On SCH endgame roles

Part 2/3 of my opinions on my jobs

Scholar
When Dancer and Scholar were initially released, almost everyone saw the potential and use of Scholars at once. Having 90% of the capabilities of both WHM & BLM in a single job, plus some partial capabilities of RDM with Sublimation and the ability to spread en-spells and Phalanx around, Scholars definitely made many mages feel threaterned.

However, Scholars aren't the end-all for mages... The job has quite a few limitations that I don't think people realize. I'll go over the limitations and weaknesses of the job, then what possible roles a Scholar can fulfill.

Weaknesses
- Light Arts OR Dark Arts -- Almost all Scholars sub RDM due to the extra spells the job gives us over WHM or BLM. This means that in order to switch between the role of a WHM and the role of a BLM, we have to use a strategem charge. We can also only switch into light arts or dark arts once every minute. This means if your SCH was nuking Tier IVs on a mob and you get hit with a status effect, she may not be able to switch over to Addendem: White to remove the status effect for up to another minute. Also, if we try to cast spells from the opposite art, we suffer a MP cost penalty, casting time penalty, and our overall skill level is much lower which can lead to resists. This is why I always ask if my main role will be nuking, or healing when an event starts.
- We pull a lot of hate -- One of the nicest job abilities a Scholar has is Accession. We can give the whole party Stoneskin, Regen II or Phalanx... it also pulls a ton of hate. I think every Scholar has taken many hits from a simple Accession/Enblizzard. Our AoE cure spells also seem to pull more hate. Think of it as casting 6x Cure IV spells at once. Our enmity spikes very high.
- We can't do either job as well as a pure WHM or BLM -- More on this later

Let's do some comparisons between a Scholar and traditional mages
Light Arts/Addendum: White vs. White Mage/Red Mage
- SCH has all the -na spells that a WHM has, has Raise/Reraise/Regen II, but not the III spells. Hence, a SCH can perform most of the tasks a WHM can, but not all of them
- Accession allows SCHs to AoE spells on a whole party. Not just their own party, but any -na spell on any party. This also applies to the Cure spells, so a SCH can effectively Curaga III another party by using Accession Cure IV.
- (Incidentally, this makes SCH one of the most powerful PLing jobs)
- SCH has no access to Cure V. This is significant due to the properties of Cure V which give it less hate compared to Cure IV. A Scholar is a hate magnet, especially if she does something like Rapture/Cure IV to cure more, and get even more hate.
- No Haste/Refresh -- You're getting a pure mage... Scholars do not support :)

Dark Arts/Addendum: Black vs. Black Mage
- Access to Tier IV nukes, BUT at a lower skill level, etc. compared to a BLM. This means nuke for nuke, a SCH will find it difficult to match a BLM. BLMs also have access to ancient magic, which means that a BLM will always be able to outnuke a SCH. A SCH can nuke for about 3/4 of the damage of a BLM using the same spell.
- However, we have access to Parsimony which cuts MP cost by 1/2. Add to this Alacrity which cuts casting and recast time by 1/2, Scholars can effectively cast twice as often for half the MP cost compared to a BLM. For longer battles, SCH efficiency wins out over a BLM who will have to rest earlier.
- Manifestation -- I think this is an underutilized job ability. It's also a lot of fun! Aspir from multiple mobs to get a full bar of MP, Bind or Gravity a group of mobs so that we can escape, and of course, our version of Sleepga.
- No Escape/Warp/Warp II -- Strangely, I haven't seen Escape used in a situation where people are trying to get away from a mob in a long time... I've only ever seen it used to shortcut zones.

Native Scholar abilities
- Sublimation gives us essentially our own personal Refresh. I actually prefer using Sublimation even when I have a RDM in my party because it does not take MP away from the RDM (using 40MP to recover 150MP), plus it lets me start off a battle with even more MP by having a Sublimation store
- Helixes & Weather spells -- Our own unique elemental DoT that no other job has. Weather spells are best used in a manaburn/nuking situation, but can also be difficult to set up since in order to give it to other nukers, we have to switch out of Dark Arts to use Accession.

How to effectively use a Scholar
As expected, most people use Scholars to fill in for a WHM or BLM. While this works for the most part, it really isn't the most effective way to use a Scholar since a WHM or BLM would do better in that role.

- Our AoE buffs tend to be centered around ourselves -- If you want the tank to have Phalanx & Stoneskin, it needs to be safe enough for a SCH to run in and cast the spells.
- If we're merely casting cures from a distance, you're better off with a WHM due to the lower enmity of Cure V.
- Our nukes do not do as much damage compared to a BLM. Hence, for timed-nuke situations, we will not be as effective compared to a BLM since we need to be able to cast more nukes to do the same amount of damage.
- SCHs can be very independent... with Sublimation and our higher MP efficiency, a SCH can last significantly longer without support compared to other mages.

So, the best ways to use a SCH in an endgame situation are:
- Put us in a DD party where we can Regen-ga lots of people at once, and add to their damage with en-spells.
- Put us in a multiple-tank party where we can buff up multiple tanks at the same time with Phalanx & Stoneskin. If there is only one tank to take care of, Accession mostly goes to waste.
- Make sure we can see the HP of other critical parties. In an alliance situation, if a SCH can see the HPs of other parties, we can easily throw them a Accession Cure IV if their own healer is in trouble.
- In a manaburn situation, give the SCH time to cast prep spells... that means for timed nukes, give us a few second warning so that we can put weather spells on all the BLMs and possibly give them Klimaform. It takes a few seconds to switch modes, cast the spells and get ready to nuke ourselves.
- Bring a SCH when the situation calls for both a WHM & BLM. In situations where you're looking for a pure healer, you're better off bringing a WHM or DNC. For pure nuking, you're better off bringing a BLM. However, if you need someone who can handle both jobs, that's when you bring a SCH and let switch between roles as necessary.

So, that's my thoughts on SCH... I've been coming SCH a lot more to events these days in order to experiment, even though compared to my other two jobs, it's the worst equipped. Other people tend to also be more accepting of SCH. It's a hard job to get "wrong", but few people take it to it's full capability.