What do you like about White Mage?

[Rain_Blade]

Before I say anything, I've searched this. Lol. I like looking at topics like this to see if I have an interest in the job that's being talked about. Topics like these are mostly in job forums that are DDs so I guess I wasn't surprised to not see this similar topic here; although, screw me if there's already a past topic about this. Anyway let's get back on track. As you know, pretty much any mage with fair mp or higher is going to be called to be a healer at some point during your time of lfp.

A lot of people don't like to heal mainly because they want to stick to seeing the big damages they do. It frustrates them to do the healing while they watch the rest of the pt DD and such OR they don't want to take responsibility of any future deaths. You'd think you should be fighting/DDing with them. Basically, there's just a lot of irritation over it. My whm is 37 and and smn 75 but I don't mind main healing and such so w/e about that. I'm a curious person with curious questions.

To the dedicated healers and/or people planning to take white mage high, why do you like playing white mage? What do you like/love about it? Is it because you like helping people? Is it because when you're walking somewhere and see a person who is in need of a cure, you'd love to help that person be cured and protected/shelled? What is it? ^^

[Callisto]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

I like that it's easily replaceable by my RDM in a burn party, more merit points for me! >.>

j/k j/k! Don't Hexa me; ;

In seriousness, it's similar to being a refresher, in that you're always needed. DD are replaceable and interchangeable, but without a good healer the parties will eventually break down. Granted RDM, SMN, and even BLU or BLM can fill the main heal role at times, eventually everyone will always come running back to the WHMs begging for a Raise III. It's nice to feel needed.

[Brayden]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

Whm was my first job to 75 and the job I played with my frineds with our first time through. What I really liked was a lot of what you mentioned, I like helping people, wether it was my set party, or just passing by peope tossing them a cure, haste or protect. World mobility was nice too, way before things like OP warps, being able to teleport just about anywhere was a huge advantage to get where I, or my PT wanted to go (pfft, runic portals ) Reraise spells were nice too, so if we wiped on something, it wasnt a big deal. I like the aspect of spell casting too, and of course whm is pretty much all that.

Later on it allowed me to experience many "end game" events up close and personal, and I felt i got to play part of the game I never thought I would. All in all, whm was a great choice for me to play starting out in FFXI, and though I rarely play it now, I respect those people who play the job well, as I know I do.

[Olorin401]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

Wow I don't think I've ever been asked this question..

I guess I just like how the job plays, and how the rest of the party relies on you. Sure a RDM can function as a healer, but its specialty is keeping the mobs as weak as possible. The goal of a WHM is to make keep the party members as strong as possible, and that includes cures, preventitive buffs, removing negative status effects, and in some capacity limiting the mob's ability to damage the party (which is why both RDM and WHM get Paralyze, Slow and Silence). Plus there's the stuff that only a WHM can do - efficient spells like Cure V, Protectra & Shellra 3/4/5 and Regen 2/3, must-have spells like Stona, Raise 2/3, Reraise 2/3, and utility like Teleport Altep/Yhoat/Vazhl.

[Silent Howler]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

I have spent a little time with each of the basic jobs, and I ended up sticking with monk for a while. But I didn't take it too far, only to level 13. Then I took up whm again and have taken it to 18 and plan to go farther. So why did I switch from the DD monk to whm? To keep it simple, I just like being helpful. There was one time where I spent a little time with one other full party and I threw out some cures during fights. I wouldn't say I was "PLing" them, since I wasn't any stronger. I wasn't getting any exp for it either. I was basically just, well, helping. And then there's the time I spent 3-4 hours with this one little taru. For that case, I basically was PLing her, but those aren't my choice of words. I've always thought of it as me acting as her "guardian angel" and just looking after her.

Most of the time I always want to have whm as either a main or sub. I always want it there so I can throw out a cure and save someone from death. I'm probably going to take whm all the way, but I might stop to spend some time with smn. And if I go smn I'm going to put whm as my sub. Not because of the extra mp boost, but because it will grant me the ability to heal.

[Tsrwedge]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

As a preface, I started as a BLM and only started leveling WHM when I got my support job

I enjoy White Mage simply because I find it to be a constant challenge to play well in a party. When I was playing as Black Mage I had a very constant role in parties: nuke, wait for the cooldown plus 10 seconds or so to make sure I didn't grab hate, nuke, wait, lather rinse repeat. The whole thing was rather boring and actually almost started putting me to sleep. White Mage proved to be very different experience: I now absolutely have to be on the button at all times - watching everyone's hit points and watching status effects means I can't take a second to zone out at all.

