Downside of being a White Mage?

[cavill]

I getting FFXI in a few days and just decided i wanted to be a White Mage but i wanna know what the downsides of being 1 is?

[Enkizer]

Well, they are decently hard to start off in the beginning. Through the first 10 levels or so will be solo, and when you get into PTs it gets alot easier. The only real downside to WHM is not being able to do very significant damage, if any at all. I would recommend WHM to a player only if they have played another MMORPG as a healer. Or unless they really just have their heart set on it.

[cavill]

I use to play Ragnarok and i was a dedicated Acolyte/Priest, i loved being the supporter, and people needed them for parties etc and i believe that in FFXI there are shortages of WHM's or so i heard, so i thought id help out by being 1 myself.

[Icemage]

WHM downsides:

- Of the basic 6 jobs (WHM, RDM, BLM, WAR, MNK, THF), WHM are second-worst prior to level 15 at playing solo. After level 15, they the worst at solo. If you like playing solo, WHM is not the job for you. Of the advanced jobs, the only one that rates lower than WHM solo is Bard.

- Spells are expensive. There are a ton of spells to learn for all mages in FFXI, and you basically have to buy or otherwise acquire a new spell every level for the first 20, then probably one new spell every other level from that point on, and the spells are not cheap.

- Suicidal tendencies. Early on, even in parties, healing spells draw a lot of attention from enemies, and if you aren't very careful and play with a warrior who knows how to Provoke, you will be dying with regularity. Prior to level 19 (when you get access to Blink), using Benediction, the WHM 2-hour ability, is basically like signing your own death warrant. At higher levels, there are ways to sidestep this problem, but a lot of WHM are gun-shy about using Benediction because it does tend to get you killed if you aren't prepared well in advance.

- No offense. If you like pounding enemies into oblivion, this job is not for you. WHM deal the least amount of damage out of all characters.

- Complex. Playing a white mage effectively takes a lot of practice and awareness, and the ability to react quickly to changes in the battle environment. The difference between a white mage who just sits back and heals and does nothing else (bad WHM), and a white mage who casts debuffs, makes careful use of abilities like Divine Seal and spells like Regen, and removes harmful status effects from party members (good WHM) is like the difference between night and day. If you don't like monitoring the flow of battle, this is not the job for you.


Icemage

[Rico]

Also if you plan to be a WHM you really don't need to buy the best armor out you can be a robe (LVL 1 armor) and you can use that armor nearly up to level 20. You can do this because you will save alot more money to buy scrolls. But if you get in a party with a warrior that doesn't provoke your screwed :sweat:

[PetriW]

Main thing with playing a white mage is that people will remeber how you perform very well and the line between good and bad is MUCH more strict for white mages.
Most other classes can fuck up and the others can recover it for them but when a whm does there ain't much more backup, especially if you're the only healer. People don't like dying, short lag for a melee and nothing happens, short lag for a whm and a group member can be dead.
The controls in FFO also makes small mistakes happen, when grouping I now always use a keyboard, gamepad is simply too dangerous. :sweat:

Would I stop playing WHM though? Never, damn it's neat, it's lazy while you can't let your attention falter. Suits me quite well.

[voodoo]

As a whm you're responsible for keeping your PT alive more than anyone else - so if someone dies (even if it's not your fault) they might hold you to blame.
So there's a fair amount of responsibility with the job.

Don't let this deter you though! I'm sure you'll love playing whm

[Oddin]

Prepare to bugged like hell too. Especially at lvl 25+ (when you get revive). So many ppl will be be asking you "can you rez our warrior, hes at such and such". Everytime that happens the party youre with loses out on time and xp (that is if you decide to actually revive the person ).

[Calianeri]

Another downside to WHM is that you are often the keystone job in a party. So when you have to stop playing or leave your party, there's a good chance the entire party will break. Especially since WHMs are somewhat rare so getting a replacement is tough. Ahh, the guilt... :sweat:

And if you are a white mage, and somehow end up in a party that already has one, please do all the people who are waiting for parties a favor: leave, and start your own new party. I encountered a party in Qufim yesterday that had 3, count them three, white mages. That's just selfish. There were at least 2 parties worth of people waiting around seeking, who just needed a good WHM to get them together.

