #1 problem that healers face, which is that being too good at their job doesn't get them anything. Don't be afraid to pre-emptively use Adloq and/or Succor, if you know damage is coming.
Remember also that your fairy is healing! Embrace is being cast all the time. If you're in the habit of topping people off with Physick, get out of it and use Adloq instead - at least the shield's overheal is actually going to be useful.
Managing your fairy
You have two possible fairy pets, one of which will be out at any given moment. For the most part, you can leave healing and buffs up to them unless you're in a raid. For light dungeon parties, Selene. For raids or damage-heavy trials, Eos.
Eos
The Eos toolkit includes Whispering Dawn, Fey Covenant, and Fey Illumination.
Whispering Dawn is an AOE heal over time with a 60-second cooldown. You can use it in conjunction with Indomitability or Succor to heal heavy AOE damage, or use it if you're out of Aetherflow charges and need some sort of AOE heal anyway.
Fey Covenant is a specialist buff, increasing magic defense. Use this prior to a boss's big attacks.
Fey Illumination is a buff to healing done. Use this for heavy AOE damage scenarios, especially if you can't afford to hold still for Sacred Soil or if Soil is on CD.
Selene
The Selene toolkit includes Silent Dawn, Fey Caress, and Fey Wind.
Silent Dawn is a 1-second silence and does not contribute to heals directly, but it can mitigate damage.
Fey Caress is party-wide Leeches. It only removes the same effect from everyone, not a single effect which could be different per character. For example, you can remove a Heavy debuff from everyone, but not a Heavy and a Stun. Since this ability can also be triggered by things like a Marauder's Berserk triggering pacification, you should set Selene on "Obey" for fights where you know debuffs are an important mechanic.
Fey Wind is an attack speed buff, increasing party DPS. Save this for burn phases, or simply let Selene cast it at will if it doesn't matter.
Supporting the DPS
Because a lot of casual healing is taken care of by your fairy, you often have time to switch to Cleric Stance and do some damage. You have all your usual Arcanist DoTs, and you can cast Ruin (and later Broil).
Your fairy's healing output is based on your stats at the time it was summoned, so do not summon your fairy with Cleric Stance up.
A typical boss fight
Before the fight:
- Make sure your Aetherflow charges are at full.
- Make sure Protect is up on everyone, and not going to drop off before the fight ends.
- Target the boss and make it your focus target.
During the fight:
- Watch for a big spell being cast by the boss. Is it happening? If so, use Succor or Adloquium, depending on whether it's group-wide or targeted.
- Is everyone grouping up for this spell? If so, use Sacred Soil where the group is assembling.
- After the spell hits, is someone still badly hurt? Use Lustrate or Indomitability to bring them back.
- Is a tank or healer dead? If so, Swiftcast Resurrection to bring them up.
- Is a DPS dead? Do the same - but tanks/healers should get priority.
- Does anyone have a priority debuff? Use Esuna, or Selene's Fey Caress if it affected several people.
- Is your fairy dead? It can happen - she got aggro, she stood in a heavy AOE, whatever. If so, Swiftcast Summon if you can.
- Has Succor fallen off the group, or not yet up? Cast it. It will last 30 seconds.
- Does anyone need healing? Use Physick if they are below 75-85%, Adloq if they are at or above it.
- Place Eye for an Eye on the tank, and Bio/Miasma on the boss. Refresh these on cooldown.
Tips and tricks
- Put Protect (Healer 16) into your Role actions. This is a 30-minute damage reduction. You can remove it from your Role actions during boss fights, as the effect will persist.
- Get Swiftcast (Healer 32). You need this to effectively use Resurrection, or to re-summon your pet quickly if it dies.
- Spread your use of Aetherflow charges across the minute-long cooldown you have. Only blow through Lustrate and/or Indomitability if your tank or fellow raiders are seriously damaged. If Aetherflow is up and you have charges left, you may often wish to use Energy Drain to recover mana.
- Lucid Dreaming gives a Refresh effect, which increases mana regeneration.
- During boss fights, keep the boss as focus. You want to know what the boss is casting, so you can put up shields before something heavy hits.
- If you know you are dropping both Sacred Soil and Succor, do Sacred Soil first. Casting it means your Succor has a chance to cost no MP.