Any White Mage Advice?

[Idun_Midgardsormr]

Re: Any White Mage Advice?

Eh? Erase doesn't do anything against Doom. Only Cursna will remove Doom

Maybe I have the wrong name for it then - it's been a while since I last played in there! I believe it comes from the dancing-chains ability or something like that - anyone hit will die pretty fast if it's not erased! Either way, without erase, they're 'doomed' !! ^^

Use dia in the start of every fight

You might want to check with the BLM or RDM on this one first - if they are using bio, there's going to be some unhappy people! I'm not going to go into the bio vs dia thing here, but there is a problem. Its better to use dia at the end of the fight if the others are using bio. That way you still get the skillup and don't tread on their toes

[Theyaden]

Re: Any White Mage Advice?

You might want to check with the BLM or RDM on this one first - if they are using bio, there's going to be some unhappy people! I'm not going to go into the bio vs dia thing here, but there is a problem. Its better to use dia at the end of the fight if the others are using bio. That way you still get the skillup and don't tread on their toes

I've yet to be in a pt as blackmage or whitemage where the party wanted Bio instead of Dia. Even had one where the pt lead threatened to kick the blackmage if he didn't stop spaming Bio each time dia was used but oh well (BTW I was a whitemage on that pt in altep not the blackmage)

I used stoneskin as a whm to take on EP Beetles in Ordellos Cave and other locations for my RSE hunting and it works great for solo work, but I've rarely found it worthwhile in XP unless I'm forced to curebomb to prevent a pt while Benediction or Devine Seal followed by curaga. If you spot something like that comming Stoneskin may save you if the mob is close enough to dead for the party to finish off with their renewed hitpoints.
Note please don't use banish during xp unless your closing a light skillchain or you have enough mana that the party doesn't have to stop while your resting while using it. I've seen a few whitemages that like to use it to skillup devine and those are the ones that say Danger! MP 20/500 exc while fighting chain 3.
Regen is your best friend unfortunatly my healskill slowed down as my enhancing skyrocketed to cap because it is such a good spell you nearly cut your healing in half.
Note some of the below do no kick in until higher levels
Subjobs:
Blackmage: Conserve MP, Warp, Escape (Having stoneskin up before casting this if possible would be helpful), Elemental Seal + Sleep (Hey it'll stick once in a while)
Summoner: Increased Mana pool, Autorefresh, and A very cute rat of light to keep you company :+D. However just a note your summones will be weak on the verge of pathetic due to halved summoning skill so aside from Carbie pulls which the main healer won't be doing anyway this isn't realy an asset
Redmage: Faster casting at higher levels but unless it's for something specific the low mana and having neither the conserve MP the blackmage sub gives you nor the auto refresh of summoner makes it a poor xp choice. (Again I'm sure there are special instances I'm just not aware of what they would be.)

Note: I'm an Elvan so with my mp pool I use summoner when doing capped events like garison, BCNM's and it is a noticable diference in my MP and my mana lasts longer then in a 20, 30, or 40 cap event. I went through with whm as my first job so blackmage was my sub through 43 since I didn't have summoner until then. The down side of using Summoner is I now always carry a warp scroll when using that sub.

Never stop asking questions opp bigest mistake we can make is to asume we know everything. "Math examinations aside it takes a very smart man to say I don't know" I think it was Thomas Edison, but I don't remember for sure :+D

[supersimian]

Re: Any White Mage Advice?

I agree with with Icemage that spells like barvira are not very much needed, except for the times when your fighting mobs that will give you a virus ofcourse. It is safe to assume that any spell has a use as every spell actually does something.

Icemage is right about the correction of my quote on enhancing magic, the spells do have set times though your enhancing does affect the affectiveness of the enhancing spells. Upper lvl blink works most of the time, I didnt get smacked up enouph at all in lower lvls with blink on due to luck with parties so I don't know how the lower lvls fare with that spell at all.

I know enfeebling is not so good in upper lvls for whm but in lvl 27-33 it is very good. With my capped and merited enfeebling my whm/blm was a better enfeebler then the red mages lvl 27-33, but know that I am lvl 56 (as of las night) at this lvl I have to EP to maybe land a non Dia enfeeble, I only cast Dia 2 now for something to do as most reds I party with seem to overlook the spell.

I posted here to share info and end up learning a thing or two myself.

