The Final Fantasy XIV endgame grind cranks up the heat, and poorly outfitted healers won’t cut it if things go south. When your Warrior forgets to mitigate or when your Dragoon hits the floor, a few extra hit points may save a messy run. As FFXIV opens its floodgate of vendors, it’s important to spend your tomestones and tokens wisely on the best Scholar gear the star has to offer.

None of this is advice for just Savage or Ultimate players, either. Buying Scholar Best-in-Slot (BiS) equipment for an average player means speeding up dungeon runs or making your first jump into Endwalker Extreme trials. Thankfully, FFXIV keeps things pretty simple — remember, attributes like Item Level and weapon damage are almost always king. It’s a quick, easy way to judge your new pieces.

But until you’re min-maxing, we’ve got you covered. Here’s our BiS gear guide for a more casual Scholar player in Patch 6.18.

FFXIV Scholar melds and BIS gear list for the average player, no Savage required.

Scholar Best in Slot Gear — No Savage Content

Even for a Scholar with no interest in Savage, you’ll still see some of the best players outfitted in Radiant gear. Every week, hit the Allagan Tomestones of Astronomy cap to save up enough currency for the normal Radiant gear set. To exchange Tomestones of Astronomy, speak to Cihanti in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.8, Y: 10.3).

The Radiant base set is Item Level 590, but you can upgrade that gear to Augmented Radiant gear, which is Item Level 600. You’ll need Aglaia Coins from the 24-player alliance raid of the same name, Aglaia. Exchange your weekly coin allowance with Nesvaaz in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.6, Y: 10.0) for Radiant Twine or Coating materials; meanwhile, Khaldeen (X: 10.8, Y: 10.3) turns Radiant pieces into Item Level 600 Augmented Radiant gear using the corresponding material.

Best in Slot FFXIV Scholar Gear (Patch 6.18)

FFXIV Scholar BiS Gear Resource Totals

5,510 Tomestones of Astronomy
10 Aglaia Coins
1 Discal Tomestone (x4 Unsung Blades of Asphodelos required)
5 Radiant Twine
4 Radiant Coating
1 Radiant Roborant

These are all Augmented pieces, so you’ll need to obtain the entire Radiant base set (unaugmented) from Cihanti first. After that, the Radiant Twine and Coating from weekly Allagan Coin exchanges should slowly bring you up to speed. You can also purchase the Radiant Twine and Coating upgrades using Sacks of Nuts from Hunt Marks.

The only extra bit of work comes in with the Augmented Radiant’s Codex. The BiS weapon requires one (1) Discal Tomestone and 500 Tomestones of Astronomy for the Radiant’s Codex. Once you have that Item Level 590 weapon, exchange the Radiant’s Codex and one Radiant Roborant with Khaldeen.

To obtain the Discal Tomestone, complete Asphodelos: The Fourth Circle four times; that’ll give you four (4) Unsung Blade of Asphodelos. To obtain Radiant Roborant, exchange one of your Aglaia Coins with Nesvaaz.

Your FFXIV Scholar melds don't have to be perfect, but we have suggestions for the average player BIS.

What About Materia?

Unless you’re working with the Classical crafted set and have five Materia slots open, stick to using Materia X when selecting I Scholar melds. Adventurer in Need roulettes reward Cracked Anthrocrystals, which are exchangeable for Grade X upgrades at the Materia Vendor Khuzhal in Radz-at-Han (X: 11.3, Y: 8.6). They’re also an easy grab with Beast Tribe or Hunt currency.

Each gear piece has a stat cap — Materia cannot take you beyond this threshold. To find that cap, right-click your gear and select “Meld.” If a Materia meld takes that item over the stat cap, you’ll see it highlighted in red at the bottom of the menu. Double-check each gear piece as you meld since these caps are unique to every item.

FFXIV Scholar meld gear guide for players not interested in Savage raiding.

The Best Materia for Scholar

As a Scholar — or any healer, for that matter — you have quite a few options in Materia builds. Critical Hit, Direct Hit, and Determination melds are all acceptable choices, while Spell Speed and Piety are a little more complicated. Let’s run down how those work before making any decisions.

As a greedy little Broil machine, Critical Hit (Savage Aim Materia X) may be your natural inclination. While beefing up your BiS gear, put Critical Hit Materia X on every piece of gear that is not maxed out on Crit. Everything else is secondary to Crit, because it’s even beneficial for healing — a “Critlo” (Critical Hit Adloquium) gives distressed party members a massive shield to keep them safe; the bigger Broils are a nice bonus.

