Any Spells I Can Skip?

[KuraiMaho]

Are there any spells that I don't need to buy? I'm starting WHM and don't have much money...ever ^_^

[Yuanlung]

Try to keep your spells up to date. They are the bread and butter for mages.


I guess you could skip the bar-status-ra, and banish, and probably the single target version of protect and shell.


You definitly need the Cure and Curaga line, regen, and the status recovery (-na) line. Raise is a no-brainer. Protectra, Shellra, bar-element-ra lines come immediately after.

Blink and Stoneskin if you like being alive.

Sneak and Invisible are very nice to have on quests and missions.


Then again, try to complete your spell list if you are serious about playing a mage. Take a break from leveling and farm for gils if you are unable to keep your stuff up-to-date.

[Rones]

Grab the first Curega and don't worry about 2nd and 3rd version. You can go without blink and stoneskin for quite a while as well.

[Icemage]

Required stuff:

Cure (all)
Curaga I (but not the others)
Slow
Paralyze
Silence
Dia
Sneak
Invisible
Barstonra
Barfira
Barwatera
Regen (all)
Poisona
Paralyna
Blindna
Cursna
Raise (all)
Protectra (all)
Shellra (all)
Reraise (all)

Everything else is negotiable, either unnecessary, or can be put off for a number of levels after you are able to learn them. It is, of course, a good idea to learn all possible spells, but quite a few are there more for looks than usefulness (Holy comes to mind).


Icemage

[Fourinkmaaya]

curaga 2 and curaga 3 save quite some mp while fighting vs skimmers/darters, high tier goblins and other mobs with heavy damaging area of effect spells.
but at the level they're learnt they are not very useful.. get curaga 2 when curaga 3 can be learnt.
curaga line spells save the most mp used in conjunction with cure potency items (light staff, medicine ring)

[Dux]

Thats a good list up there for WHM spells.

If you do use Curaga try to use it with Divine Seal making it twice as strong. Potentially Curaga cures 90 HP per person in the team without Divine Seal but with Divine Seal it will cure 180 HP per person.

As the MP cost for Curaga is high you want to make sure that you get the most healing out of your MP so only use it when the whole team has lost alot of MP.

As a side not watch out for the hate that you will generate when using this spell with Divine Seal. Curing 6 people to full health in a battle will create enough hate to firmly get the attention of the monster you are fighting. At low levels I also wouldn't expect a provoke from the main tank to pull the monster off you, so use it when you can feel that the hate on the main tank is sufficient such that he won't loose agro.

[vadrek]

Dont forget Erase.

[Stormwalker]

Originally posted by Dux
As a side not watch out for the hate that you will generate when using this spell with Divine Seal. Curing 6 people to full health in a battle will create enough hate to firmly get the attention of the monster you are fighting. At low levels I also wouldn't expect a provoke from the main tank to pull the monster off you, so use it when you can feel that the hate on the main tank is sufficient such that he won't loose agro. [/B]

At low levels, DS + Curaga generates similar hate to Benediction. Even without DS, Curaga below level 20-25 is likely to pull hate off the tank; the first place I can remember being able to use Curaga in battle without having the mob come after me was in Kazham (where it got a lot of use... stupid mandys and their area sleep...)

[Yuanlung]

Originally posted by Stormwalker


At low levels, DS + Curaga generates similar hate to Benediction. Even without DS, Curaga below level 20-25 is likely to pull hate off the tank; the first place I can remember being able to use Curaga in battle without having the mob come after me was in Kazham (where it got a lot of use... stupid mandys and their area sleep...)

Seriously, you use curaga to wake your party? How many front row melees do you have ?

I usually party with 3~4 melees and 2~3 back row supports. The main tank wakes up anyways from the hits he's taking. So it's usually more MP efficient to wake the rest up using Cure, which costs 8 MP each, compared to Curaga's 60MP cost....

[Stormwalker]

At that point, I was partying with a bard AND using juices, so I had an excess of MP to burn and killing the mob faster (i.e. not taking fifteen seconds to wake three melee) was more important than MP conservation. Also, when you factor in the 90 hp that it heals on the tank, it's really...

24 MP for the Cure II I would have used on the tank to heal HP
3*8 MP for the Cure I I would have used on the other melee to wake them...

total is 48, so the difference is 12 MP, which is offset by the fact that the mob dies significantly sooner.

For reference, party was: PLD, SAM, THF, RDM (who was in the melee), BRD, WHM

[Karinya]

RDM shouldn't be in the melee if there is a 25+ bard. Don't make his life more difficult; instead use the MP he gives you to nuke more.

Also, I have one question for Icemage about your list above: would you really put off Stona, or did you just omit it by accident?

Other than that, I'd pretty much agree, except that I'd throw in all bar-element-ra spells. Flies have AE air attacks, gigas have AE thunder and scorpions have AE cold; all of those are common exp mobs at the appropriate level. Bar-element-ras are cheap and cast very quick. Keep them up all the time and you'll save a lot of healing mp.

And of course, if you want to exp in Altepa or Quicksand, Teleport-Altep is highly recommended. All teleports are highly useful and a good investment because you can teleport people for gil, but not *absolutely* necessary; but try to exp anywhere in Kuzotz without Teleport-Altep and you'll have to pay someone else to cast it for you. In fact your whole party will have to pay, and they probably won't like it.

[achornx]

i think you can skip most of the bar spells, i only have barfira and it just doesnt come up very much, ill probably get them later, but they arent really necessary.. other then that id get all of them..

erase is an exception based on extreme price, and you can probably skip curaga2 and 3 (until you are 50+ when you might need them , dont know not there yet) and the diaga spells arent really necessary either IMHO other then that get everything

[Icemage]

I deliberately omitted Viruna and Stona, despite the fact that they are useful and necessary spells in the WHM arsenal.

Viruna doesn't really become much of an issue until level 48 or so, when you may run into Hell Hounds in Eldieme Necropolis while hunting Liches for ancient papyrus.

Stona is of little to no use until you start fighting cockatrices for XP - usually not until level 62+ or so. The only other monster that uses petrification are lizards, and even if you choose to level on them you probably won't see those until you hit level 54 or so in Kuftal Tunnel. Anticans DO have Sand Trap, which is AoE petrify, but the duration of Sand Trap is so short that by the time you finish casting Stona, half the time it has already worn off.

As for Erase... I still don't have it, and I don't think I'll ever really "need" it. Sure, its handy to have, but the outrageous price tag means there are better ways to spend your money ( I could have bought it, but instead chose to spend 700K on a Dark Staff instead, and I don't regret the choice for one instant). If it drops in a BCNM40, great... if not, you're not missing much, as far as I am concerned.


Icemage

[Yuanlung]

Originally posted by Icemage

Stona is of little to no use until you start fighting cockatrices for XP - usually not until level 62+ or so. The only other monster that uses petrification are lizards, and even if you choose to level on them you probably won't see those until you hit level 54 or so in Kuftal Tunnel.

We did cocktrice in Onzozo for exp around 45. I was so glad that we had stona when our PLD got petrified. :sweat:

IMO the cost of Stona shouldn't even be an issue at that level. I'd just grab it and be prepared.

[Icemage]

The thing is, though, at level 45, Helm Beetles in Quicksand Caves are easier and safer than Cockatrices in Onzozo - I levelled there almost exclusively from 45-49, so never had a reason to pick up Stona (I didn't get it until level 53 or so) :sweat:


Icemage