How-To Guide: Scholar

Rhodes Scholarship
Scholar is unique in being able to provide competent magical offense or healing the party as needed, though not both at the exact same time. One would assume Scholar to be a clone of Red Mage, but this simply isn't true. Scholar is more like a mage that can transform between White Mage and Black Mage almost completely at will. In fact, that's exactly what the job is. As both a main job and a support job, Scholar fulfills any role very well. Let's say for the sake of example, your puller accidentally linked a pair of crawlers, and you're the only mage your party has. In an instant, you boost your enfeebling magic and all black magic proficiencies and open up with a Sleep spell. You fire off some quick enfeebles like Bio and Poison on the party's main target, but then you notice the puller sustained a large amount of damage. You switch to Light Arts and throw a quick few Cures on him, then Regen II on the tank. Cure him a few times and then start resting. Then, oh no! Just before it died, the crawler just used cocoon, but no one can dispel it. You switch back to Dark Arts and fire off a beautiful set of nukes to close the fight. And because during all this, you've been conserving 10% MP per spell, you have enough to take on the next monster with no problem. But wait, the crawler got a quick double-hit on the damage-dealer, then used poison breath and knocked him unconscious. You have enough MP to Raise, but do you have enough for the end of the fight? You're the only mage, are you sure you have enough time? Of course you do, you have Stratagems. Light Arts, Penury, Celerity, Raise! The damage-dealer stands up just in time for you to switch back to Dark Arts and finish it with a powerful spell. And hey, all that was without using your two exclusive spell-lines. One of which changes the weather around its target to whatever you'd like, opening latent effects on its target's items and making its target's weapon skills, skillchains, and spells more powerful. And the "Helix" spells which deal large amounts of damage over time. Scholar is a fun job that takes wit and strategy to use properly. '''Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.'''

Job-Race Combinations
Please note that race is the absolute last thing you should worry about when picking a job. Anything said here is seriously exaggerated. A single piece of gear can often make up for a race's negligible lack in a stat. Every race also gets "Race Specific Equipment", or "RSE", that will boost a race's stats to equal, or possibly even surpass other races.

Hume

 * The all-round human-based race works well with this job. Since Scholar works with both schools of magic, high mind and intelligence are both useful, and Hume doesn't disappoint. Hume also has a good pool of MP with which to use both magics. Moderate vitality, agility, and HP make for a good survivability, which is handy, especially if you're the main healer in a party.

Elvaan

 * Elvaan have the highest mind stat in the game, meaning better Cures and better-landed White Magic enfeebles. White magic enfeebles can be used efficiently by a Scholar. Although Dark Arts slightly increases the casting time and MP cost of these spells, the added Enfeebling Skill puts SCH above other mage jobs such as WHM and BLM, but below the enfeebling powerhouse RDM. Merits and gear can improve this skill even further. Another great thing about Elvaan Scholars is their brilliant HP and vitality for survivability. Of course, everything has a downside, and for Elvaan, that's MP and intelligence.

Tarutaru

 * Tarutarus have the highest intelligence and MP in the game, making them excellent Scholars. They make excellent nukers and can safely be used as the only mage in a party due to said high MP. Their only downsides being survivability and low mind. Equiping gear that improves Mind will increase Cures' a little (soft cap) and help with White Magic-based enfeebling magic. Since Tarutarus are such MP kings, using Dark Arts before enfeebling magic can allow them to stick their enfeebles without worrying all that much about the 20% increase to MP cost.

Mithra

 * Mithra are a lot like Humes in terms of stats. They get moderate of MP and intelligence, so Mithra can work well in the school of dark magic. Their mind, vitality, charisma, and strength are penalized in exchange for their heavy bonuses to dexterity and agility, but with a few pieces of gear the mind difference can be overlooked. Their survivability relies on dodging and parrying attacks more than taking hits, which can be complemented with Stoneskin and Blink if you sub Red Mage or White Mage, allowing those to absorb damage you can't dodge.

