How-To Guide: Scholar

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Rhodes Scholarship[]

Scholar is unique in being able to provide competent magical offense or healing the party as needed, though not both at the exact same time. One would assume Scholar to be a clone of Red Mage, but this simply isn't true. Scholar is more like a mage that can transform between White Mage and Black Mage almost completely at will. In fact, that's exactly what the job is. As both a main job and a support job, Scholar fulfills any role very well. Let's say for the sake of example, your puller accidentally linked a pair of crawlers, and you're the only mage your party has. In an instant, you boost your enfeebling magic and all black magic proficiencies and open up with a Sleep spell. You fire off some quick enfeebles like Bio and Poison on the party's main target, but then you notice the puller sustained a large amount of damage. You switch to Light Arts and throw a few quick Cures on him, then Regen II on the tank. Cure him a few times and then start resting. Then, oh no! Just before it died, the crawler just used cocoon, but no one can dispel it. You switch back to Dark Arts and fire off a beautiful set of nukes to close the fight. And because during all this, you've been conserving 10% MP per spell, you have enough to take on the next monster with no problem. But wait, the crawler got a quick double-hit on the damage-dealer, then used poison breath and knocked him unconscious. You have enough MP to Raise, but do you have enough for the end of the fight? You're the only mage, are you sure you have enough time? Of course you do, you have Stratagems. Light Arts, Penury, Celerity, Raise! The damage-dealer stands up just in time for you to switch back to Dark Arts and finish it with a powerful spell. And hey, all that was without using your two exclusive spell-lines. One of which changes the weather around its target to whatever you'd like, opening latent effects on its target's items and making its target's weapon skills and spells more powerful. And the "Helix" spells, which are sometimes referred to as the Ancient Magic of enfeebling, deal large amounts of damage over time. Scholar is a fun job that takes wit and strategy to use properly.
Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.

Job-Race Combinations[]

Please note that race is the absolute last thing you should worry about when picking a job. Anything said here is seriously exaggerated. A single piece of gear can often make up for a race's negligible lack in a stat. Every race also gets "Race Specific Equipment", or "RSE", that will boost a race's stats to equal, or possibly even surpass other races.

Hume[]

The all-round human-based race works well with this job. Since Scholar works with both schools of magic, high mind and intelligence are both useful, and Hume doesn't disappoint. Hume also has a good pool of MP with which to use both magics. Moderate vitality, agility, and HP make for a good survivability, which is handy, especially if you're the main healer in a party.

Elvaan[]

Elvaan have the highest mind stat in the game, meaning better Cures and more potent White Magic enfeebles. White magic enfeebles can be used efficiently by a Scholar, and with either Arts active, can actually have higher skill than both White and Black Mages. Merits and gear can improve this skill even further. Another great thing about Elvaan Scholars is their brilliant HP and vitality for survivability. With Sublimation, high HP also means more MP restored, allowing for Elvaan to have great longevity. Of course, everything has a downside, and for Elvaan, that's MP and intelligence.

Tarutaru[]

Tarutarus have the highest intelligence and MP in the game, making them excellent Scholars. They make superb nukers and can safely be used as the only mage in a party due to said high MP. Their only downsides being survivability and low mind.

Mithra[]

Mithra are a lot like Humes in terms of stats. They get moderate of MP and intelligence, so Mithra can work well in the school of dark magic. Their mind, vitality, charisma, and strength are penalized in exchange for their heavy bonuses to dexterity and agility, but with a few pieces of gear the mind difference can be overlooked. Their survivability relies on dodging and parrying attacks more than taking hits, which can be complemented with Stoneskin and Blink if you sub Red Mage or White Mage, allowing those to absorb damage you can't dodge.

Galka[]

Galka have nicely rounded mind and intelligence, which offsets their low MP. However, low MP isn't a very big deal because of all the gear they can equip, and both Arts will lower MP consumption. Galka also have insane amounts of HP, allowing for Astral Rings to be used without lowering survivability too much, and also making Sublimation super-effective. And with all that vitality, Galka can out-last anyone else in terms of direct damage.

