Error or Game Feature?

[Xalioniaf]

On the surface, the Skill boosts look really great. B Skill is high enough to give pretty good results on any Spell that relies on skill. When you look a bit closer though, there really aren't many applications.

eg, BLMs get a large boost to Healing, Enfeebling, Enhancing and Divine Skills. Looking closer though, a BLM/SCH has no Divine spells at all, no Enhancing spells that use Skill except for Spikes, Enfeebling Spells such as Bind, Blind and Poison (black enfeebles are typically weaker than white), and a virtually useless Healing Skill which won't get used on anything bigger than Cure III. They will get a big boost on Sleep accuracy though, although certainly not of the order of ES. Very specific uses, and not a good all round sub.

RDM get boosts to Healing, Divine, Elemental and Dark Skills. RDM/SCH again has no Divine Spells, Healing Skill is still useless, Dark actually gives us the highest DoT with Bio III now surpassing a BLMs Bio II (by only 1HP/tic) and our Aspir gets better (but we lose Conserve MP which has to be a loss). Elemental Skill boost will help our nukes a lot, and we don't lose any nuking ability from any other sub to get it. The times anyone really relies on a lot of RDM nukes though is farily small (and we lose ES for single nukes). Elemental enfeebles also become a lot more viable. Again, it's situational, but it would only be useful as a sub in very specific situations, and wouldn't be all that widespread.

WHM gains boosts in Enhancing, Dark, Elemental, and Enfeebling. WHM/SCH's highest nuke at 75 is Water II so that won't help much. It's only Dark Spells are Drain and Aspir (and again you have to give up Conserve MP or Autorefresh), so that's not much use. Enhancing will actually help, as WHM already has the strongest Barspells in the game, and this will make them stronger. Enfeebling will also allow you to land the white enfeebles (most of the useful ones) which would be useful in small group and low level parties where a RDM isn't able to be fitted in or available. Again, WHM/SCH is situational, but the uses seem to be be more mainstream that for BLM/SCH or RDM/SCH.

Not a great sub, but will have it's uses, particularly on WHM.

Arts lower the cost of spells that are like the arts used (dark, black magic; light, white magic). I don't know specific numbers on Conserve MP, but I'd say it's debatable on the loss of it.

 

[Courtney]

Arts 10%, Conserve MP trait ~7-8% at 75.

Conserve MP is always on though. You lose responsiveness having to stop and use an Arts ability before a lot of your spells, particularly as a healer.

 

[Xalioniaf]

Arts 10%, Conserve MP trait ~7-8% at 75.

Conserve MP is always on though. You lose responsiveness having to stop and use an Arts ability before a lot of your spells, particularly as a healer.

Conserve MP procs 25% of the time.

 

[Courtney]

Conserve MP procs 25% of the time.

and saves 7-8% of your total MP and is on all the time.

 

[Rappa]

It's okay for whms since really most things whms do they only cast white magic spells. Not so great for blms or rdms. I'll level it for a sub at some point just because it and dancer are my only <37 jobs and I don't like that, but I'm not really enthusiastic about it.

 

[Ewok]

Is scholar broken, or is it supposed to do this?

Light Arts and Dark Arts boost Scholar's magic skill caps... but they also boost the skill caps of a main job when Scholar is subbed to it. This affects capped skills by changing the skill rank letter, it seems. Some skills go to an odd midpoint between B and B- rank.


RDM75/SCH10

Light Arts
Healing C- to B+
Divine +205 (cap unknown)
Enhancing no effect

Dark Arts
Elemental C+ to B+
Dark E to B/B-
Enfeebling no effect

BLM75/SCH10

Light Arts
Healing subbed D to B/B-
Divine subbed D to B/B-
Enhancing E to B/B-

Dark Arts
Elemental no effect
Dark no effect
Enfeebling C+ to B+

Is SE going to change this? If they do, dunno how great /sch is. If it's supposed to do this, it's an amazing power boost.

Actually, in an interview somewhere, SE did state that SCH was designed to be a very good mage sub, which would make more sense for this. Regardless of what some feel about this as a sub for BLM, I think I still may take it to 37.
I like that Parsimony and Alacrity both have only a 4 minute recast (essentially). Since BLM's tend to have to hold back in long battles, the MP reduction on Parsimony could be huge. Not to mention we sometimes are needed to step in and help heal, which this sub seems to do alot better then /WHM, though lacking the -na's. The boost to enfeebling magic seems pretty good as well, something to possibly help Sleepga II land in case ES is down.

 

[K. Ishitar]

dumb question

why does healing magic suck? I've noticed higher and more direct difference in using my warlock tights than just using a mnd slot in that place?

 

[Eilistrae]

and saves 7-8% of your total MP and is on all the time.

well depending on the situation, if you're a rdm performing main healing duties in a party, or if you're a rdm performing enfeebling duties with the occasional healing now and again... Having the arts on, saves MP cost about as much as conserve MP would... because the JA does not wear off unless you A) switch to a different art B) change jobs C) change zones. So you could really say that its on all the time too.

 

[Morari]

dumb question

why does healing magic suck? I've noticed higher and more direct difference in using my warlock tights than just using a mnd slot in that place?

Obviously, there's no formula needed for the status healing spells.

Secondly, a Cure spell will hit it's "soft cap" long before Healing Magic and MND have much of an effect. Healing and MND really only have a significant difference on Cure V.

If healing magic skill had as much of an effect on Cures as one would normally expect, then subbing /whm would have a huge effect on cures, but as any summoner would tell you, that doesn't happen.

 

[Sanjo Renomitsu]

well depending on the situation, if you're a rdm performing main healing duties in a party, or if you're a rdm performing enfeebling duties with the occasional healing now and again... Having the arts on, saves MP cost about as much as conserve MP would... because the JA does not wear off unless you A) switch to a different art B) change jobs C) change zones. So you could really say that its on all the time too.

Wouldn't arts save you more in both cases? If you're main healing, have light arts on means on all your healing spells you conserve mana compared to 25% of the time.

Its a bit more debatable in the second situation, but you'd have more control then hoping for the 25% with the conserve mp.