Scholar Guide (Part III)
EDIT: Parts of this post are slightly misleading due to information learned after it was posted. The cap of - enmity from merits and equipment is -50; however, the post suggests a build with -60. The ideas of the post are still valid in my opinion, but it should be noted that stacking - enmity past -50 is pointless.
Overview
In the previous Scholar post, I focused entirely on the concept of Scholar in solo, trying to show its strength as a BLM/RDM Hybrid-like soloist specifically when under Dark Arts. In this post, I will focus on the other side of Scholar, under Light Arts, which plays out completely differently - acting like a buffer or healer that most closely mimics White Mage.
At first glance, it seems obvious that a Scholar in Light Arts / Addendum: White will most closely mimic White Mage - after all, pretty much ever spell gained in the March 2008 patch in Light Arts were former WHM unique spells (all -na spells, Reraises, Raise II). I think, however, that it is overly simplistic to assume that just because these 2 jobs now share much of the same spell list, they should be played the same way or fill the same role. My hope for this post is to show specifically where a Scholar fits in, how it compares to WHM (and to a lesser extent, RDM), and most importantly, gear focus choices which influence this role.
(Updated Scholar look - now with Ixion Cloak for the extra Regen tic.)
My personal experience with playing a healing or buffing job at 75 was almost non-existent prior to leveling Scholar (Black Mage was previously my only 75 job). I held off on making a post about the Light Arts aspect of Scholar for quite awhile to learn the little tricks about this so I hope this post is up to par with the more offensively oriented posts (of which I feel much more experienced with). My hope is to show how when geared correctly for Light Arts, Scholar becomes not only a great support job, but the ideal secondary healer currently in FFXI.
Scholar Guide (Part I)
Scholar Guide (Part II)
Scholar Guide (Part IV)
Scholar Guide (Part V)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
What Scholar Lacks
Understanding how Scholar fits into the back-line support starts with comparing it to the jobs it can possibly replace. I'll be focusing on Scholar versus just Red Mage and White Mage. When comparing the jobs, the first and most important thing to note is Scholar does not get Haste or Refresh. Anyone that has ever played this game past level 40 knows that Haste and Refresh make the world go around in FFXI. Parties without some form of both, whether this be EXP or endgame pretty much fall apart outside of unorthodox strategy.
The lack of any form of Haste or Refresh will always make Scholar not the most important piece of the back line jobs. Scholar cannot anchor the backline of any party or alliance. This is true of any back line job with cannot produce either of these buffs - that's just the way the game is. However, this does not mean Scholar cannot play an extremely strong and ideal role in a majority of fights. The key is to remember that having 2 back line jobs with Haste is generally the same as having 1 back line job with Haste - only 1 player has to cast it.
________________________________________________________________________________
The Concept of "Replacing" Another Job
A very common argument I've seen on forums about Scholar is the concept of replacing other jobs like RDM and WHM. A very flawed argument against the idea of replacement is when people say "Scholar is unique and fits into it's own role". I honestly find this to be utter crap since you only have 6 players in a party and not bringing a Scholar gives you another job anyways. A job's success in endgame is based on its ability to be better than other jobs competing for similar roles like DD or Tank.
As stated earlier, Scholar has a hard time replacing the "first option" in the backline since it will typically consist of someone with Haste. As the secondary option, however, Scholar finds itself in a surprisingly (at least for me) comfortable and unique role due to its access to AoE buffs, full arsenal of -na spells including the formerly WHM-only Stona, and incredible MP efficiency.
________________________________________________________________________________
Scholar as a Secondary Healer and Support
Before starting the rest of this long post, I'm going to lay out some pretty reasonable assumptions...
1) There is some form of Haste somewhere in your alliance or party.
2) There is some form(s) of Refresh somewhere in your party - RDM or BRD.
That's pretty much it. After this anything goes - bunch of Black Mages in the party, balanced tank / melee, tank party, meripo style melee party, etc. I think these are reasonable since simply having a RDM in your group covers both assumptions - which come on, RDM is one of the jobs that make this game run (BRD would be the other one).
