How-To Guide: White Mage

Prosperous Healer: White Mage
The game’s best healer, and a party’s best friend- especially in early and mid-game. White Mage is the only job in the game to get Protectra and Shellra spells, as well as the Curaga line of spells, Regen III, Raises II and III, and all of the erasing spells and Bar-element area effect spells. They are also the only job that gets Reraise, which lasts a whole hour, and can save a whole party after a major wipe. With a ton of MP, and enough survivability to boot, White Mage makes a great asset to any party. Never does a White Mage’s role in a party change. They always heal, with a side of enfeebling and enhancing. Divine Magic can help the party out in some cases, too. No other job in the game can teleport whole parties all over the world in a blink of an eye either. Everyone’s favourite mage support job and friend. It’s White Mage! '''Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.'''

Hume

 * Hume White Mages benefit from equal healing power, survivability, damage, and lasting ability. As one of these fine mages, you can expect great balance to cure your party. Good mind stat allows you to cure high, especially with Cure V which doesn’t have a soft cap, and allows you to stick your enfeebles like Paralyze and Silence with moderate ease. Good MP helps you to outlast monsters by not running low on MP. Decent agility and vitality, as well as HP will let you take hate and survive longer; remember, if the White Mage falls, the whole party might as well say “bye-bye” too. Hume race-specific gear just further helps with all the great bonuses.

Elvaan

 * An Elvaan White Mage has great survivability and solo capability, and the highest mind stat in the game to boot! Nothing can surpass an Elvaan White Mage’s Cure V and lower-level cures. Few can resist their enfeebling magic spells either. There is a lot of MP-increasing gear in the game to make up for their lack in such, so Elvaan plays White Mage with the best of them. Being efficient with Regens, Cures, and other spells can make you one of the best things to happen to your party.

Tarutaru

 * The cutest little healers you’ll ever see. They have the highest base MP in the entire game, and that is a White Mage’s biggest stat. Alleviating the absolute must to conserve MP is where a Tarutaru White Mage truly shines. However, don’t take that as saying ‘go wild with your spells’. It just means you won’t have to pick and choose as much, and you can outlast any other White Mage in the game. Low mind stat means lower-end healing magic, but with soft caps, the only thing this truly affects is Cure V, and that isn’t even a huge difference. A Tarutaru’s high agility stat makes up for their lack in HP and vitality, and high MP means they can keep Stoneskin, Blink, and Regen on themselves if hate control appears problematic.

Mithra

 * Very similar to their Tarutaru allies in terms of MP and mind. Mithra benefit from a better balance of both stats than Tarus, however. More mind, with slightly lower MP means they’re between both Taru and Humes in the spectrum between both stats. Having the highest agility in the game allows them to survive, and having average HP and vitality further helps this stat. Though White Mage isn’t used for frontal fighting, if skilling-up, soloing, and spamming Hexa-Strike seems to be your thing, Mithra’s high dexterity cannot fail here.

Galka

 * These big brutes make fun cuddly healing mages. Even though they don’t have very high MP, and their mind isn’t as high as Elvaan’s, Galka White Mages can still absolutely hold their own in a party scenario. Especially since there is so much MP gear out there for Galka to just have a blast over. Their RSE alone can potentially increase their MP to beyond Tarutaru proportions. They need not worry about dying very easily. They have the highest HP and vitality in the game, and quite decent agility. This just makes survivability their last priority and can easily become an absolutely great White Mage with the best of them.

Weapon

 * White Mage gets two main weapons- Club and Staff. You’re given a Club-type weapon at the start. I suggest picking up either a more damaging Club or a Pole of some sorts. Wands work quite well in the early game when Cures need the extra mind boost. Otherwise, stick with an MP-boosting staff with MP-boosting grips (at 30+). At Lv.51, all you’ll end-up using are going to be staves- the Elemental Staves, including the Light Staff which gives +10% Cure potency, and the Dark Staff which gives +10 MP per resting tick. Either way, don’t look at damage for weapons unless you’re actually going to solo. Look for MP first, mind second, and other stat boosts third.