Galka

 * Galka have nicely rounded mind and intelligence, which offsets their low MP. However, low MP isn't a very big deal because of all the gear they can equip, and both Arts will lower MP consumption. Galka also have insane amounts of HP, allowing for Astral Rings to be used without lowering survivability too much. And with all that vitality, Galka can out-last anyone else in terms of direct damage. Despite how well Galka play Scholar, I still find it hard to picture one sitting behind a desk and studying.

Weapon

 * Scholars have very low skill in the only two weapons they can use. A "C+" in both Club and Staff? Why, that's hardly honor roll material! (Good thing they make up for it by having good grades in all magic skills.) The sad reality is, Scholars can't play the role of front-line fighter or soloer very well. Through your first 10 levels, you'll have a hard time soloing. But just to make it nicer, it's really a good idea to pick up a Maple Wand +1 for the high damage over time and the beautiful bonus to mind and intelligence. A Pole +1 is great for the second half of your solo levels. At Lv.10, you really should try to have a Pilgrim's Wand for resting, and a Willow Wand +1 for everything else. Using any other wand (preferably high-quality) until Lv.29 would be your best bet. Then, if possible, getting yourself a Staff and Grip until 75 is a good idea. If you can, buying a Lizard Strap +1 is amazing, as it adds +10 MP to however much MP your Staff already gives. At Lv.51, having the Elemental Staves is a must. If anything, Light and Dark Staves at the very least. If possible, though, having the others is good too. The element ones actually have a hidden effect that boost your spells and magic accuracy for their respective magics. You'll end-up using these until 75. If you have the money, the higher-quality element ones are even better. The most useful element one is the Ice Staff, so pick that up first, as it boost intelligence and Elemental Magic Skill.

Armor

 * Scholars get a very similar armor set to that of Black Mage, in that they can’t wear any harness, leather, heavy plate, scale armor, or even doublet armor. However, they can wear a broad variety of robes and cloaks. Hairpins generally work well for all mage-type jobs. Though it means you can't wear a Tunic/Cloak, it's better to have MP than defense anyway. Having MP is a Scholar's top priority, followed closely by intelligence. Mind isn't all that useful. Having enmity-down equipment helps too. If none of that can be found, getting evasion, agility, vitality, and other defensive equipment is good.

Advanced Job Quest

 * The overall quest is simple, though costs some Gil. Start with the Erlene in Eldieme Necropolis (S) (J-8), for a cut-scene. Afterwards, purchase twelve 12-stacks of Rolanberries from the Upper Jeuno "M&P's Market" sales representative, Champalpieu, and then take those one hundred and forty-four fruits to a man named Tucker in Crawlers' Nest (S), position K-8. Trade him four stacks at a time for Vellum. (Alternatively, check the Auction House for Vellum's price; it may be cheaper to than Rolanberries.) Note that you can only make three trades in total, so if you do decide to trade all twelve stacks, trade him exactly four stacks at a time. Take your resulting one stack of Vellum back to Erlene, and get another cut-scene. Finally, use either Manafont, Chainspell, Azure Lore, or Astral Flow and talk to her one last time while the ability's effect is still active.

Soloing 1-10

 * Picking up a pole or club, cheap attack food, and some defensive gear would make soloing a lot easier. Since Scholar does not get either Grimoire until Lv.10, the leveling up process is basically whacking on monster after the next. A support job like White Mage can provide Cure until Lv.5 when Scholar gets it natively. Some have also chosen Bard for Knight's Minne(1SCH) and Valor Minuet 1(6SCH) and DD jobs such as Warrior for increased damage and survivability. The choice is up to you. Fighting more weaker monsters is a better idea for you as a mage. Decent challenges can be difficult using a club or staff. Dagger will be just as ineffective so pace yourselves by taking out Easy Prey as fast as you can. With a Bard support job, resting is almost minimal.


