Summoner or Scholar?

[Strawberrycocoa]

Trying to decide which upgrade path for my Arcanist. I love the Wither and Die of DoTs, but I also would like to be useful to a party beyond burning damage.

Also curious what cross-class skills work for Summoner. Apparently they use Thaumaturge and... Archer for some reason?

[Nukocafe]

thats because you need archer and THM for black mage.
all I can say is, if you decide to become Summoner or Scholar focus on one and not both.
Personally I'd go with Scholar because when you think about things like Amdapor Keep and Aurum Vale, the pet class is at a disadvantage due to pets taking a lot of debuffs and it being difficult/if not impossible to clear them yourself when you're a summoner. (Scholar has leeches at least)

However if you want to DPS, then just go with summoner. You can still be useful to a party because without a DPS enemies don't die :-)

[Darkstride]

Summoner can Swiftcast + Ressurect, if you consider that to be useful beyond burning damage.

[LullaBell]

You could always unlock both, and that way whilst soloing you can play as summoner, and then you have scholar for group play if you want to try healing. Both level up together with your arcanist level. The only thing to consider is where you're going to focus your stat points.

I'm a healer at heart so it was scholar for me + I love the fairies <3.

[Hiroradius]

Basically do you want to heal or dps, that's all. If you want to heal then you go Sch, if you want to dps then you go Sum.

Don't try and do both, it's not worth it, don't split your points 15/15 with int/mnd again it's not worth it. Go dps or healer.

If you want to use sum but still able to heal, then level white mage and be a white mage healer and a summoner dps, or vice versa so the scholar healer and black mage dps.. but too many people keep trying and thinking and expecting sum/sch to work and it doesn't, it just causes headaches.

[Swear_Bear]

I say unlock both. Try both and see which play style you prefer before you invest stat points. If you opt for SMN, but still want a healing class, there's always WHM. Likewise, if you go SCH, you can always DPS on BLM.

[Estellios]

Also curious what cross-class skills work for Summoner. Apparently they use Thaumaturge and... Archer for some reason?

Archer gives you a +Damage buff and a buff that reduces your enmity gain temporarily, and trust me when I say that SMN can pull a ton of hate.