Armor

 * Like all mages, White Mage doesn’t get a ton of amazing armor. In fact, they don’t even get harness or leather stuff, never mind scale and plate stuff. Like damage with weapons, a White Mage truly shouldn’t focus too much on defense or other defense-boosting enhancements unless you’re soloing or there’s nothing else. Like with weapons too, you should try finding MP gear first, mind gear second, and other useful stat-boosting gear like agility, HP, intelligence, etc, should be found third. If nothing else can be found, go with defense or vitality. Later in the game, you will be allowed to wear a body piece called the Noble’s Tunic. Now, I don’t know about anyone else here, but I think that is the end-all, be-all piece of any gear any White Mage could ever want. It gives Auto-Refresh and enhances Cure potency by 10%. The only piece I could debate being equal to it would be the Cleric’s Briault, which gives Auto-Refresh and enhances Regen.

Soloing 1 to 10

 * White Mage is one of the hardest jobs to take to 10, simply because of its low damage and defense. However, with all of its many spells, it can out-last a lot of other monsters. Don’t waste your MP on Banish. Cast Dia at the start of fights, and save the rest of your MP for Cures. MP recovers faster than HP, and even by the mid-solo levels, your Cures should heal at least a 4-10 ratio of MP-HP. Pick up either a Club or Pole for Lv.1 to 5, and if you used a Club, continue with a Lv.5 Maul when you can get one. Purchasing a shield may help as well. As for armor, at this level, it may be better to get defensive stuff, since there’s not a lot of MP gear.

Valkurm 10-20

 * These levels are incredibly dangerous for White Mages, and can make or break newcomers. Why? Almost every party these days in Valkurm is power leveled. If your party does have a power level and you’re not familiar with healing magic, ask the power level to only cure if necessary or at the end of fights. If possible, try to convince your party that a power level is not needed. If your party is power leveled and you are new, you will not learn how to play. It’s irritating to parties Lv.30+ when the White Mage goes into battle spamming Dia, and just fighting, never curing. White Mage requires a lot of practice and actually needs timing and knowledge of just how far you can go. However, all that aside, the Valkurm levels are also where White Mage gets a few of its cooler spells. Within these ten levels, you’ll learn Silence, Slow, Curaga, and get the job ability called Divine Seal. Divine Seal in conjunction with Curaga can give a similar effect to that of your two-hour ability Benediction, and the same amount of hate. These are your learning levels, so take time to get there.

Mid-levels 20-40

 * Having knowledge of how to play the job now, it does get easier. Healing, buffing, debuffing, and guiding the party becomes more second-nature by now. Using spells manually will hopefully be a lot more effective than with the use of macros. However, that can often not be avoided in the case of PC users without the use of a USB controller. These levels are a lot of fun, though. You’ll get your RSE, which is great for all races except Tarutaru. You’ll get Blink, Stoneskin, and all but one of your teleport spells. It’s also when you get Erase and Haste, which are two very useful spells.

Your AF Weapon

 * It’s useful for its level, since it gives MP and mind. However, with the recent addition of grips to the game, it may not be as good. It does add beneficial stats and simultaneously have a decent damage over time, and since you have to get it anyway, it’s still good to use it. Tarutarus may benefit more from the Mind, but Elvaan and Galka would benefit far more with a staff and grip.
 * As with all AF quests involving fights, you should bring along some help. First, though, talk to Narcheral at M-6 upstairs in the Northern San d’Oria cathedral. Then, get your help and head to the “secret” beach in Valkurm Dunes. If you have a higher level job, you could solo it without having to play as White Mage, but otherwise, bring along a Lv.70 or so friend. Right next to the Song Runes on the far wall of B-8, there will be a ??? that pops at night. Click on it and spawn the NM Shadow named Marchelute. He will have ranged attacks, but those that are very inaccurate. Use Blink before you pop him, and get your help to fight right away. After he goes down, lot on the Tavnazia Pass and bring the item back to Narcheral. Congratulations! You have acquired your AF weapon.

Mid-High Levels 40-60

 * You’re going to love these levels. And yes, I’m being both non-sarcastic and very sarcastic. It’s great because you get your last teleport spell, your Elemental Staves, and your AF armor. The bad side? Getting your AF armor and getting the first few limit break quests completed. However, this is a condition all jobs have to endure, so you might as well make the best of it. With your very useful AF armor and Elemental Staves in hand as you go up in levels, you instantly become far better than you were prior to these levels. More healing power, more MP. Heck, you even get HOLY at Lv.50! It sucks, but it looks awesome. Please, oh please don’t use it in parties. It’s totally not worth the 100 MP. Not at all.

