Comprehensive Scholar Guide Piety, although a primary attribute, can be
treated as a secondary attribute in terms of
1 Introduction
Scholar (SCH) is one of the two main healing
classes in FFXIV with an emphasis in damage
mitigation and is a great support that synergizes
well with a White Mage (WHM) healer in full
parties. SCHs have a pet fairy that supports the
party with various buffs and healing. Controlling
your pet can be difficult alongside having to
control your own character as well, but with
practice you can use your pet to its highest
potential which in turn improves you and your
party’s performance.
This is a guide created for intermediate and
veteran players. The focus is on class efficiency
to prepare you for difficult encounters.
2 Character
SCHs prioritize in the following main attributes:
 Mind: increases healing and damage
dealt (see Cleric Stance).
 Vitality: increases your maximum HP.
 Piety: increases your maximum MP and
regeneration.
It is best to allocate your attribute points into
mind. However, this is up to preference and in
some situations vitality or piety may be more
beneficial depending on how you play your
scholar. Scholars can be played in many
different ways and you should base your
character stats in ways that augment your play
style.
Secondary attributes available to the SCH
include:
 Critical Hit Rate: increases the chance
to critically heal and inflict damage.
 Spell Speed: decreases the cast and
recast times of some abilities. 0.1
seconds per 100 points after 341 (base)
for global cooldown (gcd) skills.
 Determination: increases healing and
damage dealt
 Accuracy: decreases the chance of
missing attacks
stats gained from gear. In most content outside
of coil, accuracy is not important. However,
recent non-coil encounters such as Leviathan
EX have shown that accuracy may be an
increasing concern for healers. Critical hit rate
has good synergy with scholars and is generally
the recommended secondary attribute to focus
on, but remember that depending on your play
style this attribute may not be as effective as
the others. Spell speed is usually frowned upon
due to the hardly noticeable decreases in cast
and recast times, but a large amount of spell
speed is very noticeable, especially with Selene.
Determination is similar to mind but provides
smaller benefits per point.
Playing around with different sets of gear to
maximize secondary stats (known also as best-
in-slot, BiS) can improve your play style but it is
important to prioritize item level first as primary
stats provide much more noticeable gains.
3 Abilities
SCH abilities have been grouped into healing,
support, damage and cross-class categories.
Best use of these abilities will be explained later
in the guide. Veterans should skip to section 5
but it is always good to review your abilities.
3.1 Healing
Physick
MP: 133 | Cast: 2.00 | Recast: 2.50
This is your standard, multi-purpose healing
spell. The MP cost is fairly low which allows this
skill to be used often. The cast time is less than
the recast time so instant skills such as lustrate
can be weaved in for efficient use of global
cooldowns.
Adloquium
MP: 319 | Cast: 2.00 | Recast: 2.50
Adloquium has lower cure potency than physick
(300 vs. 400) but provides the effect ‘galvanized’
on the target, a shield that absorbs damage
equal to the healing done. If adloquium critically
hits, the shield amount is doubled.

Succor
MP: 399 | Cast: 2.50 | Recast: 2.50
Succor heals all party members within 15 yalms
of you and also provides the galvanized effect
on each member. Succor does not have the
critical hit bonus of adloquium. Succor’s healing
potency (150) is relatively low compared to the
WHM’s medica (300) but is compensated for by
the shield. Unless multiple party members are
taking consistent damage this ability is not very
efficient at recovering HP as the shield does not
stack and is either replaced or has no effect (if
the current shield is greater).
Lustrate
Cast: Instant | Recast: 1.00
Lustrate consumes a stack of Aetherflow for
each use. Because it is instant cast it can be
weaved in-between casts to maximize
efficiency. Lustrate heals the target for 25% of
their maximum HP. It is unaffected by stats or
conditions such as weakness, cleric stance,
convalescence or infirmity.
3.2 Support
Virus
Cast: Instant | Recast: 90
Virus reduces STR, DEX, INT and MND of the
target by 15% for 10 seconds. In PvE you can
treat this as a decrease in physical and magic
damage dealt by the target during its duration.
At the end of its duration the target cannot be
affected by virus for 60 seconds (antibody).
This is a powerful ability and should be used at
the right times.
Resurrection
MP: 798 | Cast: 8.00 | Recast: 2.50
Revives a downed target for a hefty MP cost
and a very long cast time. Swiftcast is
recommended for this skill.
Eye for an Eye
Cast: Instant | Recast: 120
This ability applies a 30 second buff on a target
party member. Physical attacks on the target
have a 20% chance to reduce the striker’s
damage by 10% for 20 seconds. The effect is
not immediate and therefore should be
activated moments prior to a period of high
damage.
Leeches
Cast: 1.00 | Recast: 2.50
Leeches removes a single detrimental effect
from the target. The large difference between
cast and recast times allows for one if not more
instant abilities to be weaved in.
Sacred Soil
Cast: Instant | Recast: 30
Sacred soil consumes a stack of Aetherflow for
each use. It reduces damage received by 10%
for all party members in an eight-yalm radius.
There is a slight delay until this ability achieves
its effect (see in-game delay). This cannot be
used with shadowflare.
Aetherflow
Cast: Instant | Recast: 60
This ability restores up to 20% of your
maximum MP and grants three stacks of
aetherflow. Old stacks are lost and therefore
should be used before the next aetherflow is
available.
3.3 Damage
Ruin
MP: 79 | Cast: 2.50 | Recast: 2.50
This is an 80-potency spell. The damage is
quite low and should be used when more potent
attacks are on cooldown or have been used
already.
Ruin II
MP: 133 | Cast: Instant | Recast: 2.50
This is the same potency as Ruin but is instant
cast with an added blind effect for 10 seconds.
Ruin II is a good alternative to ruin if you must
move or wish to weave abilities. The MP cost is
significantly higher than ruin.
Bio
MP: 106 | Cast: Instant | Recast: 2.50
Bio is a 240-potency Damage over Time (DoT).
Weave this ability with other instant casts such
as energy drain. Bio cannot miss.
Miasma
MP: 133 | Cast: 2.50 | Recast: 2.50
Miasma is a 300-potency DoT. Miasma can
miss. Applies ‘disease’ debuff which reduces
movement speed and healing received by the
target.
Usually used when there are spare aetherflow
stacks for the extra MP and damage. This
ability should be weaved for efficiency. Energy
Drain can miss, and if it does miss, MP and HP
will not be restored.
Bane
Cast: Instant | Recast: 10
Bane is a great AoE skill that can spread
existing DoTs (bio, miasma and bio II only). to
three nearby targets. Bane cannot miss, even
for transferring miasma. There is a 15% chance
to reset DoT duration to the original duration for
the neighboring targets.
3.4 Cross-class abilities

Cure and raise are not included as we have

Bio II
identical abilities: physick and resurrection. At
MP: 186 | Cast: 2.50 | Recast: 2.50
level 50 we can cross-class up to five abilities.
Bio II is a 350-potency DoT. Bio cannot miss.