Equipment Choices[]

Weapon[]

Scholars have very low skill in the only two weapons they can use. A "C+" in both Club and Staff? Why, that's hardly honor roll material! (Good thing they make up for it by having good grades in all magic skills.) The sad reality is, Scholars can't play the role of front-line fighter or soloer very well. Through your first 10 levels, you'll have a hard time soloing. But just to make it nicer, it's really a good idea to pick up a Maple Wand +1 for the high damage over time and the beautiful bonus to mind and intelligence. A Pole +1 is great for the second half of your solo levels. At Lv.10, you really should try to have a Pilgrim's Wand for resting, and a Willow Wand +1 for everything else. Using any other wand (preferably high-quality) until Lv.29 would be your best bet. Then, if possible, getting yourself a Staff and Grip until 75 is a good idea. If you can, buying a Lizard Strap +1 is amazing, as it adds +10 MP to however much MP your Staff already gives. At Lv.51, having the Elemental Staves is a must. If anything, Light and Dark Staves at the very least. If possible, though, having the others is good too. The element ones actually have a hidden effect that boost your spells and magic accuracy for their respective magics. You'll end-up using these until 75. If you have the money, the higher-quality element ones are even better. The most useful element one is the Ice Staff, so pick that up first, as it boost intelligence and Elemental Magic Skill on top of the boost to ice spells.

Armor[]

Scholars get a very similar armor set to that of Black Mage, in that they can’t wear any harness, leather, heavy plate, scale armor, or even doublet armor. However, they can wear a broad variety of robes and cloaks. Hairpins generally work well for all mage-type jobs. Though it means you can't wear a Tunic/Cloak, it's better to have MP than defense anyway. Having MP is a Scholar's top priority, followed closely by intelligence. Mind is useful for certain enfeebles and at lower levels for curing. Having enmity-down equipment helps too. If none of that can be found, getting evasion, agility, vitality, and other defensive equipment is good.

Walkthrough[]

Advanced Job Quest[]

A Little Knowledge

The overall quest is simple, though costs some Gil. Start with the Erlene in Eldieme Necropolis (S) (J-8), for a cut-scene. Afterwards, purchase twelve 12-stacks of Rolanberries from the Upper Jeuno "M&P's Market" sales representative at 200 gil each, or alternatively you can buy them from the Duty Free Shop in Port Jeuno for 120 gil each. Take those one hundred and forty-four fruits to a man named Tucker in Crawlers' Nest (S), position K-8. Trade him four stacks at a time for Vellum (check the Auction House for Vellum's price; it may be cheaper than Rolanberries). Note that you can only make three trades in total, so if you do decide to trade all twelve stacks, trade him exactly four stacks at a time. Take your resulting one stack of Vellum back to Erlene, and get another cut-scene. Finally, use either Manafont, Chainspell, Azure Lore, or Astral Flow and talk to her one last time while the ability's effect is still active.

Soloing 1-10[]

Picking up a pole or club, cheap attack food, and some defensive gear would make soloing a lot easier. Since Scholar does not get either Grimoire until Lv.10, the leveling up process is basically whacking one monster after the next. A support job like White Mage can provide Cure until Lv.5 when Scholar gets it natively. Some have also chosen Bard for Knight's Minne(1SCH) and Valor Minuet 1(6SCH) or damage-dealing jobs such as Warrior for increased damage and survivability. The choice is up to you. Fighting more weaker monsters is a better idea for you as a mage. Decent challenges can be difficult using a club or staff. Dagger will be just as ineffective so pace yourself by taking out Easy Prey as fast as you can. As another option, subbing Blue Mage works very well for these early levels. The Blue Magic gives good stat boosts, plus good damage and healing spells. If played right, it can cover both other possibilities in support jobs. Just remember that once you get your Grimoires at level 10, they won't affect Blue Magic, so other subs are better to turn to. Make it a habit to grab Signet before you go outside. Not only will it make soloing a lot easier through defense and evasion bonuses, but it will also allow you to rest HP and MP without losing TP, and will also earn you conquest points with which to spend on items.

Valkurm 10-20[]

You get a choice of Light Arts or Dark Arts and immediately get three Stratagems. Stratagems are abilities you get access to upon using either the White or Black Grimoire. Stratagems do not have recast times. However, they have charges that can be used at any time. To get a full slew of Stratagem charges, it always takes 4 minutes, whether you have only 1 charge (which you will by these levels) or 4 charges later on. The Stratagems Penury and Parsimony lets you cast one White or Black Magic spell respectively (depending on which Grimoire you use) with half MP cost. At Lv.10, Scholar also gets Addendum:White, allowing them to cast Poisona at 10, Paralyna at 12, and Blindna at 17. The downside to this though is that you cannot switch to Dark Arts without removing Addendum. Oddly enough, Regen is learned at Lv.18, and along with Regen II at 37, is the only case of Scholar learning a spell faster than one of the two polar mages.