Your Artifact Armor

 * Your artifact armor is quite good. Even the first pieces, your AF feet at Lv.52, are pretty good, giving agility, MP, and even spell interruption rate decrease. You’ll end up using these until end-game, probably. Next is your head, which looks funny, but is pretty good. If you find yourself strained for MP, go with a Gold Hairpin. Otherwise, this piece of equipment is pretty good. 13 MP, 4 MND, and -1 Enmity, meaning you heal more, heal longer, and take less hate. Next, your AF pants. The MP is nice, as is the Enmity-1. However, the vitality boost and boost to your divine magic skill is pretty pointless. Again, please never use Holy (or any other divine magic spell) in a normal party scenario. At Lv.58 you get your AF body piece. Now, I’ll admit, I didn’t get my Healer’s Briault until about Lv.60, and I feel really stupid not getting it. Please don’t ever NOT get your AF and pull a “me”. Especially since this piece here gives a nice boost to MP, resist-vs.-wind (which also helps to resist silence), a huge enmity drop, and enfeebling magic skill. Finally, your AF gloves at 60. These attribute MP, and an enmity drop equal to the body piece, but otherwise are pretty useless. The boost to strength doesn’t help at all unless you’re soloing, and the Healing Magic Skill +15 may sound good, but only really does anything for your Cure V. It’s a good piece, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not worth being the final piece of AF, hah.

High Levels 60-75

 * You’ll continue playing these levels like you’ve been playing the last sixty. Using Regen on the tank at the start of the fight, and maybe Haste, depending on who is tanking, using healing spells like Silena keeping the tank or other party members healthy. With Regen III at Lv.65, you’re going to rely a lot more on those spells. Not only do you have your entire set of artifact armor, but so do your tanks, meaning less work for you. If the tank is good enough, you may not ever have to use cures. After beating Mr. Masher, you can start getting your relic armor, which is far superior to your AF armor, namely and especially your body piece, which adds potency to Regen. Coupled with a Noble’s Tunic, you should be an unstoppable force.

End-Game

 * As far as I’ve known, White Mage is basically there to spam Raise and Regen on the party members in large-scale end-game things like Dynamis, Limbus, and Salvage. Meriting your Regen spells will really help. (Please add information about Dynamis, Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)

Black Mage

 * Your main support job which you’ll use until the bare minimum of Lv.50. Even after that, I’d suggest keeping it for everything except large-scale end-game events. Black Mage adds a ton of very useful benefits such as White Mage’s favourite stat, MP. Black Mage has the second-most MP in the game, and the only way you could get any more would be by subbing Summoner. The job trait Conserve MP is also incredibly useful. It doesn’t activate super often, but when it does, it can usually save you a ton of MP on any spell you cast (one time I cast Warp, and it only consumed 4 MP instead of 100). On top of that, you get useful spells such as Drain, Aspir, Warp, and Escape, and the job trait Elemental Seal for spells like Sleep or Repose.

Summoner

 * A White Mage’s secondary support job. Since its most significant stat is MP, Summoner can act as a very useful support job. On top of its already high MP, it gets Max MP Boost as a job trait, and Auto-Refresh by Lv.50 as a job trait. This basically gives you a ton of MP so you don’t have to be as conservative. However, Summoner as a support job doesn’t give too much else. Garuda’s Aerial Armor is one of the few benefits you will get, but it’s not something to rely on or use abundantly. I suggest you not use this support job unless the situation calls for it. Otherwise, stick with Black Mage.

Ninja

 * Allows higher level White Mages to solo because of Utsusemi. Coupled with Haste, it can work fairly well. Ninja works with almost any main job to help it solo, and White Mage is no exception. It definitely won’t out-solo a Red Mage, but you definitely shouldn’t have any problems.