Aero
Miasma II
MP: 106 | Cast: Instant | Recast: 2.50
MP: 186 | Cast: Instant | Recast: 2.50
Aero is a 200-potency DoT. This is similar to
This applies a 70 potency DoT and ‘disease’
Bio in that it has room for weaving abilities.
effect to all targets within five yalms of you.
Aero is a good pick if you are confident in
Miasma II is a great skill for Area of Effect (AoE)
healing a fight and have global cooldowns to
damage. Miasma II can miss.
spare for damage. Aero can miss.

Shadowflare
Cleric Stance
MP: 212 | Cast: 3.00 | Recast: 2.50
Cast: Instant | Recast: 5.00
This creates a bubble in a designated area of
A must-have skill if you plan to do any damage
five-yalm radius inflicting 25-potency per tick (3
in a fight. This skill swaps your MND for INT
seconds) for 30 seconds (250 total potency)
and increases potency of attacks by 10% and
and applies a 5% ‘slow’ debuff that increases
decreases healing potency by 20%. It is
cast and recast times (usually does not apply to
important to use this skill at the right time as
most bosses). You may wish to pair this with
you cannot deactivate cleric stance for five
swiftcast due to its longer cast time. This cannot
seconds and during this time your healing is
be used with sacred soil. Shadowflare cannot
significantly reduced. Approximately doubles
miss.
your damage dealt.

