Until you unlock Scholar at lv30, Arcanist is actually a DPS class!
But here's my take on them.
White Mages (WHM) are your big bursty massive heals. They typically do larger, single target heals, like cure, cure 2 and cure 3. WHMs make great healers for groups of people. Spells like Medical and Medica 2 are an easy to heal a lot of people at once. (at the cost of enmity from the monsters).Â
Scholars (SCH) are your damage mitigation healers. Their main way of healing is through their faeries, which add little buffs to the party, like a aoe mini-regen or a spellspeed booster, etc. SCHs heal with physick (about the same as a cure) and Adloqium, which adds a shield. Their main focus is to keep the party from taking damage, and when the party does, the WHM steps in and fixes everything. SCHs generally have an easier time with MP management and are good for a main-tank healer because they can mitigate most damage, keep low enmity, DPS o nthe side, and with Lustrate, recover 75% of a player's HP at regular intervals.
edit: I should note, you have to play both CNJ and ACN to unlock either WHM or SCH. So you'll get a decent feeling for each. They make great use of cross-class abilities. I'd also throw in THM/BLM in there too, so you can get swiftcast (vital for those instant-raises) and to also unlock Summoner (SMN). THe Arcanist-based classes means you effectively level up both SCH and SMN at the same time.
But here's my take on them.
White Mages (WHM) are your big bursty massive heals. They typically do larger, single target heals, like cure, cure 2 and cure 3. WHMs make great healers for groups of people. Spells like Medical and Medica 2 are an easy to heal a lot of people at once. (at the cost of enmity from the monsters).Â
Scholars (SCH) are your damage mitigation healers. Their main way of healing is through their faeries, which add little buffs to the party, like a aoe mini-regen or a spellspeed booster, etc. SCHs heal with physick (about the same as a cure) and Adloqium, which adds a shield. Their main focus is to keep the party from taking damage, and when the party does, the WHM steps in and fixes everything. SCHs generally have an easier time with MP management and are good for a main-tank healer because they can mitigate most damage, keep low enmity, DPS o nthe side, and with Lustrate, recover 75% of a player's HP at regular intervals.
edit: I should note, you have to play both CNJ and ACN to unlock either WHM or SCH. So you'll get a decent feeling for each. They make great use of cross-class abilities. I'd also throw in THM/BLM in there too, so you can get swiftcast (vital for those instant-raises) and to also unlock Summoner (SMN). THe Arcanist-based classes means you effectively level up both SCH and SMN at the same time.
