How Is Scholar? An Impartial View.

Send me an IM if you want some help with that.

The only time i play my sch was only when we would nuke down ironclad smiter. At that point in the past, from a nuking standpoint that is, i was averaging higher numbers with my nukes on the mob. Albeit i was using ebullience as any other nuking sch, i would like to argue that a sch with good nuking gear can keep up with a full af3+2 blm (unless crit happens or set bonus) in most given nuking situations.

On the other hand blm is superior overall because of proc spells and aga/ja spells which further enhance its overall dmg. From what i have seen, t5 to t5 with ebullience, i say sch takes the cake.

disclaimer: i dont aim to troll. i like both jobs honestly. and i welcome constructive criticism.

Here is my 2 cents.
SCH is an amazing "Jack of all trades" mage job.
Serious macro work is required but well worth the time and effort.

** These days Abyssea rules Vanadiel and unfortunately SE has crippled SCH because of its lack of ability to trigger yellow compared to BLM or even WHM during light trigger. This may not matter as much in a full alliance but if you low man like I prefer to do, you need as many triggers ready if needed and SCH just simply doesnt have them.
SCH is one of my favorite jobs but mine sure is dusty these days.

If you get a pre-made XML, all you have to do is change the gearsets, which is just as easy to do as windower macros:P
After that, it does everything for you!

Abyssea will end at some point, and when it does, other jobs will move out of the shadows - SCH being one of them, in my opinion.

I like SCH as a utility mage. SCHs can adequately fill most mage roles in a party/alliance setting if they know how to read the battles and their party setups.

That being said, I never invite SCHs unless I know them personally. It's an easy job to screw up, and a poorly played SCH is so ineffective that it might as well not even be in the party.

lets just say before i used spellcast and windower i had 4 full books of SCH macro's and still felt i didnt have enough.

spellcast "should" also help you with your sublimation gear swaps and the like.

SCH was the main reason i started with spellcast. (and i still have a headache every time i get a new piece of gear for it)

Ugh spellcast time then lol.

Ok this sounds really bad... But how would one go around even using spellcast in game?

Like would you type a command in to use it? or would simply using a certain ability or spell make spellcast kick in and do the necessary gear changes?

So I guess would my macros be:

/ma "spell" <stpc>

OR

/spellcast command
/ma "spell" <stpc> ?

Spellcast is not neccessary for sch, it probably helps a whole lot, but I personally don't use it. Nor do I use windower macroes. I have it set up where I use 8 macro sets that are intertwined with each other. It is kind of confusing and would take me far to long to lay them all out here, but regardless, spellcast is a nice, but not required, addition.

Now for the Impartial view....I can't really give one because it is my favorite job but here it goes anyway!:

The two main aspects that draw me to sch are:
-Variety
-Difficulty

Variety - As stated by previous posters, this job can switch between healer, nuker and enfeebler on the fly. It also has a great enhancer role, although lacking haste for now (I prefer sub rdm). It skills in each of these categories are the 2nd(?) highest of all mages. Elemental skill -second to blm
Healing - second to whm
etc
Don't quote me on that, but it is close. For instance, in my enfeebling set I can hit around 410 enfeebling skill. Being able to do so much in one job is really cool, but it is not exactly easy.

Difficulty - As previous posters stated, Sch is a very difficult job to play well. In my opinion, this enhances the fun of the job. You have be conservative with your strategems, but not to conservative that you hinder your role in the party. You need to correctly gauge that middle ground, otherwise you'll run out of stratedgems quickly. Not using spellcast enhances this difficulty as well, because there is ALOT of macro hitting and macro set switching. Situational gear is just flying on and off at ever moment (sppecifically the AF3+2 XD, the set is amazing but annoying!)

May I also suggest that you make a pdt- set, sublimation/refresh/pdt set when sublimation is charging, and have a separate full refresh/pdt set when sublimation is fully charged. If you are using spellcast you can have it do this for you, using sublimation charge status as the variant, otherwise just toss it into three macroes.

^ this

as long as its set up obv

so if you have a set named "cure" with the various rules

you cast cure and the gear will swap to match the "rules" in the spellcast.

typical example is drain.. when you use it.. your pluto's staff is equipped and the spell goes off. then switches back to your idle set.

very high level but i'm sure you get it

Ah yeah that sounds good. So I'm assuming that you could make a rule that when Stratagem A and Stratagem B are active on you and you cast a spell a different set of gear would be used than if you only had Stratagem A or Stratagem B active?

