At level 30 you can transition to a Summoner or Scholar. While it’s possible to unlock both jobs, you should focus on one more so than the other because the attribute points you can distribute as you level up are the same across both jobs. If you want to be a Summoner, you should put all of your points into intelligence. If you want to be a Scholar, you should put all of your points into mind. Splitting the points will only make you a weaker version of both jobs, so it’s best to just pick one of the two jobs as your primary focus. Be sure to check out our Arcanist and Summoner articles for a detailed look at both.
Both jobs share a few abilities as you make your way to level 50. You’ll learn Bane at level 30, Eye for an Eye at 34, Ruin II at 38, Rouse at 42, Miasma II at 46, and Shadow Flare at 50. Bane is one of your most effective abilities. It allows you to use all of your DoTs on one enemy, then spread them to any enemies in the immediate area. For instance, you should start all fights with Bo II, Miasma and Bio. Once all three DoTs are applies to one enemy, use Bane to spread them to the surrounding enemies. Using this strategy, the DotS typically last until halfway into fighting the second enemy. When they run out, switch to the third enemy to reapply the DoTs. If the second enemy is still alive, use Bane again to spread the DoTs to that enemy as well.
Keep in mind, Bane can only be used when Aetherflow is active. However, at level 20 you gain the ability to have two stacks of Aetherflow instead of one, and at level 40 you can have up to three stacks. Once you have multiple stacks of Aetherflow, recast it only when all of your stacks have been used. If a fight ends and you still have one stack of Aetherflow, do not recast Aetherflow until you use the last stack. This allows for maximum Aetherflow effectiveness.
Eye for an Eye is an ability that can only be cast on another party member or pet, giving the target a 20 percent chance that an attacking enemy will inflict 10 percent less damage for 20 seconds. It’s generally used on the tank during a boss battle, but any time it’s available it should be used to make things a little easier on the tank.
Ruin II is very similar to the first Ruin, except it’s an instant cast, blinds an enemy, and uses more MP. If MP is not an issue, Ruin II should simply replace Ruin. However, if your MP is low, switch back to Ruin. Miasma II is basically an area of effect (AoE) version of Miasma. Unfortunately, the area of effect is the area surrounding the caster, which means you need to run into the center of the enemies, then use Miasma II. In general, you should do this after casting your other three DoT spells and Bane (Bane does not spread Miasma II because it’s already an AoE spell).
Rouse increases the potency of your pet by 40 percent for 20 seconds, in both healing output (for a Scholar) and damage output (for a Summoner). It also makes your pet immune to stun, sleep, bind, heavy, paralysis, and disease. It has a recast time of 90 seconds, but for a Summoner it should be used at boss fights, and whenever it’s available at the start of normal fights. For a Scholar it should be used primarily for boss battles or when the party is taking heavy damage.
Shadow Flare is yet another DoT spell, which has a five percent chance of causing Slow in addition to the damage over time. Once you have this spell, your rotation as a Summoner should change to: Shadow Flare > Bio II > Miasma > Bio > Bane > Miasma II > Ruin or Ruin II repeatedly until the enemy is defeated. This maximizes your DoT spells, but be careful because you’ll be inflicting considerable damage to every enemy. It’s not uncommon for tanks to only focus on one enemy, meaning you’ll take the hate from secondary enemies regularly. This is where Topaz Carbuncle (or Titan at this point) comes into play until the tank gets his act together.
As a Scholar, your primary job shifts from DPS to healer. However, you’re more of a battle mage than a Conjurer or White Mage. Your pet changes to one of two healing fairies, and most of the time you can still use DoTs and Ruin to damage an enemy while the fairy handles the healing. It’s only in more healing intense battles that you won’t be able to perform DPS duties.
The two fairies are Eos and Selene. Eos is primarily a healing fairy, while Selene heals and offers support magic. Both fairies use Embrace, which is their primary healing spell. However, Eos has Whispering Dawn, which is basically an AoE Regen spell, Fey Covenant, which increases magic defense for the party, and Fey Illumination, which increases cure potency. Selene has Silent Dawn, which silences a target, Fey Glow, which increases spell-casting speed, and Fey Light, which increases skill speed. The best Scholars set their fairies Obey or Steady, then manually cast their spells to ensure the right spells are used at the right time. Some will even use macros to cast Physick and Embrace at the same time for maximum healing potency.
At level 30 you learn Adloquium, at 35 you get Succor, at 40 you learn Leeches, at 45 you learn Sacred Soil, and at level 50 you acquire Lustrate. Adloquium has two purposes. It cures for a bit less than Physick, but it also gives the target a barrier equaling the amount of HP healed, with a critical heal doubling the damage nullification. Think of it like Stoneskin that only lasts for 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes. A tank should always have it before a fight begins (try casting it as soon as the previous fight ends), but if you need to heal a party member who has only been slightly damaged, Adloquium is generally a better choice than Physick.
Succor is essentially an AoE version of Adloquium, but it only has half the cure potency. Adloquium also overwrites Succor, but Succor will not overwrite Adloquium. This means that you can cast Adloquium on the tank, then use Succor on the entire party, and the tank will still have the more powerful protection of Adloquium. Both Adloquium and Succor work well in conjunction with Whispering Dawn from Eos.
Leeches is the Scholar version of Esuna. It removes most status ailments from the target. As with Esuna, more often than not this will be used to remove poison. However, there are a few other status ailments that pop up from time to time, especially paralyze. This should be an easily accessible spell as it needs to be used as soon as the status ailment hits a party member. Poison isn’t a huge issue unless it’s a boss battle or a strong poison, but paralyze should be removed as soon as possible as it can prevent actions and movement.
Lustrate is an extremely valuable tool, which is basically the Scholar equivalent to Cure II for a White Mage. It instantly restores 25 percent of the target’s maximum HP, but uses one stock of Aertherflow in the process. In most cases you should save your Aetherflow stocks to use Lustrate when needed, but if you have your fairy following commands instead of on autopilot, you can double you healing spells with a macro that combines Physick and Embrace. Even with the macro, it’s still important to have Lustrate available in a time of emergency.
The last Scholar spell is Sacred Soil. This uses a stack of Aetherflow and creates a barrier that reduces damage inflicted by 10 percent for any party member standing inside the barrier. Unfortunately, the barrier only lasts for 15 seconds, which doesn’t make it as useful as it could be. It’s best used at the beginning of a battle against multiple enemies. The tank should be the primary target, but if you can get the entire party inside the barrier, that’s even better.