Mid-Levels 20-40[]

Thankfully, Scholar is one of the few jobs that can learn both Sneak and Invisible, at levels 20 and 25 respectively, similar to White Mage and Red Mage. At these levels, both White Mage and Red Mage make good support jobs. With White Mage subbed, you can get useful spells like Protectra and Curaga and it will buff your mind and MP. Black Mage subbed will not help as much, but the Elemental area effect Black Magic coupled with Dark Arts can be devastating, as well as the Magic Attack Bonus trait (BLM 10). You can never go wrong with the spell Warp, either. Lv.25 grants Scholar the amazing Conserve MP trait, allowing it to save a random amount of MP occasionally on spells. Lv.30 grants Scholar a fourth Stratagem, its Addendum:Black, granting both Sleep and Dispel to the Scholar at levels 30 and 32 respectively. Finally, a Scholar gets not only Raise, but its primo job ability at Lv.35: Sublimation. Sublimation will slowly drain the Scholar's HP and transform it into a side-pool of MP. Once Sublimation is activated a second time, the side-pool of MP is transferred straight to the Scholar, providing an instant boost of MP. During this phase, Scholar can become a very good healer with easily a higher MP efficiency on Cures than the average White Mage. Light Arts both raises skills and reduces the MP cost of Cure II and Cure III, making them very efficient to cast. Though White Mage has higher base skill for Healing Magic and the like, it doesn't do a lot for Cure potency. Mind will do more than enough for a Scholar healer. Scholar can also be a very catastrophic damage-dealer with its black magic, even at these levels too.

Your AF Weapon[]

...is actually a spell, not a weapon. The spell is called Klimaform (as in, forming the climate), and it's a Lv.46 spell exclusive to Scholar. This spell can be used to target yourself to enhance your magic accuracy depending on the weather around you. For example, if you want to cast Paralyze, this spell will help you land it if there is a blizzard, or if you use Hailstorm. This spell cannot target other party members naturally, but can be used in combination with Manifestation. Which is odd, because it's the only buff that Manifestation works with like that.
Once you hit Lv.40 as Scholar, go talk to Erlene in the Eldieme Necropolis (S). She will give you a key item. Go to Bastok Markets (S) and talk to Gentle Tiger at H-6 for a cutscene. Now travel to Pashhow (S) E-11 and click on the Indescript Markings. You will get another cutscene and another key item. Actually, you can go to other places to find these markings. One is in the same zone in J-10, and the other is in Vunkerl Inlet in D-11. No matter where you went, as long as you acquired the key item, head back to Eldieme and talk to Erlene again to get your spell. Too bad you can't use it for another 6 levels.

Mid-High Levels 40-60[]

This is where your AF comes into play, and acts as a major boon to Scholar. This is also the point in time where you have to do the infamous limit break quests assuming you haven’t done them already. At Lv.41 is where Scholar begins learning brand-new spells that only Scholars can learn. Between levels 41 and 55, you learn single-target spells that change the weather around that target to a specific element. Weather gives a boost to any weapon skill or spell that has the associated element, such as casting Blizzard in a snow storm. These spells aren’t supremely effective until you learn your next set of Scholar-only spells starting at Lv.61.

Your Artifact Armor[]

It's a great set of equipment that works very well with the job that uses it. Beginning with the Lv.52 AF hands, you get some nice enmity down and spell interruption rate down by a whopping 20%. You also get 15 MP and 3 mind. These bracers should last you for a very long time. Next are your AF boots for Lv.54. The Scholar's Loafers will also reduce your enmity by 2 and increase your MP by 15, but these will enhance your Light or Dark Arts' abilities to lower spell casting time even more. Lv.56 are your pants. They, again, lower your enmity and increase your MP, and will also enhance Light Arts. Lv.58 is when you get your AF body piece, which increases MP, intelligence, mind, and Dark Arts. Great for those parties where you wind-up nuking a lot. Finally, your Lv.60 Scholar's Mortarboard provides a ton of intelligence, some MP, and enhances your new job ability Sublimation by a fair bit (increases from 2hp/tick to 3hp/tick, so it stores faster).

High Levels 60-75[]

As mentioned in the Mid-High Levels paragraph, you start learning a second set of Scholar-only spells at Lv.61. These are the “Helix” spells that deal elemental damage that is greatly affected by the weather and also gradually lowers their HP (like Poison). The last one you learn is at Lv.75 which is the light-elemental one. You end-up learning the fourth tier Protects and Shells, Cure IV, and the third tier elemental spells (up to the fourth with Addendum: Black). When the Helix spells come into play, Scholar will probably become more on the damage-dealing side of the spectrum, but with Cure IV will most likely still be used in parties for healing magic as well. Though, the people who play this job are few and far between and not much is known about it at this point, therefore making judgment calls this far in advance nearly impossible.

