Few questions from a new White Mage

[Murphie]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

Only works on mobs that track by scent.

[Saren]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

Currently I'm at Lv11. Cure 2 is fun but really eats up Mp so I see why Cure is much more cost effective MP-wise and Aquaveil is very useful if Paralyze fails to effect the mob and/or the tank is bad at drawing hate. I'll probably hit the Dunes tomorrow because right now I need sleep. Wish me luck I guess ^_^

Good luck


Few practical things you might know some or all of these already but just incase.


I know I said melee 1-10 but once you get into the dunes and pretty much for the rest of your whm career you get out of AoE range and stay there.

If you haven't looked at this yet then check out Icemage's post in this thread for how to tweak your chat filters and colours. It makes the difference between ARRRGGGHHHH and being able to follow what's going on well.

Mobs you will probably fight in the dunes are
Lizards
Goblins - Bomb Toss is evil, watch out for the magic users Gamblers(blm) leechers (whm very evil) and Tinkerers (drk). Barfira as soon as you can.
Crabs - barwatera helps against bubble shower and the only other thing with crabs is that someone needs to keep Dia on them at all times because they have very very high defense.
Flies - barwatera helps again. Vemon has a chance to poison so afterwards watch for anyone who is losing health every tick and remember to prioritise poisona for people who need to rest for mp.
Pugils - Barwatera again, watch for Screwdriver like a hawk it can do huge damage. You definitely need to keep your tank at full or close to full health for pugils.

Check out the TP moves for the mobs. People tend not to stress strongly enough or early enough how much white mages need to know about TP moves. Gaze attacks can be avoided by not being behind whoever has hate or by facing away from the mob. Cone attacks can be avoided by not being behind whoever has hate.

Barelement spells last about one game hour.

Don't be afraid to rest during fights, if no one needs curing or status removing and the mob doesn't need debuffing the best thing you can do is try and get back some mp.

Divine seal when you get it is your friend.

Enmity - where you can, without endangering anyone, try and save big cures for after a hate spike like a provoke or a big weapon skill, it will make you less likely to pull hate. If you have a suicidal blm in your party (most blm in the dunes seem to be) don't stand next to them, you will probably get hit with AoE if you do and if you die, the party is probably screwed.

When things go wrong - The thing to remember about the dunes is that you don't have any -enmity gear yet, you don't have regen yet, you don't a lot of mp relatively speaking, the tanks don't have most of their hate tools yet, the dds don't have any/most of their damage mitigation tools and fights last a relatively long time. So if/when something goes wrong, try not to worry about it too much, there is a good chance it wasn't your fault.

[DR2D2]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

How many times have you run away from a monster, and deodorize is what saved you, honestly?

Honestly-I don't see a point to using the spell at all(other than possibly skill ups or messing around with people). On my rdm I waited until lvl 31 to get it(only because it was dropping so much that I figured what the heck), but have used it about 5 times in 1.5 years(only when we are in a group waiting for a garrison event(as a way to pass the time).




As a side question:is there any situation where Deoderize is necessary to use to get through a zone?

[Nuriko]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

I can't see much of a way for there to be ... you'd need a true hearing mob that you could sleep, that tracks by scent, and that you can't avoid.

Oh, and it would have to be something you couldn't kill.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

Heehee. RDM may be able to heal more efficiently because of Refresh and Convert, but WHM can absolutely heal "better" in the sense of being able to pull numbers out of our ass that you could only dream of.

You're right though, you can melee better than us, although there are some fairly fun solo WHM setups (I'm looking at you, my beautiful pair of Darksteel +1s; and I swear I will have a Reverend Mail someday) for endgame WHMs.

The first paragraph I have no qualms with.

