More rampant scholar speculation...

[Ouch!]

Another image was recently released, adding fuel to the fire that scholar will be a new job in the game.



Note the Elezen female in the mortarboard on the right. It could very well be arcanist, but there's a couple reasons it may not.

1. All of the other foreground characters are jobs, not classes.
2. All of the other foreground characters are wearing artifact armor.
3. The armor is very similar to scholar's artifact armor in FFXI.
4. Previous data-mining of the early beta client revealed a message for the announcement "Scholar unlocked!"
5. Previous artwork released for arcanist also features an Elezen female, but wearing different clothes.



Are we soon going to get a formal announcement of scholar as an official job? Or is Square Enix just trying to promote arcanist since it's new?

Frankly, I'm hoping the former.

[Del Murder]

Can that tiny spec in the corner be a Blue Mage?

EDIT: Nevermind that was part of my monitor.

[Loony BoB]

I never quite understood what makes a Scholar different from a Black Mage, White Mage or Red Mage. But then, I never really enjoyed being a mage at all.

[Aulayna]

How can you not enjoy being a White Mage. You look cute and your spells look pretty and make cool noises.

[mini ninja]

Gotta agree with Aulayna !

[Loony BoB]

How can you not enjoy being a White Mage. You look cute and your spells look pretty and make cool noises.

For some reason I can only ever enjoy a game if I can charge ahead with no thought for my character's health. Or life, for that matter.

[Aulayna]

How can you not enjoy being a White Mage. You look cute and your spells look pretty and make cool noises.

For some reason I can only ever enjoy a game if I can charge ahead with no thought for my character's health. Or life, for that matter.

Haha, yeah it's fun to do that once in a while!

I'm looking forward to being a Bard. Seems like an interesting mix of both.

[Roogle]

I never quite understood what makes a Scholar different from a Black Mage, White Mage or Red Mage. But then, I never really enjoyed being a mage at all.

It depends on the game. In some cases, a Scholar is more versatile than a Black Mage or a White Mage, without sacrificing statistics to be more well-rounded like a Red Mage.

[Ouch!]

Throw more fuel on the fire. SCH announcement imminent in the next Live Letter? Or confirmation of class-specific armor for arcanist (and other jobs)?!

Edit: A translation of the live letter test this still was taken from had Yoshi-P coming in and asking Soken what he was wearing on his head. When Soken said that he was not allowed to say, Yoshi-P kept saying "It's scholar, isn't it?" They're either trolling us, or we're getting an announcement of SCH tomorrow.

[Raistlin]

It would be rather amusing if they were just trolling us.

I guess we'll find out tomorrow. I have work all day, but I'll write up an article about the Live Letter Q&A in the evening.

[Ouch!]

The most likely answer is that the mortarboard and other armor is all part of a class-specific artifact armor set for arcanist and that they're poking fun at us for freaking out about it being scholar, but it is certainly a possibility. I find it unlikely that they'd introduce arcanist with two jobs without giving every other class a second job as well.

[Ouch!]

Double posting, but according to this post on the official forums translating questions, scholar has been confirmed as the eighth ninth job for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Expect more news at E3.

So. Smurfing. Stoked.

[Freya]

Ooooooooooooo scholar. That seems like such a classy ... class.

I agree with Aul though, pretty colors and sound effects are really the only way to go.

[Roogle]

Good. I'm glad that it was confirmed. Maybe I'll look into using that class once more information about it is released.

[Ouch!]

Scholar will be a job, not a class. It looks like arcanist will be the first class to specialize to two different jobs (a plan which Yoshi-P has referred to in the past). Expect summoner to play up the pet-based aspects of arcanist while scholar plays up the damage-over-time spells (helices, helices everywhere!).