Thanks, good read. The difficulty of the job is what draws me to it lol.

even /sch I really enjoy popping off stratagems and mixing them.

You can do some amazing things with spellcast.. I don't know why it took me so long to get into it.

I'll have to get into it, I would like to level SCH up legit but it looks like I'm not going to find a party for it :(

if you like the difficulty, i'd imagine spellcast would cut down on that a lot :P

lolSCH, real men play WHM or BLM.

Deal with it.

Uncalled for. I can't slap back or emote something witty. Go back to my character and hug him. Now.

I agree with pretty much what everyone else said, but one thing that I didn't see specifically mentioned (just alluded to) was that SCH, when geared well, has a TON of gear. I love playing the job, but normally when asked to fill certain roles (WHM, BLM, or RDM, I have them all) and told I can use SCH if I want, I'll pick something else because gearing it is an absolute nightmare. As far as macros? I'll be honest, I don't have a lot of macros for SCH because every time I sit down to make them, my head swims. It's a lot to take in (at least for me). And as someone else said, SE is pretty much crapping situational pieces out every five days or so. Which is nice, but also a real pain.

A lot of people here didn't seem to like /RDM, and from an Abyssea standpoint, I can agree with that to an extent (but I still sub it). But outside of Abyssea, you're able to Enspell-ga, Gravi-ga (priceless in Dynamis), and so forth. It is a great sub, but you'll have to play around with /whm, /rdm, and /blm once you get up there to see which you prefer most.

So in a nutshell: no, you won't cure more than a WHM, and you won't nuke harder than a BLM. But, you'll look better while doing it, and you'll be able to do both at the same time, if you really wanted to. :)

And, if you're in a LS that takes a blue and red proc party to NMs (do people still do that?), you can stand there and give people TP so they don't have to fight the NM for TP or run off and die to mobs they're trying to solo for TP. ;3

If you want I can give you a brd spellcast I made complete with dd brd capabilities!

Same here. It's a bigger jump in amazingness than moving from traditional macros to windower script macros, in my opinion. I can't fathom how I leveled THF and BRD to 75 without scripted macros, and now, I can't imagine going back to playing any of my jobs without Spellcast.

For non-programmers, there's a definite learning curve with Spellcast. I struggled mightily with it at first (and I still do, to an extent). I imagine most people do. That struggle was well worth it though. These days, I can't praise Spellcast enough.

It's not hype. Spellcast really is that good.

That would be cool, just to look at it and get some understanding behind it. I'm pretty sure I could understand it seeing as I'm pretty proficient in coding, but an example and maybe stealing it would be awesome XD

Well, i'll have to get it to you later, i'll just pm it when I get home, still posting from my phone atm ;/

Here's a unbiased view on SCH:

Scholar by no means the best healer. The sooner you get that out of your head the better SCH you will be, IMO. It's also not the best Magical DD.

Scholar is, (in a well thought-out, balanced team) a great addition and makes fights WAY smoother.

What makes Scholar fantastic is that the playing controlling it can (to a certain extent), control the battlefield.
Need some cures? No problem! Toss a few cures.
Team mates need some patching up? No problem! Phalanxga, Stoneskinga, Regen III-ga,
Feel like you're a bit low on damage? Throw some nukes/helices.
Party members need some buffing? -storm them, Adloquium, Klimaform, etc.
What's what? A huge crowd of monsters coming this way?! Sleepga, Graviga, Bindga, Breakga, Stunga. Problem solved.

Seems nice, right? For Scholars, you have to be focus to really be at your maximum potential. You have to decide whether using Accession Stoneskin over Rapture Cure IV will be worth it. This, in my opinion, is the downfall of Scholars. Stratagems. We have a range of spells and abilities, but we can never do them all at once; (unless you do Tabula Rasa).

I like Vileplume's representation of the job Scholar. Vile clearly points out the upsides to this most burdensome job and the exceeding difficulties that unfortunately come along with it. Remember sometimes great jobs are simply NOT easy.

You may remember this line from the Spiderman film, "With great power, comes with great responsibility." Flion you will soon realize that this job is quite powerful, IF masterfully executed.

If you see a SCH that does nothing but spam cures and nukes, he or she is NOT doing the job right. A good SCH is doing it all, and is always on the move, and does not stop unless they specifically say "Going AFK real quick brb" or whatever.

