Guide Class/Job Tips and Tricks

Linnaete

sus
Staff member
Editorial Staff
Veteran
Joined
Feb 19, 2009
Messages
6,411
Location
UK
Gil
1,043
Andre the Adamantoise
Chocobo Egg
Accessory (Head)
Accessory (Arms)
Build-A-Member
Chocobo Egg
FFXIV
Aoife Linnaete
FFXIV Server
Lamia
Free Company
None
*ahem* :sir:

Hello, current AND former denizens of Eorzea! Let us gather around and impart our wisdom to each other, and to the fledgling new adventurers who will surely accidentally stumble upon this thread sooner or later.

The purpose of this thread, as the title suggests, is to provide tips and tricks for any particular job/class you have had considerable experience with. Not only can we provide a somewhat more intimate and personal environment (unlike a Wiki page!) for a new player who has just joined the scene, but we can also offer tips and pointers to a veteran player who may have next to no experience with a particular role! Feel free to also suggest improvements of your own if your particular class or job of choice has already been discussed.

There's no particular format that you should adhere to. Feel free to cover all the bases with whichever formatting of your own choosing. For the sake of easy reading, just clearly label to begin with which role/class/job you are about to discuss roughly as follows:

Class/Job: Dragoon
soul_of_the_dragoon_i1fo2c.png

Role: DPS

and then with whatever you wish, so e.g.

The Dos: Heavy Thrust
The Don'ts: Getting killed; Elusive Jump when your back is near the edge of the arena in the Titan fight.

etc.
 
ffxiv_17092013_175308rzs9s.png


Class/Job
: Scholar
soul_of_the_scholar_iiistt.png

Role: Healer

Basic rundown: Of the three current healer jobs, Scholar is arguably the most versatile, with possibly the biggest toolbox. The presence of a fairy with her own healing capabilities and support abilities (such as Selene's party-wide Esuna); an array of spells and abilities one can proactively use to shield and mitigate a player from incoming damage; a series of spells and abilities one can reactively use to recover from heavy damage; and plentiful means to inflict significant DPS all combine to make this job one of remarkable utility. As such, it is not uncommon for statics looking to tackle to most difficult raids in the game to specifically save one healer spot for a Scholar.

It is precisely because a Scholar has the support of a fairy that I consider this job to have a refreshingly low skill floor to begin with. You can practically spend nearly the entirety of a lower level dungeon run inflicting nothing but damage as if you were the third DPS while the fairy carries the full brunt of the healing duty. It would also be an interesting idea for a player who may have started off as a DPS to think about using Scholar to help bridge that gap and ease into a healing environment with a job that offers plentiful damage-dealing capabilities of its own and a fairy as a critical crutch if necessary.

That being said, while easy to step into the shoes of, Scholar is also a job that can have an intimidatingly high skill ceiling - in other words, it will take a heavy degree of practising and mastering if you wish to take the job into a current endgame raid environment and expect to utilise its toolbox in an optimal manner. In an endgame environment, it is knowing when to expect heavy damage, when to move your fairy, when to make judicious use of your resources and cooldowns, and intimately knowing what tools you possess and how you can effectively use them in combination with one another that will maximise your chances of success.

o----
scholar_icon_4c3s6d.png
----o

How to train your fairy: The first question might be: there are two fairies! Which one should I bring into a dungeon or trial with me?

There are no hard-and-fast rules for which fairy ought to be used. After all, you can freely swap fairies in a dungeon, and in the middle of a battle (unlike an Astrologian with its two stances). I ordinarily use Eos for a dungeon or trial that I am not familiar with. In a new environment where I have yet to determine what sort of damage to expect, when to expect it, and whether there are any significant damage spikes that must be mitigated, Eos' regen and healing buff ability can be a reassuring crutch to have. If there is a particular dungeon or trial that is notorious for the amount of healing involved, I may also feel it prudent to keep Eos out to maximise healing potential. For example:

i) Fey Illumination
fey_illuminationplqu8.png
+ Physick
With Eos, what you have essentially done with the above is grant yourself and nearby party members at a radius of 15y increased healing magic potency by 20% for 20 seconds. The example base healing spell therefore (Physick), sees its potency raised from 400 to 480. If you add on Eos's Embrace spell (healing potency of 300) and channel all that onto a single party member at the same time, you're talking about a sudden burst heal with a potency of 780.

ii) Fey Illumination
fey_illuminationplqu8.png
+ Fey Covenant
fey_covenantecsn1.png
+ Succor + Sacred Soil
Now let's say you're anticipating for group-wide damage from an enemy that deals heavy magical damage. The above is an example of how you can chain your own spells with the buff abilities of Eos to mitigate damage.