Here is one more piece of advice if you will, go ahead and use banish almost every fight if you can. Now I know alot of people disagree with this but in my opinion there has to be some use for Divine magic besides palladin emnity control. Sticking in the banish 1 semi often has helped me keep my divine magic near capped always. This is if you even care about your divine. So far the most enjoyment I have found from it is 3 days ago my banishga 2 was hitting harder then whatever the blm was casting for MB off of fusion( I think fire 2, was doing about 200ish MBed). I know that blm have better spells to MB if the SC was different, but times like that, and when I was out enfeebling the reds in the 20-33 ish area are more then worth taking the measure to lvl your seemingly banign whm skills.

I completely understand why you like being a whm so much, I think that I like whm more then most every job. Alot of it is because now that I am a whm I have a much better understanding of melee, party setup, and chaining dynamics. With my blm I only had to pay attention to SCs, when they where happening, and what and when to cast, which get pretty robotic unlike the whm where a monkey wrench can be thrown into your party as easy as recuiting a crazy dragoon into your party that saps up the hate and makes you love your stoneskin for the cure bombs that guy made me drop (yesterday, it was fun).

Good luck Iccarus!

[Shanisasha]

Re: Any White Mage Advice?

Flash is much more effective in my opinion than Banish for leveling divine skill


For one, it'll help your NIN on the ichi recast and your pld when his own flash wears. For the other, it saves you MP when your melees don't take hits.

Use Flash. You'll end up loving it.

[Iccarus]

Re: Any White Mage Advice?

Wow,

Thanks for the quick responses and for all of your help people. I have figured out Erase quite well now fighting Siege Bats in Garliege Citadel the party felt that I shouldn't bother using it though, as the bats always use their move every fight.
I could see there point so I tend to just Erase the Main tank having EVS down is not a great thing to have on it.

I reached Level 35 last night should I stay at Garleige Citadel until 36 or should I move out to Crawler's Nest? I will hopefully net me some Silk Thread aswell as I'm starting out Weaving ^^

I also know that Dia II is better than Dia but is it more MP effective? It's like Banish II costs around 50 mp and to me thats not worth it unless I am forced to use it or in a Skillchain which I havn't had to use yet, would like to one day ^^.

Also Once I hit level 41 should I go after my Artifact Weapon? Or should I hold out until a bit later?

Sorry for asking soo many questions it's just you guys seem to know everything ^^

Once again thank you for your time in helping me be a better White Mage

[Karinya]

Re: Any White Mage Advice?

Dia II lowers the target's defense more than Dia I, allowing physical attacks to hit it harder. It does cost more MP, but also allows other party members to do more damage. This puts more hate on them, not on you. It's especially useful against high-defense monsters like crabs, crawlers and beetles.

If you have trouble with the MP cost, you might ask a RDM to cast it (if you have a RDM). They get it too.

Silk drops are not exactly common in CN but you will probably see a few. If you want more silk, I suggest soloing in Maze of Shakhrami or Buburimu Peninsula - there are areas with several crawlers there that you could kill pretty easily. THF sub is helpful if you have it at 15 or higher.

As for the AF weapon, while it's the best at its level for melee (i.e. farming), it doesn't stack up so well against wands like Chestnut and Pilgrim's (or if you can afford it, High Mana) for your exp party duties.

At level 51, try to get Light and Dark Staffs. They are very useful for WHM. I suggest setting up macros to switch in Light Staff for cures, and Dark Staff for resting.

[Idun_Midgardsormr]

Re: Any White Mage Advice?

The WHM AF weapon is, as has been mentioned, a fairly good weapon for melee work, but not a necessity for parties.

I would suggest waiting until you are partying in Gustav tunnel (make sure you have the quest open ready), then take the party right outside the tuneel to the spawn point and have them help you with the NM. I would not reccommend trying to solo him, he'll hang you out to dry on the bard quest stones! Marchelute spams dimensional death, and for a level 41 mob, he's pretty tough.

Once killed, you get the tavnazian pass and can complete the quest next time you're in sandy!

Also, once level 45+, watch out for shouts for help with the G1 items in the Eldeime Necropolis, and try and get on a few of those runs. You will need your own G1 items soon enough, but you also need a silver bell dropped off the shadows there for your later AF, so the sooner you get it, the better.

[Satori]

Re: Any White Mage Advice?