[Suzaku trs]

whm

I think most of people want to deal damage, A whihte mage should know that he should heal/support and let the damage to the other party members. So he should not be focused at doing damage.

White mage have some attack spells (dia, holy.
I think whm are realy important, and they will get many regards from people.

A good balanced party should be formd in my opinion out 2 attackers (dark knight, ranger), a 2 tanker(paladin/warrior), a white mage and another mage(blackmage, redmage).

[Synbios]

Downside of being a WHM? WHM = Hate me, our most commonly used spells draw hate, our 2 hr Benediction = gg. Most of the important stuff has been said by Icemage, it really sucks if you warrior doesn't know how to provoke, or if he's a Taru. One more thing about WHM though, is you have to keep your eyes on the logs for debuffs wearing off, and you have to juggle resting and healing when all the debuffs are up.

[Icemage]

I'm curious as to how much TP a WHM can gather at level 70, StarvingArtist. I can say that at level 50 in the beta, I was ending most fights at around 20% TP - in fact, the higher level I got, the less TP I had at the end of each fight, because I had more spells to cast, plus I would always start back at 0%...and enemy evasion was so high I'd almost never hit, even with max Club skill.

I should note that I was using the fastest possible club weapon (Tactician Magician's Wand, Delay 210), but more often than not I would just... miss.

On the rare occasions when I did manage to accumulate 100%+ TP, I found that it was usually more beneficial to activate Starlight (MP recovery for all party members in range) than to hit for 80 or so damage with Seraph Strike.

Are the high level WS really that much better- enough to devote time to actually trying to get 100% TP? Or is there a higher level tactic that I'm missing out on that lets you not sit between battles?


Icemage

[Star Sibyl]

This may be just a rumor but I've heard many times that because the club skills are so difficult to acquire, Square went out of their way to make sure the weapon skill for that weapon would release a heaping amount of damage...more so than most of the other weapon skills. In my own accounts as a WHM in beta, with my TP filled to about 130%, I'd hit for about 130-150 damage points consistently. My boyfriend had a warrior so I know these numbers are quite high even for his warrior with a two handed axe.

[cavill]

Yes the part i enjoyed about being a priest in Ragnarok was because i was relyed on, needed, loved, wanted and having a big responsibility, taking care of more than 5 people getting beaten up by vicious monsters and i am there lifeline, it makes me feel special lol so i think the WHM is the job for me.

Since i have no idea about the skills etc for the WHM i will probably be fairly crap at first but once i get to know the game and stuff i will join parties because i will be completely useless to everyone in the beginning for not knowing what to do lol

As for reviving.. does it cost anything other than MP to use it? Like in Ragnarok it costed a blue gem to ressurect which was 500 zeny each so it was annoying and costly to revive.

[Synbios]

Originally posted by Icemage
I'm curious as to how much TP a WHM can gather at level 70, StarvingArtist. I can say that at level 50 in the beta, I was ending most fights at around 20% TP - in fact, the higher level I got, the less TP I had at the end of each fight, because I had more spells to cast, plus I would always start back at 0%...and enemy evasion was so high I'd almost never hit, even with max Club skill.

I should note that I was using the fastest possible club weapon (Tactician Magician's Wand, Delay 210), but more often than not I would just... miss.

On the rare occasions when I did manage to accumulate 100%+ TP, I found that it was usually more beneficial to activate Starlight (MP recovery for all party members in range) than to hit for 80 or so damage with Seraph Strike.

Are the high level WS really that much better- enough to devote time to actually trying to get 100% TP? Or is there a higher level tactic that I'm missing out on that lets you not sit between battles?


Icemage

Yep, when there are 2 WHMs, during such cases, most of the time, it'll be one WHM draining MP while the other rests, so while the other WHM is resting, I'll just charge into battle, enfeeble enemy while meleeing and use cure 1s so as not to get too much hate, when the party is about to use their WS, you'd most probably be having around 90% of your tp filled, so just whack away until the last guy uses Burning or Red, throw in your Seraph and let the party go wow at a WHM helping in a skillchain. ^^