Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

[Coinspinner]

Maybe this is old news to some, but I just discovered this today. When you set SCH as your support job and use Light Arts or Dark Arts your skills will rise to B rank for your main job's level. Not only that, your skills will be maxed out without you having to level them to get that high.

Click for pics

"I said 'wow'." This is gonna be a useful sub.

[Lasareth]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

Not very useful for this alone unless you mean for rdm. It only boosts your skills to B level which means it won't affect elemental skill for BLM or healing/divine for WHM, which it seems you've noticed already.

As for a sub, its usefulness even with the currently broken strategems is somewhat limited. It's a constant 10% mp conservation which is great for whm mains but you don't get stoneskin or blink which makes subbing for blm kind of iffy. So far the only thing it's got going for it is a 50% mp conservation skill every 4 mins and oh lala regen 2 at 37. I bet that'll change in the near future though.

This bug, or feature, or whatever, only allows you to do a limited set of things unachievable with other subs:
-Drain/Aspir with B skill on whm&rdm without the accuracy of elemental seal
-Enfeeble a bit more precisely on whm and blm (which rarely happens anyway)
-Cast elemental magic as a rdm main more accurately

Really it doesn't augment what jobs already do, except for rdm when you throw a nuke out every now and then for shits and giggles. You're also giving up stoneskin/blink/-na spells for that, so it doesn't seem superior to any of the alternatives as things are now--for blm I'd actually rather hide behind the safety of blink/ss than have dark arts available to me.

The expansion is young though and things are sure to change. Right now SCH sub is more of a curiousity than anything else.

[Armando]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

It's true that it doesn't do so much for the skills that a mage main excels at. But think outside the box a little bit - this would let, say, a SMN/SCH or BLU/SCH use Enfeebling/Dark magic with B skill where it normally wouldn't have any skill there in the first place. Now, even a melee job could enfeeble in certain BCNMs, Missions, duo/trio situations, or other random non-EXP party events. When looked at from that perspective, that's pretty fucking big.

EDIT: Whoops. For some reason I could've sworn SCH got access to enfeebles. Even so, that means a SMN/SCH or BLU/SCH could drain and aspir pretty efficiently where they normally couldn't.

[Lasareth]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

In order to enfeeble, though, you need the proper spells. SCH does not get any enfeebling skills native except poison up to 37, which makes enfeebling impossible as SMN, BLU, or any melee. You're also limited by a small mp pool if you sub sch since you're not a mage main, making things you can do more limited.

But sure if you want to give up a subjub slot for drain and aspir go for it. That's all I can see it giving anything as a sub.

Edit for your edit: The only things you can nuke with with sch sub are the t1 spells and t2 spells up to water 2, effectively making you a gimp drk. Blu benefits more from blm sj since that gives magic attack bonus and sch does NOT, which is the only thing that would affect blu magical spells in a desirable fashion.

[tdh]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

This will actually be a great sub for RDM in the duo/trio Manaburns. I quite often go and duo with a BLM in my LS since I only Pink Mage in Dynamis, so giving me a boost against resists, and saving some MP in the process will be quite helpful.

I'm considering leveling Scholar for more than just sub job purposes, but I still think it has it's merits for a sub in more than just mission/solo circumstances.

[Taskmage]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

Hori sheet yay for a big boost to my dark and elemental magic skills. I was hoping for an enfeebling boost as well, if small, but in exchange for +20 elemental skill and +50 dark magic skill I'll shut my damn mouf. This seems really darn good for rdm, situationally still pretty darn good for blm and whm, and a very viable option for smn and blu, especially if healing magic skill really does influence the power of blu healing spells.

[Patchinko]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

Does Healing Magic skill affect Blue Mage heals (I figured they were under the influence solely of Blue Magic)?

Also, does the reduction in MP cost and increase in casting speed also work when using /SCH as a subjob?

Sounds like a pretty great RDM subjob, really!

(At this point, it's sounding like this might be my first real second job not just for subjob on my RDM also!)

[Coinspinner]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

I'm pretty sure you get all the benefit of ----- Arts while subbed.

What's this about Stratagems being broken?

Edit: Recast is definitely shorter/longer, MP cost is definitely reduced/increased, I can't tell if the cast time is reduced but I'd bet on it.

[Taskmage]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

Does Healing Magic skill affect Blue Mage heals (I figured they were under the influence solely of Blue Magic)?

Some claim it does, some claim it doesn't. So far I think all the evidence presented on the subject has been anecdotal. I don't think it does, myself.

Hey, I just noticed this means rdm can reasonably reach the 7/dmg per tick tier of Bio II now. And whoa if Bio III's slip damage continues to improve for every 8 levels of dark magic past 209, that means with Dark Arts and +17 skill it should be doing and unresistable 13 dmg/tick.

[Nuriko]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

I can see WHM welcoming an Aspir with good skill each minute in some fast-moving parties ... but the 10% conservation might be better than that. For that matter, /BLM is already over 6% on average plus access to ES, and SMN is 1 mp/tick at 50+ plus some of the summon buffs...

[Lmnop]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

What's this about Stratagems being broken?

I've heard something about when using macros instead of accessing via menus, you can store up to 3 charges with /SCH sub job. Can anyone confirm?

[Taskmage]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

I can see WHM welcoming an Aspir with good skill each minute in some fast-moving parties ... but the 10% conservation might be better than that. For that matter, /BLM is already over 6% on average plus access to ES, and SMN is 1 mp/tick at 50+ plus some of the summon buffs...

I thought the Conserve MP trait averaged out to 10% mp saved, just random unlike the sch JA. Whatever it is, it's generally considered inferior to auto-refresh, but maybe that 10% saving and the decent skill aspir would beat /smn on mobs with mp?

[Lasareth]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

I've heard something about when using macros instead of accessing via menus, you can store up to 3 charges with /SCH sub job. Can anyone confirm?

This is true, makes prebuffing for big events like dynamis a lot less mp-costly.

You'll end up at -2 charges instead of 0 which is definitely not intended.

And I've noticed a boost to blu healing spells with high healing magic skill but I also remember it was capped at some point, though I won't really say I know for sure. You still have to consider, though, what subs you're giving up if you're gonna sub SCH. It's not like it's a bonus but rather a tradeoff of your abilities.

I'm not saying SCH is a crap sj, it's just really underwhelming for being heralded as the "new mage sub." Just seems like a sj that's even more situational than any others, if you can even find a situation where it outperforms its alternatives.

[Pteryx]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

I don't think that the skill thing is going to be nerfed -- because from the sound of the Osaka festival, where they promised that WHM/SCHs would be able to Drain effectively, this is intentional. Amazing, but very much intentional. I thought it'd have to work something like this to live up to the hype, but I didn't expect them to actually give a B from /SCH. Wow. -- Pteryx

[Armando]

Re: Scholar as a support job. (Nerf imminent?)

Regarding Healing Skill and BLU: I did a bit of testing way back when I levelled BLU many months ago and I found that my Healing Breeze was far stronger using /WHM than other subs. It was a night-and-day kind of thing, too big a difference for any amount of +MND from /WHM sub to make. But I didn't think it was that important (seeing as I was just confirming what was apparently common knowledge) and don't have any recorded numbers or screenshots to back it up.