End-Game[]

Scholars are decent at merit parties, though they lack refresh they more than make up for it with Sublimination and they are able to use Phalanx-ga and Stoneskin-ga subbing RDM.
Dynamis: Here is where Scholar will really shine. Scholars have great elemental magic skill, the ability to Sleepga II, and can utilize high tier nukes allowing them to easily fit right in with the Black Mages. Scholars can also use weather effects in tangent with Klimaform on the entire Black Mage party enhancing their magics along with yours. Not surprisingly, Scholar makes an incredible healer. The ability to cast the Cure, Protect and Shell line of spells on entire parties, effectively letting them main heal alliances all on their own, makes Scholar a new invaluable tool for efficient healing. In Dynamis, White Mages are better reserved for tank parties due to their massive potency and merit spells/abilities while leaving Scholar to take care of all the Damage Dealers.
(Please enter information regrading Limbus.)

Possible Subjobs[]

White Mage[]

This grants the user a little extra MP and Mind. Overall, it makes the Scholar more effective for playing as a healer. The support job supplies Scholar with spells it can’t learn on its own, such as Bar- spells, Protectra, and Curaga. It also gives access to Auto Regen and Magic Defense Bonus and the Divine Seal job ability.

Black Mage[]

Gives the Scholar a boost to MP and Intelligence, and Magic Attack Bonus, which makes Scholar more formidable on the Dark Arts side. Black Mage as support job gives access to AoE elemental spells, and damage over time spells such as Bio and Rasp. Also, it gives Elemental Seal for enhancing magic accuracy, and the job traits, quite useful. As an added bonus, Warp and Escape can save travel time and cost, as well as help out in sticky situations.

Red Mage[]

Gives a small bonus to MP, mind, and intelligence, and grants job traits Fast Cast, Magic Attack Bonus, and Magic Defense Bonus. Also gives access to spells like Gravity, Dia, and Bio that Scholars can’t learn on their own. Fast Cast speeds up casting and recasting time, which somewhat cushions the increase of casting time from using opposite spells to the Grimoire in use. At higher level, a SCH/RDM has intriguing possibilities with placing Phalanx, Blink, Stoneskin, Aquaveil, or en- spells on front line party members while still retaining the majority of the Magic Attack Bonus trait’s power to help with nuking, with higher base skill (while on Dark Arts) than a Red Mage (who isn't subbing SCH and using Dark Arts). This will probably be your main sub for a lot of the game, since you’ll be playing as a main healer primarily and gets every spell naturally that subbing White Mage would provide anyway (with exception of Curaga, but Accession+Cure does the same thing). As such, you’ll spend the majority of your time in Light Arts so you don’t have to continuously use Addendum: White to give yourself those abilities.

Summoner[]

Decent boost to INT, MND, and MP; by Lv.50, the job trait Auto Refresh lets a Scholar cast spells more freely. You will also receive a small number of useful Blood Pacts which give enhancements that wouldn't be available otherwise. However, the loss of spells is larger than the gain, so the only real reason would be to have a larger MP pool. Most of what /SMN provides is provided by /RDM for significantly smaller MP costs.

Blue Mage[]

Blue Mage can set certain spells to buff stats and give the Scholar a wider variety of spells. This support job is mainly significant because of its unique spells that none of the other mage jobs can have on their own. However, offensive spells wouldn’t be very effective, since Scholar doesn’t get Blue Magic Skill on its own. Please keep in mind, though, that neither Light Arts or Dark Arts will work for Blue Magic. Wild Carrot is extremely effective and it may be more MP efficient than Cure III with Light Arts as well, since Blue Mage’s healing abilities are largely affected by healing magic skill. Also remember that Scholar's ability Sublimation makes it impossible to rest since it lowers HP over time. Blue Mage's Metallic Body spell can actually mitigate this and allow you to rest while using Sublimation. This is greatly important since not even subbing White Mage can give a Stoneskin effect until Lv.56.

Scholar as a Support Job[]

Scholar is the new "ultimate" support job for mages. This includes White Mage and even Red Mage, Blue Mage, and Summoner in the right circumstances. The 10% cut to MP cost, casting time, and recasting time is really amazing. It's also great because of the useful spells it gives as a support job. And also the fact that it enhances all skills not already at "B" or higher to the "B" level, allowing even a White Mage to deal damage with the Elemental Nuking spells. Scholar provides the amazing Clear Mind and Conserve MP traits, not to mention a really early "Resist Silence" trait. At Lv.70, Scholar's "Sublimation" ability becomes readily useable by the main job, allowing even someone like a White Mage to get MP easily without the need of a Red Mage. For black mage it is usually not practical due to the lose of stoneskin and blink, however for fights where there is an extremely low chance of ever being hit such as many stationary HNM fights, /sch blows away other subs due to its mp cost reduction, recast reduction for drain/aspir, and parsimony for AM2 spells. Blue Mage benefits from this sub a lot because of the MP regeneration factor in both Sublimation and “B+” Aspir. Not to mention Regen II, a free Conserve MP trait, and a large amount of spells that White Mage is typically subbed for.

