Not necessarily related to the exact topic at hand, but it's interesting how you felt SMN was easier than SCH for leveling. I felt the opposite. I don't dislike SMN at all, but Scholar is capable of very solid dps on its own & has fantastic hands-off longevity.

I'm no fool -- I'm aware a SMN could outpace a Scholar in a straight up DPS race, but the Scholar job has more than enough power to get you through any storymode situation quickly and easily. Plus, having a hands-off healbot follow me around meant I was able to spend more time melting stuff and less time stopping to heal mid-battle.

In the end, both are fantastic & very different from any other class experience in the game.