Fey Illumination as we have seen, provides the extra 20% boost to healing potency for 20s (remember: if your co-healer is near the fairy, he or she can enjoy the buff as well). As a result, your Succor gains a boost from a potency of 150 to 180, giving the party not only a slightly stronger direct heal, but also a shield that will absorb damage equal to the amount of HP restored for 30s. Fey Covenant from Eos increases magic defence (so don't use this particular ability if it's only physical damage, e.g. frontal cleave attacks) by 20% for 20s, while your own Sacred Soil creates a designated area that can nullify any damage by 10% for 15s.

The above is a good example of a sort of combo you can quickly chain together - with practice, naturally - to mitigate a significant amount of oncoming damage. It's an integral part of both fairy management AND realising the job's potential. Your raid group will love you for it. After all, to be a healer is to be able to quickly adapt to any given situation.

You will find that Selene is easily the more popular fairy for cases such as speed-runs and in fights where there is a substantial emphasis on dealing as much damage as humanly possible in a time limit. The two most key abilities Selene brings to the table are:

Fey Wind
fey_wind2pozu.png
- Increases attack speed of self and nearby party members by 3% for 30s.
Fey Caress
fey_caress6tpuz.png
- Removes a single detrimental effect from all nearby party members. Some effects cannot be removed. When Obey is active, will only execute upon command.
Fey Wind is admittedly a very slight buff with an effect that is difficult to notice, but that adage of "every little helps" applies here. A DPS will still thank you for that extra one or two auto-attacks.

Fey Caress is the party-wide Esuna. If your Scholar's level is synched down below 40 (when its equivalent of Esuna: Leeches, is unavailable) and the party is inflicted with a status ailment, Fey Caress becomes a major boon. Use it! But only if the fairy is on Obey or Steady. This ability will NOT automatically activate if Selene is on Sic.

NOTE: DON'T FORGET ROUSE. It can provide an additional temporary boost to a fairy's healing capability by 40%! You see that Embrace spell your fairy uses? It will now have a potency of 420 AND she is immune to a variety of status ailments for 20s!


o----
scholar_icon_4c3s6d.png
----o

Keep the fairy under control!: Equally critical is knowing how to control the fairy. It's no good if Eos blows all her buff abilities in the first 5 seconds if no one is going to benefit from them...

Rule #1 : NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER have the fairy on Sic! I don't care if you're desperate for the toilet and you cannot physically hold on for even another second to switch out of Sic. No, the fairy isn't suddenly going to attack an enemy. At best she will gaze stupidly at it. I urge you not to use Sic, because you would surrender a lot of control over your fairy. You may want that Fey Illumination and Whispering Dawn for a critical moment, only to find that Eos has already wasted them five seconds ago, forcing you to wait for the cooldowns to finish...and for Eos to do it all over again.

Yes, Scholars. Do yourselves an immense favour and control your pet. I cannot emphasise this enough! Instead, direct your eyes at these four/five most important behaviourial pet commands:

1) Obey
obey_icon1c7rfu.png
- Eos/Selene will automatically cast only Embrace, but nothing else unless commanded to.
2) Steady
steady_icon14lr6p.png
- Eos/Selene will be completely docile and will do nothing but follow you around unless given a manual command.
If your fairy is on Obey, she will automatically cast Embrace and nothing else. On Steady, she will do nothing on her own. A lot of Scholars at endgame level for more difficult raids prefer to keep the fairy on Steady for a simple reason. It allows for full control of the fairy. If at a particular moment you NEED to take command of Eos for her healing buffs, it can be infuriating to see a lagged response, because she is maybe in the middle of casting Embrace, and can't respond until she finishes.

