FFXIV: ARR – Being a Scholar is the Best-ish

There are two roles I play in MMORPGs: healers and DPS-healer hybrids. I never play tanks because I’m not comfortable leading parties and I never play DPS classes because, frankly, doing the same DPS rotations through the hundreds of hours an MMO requires is boring.

In Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn I opted to go the route of the Scholar (SCH) over that of the White Mage (WHM). The concept of a healing pet just tickled my guts and the array of damage over time abilities brought over from Arcanist sold me. I was a Scholar soon after launch, continue to main Scholar, and will probably do so until I quit.

Every MMO presents its own unique challenges as a healer, and Final Fantasy XIV is no different. Players who only make it up to level 30 may be surprised to know that high-level and endgame dungeons require a great deal of AoE dodging, at times on par with TERA-levels of AoE dodging at endgame. That’s a lot of running out of orange cones and circles.

And shield bubbles!

The combination of the hotbar/tab-targetting combat and dodging presents endgame parties with some unique situations you wouldn’t see in some other MMOs — though I know there certainly are some that use similar mechanics.

I can’t speak for White Mages, but I can say that healing at endgame as a Scholar is a blast. With DoTs, off-global cooldown abilities, dodging, and pet management to deal with I am rarely ever bored. I am literally always doing something in dungeons, and that feels amazing.

What’s so special about SCH anyway?

Everything!

Okay, well maybe not everything. Physick certainly isn’t.

Scholars bring the core components from Arcanist into a healer role, meaning you get all the fun DoT spells of a damage dealer while still being a core party healer. Just how many damage spells do you get natively from Arcanist?

1. Bio (40 potency, DoT)
2. Bio II (35 potency, DoT)
3. Miasma (35 potency and Disease, DoT)
4. Miasma II (AoE, 20 potency then 10 potency DoT)
5. Shadow Flare (AoE, 25 potency and Slow)
6. Ruin (80 potency)
7. Ruin II (80 potency, Blind)

Seven reasonably damaging abilities, especially if you practice weaving in the Cleric Stance cross-class skill from Conjurer and use Bane to spread Bio, Bio II, and Miasma to multiple targets. If you mix in Thunder from Thaumaturge and Aero from Conjurer, you can pack quite a punch in drawn out battles. (Though you have to choose to use these as there are some other cross-class skills that may take priority in your playstyle.)

All me, baybee. I forgot to use Shadow Flare.

So what about all that healing and stuff?

Scholars have four heals, most of which having lower potency than those of a White Mage to keep Faerie + self-casted heals balanced. So what’ve you got?

1. Physick – 400 potency, 2.0 second cast time
2. Adloquium – 300 potency, creates barrier equal to the amount of HP healed. If the heal is a critical hit, target receives double the bubble.
3. Succor – 150 potency, creates a barrier equal to the amount of HP healed on all affected.
4. Lustrate – Restores 20% of target’s HP. Uses one stack of Aetherflow.

You have these tools, the faerie’s healing, and the following utility abilities:

1. Sacred Soil – Creates large area in which party members will only take 90% of the damage inflicted for 30 seconds. Uses one stack Aetherflow and has a 20% chance to make the next Succor cost no MP.
2. Eye For An Eye – Enemies that hit the target party member have a 20% chance of doing 10% less damage. (WHM can cross-class this skill.)
3. Virus – Reduces target’s STR and DEX by 15%, and INT and MND by 30%.
4. Aetherflow + Energy Drain combo – Infinite mana! Sort of.

Jam all of these spells (and then some) together and what do you get? A fantastic pure healer, yet still a moderate damage dealer. There is, however, one downside to the mighty Scholar:

Your pet is stupid.

I mean this in the least polite way possible. The pet AI is – as most players know – sub par, and that really shines through when you’re relying on a pet to help you heal.

Eos and Selene are my best buddies (lately more Selene than Eos for the massive DPS buffs), but I am 100% tired of having to manually place my faerie, command it to ‘Steady’ and ‘Obey’, only to have it decide to blow one of its major spells as the battle starts regardless.

The rest of being a Scholar is amazing, but the pet AI seriously needs some loving from Square Enix. The addition of being able to use pet abilities in the latest patch has made things a bit easer, but there is no reason a pet wouldn’t stick to its settings every time you enter battle. There is no need for it to be this complicated.

Scholar best class 2013

Of course, this is my own opinion (and I am incredibly biased), but I am honestly surprised by the amount of fun I have had and continue to have playing as a Scholar in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

Sure, it might not be the series standard like the coveted White Mage, but the Scholar’s mechanics and skills just flow so well together (sans faeries being dumb) that I feel it was a more than worthy addition to the game. If there had only been White Mages as a healing option, I probably would have quit by now.

The Scholar is not the easiest class to play, nor is it one that gets any glory, but it’s fantastic as a long-time healer and hybrid-healer player. I just wish I had one super-cool spell like the White Mage’s Holy. Shadow Flare and Sacred Soil kind of count.