Leveling Rotations and Tips for Scholar — Endwalker 6.4
Overview
Scholar starts at level 30, but it is possible to be level synced below this point in certain content, most notably in dungeons. This guide will start at level 15, the lowest level you can be synced to by a dungeon. Remember to stay up to date with your Scholar job quests while leveling, as most job quests from level 30 to 70 will unlock a new action. After level 70, job quests are fully optional, but you will need to do role quests to receive your Scholar job gear.
Gearing While Leveling
It is important as every job to stay up to date on gear while leveling, but this is especially true on tanks and healers, such as Scholar. You can generally just use the highest item level healer gear you have -- do not worry about substats at this point. Healer gear can be identified by the presence of the Mind stat, and many pieces of it will have the suffix "of Healing." Use the "Equip Recommended Gear" button in the Character menu to quickly equip your highest item level gear. At the level cap for each previous expansion (50, 60, 70, 80), you can purchase substantial upgrades for Allagan Tomestones of Poetics, sold by Rowena's Representative in major cities, always close to the city's main Aetheryte.
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Resources
A more in-depth explanation is provided in the Scholar Guide, but here is a quick explanation:
- Aetherflow: Gain three
charges when you use
Aetherflow or
Dissipation. Charges are represented by the green diamonds inside the gauge and can be used for a variety of defensive abilities as well as one offensive ability.
- Fae Aether: Gain 10
Fae Aether whenever you use an Aetherflow consuming ability. Can only be
used on
Aetherpact.
Action Overview while Leveling Scholar
Offensive Actions
Ruin is your single target damage spell. Use it when you have nothing else to do.
Broil is your single target damage spell. Use it when you have nothing else to do.
Broil II is your single target damage spell. Use it when you have nothing else to do.
Broil III is your single target damage spell. Use it when you have nothing else to do.
Broil IV is your single target damage spell. Use it when you have nothing else to do.
Bio is your DoT. Never apply to an enemy that is about to die. Avoid overwriting early. Only use it on mobs while the tank is pulling and you can not stand still to cast
Ruin. Maintain this on bosses until the boss dies.
Bio II is your DoT. Never apply to an enemy that is about to die. Avoid overwriting early. Apply it to every mob at the start of each pull. Maintain this on bosses until the boss dies.
Bio II is your DoT. Never apply to an enemy that is about to die. Avoid overwriting early. Apply it to mobs while the tank is pulling if you can not hit 3+ with
Art of War. Maintain DoT uptime in single target and two-target situations. In 3+ target situations, only apply DoT if you can not hit 3+ targets with
Art of War due to mechanics.
Biolysis is your DoT. Never apply to an enemy that is about to die. Avoid overwriting early. Apply it to mobs while the tank is pulling if you can not hit 5+ with
Art of War. Maintain DoT uptime in single target and 2-4 target situations. In 5+ target situations, only apply DoT if you can not hit 5+ targets with
Art of War due to mechanics.
Biolysis is your DoT. Never apply to an enemy that is about to die. Avoid overwriting early. Apply it to mobs while the tank is pulling if you can not hit 4+ with
Art of War II. Maintain DoT uptime in single target and 2-3 target situations. In 4+ target situations, only apply DoT if you can not hit 4+ targets with
Art of War II due to mechanics.
Ruin II is your instant cast damage spell. Use it when you can not cast your standard damage spell due to movement, and your DoT does not need to be refreshed.
Ruin II is your instant cast damage spell. Use it when you can not cast your standard damage spell due to movement, your DoT does not need to be refreshed, and you are not in range to use
Art of War.
Ruin II is your instant cast damage spell. Use it when you can not cast your standard damage spell due to movement, and your DoT does not need to be refreshed.
Art of War is your AoE damage spell and is instant cast. Always use when you can hit 3+ targets. On 2 targets, use when your DoT does not need to be refreshed. In single target, use if in range when you need to move and your DoT does not need to be refreshed. It can also be used as your default damage spell in place of
Ruin at this level.
Art of War is your AoE damage spell and is instant cast. Always use when you can hit 3+ targets. On 2 targets, use when your DoT does not need to be refreshed. In single target, can be used for movement in place of
Ruin II.
Art of War is your AoE damage spell and is instant cast. Always use when you can hit 3+ targets. On 2 targets, use when your DoT does not need to be refreshed.
Art of War is your AoE damage spell and is instant cast. Always use when you can hit 5+ targets. On 2-4 targets, use when your DoT does not need to be refreshed.
