I recently attained my summoner job class and so far have been a little underwhelmed. I really had high hopes that Ifrit was gonna be a badass, and lay the smack down on some people. He seems fairly slow moving, and a majority of the time he cant hold any aggro. Thus resulting in me using carbuncles again. Its a bit disappointing.

So my question arrives at Scholar, which I am considering unlocking. I am not too fond of playing a healing role, but I do have a friend that plays a tank and I feel like we would get in dungeons instantly. However, aside from dungeons I don't always play with him.

So what kind of Damage is the Scholar capable of? How difficult are quests, especially the solo style story quests? I can handle playing healer when we roll through dungeons, but is the game going to gimp me outside of dungeons? I really don't want to be shoved into a situation where I am forced to party with people to complete any battle quests.