So, I'm an idiot

I head up to visit friends Brian and Camille for a couple of weeks, and lo and behold, what do I manage to do but forget the AC adapter for my fucking laptop. As my laptop is a monster (an Alienware Aurora m9700) that requires a beastly 19V 150W load of juice, Brian's iGo couldn't handle it, and I was stuck with no computer.

The good news is I have managed to get SCH all the way up to 48, not far all all from 50 and my sexy 3rd stratagem charge (more importantly, a new stratagem charge every 1:20). I ordered a new power cable and am again up and running.

I've been reading on some of the forums about some of the mage jobs bitching about ... well, pretty much just Scholar's existence. I think this is somewhat shortsighted and kind of pathetic, and this is coming from a BLM75. BLM's have had a monopoly on nuking jobs for the entirety of FFXI's history and I think there's just a little bit of bitterness that SCH is invading on "their turf."

Never mind that every melee damage dealer's job has invaded upon every other melee damage dealer's job since the start of the game, with the same sort of differences that exist between SCH and BLM, WHM, SMN, and RDM. DRKs specialize in spike damage with weapon skills, souleater, and have limited magic. SAMs crank out a high volume of WS's. WARs deliver steady damage with harsh WS's and have access to good gear. THFs deal spike damage, have ridiculous evasion, and manage hate better than any other job in the game. DRGs rely on a wyvern and have hate-reduction abilities, as well as surprising healing ability with a WHM sub. MNKs fill a similar role to WARs with a vastly different gear set and interesting abilities led by Chi Blast, and its specialized role as MNK/WHM in big long fights.

So, in the same sense that SCH invades the turf of BLMs in that they are capable of nuking, have access to Tier IV elemental magic, and have several bonuses that BLMs don't get, there should be no reason for BLMs to feel threatened.

The main complaint has been that a few BLMs calculated out that SCHs are more mp-efficient in their nuking, which quickly gets translated into "are better at nuking". This is true so long as the SCH is not being resisted. The problem with this theory is, however, several-fold:

1) It only really applies to mobs that don't have super-high magic resistance. BLM still gets access to much more +elemental magic gear and have a higher base skill. Thus they are less likely to get those critical 50% (or higher) resists on tough-to-nuke mobs like Kirin.

2) It assumes, really, that the SCH is using all his Stratagems on Parsimony 100% of the time. Having a 1/2 mp big nuke once per minute is indeed very powerful, but in practice, a SCH has to be in a specialized all-nuking-all-the-time role for that to be feasible. SCHs are often going to be asked to keep a weather effect up on the party, which means all their stratagem charges are being blown between Accession (the Light Arts AOE Stratagem, for the weather effect spells) and Addendum: Black, to give them access to the Tier IV nukes. In fact, if the SCH wants to cast any white magic spells at all, he must either eat a 10% mp cost for the spell, longer cast time, and low skill in the spell being cast, or swap to Light Arts and blow a charge coming back to Addendum: Black. Whereas a BLM can cast all their WHM spells (assuming WHM sub) without any penalty.

3) MP efficiency is not the be-all-end-all of nuking capability. BLMs are still the unrivaled kings of spike nuking damage, and in many fights, that is much more useful than whether or not you might run out of mp.

4) Access to -agas without having to blow a stratagem charge for them is very useful in a lot of situations: Dynamis being the key example. A SCH will never be seen as more useful than a BLM for Dynamis, though they might make wonderful healers due to their ability to target people even outside their party with cure spells and status removal spells with Accession.

So, much like the dynamic that exists between the various melee damage dealing jobs, I look forward to SCH taking a little chunk out of BLM's nuking monopoly. That being said, I think pretty surely that the early reports of the demise of the BLM have been sorely exaggerated.