User:Greens

Introduction
Welcome to Strategems. This guide is written for Scholars who would like to try and earn some solo experience points between party sessions. As much detail as possible has been included for each campsite, but my own experience with SCH solo play only extends back to ~Lv.49. Please feel free to contribute to this guide if you have information about potential solo camps between Lv.10 through Lv.48.

Lion Heart's BLM Guide
The inspiration for this guide comes from Lion Heart's Black Mage Solo Guide. Although Strategems stands alone as an independent resource, reviewing LionHeart's guide could provide some valuable insights for potential SCH-solo camps which are not included herein.

A Scholar's Natural Tools
Many Scholar-specific abilities will enable you to consistently achieve chain #4 while soloing. A scholar can be so MP-efficient that most of your downtime could be the result of unfavorable pulling conditions, not HP or MP recovery.
 * Sublimation acts like a standing mana battery. Once activated, you will store 2MP at a cost of 2HP every three seconds. This will continue until you take a significant amount of damage or you lose 25% of your maximum HP to the Sublimation effect. Once the Sublimation effect ends, your store of MP is not lost -- instead, it remains in storage until you deactivate Sublimation, at which point the stored MP is returned to your MP pool. Any excess MP is lost, and you cannot access your stored MP without deactivating Sublimation.
 * Without Stoneskin, you will not be able to rest while Sublimation is siphoning away your HP. Once your store of MP has reached its maximum, however, you will be able to rest normally.
 * With the Scholar's Mortarboard, the Sublimation rate is increased by 50% (you will store 3MP at a cost of 3HP every three seconds).
 * The RDM spell Refresh will not stack with Sublimation, and the effect of Sublimation is stronger than Refresh. This means that any attempts by a RDM to Refresh you while Sublimation is activated will result in failure. The RDM will receive the message "RDM's Refresh has no effect on Player."
 * Parsimony will cut the cost of your next Black Magic spell by 50%. This turns your most expensive nukes into extremely cheap but very powerful spells. Use this before each of your nukes, and you'll rarely fall below 40% of your maximum MP.
 * Addendum: Black will be necessary in order to access the Sleep spell before your SCH reaches Lv.50 (assuming you are subbing RDM). You may use BLM as a subjob in order to access Sleep at SCH40, but you will lose many of the unique advantages that a SCH/rdm has over a SCH/blm. Detailed information follows in the next section of this guide.

Support Jobs
For the camps included in Strategems, Red Mage will be your subjob during solo play, and for very good reason:
 * Fast Cast will shave off valuable seconds off of your cast/recast times. This becomes very important in determining whether or not you can get off your Sleep or Bind spell before your target can reach you, and it also increases your margin for error when casting spells between enemy attacks. Finally, it allows you to recover from resisted spells more rapidly.
 * Magic Attack Bonus (MAB) will help reduce the number of nukes you will have to cast before your target dies. Very often, you will find that an extra ~30 points of damage on your nukes will mean the difference between victory and defeat. Having a Black Mage subjob will also give you MAB, but you will lose far too much in the exchange.
 * Bind and Gravity, if landed successfully, will keep your target from ever reaching you. When used in conjunction with Sleep, which SCH can access naturally via Addendum: Black, these spells will keep you safe and well out of harm's way.
 * Blink, Phalanx, and Stoneskin grant you added security in case your enfeebling spells are ever resisted. They will often buy you enough time to kite your target around until you can reapply Bind or Sleep.
 * Silence will come in handy whenever you are fighting the elemental avatars of summoner-type beastmen. Pulling these elementals with Silence will prevent them from opening the fight with Ancient Magic and reduce the likelihood of having the summoner turn around and link with its avatar.

Equipment
Generally, you will need to maximize your Enfeebling and Elemental Magic skills. Maximizing these skills will increase the accuracy of your enfeebling magic and reduce the resist rate on your elemental nukes. Some notable pieces of equipment include:
 * Enfeebling Earring Lv.35 Enfeebling Magic Skill +3
 * Enfeebling Torque Lv.65 Enfeebling Magic Skill +7
 * Master Caster's Bracelets Lv.65 Outside nation-controlled areas: Enfeebling Magic Skill +7, Elemental Magic Skill +7
 * Elemental Earring Lv.35 Elemental Magic Skill +3
 * Druid's Slops Lv.64 Elemental Magic Skill +5
 * Elemental Torque Lv.65 Elemental Magic Skill +7
 * Genie Gages Lv.73 Elemental Magic Skill +8
 * Scholar's Gown Lv.58 Enhances Dark Arts effect (+15 to Elemental, Enfeebling, and Dark Magic Skills)

After increasing your magic skills, you will want to maximize your damage output. Try and find MAB gear first, then find INT gear. Fill in any remaining equipment slots with MP gear. Of course, use the elemental staves after you reach Lv.51.
 * If you are a Galka or Elvaan, you may want to consider some MP gear before INT gear.
 * If you are a Tarutaru, you may want to consider some HP gear before investing in INT gear. You might also want to fill in remaining equipment slots with HP gear instead of MP gear.

Foods
Food isn't game-shatteringly important for you, but it definitely won't hurt you. If you're low on gil, don't worry about getting HQ foods. A difference of 1INT isn't going to kill you... often. Focus on INT foods -- cookies will be wasted on you, because you will hardly use up enough MP to justify their use. There might be some merit in using cookies that grant you a killer effect against your target monster class, but I haven't tested this myself. Focusing on INT foods will help you stick your enfeebling spells more often (although the effect is arguably nominal), and will give your nukes the extra few points of damage necessary to finish off your target in three spells, saving you the trouble of having to end the fight with a small fourth spell like Fire or Drain.
 * Melon Pie MP+25, INT+4
 * Melon Pie +1 MP+40, INT+5, hMP+2