Ranger?

[wereotter]

This is entirely incorrect. Arcanist was a job I'm the game's files for 1.0, but Arcanist, Summoner, and Scholar were all offically added into the game with 2.0 (ARR). There has never been at point that arcanist was usable that Scholar did not exist. Back then, the entirety of Arcanist's kit was available to Scholar, and that was the issue with the job. It learned Adloquiem at lv30, Succor at 35, Leeches at 40, Sacred Soil at 45, and Lustrate at 50. Every other spell and ability it had was shared with Arcanist and Summoner. Theyve done everything in their power to separate Scholar from the other two, besides actually breaking its ties to Arcanist.

Was playing at the launch of ARR, can validate

Also to add a little more to this, a lot of why they've gone to such lengths to separate the kits of the two jobs was for job balance. If they needed to buff scholar, then that would buff summoner too. If they needed to nerf one, that would nerf the other as well. This caused a lot of issues in Heavensward as well as Stormblood where often one of the two was over turned in an effort to make the other balanced in its role.

And, it doesn't see in the design philosophy of the team at this point, even if they hadn't said absolutely never again for branching jobs, for them to give us a job that starts at level cap. (or only 10 levels under if it launches with an expansion) Every time they've added a new job it starts at least 20 levels below the current level cap, and even more when you look at ninja and the jobs added for Heavensward.