Scholar DPS Rotation for Healers — Dawntrail 7.1

Scholar has a fairly simple damage kit, with two single-target damage spells ( Broil IV and Ruin II), one area-of-effect (AoE) damage spell ( Art of War II), one damage-over-time (DoT) spell ( Biolysis), and one oGCD damage ability ( Energy Drain). The basic rotation aims to maintain Biolysis on the boss while maximizing usages of Broil IV followed by Energy Drain without sacrificing necessary healing.

Scholar has a basic opener that can be adapted to suit the healing requirements at the beginning of the fight. The most important part of the opener is aligning Chain Stratagem with the party's other raid buffs and burst. Remember that Aetherflow stacks and Dissipation can both be held as necessary for healing in the fight. It is recommended that you hold these at the start of progression and then work them into the opener once you and your cohealer are comfortable with the healing at the start of the fight and/or are better geared.

• Precast Broil IV
  • Grade 1 Gemdraught of Mind
• Biolysis
  • Dissipation/ Aetherflow
• Broil IV
  • Chain Stratagem
• Broil IV
  • Energy Drain
• Broil IV
  • Energy Drain
• Broil IV
  • Energy Drain
• Broil IV
  • Dissipation/ Aetherflow
• Broil IV
  • Baneful Impaction
• Broil IV
  • Energy Drain
• Broil IV
  • Energy Drain
• Broil IV/ Biolysis
  • Energy Drain
• Broil IV/ Biolysis

The Mind Potion is used immediately after the precast Broil IV. It should be possible to weave it without clipping, but you will have to mash the key because it will not queue. This way, it buffs the first application and the early refresh of Biolysis. Biolysis is refreshed early right before raid buffs expire so that your natural DoT refreshes should line up with the end of future buff windows. The early refresh is considered the standard opener because it should only take two or four minutes before it is a gain, depending on how many raid buffs your party has.

If you have no raid buffs other than Chain Stratagem, it takes four minutes of uptime for the early refresh to be a DPS gain. If you have any additional raid buff in the party, it only takes two minutes to be a gain. If there is downtime that resets your Biolysis alignment before you reach that threshold, it is not worth doing the early refresh, but that should be rare.

Depending on your spell speed, you may be able to fit in an eighth Broil IV before refreshing Biolysis. A GCD of 2.48 is just barely able to get eight Broil IVs and still catch Chain Stratagem with Biolysis. If you have any delays between your casts during the buff window or if other raid buffs are expiring before Chain Stratagem, you may still want to refresh Biolysis a GCD early.

Aetherflow and Dissipation can swap places in the opener based on the fight and your expected kill time. Aetherflow first is considered the "standard" opener because it is the most flexible for dropping Energy Drains and Dissipation. It will generally be the opener you use when starting progression on a fight. However, if you are able to use Dissipation in the opener, Dissipation first holds several advantages and will usually be the preferred opener outside of specific phase or kill times. These advantages include better mana from using Aetherflow later in the opener, the fairie returning to the field sooner, and setting up your Aetherflow alignment for future burst windows in advance.

1. Maintain Biolysis as long as it will be on the boss for at least 15s.
2. Use Chain Stratagem on cooldown after the opener unless your group is holding buffs due to a specific mechanic or kill time.
3. Use Baneful Impaction under raid buffs.
4. Use Broil IV whenever you have time to cast it and do not need to GCD heal (This should be >90% of the time).
5. Use Ruin II when you do not have time to cast Broil IV due to movement and either cannot use Swiftcast or are holding it for safety. Try to avoid this in future runs by pre-positioning.
6. Use Energy Drain when the Aetherflow stacks are not necessary for healing. Try to use these within two-minute raid buffs whenever possible.

1. Art of War II is a DPS gain at two targets over Broil IV.
2. At two to three targets, maintain Biolysis on all targets unless they will die soon.
3. At four targets, only use Biolysis when you cannot hit four+ targets due to positioning. Otherwise, use Art of War II.
   • At the start of dungeon pulls, apply Biolysis to enemies one by one while following the tank.
4. You can still use Energy Drain in multitarget scenarios, but try to use them on the higher health targets to avoid wasting the damage.
5. Baneful Impaction is a massive AoE DPS gain. In dungeons, try to use Chain Stratagem on the healthiest enemy in the pull and follow up with Baneful Impaction on the whole group unless the enemies will die before the DoT wears off.

A large majority of the damage you do is simply based on GCD uptime: the amount of time you spend casting Broil IV on the boss. Extended movement is the enemy of uptime, but you have several tools to deal with this.

1. Slidecasting
   • "Slidecasting" involves moving before a cast has completed without interrupting the cast. The slidecast window in FFXIV is quite large compared to other MMOs. The exact timing depends on your ping, but it generally starts about 0.5s before the cast bar is finished. Between the slidecast window and the ~1s between Broil IV casts, you can be quite mobile all the time and easily pre-position for most mechanics.
2. Biolysis
   • Biolysis is an instant cast, so you can use your natural DoT refreshes to freely move during mechanics or to pre-position yourself. Do not force extra DoT refreshes to move, though.
3. Swiftcast
   • Swiftcast makes your next spell instant cast and can be used on Broil IV to give a GCD of free movement. This is not advisable in progression and can be dangerous when playing in other unoptimized situations when you may need Swiftcast for Resurrection.
4. Ruin II
   • Ruin II is an instant cast and allows infinite free movement at the cost of ~25% of a Broil IV. This is your last resort, but it is still a valuable tool for maintaining uptime during very high movement mechanics or when you have not yet optimized a fight. It is always better to use this than to do nothing.