Most things have already been said but I want to throw in my two cents,

for protect and shell spells get the party versions instead of single target.
use cookies during downtime and juices during important fights.

if its your first job then maybe do as I am doing, Use whm to lvl 30 get beastmaster and then solo like crazy till you can aford to get what you need for your next jump with Whm.

try and have good gear and allthough it is tempting to sell your stuff to get your money back keep hold of sets of equipment for events like Bcnm's and stuff and sell the items you gain from there tho invest in your Whm career.

also theory in the game is crud some people cant play their jobs correctly so it may not be your tank that need Regen its funny when you see the shocking equipment some people use, dont use high tier cures when you get them they take ages to cast and draw hate. I found even at lvl 30 CureII still can draw hate so theres no way Im casting cure 3 lol I'd rather benediction Rofl!

benediction is a last resort dont set a macro for it!
if you decide to nuke make sure you attack the battle target not something wandering by.
Divine Seal + Curaga = Mini Benediction the best thing ever! its my SOS macro but be carefull usually used after a battle where you are nearly eating dirt.

STAND UP FOR YOURSELF the melees NEVER pay attention to your mp and will sometimes carry on when you are running on empty. tell them you arent ready.

Take spare cookies if you can afford to its polite to be prepared.

Diaga + Banishga = Death in the wrong hands only use if you are confident you arent going to fluff up.

I'm not the best player in the game but i hope it helps, to anyone reading this feel free to correct anything I have missed or got wrong,

Also take advice from your parties some stuff is just rubbish but some help you alot!

good luck

[Gentoo]

Re: Any White Mage Advice?

dont use high tier cures when you get them they take ages to cast

You're chronological perception is extremely acute Satori. Just to put this into perspective. Cure has a 2 second cast time, Cure II takes 2.25 seconds, and Cure III-V take 2.5 seconds.

[Satori]

Re: Any White Mage Advice?

Thanks

Is that all it really is? To me it seems like forever to get a CureIII out,
I do panic alot when playing lol, *dont play Whm if you have a heart complaint* lol
I"m scared getting Whm any higher will send me grey,

[Theyaden]

Re: Any White Mage Advice?

Thanks

Is that all it really is? To me it seems like forever to get a CureIII out,
I do panic alot when playing lol, *dont play Whm if you have a heart complaint* lol
I"m scared getting Whm any higher will send me grey,

It's not so bad if you ever want to realy test your heart out try Redmage ^..^

I've found on whitemage the first 30 minutes of the pt is the most tense getting to know the parties rythem and after that I'm either pulling my hair out in frustration or in the majority of times leaning back going through my regen/haste/occasional cures/rest cycle with a few bara spells and status cures thrown in and by preference chatting and joking with party members. Of course running into the occasional emergency thrown in but that just keeps it interesting.

It gets easier as you get comfortable with the roles

[Kitalrez]

Re: Any White Mage Advice?

Actually, I'd advocate not using your higher cures for a different reason that Satori stated. It's not that they take long times to cast, it's that you build up a lot of hate quickly, and you're no-where near the soft-cap for that spell when you first get it. IE Cure II does 90 points of healing at the soft-cap, if your cure isn't doing anywhere close to this, don't bother casting this spell yet. Save it for a few levels as an emergency spell and just chain the Cure I. That also gives your melee and tanks a few levels to get better at keeping/spiking hate for when you do need to use it more regularly.

As far as Erase goes, yeah your party was right in suggesting that you not waste the mp casting it if the mob's going to do its thing every single battle. Spiders are like this too, that AE slow is the equivalent of Slow II, meaning Haste and Hastega won't overwrite it like normal Slow. On the other hand Spiders will use that WS almost every single battle, so after awhile it's easier to just ignore the slow and save the MP for those surprise Sickle Slashes.

Icemage is extremely correct on /SMN. It's only useful over /BLM for a very few levels. Typically starting at 50 and going up to around 61~65ish. Why? Because /BLM gets Conserve MP as a job trait and around 61-65 you start chaining Cure IIIs for most of your healing, with Cure Vs for the emergencies. Now, having that kick in on Cure V gives you a major advantage in keeping the chain going, and having to chain Cure III as often as you do means it'll kick in much more often. From a /SMN, you're just getting Auto-Refresh and Aerial Armor, which isn't as useful later on when more of the stuff you're fighting does AE moves to take or ignore it. Take it from someone with a lvl 70 SMN, there's a limit to what you can accomplish with Auto-Refresh and Aerial Armor. After that small window of usefulness, putting off the downtime as long as possible becomes more important to the party than reducing it.