Art of War II is your AoE damage spell and is instant cast. Always use when you can hit 4+ targets. On 2-3 targets, use when your DoT does not need to be refreshed.
Energy Drain is your only offensive Aetherflow ability and deals single target damage. Use it when you have unneeded Aetherflow stacks. Optimizing
Energy Drain usage is discussed more in depth in other sections.
Chain Stratagem is a single-target raid buff that increases the Critical Hit Rate of attacks against the targeted enemy. Use it in you opener and then off CD on bosses. You can find information about the opener in the Rotation section, as well as information about optimizing this ability in endgame content.
Single Target Damage Priority
- Keep
Bio up.
- Keep
Bio II up.
- Keep
Biolysis up.
- Use
Ruin as your filler.
- Use
Ruin or
Art of War as your filler.
- Use
Broil as your filler.
- Use
Broil II as your filler.
- Use
Broil III as your filler.
- Use
Broil IV as your filler.
- Use
Art of War when you can not cast your standard filler due to movement and are in range of the target.
- Use
Ruin II when you can not cast your standard filler due to movement.
- Use
Ruin II when you can not cast your standard filler due to movement and are away from the target.
- Use
Ruin II when you can not cast your standard filler due to movement.
AoE Damage Priority
- Use
Art of War if it will hit 3+ targets.
- Use
Art of War if it will hit 5+ targets.
- Use
Art of War II if it will hit 4+ targets.
- Maintain
Bio II if the target is not about to die.
- Maintain
Biolysis if the target is not about to die
- Use
Art of War.
- Use
Art of War II.
Healing and Defensive Actions
Summon Eos
summons your fairy to your side. She will automatically heal party members
(including you) that are missing HP using
Embrace. Fairy abilities will originate from her
position rather than yours. She can be ordered to stand in a certain spot
using the
Place, and then ordered to follow you again using
Heel. Always make sure the fairy is summoned. She will despawn
if you Place her and move too far away so be careful.
All of the following abilities are oGCD unless specified to be a GCD.
Do not be afraid to use AoE oGCD heals to heal a single target. Some of them are still very
useful for this, such as Whispering Dawn.
Physick is your basic single target GCD heal.
Whispering Dawn is an AoE fairy regen.
Adloquium is a GCD single-target heal that grants a shield, Galvanize. It has more overall potency than
Physick and should be used over it unless you would be overwriting another Galvanize.
Succor is a GCD AoE heal that grants Galvanize.
Fey Illumination is an AoE fairy buff that decreases magic damage taken and increases GCD healing done.
Lustrate is a single target heal with a near-instant cooldown which costs an Aetherflow stack
Sacred Soil creates a bubble that reduces damage taken for party members inside. It costs an Aetherflow stack. It is generally not worth using over other Aetherflow abilities while at this level unless you are doing old Ultimate level content.
Sacred Soil creates a bubble that reduces damage taken for party members inside and heals them over time. It costs an Aetherflow stack. It is your highest priority usage of Aetherflow at this level, both in single target and AoE healing.
Indomitability is an AoE heal that costs an Aetherflow stack.
Deployment Tactics extends a Galvanize shield from one party member to all party members within range of them. In trash pulls you can use
Adloquium on both the tank and yourself prepull and then Deploy your Galvanize once the tank shield breaks. On bosses, you can Deploy an Adloquium off of the tank prepull to provide a larger party shield than
Succor. Do not use over Succor during uptime as Succor's combined healing plus shielding is more potency.
Emergency Tactics is a self-buff that converts the next Galvanize effect from
Adloquium or
Succor you apply into pure healing. This is rarely needed in practice, but is useful if shielding would be wasted either because a Galvanize is already up or a mechanic requires pure healing (such as DRK's Living Dead).
Dissipation is an ability that forcibly dismisses the fairy for 30s in exchange for three Aetherflow stacks and a powerful GCD healing self-buff. The fairy cannot be resummoned via any means during this 30s. This is a strong ability to use when you have already used all the fairy's abilities and still require more healing. It can also be used near the end of trash pulls so that most of the downside occurs in between pulls, allowing you to start the next pull with full Aetherflow and a buffed
Adloquium shield on the tank.