With that decided, Direct Hit (Heavens’ Eye Materia X) and Determination (Savage Might Materia X) compete for second place. There’s no real wrong answer here. Direct Hit isn’t going to help a Scholar’s healing abilities, but it will give your damage a boost. Determination boosts healing and damage but isn’t as big an improvement on your Broil casts as Direct Hit.

In more casual gameplay, the difference between these is often negligible. More damage means enemies die faster, but allies at beginner skill levels may need a little more help with a heal. For a build that plays it safe, meld Savage Might Materia X for Det where you can.

As for other Scholar meld options, you’re left with Piety Materia X and Spell Speed (Quicktongue Materia X). If your goal is to test the waters in Extreme Trials, Piety melds may help with MP recovery, but they aren’t necessary.

Scholar doesn’t often experience MP problems in current content — Lucid Dreaming on cooldown would be enough for MP recovery. Piety may be handy for early Savage progression, but keep this low on the priority list.

Spell Speed is a little more tricky. Your base spell cast time (or GCD) is 2.5 seconds, and more Spell Speed Materia melds lower that timer. Too much of this stat can cause problems with MP upkeep, and learning to play effectively with a longer GCD may help new Scholars get comfortable weaving in their oGCD kit.

If you want to try something a little speedier, meld just enough Quicktongue Materia X to get your Spell Speed high enough for a 2.41 cast time. You can check that info by hovering over any spell and looking at the “Recast” time.

Note that we aren’t worried about min-maxing here; this section of the FFXIV Scholar BiS guide is for the average folks. It takes a lot of planning to make use of every little stat jump, but a free stat is a great step toward improving your play. If you decide you want to change something, right-click your gear and select “Retrieve Materia.” Crisis averted!

Scholar BIS for Patch 6.1 in FFXIV Endwalker

Best-in-Slot Scholar Melds – No Savage Content

Taking the guesswork out of your melds, we have suggestions on Materia for Scholar if you aren’t ready to leap into Savage. If you want to play the numbers game on your own, handy tools like the gearset builder at Etro are fantastic resources for nitty gritty calculations.

The build outlined in this guide opts for a 2.41-second GCD and assumes you won’t use food like Thavnairian Chai (HQ). It’ll get new healers accustomed to a speedier kit without costing you anything for specialized extras. And if you make any tweaks on your own, try to lay off the Piety. Even if you’re a beginner, the Augmented Radiant set already has more than enough of the MP recovery stat.

Best-in-Slot FFXIV Scholar Gear Melds (Patch 6.18)

Main Hand: Augmented Radiant’s Codex
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Savage Might Materia X +36 Determination

Head: Augmented Radiant’s Visor of Healing
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Body: Augmented Radiant’s Mail of Healing
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Gloves: Augmented Radiant’s Gloves of Healing
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Legs: Augmented Radiant’s Hose of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed

Feet: Augmented Radiant’s Greaves of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed

Earrings: Augmented Radiant’s Earrings of Healing
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Neck: Augmented Radiant’s Choker of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Wrists: Augmented Radiant’s Bracelet of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Ring #1: Augmented Radiant’s Ring of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Ring #2: Augmented Classical Ring of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed

FFXIV Scholar BIS Savage

Scholar Best-in-Slot Gear — Savage

A Scholar with an average Item Level of 580 can enter any Savage raid instance up to Patch 6.18 content, but remember: a higher Item Level means more safety cushion. As you join Asphodelos Savage Party Finder groups, there are a few gear pieces from each tier to watch for. Note that not all of them will be better than Augmented Radiant equipment.

For this Scholar BiS, you’ll need to clear every floor of Asphodelos Savage to earn the necessary gear pieces (though some rewards are also available from Aglaia). The following are the Asphodelos gear you’ll want to substitute in:

Main Hand: Asphodelos Codex
- Reward from The Fourth Circle (Savage), or exchanged for eight (8) Asphodelos Mythos IV
Body: Asphodelos Radiant’s Mail of Healing
- Reward from The Fourth Circle (Savage), or exchanged for eight (8) Asphodelos Mythos IV
Wrists: Asphodelos Amulet of Healing
- Reward from The First Circle (Savage), or exchanged for four (4) Asphodelos Mythos I

This Savage checklist tasks you with clearing The First Circle (Savage) and The Fourth Circle (Savage) — referred to as P1S and P4Ss by most Party Finder groups. However, you can also farm the materials necessary for upgrading Radiant gear, which would be faster than waiting for weekly Aglaia Coins. The Second Circle (Savage) drops Radiant Coating and The Third Circle (Savage) drops Radiant Twine; you’ll need four (4) of each material for the Augmented Radiant BiS gear pieces.