With that, I'll start the comparison! Hopefully I can convince you that with proper playing style and gear focus, Scholar in Light Arts can replace White Mage in a number of situations.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Focus on Enmity Reduction Gear
EDIT: Parts of this post are slightly misleading due to information learned after it was posted. The cap of - enmity from merits and equipment is -50; however, the post suggests a build with -60. The ideas of the post are still valid in my opinion, but it should be noted that stacking - enmity past -50 is pointless.
Here is where I feel I personally start deviating from a "norm" build. My Scholar focuses a tremendous amount of gear slots towards maximizing enmity reduction. This enmity reduction gear is used for 2 main builds - Cures, and Buffs. I will go maximum enmity reduction on Cures while a mix of Haste and enmity reduction on long cast buffs like Stoneskin. Below is the gear I'll be using for Cures (I'm still missing the Delta Earring and the Concealing Cuffs).
MainApollo's Staff
Cure Potency +10% , +2 MNDSubStaff Strap-2 EnmityRangedWhite Tathlum
-2 Enmity
HeadMahatma Hat
-6 Enmity , +4 MND
BodyGoliard Saio
-5 Enmity, +5% Haste, +5 Conserve MP
HandsConcealing Cuffs
-5 Enmity
LegsMahatma Slops
-4 Enmity , +8 MND
FeetArborist Nails
-5 Enmity
BackErrant Cape
-5 Enmity
WaistPenitent's Rope
-3 Enmity , +5 MND
NeckBenign Necklace
-2 Enmity
Ear 1Novia Earring
-7 EnmityEar 2Delta Earring
-3 EnmityRing 1Tamas Ring
-3 Enmity , +5 MND
Ring 2Trooper's Ring-4 Enmity
This set comes to a total of -60 Enmity reduction with merits. You can get up to a maximum of -71 without food I think but it starts to get pretty difficult. I'll admit this seems incredibly overboard since there are places where I'm devoting a item slot for only -2 enmity, but I'll give 2 big reasons why this is so important. I'm not going to show the sets for Buffs, but it's basically the same thing with more focus on Haste Gear (Stoneskin would focus a bit on capping MND as well).
Scholar is an incredibly MP efficient healer and buffer in Light Arts. In addition, Scholar lacks the 2 major "buff spells" - Haste and Refresh, and does not have to spend MP to constantly maintain these on tanks and melee. This allows Scholar to completely focus on AoE buffs, Status Cures, and Cures. Because of it's MP efficiency, the limiting factor to a Scholar's play as a backline support generally is NOT MP, but enmity! A very good Enmity build on Scholar in Light Arts directly adds to its efficiency as a support player.
In addition, there are 2 very key things to note about Scholar which I'll go over separately.
1) Accession grants up to 6x the amount of hate a normal buff or cure would give.
This is a huge problem on certain buffs. The most common Accession buff is Stoneskin, which provides 300 VE. A full 6 player Accession Stoneskin grants the Scholar 300 VE x 6 or 1800 VE... Same as Provoke, ,you can see how this gets nasty. Other buffs like Phalanx, all -na spells, and Enspells provide 1800 VE as well. Erase is especially bad at 480 VE a target... that can potentially be a 2880 VE cast for a 6 player erase-ga. While Accession is an incredibly powerful Scholar ability, the hate potential it provides is extremely large and needs to be compensated for.
2) Scholars do not have access to Cure V or much Cure Potency Gear.
Most WHMs don't really focus on a huge enmity reduction set on their cures, which is OK in my opinion. This has a great deal to do with the fact that WHMs have tremendous access to a good variety of cure potency gear like Rondel Earring, Nobles Tunic, etc. which would be better than stacking enmity gear. Also, WHMs typcially use Cure V for large cures for both the insane single target cure of 800+ as well as the stable, generally low enmity it provides (static 400 CE, 700 VE). A Scholar attempting to heal large quantities cannot access Cure V and must use Cure III or IV, which follow the Cure Formula. This leads to significantly higher VE production... for instance, a Rapture Cure IV for 646 HP grants a whopping 470 CE / 2819 VE, while a Cure V is still the static 400 CE / 700 VE.