Excogitation is a strong, delayed single-target heal that costs an Aetherflow stack. It heals the target when either their HP drops below 50% (instantly if they already are) or after 45s have passed. This allows it to be used in advance of damage so that its CD starts recovering sooner, without risking overhealing. It should be used over
Lustrate as it provides more healing, unless you would rather save Excogitation for a specific upcoming damage instance.
Aetherpact is a channeled single target fairy heal, effectively functioning as a regen. It costs 10 Fae Aether per heal, with heals occurring every 3s. While channeling, the fairy will not move or cast
Embrace, and using any other fairy ability will end Aetherpact. Be sure not to leave her behind while moving between dungeon pulls.
Recitation is a self-buff that makes the next usage of
Adloquium,
Succor,
Indomitability, or
Excogitation not cost either Mana Points or Aetherflow and guarantees the action will Crit. This should usually be used on Indomitability in raids and Excogitation in dungeons, but there are exceptions to this which are touched upon in other sections.
Fey Blessing is an AoE fairy heal.
Summon Seraph replaces the normal fairy with Seraph. Seraph's Embraces provide a shield, Seraphic Veil, as well as their standard healing, and access to
Consolation. While Seraph is summoned you cannot use
Aetherpact,
Fey Blessing, or
Dissipation.
Consolation is an AoE fairy heal that also provides a shield. It can be thought of like an oGCD
Succor. You have access to two charges of Consolation during each
Summon Seraph.
Protraction is a single target buff that increases the target's maximum HP and all healing received by the target.
Other Actions
Esuna removes a single debuff from yourself or an ally. Only debuffs with a white bar on top of their icon can be removed.
Resurrection is your raise ability. Best used with
Swiftcast to eliminate the long cast time.
Swiftcast removes the cast time from the next spell.
Lucid Dreaming restores 3850 mana over 21 seconds. While you do not want to use it on full MP, you also do not want to wait too long to use it. Try to use it when you are missing about 2000 MP.
Aetherflow grants you three stacks of Aetherflow and restores 2000 MP. It should be used off CD.
Surecast makes you immune to most knockback effects. It also prevents heavy damage from interrupting casts.
Rescue pulls a party member to your location. Useful when someone is unaware of a mechanic, but try to not use it unnecessarily.
Dungeon Gameplay
In a dungeon, the main challenge is keeping a tank alive during big pulls. At higher levels this can feel easy due to your large amount of healing tools, but it can be a struggle at lower levels when you only have a fraction of your kit.
Dungeon Trash Pulls
- Ensure your fairy is summoned at the start of the dungeon
- Use
Adloquium on the tank before pulls to give them a shield.
- Use
Adloquium on yourself before pulls if
Deployment Tactics is off CD.
- Use
Recitation+
Excogitation on the tank prepull if both are off CD.
- Use
Bio on mob packs as the tank gathers them up.
- Use
Bio II on mob packs as the tank gathers them up.
- Use
Biolysis on mob packs as the tank gathers them up.
- At low levels, you will not have an unrestricted
AoE GCD to spam, so
Ruin will be your only consistent option.
Art of War should be used once mobs are gathered.
Art of War II should be used once mobs are gathered.
Healing in Trash Pulls
Try to exhaust oGCD options before GCDs, and your free oGCDs before those that cost Aetherflow
Do not be afraid to use AoE oGCD heals as well - some of these are great
even for healing a single target, such as Whispering Dawn.
If you use a 60-second cooldown at the beginning of a pull, it should come back up at some point during the next pull, depending on how fast the run is going. 90 and 120 second cooldowns will generally not be up again until after the next boss, so do not blow all of them on the very first pull. Try to not use long cooldowns towards the end of a boss fight, since trash pulls require significantly more healing.
Boss Fights, Trials, and Raids
- Keep your DoT up at all times.
- As usual, prefer oGCD heals before GCD, and free oGCDs before Aetherflow oGCDs. You only need to heal the bare minimum to keep people alive - they do not need to constantly be full HP.
- Use excess Aetherflow stacks on
Energy Drain, ideally during 2-minute buffs.
Achieving Level 90
Congratulations! If you would like to continue on to learn how Scholar functions at max level, please continue on to our full Scholar guide, listed below.
Changelog
- 30 May 2023: Updated for Patch 6.4.
- 17 Jan. 2023: Updated for Patch 6.3
- 31 Mar. 2022: Guide added.
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Tonto Draksbane, a FFXIV healer theorycrafter and player, and Scholar and Sage mentor on the Balance Discord. You can find him for questions in the healer channels there.
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