I like having more control over the back end of the party so to speak more than the more readily apparent damage dealing side. Making things go boom is well and good, but it just doesn't appeal to me as much as frustrating the mob's every attempt to relieve my partymates of their lives.

Outside of parties, I enjoy helping wherever I can, however, I do not power-level. I have a severe distaste for power-leveling, as the results of it (the players not leveling with the character) heavily impact my role in the party.

[Silent Howler]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

Outside of parties, I enjoy helping wherever I can, however, I do not power-level. I have a severe distaste for power-leveling, as the results of it (the players not leveling with the character) heavily impact my role in the party.

I'll comment on this. PLing isn't always the best thing for everyone in the party. Particularly, the whm. I was in a party once and they had a PL with, and it made my job near pointless. It wasn't the most enjoyable experience for me. So if I ever PL a party, I will always ask if they have a whm with them first.

[Rain_Blade]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

I'm very surprised at these detailed explanations. Great to know people liking the white mage job they way you all described it. ^^

[Jei]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

I like to have them around for their raise 2-3.

I tried to level up white mage. Got my Whm to 67. Seriously, the amount of invite just simply made the job not so fun -.- Once you start burning, Whm just isn't the top choice. Not as bad as say, Blm, but still........ Whm gets too little love for the healing they do.

[Auron517]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

I guess part of the reason I'm White Mage is because everyone and their moogle were telling me I couldn't do it because I was a Galka.

In fact, the doubts made me enjoy the job more than if I was a different race. I had to become a little bit overzealous with my skills and healing duties early to compensate for my gimped magic points. And because of this, I've been putting Tarutaru to shame since my first group in the Dunes.

Healing the party is more exciting than just auto attacking to me and people really appreciate when they group with a good healer. Everyone is used to mediocre White Mages, I think, so they tend to take notice when they don't have to repeat every 15 seconds to say how they need silena, poisona, paralyna, etc.

Knowing that the party is alive and kicking solely based on my healing skills is the best part of being a White Mage, how many melee can say that?

[cutelittlemithra]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

Hmm... what do I like about white mage? I remember asking that question back when I was a 40 whm and dead little peoples in town wouldn't accept my Raise II's. That was very annoying, if not just a bit frustrating. I wanted to become whm 75 mainly because it seemed to be the most sought-after job. I never had any problems being asked for parties, being snatched up for besieged without a flag on and sometimes getting invites without a flag up.
When you pass by enough people healing and start raising random people, when your hanging out in the dunes and you seem like a god for actually going to raise requests from shouts, people just seem to start to know you. And the gil you make from Tele's isn't that bad either. Powerleveling well, I don't mind that so much if I'm doing it for a friend. Sometimes if I'm bored I go to the dunes and just pick a random party to start healing for a bit. I did that until one party started lying to me to make me stay longer which one of the members sent me a /tell and told me what they were up too. They pulled the whole 'oh please stay, one of our members is only 1.4 tnl. Turn outs that in the group they were actually talking about ways they could make me stay longer. So I left them, and 5 minutes later they were calling me to raise them.
The only thing I don't really like about white mage is how weak we are, Easy prey mobs and three or four too weak's can tear through us like paper. Its almost impossible to solo to gain that extra 500 xp points to level so we are always being forced with a party. I think I have only been blamed for the death of the party once, back when I was in the dunes as a lvl 11 whm.
Macros are our friends! I am planning on lvling other jobs of course, but I will always come back to whm.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

As a RDM, I love WHMs because when it was cool to multitask from 60-74, it became a straight nuisance once I got to 75 and I had to spam Curagas or still enfeeble or do Hastes all by myself or etc etc etc.

And then once WHMs had Access to Devotion, HOLY MOLY, I never create a party without a WHM. (Honestly, I think that a pt with WHM+RDM + Melee does a lot better than RDM + BRD + Melee... But I have different values other than OMGWTFBBQ10K/hr exp...)

RDM and WHM compliment each other so well.

As a PLD I love WHMs because if we work together, the results are phenominal. Even if the DDs are subpar, if a WHM and PLD have good chemistry, the pt works great. I know that by the 40s, any decent WHM is on a Cure-Trigger-Twitch, and as a Taru, I haven't gotten one-shotted by anything other than Dark Spore (might change once I get to Spiders >_>).

