So you want to be a scholar eh? Well that means you don't start out as a healer. From levels 1-30 you will be a lowly arcanist, you will rely on DOTs and your Carbuncle summon to carry you through overworld quests and Fates. You will only be able to queue as dps, so unless you have friends with tanking and healing abilities, you're going to have long waits. You're going to be spending your Attribute bonuses in MND instead of INT even though its of no noticeable use to you yet. By the time you hit level 30 though, thats when the real fun begins. Once you get to level 30 you will also need your Conjurer class to be at level 15 to even consider getting the Job Quest. Before we get into any of the scholar stuff, however, lets take a quick look over our Arcanist abilities from 1-30.

Ruin: Level 1 - 80 potency nuke. Absolutely terrible, but all we have for direct damage. As you level up you will find any excuse you can to not use this spell. You'll want Aero and Thunder from CNJ and THM just so you can have more dots to cast and less time spent using Ruin.

Bio: Level 2 - Basic dot spell. Instant cast, can't cast anything after it until your GCD is up. Staple of arcanists everywhere.

Summon I: Level 4 - While still an arcanist this will summon your Emerald Carbuncle. Ranged nuker pet, good damage. Once you're a scholar this will summon Eos your heal-focused fairy. Arcanist and Scholar will be using this pet quite often.

Physick: Level 4 - Basic heal. Exactly the same potency as Cure. They're interchangeable. If you would like to cast "Cure" to feel more Final Fantasy like, feel free. Always useful to have as an Arcanist, your most used ability as a Scholar. Learn to love this spell, and keep it in an extremly easy to reach location.

Aetherflow: Level 6 - This spell refills 20% of your mana bar. It seems super useless at the start, but it quickly becomes the most important cooldown in your arsenal. Starting at level 8 you will get a trait that allows you to gain a buff called "Aetherflow" when you use this ability. At level 20 you get a trait that allows it to stack twice, and at level 40 you get 3 stacks of Aetherflow for every cast of this spell. Maintaining and using these stacks in an efficient manner is super important for all aspects of Arcanistry. Learn early on to keep this buff up, and keep an eye on your Aetherflow ability's cooldown.

Energy Drain: Level 8 - This spell will consume a stack of Aetherflow to deal immediate damage, and give you health and mana back as a percentage of that damage. This ability is super important to scholars. You will be using this as your main aetherflow consumption spell to keep your mana high. This is part of what separates us from WHMs, our mana regen options are amazing.

Miasma: Level 10 - Another DoT, stack this with your other ones. It applies Disease, which can be useful. As a scholar you won't be using this that often, but if you have a free GCD feel free to toss it on an enemy to apply the disease and do a bit of damage.

Virus: Level 12 - Amazing debuff. 15% Reduction in Str/Dex baseline, trait for it unlocks at 28 which reduces Mnd/Int as well. Try to use this whenever its off cooldown. Its off GCD so you can use it inbetween casts.

Summon II: Level 15 - Your tanking Carbuncle or your Support fairy. We'll go into the differences between the two fairies later, but before 30 you'll be using this to help you solo if you feel like you need a tank.

Sustain: level 18 - Trade your health away to heal your pet. Super fast cast time, useful if you're tanking with your carbuncle. Far less useful as a scholar as your pets can heal themselves.

Resurrection: Level 22 - Your raise spell. Castable in combat. If you ever get stuck as SMN DPS be sure to be the first one to revive in combat. It costs 798 MP at 50, save your healers that mp and just revive as dps. If you're SCH you're going to want to get THM to 26 for swiftcast so you can cast this instantly if you have no SMNs in the party.

Bio II: Level 26 - Another DOT, Long Duration, stacks with Bio I. Cast this if you have time, but don't worry about it if you cant. SCH is the healer, and its more important to keep someone up than it is to **** something faster.

Bane: Level 30 - The last ability you get pre-scholar. Uses aetherflow charges to spread Bio, Bio II, and Miasma from one target to others around it. Small range, uses an aethercharge. If you're healing a run you do not want to use this. Keep your charges for Energy drain to keep your mana up.

Okay so now you've reached level 30. You're a Scholar. You're ready to heal. Why should a group take a Scholar over a WHM? Lets go over the major differences between the two classes. Once you Finish the Job quest and equip your Scholar job stone theres a few new spells you get access to.