 * Not to take away from the original person who posted this very helpful guide, but I have found on my own a few things that I believe will help with this job. Firstly, the job has two Grimoires, which suggests that Red Mage is a more suitable support job because of access to both White and Black Magic spells. Subbing this job allowed me to use both of the Light and Dark Arts abilities to my benefit. Instead of just sticking with Easy Prey for quick leveling I was able to deal with many Decent Challenges and Even Matches quite nicely. I had also used Summoner with some success, benefiting from Carbuncle pulls and such, making some of my Decent Challenge and Even Match pulls easier to deal with. Though with Summoner subbed, I found it became more Summoner job than Scholar with the spell options being rather short.

Valkurm 10-20

 * You get a choice of Light Arts or Dark Arts and immediately get one Stratagem. Stratagems are abilities you get just because you use a White or Black Grimoire. Stratagems do not have recast times. However, they have charges that can be used at any time. One charge takes four real life minutes to acquire and doesn’t need any special input. The Lv.10 Stratagem lets you cast one White or Black Magic spell (depending on which Grimoire you use) with half MP cost. Oddly enough, Regen is learned at Lv.18, and along with Regen II at 37, is the only case of Scholar learning a spell faster than one of the two polar mages. The job is played throughout the game like a Red Mage to the extent of main healing, buffing, and nuking.

Mid-Levels 20-40

 * Thankfully, Scholar is one of the very, very few jobs that can learn both Sneak and Invisible, and it learns them at 20 and 25 like White Mage and Red Mage. You even get Raise at 35. At these levels, both White Mage and Red Mage make good support jobs. With White Mage subbed, you can get useful spells like Protectra, Curaga, and Poisona, and it will buff your mind and MP. Black Mage subbed won’t give much, but the Elemental area effect Black Magic coupled with Dark Arts can be devastating, as well as the Magic Attack Bonus trait (BLM 10). Also, at Lv.40 with Black Mage subbed, you get the job trait Conserve MP. You can never go wrong with the spell Warp, either.
 * During this phase, Scholar can become a very good healer with easily a higher MP efficiency on Cures than the average White Mage. Light Arts both raises skills and reduces the MP cost of Cure II and Cure III, making them very efficient to cast. Though White Mage has higher base skill for Healing Magic and the like, it doesn't do a lot for Cure potency. MND will do more than enough for a Scholar healer. Scholar can also be a very catastrophic damage-dealer with its black magic, even at these levels too.

Your AF Weapon

 * ...is actually a spell, not a weapon. The spell is called Klimaform (as in, forming the climate), and it's a Lv.46 spell exclusive to Scholar. This spell can be used to target a party member, or yourself, to enhance their magic accuracy depending on the weather around them. For example, if your ally wants to cast Paralyze, this spell will help them land it if there is a blizzard, or if you use Snowstorm.
 * Walkthrough Coming Soon

Mid-High Levels 40-60

 * This is where your AF comes into play, and will hopefully be a great boon to Scholar just like all other mage artifact equipment. This is also the point in time where you have to do the infamous limit break quests assuming you haven’t done them already. At Lv.41 is where Scholar begins learning brand-new spells that only Scholars can learn. Between levels 41 and 55, you learn single-target spells that change the weather around that target to a specific element. Weather gives a boost to any weapon skill or spell that has the associated element, such as casting Blizzard in a snow storm. These spells aren’t supremely effective until you learn your next set of Scholar-only spells starting at Lv.61.

Your Artifact Armor

 * …Also hasn’t been released yet.

High Levels 60-75

 * As mentioned in the Mid-High Levels paragraph, you start learning a second set of Scholar-only spells at Lv.61. These are the “Helix” spells that deal elemental damage that is greatly affected by the weather and also gradually lowers their HP (like Poison). The last one you learn is at Lv.75 which is the light-elemental one. You end-up learning the fourth tier Protects and Shells, Cure IV, and the third tier elemental spells. When the Helix spells come into play, Scholar will probably become more on the damage-dealing side of the spectrum, but with Cure IV will most likely still be used in parties for healing magic as well. Though, the people who play this job are few and far between and not much is known about it at this point, therefore making judgment calls this far in advance nearly impossible.