Energy Drain
Protect
Cast: Instant | Recast: 3.00
MP: 266 | Cast: 3.00 | Recast: 2.50
Energy drain consumes a stack of Aetherflow
This increases party’s physical defense by 15%.
for each use. Energy drain’s recast is
White Mages (WHM) have a superior version
independent of the global cooldown. Inflicts
which increases magic defense so you should
damage of potency 150 and restores 266 MP
let them use it instead and therefore you can
and heals you for half of the damage dealt.
skip out on this skill. If you are the only healer
you should cross-class this.
Stoneskin
MP: 266 | Cast: 3.00 | Recast: 2.50
Stoneskin creates a barrier for 10% of the party
member’s maximum HP. WHMs have a
superior version for 18% and you should let
them use it instead and therefore you can skip
out on this skill. If you are the only healer you
should cross-class this.
Surecast
Cast: Instant | Recast: 20
Surecast prevents interruptions of casts from
attacks. It does not work when you are
displaced due to knockbacks, draw-ins, etc.
You should have this skill available in a fight
with adds that may go astray and attack you or
if there is a mechanic you cannot or should not
dodge during which you must cast.
Swiftcast
Cast: Instant | Recast: 60
Swiftcast turns a normal casting spell into an
instant cast. However, the recast will still remain.
This is useful for long casts such as
resurrection, casting on the move or to allow a
skill to be weaved efficiently in a skill that
normally does not have room for weaving.
Blizzard II
MP: 212 | Cast: 2.00 | Recast: 2.50
This is a 50-potency attack within five yalms of
you that also binds targets. AoE damage-wise it
is not very good but does have the utility of bind
should you need it. Blizzard II can miss.
3.5 Other abilities
Sprint
TP: Max | Cast: Instant | Recast: 20
This is a great utility skill that should be used if
you need to reposition or dodge an attack
quickly.
Limit Break
Limit break has a short cast time but a
significant delay that prevents you from moving
or casting spells. This delay seems to be longer
as the level of the limit break increases. Usually
limit break level one and two see very little use
but because it is a quick strong heal it is an
option if many party members are close to
death and there is a raid wide attack incoming.
In most cases the WHM is capable of raid
healing which is why it is not used often. Level
3 is a party raise and full HP restoration. Raised
targets gain full HP, MP and TP but retain the
weakness debuff. MP and TP are not restored
to party members alive before its use. Generally
try to let any bards in the party activate this if
possible.
4 Pet-associated abilities
These abilities have been grouped into scholar,
Eos and Selene categories.
4.1 Scholar
Summon
MP: 532 | Cast: 6.00 | Recast: 2.50
This ability summons the healer pet Eos. It is
recommended to swiftcast this skill. Though
there is little point in doing so before a pull.
Summon II
MP: 532 | Cast: 6.00 | Recast: 2.50
This ability summons the healer pet Selene.
Sustain
MP: 133 | Cast: 1.00 | Recast: 2.50
Sustain restores 24% of your pet’s maximum
HP over three ticks (8% per tick). This skill
heals your pet for approximately the same
amount as physick. The MP cost is also the
same and sustain has the benefit of a shorter
cast time, but the healing is over time.
Rouse
Cast: Instant | Recast: 60
For 20 seconds your pets will heal for 40%
more and become immune to bind, sleep,
heavy, paralysis and disease (can be useful to
deny paralysis and sleep).
Command: Away
This withdraws your pet. Sometimes you might
want a party member to die but your pet
continues to heal that target in which case this
command may be useful. All commands can be
used while casting spells.
Command: Obey
One of the most important pet commands, obey
prevents auto-casting of pet abilities and allows
you to control your pet.
Command: Sic
Sic enables pet auto-cast. Should not be used
on Eos but is debatable for Selene.
Command: Place
This command moves your pet to a position
controlled by your cursor.
Command: Heel
This command orders your pet to follow you. It
is generally inefficient to have your pet on heel
(explained later).
Command: Stay
This orders your pet to stay where it is. This is
similar to the command ‘place’. However, this
command does have its uses in macros
(explained later).
4.2 Eos
Eos is a healing focused pet that covers the
scholar’s disadvantage in party healing.
Embrace
Cast: 2.00 | Recast: 3.00
With a cure potency of 300, embrace is a great
heal that is essentially free. Eos will
automatically cast Embrace on any party
member that is below a certain HP threshold
(~70%). If the target is further than 30-yalms
Eos will move until the target is in range. Eos
will not move if the command ‘stay’ is used, but
will move if the command ‘place’ is used.
Whispering Dawn (1)
Cast: 2.00 | Recast: 60
Whispering dawn places a regenerative healing
buff within a 15-yalm radius of Eos of potency
100 per tick for 21 seconds (seven ticks). This
ability can be interrupted if Eos is displaced
while casting and the ability will go on cooldown
without the effect activating. It is usually paired
with rouse as they share the same recast times.
Fey Covenant (2)
Cast: Instant | Recast: 120
Fey covenant increases party magic resistance
by 20%, significantly reducing most party wide
damage for 20 seconds. This is our alternative
to the WHM’s enhanced protect (15%). This will
reduce magic damage by approximately 5%.
Fey Illumination (3)
Cast: Instant | Recast: 120
Fey illumination places a buff within a 15-yalm
radius of Eos that increases you and your
party’s healing output (not healing received) by
20%. This is the SCH’s version of divine seal.
Use this to strengthen your shields, support
your WHM and combo with other pet abilities.
4.3 Selene
Selene is a utility focused pet that increases
party efficiency.
Embrace
Cast: 2.00 | Recast: 3.00
Eos and Selene share the same skill, but if you
wish to use Embrace manually make sure to
hotkey the right skill. Macro-wise, they are both
‘Embrace’.
Silent Dusk (1)
Cast: Instant | Recast: 40
Silent dusk silences the target. You must have
the right target in order to silence properly. If
Selene is in mid-cast, silent dusk will not
activate. See macros.
Fey Glow (2)
Cast: Instant | Recast: 60
If Selene is on command: sic, this is the first of
the two (the other being fey light) that is
activated. It increases party members’ spell
speed by 30% for 30 seconds in a 20-yalm
radius around Selene. If your spell speed is 341
(2.50 gcd), with fey glow it will increase to 443
(2.40 gcd). This mainly affects casters and
healers.
Fey Light (3)
Cast: Instant | Recast: 60
Fey light increases party members’ skill speed
by 30% for 30 seconds in a 20-yalm radius
around Selene. This mainly affects the global
cooldowns of tanks, melee and bards.
Eos and Selene pet skills with the same
number such as fey covenant and fey glow
share cooldowns. This is to prevent switching
between pets to utilize all pet skills. Since silent
dusk is rarely used, if you started with Selene
you do have the option to swiftcast summon
Eos and use the rouse + whispering dawn
combo. If you wish to open pulls with fey light
you should put Selene on obey.
5 Scholar Concepts
This section of the guide focuses on techniques
that improve the efficiency of scholars. You will
see that many of these concepts are used in
dungeons, raids, trials… and even in the open
world!
5.1 Weaving skills
Weaving is a technique not limited to just
scholars but all classes. The idea is to ‘weave’
off-gcd skills such as energy drain between gcd
skills such as ruin II. For example, ruin II has no
cast time but you cannot cast another gcd skill
until 2.50 seconds after ruin II is used. During
that downtime you can use off-gcd skills before
the next gcd skill is available. Skills such as
succor, with the same 2.50 cast time and recast
time do not have room to efficiently weave as
you are delaying the next gcd by using an off-
gcd skill. Although off-gcd skills are ‘instant’, no
skill in this game is actually instant. Off-gcd
skills have a slight delay of approximately one
second so you cannot spam off-gcd skills into
one downtime period (usually one or two at
most). Instead of cutting into our global
cooldowns with off-gcd skills, we elect to use
them during the downtime when certain gcds
with cast times shorter than recast times are
used.
Try out these two combos and see the
difference yourself:
1)
2)
You will see that on the first combo your second
ruin is delayed while on the second combo the
second ruin is activated as soon as the next
gcd is available. An example of a good practical
weaving combo is shown below:
This is a combo I often use in pulls in dungeons.
I start with a shield on the tank and immediately
switch to cleric stance (remember adloquium
cast time is 2.00 while its recast time is 2.50). I
apply the three DoTs, bane during bio’s
downtime, miasma II then swiftcast during
miasma II’s downtime, shadowflare and turn
cleric stance off during shadowflare’s downtime
(because swiftcast made shadowflare instant
cast). This is a very strong AoE combo that can
inflict thousands of damage to up to four
monsters in a pull (approximately 1331 potency
≈ 4000 damage to each monster). Also
remember that lustrate is unaffected by cleric
stance’s healing reduction so this is quite a safe
