Scholar Healing Rotation, Ability Priority, and Cooldowns — Endwalker 6.55

Disclaimer: This guide is focused on level 90 Scholar play. Not all of the principles and advice mentioned here are applicable to every level of play.

Scholar has a very straightforward general healing priority:

Free oGCD heals → Aetherflow oGCD heals → GCD heals

This can be thought of based on the cost of each of these categories. Free oGCD heals cost no damage potency, but they generally have longer cooldowns. Aetherflow oGCD heals cost 100 potency (the damage of one Energy Drain) but have shorter cooldowns. GCD heals cost 295 potency (the damage of one Broil IV) or even more in multi-target scenarios, and often cost significant amounts of mana as well, but these have no cooldowns besides being on the GCD. The job of you and your cohealer is to minimize the costs that the two of you combined are paying to keep the party alive. Remember that other party members can contribute to this by using their own healing and mitigation, it is not just on the healers.

These are the abilities that make up your first line of defense. You want to maximize effective usage of these in each fight. They will be separated into single-target and AoE categories, but remember that AoE heals can and often should be used for single-target healing as well.

1. Protraction
   • Protraction increases the target's max HP by 10% and restores the same amount, and it also increases the healing the target receives from all sources by 10%.
   • As it is based on the target's max HP, it is most effective when used on a tank, but it can be used for spot healing on other party members as well.
   • The 10% healing buff is also very useful, and any Excogitation or Aetherpact applied during the buff will snapshot this effect. This buff can also be used to buff an Adloquium for extending to the party with Deployment Tactics.
2. Recitation + Excogitation
   • Recitation removes the Aetherflow cost of Excogitation and guarantees that it will be a crit. This is a very powerful single-target heal and can be applied in advance as normal for Excogitation.
   • See the Aetherflow Healing section for more info on Excogitation.
3. Aetherpact(Fey Union)
   • Fey Union is a Healing-over-Time (HoT) effect that heals the target every three seconds for the cost of 10 Fae Aether.
   • The Faerie will not move or cast Embrace while performing Fey Union, and using any other faerie ability will cancel Fey Union.
   • This is most effective when a target is taking consistent damage, such as a tank taking auto-attacks, or when the target is low but does not need to be healed up immediately.

1. Summon Seraph + Consolation
   • Summon Seraph replaces your faerie with Seraph, buffing her healing autos and allowing the usage of Consolation twice while she is on the field.
   • Consolation is a strong AoE heal, providing half raw healing and half shielding. It originates from your faerie and has a very large range at 20y, covering most or all of a standard arena if your faerie is centered.
   • It is best to use Summon Seraph during repeated raidwide damage so you can maximize the benefit of each Consolation.
2. Recitation + Indomitability
   • Recitation removes the Aetherflow cost of Indomitability and guarantees that it will be crit. This is a powerful AoE heal and the most common usage of Recitation in raids.
   • See the Aetherflow Healing section for more info on Indomitability.
3. Fey Blessing
   • This is a moderate strength AoE heal that originates from your faerie and has a very large range at 20y, covering most or all of a standard arena if your faerie is centered.
4. Whispering Dawn
   • This is a strong HoT that originates from your faerie. It will oftentimes be your go-to AoE heal due to its strength and relatively short cooldown.

These are the heals you go to when your free healing can not cover incoming damage appropriately on its own. Their cost is relatively low at 100p, and you will be using these often during progression, especially in harder fights and during healing checks. They will be broken down into single-target and AoE categories, but Sacred Soil is the highest priority Aetherflow heal in both situations.

1. Excogitation (non- Recitation)
   • This is a powerful delayed heal on your target that triggers when either their HP dips below 50% or the duration expires.
   • This will not prevent the target from being one-shot if they take enough damage from a single hit to kill them while above 50% HP.
   • This is your go-to single-target Aetherflow heal, assuming Sacred Soil is on CD or is being held for AoE healing.
2. Lustrate
   • This is a moderate heal with a near-instant CD, allowing it to be used whenever you have Aetherflow stacks.
   • This is your fallback single-target Aetherflow heal, used when your Excogitation is on CD or when you do not want to use a longer CD to spot heal someone.

1. Sacred Soil
   • This is an extremely powerful ability, combining a strong HoT with mitigation on a very short cooldown.
   • It gets an extra tick of healing when placed, making it six total ticks over 15s.
   • This is your most powerful usage of Aetherflow for healing. During progression, it will be used a lot, so do not be shy about throwing this up for basically every raidwide at first and pulling it back as you get more used to the fight.
2. Indomitability (non- Recitation)
   • This is a moderately strong AoE heal.
   • You will avoid spending Aetherflow stacks on this when possible, but it will still be used semi-regularly in progression and during healing checks.

These are your last line of defense heals. Using them often is a huge drain on both your DPS and your mana, so you want to avoid using these when possible. At the same time, they are your only on-demand source of shields, which means you will still be using them to prepare for hard-hitting mechanics during progression. Remember to try to balance your DPS and the party's safety properly, and then try to focus on removing these first as you get more comfortable with a fight.

1. Adloquium
   • This is your standard single-target GCD heal, providing both pure healing and a larger shield portion.
   • This should be rarely required for actual single-target healing. It is commonly used when someone eats a mechanic or was just raised, or when a tank makes a major mistake.
   • It can be used with Deployment Tactics to turn the single target shield into a party shield, a very powerful tool during progression and in preparation for the hardest-hitting mechanics.
2. Physick
   • This is a weak single-target GCD heal that does not cost much mana.
   • You never want to use this and should almost never have to. The only use cases are if you are running out of mana or if someone needs immediate healing, you have no oGCD heals available, and Adloquium would be too slow.

1. Succor
   • This is your only AoE GCD heal, providing both pure healing and a larger shield portion.
   • This can be used during progression for hard-hitting mechanics as a safety net. Otherwise, it is simply your last fallback and will mostly be used during healing checks.