The second one is, however, buh? The Bolded part contradicts the Italicized part. Meaning, I was claim that you can, in fact, Melee better than us, and I have the hard numbers to back me up:

Red Mage Offensive Skills versus White Mage Offensive Skills

Red Mage 1H Sword Skill - B: 75 Cap = 250
Red Mage 1H Dagger Skill - B (EX): 75 Cap = 250
Red Mage 1H Club Skill - D: 75 Cap = 210

White Mage 1H Club Skill - B+ (SP): 75 Cap = 256
White Mage 2H Staff Skill - C+ (EX): 75 Cap = 230

Bold = Superior primary weapon skill
Italics = Superior secondary weapon skill

And while I'm at it, let us add insult to injury:

Red Mage Shield Skill - F: 75 Cap = 189
White Mage Shield Skill - D: 75 Cap = 210

Now can you look at those figures with a straight face and honestly tell me that Red Mages are not so pathetic as to not be able to out-melee White Mages? That is my largest qualm with S-E at the moment: they say they're going to give us "more spells to let us be on the front line sometimes." We don't need any more flashy-do-nothing (en-)spells: we have enough to cast as it is, even with Fast Cast! What we need is some serious stat-fixing here! If Red Mages are being out-melee'd by White Mages, you know something's wrong with your system.

I don't see why Red Mages were so upset when Blue Mage arrived on the scene when White Mage was already one-upping them in two departments!

[Illuen]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

The first paragraph I have no qualms with.

The second one is, however, buh? The Bolded part contradicts the Italicized part. Meaning, I was claim that you can, in fact, Melee better than us, and I have the hard numbers to back me up:

Red Mage Offensive Skills versus White Mage Offensive Skills

Red Mage 1H Sword Skill - B: 75 Cap = 250
Red Mage 1H Dagger Skill - B (EX): 75 Cap = 250
Red Mage 1H Club Skill - D: 75 Cap = 210

White Mage 1H Club Skill - B+ (SP): 75 Cap = 256
White Mage 2H Staff Skill - C+ (EX): 75 Cap = 230

Bold = Superior primary weapon skill
Italics = Superior secondary weapon skill

And while I'm at it, let us add insult to injury:

Red Mage Shield Skill - F: 75 Cap = 189
White Mage Shield Skill - D: 75 Cap = 210

Now can you look at those figures with a straight face and honestly tell me that Red Mages are not so pathetic as to not be able to out-melee White Mages? That is my largest qualm with S-E at the moment: they say they're going to give us "more spells to let us be on the front line sometimes." We don't need any more flashy-do-nothing (en-)spells: we have enough to cast as it is, even with Fast Cast! What we need is some serious stat-fixing here! If Red Mages are being out-melee'd by White Mages, you know something's wrong with your system.

I don't see why Red Mages were so upset when Blue Mage arrived on the scene when White Mage was already one-upping them in two departments!

Okay, I took your entire post as sarcasm, hence me defending myself from it, but you're, in my opinion, being laughably naive in with that comment.. You suggest that White Mages are out meleeing Red Mages, which is just hillarious. You rightly point out that White Mages have a higher club skill than Red Mages have in Swords. Are you going to look at me with a straight face and tell me that Clubs put out more damage than swords? Besides the few hammers than can do half decent (read: Non-shitty) damage (and lets not forget Mjollnir, of course, cause it has a whopping 11.10 DPS, which can be outmatched by normal, non- incredibly difficult and extremely rare weapons, which Mjollnir IS) and Hexa Strike, what does White Mage have going for it in battle? Staying power, like the ability to tank a mob indefinitely? If used correctly, a endless supply of MP? Nifty toys like Joyeuse?

Also; look at the amount of shields available to White Mage, and then look at what is available to Red Mage. Who has the better Defensive prowess?

Really, just putting forward the idea that White Mage can melee anywhere near as decently, let alone better than Red Mage is just incredibly stupid and nearsighted.

[Feba]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

WHMs kick RDMs ass in melee for one reason. Melee RDMs are eternally associated with completely crap players. Melee WHMs is about the Vana'diel equivalent of getting your ass kicked by a dolphin.

Oh, Illuen, have you ever seen Guen fight? Obviously not what you'd expect from most WHMs, but still an amazing sight.

[Illuen]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

WHMs kick RDMs ass in melee for one reason. Melee RDMs are eternally associated with completely crap players. Melee WHMs is about the Vana'diel equivalent of getting your ass kicked by a dolphin.