(You can check the effectiveness if your enmity set in Campaign.)
Prior to having extended time playing Scholar as a healer, I was not a huge fan of enmity reduction stacking. I came to use this build more out of trial and error and just finding myself getting hate way too quickly. Scholar in Light Arts has tremendous MP efficiency and curing power with Rapture / Accession usage. The thing that generally held me back in these situations has been hate.
________________________________________________________________________________
Scholar with -60 Enmity
I have to admit this gets really fun... Mathematically, I'm turning a 429 HP Cure IV (Soft Cap on Scholar) from 312 CE / 1872 VE to 124 CE / 748 VE; however, the analysis really gets a bit deeper than this. Remember that VE decays at a constant rate of -60 VE per second.
If we take the original VE of a Cure IV, it takes 31.2 seconds to fully decay the VE from that 429 HP Cure IV. This means, unless you only limit yourself to 1 full Cure IV every 30 seconds, you are gaining net VE (very bad). Considering a SCH/RDM can do a Cure IV including casting time about once every 6 to 7 seconds, you are holding yourself back by about 25 seconds of waiting, a considerable margin. If we use the -60 Enmity Set, it only takes 12.5 seconds to fully decay VE, meaning you only have to average 6 extra seconds of waiting between Cure IVs if you're spamming to have no net VE gain.
Using a set like this makes your Scholar pretty "idiot-proof" as a healer and buffer. It's actually surprisingly hard to take hate in this set in practice, even spamming AoE -na spells and Cure IV, which is a spell most WHMs are told to avoid due to hate issues. You can see the effectiveness of this set yourself in Campaign by just using Accession Cure IV on NPCs.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Various Roles of Scholar in Light Arts
I'm only going to touch on these for a bit because I'm sure many of these are obvious.
1) 350 HP AoE Stoneskin potentially every 60 seconds.
This is my personal favorite use of Accession AoE. This is so much stronger than both BLU Diamondhide and SMN Earthen Ward, I honestly don't even find them comparable. 350 HP is usually enough for a tank to absorb a full hit from even the strong NMs, and is enough to eat most AoEs. The amount of trouble this saves is just immense. When paired with Phalanx-ga, it's especially useful when dealing with weak mobs such as in Salvage, Nyzul Isle, and I've even heard some success stories in Meripo.
2) AoE Status Cures.
Another Scholar unique. WHM gets the same thing through Divine Veil, but it's only usable every 10 minutes, so it's really not that useful... I personally think White Mages got the shaft on this but since I'm a Scholar that's not really my problem. This is extremely useful on HNM fights with cripplying AoE status effects such as Flayer Tribulation, Cerberus Ululation, Hydra Nerve Gas, etc. where it is critical that the status be removed quickly. I will usually save 1-2 charges on fights like these so I always have access to AoE status cure.
(AoE Stona - reuse this pic alot because I think it's pretty cool.)
3) AoE -25 or -26 HP Phalanx.
First of all, make sure you equip your Scholar's Pants when you use these for an extra -2 HP on your Phalanx. You can get an extra -1 if you throw in a combination of Enhancing Torque + Merciful Cape or Augmenting Earring. This is mostly useful when fighting weak mobs and allows you to worry less when you're covering multiple members. Again, ideal situations for this would be things like Salvage, Nyzul Isle, and meripo possibly. It should be noted that a full 5 merit Phalanx II from a good Enhancing Magic RDM will still barely beat out your Phalanx; but the MP cost of Phalanx is a lot higher.
4) AoE Enspells.
