[WishMaster3K]

So Kanican made another post about Scholar, and how much the job has changed (mostly for the better).

If you missed the first post, you might want to check out his impressions of the job back in January.

I'm not going to regurgitate his info, because, good gravy, there is a lot of shit in that post, but here is the summary for those "tl;dr" people on the board.

Originally Posted by Kanican

Scholar VS Black Mage - Summary

In this part of the post, I compared Scholar and Black Mage in nuking situations using 4 criteria. Remember, these are comparing my Black Mage to my Scholar. I feel this is a pretty accurate comparison between a maxed out Black Mage and a maxed out Scholar, but it is not perfect! Here are the results of the discussion presented...

1) Damage to MP Efficiency

BLM is 14% more efficient than SCH normally, but SCH is 6% more efficient than BLM when using
Ebullience and 58% more efficient when using Parsimony.

2) Damage per Nuke

BLM deals 27% more damage per nuke, or kills generally 27% faster than SCH, and 60% faster under SP.

3) Ease of Use

BLM is easier to use simply because it lacks the abilities a SCH has to work with.

4) Resists on Highly Resistant NMs

BLM is able to easily reach the generally excepted Elemental Skill and INT to not get resisted. SCH cannot
even using the best gear available at this time; however, it is very close to reach this.

So if we go down the line, Scholar wins in damage efficiency easily if the Scholar chooses to use Parsimony spam. Black Mage easily wins in the speed and damage per shot department, especially under SP. Black Mage is also easier to use due to not having to deal with all the abilities a Scholar deals with. On resistive HNMs, Scholar cannot currently reach the tiers necessary to get unresisted nukes; however, it should be noted that in future patches this could easily change as it is so close. Also, Klimaform pretty much negates resists if the Scholar has it active, though it is difficult to use.

In any case, after I get PLD to 75, I'm totally raising SCH.

Unless I'm mistaken, Kanican said that he soloed all the way to 75, so that seems right up my alley.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Was anyone really that worried about BLM's spot on the Nuking food chain?

Lotta holes in the post, no accounting for Alacrity and they don't really say how Klimaform is "difficult to use". If you macro it right, there's hardly a delay between using a Black Arts Strategem and a nuke. Its very slight.

If I know in advance that the mob's weakness matches the day, I just use Klimaform between fights and possibly the Storm spell to go with it. Sublimation usually keeps my resting time relatively low.

[Coinspinner]

Cool, numbers to solidify what we already knew. <3 Kaeko

[Icemage]

There's also the issue of BLM/SCH, which, while it doesn't get Strategems as fast as a Scholar main, has quite a lot of burst damage power.

That said, SCH mains are quite acceptable nukers in their own right, especially if nuking with ice magics (Aquilo's Staff's +10 Elemental skill for the win).


Icemage

[Malacite]

To be honest, I'm kinda sad that SCH has become the 2nd best nuker as opposed to RDM, but the job just brings so much to the table I can't really complain.

Oh yeah, and nothing is going to touch a BLM/SCH popping Alacrity + Burst II followed up by Alacrity + Freeze II with manafont up.

[MrMageo]

SCH was always a better nuker then RDM, unless said RDM was completely decked out in Morigans , but your average sch vs your avg RDM will always see the sch hitting the numbers more consistently. Now they get teir 4's more acc and damage then a RDM so they are definite winners in that regard. (Not that I care they still cant solo 90% of the stuff a rdm can.)

[ospeff]

Old thread but caught my interest...

Originally Posted by Malacite

To be honest, I'm kinda sad that SCH has become the 2nd best nuker as opposed to RDM, but the job just brings so much to the table I can't really complain.

Oh yeah, and nothing is going to touch a BLM/SCH popping Alacrity + Burst II followed up by Alacrity + Freeze II with manafont up.

I don't understand why BLMs have had such a monopoly over nuking in the first place. How many melee jobs are there that basically have the same function? Even support jobs like bard have competition in corsairs.

I don't see why RDM shouldn't be viable nukers, theres plenty of room for 3 nukers in the game. When I first made a RDM 6 or so years ago I always thought they would eventually get a "double cast" JA like in the FFT games. With double cast and a magic accuracy trait they would be set to go, but as always it seems refresh holds RDMs back. Nowadays it isn't even that good, it's the worse refresh ability in the game actually in terms of how it drains you when you need to cast it on alot of people. But I think SE would rather make another nuking job later than make RDMs more interesting.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Fast Cast is basically the Online version of Double Cast.

RDMs already nuke well enough, its just they downplay it hard now because of TP burn and always try to nuke magic-resistant mobs rather than head on out to a RoZ camp and see their nukes and enfeebles work just fine.

[Karinya]

Doublecast was split into two abilities: a weak form you have all the time (fast cast) and a strong form that you have once every 2 hours (Chainspell).

I've nuked for over 500 as RDM for about 5 damage/MP... hnms will screw you with resists though, much worse than they would a BLM. And your nukes are smaller so it makes it harder to do things like sleepnuking.

Also, for a lot of events in the game where nuking is favored as a means of doing damage (mainly HNM), SMN counts as a nuker with Nether Blast. It's not as much max damage as T4s or AM2s but it's consistent and they can keep it up and not take hate.

[Katsy]

Originally Posted by WishMaster3K

Unless I'm mistaken, Kanican said that he soloed all the way to 75, so that seems right up my alley.

I pretty much solo'd Scholar on my lonesome or found a friend to duo with, but it got more interesting when I hit 72 because I got to join some friends or random people in Mount Zhayolm for mana burn parties. And boy, it was good times! Of course, it's a lot nicer now after I've merited Stormsurge to level 3, and have better gears. ^^

I hope you have fun leveling Scholar! :D