3 and 4) Place
place_icon11foeu.png
and Stay
stay_icon1kgabm.png
- Place is a manual command that tells your fairy to move to a specific location. Stay, as you can infer, commands the fairy to stay where it currently is.

5) Heel
heel_icon1lvsck.png
- Eos/Selene will follow you again. If you've placed a fairy somewhere and forget to use this command after the fight is over, the fairy withdraws if you've wandered off without her.

Let's discuss why you may want to move your pet around. It can be a cumbersome affair to do so, especially if you are on a controller instead of keyboard and mouse, but the first obvious reason is to move your pet out of harm's way. While your fairy can perhaps survive most attacks, it is still good practice to manually order her to move out of the firing zone, permitting you have the ability to. Don't worry too much about having to do this. It's mainly something you can do, and perhaps something a Scholar ought to do in cases like Alexander Savage.

Another reason for positioning your pet? Perhaps your party members are a little too spread out. Moving the fairy towards the centre can be a useful trick, to ensure that her radial abilities when used reach as many people as possible. It's also a way to make sure her heal spell has the maximum reach. Perhaps you also want the fairy to be on the opposite side of the room, to ensure that both halves of the arena are covered.


o----
scholar_icon_4c3s6d.png
---o

DPS: There is technically a pseudo-rotation for Scholar DPSing, but unless a specific Alexander Savage raid demands it (even though by Yoshi-P's admission, raids were not designed with healer DPS contribution in mind), you shouldn't need to worry about it.

NOTE: You can cross-class Blizzard II from Thaumaturge. It is not essential, because the damage potency and radius are low, but the temporary binding effect can be useful in addition to when you run up to melee range of mobs to cast Miasma II. It will take up one cross-class ability slot, and in most scenarios, I think if you wish, you can safely get rid of Stoneskin. Plenty of Scholars often give up on Stoneskin when the Galvanise effect of Adloquium is more potent a damage mitigator. Cross-classing Aero from Conjurer is also useful, for it adds another DoT spell to your arsenal.

What I normally do in your average dungeon pull:
1) Start with the buffs. Stoneskin can be used, but is not necessary. A good topping of Adloquium on the tank just prior to a pull is always welcome. If your level is high enough and you have access to Deployment Tactics (a level 56 ability), you can grant that Galvanise effect to all party members in (short) range. Depending on the nature of the pull, Eye for an Eye is also another mitigator tool to keep in mind.

2) Once the tank has established sufficient aggro for the mobs and has them more or less gathered at one spot, I Swiftcast a Shadow Flare right on top of them. Then I follow up with Bio II --> Miasma --> Bio --> Bane --> Aero --> rinse and repeat whenever DoTs wear off.

3) While that is happening, I weave in Ruin, Ruin II (particularly if there is a need to be mobile), and (if you're at a high enough level to have this skill at level 54) Broil. The latter spell is Scholar's most powerful offensive spell, but it comes with considerable MP cost relative to the Ruins. Be mindful when you find yourself constantly using it, in case it leaves too big a dent on your MP tank. If you have plentiful Aetherflow stacks and the cooldown for a recharge is just around the corner, Energy Drain is also a good chunk of DPS AND MP regeneration. So if you've unused Aetherflow stacks, with more on the way and the situation does not call for emergency instant heals such as Lustrate or Indomitability, go crazy with the Energy Drains!

NOTE: If there are enemy mobs and the need to slow them down is ever a handy thing to dish out (e.g. those blob creatures in the Amon fight in Syrcus Tower that inflict considerable raid-wide damage if they manage to reach the boss), consider using Miasma II. It also grants the enemies a Disease status ailment, which will decrease the amount of healing they receive.

You don't have to do exactly what I have suggested above, and I acknowledge that there is always room for improvements. Your party will likely appreciate any DPS you throw out.

Now...when exactly is it safe to DPS? This is a fair question. You must bear in mind that Cleric Stance operates on the global cooldown length, so there's that to consider if you wish to quickly swap your INT and MND stats around at any moment. The best advice I can give is to just practise; being a healer is also about keeping a hawkish eye on the situation and assessing the goings-on around you. Be very observant when it comes to the amount of damage that is being inflicted and the health of your tank. If your tank is noticeably fragile, or if aggro has a tendency to bounce around, you can perhaps infer from this that you may not be accorded much of an opportunity to do much DPS. If the fairy cannot keep up on her own, you will likely have to take control of the situation yourself and dedicate the vast bulk of the time to healing. In the end, it's at your discretion.