combo to use provided you leave one
aetherflow stack for bane.
 intensive work. Regardless of whether you pair
The skills above are all gcd skills that have embrace or manually control it, if party
room for weaving because they are either members are below 70% HP your pet will
instant cast (ruin II) or have a shorter cast time embrace on its own and ignore your orders.
than recast time (leeches). All other gcd skills
can become instant cast with swiftcast. One of the key benefits of manually controlling
Although using swiftcast to create room for embrace is that you can now heal two different
weaving is not recommended, if you should targets at once. For example, you could be
swiftcast a skill such as resurrection, remember shielding a party member but want your pet to
there is a slight delay before you can use the continue using embrace on the tank.
next gcd. During downtimes you can use any of
the following: If you want to maximize DPS, it is very
important to ensure that embrace is used at all
times. This will increase the amount of time you
are in cleric stance and minimize your healing
to only very critical ones. To prevent switching
You can also fit in consumables such as
between the tank and the target you can use a
potions and food.
couple methods:
Although this seems like a lot of work, this kind
of optimization is more important than what any
Mouse-over macros allow you to cast spells on
spell speed from gear can give you.
the target while commanding your pet to
embrace a different target (without switching
5.2 Pets macros and combos
between them):
There are many macros available to scholars. I
/pac “Embrace” <mo>
will list some of them since most macros are
tailored to different scholar play styles and there
You can also use <tt> (target of target) rather
are only a few that I use.
than mouse-over macros as an alternative:
5.2.1 Embrace
/pac “Embrace” <tt>
The most commonly used macro is pairing Eos
If you sort your party every time (you should!),
or Selene’s embrace skill with your own healing
you can use <#> to embrace a particular party
skills such as physick. In this way, each time
member.
you use physick on a target, your pet will heal
the same target alongside you for increased
/pac “Embrace” <3>
healing. Pairing physick (400) with embrace
(300) increases your healing to 700 potency!
This macro will heal the third member in your
party list.
/micon “Physick”
/ac “Physick” <t>
5.2.2 Interrupting your pet
/pac “Embrace” <t>
Sometimes you will be ordering your pet to use
You can do the same with Adloquium:
abilities such as fey covenant, but your pet will
simply ignore it. This often happens if your pet
/micon “Adloquium”
is casting embrace. In this case you can choose
/ac “Adloquium” <t>
to interrupt your pet by using macros like these:
/pac “Adloquium” <t>
/pac “Stay”
More experience scholars may instead opt to
/pac “Fey Covenant”
use embrace manually but this can be very
/pac “Stay”
/pac “Whispering Dawn”
I use this macro for both Eos and Selene to
ensure that I do not have to spam the keys until
the pet finally listens. Try using this macro while
your pet is casting embrace and you will see
how quickly the pet responds. This macro is
necessary if you wish to silence anything using
silent dusk.
Do not use whispering dawn twice with this
macro or it will cancel and still go on cooldown.
5.2.3 When to order pets
Try to order pets while you are casting. For
example if you are having trouble healing the
tank:
( ) ( )
Fey illumination is activated while adloquium is
casting followed by lustrate. In this way your
important gcds are not delayed and you get the
added bonus of fey illumination (+20% healing).
You could finish this off with whispering dawn
during the cast of physick followed by weaving
rouse 1 (+40% pet healing) to apply a very
strong Heal over Time (HoT) to your party
members as well as the tank.
This is a very difficult combo to use in
encounters and requires plenty of practice to
perfect. Make sure to use the pet-interrupt
macro to ensure this works smoothly without
having to spam buttons.
5.2.4 Obey or sic (Selene)
Sic for Selene means that she will alternate fey
glow and fey light one after another. This saves
you a lot of effort in micromanaging your pet
besides positioning.
Obey on Selene allows you to manually (or with
macros) control the use of embrace and is also
required if you wish to silence anything. In
exchange you must activate fey glow and fey
1
*Using rouse after whispering dawn is fine as long
as it happens before Eos finishes the 2.00 second
cast.
light manually as well. Being able to use
embrace even when party members are over
70% allows you to negate the damage from
most auto-attacks. This is very useful if you
wish to place your DoTs in cleric stance while
your pet heals your tank.
5.3 MP management
Scholars regenerate 2% of their maximum MP
per three seconds in combat. With perfect
aetherflow use (20% per 60 seconds) this totals
60% MP per minute (2.5% MP per gcd). With
an average 4,500 MP, you will regenerate 113
MP for each gcd. In other words, physick (133
MP) is almost free and spamming physick can
be considered to ‘cost’ 20 MP.
If you can heal a fight using only physick you
will never run into MP troubles. You can also
heal with lustrate (save MP), reduce damage
taken with sacred soil (save MP) and use
energy drain (restore MP). The most commonly
used skills that start to heavily consume our MP
are adloquium, succor and resurrection.
5.3.1 Adloquium
This is a great skill for scholars but I believe
scholars use it too frequently and inefficiently.
Good situations to use adloquium are:
 A shield on the tank so that you can
momentarily shift focus to another task
(e.g. cleric stance, dodging).
 A shield to mitigate damage from a
damage spike that could kill the tank.
 Before a pull.
 A shield to prevent a newly raised or
weakened party member from dying
again.
 You are behind on healing and the tank
is taking heavy consistent damage.
Knowing how much damage a tank or other
party member takes during a fight is very
important to MP management. For example, if a
wicked wheel (Garuda EX) is coming up but
you know that the tank will not lose too much
health it may be better to time a physick than to
prepare with an adloquium (300 potency shield
versus 400 potency heal). However, this type of
healing style requires great confidence,
knowledge of attack timings and observing
cooldowns used by the tank. Other abilities
such as a planned eye for an eye, virus and
sacred soil can prevent a tank from dying
instantly and allow you to save MP by not using
adloquium.
Healers under pressure will tend to use their
stronger heals. Rather than using the expensive
adloquium, saving aetherflow stacks (up to six)
for a phase where a lot of damage is dealt can
save a lot of MP and is generally better than
adloquium.
5.3.2 Succor
Succor-spamming is the most inefficient way to
heal the party. Party healing is usually done by
the WHM and even when the party is taking
significant damage you should not spam succor.
If a WHM is finding it difficult to heal the party
you should use Eos and help reduce the
damage instead. Fey covenant, sacred soil,
virus, eye for an eye and fey illumination are
great free alternatives to succor. You may also
resort to single target healing during, for
example, tumults when you see someone
reaching dangerously low HP levels. The
common theme here is: if the shield is not
necessary, try to look for alternatives to save
MP.
5.3.3 Why do I need to save MP?
Saving MP during phases of an encounter that
are relatively easy can give you more options
when a later phase brings high pressure.
Although bards can use mage’s ballad, being
able to finish the fight without reducing bard
damage can increase your party’s damage
output to speed up the fight. These high
pressure situations often have deaths and high
damage to tanks resulting in many tasks that
need to be addressed. There are many factors
that limit the speed at which you clear these
tasks. Gcd, MP and healing strength are limiting
factors and you definitely do not want MP to
limit your ability to heal. Responding perfectly to
a high-pressure situation is unrealistic and with
a tendency to use high MP skills, saving MP in
easier phases can help a lot in preparing for
these difficult phases. As you become more
familiar with the fight you will be efficient even
in the more difficult phases freeing up gcds to
use damage skills instead.
5.4 The in-game delay
You will have definitely noticed delays in the
game where a skill you used did not seem to
apply even though you had used it early. For
example, sacred soil will not apply its 10%
damage reduction effect until at least a second
after it is used. Sacred soil will apply a buff on
all party members and there is a delay for this.
Even when the buff is active on the party
member before the damage is received, the
buff may not have effect. This is seen in Garuda
EX where receiving the spiny plume buff just
before mistral shriek damage applies can
sometimes kill you regardless. The same
applies for effects such as virus and tank
cooldowns. It is not uncommon to hear PLDs
say that they used hallowed ground sufficiently
early but still died. A good way to check this is
to use sprint and see the time until you actually
move faster.
This in-game delay is especially important for
scholars because of our shields. Again, the