But communication is essential between a tank and a healer. Especially with my MP pool, a WHM can cast Regen, Haste and do Cure 1s on me unless I'm in Red HP, and for the most part, I can cure myself and just let the DDs do their part. Also, if the WHM is resting, I know that I can easily take care of myself for the first few parts of the fight while they get MP.

So maybe that turned into rambling, but I love WHMs. Wouldn't trade my WHMs for any other job in the world.

[Saren]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

I was thinking about this on and off since the thread came up and came to the conclusion that I like whm because I like the main heal role and whm just tops it over rdm for me because at the moment because it's a main healer from day one and it's the ultimate job for helping friends out with.

It's relatively easy for me to help friends in lots of different ways: transport, raise, healing for a fight on a mob I couldn't even hit if I was trying, skilling up, the odd bit of PLing.

I helped a couple of friends farm their opo opo quest items up, a couple of which were in area's the level 75 friend still aggroed in, and I was still a useful party member (mostly for teleports and haste but not totally) despite being a good 10 levels lower than either of them. I like being able to help friends out despite being a midbie (if that's a word).


I like to main heal for a lot of reasons:

In exp it's challenging, lots to keep track of and a few different sorts of things to do: reacting, cycling, projecting events. I can't think of a less poncy way to phrase that ><

I think tanks and pullers probably feel the same way about their jobs: tanking is a skill, pulling is a skill, balancing all the things you have to as a main healer without dropping anything is a skill. The days when I did well or I can see I am getting better are great.

I also think main healing requires a wider knowledge of mobs and other jobs than most party roles do and I am always finding things I can be improving on which also helps stop me being bored.

Not to sound like a management training seminar here but playing main healer emphasises the teamwork aspect of partying which I really enjoy (when the other people are decent)

A lot of DD play like they are soloing and other people just happen to be there to assist them but it's never like that for me in an exp party. I am very aware I need the DDs and tank to kill the mob and stop it pulverizing me and that I help the DD and Tank in return by keeping them alive, reducing their downtime and giving a little direct enhancement.

[Irisjir Callard]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

Why do I like whm on the surface?
Sneak/invis = never have to buy oils or powders
Teleports = never have to shout for a port
Reraise = Never have to buy reraisers for events
Just those right there make my whitemage fantastically cheap. If I had to buy oils and powders, I wouldn't have done ninety percent of the game exploration I do, so the reward isn't just in my wallet, but in my knowledge of areas that most people don't bother to get to know: arrapagio reef is a prime example.
Then of course there is the fact that my WHM is an island unto herself as far as playability. She has many, many tools to deal with aggro. She has her own refresh sytem (based off gear, items, and sanction yes but she has it!). When she IS killed, moments later she's back on her feet and I don't even have to stop and rest for mp/hp. She can go where other people can't, she can do things other people say she shouldn't.
If I can't get a party to do something, be it merit points, be it missions, be it quest related or whatever, I can try to solo it.
And so secure am I in my ability of reraise 3, that often me 'soloing' a big boss (Chimera 13 comes to mind) that I do it in two stages...once, with no buffs or food, intending to die, merely gathering information about how the mechanics of this particular boss/monster work (attack speed, how hard it hits, what triggers 'rage' mode, how accurate it is, other information that can't really be looked up on the Wiki but is vital to knowing "Is this something I can solo"), and once I die, reraise, and dispose of weakness, when I walk into the arena the second time I know exactly what I'm doing and how the battle is going to go, from first aggro to last strike.
Name me another job so confident in their own recovery ability that they can afford the occasional death for research purposes.
Name another job so easy to travel with, so easy to take around the world in a few moments with an effortless cast.
Name another job so self-sustaining, name another job so adaptable, name another job who can open or close tier 3 skillchains and burst them from either opening OR closing!

[Callisto]

Re: What do you like about White Mage?

I do love having a WHM in the party, because even though I can main heal as RDM, I certainly don't aspire too. Having a WHM let's me do my job, and also lets me have some fun with it. And I loooooove RDM-friendly WHMs who save Divine Seal for Convert, hit me with Devotion, and have no problem tossing me a Regen III when I use Souleater > Vorpal. Having a WHM basically means that I get to show off in a party, focusing on pulling/enfeebling/DD, and I know someone will have my back and take care of the other members.

Everyone is used to mediocre White Mages, I think, so they tend to take notice when they don't have to repeat every 15 seconds to say how they need silena, poisona, paralyna, etc.

And OMG yes, the difference between a good WHM and a plain one is so noticeable. That's why I hang out with Mr. 5/5 AF2 Olorin >.>