A good SCH, should be initiating Sublimation if not already sitting on a Full Submlimation like most of us do :P Light Arts, Addendum White, RR2, Accession + Protect / Shell V, Accession + Stoneskin keep that last stratadem in the pocket and see what where the battle goes, wait a few, then start to... Aldoqiuim the DD's, Storm the DD's and Mages accordingly. Reaccess the battle, rinse and repeat. If necessary change it up as mood the battle demands it. Respond to Party Leader's requests. Make it Happen! This is the Plight of Scholar Excellence.

Sure enough, a WHM, or BLM, or RDM can just stand there and freely spam heals, nukes, or enfeebs. But thats all they can do, albeit the do this great but thats ALL they CAN DO.

The Greatness of Scholar kicks in, if properly skilled NOT necesarily exceptionally geared very well, but atleast reasonably well. That SCH can contribute more over time than any of there singular counterparts (WHM, BLM, or RDM). That's not taking away there excellence in what they do at all for the record. Just pointing out there purposes is all.

In the world of Abyssea, SCH has been deemed unfit, due there inability to proc and as such we have been outcasted and considered unimportant. This I hope will change by the time we are Lv.95 or 99.

Don't forget Scholar's are NOT mages, even Square Enix says this, we are Tacticians. We do things in a very unique and different way that the other 3 crayon box mages can't do.

I do confess I myself don't play SCH as much as I like lately due to my needs of my current LS at this time, and I just don't have the extra mind and will power to deal with the whim's and demands of a good SCH at the moment.

All I can say is I believe in the Power of Scholar, and good luck Flion as you level it. peace!

Sch is fun but its not really useful as many have already said. I lvl'd sch and keep it lvl'd because I think it will be really used once Aby is over or mainly over. I have whm, blm, and rdm to 90 so I have no reason to ever be on sch.

I would recommend lvling it expecially if you loved it to ~35. Its more dynamic of a mage compaired to Rdm/Whm/blm and you can't just be one of the macro mashing mages..it alone breaks the mold and a good sch is always active doing something.

It's also nice because sch is a natural healer/nuker..and you can cure/nuke and still be semi effective if you take the leeching route while you lvl.

Do it Flion you won't regret it.

Edit: The only thing I hated about Sch was macro'ing it..it was a chore a very large *** of a chore. (And I have very limited gear on sch. It hurts my brain to think of what a career sch's macro's/gear would like..)

Yeah, I'm pushing 70 to 75 pieces of gear for SCH that I use on mine. It's truly like gearing WHM and BLM both. Every desirable stat for anything magic-related is desired. My poor inventory. :(

<True Strike> I'm over 80 pieces, I often have to give up my HMP set and a need to pick and choose my obis depending on what i'm doing. Fix this SE!!!

I think SCH is meant to be a compliment to a party. We can do multiple things as well as having our own set spells to aid in what we do. I agree with the fact we may not be the best healer, or the best nuker but we can definitely hold our own. It's not an easy job to be good at - though quite a bit of people can bs their way through the job by just treating it like any other mage job. To be a -good- scholar you need to be able to change directions at any given moment. You need to be able to be the nuker, enfeebler, sleeper, healer at a moments notice. Not a lot of people can do that. That's why there are a lot.. a lot of crappy scholars |:. I leveled scholar originally as a sub but I really enjoyed it. Catastrophe (who is a well known scholar enthusiast) and I spent a lot of time playing SCH together. He taught me a lot of what I know about it but the rest you learn as you go. There's many different ways to play the job. But as I said, it's about being versatile. I see people saying oh scholar is easy and you don't have to gear it well - but if you want to play a job well you will try and gear it to the best of your ability. Not gear it just to get by. At least, that's how I feel ^^;

As far as subjobs go.. WHM/BLM/RDM are your best options. I usually use /RDM for gravity/phalanx/convert.. but max sublimation merits don't usually leave me needing convert. BLM is really only good for stun(ga). But everyone has their own reasons for using what they do. I do agree about the spellcast thing though. SCH is hard because of the tons of sets we carry around and it just makes you more efficient. It's not hard to use either, but you may drive a few people crazy with how much you blink XD. (Unless you use blinkmenot, but for some reason I don't o.O)

I'm curious to see what's going to happen once we get to 99. V's are going to put us on par with the mages, just as we always have been. SCH's aren't better than any jobs, we aren't worse then any jobs. Some SCH's are terrible.. but if you take the time to really learn the job then it's really just a great job to play. I adore it (I know, supposed to be unbiased >.> ). Some of my fondest memories are running around sea with Cata's SCH and my own, ^^. So Flion, if you enjoy it that low, you'll love it when you get higher :)