Oh, Illuen, have you ever seen Guen fight? Obviously not what you'd expect from most WHMs, but still an amazing sight.

Yes, I have, and it is a wonderous thing. Seeing one of their vids is the entire reason that I eventually want to have the proper gear to solo as WHM. He's fucking awesome!

Also; dolphins are badass fighters who WILL cut you. I think it is closer to getting your ass kicked by a capybara.

[Feba]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

Well, I thought dolphins and white mages went together pretty well because they both feel like wet rubber. But you might have a point.

[Firewind]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

Wow, I didn't know me asking a few questions would turn into a full scale debate on who can hit things with the blunt end the best ^_^;

Levelling in the Dunes is going really slowly. It took me 6 hours last night to go from Lv11 to 12 killing IT Hill Lizards. The exp gains were very sporadic: they ranged from 30 to 150 exp for each IT lizard with an Empress Band so levelling was going along very slowly. If I'm going to have to do this again when I get my Sub Job (I'll have to do it 3 times because I'm thinking of going WHM/SCH once I get the other expansions) then getting to higher levels is going to take a long time.

But the party I was in was great so I didn't really mind the slow levelling. I was struggling to keep up with the healing at first but a member had to leave and we got a backup healer (Scholar/White Mage) so things went much more smoothly. This is how the party was made up:

Warrior/Monk (Main Tank. She always knew when to time provokes well, especially when I had to drop some Cure 2's in an emergency)
Dark Knight/Warrior (Backup Tank and main Damage Dealer. Also did a great job at keeping hate when the main tank couldn't Voke or my cures drew hate)
Thief/White Mage (Puller. He is the White Mage friend I mentioned a few times and he tagged along to give me pointers and level his Thief Job)
Ranger/Thief (No idea what this guy was doing as he just stood there doing nothing for most of the time. I later found out that his keyboard was broken so he could only use a mouse to do things.)
White Mage (Me, the Main Healer, I also handed buffs, enfeebs and status cures)
Scholar/White Mage (Backup healer. Thanks to this guy we only had one close call when we both ran out of MP and both tanks went down into the red)

Ginger Cookies are now my best friends. Before I got a stack we were really cutting it close when I had to sneak in rests when my MP ran out but after I got them me and the backup healer were able to alternate rests and curing when we were running low on MP. Trying to get the one tick of MP you need to drop a Cure on your slowly dying Tank really does get your pulse racing regardless of if you have a backup healer or not.

Out of the time we were there we only had 2 deaths. Both being the puller. The first time was when he accidentally hit a link and we had to run from a pack of angry lizards and the second time was when he got aggro from a Goblin while out pulling (we couldn't get out there in time to save him ).

But despite this job just insane and hair-pulling at times I absolutely love it. it always keeps me occupied and alert and I love that feeling you get when you're passing by and you manage to drop a Cure on someone who is about to die or you manage to relive a party's healer as you pass them. Providing escorts around Ronfaure for people at lv1-10 while farming crystals is also a pretty good way of making freinds too.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

Glad you're having fun. ^_^

Oh, occasionally, you'll come across derisive comments like "cure bots" for healers. Ignore the idiots, and move on--they don't understand why playing healer is fun, and don't want to. No point in sparing with them; your time is better spent elsewhere.

Warrior/Monk (Main Tank. She always knew when to time provokes well, especially when I had to drop some Cure 2's in an emergency)

FYI, a WAR/MNK doesn't really need to "time" the provoke; just use it every 30 seconds, and use Boost every 15 seconds. That should secure the monsters, easily.

Ranger/Thief (No idea what this guy was doing as he just stood there doing nothing for most of the time. I later found out that his keyboard was broken so he could only use a mouse to do things.)

RNG/THF is a pretty meaningless combination in party. All I can say is, don't be like him. >_>;

White Mage (Me, the Main Healer, I also handed buffs, enfeebs and status cures)
Scholar/White Mage (Backup healer. Thanks to this guy we only had one close call when we both ran out of MP and both tanks went down into the red)

With Dark Arts, Scholar has stronger enfeebling skills than WHM. I would recommend WHM get the Dia, while letting SCH/WHM or SCH/RDM handle the first attempts on Paralyze and Slow.