As of the December 2010 update, SCH now has access to Blink at level 29 and Stoneskin at level 44 without required RDM or WHM to be used as a support job.

Overview of Job Traits, Job Abilities, and Spells[]

Your Two-Hour Ability[]

Your two-hour ability is unbelievably useful. It both optimizes both of your White and Black Magic and allows use of all Stratagems, meaning it’s like having both Light and Dark Arts activated simultaneously. Not only that, but it also allows all Stratagem use completely charge-free for the whole minute it’s active. This brilliant job ability is called “Tabula Rasa”, which is Latin for “Clean Slate”. Free use of Stratagems means you can cast all spells with half MP, half casting time, turn them into area effect, and simultaneously enhance their potency, while also having enhancements simply from higher skills and far less resists. The fitting, well-rounded two-hour ability for an all-round magical job.

Job Abilities[]

Light Arts/Dark Arts are both acquired at Lv.10. They can last forever and have a one-minute recast time, which prevents too frequent of a switch between the two. They are job abilities that open up other job abilities simply by having them active. With Light Arts active, Enhancing, Healing, Enfeebling, and Divine magic skills are enhanced, as well as a helpful MP-consumption reduction of 10%, casting time and recasting time reduction for all White Magics by 10%. However, with Light Arts active, it will reduce the power of Black Magic, as well as heighten MP costs by 20% and casting/recasting times for the same line of spells by 20%. The opposite is true for Dark Arts, which increases Enfeebling, Elemental, and Dark magic skills and has a mirror effect with the MP and cast/recast time factor in Light Arts.

Similarly, Light Arts and Dark Arts open up other job abilities, as I mentioned. These other job abilities include the Stratagems that are specific to each Art. These Stratagems each consume one ‘charge’. At Lv.10, only one charge can be stored at a time. By Lv.30, two charges, Lv.50, three, and Lv.70, four. At all four intervals, it will always take exactly 4 minutes to re-charge all charges. this means that at Lv.10, it will take 4 minutes per charge, Lv.30, 2 minutes, Lv.50, 1 minute 20 seconds, and Lv.70, 1 minute.

Penury/Parsimony are the Lv.10 Stratagems for Light and Dark Arts respectively. Each one consumes one charge, which takes an additional 1-4 minutes to get back. What they do is reduce the MP cost by 50% of the next spell you cast. If Cure II is cast, it will only consume 12 MP with Penury active. If Fire is cast with Parsimony active, it will also only consume 12 MP. Though not very prominent in early levels, by metagame, this will become much more useful with spells costing over 100 MP.

Addendum: White is a Light Arts-exclusive Stratagem also earned at Lv.10. For a duration of two hours (or until you die or switch to Dark Arts), Addendum: White will actually add additional spells to your repertoire. These spells include Poisona(10), Paralyna(12), Blindna(17), Silena(22), Cursna(32), Erase(39), Reraise(40), Viruna(46), Stona(50), Raise II(70), and Reraise II(75). The downside to this ability is it encourages the Scholar to stay in Light Arts at all times, because switching to Dark Arts suddenly requires the use of a whole new Stratagem charge to get these spells back. It forces the Scholar from playing like a Scholar into playing like a White Mage.

Celerity/Alacrity are the Lv.25 Stratagems for Light and Dark Arts respectively. Like their Lv.10 cousins, they consume one charge each. They reduce the casting time and recast of any spell in their respective Art by 50%. Again, a very situational ability, and most useful for such spells as Raise and Escape, reducing their casting time from fifteen seconds to only seven and a half. Combined with Penury/Parsimony, consuming far less MP after level 30 when you have two charges available. Best used after a full party wipe or something, speeding up the revival of all of your party members, especially if you are weakened yourself which doubles recast time by default.

Addendum: Black is the Dark Arts equivalent of the other Addendum, acquired at Lv.30. Like Addendum:White, this one will last either two hours or until Dark Arts expires and will open additional spells otherwise not available to Scholar. These spells include Sleep(30), Dispel(32), Sleep II(65), Stone IV(70), Water IV(71), Aero IV(72), Fire IV(73), Blizzard IV(74), and Thunder IV(75).

