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Time to hit the books. Scholar revealed!
Let's discuss Scholar first. An interesting combination of both White Mage and Black Mage abilities, and quite different than the Red Mage (to newcomers, a Red Mage is often viewed as a hybrid of WHM and BLM, with its own unique abilities and spells), the Scholar is able to switch -- on the fly -- between the two disciplines, enhancing the abilities of the main discipline at the expense of the effectiveness of the other. This won't likely be an issue, since you can switch between Light Arts and Dark Arts at will (the names of the two disciplines) depending on what spells you need to cast, but this is better explained by breaking down each ability.
Tabula Rasa -- This is the Scholar's two-hour move, and is coincidentally named the same as Richard Garriot's latest MMO for NCSoft. Tabula Rasa optimizes both white and black magic capabilities, while allowing charge-free stratagem use.
Light Arts -- Switching to this Scholarly discipline enhances divine magic and healing magic spells.
Dark Arts -- Switching to this Scholarly discipline enhances enfeebling, elemental, and dark magic spells.
Stratagems -- These are methods of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of magic. Like the two Arts, there are two types of Stratagems, as expected, Light and Dark. Within the Dark Stratagems menu lies four job abilities. We'll list what each one does. The Light Stratagems were not unlocked on our character, so we cannot reveal what they are at this time.
credits: 1up.com
Let's discuss Scholar first. An interesting combination of both White Mage and Black Mage abilities, and quite different than the Red Mage (to newcomers, a Red Mage is often viewed as a hybrid of WHM and BLM, with its own unique abilities and spells), the Scholar is able to switch -- on the fly -- between the two disciplines, enhancing the abilities of the main discipline at the expense of the effectiveness of the other. This won't likely be an issue, since you can switch between Light Arts and Dark Arts at will (the names of the two disciplines) depending on what spells you need to cast, but this is better explained by breaking down each ability.
Tabula Rasa -- This is the Scholar's two-hour move, and is coincidentally named the same as Richard Garriot's latest MMO for NCSoft. Tabula Rasa optimizes both white and black magic capabilities, while allowing charge-free stratagem use.
Light Arts -- Switching to this Scholarly discipline enhances divine magic and healing magic spells.
Dark Arts -- Switching to this Scholarly discipline enhances enfeebling, elemental, and dark magic spells.
Stratagems -- These are methods of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of magic. Like the two Arts, there are two types of Stratagems, as expected, Light and Dark. Within the Dark Stratagems menu lies four job abilities. We'll list what each one does. The Light Stratagems were not unlocked on our character, so we cannot reveal what they are at this time.
- Dark Stratagem -- Parsimony: Reduces the MP cost of the next BLM spell to 50%. So basically it's a user-activated Conserve MP move.
- Dark Stratagem -- Alacrity: Reduces the casting time of the next BLM spell to 50%. This is less like a Fast Cast and more like a Ranger's Rapid Shot, proportionate of course to the original casting time of the BLM spell used. But where this might come in especially handy is in emergency situations where Escape is needed, or in casting a nuke with a long cast time. Since it's unclear whether Scholars can wield any ancient magic (Freeze, Quake, etc.) this may not be a super-huge factor, but can be worthwhile nonetheless.
- Dark Stratagem -- Ebullience: Enhances the potency of the next BLM spell cast. This is essentially Elemental Seal renamed for Scholars, although it's unclear whether a SCH/BLM could stack Ebullience and Elemental Seal for a major nuke of enfeeble (it's unlikely). Applicable to enfeebling, elemental, and dark magic, this will be a very useful ability to have around.
- Dark Stratagem -- Manifestation: This ability is particularly interesting as the official description states "Extends the effect of the next BLM spell at an MP cost three times the normal cost, and a cast time of twice the normal length." By extend it means it turns the next BLM spell into an area-of-effect "ga" spell. This provides further suggestion that ancient magic spells are not among those available to Scholars, as a Freeze-ga II spell would put BLMs (and most HNMs) out of business.
credits: 1up.com
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