If you refer back above, I have stated that I like to buff the tank first and let him or her establish aggro before I run in with the damage-dealing. A single Adloquium, which will be even better if it crits, will give the tank a good few seconds of protection, allowing them the time to keep the mobs under control, perhaps also saving them from needing to instantly pop a defensive cooldown, as well as giving you time to start hurling DoT spells around. It serves also as a good starting point to assess from thereon how squishy your party is and what approach you will likely have to take for the rest of the run.

NOTE: You can command your fairy to heal even when you have Cleric Stance enabled, because she will not be affected by your stats swap.

o----
scholar_icon_4c3s6d.png
----o

Other general tips/reminders

+ FOCUS TARGET your enemy. It will make your life so much easier, because you will receive clearer indication that an attack is coming, and what sort of ability you should expect in the next few seconds. This is particularly case for a Scholar, because anticipating and preemptive measures form a core part of their playstyle.

+ This may be the bane of your healing existence, but ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS ensure that Cleric Stance is not enabled when you wish to heal. If you were accidentally trying to DPS with Cleric Stance disabled, it certainly is not the end of the world. Trying to heal with Cleric Stance on, even with the fairy at hand, could well be.

+ Adloquium is NOT designed to be spammed, unless you wish to murder your MP tank before Aetherflow returns from cooldown. Scholars must remember that Physick is, and will remain so, your primary healing spell.

+ There is nothing stopping you from casting Adloquium and Eye for an Eye on your fairy before popping Deployment Tactics. Not only will every party member acquire the buffs, but so will your Tinkerbell companion.

+ Virus is your friend. Use it. It's another useful mitigation weapon. If you notice an enemy is charging off its attack is about to unleash it, a well-timed Virus can chip off even more damage inflicted to your group in addition to the Adlos/Succors/Sacred Soils.

+ For pre-buffs, it is very viable to cast Succor first, THEN an Adloquium on the tank. The stronger shield created by the Adloquium will override the weaker one generated by Succor. The low shield potency from Succor is nothing to write home about, but it gives your DPS something. Something is always better than nothing!

Oh, here's something worth trying out if you're a level 60 SCH and you have Eos out and on Steady:

Rouse --> Fey Illumination --> Whispering Dawn (you may as well?) --> Dissipation --> Emergency Tactics --> Succor --> Adloquium primarily on tank --> Eye for an Eye (ditto) --> Deployment Tactics (if people are stacked close enough) --> Lustrates/Indomitability if necessary.

What do you get from this madness?
1) Rouse buffs fairy, which will buff Whispering Dawn to provide an enhanced Regen effect.
2) Fey Illumination and Whispering Dawn remain active even after you dismiss the fairy with Dissipation.
3) Dissipation, though it temporarily forbids you to re-summon the fairy, increases your healing magic potency by 20%.
4) Emergency Tactics swaps out the shield effect you would ordinarily create with Adlo and Succor and replaces it with a direct heal equal to what the shield would have absorbed instead. With a buff from Dissipation and Fey Illumination if it is still active, your Succor suddenly becomes a large AoE heal akin to a White Mage's Medica.
5) If buffs are still active, an enhanced Adloquium on a tank is welcome. Add in Eye for an Eye and Deployment Tactics to give shields to everyone in the vicinity.
6) The replenished Aetherflow stacks from Dissipation will let you throw out Sacred Soils and Indomitabilities without having to wait for Aetherflow itself to come out of cooldown.

= insane profit

NOTE! - Indomitability and Lustrate are NOT spells. They are abilities. Healing magic buffs will enhance spells such as Physick and Adloquium, but they will generate no effect on the potency of the aforementioned instant-cast tools that use Aetherflow stacks.
 