Summon I: instead of summoning Emerald Carbuncle you now summon Eos your heal-focused fairy. At level 30 she has access to a single Target heal with a potency of 300 called Embrace, a 15y PBAOE spell that gives everyone it hits a 100 potency Heal over time lasting 21 seconds, and Fey Covenant an AOE 15y 20 %Magic Defense buff. At level 40 She unlocks Fey Illumination which is a 20% Heal Potency buff for her and everyone within 15y range. You want to keep her near yourself and the other healers for this buff. Shes probably my primary fairy, useful in every situation. If you ever go to a lower level dungeon to help friends or grind out something, she can pretty much main heal the place. Eos is awesome.

Summon II: Instead of Summoning your Topaz Carbuncle you summon Selene. She has the same single target heal as Eos, but instead of the other abilities she comes with more a support focused kit. Her second ability is a 1 second silence on a 40s cooldown. Fey Glow is a 30% spell haste for everyone within 20y of her. Fey Light is her level 40 ability, and it is a 30% skill haste for everyone within 20y of her. She is really good near either your ranged dps, or your melee dps. If you have the heals undercontrol for farmed content, and just want more dps, she is superb to use. I wouldn't bring her for most learning content though, as the healing boosts you get from Eos tend to be more important.

Adloquium: Your level 30 scholar quest reward. This spell is part of what becomes the trademark of the Scholar. It is over twice the cost of Physick and only does a 300 potency heal, but its the secondary effect that we use it for. It will also erect an absorb shield around the target for the amount of HP that was healed. This means that it is effectively a 300 potency heal and a 300 potency absorb shield. In comparison to WHM's Cure 2 which is a higher potency heal, but without the preventative shield. You will not use this spell on dps unless they're being focused on damage, as the 300 potency heal is **** for the mana cost. Adloquium goes on tanks and targets which will be sure to suffer damage in the next 30 seconds so the amazing shield is not wasted.

So SCH vs WHM. As a SCH your mana is almost never an issue. With Aetherflow and Energy Drain you will keep your mana up. Your Physick is the exact same as Cure, you get an absorb shield on your specialized heals, and your fairy has even more healing, and buff usage. WHM gets their AOE heal and Cleanse earlier, but SCH gets equivalent abilities.

At level 34 ACN unlocks Eye for an Eye, a buff you can place on a target ally or pet that causes them to have a 20% chance to debuff an attacking enemy with a 10% reduction in damage. Basically you cast it on your tank, anyone that hits your tank can be debuffed to deal 10% less damage. Amazing ability. Cross classable. Use it on pulls so you don't have to heal as much in the beginning and can let them get more aggro.

The level 35 SCH quest gives you Succor. This is your AOE healing spell, but it is also not exactly straight healing. While the healing potency is only 150, it also erects a shield around all nearby targets that will absorb an amount equal to the health returned. This means that it works as poor man's medica, but it can also serve a completely different function of pre-shielding your group for aoe damage. If your entire party takes a good chunk of damage, this spell is damn near worthless. It refills very little health, and the shield is wasted if the group doesn't take more damage in the next 30 seconds. If you know the party is going to be taking damage however, a pre-casted Succor can aoe heal a bit, and also shield them from a decent amount of the upcoming damage. A great Scholar MUST know the fights and their mechanics, you have to know when to pre-shield and prepare for incoming damage more than a WHM. Mastering the use of this spell can make phase transitions in a lot of boss fights a breeze. A scholar shield and a WHM medica combined is a force to be reckoned with on all raid content.

At 38 ACN you get Ruin 2. Instant cast ruin, same **** damage, but it applies a blind. If your PLD isn't flashing to apply blind this can be useful if you have a spare GCD, but don't rely on it too much.

40 gets you Leeches from the SCH Quest. Its your basic Esuna-like spell. Cleanses off debuffs from your target. 1s cast time, 2.5 sec reuse. Basic spell, it can cleanse almost everything off your tank. Prioritize disease and paralyze from him before removing off others.

42 and 46 are your next ACN abilities. Rouse which is useful for the healing potency it gives, and will make them immune to cc. Using it on cooldown can improve your fairies healing output quite a bit. You also get Miasma II which is a self-centered aoe that can tag things. Damn near useless while healing, short duration, tiny range, miniscule damage.