same delay applies for shields (this delay is
also, in part, due to the fact that galvanize is
applied immediately after the healing
component of adloquium). Scholars often see
this delay in titan during geocrush where what
seems like a well-timed succor (the party was
healed before the geocrush) does not negate
the damage of geocrush (galvanized remains
on the party members).
5.4.1 Effects registered
The game will consider all statuses (HP, buffs
and debuffs) up until a certain point (usually the
end of a cast) and then the damage calculation
is done and this is not when the damage is
actually dealt.
1 second to Megaflare
Cast adloquium
0 seconds to Megaflare
Party member is healed
Party member receives the effect of Galvanized
Megaflare damage is dealt
At 0 seconds all changes (to HP and effects)
are ignored. The actual damage dealt is after 0
seconds but any effects placed after 0 seconds
will not register. Megaflare will damage the
party member and if they live, you can see that
the galvanized effect remains on the party
member. Although the damage is a subtraction
from HP, the healing, although after 0 seconds,
will be too late and the Megaflare damage is
subtracted from the previous HP and the party
member will die.
5 seconds to death sentence
Twintania suffers virus effect
Cast adloquium
Party member is healed
Party member receives the effect of Galvanized
Sacred soil is used
0 seconds to death sentence
Party member receives the effect of sacred soil
Death sentence damage is dealt
Here Twintania’s attack will be reduced by virus
and Galvanized but not sacred soil. The sacred
soil is too late and will not reduce the death
sentence damage.
5 seconds to mistral shriek
Spiny plume is defeated
Garuda begins casting mistral shriek
0 seconds to mistral shriek
Party member receives the effect of Thermal
High
Mistral shriek damage is dealt
Although you received the buff, Thermal High,
before the damage is dealt it was after the
mistral shriek cast was finished and therefore
did not register in damage calculations.
This also applies to tank cooldowns as well.
5.5 Dealing with common mechanics
There are many mechanics that are repeated
over different fights. Developing strategies to
these mechanics can improve your overall
efficiency.
5.5.1 Spike damage
Spike damage such as mountain buster or
death sentence is usually under an internal
clock that is separate from the boss rotation
(you can test this by moving and delaying the
boss’s rotation). Practicing the fight allows you
to learn these timings so that you can better
prepare for them. There are multiple ways to
deal with the spike damage.
If the spike is not sufficient to kill the tank
provided a tank cooldown is used, you may
time a physick or lustrate to land after the attack
(mentioned before). This could be used if your
tank is recently swapped for a fresh mountain
buster with no vulnerability debuffs (Titan EX).
If the spike is likely to kill the tank you should
use adloquium. An alternative (or supplement)
is to use virus because its effect is faster than
adloquium. However, virus should usually be
saved for if the tank announces that a tank
cooldown is not available for the coming spike
attack (this only applies if the intervals between
spikes are short enough such that the tank has
insufficient cooldowns to cover them all).
Sacred soil can also be used but you must be
wary of the delay, even if it is an instant cast.
Your WHM partner can either stoneskin and/or
prepare a timed healing spell. Most spike
attacks are physical. There are a few such as
void thunder (Haukke Manor) and shock strike
(Ramuh EX) which are instead magical.
5.5.2 Moving and interruptions
Almost all fights require the SCH to move and
heal simultaneously. All instant skills can be
used while on the move. Swiftcast will allow any
gcd skill to be used on the move. Swiftcast +
adloquium, lustrate, swiftcast + succor, pet
actions, virus, etc., are examples of options
available to you while moving. Gcd skills with
very short cast times such as leeches and
sustain allow you to move almost immediately
after you start the cast. It is important to
understand that you do not have to completely
finish the cast in order to move. This will
depend on your latency but generally a 90%
finished cast is enough for you to start moving
without interrupting the cast. Knowing exactly
when you have to move will be the difference
between whether you can finish a cast or not.
Some boss attacks will interrupt your cast.
Examples are searing wind (Ifrit EX), fireball
(Twintania). Although surecast will prevent you
from being interrupted, an alternative is to start
the cast so that the cast will be at least 90%
complete when the attack hits. This way, even if
you are damaged you will not be interrupted.
5.5.3 Party damage
If there is a phase where heavy damage is dealt
to the party, but there is no immediate threat of
death to anyone (even with very low HP), a
regenerative skill can be sufficient or you could
leave the party healing entirely to the WHM.
There are many options for the SCH to reduce
this damage so that the amount of healing
required is not so high. Virus is a good example
and works for most mechanics like this.
Sometimes the source of the damage cannot
be targeted in which case sacred soil and
succor are also good, but you must understand
how the delay works.
The fact that a party member has low HP does
not mean that healing that party member comes
first in your priority list. Although this is not a
bad approach to an unknown fight, if you know
the fight well enough you can heal the party
member later into the fight when you actually
need to. For example, after a tumult in Titan EX
if there is a mountain buster coming up you
should prioritize the tank first before topping off
the others.
5.5.4 Adds and pulling
If there is a phase in the fight where adds
spawn you should halt healing unless you
absolutely must heal. Providing shields on
tanks before the adds spawn can buy you time
for the tanks to establish enmity before you
start healing. If, however, your job is to ‘tank’
the add you may want to use surecast to
prevent interruption as well as other instant
casts that cannot be interrupted. Sometimes,
rather than stopping healing, you may be asked
to generate threat to draw the adds towards you
(Turn 4 clockwork spiders or Turn 9 golems)
instead. In this case you should apply the shield
on yourself.
Using certain skills, although not healing, can
generate some threat. For example using
stoneskin or eye for an eye while the tank has
not established any threat will place you at
number one on the enmity list. This will send all
the adds or boss in your direction, and will
make it difficult for the tank to establish threat
and position. This usually does not matter if
there is only one target and the tank opens with
tomahawk or shield lob.
5.5.5 Pet management
There are multiple ways pets can be damaged.
Pets take 90% reduced damage from most
magical attacks and certain physical attacks.
Auto-attacks and boss cleave attacks generally
deal full damage to pets. Try not to position the
pet in front of the boss. The MP and time to
summon a pet is very costly. Try to be aware of
your pet’s position, especially if you notice you
are healing significantly less than normal, or if
you are about to use a pet ability. Use ‘place’ to
move a pet to a location and ‘heel’ to move the
pet to your location.
Do not leave the pet on heel command. If you
move the pet will follow you and while the pet
moves it will not use embrace or any abilities
until to stops moving. Frequent moving will
reduce your pet’s efficiency.
Certain party damage can be split between
party members. Pets can usually take this
damage as well and reduce it further
(thermionic beam Turn 9).
Remember that your pet, if close enough to the
boss, can accidentally pull the boss too.
5.5.6 DPS checks
Many fights have phases or enrage timers that
require the party to do enough damage per
second (DPS). SCHs can do significant
damage using cleric stance when the healing
required can be done alone by the WHM. AoE
damage should instead be left to the WHM
instead (holy) although SCHs do have cheaper
(MP-wise) AoE capabilities of their own.
The above combo is good for single target
damage over a moderate period of time ~20
seconds. Note: miasma, energy drain, aero and
ruin can all miss. In burst situations (e.g. gaols)
you may want to use this combo instead:
( )
The second and third energy drains will be
slightly delayed due to the 3.00 second recast
time. Often the shadowflare can be placed
before the target is available for attacks.
5.5.7 Tank swaps
Using the skill provoke, in eight-man parties,
tanks can alternate who has the focus of the
boss. It is very important to notice which tank is
currently being attacked by the boss. You can
do this by targeting the boss and seeing the
enmity meters or who the boss is targeting. The
focused party member will have the letter A. If
the tanks have swapped properly, you might
prioritize the new tank, even if the old tank is at
a lower % HP as the damage is no longer
directed at the old tank.
5.5.8 Recently revived party members
Resurrections cost a lot of MP, especially if you
have to do it multiple times. Investing MP in
adloquium and stoneskin (preferably by WHM)
on a revived party member can prevent this. If a
