How to (Correctly) play your Scholar, despite the common theory.

Okay, let me start off this thread by simple stating that the Scholar class is the harder of the two healing classes to master your healing output, but I promise you, if you follow my guide and practice this guide, step by step, and you are serious about having a Scholar as your main class, then this guide will help you. I promise

Rules about the class
So, lets get this first thing straight.
1: You will always have first raise, if there is another White Mage, you have first raise, another Summoner? You have first raise. The common mistake people have for Summoner is ("Oh, we need to keep the healers mana from draining, so dps should raise"). If you actually play a Summoner class, their mana efficiency and the need for mana to dps well is needed more than a petty 700 mana on a Scholar, we will discuss why later in this guide about why. White Mage doesn't have the best mana seeking abilities, they will have last raise. (1: Scholar, 2: Summoner 3:White Mage)
TLDR: Scholar has first raise, and if anyone tells you different, ignore them, ignorant people will talk.

2: DOTS AND DPSING IS NOT YOUR ROLE, your role as a Scholar is to heal. Don't feel like just because you are a sub Dot class that you have a sub role to dps, that is not your job. That's the same idea as a BLM should throw some physics when a tank is getting low. If you have some extra time, then sure. Throw some dots out there, but that is not your job, contrary to the popular belief.
TLDR: Don't dot because you feel like that's a sub job of your class. Healing, is your role, and healing is your focus.

3: There is a specific healing order that needs to follow, first is Tanks, dps, then Healers.
People are probably looking at this like WHAT. HEALERS LAST. WHAT KIND OF SHIT IS THIS.This guide goes against everything normal that people would assume, because of the belief of one bad healer, spread to another healer, until all of us become bad healers. Let's fix that.
When you get to dps, the order of heals goes to *Summoner, Bard then other dps. (This order is subject to change as the situation of the actual fight can change, if the other healer is running low on mana then you would heal the bard first instead of the summoner.*) Healers worry about themselves, but theyre not really gonna get hit as much. And it's easy to micromanage an embrace onto you or the other healer.
TLDR: Healing order: Tanks, Dps, Healers. Dps order is Summoner, bard, and then other dps. Healers worry about themselves.

4: DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, USE GOD DAMN SUSTAIN.
Please. Its a minor mistake but CMO'N. YOU'RE USING SUSTAIN ON A HEALING PET. Use Embrace on the pet, place an adloquim, and move on with your life. Take that shit off your hotbar. This takes up mana that you need to conserve, while small, its still mana, and its just not worth it. My pet rarely dies, and I never have sustain up. It's also a cast time so it puts down your global cool down.
Moral, as soon as you become a Scholar, take Sustain off your hotbar.

Okay, that covers the basic rules of the class. These thoughts go against the norm, but like I said, this guide will set you free to be a great healer, just trust me.

Mana Management
Alright, alright. So we know Scholar's are the better of the class for mana management, but not everyone REALLY know's the true power of the mana management. I've died before, and I refuse to ask for any sort of ballad, you don't need it. Unless a part is coming up, and you really need to use 3k mana a minute for a heal. How do you do this? Let me tell you about this skill called:

Aetherflow: This skill, is a god send. As a Scholar, you get a considerable amount of mana from using this as apposed to a Summoner, because the skill is based on your piety. The more piety you have, the more Aetherflow gives you. (Ding ding, we can talk about which skills are the best for the class way later in the guide.)
1: Use this skill every minute. If you're eating a pizza, and Aetherflow is coming up, use that. You're about to get hit by a landslide, Aetherflow. This is the key to mana management.
-How to properly use your one minute stacks in terms of mana management
You have some skills you can use, (The bubble (Energy drain) and (Lustrate). Lustrate has its own little title to itself so I'm gonna leave it out, but by how you play your stacks in the right minute, will determine if you get more mana, or less mana. If you decide that by the end of that minute
"Hey, you know what, I wanna use energy drain because I had to use more mana in this phase."
Go for it, but before you use that nifty skill, ask yourself this:
"Do I have about three seconds or so to get my mana up?"
If the answer is yes, then do this.
Cleric Stance > Energy Drain > Energy Drain > Cleric Stance (off)
By the time you get that second energy drain off, it will be equal to about as much mana you could get when using a full three energy drains without cleric stance.
If you happen to not have the three seconds, then you have two choices.
Use the last remaining stacks you have for energy drain, and aetherflow
Or, if you have three stacks, and the tank is looking like he might need a Lustrate from a big hit,
Cleric Stance > Energy Drain > Energy Drain > Lustrate (On tank) > Cleric Stance(off)