White Mage! I should start by saying that I’m certainly not an expert, but I've put a fair bit of time into the job and these are just some things that I wish I had known when I started. I'm sure this stuff is really obvious to some people and reading back this post is probably more of a guide than "tricks", but hey, I'm bored sooo

N8OeI1w.png


Overview:

While it is one of three healing jobs, it is the most important – at least in my opinion. It specialises in large AoE heals, regenerative abilities and very powerful offensive spells that can even see you out damaging some dps in bursts. In contrast to the Scholar where you’re worrying about your pet and trying to anticipate and mitigate incoming damage, or Astrologian with their RNG card system, playing White Mage is actually somewhat straightforward as it is very reactionary and a lot of your time is just focused on scrolling down your list and plain ol’ healing. Of course there’s more depth there, but it’s probably the most accessible of the three. The BIGGEST thing you must be aware of while using this job – though certainly not just limited to the White Mage – is your MP usage. We have tools to regenerate MP over time, but it is a slow process and can leave us completely crippled in high intensity instances if we haven’t planned ahead.

Healing:

ceN3d1c.png
X2dIfaJ.png
i1xGXjq.png

White Mage is a reactionary healer, yet we also have two ways of mitigating incoming damage. The first is Protect which should be cast at the start of every instance, and the second is Stoneskin – which adds a barrier worth 10% of a target player’s health. Stoneskin should be cast after every mob that your party burns through. Unlike other healing jobs, we have access to Stoneskin (II) which allows us to cast Stoneskin on every party member at once. Couple that with swiftcast, and you’re able to do it without even stopping on your way to the next mob of enemies. You can use stoneskin during battle to try and mitigate some damage from a large attack, but often it's just easier to use a cure (II) afterwards instead which costs the same amount of MP.

FNjaYNx.png
Q2x1tb9.png
pul9urz.png

Now, the actual healing. Cure (I) is your best friend and is the most MP efficient of your healing spells. Cure (II) costs roughly 2x the amount of MP to cast, yet its potency is less than double that of Cure (I). Therefore in any instance where you have time, it’s better to use Cure (I) two times before a single Cure (II). Cure (III) is extremely situational and MP heavy, and unless your party is stacking extremely tight, isn’t worth using.

GhZ3SIy.png
1x1KKHt.png

They both cast AoEs, yet there are huge differences between Medica (I) and Medica (II) and it is important to understand them. Even though you unlock it first and it doesn't look or sound as 'powerful', Medica (I) is actually a higher potency healing spell and is more MP efficient than Medica (II). Medica (II) however, while less potent and more MP costly, gives each party member within its range a pretty substantial buff that will heal them over time (~30 seconds). It should be noted that this ‘buff’ is weaker than your Regen ability. Contrary to what you might see a lot of people doing, it is extremely wasteful to spam (II) over and over as the buff doesn’t stack – it just resets the time. However using both (I) and (II) back-to-back is a good way to quickly heal your entire party from the brink of death.

UVGK6cF.png

Now for Regen. This ability basically gives us a bit of help if a player is taking consistent damage, or just allows us to focus on laying down dps while still healing the targeted player. It's not a substitute for actually healing, but it's something. There are two important things to know about Regen:

1) It generates a LOT of enmity. Do NOT use before a pull, or even at the end of one because as soon as a tank with Regen goes near an enemy, they’re going to instantly agro onto you. I've seen this happen a lot.
2) Its healing potency over time is the same as when you cast it. So if we do this:

Divine Seal (30% increase in healing potency) > Regen > Cleric Stance > …

And start doing dps, the Regen will still be healing as if Cleric Stance wasn’t activated. Likewise, if we cast Regen on the last second that Divine Seal is up, then Regen will still heal for the full duration with the 30% buff.


DPS:

aEmvDjk.png
4f4jU4H.png
ogvHQJn.png

It can be either very fun or painfully boring. REMEMBER YOUR MP - Your offensive abilities can be very expensive to cast. It is important to note that Cleric Stance is on a cooldown timer, and if you activate it you’re not going to be able to effectively heal for at least 4 seconds (2 for the cooldown and another 2 seconds for a heal cast). So you need to make sure your tank isn’t going to die before that happens. Remember that in most dungeons and raids, healer DPS is not required and it's better to be safe than sorry if you're not sure you can do it while keeping everyone alive. My ‘rotation’ for dealing damage looks something like this.

