SCH Efficiency At The Moment

I fall in love with SCH not too much time ago, but only in the last few weeks I was able to use it extensively and I was amazed by the versatility of SCH to the point I am considering making it my (second) main :) - first must be COR for obvious piratesque reasons.

Yesterday I was checking out some information and some good guides to improve myself and my skills and I found out this guide

Kanican's Scholar Guide

It has impressed me very much both for the details given and the overall conclusion that I found matching what I thought while playing Scholar.
The guide though is a bit updated and it's obviously lacking reflections on Haste and -na spells that were given to SCH due to level increase and JA adjustments.

The main purpose of this post is just to first say hello to all the fellow Scholars, and second to understand how much can be still taken on board regarding this old guide and what has changed.

I am for example very curious about SCH main healing situations at the moment, especially concerning enmity gain or stuff - I haven't main healed very much honestly and never had any enmity issues but my experience is very limited... is still enmity- vital in order to be on top of efficency? I have a feeling that the actual state of the game calls for a bit less of enmity- mainly because these days DD are capable of dishing out a lot of damage - but I might be terribly wrong.

Also I am very much curious about Regen-ga as I understood it the main method of healing for SCH - or so I experienced and read about.
Regen has always be seen as a good mp/hp ratio spell and I am wondering if it's still the case or new tests shown a different perspective.

Basically I am looking for information, insights, and solid analysis updated for the new contents and the overall state of the job at the moment :)

"The gates of knowledge must not be closed to one with a willingness to learn." Professor Schultz

Main changes is SCH has access to 50% cure potency, and the Regen buff. Also Embrava.

For Cure spells, I'd throw in a mix of Potency, ENM- and Haste. Depending on your situation you can decrease the amount of ENM- in your gear though.

SCH still subs RDM in 99% of the situations.

AoE Stoneskin is basically useless.

I would avoid AoE Cures because it increases the recast of your only cure by a significant amount.

And that's about all I can think of at the moment.

Edit: In the guide there's talk of going over -50 enmity... I'm confused. -50 Enmity is the cap. Sooyeah. Assuming the SCH guide was created before that was found out.

Your request is rather broad. I don't even know where to start...

I have never seen that guide before and it has a LOT of useful information that is still relevant to SCH. However, there is one important topic that I noticed the guide does not address:

Utilizing Day/Weather Bonuses
I noticed that the guide does not put Elemental Obis or Twilight Cape in their "Max Damage" equipment set for SCH. Elemental Obis are definitely something that you need to get your hands on (I recommend at least hyorin obi, rairin obi, korin obi, and anrin obi) for proper Scholar nuking and curing. These pieces of equipment can increase spell damage by percentage, which is a much more potent increase than what a few extra INT would provide.

For example, let's say you cast Firestorm on yourself and then cast Fire V (or any damaging Fire spell). Since the weather matches the spell, there is a roughly 33% chance that the weather will give your Fire V a bonus in damage. The same goes for the day; if you cast Stone V on Earthsday you have a 33% chance of getting a boost to the spell's power. Elemental Obis guarantee that this bonus will occur 100% of the time. The specific bonus to spell potency are the following:

• +10% for magic matching the day

• +10% for magic matching single weather

• +20% for magic matching single weather and day

• +25% for magic matching double weather

• +35% for magic matching double weather and day

In addition to obis, the Twilight cape grants and additional +5% bonus to the regular weather/day bonuses in the list above as long as either the day or weather match. However, please note that the Twilight cape does not guarantee the weather/day bonus will occur, it just increase the potency by +5%. For example, casting a Cure spell on Lightsday while wearing just a Twilight Cape will give you a 33% of getting a 15% (+10% from matching day, +5% from cape). However, if you equip a korin obi and do the same thing, you will get +15% bonus 100% of the time.

Please note that obis (but not the Twilight cape) also have the opposite effect on spells that are weak to the element. For example, wearing a Hyorin (Ice) Obi during double ice weather and casting a Wind spell will decrease the Wind spell's damage by 25%. Thus it's important to be mindful of the obi you have equipped. However, there are some instances where doing less damage can be useful (e.g. trying to get a yellow proc on weaker NMs in Abyssea).


Scholar as a Healing Job

I mention all of this because you asked the state of SCH as a healing job. As Niniann mentioned, SCH can now reach 50% cure potency through equipment. On top of this, SCH can also gain an additional +15-40% increase in potency to their cure spells while wearing the Twilight Cape and Korin Obi. While other jobs can wear the cape and obis and gain the same bonuses, they only benefit when it is Lightsday or when there is Light weather present (which is rare outside of Nyzul Isle or Limbus). This essentially means that our Cure IV is able to surpass that of a WHM by at least 15% since they cannot cast Aurorastorm on themselves as a WHM/SCH.