This one is similar to Phalanx - most useful when dealing with weaker mobs. I personally do not find this too useful in normal situations, but it absolutely kills in Salvage and Nyzul. I find it more of a niche use rather than an everyday use move like the other 3 previously mentioned.
5) AoE Cure outside Party.
This is pretty useful in that it allows your Scholar to support parties you aren't currently in. For instance, in Einherjar, I can primary heal melee groups not in the same party as me. Again, it's critical that you use an enmity down set if you're going to do this effectively since AoE Cures can produce massive hate issues. Scholar MP efficiency really shines in this, as often times, you are more than capable of supporting your own party most of the time, so it allows you to quickly support other parties as well.
(The potential hate spike you can generate on SCH is massive - I don't think -60 enmity will save you in this case).
Remember when using pretty much ANYTHING mentioned above, you are producing pretty high amounts of VE since it is always multiplied by the number of targets hit. These Scholar AoE buffs are extremely powerful but need to be supplemented with enmity gear to reduce the hate spike they generate..
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Conclusions
It is important to first realize where Scholar best fits in the party. Remember that Scholar does not have access to Haste - the magical spell that makes FFXI playable by like 2/3rds of the jobs in this game. Scholar also has no ally refresh (but is not reliant on it due to Sublimation). Because of this, Scholar cannot anchor the backline of parties in the vast majority of situations at 75; it does, however, team up very well with WHM or RDM, which can provide Haste, due to incredibly high MP efficiency and unique AoE buffs - in essence, the ideal "second choice" in healing.
The focus of this post is to outline the reasoning behind choosing this "secondary support" role as Scholar's most useful role (which dictates playstyle). In addition, I wanted to emphasize the importance of stacking - enmity gear when playing Scholar in Light Arts. Here is a summary of why this is so important...
1) AoE Buffs produce massive VE due to the fact the VE generated is dependent on targets hit.
2) Scholar must use Cure IV (-ga) to heal large quantities quickly, which produces nasty hate spikes.
3) Scholar doesn't have amazing gear choice like RDM or WHM right now anyways.
I want to just re-emphasize the "idiot-proof" nature of this type of enmity build if you manage to stack enough (in the -50s or higher). I personally have a hard time pulling hate due to cool down times when using this. I spam Cure IV extremely often in pretty much the exact opposite fashion any normal White Mage would.
Scholar is a job built on speed casting, MP efficiency, and AoEs. This leads to a lot of actions being performed constantly, sometimes on many players at once. High amounts of enmity reduction ensure your safety when doing this and allows you to not limit the number of actions you can perform due to hate. This allows Scholar to truly take advantage of it's unique AoE abilities, fast casting speed, and high MP efficiency.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pic of the Day
Random assortment of pics again!
Wulgaru fight - Tier II Zeni NM. Pretty annoying fight but the end is hilarious when it loses his body.
Super old ASCII Art that our original leader used to spam back in the day.
Uh... we need help in Campaign. I'm actualy surprised this NPC lasted for like 5 minutes like this.
Awesome PLD tanking Nidhogg... Server transfer. Yes he's dualing weilding Hauteclaire and Joy-toy while tanking Nidhogg... That's also a Knightly Mantle...
Drama Thread of the Day
Couple of Drama threads this time!
Stolen Ninturta Sash
This one is still unfolding as we speak. I hope he gets it back since I actually know the LS this is happening to. It is likely that this drama has produced +1 extra sash though since the original will probably get rolled back.
ATNM Test... What?
If you've been keeping up with Pandemonium Warden you already know about this. If not, well this "little" mistake by SE caused a patch.
Guy Accidently Outs Himself as an FFXIAPP User
... then tries to hide it by removing the screenshot of his desktop. Luckily someone reposts it!
Dorje Drama?!?
How does an item that has never even been seen cause forum drama?
GREED KILLS
Old School Cait Sith Drama...
Just a final note! I'll be on vacation for the next 3ish weeks so I may be slow with replies etc. I may sneak another quick post in if there's some downtime on the airport etc. Also, just be safe with your accounts!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________