Accession/Manifestation are the Lv.40 Stratagems for Light and Dark Arts respectively. Both of these Stratagems make your next spell cost 2x MP and take twice as long to cast. However, this is where your Stratagems become very useful and combo nicely. Accession transforms your next White Magic (healing or enhancing) into an area of effect, meaning Shell or Protect will instantly become much more potent on the party while saving a lot of MP. It can also be usefully used with Regen or Regen II, or even higher-tier Cures for a “Curaga” effect. Since it does not mean specifically Scholar-only spells, it also means Stoneskin and Blink will also be affected. If your party needs to sneak past a horde of Goblins, using it before Invisible will save everyone time. Manifestation is similar. It transforms your next enfeebling or dark Black Magic spell into an area effect spell. Drain and Aspir can both be very effectively used with this when in easier areas, and Sleep in case of links. However, this is best used with White Magic. The effect of Accession works on people outside of the party as well, meaning a Scholar can cast an area-effect Cure or ailment-removing spell on them.

Rapture/Ebullience are your final Stratagems for Light and Dark Arts respectively, and acquired at Lv.55. They simply enhance the potency of your next spell, depending on which Art is used. Rapture will increase your next White Magic spell by 50%, and Ebullience will increase your next Black Magic spell by 20%. Both of which are incredibly useful and can dole-out some amazing feats. Rapture appears to only work with Cures, Dia, and Banish, increasing the potency of Cure to 250% with Divine Seal, and increasing the defense-down of Dia and the damage of Banish. Ebullience, on the other hand, increases your Drains, Aspirs, Bios, "Helix" spells, and elemental "nukes", allowing you to deal extra damage with any of them. Your best bet when using this Stratagem is to use it with Cure with Rapture. As for Ebullience, it's best to save it for Drain or Aspir, when your HP or MP are running low. Using it in conjunction with "Helix" spells never hurt either.

Sublimation is one of the single-handedly most useful job abilities in the entire game for any mage, and at Lv.35, it makes Scholar a great support job for other mages too. What Sublimation does is subtracts 2 HP per tic off of the Scholar, up to 25% of the Scholar's max HP. This HP is actually put aside and is converted into MP. At any time, completed or still charging, Sublimation can be re-activated to provide the Scholar with an instant boost to MP. The best part about this job ability is that it can be used every 30 seconds after the ability is re-activated, meaning you can have an almost infinite supply of MP. Please note, however, that while this ability is charging, you cannot rest without the use of the spell Stoneskin. Also note that whether it's charging or fully charged, the Refresh effect from either food or the Red Mage spell will not take effect. This simply means that partying with a Bard or Corsair is definitely your best bet.

Modus Veritas is Latin for “measure of truth”, and is gained at Lv.65. It works with your exclusive Helix spells to actually double the effect of the previously-cast Helix while halving its remaining duration. Helix spells with at least one weather effect can deal upwards of 80-100 damage per tic, meaning this ability can increase it to about 160-200 HP damage every six seconds for the remaining duration. However, this ability rests on a ten minute cooldown timer, so it's a good idea to keep it for the proper instances. For example, wanting to finish off a monster quickly if things aren't going the right way. This effect can stack. For example, if one Scholar casts a Helix, multiple Scholars can use this ability to increase its effect further. It can actually be merited later on to decrease the duration reduction of the ability, significantly increasing Helix power.

Job Traits[]

Resist Silence- a very useful job trait for any Mage. Even if it doesn’t completely resist the silence effect, it should at least have an effect on its duration, allowing you to pick up the pace on other mages where they can’t continue to cast spells. The chance to resist is quite low, but it’s better than nothing, and available at the early level of 10.
Clear Mind is another very useful job trait for any Mage. It enhances the MP recovered while resting. Scholar will eventually get up to the third of five tiers of Clear Mind by Lv.50, meaning it will save a fair bit of downtime, especially if MP is used efficiently in the first place.
Conserve MP is one of the most useful passive abilities for any mage to have. It has a one-in-four chance of activating, and can reduce a spell's MP cost by between 6% and 50%. Unfortunately, it won't activate until the spell is cast, so you can never cast a spell that you normally wouldn't have enough MP to cast. But picture this- you're casting Raise II, which normally costs 150 MP. Oh, but what's this? It only consumed 75 of your MP!
Max MP Boost grants the player a slight boost to MP. Though an additional 10 MP may not seem like a lot by Lv.30, it can be enough to help in dire situations. It’s not a heavily useful trait, but it is a nice convenience.