How to know if you're using too much mana, or too little
Alright, so we know about our aetherflow, and how it effects our mana, but how will we know when to use it properly? When will we know when to use Aetherflow with cleric stance and energy drain? Let me explain this simple thing to you.
If you're a scholar, and I dont see you around 60-75% of your mana constantly, then you're not using enough mana, and not maximizing your heals.
I'm not the most geared scholar(i96), so my mana is at around 4.5k. So generally speaking, whenever I heal, I always generally use about 1.5k mana every minute. After an aetherflow and a couple energy drains it brings me back to full mana.
This however, is with my aetherflow set up. This is subject to change if you have less mp, it means you can use less mp every minute, more mp, use more mana, ect.
If you are solo healing, every minute you should to around 2k or 2.5kish area of mana usage. You can recover from that ammount of healing with using all three of your stacks, combined with energy drain, and aetherflow.

AOE Rotation
Let's be honest, Succor isn't strong in terms of healing potency. But don't think its under powered, there is still a shield, and if you have a crit build, a stronger possibility of having a crit shield on someone, which is pretty good. Getting a good AOE Rotation is all about where you place your cooldowns, and how to manage your MP with the numerous succors you can put out.
Lets put you in the situation of a Titan EX fight, this is a perfect fight to test out an AOE rotation. This is what I do in terms of an Aoe rotation, and it works.

Tummults incoming in the next phase? I brace the party with one succor, in the middle of him smashing the party, I prepare another Succor, and swift cast another succor after the tummults are finished. The rest just leave to EOS, as after the (Around 1.2k) heal from a triple succor, the dps should be out of the hole, which is all that matters for the time being.
Now, this is just for a strategy of healing up the party without buffs. There is another way, which saves mana, but can only be done once a minute. I recommend doing this rotation over the above rotation, use this one when possible.

Succor before the hit > Succor after the hit > Whispering dawn.
After the 20 seconds that whispering dawn takes effect, the party will be fully healed, and you saved yourself the hassle of using another 400mp and a swiftcast(Optional).

Let's say you are running low on MP, and Whispering Dawn is down, This is what you do.
Use a stack of Aetherflow, put down a bubble, VIRUS on whoever is about to do the massive AOE, succor before the hit, and pray that they don't get to low. Afterwards juggle with Eos and Physic every other dps while Eos fills in the dps you didnt hit.

Single Target Healing Output
This is where you get to shine with Adlo, and lustrate. I can explain the different situations, and tell you the exact steps in which you need to take in order to make sure the target you want to heal is topped off.
The casual experience
For the casual experience like, lets say, a mob pull. The first thing you are gonna wanna start with is Adlo, every time. As soon as you do that, shower the tank with Physics. Over healing, is terrible on a white mage, over healing on a scholar however, is entirely possible. The shower of Physics and your pets Embrace has about the same potency as a weak Cure ll. Which is perfect. As soon as things start jumping up again, and the tank goes to about 75%, Adlo the tank, and continue on with the physic showers. Physic showers, however, are only good if you have a great mp management. This does drain mana, but if you're a good Scholar, it's not a problem whatsoever.

Speed runs
Speed runs are gonna require some well placed cool downs, and a lot of hope for a crit Adlo. First, when the tank is in position and starts placing his cooldowns, Do not mirror your cool downs with him. Such as, when a paladin uses Convalescence, don't use Fey Illumination. Watching the tanks cool downs, are going to let you know which cool downs you should pop.
1: The first thing you're gonna wanna use is an aetherflow for a bubble. And then eye for an eye, for the mob. In this phase I shower the tank with Adlo until I see a crit go off, then I steady and wait. All while telling your pet to Embrace the tank every time possible.
2: When the bubble is down, I usually rouse Eos, and go to Physic mode, and get Eos to shower her heals(Which should be almost as strong as your physics. Its basically a cure ll when rouse is up and you physic at the same time)
3: When Rouse goes down, and you know the tank used Convo, then use Fey Illumination and shower some Adlos down. Once you crit, the tank should easily stay shielded for the next five seconds.
4: If the mob is still not dead, I use whispering dawn, and a bubble, and repeat. If you reach this point however, I'm not quite sure if you should be doing a speed run