End-Game

 * (Dynamis, Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)

White Mage

 * This grants the user a little extra MP and Mind. Overall, it makes the Scholar more effective for playing as a healer. The support job supplies Scholar with spells it can’t learn on its own, such as Bar- spells, status removal -na spells, Erase, Protectra, and etc. It also gives access to Auto Regen and Magic Defense Bonus and the Divine Seal job ability.

Black Mage

 * Gives the Scholar a boost to MP and Intelligence, and Magic Attack Bonus, which makes Scholar more formidable on the Dark Arts side. Black Mage as support job gives access to AoE elemental spells, and slip damage spells such as Bio and Rasp. Also, it gives Elemental Seal for enhancing magic accuracy, and the job traits and Conserve MP, both quite useful.  As an added bonus, Warp and Escape can save travel time and cost, as well as help out in sticky situations.

Red Mage

 * Gives a small bonus to MP, mind, and intelligence, and grants job traits Fast Cast, Magic Attack Bonus, and Magic Defense Bonus.  Also gives access to spells like Gravity, Dia, and Bio that Scholars can’t learn on their own. Fast Cast speeds up casting and recasting time, which somewhat cushions the increase of casting time from using opposite spells to the Grimoire in use.
 * While this support job enhances a Scholar's versatility further, it does not lend itself as easily to play in a Red Mage-like manner. For example, while Dark Arts enhances Enfeebling Magic skill, it also increases casting time, recasting time, and MP consumption of all White Magic (meaning Dia, Paralyze, Slow will be at a loss either way).
 * At higher level, however, a SCH/RDM has intriguing possibilities with putting Phalanx, Blink, Stoneskin or en- spells on front line party members while still retaining some Magic Attack Bonus to help with nuking, with higher base skill (while on Dark Arts) than a Red Mage.

Summoner

 * Decent boost to INT, MND, and MP; by Lv.50, the job trait Auto Refresh lets a Scholar cast spells more freely. You will also receive a small number of useful Blood Pact which give enhancements that wouldn't be available otherwise. However, the loss of spells is larger than the gain, so the only real reason would be to have a larger MP pool.

Blue Mage

 * Blue Mage can set certain spells to buff stats and give the Scholar a wider variety of spells. This support job is mainly significant because of its unique spells that none of the other mage jobs can have on their own. However, offensive spells wouldn’t be very effective, since Scholar doesn’t get Blue Magic Skill on its own. Please keep in mind, though, that neither Light Arts or Dark Arts will work for Blue Magic.
 * Where /BLU shines is with AoE Cure spell, Healing Breeze, which apparently takes into account of both Mind and Healing Magic--the later of which Scholar can increase to B rank with the use of Light Arts. Wild Carrot has the same property, and it may be more MP efficient than Cure III with Light Arts as well, with enough MND gear.

Bard

 * Does not boost mage stats, and is able to maintain one song effect at a time. While offensive songs are a lost cause, Bard as a support job can be helpful in some situations:
 * MP free curing from Paeon.
 * Small boost to attack (Minuet) or accuracy (Madrigal).
 * MP refresh via Ballad in mage heavy party without a Bard.

Your Two-Hour Ability

 * Your two-hour ability is unbelievably useful. It both optimizes both of your White and Black Magic and allows use of all Stratagems, meaning it’s like having both Light and Dark Arts activated simultaneously. Not only that, but it also allows all Stratagem use completely charge-free for the whole minute it’s active. This brilliant job ability is called “Tabula Rasa”, which is Latin for “Clean Slate”. Free use of Stratagems means you can cast all spells with half MP, half casting time, turn them into area effect, and simultaneously enhance their potency, while also having enhancements simply from higher skills and far less resists. The end-all, be-all two-hour ability for a fitting all-round magical job if you ask me.