Spells[]

Elemental Damage Spells are Black Mage’s bread and butter. They rely almost solely on this set of spells, as they are what deal damage and work best with magic bursts. This can be your main deal too if you want. Using Dark Arts will boost your Elemental Magic Skill to a high level, lower MP consumption, and casting time for all of them. You learn your elemental damage spells in the order of Stone, Water, Aero, Fire, Blizzard, and finally Thunder, and they will increase in tiers up to III for Scholar (a fourth tier is available while under the effect of Addendum:Black). Though each one is more powerful than the last, it’s not a good idea to simply rely on the most powerful one all the time. Monsters can resist spells that they aren’t ‘weak’ against, and this is a very commonly-occurring effect that can halve your damage and make the larger MP cost of a stronger spell less meaningful. It’s best to simply cast your highest tier spell that’s the strongest against a monster. Of course, if your highest Elemental spell is Thunder already, you shouldn’t cast Stone on it. Not that it’s a bad thing, but it’s about as effective as casting Cure I on a party member with half HP at that level. Keep your enemy’s weakness in consideration. Most monsters tend to be weak against ice-element in low to mid-level parties. Also, one last note about your elemental ‘nukes’ is to keep the hate threshold in consideration. Please keep in mind that Scholar is a mage, and mages have low defensive stats, but can take hate very easily with too much casting. Don’t spam Blizzard, Thunder, Blizzard, Thunder, etc on monsters. Using Blizzard, waiting for recast, Blizzard, waiting, etc, is a much more efficient use of MP and keeps hate at a minimum. Spamming spells will heighten the chances of a monster resisting your spells. The stat Intelligence (INT) affects this set of spells.
Cures are White Mage’s (and any main healer’s) biggest reason for being. Starting at Lv.5, Scholar will learn the first of four tiers of Cure (there are five, but Scholar only gets four). Expending MP will release a large multiplication of itself into an HP boost to your party to sum-up what cures do. Cure I has a ‘soft cap’ of 30 (meaning it will grow in potency up to 30, and then take a lot of healing magic skill and mind stat to boost it further), and costs 8 MP. Cure I and II have a 4-15 MP-HP ratio, Cure III has a 4-16 MP-HP ratio, and Cure IV has a 4-17.3 ratio. All four are useful all throughout the game for all jobs, and that includes Scholar. Use lower-tier cures to finish off a person’s HP if they take a minor hit, and higher-tier ones for really helping a party member. Although Scholar doesn’t get it on its own, subbing White Mage or using Accession will give you an area effect cure. Curaga is a White Mage exclusive line of spells that gives the party an HP recovery of one tier higher than what it says (Curaga II = Cure III in an area effect).
Protect and Shell are spells that no mage can go wrong with having. They plain and simply add defense and magical defense respectively. Scholar, like White Mage and Red Mage, gets all four tiers of both spells. However, like Red Mage, it doesn’t get the area-effect version (unless Accession is used). Since both spells are relatively low on MP consumption and last half an hour each, it’s best to cast them both and have them active on all damage-taking party members at all times (if Protectra isn’t available). If subbing White Mage, use the highest tier Protectra and Shellra on the party, and just your single-target, higher-tier Protect and Shell on the tank or other damage-taking party members.
Ailment-Removal Spells such as Poisona and Blindna are available only with the use of the Light Arts Stratagem, Addendum:White. These spells greatly assist the Scholar in main healing, providing support job-free available spells for de-debuffing party members should the need arise.
Deodorize, Sneak, and Invisible are all spells that can save a lot of time, money, and characters’ lives. Deodorize is much less-used. All it does is makes you untraceable by scent, which only really has an effect when you’re running from a monster or using Hide. Sneak will make you completely undetectable by sound, which a lot of monsters will hunt by. Sound-aggro is in 360 degrees, but shorter range than sight-aggro. Invisible will prevent any sight-aggro monsters from seeing you. Sight-aggro is a cone range in front of a monster, but is longer range than sound-aggro. Casting any spell will remove Invisible, so casting Sneak before Invisible is a must. Also, please note that when re-casting Sneak, remember to turn it off before casting, because it will not have an effect if you do not.
Regen is another very useful line of spells. It has a very, very high HP-MP ratio, and lasts a long time, making it so you do not have to cast Cure as often, or at all in some cases. It has a 4-33 ratio, which is over twice the potency of the first two Cures. What it does if you have never played any other Final Fantasy before, is gives the user a constant stream of HP every turn, or in our case, every tic (three seconds). Casting this on your main tank will alleviate a lot of cures. Though, keep in mind, it won’t last forever. You will learn two of the three tiers of Regen. Both of which are learned earlier than White Mage and Red Mage, and is the only case of learning spells faster than any other mage.