WHM is not available, you should also protect
the revived party member to boost their
defenses, especially if they are a tank. Kindly
remind who you raise to accept at a safe time
(accepting a resurrection after a big raid attack
such as geocrush or knowing when to accept
the raise in Leviathan EX). Raised party
members are immune to damage for a short
period of time or until they use a combat skill
(e.g. second wind). This is your window to
prepare them for any incoming damage.
Revived party members will be moved to where
the resurrection cast was used. Resurrecting
party members in the wrong location can cause
chaos (Turn 8 ballistic missile).
5.5.9 Know the positions of party members
Party awareness is extremely important in raids.
This is to ensure you are within range of healing
and also to prevent excess damage from AoE
damage mechanics. For example, a healer
focused only on party frames/HP bars notices
that a melee DPS has lost HP and continues to
use succor, even though the melee is more
than 15-yalms away.
5.5.10 Remind yourself to heal the tank
If the tank dies, things fall apart. Healers often
forget to heal the tank when they are faced with
dodging and dealing with mechanics.
Remember during which phases you forget to
heal the tank and remind yourself next time
before the phase begins.
5.5.11 Target focus
Focus targeting an important enemy helps
tremendously with mechanics. This helps for
spike damage, dodging attacks and positioning.
The boss will often cast something which gives
you time to react.
5.5.12 Watch for any debuffs
Checking party frames is good especially for
identifying debuffs on party members or
important buffs (such as tank cooldowns, blood
for blood, weakness, etc.).
5.5.13 Identify the situation
If you know the timing of attacks and the
mechanics in the fight your priority system will
change. Try not to simply follow instructions
without seeing the underlying purpose – if the
situation changes you will need to adapt.
5.5.14 Poison
Sometimes party members will be affected by a
strong poison. Usually it is better to lustrate
before you leeches in case the next tick of
poison will kill the party member but this will
depend on the situation. For example, in
moogle EX, three party members lose control
under a strong poison. You should make a
quick decision as to whether you should lustrate
or leeches first and which party member you
focus on first (usually the DPS or healer as the
tank can withstand more damage). Casted
heals are usually too slow.
5.5.15 Make use of your gcds
Ensure you are always doing something. You
often see this in inept healers who simply stand
still confused on what to do. If there is no
healing to be done go on the offensive with
cleric stance or do a dance!
5.5.16 Healer & Pet Tanking
Sometimes you might want to lure adds to a
particular spot and so you use a strong heal or
regenerative spell to generate enmity.
Using a spell like succor or physick when adds
spawn is generally incorrect, but sometimes
you can use it on purpose to group the adds
and position them at a particular spot. If you
have a paladin, he or she can use Cover to
prevent you from taking damage, allowing them
to use AoE-enmity skills to take the adds from
you.
You can bait adds to your pet by using
whispering dawn and then placing the pet at a
location you prefer. Make sure to heal your pet!
5.5.17 Leeches when you lose control of
your character
In Mog EX the paladin moogle will chain the
three closest party members to it and lose
control of their characters. Since casts can still
go through if interrupted after 90%, casting
leeches on yourself will remove your own
debuff. If you can perfect this timing you can
always stand near the paladin moogle to
prevent other party members from being
chained.
Diabolos, the final boss of the Lost City of
Amdapor, has a similar ability called Nightmare
(however, for some reason, you can only
leeches other party members and not yourself).
6 Improving your play (and examples)
This section is for those players who desire
playing above the expectations of other players.
Doing your best to offer as much as you can to
ensure that the party succeeds will gain respect
for your play style and attitude. If you feel that
the party is underperforming, as a scholar, you
can compensate by doing more than just
healing. Complaining about a bad party does
not mean that you are a good player.
6.1 DPS
Healer DPS is significant. A scholar who only
uses support and healing spells will do no
damage, but they will always have periods of
time where they are waiting for someone to
take damage. During these times, healers
should be using damage spells.
As mentioned before, using damage spells
requires good knowledge or a feel of attack
timings. Being in cleric stance when the tank is
taking heavy damage is not a good situation.
6.1.1 Single target
This combo requires approximately 12 seconds
and is great if the WHM can keep the tank alive
by healing alone. You can even use this when
solo-healing by using lustrate instead of energy
drain. You can use support spells such as virus
and eye for an eye if the lustrates are
insufficient.
Sometimes you have perhaps only one or two
gcds before you have to heal the tank, but
committing to cleric stance is too long and
dangerous. In these situations you can use
DoTs without cleric stance, although you will
only do approximately half damage. This is
better than doing no damage or risking the tank
dying for more damage.
Consistently placing DoTs on the target
throughout a long encounter will significantly
speed up the fight. MP costs should not be a
concern as these spells are quite cheap.
Most dungeon bosses can very easily be
healed by your pet. You should be in cleric
stance almost the entire time.
6.1.2 Multiple targets Cleric stance should be used in between gcds.
For example, activating it after an Adloquium,
If adds spawn during a boss fight, and they are and deactivating it after a Bio. A healer using
placed near the boss, you can use bane to cleric stance will be short on time before they
spread the DoTs to the adds. This does not must heal again, and so you should minimize
require cleric stance so the bane can be delays.
weaved into many spells like physick without
affecting your healing. If the targets are
separated (and need to be separated, Turn 9
golems) then place DoTs on them individually.
Since you cannot deactivate cleric stance for 5
seconds, you can fit in two gcds where the
6.1.2a Example: Titan EX
second gcd is usually instant cast.
In the second phase, before each time gaols
6.2 AoE damage
spawn, you can place DoTs on Titan, take off
cleric stance to heal through mountain buster,
Usually, the AoE healing is done by the WHM,
and bane the closer gaol.
but that does not mean that a scholar should
Following Earthen Fury (post-heart) you will
not use any AoE healing spells or support the
have a full 10 seconds before the adds spawn
WHM.
where you can place at least Bio II, Miasma and
You can help AoE healing with succor but it is
Bio on Titan. When the adds spawn, mountain
usually MP inefficient. In most cases, it is better
buster will hit the main tank so you should be
to augment the WHM healing with Fey
off cleric stance here. Heal the main tank and
Illumination. Scholars often get into the habit of
use bane to spread the DoTs to the two Granite
using succor when they have nothing to do.
Gaolers. While dodging the bomb patterns and
Although this is not necessarily bad play, often
landslide, you can virus Titan for the second
the shields go to waste as no one takes
mountain buster and adloquium the main tank.
damage in the next 30 seconds besides the
As you are moving you can heal with lustrate.
tank. As mentioned before, use the spare time
Throughout this phase three sets of Bio II,
to DPS.
Miasma and Bio are ticking on the three targets
You can also reduce the AoE damage with
and will significantly speed up this phase.
virus, sacred soil, fey covenant, etc.
If you are very confident, you can “heal” this
entire phase alone in cleric stance, healing the
6.2a Example: Tumults (Pulses)
off-tank with your pet, tumults (Gaolers) with a
prepared succor (or whispering dawn) and main
During tumults the WHM will have to continue
tank with lustrate. This way you can use
using Medica and Medica II (or Cure III). During
miasma II, shadowflare and reapply any DoTs.
this time you can help with succor, use fey
illumination, fey covenant, sacred soil and/or
6.1.2b Example: Turn 9 golems
virus before tumults, but in most cases the
WHM can sufficiently keep almost everyone
Here you should apply DoTs to all three golems.
alive. In some situations, a weakened party
If the WHM is tanking a golem you should not
member will be almost dead while everyone
DoT that golem until it is later picked up by a
else is low. Here you should single target heal
tank. Keep eyes on the person tanking the
(not AoE heal) that weakened person so that
green golem. Virus the green golem to ease up
the WHM can continue AoE healing (if the
healing. This is a great example of a phase
WHM stopped to single target heal that
where damage dealt to the party is minimal and
weakened person the others may die too).
can be easily “healed” in cleric stance.
Healing through tumults with succor is more MP
efficient because your shields will reduce the
6.1.3 Cleric stance
damage of each pulse and will not be wasted.