Scholar

 * You won’t use Dark Arts as WHM/SCH, so with Scholar as a support job, you should be perfectly fine with just your normal spells and Light Arts. Though it won’t add any skill points, the Arts will still lower MP consumption and casting time of White Magic, which makes it a replacement support job for Black Mage. Celerity can save you MP from a large-MP spell such as Reraise at the start of a fight, or using Penury before Raising a party member. Keep in mind that as a support job, you will only get one charge for your Stratagems, so it’s best to save them for emergencies.

Your Two-Hour Ability

 * Benediction is one of the truest two-hours in the game. It is so hard to use properly that few have ever done it as they should. It restores every party member’s HP to full and removes all status ailments. As you can imagine, this gives you a lot of hate. So much hate, in fact, that most parties can never save the White Mage after he or she uses it. However, as the White Mage, you should have Reraise on, and if saving the other five members of your party means dying, it shouldn’t be a big problem. Of course, no one wants to be defeated, and no party wants their White Mage unconscious. A quick thinker is the best user of Benediction. Surveying everything out to determine what would happen if he or she used it. If you have a lot of MP, Blink and Stoneskin should be up most of the time, especially if bad things happen (don’t prioritize these two over other spells, though), and Reraise should always be up from Lv.33 and higher. If everyone’s dying and the monster is winning, but will lose if you restore the party’s HP, do it. Just prepare to suffer the consequences.

Job Abilities

 * Divine Seal is your only normal job ability in the game and is acquired at Lv.15. It doubles the potency of your next healing (cure) spell. The job ability has a ten-minute counter on it, so you don’t want to waste it on a Cure 1 or Cure 2. You want to save it for after a Goblin spams Bomb Toss or a Damselfly spams Cursed Sphere, and use Divine Seal and Curaga in conjunction. Even with Curaga I, you’ll give your entire party about 180 HP restored for a mere 60 MP. At Lv.50, you get a job trait called Divine Veil. I’ll discuss that in the job traits section further, but what it does is gives your Divine Seal the chance to turn your next ailment-killing spell into an area effect.
 * Devotion is a useful job ability that you can merit at Lv.75. What it does is converts 25% of your current HP into MP for a target party member. Meaning if you have, say, 1000 HP, you can cut 250 of it off and give it to your Paladin (for example) in the form of MP so he can keep hate better and alleviate some of your need for curing. Though on a 20 minute recast timer, it can be cut to 15 with merits. If you have Stoneskin up, it will still restore the same MP, but cut-off less HP.
 * Martyr is very similar to that of Devotion, except instead of giving your HP in the form of MP, it doubles the HP you cut and gives it to a target party member. This is a significant job ability for when you run out of MP and the tank just needs to survive a little bit longer. If you have (again) 1000 HP (as an example), you take off 250 of it and instantly cure the Paladin for 500 HP. Like Devotion, it has a 20 minute recast timer, and can be cut to 15 minutes. Also like Devotion, if you have Stoneskin up, it will still heal the same HP, but cut-off less of your own when you use it.

Job Traits

 * Magic Defense Bonus Is your first job trait earned at Lv.10, and will continually grow as you do in levels, up to a fourth tier at Lv.70. It is as its name implies- gives you a perpetual “shell” effect. Meaning, of course, you just take less damage from spells and have a slightly higher resistance to enfeebling magic, thus increasing your’s, and ultimately your party’s survivability.
 * Clear Mind is a very, very useful trait brought to the world of mages, obtained by White Mage at the level of 20. In short, it gives you a boost to your MP recovered while resting, meaning you don’t have as much downtime. Unlike Black Mage and Summoner, White Mage only gets four of the five tiers of Clear Mind. By Lv.65, you are recovering 24 MP on your first tic, and adding 2 on each one after that (as a base), as opposed to starting at 15 and going up 1 on each one after that.
 * Auto-Regen is something that will help you out a lot, especially when you first get it at Lv.25. It perpetually increase your HP by 1 per three seconds. It just means that you don’t have to heal yourself as much, and potentially increases your overall survivability, which, in turn, will increase your entire party’s survivability.
 * Divine Veil benefits your Divine Seal when you get it at Lv.50. Though Divine Seal can still be used to double the potency of your next cure spell, it adds a new choice of what to do with it. If you use Divine Seal with Veil active as a job trait, it can make your next ailment-removing spell into an area effect one for your party. For example, a Spider uses Spider Web. Instead of using all that time and MP on spamming Erase on each party member, using Divine Seal and then Erase will instantly erase everyone’s Slow effect. It works for everything, too. Poisona, Paralyna, Silena, Stona, Viruna, Cursna, Erase…