Drain and Aspir are very self-beneficial spells. Drain can end-up having a very high potency, and for 21 MP, can possibly have a higher MP-HP ratio than Regen. However, it only works for you, and it only gives a lot of HP return if it’s unresisted. It will suck an enemy’s HP and use it for your own. Having Dark Arts and high Dark Magic skill will really help, as will Intelligence stat. Aspir works similarly, except it drains MP instead of HP. This only works if the monster has MP, like a mage monster or a crab, or another player, etc. It consumes 10 MP to use, but will most often return more than it costs. If you power level as a Scholar, you may want to consider training a large group of enemies with MP, using Manifestation and then casting Aspir on them all to replenish your MP quickly. Neither of these spells works on undead monsters at all, so don’t even bother trying.
Sleep is the only true enfeebling spell Scholar gets on its own without counting support job enfeebles. Unfortunately, Sleep is only available through the use of Addendum:Black, a Dark Arts-specific Stratagem. Sleep comes in two tiers, one at Lv.30, and the other at Lv.65. Fortunately, Sleep can be turned area-effect, reducing the dependence of Sleepga spells.
Dispel is another spell exclusive to Addendum:Black, and otherwise solely for Red Mages. This spell greatly assists in your role of a support party member, totally negating the effect of one of the target's self-buffs. At Lv.32, Dispel comes in plenty of time for Crawlers' Nest and its monsters’ Defense Bonus hell. When you see a Crawler use Cocoon, cast Dispel on it. When you see a Beetle use Beetle Guard, cast Dispel on it. So on and so forth.
Raise is learned later than White Mage’s, but earlier than Red Mage’s. There are three tiers to the spell, Scholar can use the up to the second tier (only with Addendum:White can Scholar use Raise II). If a player is unconscious as a result of falling in battle, Raise will wake them up and restore a small amount of HP, as well as 50% of their lost experience points (which are lost as a result of being knocked out). With Penury and Celerity, it can Raise for 0.5x MP and normal casting time as well.
Reraise is a spell exclusive to Addendum:White. It's amazingly useful in that it will automatically Raise you if you are KO’d, making it far more effective than always home pointing. The huge benefit is that it lasts a full hour, allowing you to cast it at the start of a party, especially with a Stratagem like Penury to reduce the MP cost.
Weather-Changing “Storm” Spells start at Lv.41, and are Scholar’s first of two sets of exclusive spells. Up until Lv.55, you will learn spells that can target any party member and change the weather around him or her. This can be quite significant for a White Mage or Black Mage in the party, or yourself. Even casting it on a melee party member can help resist spells or deal more damage. For White Mage, Aurorastorm will place light-elemental weather around him or her, thus giving a high chance of occasionally increasing the potency of Cure +10%. Voidstorm can enhance dark spells of yourself or a party’s Black Mage or Dark Knight to enhance the potency of Drain and Aspir cast on monsters. The other six elements mainly affect Black Magic, in that it gives a boost to damage of 10%. Storm spells are considered White Magic, so Light Arts will affect them the most. They fall under Enhancing Magic. ~~Rainstorm does act as rain elemental weather, in that it gives a constant Deodorize effect.~~(Has been disproved)
Klimaform This Lv.46 spell is exclusive to Scholar, and is actually its AF "weapon". It's a spell that can be used to target yourself to enhance the magic accuracy of spells that share the element with whatever weather effect is surrounding you. For example, if you want to cast Paralyze, this spell will help it land assuming there is a blizzard or you cast Hailstorm on yourself prior to using this. This spell cannot target other party members naturally, but can be used in combination with the ability "Manifestation".
Helix Spells start at Lv.61 and go up to Lv.75 as Scholar's second set of entirely exclusive spells. These spells are super useful and are a great change to your average nuke. These all cost 87 MP, and will deal approximately 50 damage to the target. However, that 50 damage multiplies itself over time. Helix spells will actually deal as much damage every tic as they do when they first hit the target. Though oddly, these spells have a unique six-second tic instead of the usual three seconds. It lasts about one minute, so that's a full ten tics of whatever damage it deals. Now there's another unique twist to these: they are enormously affected by the weather. With even one weather effect, the damage is increased to between 80-100 damage per tic on the target. That's 800 to 1000 damage for only 87 MP. And since it's damage over time, you really only get enmity for the initial hit, making it even better. Modus Veritas, a Lv.65 ability that doubles the effect of any Helix spell already on the target, while halving its remaining duration. this means that you can still deal 1000 damage, but in half the time. This ability can be stacked by multiple Scholars to deal even more damage in an even shorter amount of time. Your "Storm" spells work with Helices as well, allowing you to always have the effect of at least one weather icon. Because of their effect, they are sometimes referred to as the “Ancient Magic of DoT’s”.