Impressive Scholar Accomplishments.

[Eric]

One of the things that caught my attention when I first started playing Scholar was reading Kanican's livejournal and looking at all the cool things he had done. After carefully reading through his scholar guide, I took his advice to heart, and still use a lot of the techniques he mentions. For example, the macros I use for stratagems are set up so that I blink through the animations.

My inspiration to play SCH began there, but ever since Kanican quit and stopped updating the FFXI section of his livejournal, I have found inspiration in other scholars.

One example is this video of a SCH soloing Shinryu without a brew (before Regen V and the Cure adjustments):
FFXI - SCH Shinryu Solo

Despite the fact that I don't attempt these sorts of things often, there is something very fulfilling about playing a job when you know that it holds the sort of power needed to accomplish these things.

So that being said, what sorts of things keep you motivated to play scholar?

[Oscar71]

Getting Nyzul Gear.

[Merton9999]

Getting Nyzul Gear.

You know, I laughed at this, but it's totally true. Right now I'm enjoying Embrava so much it's really making the whole game for me. Honestly, apart from Neo Nyzule, I love how easy it makes some tasks that used to go much slower or require more people. I'm grateful for SE making ways to speed up completion of old leftovers, where I couldn't care less about the challenge anymore, especially on repeat runs, I just want to get it over with for someone.

Prior to that, the appeal of the job was always about the sheer amount of things there are to do. Not only casting powerful spells of almost every discipline, but also managing strategems and the cost/benefit of each one. When I play other mage jobs, what makes me miss SCH is that I'm casting spells without choosing a way to enhance them beforehand

I got a lot from Kanican's live journal in my first few months of the job too. I still use the JA animation prevention, and my favorite is having arts and addendum in a single macro that still allows them to be used individually.

As far as impressive accomplishments, I can't say I've tried many of the feats I've seen, like soloing Shinryu. What keeps me playing the job is just that variety and thought process involved. And Embrava. Oh, and the outfit. The lab coat and chef hat are so much cooler looking than that old poofy turd gown.

[Delvish]

Lab coat and fancy pants, fricken awesome. Pillow hat, not so much.

As far as things I find impressive that I've done, the sheer depth of macros (with no 3rd party enhancements) that comes with SCH. While I haven't bothered to adjust the timing so as to skip the commands just yet, I'm using two macro books and nearly all macro sets within them. It's crazy how much goes into using SCH macros effectively. I may work on blinking the abilities at some point, but while I'm deployed and lagging all over, I actually need to see the ability run to know the command went through. @.@

[Merton9999]

Lab coat and fancy pants, fricken awesome. Pillow hat, not so much.

As far as things I find impressive that I've done, the sheer depth of macros (with no 3rd party enhancements) that comes with SCH. While I haven't bothered to adjust the timing so as to skip the commands just yet, I'm using two macro books and nearly all macro sets within them. It's crazy how much goes into using SCH macros effectively. I may work on blinking the abilities at some point, but while I'm deployed and lagging all over, I actually need to see the ability run to know the command went through. @.@

Awww, I like the hat. Oh well, you can get some benefit out of /displayhead

I love the macro requirements for SCH. I have that planner and strategist bone that actually likes maximizing my macro effectiveness as much as actually playing the job. I use three books, but not all slots are full. My favorite part of getting new gear, except if it looks awesome, is that revising macros often results in me noticing the potential for a little tweak I missed before.

I don't like blinking through animations if it's laggy either. I love it for kiting though. I used to mostly solo on SCH but now that I'm mostly partying and don't mind the pause in running I might take out the needless gear swaps.

[Eric]

Blinking through animations isn't only useful for soloing or kiting.

For example, if a melee/tank ever runs out of range for whatever reason(knockback from an attack, etc.) and I need to use Tranquility or Rapture before I can cure them, I can just activate it while I am running and waste no time at all.

[Sotek]

Right now I'm enjoying Embrava so much it's really making the whole game for me.

Really? I hate Embrava. I wouldn't mind it being there but SCH is pretty much synonymous with Embrava now, I'd much rather be invited on SCH for SCH than for Embrava. I can sum up the last time I played this game with "Mindlessly cycling shitty spells" and "Casting Embrava and taking a Tera Slash to the face". Not really Embravas fault and more trashy endgame content, I know, but I still take issue with Embrava pretty much masking everything else I liked about this job.

If anything is remotely challenging in this game, Embrava and you're done. One spell justifies the vast majority of SCHs worth and I absolutely abhor that. Though maybe I'm just old fashioned in thinking a job about tactic and stratagem should have a wide array of useful spells at its disposal, rather than one incredibly overpowered one.

[Merton9999]

Blinking through animations isn't only useful for soloing or kiting.

For example, if a melee/tank ever runs out of range for whatever reason(knockback from an attack, etc.) and I need to use Tranquility or Rapture before I can cure them, I can just activate it while I am running and waste no time at all.

Yeah I can see that. I'll have to play with it a bit. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't.

I didn't think my stance on Embrava would be popular, and I do understand why people wouldn't like it. It's just my personal enjoyment, for the moment, and I bet that moment will be short lived.

I really don't think too much anymore about what a job should or shouldn't be. It's just a simple matter of whether I'm having fun with the process, regardless of why I'm on that job. For now I love the end result - that so many activities I got bored of the old way are so much faster now.

I can see that waning though. It doesn't escape me that I'm on SCH for one spell, and Embrava zerging is certainly no mentally challenging task. Soon I'll get bored with the effects of the spell as they become more and more "normal". When that happens I'll be holding out to see if merit category 3 offers anything more heady.

I don't think I'll ever get sick of the lab coat though.

[Sotek]

I actually really liked the look of the new Hexed gear they added, the MAB body and Pope hat would have kept me playing longer if, you know, SE didn't decide to be completely fucking retarded when adding them.

[Eric]

Are you quitting?