Spells

 * Cure is a White Mage’s bread and butter. Without these spells, you might as well go congeal in a corner. Even if by end-game the only spell you ever use as Regen, you still have seventy-four levels to go before then. And since they’re not stupidly expensive like a lot of other spells, they’re no problem to acquire. What they do is like they do in all games: expend a little MP to heal yourself or another person. Cure I is first learned at Lv.1 and heals 30 HP for 8 MP. Cure II at Lv.11, heals 90 HP for 24 MP. Cure III at Lv.21, heals 190 for 46, making it slightly more MP-efficient than the other two. Cure IV at 41, heals 380 for 88, making it even more effective. Finally, Cure V is the most diverse one, as it doesn’t have a soft cap. For 135 HP, you can heal 633 HP with 276 Healing Magic Skill and 74 MND (max base HMS and MND for a 75 Elvaan WHM). Also, like lots of other games, healing magic does, in fact damage undead monsters. However, the damage dealt is at a maximum of 50% of what it would heal, so truly isn’t worth it. This is really useful, though, in that casting Cure I repeatedly on undead in the Undead Swarm Besieged will very quickly cap your Healing skill. I suggest doing it every few levels to ensure Cure V stays as potent as it can.
 * Enfeebles (Since White Mage’s role hardly revolves around enfeebling, I’ll talk about them in general. If you do want to listen to a more in-depth talk about Enfeebling Magic, visit my How-To Guide: Red Mage.) Enfeebles for White Mage aren’t very important, but still do play a role, especially with no other mage in the party. With spells like Dia to lower a monster’s defense, or Paralyze to save a few attacks, it can wind-up being very efficient. However, leave that for Red Mages if there are any in your party.
 * Banishes and Holy are fun to use and cool to watch, but their damage-MP ratio is very low. With capped Divine Magic and a ton of MND and INT, even Holy will only deal about 250 damage to a monster. That’s a huge waste of 100 MP. Leave dealing damage to other party members and stick with healing their wounds. On another note, however, to end fights quickly, a spell as powerful as Banishga II can really help out if things look like they need a boost. Just be sure that’s the last spell you’ll have to cast, because it consumes a lot of MP. Banishes too will lower an undead monster’s resistance to damage. Coupled with Dia can make even slashing and piercing weapons seem almost like blunt on a skeleton.
 * Protects and Shells are a very useful line of enhancing magic for White Mages. Protect will enhance the target’s defense, and Shell will enhance his or her magic defense. Protect seems to have a bigger role in the game, as a lot of parties will avoid fighting a lot of magic-casting monsters. However, never, ever neglect your spells and keep all of them at all times. I cannot stress that enough. White Mage is the only job in the game to get the area effect versions of these spells. These save a lot of MP and buff your entire party for thirty real life minutes. If you’re helping low-level players, cast their level-appropriate Protect and Shell, though, as it will wear off fast if their levels don’t match the tier of Protect. For example, you could cast Protect IV on a Lv.1 player, and it will probably wear off in less than one minute.
 * Bar-Spells may seem useless, but can become incredibly useful, even in early levels. Another exclusive line of spells for White Mage (Red Mage gets them too, but they can only target themselves). They enhance the resistance to a specific element. If fighting a Goblin, be sure to use Barfira to lower the damage taken from their Bomb Toss. If fighting a Crab or a Fly, remember to use Barwatera to negate the damage from their area effects. Another line of the Bar-Spells includes the Bar-Ailments as opposed to the Bar-Elements. The ailment-defending spells are seldom used, and I find it’s sad. It doesn’t always completely resist the effect, but it will always lower its duration. As tested fighting an Even Match Malboro using Bad Breath-- without Barsilence, the Silence effect always stuck, but with Barsilence, it either didn’t stick at all, or would wear off far earlier than other effects. The best use for these spells is Barsleepra, which can be used very effectively against Mandragoras or Bard-class monsters, or anything else that will sleep you.
