White Mage Guide by Gisselle

{| border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" align="center" width="100%"
 * valign="top" width="25%" |


 * valign="top" width="75%"|

Foreword
I am just starting this, so have lots of work still to do. This guide is meant to cover every aspect of the WHM career, including endgame events and activities. I have my own experiences to draw from, but i am grateful for any input i get. One favor i ask of you though - please fill your ideas in the discussion section.

The section on Subjobs is complete by now, i have not done a lot in terms of gear yet. --Gisselle 16:52, 2 September 2006 (EDT)

Geez i need to get going on the gear, did not do a lot for quite a time. Added rings today. --Gisselle 11:54, 17 December 2006 (EST)


 * }

General
Two things for the start. First - if you think White Mage is an easy job, and boring and that you do not have to do a lot - well, you are wrong. Either be prepared to stay alert on all times, or chose something easier. Second - you are a healer - not a melee, not a tank, not a damage dealing caster. You heal. You heal status ailments, wounds, bring back people from K.O. and you enhance defense and speed. So if your party kills slow, there is nothing you can do about it. Your role is support, keep everyone alive and at full fighting capabilities. If this description does not fit your preferences, stay away from the job.

I make this point so clearly, because i have seen a lot. Melee white mages, nuking white mages, and so on and so on. Result is always death in the party. resulting in slow exp or a mission failed. Your job is to heal, take pride in it and do your best.

The choice of Race
The constant discussion which race is best, and which you should take for (place random job here). Truth is, you will most likely play more than one job on a single character, Especially since it is not easy to get access to certain areas and you do not want to quest that over and over. Additionally every job has at least one required subjob, and the requirement for that are different too. So my clear statement is - play what you like most, the looks, the movements, the home city, whatever. Do not make a race choice on the base of some stats. You might even take white mage to 75 just to start leveling monk. You never know what will happen, so choose not on stats, but on preference.

And no, i will not even mention the stats of the races here, because any race can be good at any job - at some point it is a question of gear, sure. But you have the options.

Which Subjob to choose
For now, to put it simple, your choices are Summoner or Black Mage. Everything else you can sub for fun or go solo with it, but it is neither for events or HNM camps, nor is it good for exp. Stay away from "fast cast whm" with sub RDM, or from "melee whm" with PLD or WAR sub. It might be funny for a while, but not for things where these choices lessen the capability of your group or alliance for success. I will make a more specific section on the subjobs later, but this has to do for now.

How to play
Generally, you role is to support the party and to keep everyone alive and able. Stick to that, only experiment if you know you can manage for sure, because if you can not it results in death and downtime for your party when things go wrong.

Enfeebling Magic
Your enfeebling magic skill is not capped? You are doing something wrong. If you are constantly in party with a RDM, and he is doing all of it, ask him to let you take care of Dia if nothing else. If the RDM is not cooperative, do it anyway and seek another RDM. You need that enfeebling magic. There will be a point where your trusted RDM is not there, and then you need to take care of Dia, Slow and Paralyze, depending on situation even Silence. Even if you have a NIN tank he probably will not do them all. Cap this skill, use your enfeebles, it will save you a lot of mp at some point.

White Mage and melee
This one is easy: If you are in a serious fight, may that be exp or an NM, do not do it. If you are camping something weak, farm, or just having fun, do what you like, even melee. Now to the why. I have never seen a WHM beeing able to melee, pay attention to all his duties and rest his mp. I would not know how that should be possible. If you melee, you might have your fun, but you are hurting the party. Period. Use time in which you can melee for resting mp, more useful.

Benediction
Your quite powerful 2-hour ability is Benediction. It has an area of effect comparable to curga, and is centered on yourself. It restores all members of your party in the area to full hitpoints. The hate it draws varies with the hitpoints healed. You will find guides that tell you to run after using Benediction. Do us all a favor and do not run, unless the zoneline is really close. You will die on the way most times, making it difficult to reraise or to get you. If you stand your ground, the other party members might be able to either kill the mob, or get the hate off you. If not, you die, and better have reraise up, or a homepoint close. Thats your job, just do it. A tank can not be afraid to provoke, you can not be afraid to use Benediction.

