What do you fear more as a White Mage?

[Helltaru]

Big damage single hit attacks, or AOE attacks?

I've never had a huge problem with AOE attacks in fact I regard them as more of an annoyance since they have the potential to create signifigant downtime, but attacks like Screwdriver, Jet Stream, and any other attack that can hit one target for massive damage drive me batty. To this day I fear Pugils, I have seen my tank take a nasty crit followed by a screwdriver more often than I would like to admit, and it never gets less stressful. In my eyes AOE attacks are fairly predictable with most monsters, but it seems like the heavy hitting single target attacks come out of nowhere

[Elusivellama]

Big damage focused attacks are the worst. AOE is more manageable because it's spread out to your other pt members. Stuff like Jetstream or Screwdriver can lead to a dead party member in under two seconds - and if that party member was the tank, well, the party is in for a world of hurt. Even if the attack didn't kill the victim outright, you're forced to dump your best cure on the party member, sometimes repeatedly. This nets you aggro, and if the tank doesn't pull it back, you're pretty much screwed.

Wait until you fight Exorays in Crawlers Nest...those are real fun, let me tell you that. Silence Gas is an area effect attack that is focused into a cone - it can do over 600 - 700 damage at once, AND it also hits anybody in its swath, AND it silences you.

[Helltaru]

Are you trying to give me nightmares? I already have my hands full with Screwdriver, and hear you are telling me about a hard hitting attack that silences people. I would say I am looking forward it, but we all know that isn't true

[Dux]

Originally posted by Elusivellama
Wait until you fight Exorays in Crawlers Nest...those are real fun, let me tell you that. Silence Gas is an area effect attack that is focused into a cone - it can do over 600 - 700 damage at once, AND it also hits anybody in its swath, AND it silences you.

Don't let Elusivellama scare you Helltaru. I was killing Exorays with a my LS and yes the special attack was a pain but not as bad as is it is made out to be. A mage with Cure III + Regen 2 or even better Cure IV can handle this no problem. As for silence you will already have 5macros setup for Silena so everytime you see it, its just a case of hitting a few macros.

This is not to say you shouldn't be careful of course.

[Rones]

I can manage the big hits pretty well, its the AoEs that get tiring. Flies in crawlers nest drove me nuts. Never have I cast curaga and curaga II so much before, and it was needed because all the non-tanks (rngs) were dropping to orange/red from the 2-3 AoE hits per fight. :dead: Exorays aren't too bad if your tank has a large hp pool, such as galka or elvaan, but a taru pld is a nightmare to have against exorays.

[Feenicks]

Only two things have ever really scared me as a WHM. One is the first few times we were fighting spiders in Quicksands and having Sickle Slash do about 500 dmg to the PLD. HP in the red, Cure IV will fix him up but then I'll have a spider after me.

The second one which has scared me (and continues to do so) is RDM Convert. You'd think I would be used to it by now but when I see a party member suddenly go from full health to very close to death it scares the hell out of me. I'm starting to learn to hear for the sound that Convert makes but still ... it's nerve-racking.

[Icemage]

Both types of attacks are nasty, and I don't think either one is necessarily more annoying than the other, it just really depends on your circumstances.

At lower levels, Pugils are definitely scary. Screwdriver hits VERY hard sometimes (even with Barwatera, though that helps). Your best bet with those is to avoid melee (so your enmity level doesn't spike any higher than it needs to), and end fights as quickly as possible, since Screwdriver damage is linked to the Pugil's current HP. Also, make SURE you have Blink up any time you are fighting Pugils. It will save you a lot of pain if a Screwdriver comes flying your way (75% or so chance of no damage)

Different special attacks require different tactics. For instance, Anticans use Jamming Wave, an area effect Silence attack. The only way to deal with this is to stand way back and then cast Silena on any spellcasters (especially a PLD or NIN tank!) who were Silenced.


Icemage

[cccpthrillhouse]

Silence moves like Jamming Wave can be scary, but for 3600 you can buy a stack of Echo Drops and they will last you a very long time. It's good to be prepared, and the extra spot in inventory is not a big deal after finishing the Gobbie Bag quests.

[Rawls]

silence and big 1 target attacks are vastly more threatening than AoEs as the other posters pointed out. If you have a competent tank and the mob doesn't spam the AoE most of the time i could just wait till the end of the fight to cure the other members of my party.

but as a warning, sometimes mobs that don't normally spam an AoE will do so. In yhoator i once had as many as 3 bombs dropped by the same gob

but barfira+shell killed its damage.

[Synbios]

AoE sucks, big hits are nothing unless you have a crappy tank.

Healing 1k on 1 person is better than healing 300 on 4 person. Would be a lot wiser to take SMNs instead of WHMs to fight mobs with painful AoEs.

[Manatra]

It honestly depends on the tank you have. With a PLD, big one hitters suck, though... they seem to not be as bad when you get higher up...

[Manatra]

It honestly depends on the tank you have. With a PLD, big one hitters suck, though... they seem to not be as bad when you get higher up...

[Michiko]

I'd have to say that the heavy 1 hitters... (Throat stab from those pesky Tonberries for example) . and pesky 2hr specials from Summoner NPCs. Those really ruin your day just cause there always seems to be one that gets hit for full damage :spin: