SCH adjustments & Additions

[Fetus]

I would like to see SCH get something that is like a distinction, that makes it more unique as a main. It's an excellent support job for certain jobs, but it doesn't shine as much as a main nowadays. Obviously, Abyssea is a huge influence, because SCH isn't capable of doing as many yellow !! as BLM is. Adloquium is cool I guess.

Sure, we get Tier V nukes, just like BLM, but given the current state BLM beats SCH. I have fairly top-nuking gear for both jobs and due to BLM having Blizzard V and atma that favors it, my SCH cannot top my BLM's damage. That doesn't bother me much at all, though.

Since we got a Stratagem that makes a spell open or close a skillchain, I could forsee them adding spells with multiple elements (maybe). That's actually an interesting idea that I like, but as others have said, it's a question of how fast the spells would be, damage, and MP cost. T2 storm spells and T2 helix would be neat as well. However, it's only 9 levels, it's a matter of seeing what SE has in mind that isn't obvious already, given the rate of spells we have gained since 75 cap... all under Addendum: Black of course, only exceptions being the white magic spells we've obtained: Adloquium, Enmity spells, and Regen III.

What we have gotten just for nukes:
Stone V - SCH79
Water V - SCH83
Aero V - SCH87

What we can likely expect just from that:
Fire V - SCH91
Blizzard V - SCH95
Thunder V - SCH99

But it's obvious to me Scholar needs more than that, something other jobs won't have. If they do introduce merits for lv99, that'll be a given that we'll get some unique stuff, it's just a matter of what that'd be and how it'd influence the playerbase to use/play the job.

This (I didn't quote the whole post, just parts I thought were especially telling). Thanks for reminding me that we have no equipment to enhance Adloquium. Why the Savant's Bonnet +1/+2 enhances Regen instead is beyond me. Maybe if we all gripe about it enough, they'll change it? As is, the potency of Adloquium is so weak that I don't even bother using it inside of Abyssea. Outside of Abyssea, that changes a bit, but not by much.

Speaking of... I think we need to eliminate Abyssea from this conversation indefinitely. Inside of Abyssea, Monk is the ultimate tank, mages never run out of MP, every melee job has capped critical hit rate and critical hit damage and Ninja can nuke targets for thousands of damage per :Ni nuke. Outside of Abyssea, Monk is about as mortal as it was at 75, mages have a finite amount of MP (without proper party support), melee jobs cry because they don't deal thousands of damage per WS and elemental ninjutsu still sucks against almost everything. My point is everyone has Abyssea on the brain and Abyssea skews how everything works outside of Abyssea. 99% of the game is not in Abyssea. We need to stop using Abyssea as a point of relativity when comparing Y to Z.

@Pebe - Unless I miscounted, SCH can achieve +68% damage on any Elemental Magic spell. This is before Elemental Affinity, Magic Attack Bonus, INT formulas or anything else is included. Like Fredjan and you have said and as Hideka as taken steps to illustrate, SCH needs something that is SCH only. It's a great support job, no doubt about it, but it doesn't feel unique nor finished yet.

@Hideka - I'm a huge fan of your "Fusion Magic" ideas. Keep working on them. Flesh them out even more. Make them definitively "Scholar". SE needs to see them and read this thread, honestly. That being said, I'm not a fan of your latest ideas and I mean no disrespect in saying so. They seem overly complex. Not saying that I can't appreciate complexity, but it just seems needless. However, your Minuo Pretium made some lightbulbs flash in my head. I'm working on something and I'll try to get it posted later. I think it could be another step towards making SCH really unique.