6.2b Example: Moogle Meteor and
Megaflare (single hit)
You can prepare for Moogle Meteor with sacred
soil and succor, which is the normal expected
play. You can supervirus the King to reduce
damage further. Any party members with
weakness should be galvanized with adloquium
(not succor). Melee DPS, although they have
more HP than ranged and casters, take more
damage from magical attacks (due to having
less magical defense) and are usually more
likely to die first and should be prioritized earlier
for adloquium.
Megaflare is a more extreme example, although
there is more preparation time for this. The
common method is to Fey Illumination first,
adloquium the DPS and healers (galvanize
lasts 30 seconds – you can adloquium all six
members and have 18 seconds left on the
galvanized effect of the first adloquium used)
then sacred soil, fey covenant and pre-cast
succor for the following heavens fall. The WHM
should be using stoneskin on all members.
Once you get a feel for the damage you can
save significant MP by simply using succor and
using adloquium only on party members who
really need it to survive.
6.3 Pet swapping
With swiftcast you can quickly summon the
other pet for more versatile play. The MP cost
(532) is large but if you are not starved for MP it
is not a bad choice. For example, you summon
Selene in a duty finder group and find that the
WHM continues to die and you change to Eos
mid-fight to fill the AoE healing required. Boss
fights often have a change in the type of
damage from single target (tank) to AoE and
changing your pet during phases can help
immensely.
6.4 Healing through the unknown
If you are healing a difficult encounter you have
never fought before you can no longer afford to
use cheap heals to save MP. Healers will use
their expensive heals here and will run out of
MP fast.
There are a couple ways you can still save a lot
of MP.
 Avoid over-healing. As you learn a fight
pay attention to when you actually need
to heal and when the damage comes.
This way you can start to save MP so
that you will have a bigger pool of MP in
the coming phases. This does not mean
to wait for damage to start casting heals.
If you know when the damage comes
you can pre-cast a physick so that it will
land right after the damage is dealt.
 See if you can divide some of the
healing with your pet. Scholars absent-
mindedly use succor when there is raid
damage regardless of how much
damage is actually dealt. If the damage
is small you can use Eos’ whispering
dawn or manually embrace each party
member.
 Most of the damage dealt to tanks can
be healed with simply physick. Get into
the habit of using physick to heal trivial
tank damage than using adloquium.
The basic idea is to minimize the use of
adloquium and succor and use the cheaper and
free alternatives that we have.
If you are behind in healing, using more
expensive spells will be obvious. But see if, the
next time you reach the same phase, you could
have prepared for this phase more efficiently.
6.5 Targeting
Using your mouse to press skills or target party
members is poor play. Assign a key for each
party member to quickly access them without
having to look at party frames. Use the sort
party list option to organize your party list so
that your hotkeys will always target the correct
party member.
Using tab to select the correct enemy target is
commonly used and can be improved by
manipulating your camera or changing priorities
in the options. However, it is often much quicker
simply targeting the enemy you want in the
enemy list or clicking the target in the view of
your camera. You can use focus target if you
tend to switch from DPS and healing often and
have assigned a key to target the focused
target.
Some macros such as “target the target of
target” can improve your efficiency even further.
Having shortcuts to party members can improve
your healing speed dramatically. I personally
use the F# keys and Shift+F1 for my pet.
7 Extra
7.1 Equipment
For new fights, I prioritize piety first to maximize
MP regeneration passively and with Aetherflow.
As I become aware of boss attack patterns,
critical hit rate and spell speed become more
attractive as I save significant MP by healing
only when I need two, and these two attributes
synergize very well with the scholar’s abilities.
Critical hit rate is obvious, but spell speed is
debatable. I like to use spell speed to help
speed up my constant changing between
healing and DPS (cleric stance). As Selene is
the pet that I use most often, Fey Glow allows
me to reduce my gcd delay significantly.
Scholars often prefer determination over spell
speed but I find spell speed to be just as useful
as it scales well with Fey Glow.
7.2 Pet Control
I use both Eos and Selene on obey. Eos should
obviously be on obey. Selene should be on sic
if you are uncomfortable using the buffs every
30 seconds, but I feel that the ability to control
embrace is too good and so I manually activate
Fey Glow and Fey Light.
I use all pet buffs with the “stay” macro to
prevent the pet from ignoring my commands.
This helps immensely for Silent Dusk and if you
have to spam buttons for your pet to listen to
your commands.
7.3 Cross-class abilties
For full parties:
For light parties:
You can swap protect for surecast after casting
protect without suffering the gcd penalty as
surecast is not a gcd skill. For dungeons it is
nice to have the stoneskin so that you can
place adloquium and stoneskin before each pull
to buy you time for cleric stance. In full parties,
protect is usually not required as the WHM will
have it and it is expected of WHM to apply it
before pulls and to any weakened party
members. For full parties in duty finder you may
want to swap surecast for protect.
7.4 Consumables
7.4.1 Food
Food buffs are important for encounters where
your max HP matters. You will gain
approximately 200 HP from using food. If food
costs are a concern you can use the free
company buff to extend the food duration.
Pineapple Juice
This food gives bonuses to piety, vitality and
spell speed. The most commonly used food for
healers who appreciate the increased MP.
Apkallu Omelette
This food gives bonuses to critical hit rate
vitality and accuracy. Scholars benefit from the
increased critical hit rate.
Steamed Catfish
This food gives bonuses to accuracy, vitality
and critical hit rate. Good food for healers who
DPS for a significant portion of the fight but
miss attacks considerably.
Sachertorte
This food gives bonuses to spell speed, vitality
and determination. For the rare spell speed
scholars.
7.4.2 Potions