Job Abilities

 * Light Arts/Dark Arts are both acquired at Lv.10. They can last forever and have a one-minute recast time, which prevents too frequent of a switch between the two. They are job abilities that open up other job abilities simply by having them active. With Light Arts active, all Enhancing, Healing, and Divine magic skills are enhanced, as well as a helpful MP-consumption reduction of 10%, casting time and recasting time reduction for all White Magics by 10%. However, with Light Arts active, it will reduce the power of Black Magic, as well as heighten MP costs by 20% and casting/recasting times for the same line of spells by 20%. The opposite is true for Dark Arts, which increases Enfeebling, Elemental, and Dark magic skills and has a mirror effect with the MP and cast/recast time factor in Light Arts.
 * Similarly, Light Arts and Dark Arts open up other job abilities, as I mentioned. These other job abilities include the Stratagems that are specific to each Art. These Stratagems each consume one ‘charge’, yet have no recast timer. The charge, however, has a four-minute recast timer. At Lv.10, only one charge can be stored at a time. By Lv.40, two charges, and by Lv.70, three.


 * Penury/Parsimony are the Lv.10 Stratagems for Light and Dark Arts respectively. Each one consumes one charge, which takes an additional four minutes to get back. What they do is reduce the MP cost by 50% of the next spell you cast. If Cure II is cast, it will only consume 12 MP with Penury active. If Fire is cast with Parsimony active, it will also only consume 12 MP. Though not very prominent in early levels, by metagame, this will become much more useful with spells costing over 100 MP.


 * Celerity/Alacrity are the Lv.25 Stratagems for Light and Dark Arts respectively. Like their Lv.10 cousins, they consume one charge each. They reduce the casting time and recast of any spell in their respective Art by 50%. Again, a very situational ability, and most useful for such spells as Raise and Escape, reducing their casting time from fifteen seconds to only seven and a half. Combined with Penury/Parsimony, consuming far less MP after level 40 when you have two charges available.


 * Accession/Manifestation are the Lv.40 Stratagems for Light and Dark Arts respectively. Both of these Stratagems make your next spell cost 3x MP and take twice as long to cast. However, this is where your Stratagems become very useful and combo nicely (especially since Lv.40 is when you first get two charges). Accession transforms your next White Magic (healing or enhancing) into an area of effect, meaning Shell or Protect will instantly become much more potent on the party while saving a lot of MP. It can also be usefully used with Regen or Regen II, or even higher-tier Cures for a “Curaga” effect. Since it does not mean specifically Scholar-only spells, it also means Stoneskin and Blink will also be affected. If your party needs to sneak past a horde of Goblins, using it before Invisible will save everyone time. Manifestation is similar. It transforms your next enfeebling or dark Black Magic spell into an area effect spell. Drain and Aspir can both be very effectively used with this when in easier areas, and Sleep in case of links. However, this is best used with White Magic. The effect of Accession works on people outside of the party as well, meaning a Scholar can cast an area-effect Cure or ailment-removing spell on them.


 * Rapture/Ebullience are your final Stratagems for Light and Dark Arts respectively, and acquired at Lv.55. They simply enhance the potency of your next spell, depending on which Art is used. Rapture will increase your next White Magic spell by 50%, and Ebullience will increase your next Black Magic spell by 20%. Both of which are incredibly useful and can dole-out some amazing feats. Rapture appears to only work with Cures, Dia, and Banish, increasing the potency of Cure to 250% with Divine Seal, and increasing the defense-down of Dia and the damage of Banish. Ebullience, on the other hand, increases your Drain, Aspir, Bio, "Helix" spells, and elemental "nukes", allowing you to deal extra damage with any of them. Your best bet when using this Stratagem is to use it with Cure with Rapture. As for Ebullience, it's best to save it for Drain or Aspir, when your HP or MP are running low. Using it in conjunction with "Helix" spells never hurt either.