1-11
I actually recomend playing solo or as duo with a warrior up to level 11. If you already have a subjob, sub warrior for solo, and black mage for duo. For food, eat some meat to increase your damage output with a club. The reason for level 11 is easy: At level 11 you get cure II, and that makes you much more able to main heal in a party. Yes, solo exp are hard, and duo exp will be slower than solo for the WAR, but both you and the WAR will have almost capped skills, which will pay off in the next levels.

11 - 19
Soloing to 11 also shortens your stay in the Valkurum Dunes, where parties 10-20 usually go. Set your homepoint in Selbina or at the Outpost, deaths are frequent here. If you can afford it, bring some mp-regen drinks. You will be main healer in the party, but you will not be able to manage without help from another mage. Use your enfeebles, especially paralyze, it saves you a lot of mp. Careful with the Cure II from your arsenal, because you can draw hate easily with it. Draw hate with it before someone dies. Curaga will be very important to heal the party after a bomb toss. Use it after the fight only except for emergencies, which should be rare. Curaga will draw you the enemity of the mob for sure. Curaga is mp efficient if more than 2 members of the party, meaning 3+, are cured by it for the amount like a cure II would heal.

19-25
Time you will probably spend on Qufim Island. Enemies are Crabs and Pugs, just like in the dunes. Level 21 is you first "big" level. You get Cure III and you get Regen. Cure III a spell you will use up to level 75. At the time you are getting it, be careful with it. It will draw hate very easily, so again only an emergency spell at the start. Regen though you can not use enough. It has a long casting time, so you need to start planing your healing and expecting the probable combat course. It takes time to get the hitpoints back up, but it is highly mp efficient. At 25 you have Raise. Spend a day in the dunes raising people. Ok, now you should be sick of getting tells for a raise. Help if you can, but do not feel like you have to get everyone asking you up, especially when you are in a party yourself. Your party wants to exp, and if you go on a raise mission for 30 minutes or so, they will be mad at you, and rightly so.

25-31
The jungles. Enemies are mostly Mandragora, sometimes a Goblin, sometimes at the outpost Sahagin. Mandragora, short Mandies, have a nasty AoE sleep ability. Stay at maximum possible distance to the fighters, so that you do not get hit by it. A well placed Curaga will wake them all, or use cure I for each melee seperately, depending on situation. Keep Barfira up at all times when fighting a Goblin, an early bomb toss can easily wipe the party. Watch your targeting with enfeebles, if you by mistake hit a lizard in the second jungle your party will wipe.

You are what you wear - gear
Generally there are some basic types of gear builds. One is the so called +MND build, another the -enemity build and the last the MP build. Usually the MND and enemity build overlap a lot, so there can be no real distinguishing between them. The mp build is a completely different gear build. I will list some or most of the mp build gear, but i can not grant completeness here, since i do not use it myself. To make this clear once more, i regard the mp build as useless. MP management and efficiency is what gives you the option to be an active (and not resting) white mage for a long time, a large mp pool, even one of 2000 mp, will just run out at some point, be that in an endgame fight or just in exp. And if you are out of mp, it will take you a long time to fill that pool once again. I rather have a not so large pool, be efficient with my mp, and just keep standing even longer than the WHM with the large pool.

Weapon
This weapon section focuses on the caster/main healer WHM. I do not consider the melee WHM to be a relevant option, so i leave out the weapons for melee. You'll need no new weapons after lvl 51 elemental staffs, thats no mistake that it stops there.
 * 01 Ash Club yes well... not good
 * 01 Maple Wand better for the +1 mnd boost
 * 04 Bronze Hammer you are still clubbing stuff to death, more damage is better than mnd...
 * 09 Willow Wand +2 mnd/int your party weapon while casting, the +1 version has +3 stats, get the HQ
 * 10 Pilgrim's Wand rare/ex, +2mp while resting. Macro this for resting untill you have level 51 for Dark Staff (+10); or use a High Mana Wand at 32 with +4; dropped from Nunyenunc in West Sarutabaruta
 * 13 Hermit's Wand good choice, +2 mnd/int and 25% spell interruption rate reduced.
 * 18 Yew Wand the next in our int mind wands, +3 on the NQ, +4 on the HQ.
 * 32 Chestnut Wand another of our int mind wands, +4 on the NQ, +5 on the HQ Solid Wand
 * 32 High Mana Wand besides having the same bonus to attributes like the Chestnut Wand, you have 50 charges of an enchantment giving you +4mp regenerated while resting. The enchantment wears off if you unequip the wand.
 * 41 Blessed Hammer 10 MP 2 MND - one of the worst weapons we can chose
 * Note on lvl 51 you finally get your elemental staffs. Some are luxury, some are needed. Ice, wind, earth, i recomend them, but they are not needed. Light staff, 10% more on your cures, i could not understand why you would not do 200 teleports for that if needed to get the gil. But the dark staff - do not even dare to leave home without it. +10 mp regenerated while healing is one of the strongest boosts you'll ever get, and your parties will go much smoother with it than without. Downtime is reduced for the party greatly.
 * 51 Dark Staff Macro this for resting, Sleep, Blind, Bind (BLM sub job spells)
 * 51 Light Staff Macro this for Divine Magic and Cures
 * 51 Ice Staff Macro this for Paralyze
 * 51 Wind Staff Macro this for Silence
 * 51 Earth Staff Macro this for Slow and if you get hate(Physical Damage taken -20%)
 * 71 Templar Mace