Suppose you don’t score a drop from Savage for one of the pieces mentioned. In that case, you can exchange Asphodelos Mythos tokens with Djole in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.3, Y: 9.6). For more help on the endgame upgrades, check out our explainer on augmenting your Radiant equipment and Savage tokens.

Best-in-Slot Scholar Melds — Savage

The healers over at Fey’s Temperance, a site and community Discord dedicated to the healer role, have an excellent 2.41 GCD setup that we recommend. As you collect drops from Savage, take care not to break your build by dropping too low on stats like Piety. Additionally, pay attention to GCD changes. In your journey to becoming a better Scholar, these are small, gradual tweaks to gameplay you’ll want to watch.

To get the most out of this set, you will need to use Thavnairian Chai (HQ) — it’s a food item available via the Market Board or crafting as a Culinarian.

The following are the Scholar BiS gear pieces and the recommended Materia melds for each one.

Main Hand: Asphodelos Codex
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Head: Augmented Radiant’s Visor of Healing
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Body: Asphodelos Radiant’s Mail of Healing
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Gloves: Augmented Radiant’s Gloves of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed

Legs: Augmented Radiant’s Hose of Healing
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Feet: Augmented Radiant’s Greaves of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed

Earrings: Augmented Radiant’s Earrings of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Neck: Augmented Radiant’s Choker of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Savage Might Materia X +36 Determination

Wrists: Asphodelos Amulet of Healing
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Savage Might Materia X +36 Determination

Ring #1: Augmented Radiant’s Ring of Healing
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Ring #2: Augmented Classical Ring of Healing
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed

How to Start Your Scholar Gear Journey at Level 90

Hitting the level 90 cap is only the beginning of your FFXIV journey. To bring your Scholar in line with current content requirements, you’ll want to start handling weekly tasks like meeting the 450 Tomestones of Astronomy cap and completing one Aglaia run.

To begin the Aglaia Raid and Expert Roulette grind as Scholar, speak to Varsarudh in Old Sharlayan (X: 11.7, Y: 9.9) upon completing “A Bold Decision” in the Endwalker MSQ. He’ll give you the Scholar Artifact gear, rewarding you with several Item Level 560 pieces.

With those pieces in hand, pick up additional gear pieces using the Allagan Tomestones of Aphorism, which can be exchanged with Cihanti in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.8, Y: 10.3) for Moonward gear.

To get straight to Item Level 580 gear, you can buy (or craft) Classical equipment from the Market Board. The Classical Ring of Healing is a great upgrade for Scholars regardless, as many Savage and Ultimate tier healers choose this piece for its preferred stats.

By unlocking the Normal versions for the first tier of Asphodelos, you’ll earn tokens for various pieces in the Limbo gear set (Item Level 580). Grab an Unsung Ring of Asphodelos from any of the four floors and exchange them with Nesvaaz in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.6, Y: 10.0) for an accessory upgrade.

How to Fill Out Your FFXIV Scholar Gear Set

Once you finally hit the Item Level 565 requirement for the 24-player Aglaia raid, you’ll have access to Item Level 590 Pantheon gear. You’re limited to one weekly reward, so choose wisely! These pieces will be better than your unaugmented Radiant set, but they aren’t preferred over the Augmented Radiant equipment.

As for buying crafted Classical gear, we do recommend grabbing at least one Classical Ring of Healing from the Market Board. Of course, you can augment this to an Item Level 590 piece in Radz-at-Han, but even just the base ring will carry you far. Remember that quality makes a difference, so pick up an HQ healing ring for extra stats.

Also, take a little care when exchanging currency and tokens for gear upgrades. As a general rule, weapon upgrades should remain the top priority. The next upgrades to focus on should be your body and leg pieces. With these three, you should see the biggest differences with added weapon damage and main stat (Mind for Scholar) bonuses.

Once you’ve hit Item Level 580 and fully melded your Scholar’s fancy new ‘fit, you may want to dip your toe into Endsinger Extreme. It’s not the average player difficulty, but it’s also no Savage raid encounter. Learning parties in an Extreme Trial are great lessons in honing your healing prowess and practicing for more challenging fights. Plus, the Endsinger may give you a shiny Item Level 595 Bluefeather Codex.

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