Asylum (over tank) > Regen (over tank) > Cleric Stance > Aero (III) > Stone (III) > Stone (III)… etc

I don’t usually bother with other DoTs like Aero (I)/(II) at level 60 because of cast times but on earlier levels they're just fine. Aero (III) is an AoE DoT and will damage everything within range of your targeted enemy which makes it extremely efficient. Always try to get some kind of DoT onto an enemy if you’re laying down dps.

aEmvDjk.png

I have to mention this. Holy is super fun and makes you feel like a god, but wastes so much MP and has a long cast time. Do not even bother unless you’re extremely comfortable with the party and your ability to continue healing them afterwards. Swiftcasting it can be useful however if you’re looking to stun mobs of enemies. Note that the stun can only be used 3 times before enemies become resistant.

Recovering MP:

42EjhQM.png
6L3wt5x.png

This is a big one. White Mage has two abilities that allow us to regenerate MP during a battle. These are Shroud of Saints (SoS) and Assize. SoS also has an effect that cuts your enmity by half, but that should be considered a “bonus” and not its primary function. For 15 seconds it will regenerate MP at a very fast rate and to get the most out of it, you should not use it before your MP bar has fallen below 75%. It has a two minute cooldown timer so you need to be smart. Misusing this can mean running out of MP at the most frustrating times.

Assize on the other hand is probably the most OP ability we have. It has a high potency and can substantially damage enemies if we’re in cleric stance, or it can heal party members if we’re not. It’s insta-cast, has a large AoE and also regens a significant chunk of our MP back. It has high utility and you should use this whenever possible in end game dungeons and raids. It has a 90 second cooldown so you should be able to use it as a temporary fix while you wait for SoS where needed.

General Tips:

ky87U6o.png

You can start moving towards the end of a cast without it being interrupted. Use this to your advantage. And with that, do not get greedy! If an AoE appears beneath you when you just started casting, then move straight away. Even if it cancels your heal. A dead tank is bad… But a dead healer is almost always a wipe.

Do NOT waste your MP healing a tank when their health is 90%. More often than not you’ll just be overhealing which creates more enmity and makes their life harder. Consider throwing a regen on instead.

Tetragrammaton is essentially a free insta-cast and more potent Cure (II). Do not be afraid to use it whenever possible.

Benediction is pretty much your only backup plan if things go wrong. It says “insta-cast” but it has a slight delay. Do NOT wait until the player is a second from dying to use this otherwise they WILL die and the cast will be wasted. This happens more often than you would expect. It also has an extremely long cooldown. If you’re going to use it, use when the player’s health dips below 20%.

Divine Seal is very useful and buffs all of your healing spells. I’d recommend not using this ability until part way during a pull as the beginning is usually when a tank is strongest and when it’s least needed. However the cooldown is relatively short so you can more or less use as much as possible without much care.
 
i) Fey Illumination
fey_illuminationplqu8.png
+ Physick
With Eos, what you have essentially done with the above is grant yourself and nearby party members at a radius of 15y increased healing magic potency by 20% for 20 seconds. The example base healing spell therefore (Physick), sees its potency raised from 400 to 480. If you add on Eos's Embrace spell (healing potency of 300) and channel all that onto a single party member at the same time, you're talking about a sudden burst heal with a potency of 780.​


It has been brought to my attention that these numbers may in fact be a little inaccurate depending on your level.

Up to level 50, the fairy does scale with the Scholar as you would expect, but the 51-60 process is where it gets a little strange. The fairy does not properly scale up with you as she would have previously done, so the Physick-Embrace ratio is likely no longer a neat 4:3. I don't have numbers with me at the moment, but pulling off the combo as listed above probably will not yield the same numerical results as base potency numbers suggest.

Of course, the changes in scaling shouldn't be too much of a detriment to a Scholar at 60 compared to 50. I scarcely noticed the effects myself, though I was very aware that in relative terms Eos and Selene are technically weaker at the current cap level. It might mean a DPS-happy Scholar may need to keep an extra eye on how well their fairy heals while you squeeze in the downtime to throw as much DoTs out as possible. But ultimately, just be aware that the fairy-related numbers I have above are potentially a bit misleading.

Anyhoo, that's the two best healer jobs covered by the two best healers. Anyone else want to do one for their mains? :mokken:
 
Back
Top