45 SCH quest gives you Sacred Soil. Costing 1 Aetherflow stack it places a LARGE aoe that reduces all incoming damage by 10% to anyone standing in it. Really useful for damage mitigation, if you're fine on mana and don't need the aetherflow for Energy Drain, throw one up. They last for a respectable duration and can make your healing easier. There is also a chance your next succor cast within 15 seconds will be free of cost. If you can land a sacred soil and a succor you will prevent a LOT of aoe damage.

Level 50 brings two very important toys to the SCH's arsenal. As a level 50 Arcanist you've unlocked shadowflare. Its a low damage ground placed AOE that lasts a decently long 30 seconds. Any targets inside the aoe will take constant damage but more importantly they will receive a constant Slow on them. Slow reduces the attack speed and casting speed of a target by a significant amount. Use this whenever you have a free moment and try to keep it up, it will significantly reduce the damage output of the targets. if you're grouped with a SMN they should keep it up instead of you, freeing you up for more healing.

The level 50 SCH quest gives you an ability called Lustrate. Lustrate is an off GCD 0 mp instant cast 20% max health heal that uses an aetherflow charge. It goes through disease's heal reduction and it has a 1 sec cooldown. If the **** hits the fan you can spam this to return quite a lot of health to your target in a very short period of time. It is super important to judge when to use this though, if you go through all 3 aetherflow charges with this spell you won't have any left to restore your mana with. Balance your need for instant heals with your need for sustained mana regen throughout the fights.

Other Abilities you may want from CNJ/THM: Scholar's other class ability pools are the other casters. While theres not a great amount of abilities you'll want, there are a few that are damn near required to be at your best. From CNJ you can skip cure and raise, we have our own versions. You'll want Protect if you're going to heal in 4-mans, and picking up Aero can be useful if you need to add more instant dots to a dps-race type boss. Cleric Stance can be ignored, if you need to solo you can switch to SMN. Stoneskin can be extremely useful for more shielding, especially on dps and other healers. Its most effective on targets who will take periodic damage rather than being focused by the boss. THM's thunder can be ignored, you have other options of damage if you have a free GCD, however their other two abilities can be very useful. Surecast makes your spell uninteruptable. I use this when im casting Succor during boss AOE. It makes sure it goes off immediately after the damage hits and I don't get interrupted out of it. Swift cast (THM 26) is the most useful cross class ability you will get. Every spell becomes instant cast. You will use this on Raises or Shadowflares, or anything at all that takes longer than 1 second to cast. 60s cooldown so use it and abuse it. Love this ability.

Being a scholar is not as straightforward as a WHM. A WHM has a myriad of different healing options for every situation, where as a Scholar has fewer healing options, but quite a few different ways to achieve the same goal. Careful use of your buffs like Sacred Soil and Eye for an eye can dramatically reduce incoming damage, while your debuffs make it even easier to control the enemy's damage output. Virus and the slow from Shadowflare are also super useful debuffs that you have to find the right GCDs to use. Effectively using the shields can also turn harder fights into easy wins. AK's final boss applies a disease during a heavy attack, which can cause 1/3 to 1/2 of your tank's health to disappear and your heals to be 50% less effective. By dropping an Adloquium on the tank the shield should be able to absorb the normal melee attacks long enough for you to Leeches off the disease, then cast Physick to restore his health. Adloquium into Physick can stop incoming damage then refill a tank's health effectively.

Some more useful Scholar tips: Master the use of target of target (default key: t) or focus(default shift-f) and macro your Virus/Energy Drain abilities to use the focus target. Since Virus and Energy Drain are off the GCD you can start a heal on the target, hit T to switch to the boss, apply the debuff or Energy Drain, then T back to your tank (Since boss has him targeted and you switch to target's target) to resume healing without missing a beat. Depending on the fight and positioning, it can be super useful to position your fairy in a very specific place so that the buffs can be applied. If you're using Selene it can be great to place her near the dps to better take advantage of the skill/spell speed buffs. Also remember that the fairies tend to be a few steps behind you, so if you're at absolute max range for your heals she is probably out of range of hers. Use the 'place' ability from your petbar to make sure she stays in range.

If you guys have other questions or comments let me know and i'll try to keep this updated with Scholar-centric information.

Sidaltus Veirn, Scholar on Sargatanas