 * Curagas are like they sound. Area effect healing magic. There are four tiers of these White Mage-only spells. Each tier is equal to the Cure spell one tier higher than it. For example, Curaga I will heal as much HP as Cure II, but to each party member in range. These can be incredibly MP-efficient and incredibly time-efficient. For 60 MP, you can heal six members for 90 HP each. That makes it instead of being a 3.75 HP-MP ratio, it’s now a 9.00 HP-MP ratio. Keep in mind, though, that these spells give a lot of hate, much like your two-hour Benediction. Use them only outside of battle or if incredibly necessary.
 * Regen makes its debut at Lv.21. And let me tell you, you will never be happier. Having the highest base HP-MP ratio in the game and giving you barely any enmity whatsoever, and simultaneously alleviating a lot of cures. 5 HP per three seconds, lasting 75 seconds, giving the target a total of 125 HP for a mere 15 MP. At Lv.74, you can get your Cleric’s Briault, which increases the HP per tic by 1. Also, at Lv.75, you can merit Regen to give you up to +6 HP per tic, for a total of 12 HP per tic for 25 tics. Giving a total of 300 HP for a mere 15 MP. Hah, and that’s just Regen I. I strongly suggest you get these spells as soon as you can. They’ll save you a lot of healing. Do not skimp on the cures, though. Your party needs you too.
 * Raises and Reraises are possibly the biggest difference between White Mage and any other healer in the game. At the early level of 25, White Mage gets the ability to resuscitate fallen friends, restoring to them 50% of their lost experience points, and making home-pointing a thing of the past. The biggest downside being the weakness that ensues as a result of not home-pointing. It lasts about five minutes and lowers your maximum HP and MP to next to nothing. Raising in undead-heavy areas can be very dangerous, as they will attack if anyone within HP-aggro range has less than 75% HP, even if they have Sneak and Invisible on. Also, when your weakness wears off, you’ll be stuck in the red HP again, leaving you vulnerable to undead aggro. At Lv.56, you get Raise II, which will have the same effect, but restore 75% of the target’s lost experience instead of only half. Raise III at 70 restores 90% of the target’s lost experience. When you’re talking about losing 2,400 experience points, restoring all but 240 can be a bliss. That saves you about 12 extra fights just to catch up to where you were before. Keep in mind, though, that Raises II and III will only have the effect of Raise I prior to Lv.50. Meaning even if the person de-levels from Lv.50 and is just that close, Raise I will be more MP-efficient. Also, if you are partying in the Valkurm/Qufim range of levels, set your home point. It’s a lot more effective than sitting there, waiting for a White Mage, Red Mage, Scholar, or Paladin to come around to raise you, and then even worse, have to wait another 5-10 minutes for your Weakness effect to wear off. Seriously, it’s a lot better just to accept the loss of 125 exp instead of 63 and fight. In those 5-10 minutes of weakness (and 10-30 minutes of waiting for a range), you and your party could have leveled at least once by then.
 * Teleports are a White Mage’s main mode of locomotion and money-making. By Lv.36, you can freely travel to Konschtat, La Theine, or Tahrongi with any and all party members that have their respective telepoint crystals (which are acquired by simply touching them on their respective Crags). At Lv.38, you can teleport to the Eastern Altepa Desert and Yhoator Jungle. Again, saving a ton of time. Lv.42 takes you to Xarcabard. Unfortunately, though, they don’t have a lot of in-party usage other than disbanding from a high-level area or going to a camp in Altep or Yhoator. Lots of people are willing to spend a lot of money for teleports, though. Go to Lower Jeuno or Whitegate and wait for people to /shout for “{Teleport-Dem}{Can I have it?}{Reward:}2000”. I’ve seen people pay upwards of 10,000 gil for teleports. If you neglect having any spells or useful gear (such as Elemental Staves) by those levels, give me one good excuse. Laziness not being one of them. (Seriously, I know a Lv.51 WHM with no Cure II or III because he was saving money. It’s sad. He doesn’t even have Regen, any Protects higher than 1, any ailment-removing spells and bar-spells. All because he was “smart” because he “saved money”. Please don’t be like this guy. Get your spells and do your party good.) Smiles!