What Weapon?

[Sakrafyce]

I know WHM isn't supposed to use weapons much, but i've been using a Staff? Is that correct for a Taru White Mage?

[Rones]

You should go for club/shield. There are several nice cheap clubs with +3mnd and +3int that work great for in party. The occasional blocks from a shield are invaluable compared to the 6 extra mp the staff especially as a taru. Soloing out of party go with the highest dmg hammer you can find with a decent shield.

[Sakrafyce]

Is the White Mage AF weapon a Staff or Club/Hammer?

[Drachol]

It's a club/hammer

[Sakrafyce]

Ahh, i'll probably switch up then. Man, I really liked running around with that big pole on my back wacking Crawlers over the dome.

haha, Taru's rock...

[Sakrafyce]

One last question:

What's the best Club/Shield combo I can get at lvl. 7 that will last me a little while?

[wizard_ct]

Bronze hammer / lauan shield (maple sheild at level 8).

I didn't discover hammers for the longest time, but you'll really like them

[Sakrafyce]

Hope so, cause this pole weapon has been very cool to play with. Clonkin' Tiny Mandragora's over the head with it is nice.

I'll switch to that when I get home tonight though. Level to 8 real quick and pick up that Maple Shield.

Know what's awesome about the Auction House, you hardly ever lose money on things you buy, cause you can just sell it back for the same price most of the time.

[Khaelyn]

Ideally, you should work with both.

The club/shield combination will make you wonder what the hell you were thinking to ever use a staff, but then if you are playing with BLM as your main you will want to use a staff for the bonuses. BLM can't use a shield.

[Dnallan]

Hmmm, wouldn't it be good to use one the HP+6 MP+6 staffs when you're in Valkurm and wherever else you're gonna be in a full party in stuff? And just a club/hammer shield for when you're not in a FULL party or just soloin?

[Rodin]

I don't know what level it is, but the hermit's wand (it's lower levels) has a nice stat: Spell Interruption Down 25% It's pretty pesky to have a spell interrupted while you're casting it.

[Rawls]

well, what you could do is use a staff but also a hammer/shield. Use the staff to raise your max mp for the first cast then switch to the hammer/shield. This is what i am planning to do with my Frost Robe/Holy Breastplate.

Here is an equip macro:
/equip Main "Name of Weapon"

you could use that to switch between the staff and the club. And it may be good to keep your staff skill up to date though since you can use the Dark Staff (+10 mp while resting) at lvl 51 so it might not be too bad to skill up staff every now and then.

[Takuchan]

Weapons for WHM

Ok...

At first I thought wands are far superior to staves. The Yew Wand +1 is very affordable and gives +4 int/ +4 mnd at lvl 16,17,18(forgot) which is superior to +HP/MP because you are expected to debuff (slow/para/dia) and them not being resisted is reliant on your stats. If you are PTed with a redmage, then you won't have to debuff and your stats aren't as important then.

At level 51, you can use the Elemental Staffs, which are EXTREMELY useful. They are far superior to any wand/shield as far as usefulness in exp PT's. I use Darkstaff for MP regen and Lightstaff for +10% curing and stronger light spells. You DO NOT need staff skill to use these though.

Club skill is important because at level 67, you get the almighty Hexastrike, which is IMO extremely overpowered for whm. Using a maul, I do up to 800-1000 damage (even more against bone) with 50-52% TP back(which might be nerfed next patch). You don't need to raise this actively though cause all the rest of the WS pretty much suck and you can always join a skill up PT at 67.

A lot of people can't afford the staves, it's understandable (700k-800k on my server) and as an alternative you can just use wands for the +stats.

As far as which skill to raise, I would raise clubskill because the WHM-only mauls make them actually decent melee, and can outdamage PLD in rare cases(like against skeletons). Staffskill gets spirit-taker, which is useful, but doesn't do the raw damage of Hexa(which is awesome for farming!!).

[Rawls]

yes i understand that you don't need skill in a weapon to use it but what i meant was that since you will inevitably use one it may be useful to train it some.

and yes i can't wait till Hexa... even with the TP nerf coming.

[riceburner4540]

as a blm, i envy whms for hexa and better hammer/club type weapons. strongest one we get is like...titan's cudgel or something (damage 24...weaaaaak). whms definitely should stick to club/shield.

if you are playing with BLM as your main you will want to use a staff for the bonuses. BLM can't use a shield.

thats not quite true. black mages can use a few shields, they just have 0 skill for it...the good ones are insanely expensive (astral shield, 1.5m on my serve O_O). wand +int/mnd is superior to the few points to hp/mp you gain from using staves. and the inability to use regular shields shouldn't matter, since ideally you won't be getting hit (like having a staff helps...). i do however, suggest you have staff leveled up also, since you'll probably switch over to them higher up. the elemental staves rule, but like anything else that rules...they're extremely expensive.

combat skills shouldn't matter too much since the only reason for having combat skills is for farming. i still whack stuff outside batallia downs or pashhow marshlands with my musketeer's pole to make $$. club and dagger just doesn't cut it anymore. its nice to be able to do rock crusher or something for decent damage (my staff is only at 130).