How-To Guide: Scholar

de:Vorlage:Leitfaden

Rhodes Scholarship
It’s unfortunate how very few people are picking Scholar as their new job class, because everyone seems to be playing Dancer. This is probably because Dancer makes a lot more sense at first. People see Scholar as a party member who can buff the party using mediocre buffs and has a few side cures and side nukes. However, Scholar is played much like a Red Mage. The difference is, the Scholar has to choose between dealing magical damage or healing the party every one minute, give or take. If the Scholar decides that during one fight, he should focus more on dealing damage, he or she can effectively change to Dark Arts and have an MP-consumption and casting time reduction for all Black Magic and also have an increase to Enfeebling, Elemental, and Dark Magic skills. This has a side-effect to increase MP-consumption and casting time of White Magic, however. Then, if the Scholar wants to use White Magic later, he or she can change to Light Arts and have the same bonuses to all White Magic as well as increase the skill cap of Enhancing, Divine, and Healing Magic. '''Please note: This is all on-the-spot information. As the job is still brand-new, new information must be gathered to make this guide more effective. If anyone wishes to change anything with more correct information than what is given, please do so.'''

Hume

 * The all-round human-based race works well with this job. They also seem to be the most used Scholar race for NPC’s. Scholar can work well as any race, and Hume is no exception. They have good MP, intelligence, and mind for spell-casting, as well as rounded HP, vitality, and agility for survivability.

Elvaan

 * High mind (for White Magic) and survivability is where this race shines. Its low MP and intelligence can be made-up by having a Black Mage support job and its mid-level race-specific armor.

Tarutaru

 * The short, brilliant-minded people make very magical Scholars. They have the highest MP and intelligence in the game, and high agility for survivability. However, low HP and vitality make them fragile, so hate control is a must. A White Mage support job can make-up for the loss in mind, and race-specific gear can help with survivability.

Mithra

 * People level Red Mage as Mithra a lot, so you should expect a lot of Mithra playing Scholar, right? Not really. I think most people level Mithra RDM for the artifact armor. However, Mithra make well-rounded Scholars, much like Humes. They have high intelligence, MP, and agility, yet low mind like their Tarutaru friends. RSE hands and legs are amazing for Mithra.

Galka

 * These large brutes don’t seem like they have the patience for sitting in a tiny desk and learning algebra. However, they can play Scholar very well too. Their low MP can be offset by proper use of the Arts for lower MP consumption. They have high mind and decent intelligence, so they work as well as any other race.

Weapon

 * Like their Dancer partner, they have three combat weapon skills. Though unlike Dancer, their combat skills are much lower. Their highest skills are a “C” in both Club and Staff, but as a mage, it doesn’t matter much. This means that weapon choice is all preference. Wands (Clubs) generally give MND and INT boosts, and the Pilgrim’s Wand can be very handy. Staves have higher damage and higher delay than club, which can be more useful when they don’t hit for as much. In parties, you would find staves that give HP and MP boosts, and at Lv.30, they’d work even better because of the grips.

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’s best to have a balance of MP, MND, and INT, I prefer having a lot of MP, so that’s what I go for. This is totally all choice though.

Advanced Job Quest

 * The overall quest is simple, yet expensive. You talk to the quest-giver, Erlene in Eldieme (S), position J-8 on the map, and you will get 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. Take your 12-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 it is active. Congratulations! You can now become a Scholar.

Soloing 1-10

 * Picking up a pole or club and some defensive gear would make soloing a lot easier. Since you don’t get either grimoire until 10, you have a lot more freedom in these levels. Also, you don’t start getting spells until Lv.4, so having a support job like White Mage until then is the best idea. Fighting more weaker monsters is a better idea for you as a mage.

Valkurm 10-20

 * At 10 is when Scholar becomes its own job, which is faster than most jobs do. 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 don’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. 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.

Your AF Weapon

 * …Hasn’t been released yet.

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 judgement calls this far in advance nearly impossible.

End-Game

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

White Mage

 * An obvious mage support job. It grants the user extra MP and mind, which makes the Scholar slightly more effective for healing, but still very ominous in Black Magic. The support job supplies Scholar with spells it can’t learn on its own, such as Curaga, Protectra, and Poisona. It also gives Auto-Regen and Magic Defence Bonus and the amazing Divine Seal job ability (by Lv.30).

Black Mage

 * Another great mage support job. Gives the Scholar a very handy boost to MP and intelligence, which makes them even more formidable on the Dark Arts side. Though Drain, Aspir, and all single-target elemental spells (that could be learned through a sub-job) are learned without the use of BLM support job, Black Mage gives access to area effect elemental spells, and enfeebles such as Bio and Rasp. Warp can save on travel costs and help in sticky situations. Also, it gives Elemental Seal for Black Magic accuracy, and the job traits Magic Attack Bonus and Conserve MP, both amazing for Scholar.

Red Mage

 * Gives a lesser bonus to MP, mind, and intelligence, making the Scholar more well-rounded. Also gives access to spells like Gravity, Dia, and Bio that Scholars can’t learn on their own. Fast Cast speeds up your casting and recasting time, which buffers Light/Dark Arts and cushions the increase of casting time from using opposite spells to the Grimoire in use.

Summoner

 * Very high MP and by Lv.50, the job trait Auto-Refresh lets a Scholar cast more spells freely. With avatars, you can also effectively get some enhancing magic and may open up the possibilities for self-skillchaining with your avatars. Aside from those benefits, it doesn’t give a lot for Scholar’s purposes.

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.