 * Modus Veritas is Latin for “measure of truth”, and is gained at Lv.65. It increases the damage done with Helix spells, while lowering the duration of their effects by 50%. It is currently unknown just how powerful Helix spells are, or how effective their HP-over-time reduction effect is, so it’s unclear just how useful this job ability is. (If anyone has any further info on the Helix spells, please jot down some notes here, as it will be greatly appreciated)

Job Traits

 * Resist Silence- a very useful job trait for any Mage. Even if it doesn’t completely resist the silence effect, it should at least have an effect on its duration, allowing you to pick up the pace on other mages where they can’t continue to cast spells. The chance to resist is quite low, but it’s better than nothing, and available at the early level of 10.
 * Clear Mind is another very useful job trait for any Mage. It enhances the MP recovered while resting. Scholar will eventually get up to the third of five tiers (maybe more?) of Clear Mind by Lv.50, meaning it will save a fair bit of downtime, especially if MP is used efficiently in the first place.
 * Max MP Boost grants the player a slight boost to MP. Though an additional ten MP may not seem like a lot by Lv.30, it can be enough to help in dire situations. It’s not a heavily useful trait, but it is a nice convenience.

Spells

 * Elemental Damage Spells are Black Mage’s bread and butter. They rely almost solely on this set of spells, as they are what deal damage and work best with magic bursts. This can be your main deal too if you want. Using Dark Arts will boost your Elemental Magic Skill to a high level, lower MP consumption, and casting time for all of them. You learn your elemental damage spells in the order of Stone, Water, Aero, Fire, Blizzard, and finally Thunder, and they will increase in tiers up to III for Scholar. Though each one is more powerful than the last, it’s not a good idea to simply rely on the most powerful one all the time. Monsters can resist spells that they aren’t ‘weak’ against, and this is a very commonly-occurring effect that can halve your damage and make the larger MP cost of a stronger spell less meaningful. It’s best to simply cast your highest tier spell that’s the strongest against a monster. Of course, if your highest Elemental spell is Thunder already, you shouldn’t cast Stone on it. Not that it’s a bad thing, but it’s about as effective as casting Cure I on a party member with half HP at that level. Keep your enemy’s weakness in consideration. Most monsters tend to be weak against ice-element in low to mid-level parties. Also, one last note about your elemental ‘nukes’ is to keep the hate threshold in consideration. Please keep in mind that Scholar is a mage, and mages have low defensive stats, but can take hate very easily with too much casting. Don’t spam Blizzard, Thunder, Blizzard, Thunder, etc on monsters. Using Blizzard, waiting for recast, Blizzard, waiting, etc, is a much more efficient use of MP and keeps hate at a minimum. Spamming spells will heighten the chances of a monster resisting your spells. The stat Intelligence (INT) affects this set of spells.