The recent boost to our Regen spells while under the effects of Light Arts is very exciting. Regen is very mana efficient, produces little enmity, and can help keep your party member's HP topped off so you can save your MP to heal the tank. I love to use Accession + Perpetuance (w/ AF3 hands +2 equipped) + Regen V. In a stable fight usually the tank is the only job to take damage. Occasionaly a mob or NM will use a AoE attack that damages nearby party members. If they have Regen V cast on them you usually don't need to bother throwing them a cure as there HP will top off on its own in a few seconds.

I would not argue against a -enmity set. It's no secret that Cure IV produces ridiculous amounts of enmity. The guide you linked goes pretty in-depth into the enmity produced by cure spells, so just use your own judgement. I personally prioritize cure potency, but have considered making a proper -enmity set for Campaign Battles.

The benefit of -enmity builds on healing jobs has taken a pretty sharp decline over the last few years. I wouldn't worry too much about it unless you're in roaming environment where you might end up dropping a Cure4 on somebody the moment the engage a new target. Even then, whatever you have around for other tasks should have a plenty sufficient amount of -enmity on it.

Enmity in Campaign Battle is pretty jacked up. NPCs can't hold hate to save OUR lives. It is fun, however, to throw a mega cure IV at a group of NPCs and watch yourself get pummeled into a bloody pulp. Fun times...

Haha, yeah. Unfortunately it's the best way to cap XP, even though you'll end up dying most of the time. It really is a shame that we can't cast regen on people not in our party during things like Campaign Battles or Bastion.

What's strange is how I can Accession + Protect V an NPC and the AoE effect includes me in its range. However, if I Accession + Protect V on myself it will only cast on me and not on surrounding NPCs.


Yeah, fortunately SE has gained a bit more sense since the lvl 75 cap and started matching stats that compliment each other on the same pieces of equipment. A lot of pieces you'll end up using for a cure set will already have -enmity on them (e.g. praeco slacks, prolix ring, scholar's loafers, etc.)

What I find sad is how people highly underestimate scholars. A vast majority of the time, a SCH will be invited to a VW run as a replacement black mage. They'll assign the SCH tier II-V nukes and helices of course. Of course it also has its job specific procs.

On the other hand, playing scholar (to its fullest potential) takes a ton of gear and familiarity with the job. A lot of scholars are not as proficient with all of the things a it can do. I've had a few scholars in VW that only stand there and Regen V. But, then again, it's VW and normal rules don't apply. Just pop in a temp. item, right? @_@;

Tanadava post covered almost everything that you need to know about sch, worth to mention that /sch sub will also get all your magic skills to 370 @ lvl 99, it really helps a lot of people that don't have magic skills caped / or very low like most people, it gives conserve mp job trait as well and a significant boost damage since can use hailstorm and other storm spells for blms +obis/twilight cape , parsimony is also good for ja spells and alacrity

Thank you for your explanation Tanadava... I am well aware of obi's importance and so far I never had the need to actually work towards having the whole set.
Now it will be my priority.

To be honest I humbly fall into the category of people that underestimated Scholar. now that I am one I am really impressed by the potential this job has :D
and it's very fun to play although I can tell it needs a lot of familiarity and a perfect set of macros lol

I highly suggest getting a cure potency magian staff, as well as a thunder/ice, and maybe even dark nuking staff. As far as Obis go, you can get away with an Ice/Thunder/Light/Dark, but if you want to do all of them, that's obviously the best answer.

I'm not exactly sure what direction you were taking with this. There's virtually nothing else for a scholar to be doing during a VW battle. If you're there to main-heal for whatever reason(any combination of healer availability, SCH-specific procs, or what have you), you do that, and attend to any procs in your repertoire when necessary/reasonable. Anything else and you're tip-toeing on the line of appropriateness. Much like BLM, VW isn't the time to be worrying about your damage output.

Which is why I said that it's VW and normal rules don't apply.

Thanks to SE and their infinite wisdom, lowering the level for helix spells makes it so that theonly proc that SCH can use that no other job can is Modus Veritas. That was such a disappointment to me... Not to mention MV is glitched to only work when the NM isn't TPing, casting spells, or stunned (like aby NMs)...

Top of the guide, bright red letters.

just wondering, why no one mentioned rapture and savant's bonnet +2 if necessary that's another 60% potency to your cure spell.

It's implied that the option is available. However, if you need to get somebody's HP up that much that fast, outside of unweakening, you probably shouldn't be spending an extra second activating a job ability.

What he said.

If i'm not doing anything else, I just keep the strat up. Sometimes results in burning it, but better than sitting w/ charges not getting used.

Fair point.