Summoner or Scholar?

I'm so torn between the two and struggling to decide which to chose when the time comes. I was wondering if any more experienced players could offer any insight into either of the jobs, pros and cons if you will.

Thanks in advance. Mike.

Summoner = pet/damage over time dps.

Scholar = healer. ( with pet )

I find scholar to be a little more 'fun' even though its a completely different role than summoner.

adloquium is such a fun spell.

then again, my opinion may not mean much, as I only have ifrit-egi, and I've played the summoner all of about an hour.

scholar just clicks more with me than summoner so far, but i'm sure that opinion may change once I actually do some more SMN stuff

You don't need to choose one or the other, they level up side by side and you can accept job missions for both. If queues for Summoner are taking awhile, sometimes I swap to Scholar to get into dungeons faster. If you like both, do both!

The only discrepancy is stats, since your point allocation is shared by both. Personally though I have dumped all my points into INT and still have no issues healing w/ Scholar.

Summoner: Low burst dps, but very good sustained and AoE but only with a competent tank. You can spread your DoTs using bane, but then your tank needs to to be able to rotate targets all the time, even during trash mobs. Running with a summoner can speed up dungeons considerably, or it can be fairly tough because of lack of burst DPS. Either way, this class can't just mash buttons and be lazy or else you will suck. This is why there is such a negative and unwarranted hatred again summoners, but a good one will definitely be desired.

Scholar: healing class with smaller heals and less AoE potency than a white mage. Expect smaller numbers, but instead your heals will cast a protective bubble on the player. You will have 2 fairies, 1 for healing and 1 for buffing. The majority of the time, you will have your buff one out. Problem is that pets skills cannot be used during cast or off GCD, so it's kind of annoying to use them. Also if you mismanage them, they die easily, which means missing out on huge buffs.

Both classes are fun so try them both out while leveling as they level together.