Shield

 * 50 Holy Shield
 * 69 Numinous Shield
 * 74 Genbu's Shield

Neck

 * 7 Justice Badge Your first +MND gear, and a good one, you will stick with it quite some time

Earrings

 * 30 Magician's Earring only activated when you sub summoner

Body

 * 68 Noble's Tunic
 * 72 Mahatma Houppelande to rest
 * 74 Cleric's Briault

Rings

 * 01 Ascetic's Ring +1 MND, you can use your city ring too
 * 10 Saintly Ring +2 MND, there is a +1 variant with +3 MND
 * 10 Astral Ring ... expensive, +25mp -25hp. If you wear 2 of them you will die fast, and in your first parties you probably will draw hate more often than not. Unless you really know how to manage your hate, i do not recomend them, even if you are rich. Your fast deaths will cost the party if you are not very careful. They might be an option later, but i personally think that they are SMN stuff and overrated.
 * 14 Tranquility Ring +2 MND ring with water resistance, due to all the fish and crabs you fight a better choice than the Saintly Ring. But not really important.
 * 30 Tamas Ring "THE" mage ring from finishing the Chains of Promathia storyline. Awesome if you have one, but then you also already have a lvl75 job and probably do not need this guide ;-)
 * 36 Solace Ring +3MND
 * 40 Electrum Ring -20hp +20mp - a weaker form of the astral ring, much cheaper, an option if you feel like you need some more mp
 * 40 Ether Ring -30hp +30mp - a stronger form of the astral ring, you can wear only one of them, expensive, an option if you feel like you need some more mp
 * 40 Mana Ring +15mp.... electrum or ether or astral, all better options.
 * 49 Kshama Ring No. 9+3MND, +5mp, very sweet, very rare/ex from Monarch Linn ENM Bugard in the Clouds
 * 50 Medicine Ring +10% cure potency when your own hp are yellow. Imho an endgame item when you can use Devotion and Martyr to drop some hp.
 * 51 Serket Ring -50hp, +50mp, rare so only one can be worn. A very expensive item, giving you a lot of additional mp. Serket is strongly camped for this ring. Well... in my opinion one of the most overrated and overpriced items in the game. Learn to manage your mp, not to manage your gil, you will have more fun that way.
 * 54 Serenity Ring +4 MND
 * 59 Peace Ring converts hp to mp 10, -1 enemity - the enemity makes this one interesting, rare once more.
 * 61 Vivian Ring same as serket ring and +1 mnd and +1 int on it. rare/ex, so you need to camp Voluptuous Vivian for it, a level 85 NM in Boyahda Tree. A real challenge, if you can get your hands on it this one is actually a good option and the only mana ring besides the electrum that i actually recomend ;-)
 * 69 Serene Ring +2 to INT, MND, and CHR, 15hp to mp, and -2 enemity. Not even rare. A very good piece of gear, imho one of the best there is. Expensive though. My endgame recomendation is the Serene Ring nevertheless.
 * 74 Aqua Ring -2 DEX, +2 STR and +5 MND as a final MND ring. HQ is the Neptune's Ring with all stats one higher (-3, +3, +6)

Back

 * 60 Intensifying Cape
 * 73 Mahatma Cape

Belt

 * 60 Penitent's Rope
 * 70 Cleric's Belt
 * 71 Hierarch Belt