X-ether
Restores 530 MP. Recast time of 4 minutes 30
seconds. Comes very handy in prolonged fights
or after being revived.
X-potion of mind
Increases your mind for 15 seconds. You can
use this with cleric stance to increase your
damage contribution or without cleric stance to
increase your healing briefly.
X-potion of vitality
If for any reason you have insufficient HP to
survive party damage you can use this to
significantly increase your max HP for a short
duration.
7.5 Important skills
There are many utility skills in this game that
other classes have. Understanding how they
affect the party is important to group play.
7.5.1 Tank skills
Convalescence
Paladin and warrior skill that increases healing
received on the tank.
Tempered Will
Prevents knockbacks/draw-ins and can remove
bind and heavy. Useful for tank positioning in
some fights. Paladin only skill.
Provoke
Used for tank swapping (mentioned before). If
tanks lose enmity to you (or if they recently died)
provoke will increase their enmity on the target
to your level.
Cover
Paladins can use this to take physical damage
instead of a nearby party member. Can be used
for auto-attacks and physical damage attacks
like meteor stream and mountain buster.
Hallowed Ground
The paladin takes no damage for 10 seconds.
During this time you should shift focus to
another tank, healing other party members or
using damage spells. Hallowed ground is best
used before heavy damage and not after.
Berserk
Warriors use this skill to increase their damage
significantly for some time. After the effect ends,
the warrior is pacified for 5 seconds. You can
leeches this debuff. Leeches has a 1 second
cast time so you can start casting leeches as
soon as Berserk is at 0 seconds to remove
pacification immediately.
Storm’s Path
This warrior skill decreases target’s damage
dealt by 10%. The third skill of a combo.
Holmgang
Binds the warrior and the target to prevent
draw-in and knockbacks. The target cannot
move either (many bosses are immune to this
effect however). The warrior cannot go below 1
HP.
Rage of Halone
Paladin’s third combo skill decreases target’s
STR by 10%, reducing physical damage dealt.
7.5.2 DPS skills
Quelling Strikes
Can be used by bards, black mages and
summoners to reduce enmity generated by
50%. Should be used when there are new adds
spawned and/or at the start of a pull.
Manawall
Black mage ability that negates physical
damage twice. Useful for auto-attacks and
physical damage attacks like landslide,
divebombs and meteor stream.
Manaward
Black mage ability that creates a shield equal to
30% of their maximum HP against magical
damage.
Blood for Blood
Dragoons, monks and bards can use this ability
to increase their damage dealt, but also
increase their damage received by 25%. This
buff can be clicked off. Be wary of party
members who have this buff when there is
heavy party damage.
In these situations you want to maximise your
embrace so that you can stay in cleric stance
for as long as possible. Since damage spells
cost very little MP you can afford to use
adloquium to buy you time to DPS more. For
this playstyle accuracy and critical hit rate is
probably best. Although determination will
provide more damage than critical hit rate, the
critical adloquium is very efficient in buying you
time for cleric stance.
As mentioned before, you should begin to save
significant MP as you practice new fights.
Swapping piety gear for determination, critical
hit rate and spell speed will increase your
damage slightly.
The Novus/Nexus zodiac weapon allows you to
gain a large amount of accuracy. Crafted
accessories can also be melded for the
accuracy boost as well as vitality if you should
need it.

Dragon Kick
This monk ability reduces target’s INT by 10%.

Second Wind
Can be used by monks, warriors, dragoons and
bards to restore moderate HP.

Mantra
AoE buff used by monks, warriors, dragoons
and bards that increases healing received by
5%. Monks have a vastly superior version
(20%).

Fists of the Earth

Monks can activate this to reduce their damage
received by 10%.

7.6 The Scholar’s Role

As healers have been improving and becoming

more efficient, in full parties the SCH is mostly
in cleric stance as an alternative to solo-healing
and to help the WHM only at difficult points in
the fight. Sometimes both healers will be in
cleric stance, especially in heavy dps-check
fights.