LustrateBeing good with this skill, and just this skill alone, will mean the world of difference between a good scholar and a bad scholar. Keep this skill close to where you have normal heals at, so you can quickly get it off. It's a 25% heal, hp based, spell that will literally save a tank at the whim of a button push. The only advice I can give on the skill is just, get used to using it, often for saves. And never, never never, use it on a dps. Only use it on a dps that is needed for the raid to survive, or needed for the fight (LB). Its a hp heal and its meant for a hail marry and a save, so place it well.

Adloquiem - This is taken for granted, but it's your hail marry. Why? A crit adloquiem does mean the life or death difference. If the tank is about to die, and a shower of Adlos, for some reason, can't keep him up, you can bet a crit adlo will be just enough to take him out of the hole.
However, this spell is the backbone of shielding a single target, but it will be the reason your mana will get drained. If you just rain physics, its okay. But throw a couple adloquiems in there, and your mana is gonna be in jeopardy. Knowing when to place it, and how many times you should use it, is pretty tough. I've played Scholar since August of 13, and I still don't exactly know how many times I should use it, when is the perfect time, it's more about getting to know the fight, and know when to shield, more than using the actual spell. Practice, practice.

Best Build Choice
This is not up for debate, this is not up for opinion, opinions are only valid if they're revolved around intelligence, if intelligence is not present in this thread, then why would you read it.
The build you wanna go for is gonna be a CRIT, and PIETY build. Determination is okay, but you get more in Ilv adjustments than just putting it in the actual stat. Spell speed is a dead skill to put in until they make the adjustments to make spell speed or skill speed useful for a Scholar. The more Piety you have, the more Aetherflow generates in mana. The more you crit, the more mana you save, the more the tank gets healed, the more the tank wont get hit by a crit adlo. Everyone wins with a crit build on Scholar, its actually everything. Eos Crits, has a chance to increase spell speed. Having a crit effect on your hail marry, is another reason. Crit is love, crit, is life.

Ilevel VS Stat Choice
Ilv of the gear you have is incredibly important, but for scholar, it may not be as important as the other classes.
As a DPS class, ILV is always gonna be better just because weapon damage is going to be better, and in the end give you more recommended dps. For a White Mage, the bigger the ILV, the more Cure ll is multiplied, thus giving you a better bigger heal. For a tank, higher ilv means being less squishy, and holding hate a little easier. For Scholar, you dont have any massive healing spells. You don't heal big, you heal fast, and find power in the stat, you guessed it, Crit.

Ilv does make a big difference, however, it does help. But how much does it help? In my own personal opinion (Up for debate) crit, in the ilv difference of just 15, is okay to lose. Such as, if I can make my crit build for i98 - i103, the twelve to seven ilvs you lose might just be worth it to have your crit and piety as high as possible. Which is why I recommend your novus, which should be Crit and Piety, will ALWAYS be your bIs, until they release a Higher Coil weapon, with the stats of Crit and Piety. The 5 ilvs you lose, if on your novus, is Crit and Piety, versus lets say a book that is ilv 115, which might be spell speed and piety (Lol), doesn't make a huge difference because the +40(+) for crit, will make a whole world of difference, in terms of just having 5 ilvs difference.

Speed and placementThe key to being a good scholar is speed, and the placement of cooldowns. Speed really takes in effect the ability to react to certain situations the correct way, as quick as possible. Just throwing up physics all the time and calling that speed is not what this exactly pertains to, when you place a lustrate down not even a second before the tank is about to get hit by something that would have K.O'd him, and because of the lustrate he is saved, that, is speed. Mastering speed of certain situations will come with time and practice.

If you're on the Behemoth server, you can find me and we can heal something together. And you can get hands on sight experience on the correct way to play your Scholar. Ingame name is: (Super Taco). Thanks for taking the time to read this, pass it on to someone you know is gonna be learning Scholar, and we can start making the class easier for players.