 * Cures are White Mage’s (and any main healer’s) biggest reason for being. Cures are the only way to heal people other than yourself in the entire game. Starting at Lv.5, Scholar will learn the first of four tiers of Cure (there are five, but Scholar only gets four). Expending MP will release a large multiplication of itself into an HP boost to your party to sum-up what cures do. Cure I has a ‘soft cap’ of 30 (meaning it will grow in power to 30, and then take a lot of healing magic skill and mind stat to boost it further), and costs 8 MP. Cure I and II have a 4-15 MP-HP ratio, Cure III has a 4-16 MP-HP ratio, and Cure IV has a .5 4-17.3 ratio. All four are useful all throughout the game for all jobs, and that includes Scholar. Use lower-tier cures to finish off a person’s HP if they take a minor hit, and higher-tier ones for really helping a party member. Although Scholar doesn’t get it on its own, subbing White Mage or using Accession will give you an area effect cure. Curaga is a White Mage exclusive line of spells that gives the party an HP recovery of one tier higher than what it says (Curaga II = Cure III in an area effect).
 * Protect and Shell are spells that no mage can go wrong with having. They plain and simply add defense and magical defense respectively. Scholar, like White Mage and Red Mage, gets all four tiers of both spells. However, like Red Mage, it doesn’t get the area-effect version (unless Accession is used). Since both spells are relatively low on MP consumption and last half an hour each, it’s best to cast them both and have them active on all damage-taking party members at all times (if Protectra isn’t available). If subbing White Mage, use the highest tier Protectra and Shellra on the party, and just your single-target, higher-tier Protect and Shell on the tank or other damage-taking party members.
 * Deodorize, Sneak, and Invisible are all spells that can save a lot of time, money, and characters’ lives. Deodorize is much less-used. All it does is makes you untraceable by scent, which only really has an effect when you’re running from a monster or using Hide. Sneak will make you completely undetectable by sound, which a lot of monsters will hunt by. Sound-aggro is in 360 degrees, but shorter range than sight-aggro. Invisible will prevent any sight-aggro monsters from seeing you. Sight-aggro is a cone range in front of a monster, but is longer range than sound-aggro. Casting any spell will remove Invisible, so casting Sneak before Invisible is a must. Also, please note that when re-casting Sneak, remember to turn it off before casting, because it will not have an effect if you do not.
 * Regen is another very useful line of spells. It has a very, very high HP-MP ratio, and lasts a long time, making it so you do not have to cast Cure as often, or at all in some cases. it has a 4-33 ratio, which is over twice the potency of the first two Cures. What it does if you have never played any other Final Fantasy before, is gives the user a constant stream of HP every turn, or in our case, every tic (three seconds). Casting this on your main tank will alleviate a lot of cures. Though, keep in mind, it won’t last forever. You will learn two of the three tiers of Regen. Both of which are learned earlier than White Mage and Red Mage, and is the only case of learning spells faster than any other mage.
 * Drain and Aspir are very self-beneficial spells. Drain can end-up having a very high potency, and for 21 MP, can possibly have the highest MP-HP ratio. However, it only works for you, and it only gives a lot of HP return if it’s unresisted. It will suck an enemy’s HP and use it for your own. In some cases, it can have the highest MP-damage ratio, and can be way higher than your other spells. Having Dark Arts and high Dark Magic skill will really help, as will Intelligence stat. Aspir works similarly, except it drains MP instead of HP. This only works if the monster has MP, like a mage monster or a crab, or another player, etc. It consumes 10 MP to use, but will most often return more than it costs.
 * Raise is learned later than White Mage’s, but earlier than Red Mage’s. There are three tiers to the spell, but only one is learned by Scholar. If a player is unconscious as a result of falling in battle, Raise will wake them up and restore a small amount of HP, as well as 50% of their lost experience points (which are lost as a result of being knocked out). With Penury and Celerity, it can Raise for 0.5x MP and normal casting time as well.
 * Weather-Changing “Storm” Spells start at Lv.41, and are Scholar’s first of two sets of exclusive spells. Up until Lv.55, you will learn spells that can target any party member and change the weather around him or her. This can be quite significant for a White Mage or Black Mage in the party, or yourself. Even casting it on a melee party member can help resist spells or deal more damage. For White Mage, Aurorastorm will place light-elemental weather around him or her, thus giving a high chance of occasionally increasing the potency of Cure +10%. Voidstorm can enhance dark spells of yourself or a party’s Black Mage or Dark Knight to enhance the potency of Drain and Aspir cast on monsters. The other six elements mainly affect Black Magic, in that it gives a boost to damage of 10%. Storm spells are considered White Magic, so Light Arts will affect them the most. They fall under Enhancing Magic. (Does Rainstorm act as rain elemental weather, in that it gives a constant Deodorize effect? If it does, it can be cast on Thieves for during-battle Sneak Attack - Trick Attack - Hide)
 * Helix Spells start at Lv.61 and go up to Lv.75 as Scholar’s second set of exclusive spells. I'm still personally waiting on more information to come in on their respective pages, but from what I've read thus-far, they are quite useful. Geohelix consumes 90 MP, and whatever initial damage it will deal, it gradually lowers HP by the same amount over time. What else is known simply by its in-game description is the damage dealt is greatly affected by the weather. Hopefully, you'll cast the respective weather-changing spell on yourself before you unleash the power of your Helix spell. If anyone has info about the other Helix Spells (namely MP-consumption, cast time, recast time, and duration), I'd greatly appreciate it.