Dunes parties should pretty much have two healers each, IMO. SCHs make terrific co-healers because they can toss out cures slightly faster than WHM on Light Arts, even though they get Cure II a bit later. The only thing is, they (well, I) get distracted switching between Dark and Light Arts, so WHM should watch when they are enfeebling or nuking as clue when they would drop the curing duty.

[Pteryx]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

Personally, I wouldn't recommend that a white mage go to the Dunes until level 11, at which point you get Cure II. (Likewise RDMs and level 14.) You can't really main heal in a party without it in the low levels, as you'll have nothing to react to minor emergencies with. Of course, you're liable to be forced to contend with PLers anyway at that level, but you should at least be prepared to actually do your job regardless. -- Pteryx

[Firewind]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

Very slow day today. Found it almost impossible to get into a party. had to wait in the Dunes for 2 hours and when I did get an invite I had to make it through the tunnels alone. They also disbanded after about half an hour leaving me stranded in the Dunes and having to contend with the tunnel full of bats alone again. Thankfully a passing White Mage was nice enough to dismount their hired chocobo (thus losing it in the process) and cast Sneak and Invisible on me that time.

So with 5 jerks added to my blacklist I decided to go farming instead and ended up levelling up to 13 by doing that (mainly because it was almost impossible to get an item drop from EP mobs in Ronfaure). Does level effect drop rate? I only seem to be getting items from the IT mobs in the Dunes now (I get a drop every battle without a thief). Ah well at least I managed to get 2 full stacks of Moat Carp and a full stack of Crayfish in the AH so that should get some money in.

[Ellipses]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

Very slow day today. Found it almost impossible to get into a party. had to wait in the Dunes for 2 hours and when I did get an invite I had to make it through the tunnels alone. They also disbanded after about half an hour leaving me stranded in the Dunes and having to contend with the tunnel full of bats alone again. Thankfully a passing White Mage was nice enough to dismount their hired chocobo (thus losing it in the process) and cast Sneak and Invisible on me that time.

So with 5 jerks added to my blacklist I decided to go farming instead and ended up levelling up to 13 by doing that (mainly because it was almost impossible to get an item drop from EP mobs in Ronfaure). Does level effect drop rate? I only seem to be getting items from the IT mobs in the Dunes now (I get a drop every battle without a thief). Ah well at least I managed to get 2 full stacks of Moat Carp and a full stack of Crayfish in the AH so that should get some money in.

Not that disbanding after half an hour is a good thing, but if that's all it takes for you to label someone a jerk and whip out the blacklist, yours is going to fill up awfully quickly. Getting "stuck" on the wrong side of the bat cave happens all the time. It's not something a party is likely to think about when inviting someone, because it's just part of doing business at the Dunes.

In case you didn't know, you could also have gone the other way (instead of through the cave) and found some Easy Prey in Konschtat Highlands or North Gustaberg so you didn't have to deal with the bat cave. You'll end up there someday anyway, may as well take the chance to learn the lay of the land.

Level difference between you and the mob does effect drop rate, but not enough to be a real factor if you're killing Easy Prey. It was more likely moon phase (I can never remember if this has been thoroughly tested or just a very popular theory) or just a run of bad luck.

[Firewind]

Re: Few questions from a new White Mage

It wasn't just that. They were also complaining if I didn't heal the moment they got hit even though they didn't need it or it would just draw a ton of hate. Add in them constantly ignoring me and pulling another mob when I'm still trying to recover my MP and then complaining that I can't heal them. Basically they expected me to have infinite MP, keep them at 100% health constantly and somehow survive all of the hate that would draw. I was also expected to be able to use Stona at Lv12 despite that them looking away from the lizards would solve that problem instantly. It was a very bad party full of pretty rude and inconsiderate people hence why they ended up being blacklisted. If I remember right they used a Warrior to provoke.

I have found fishing to be very profitable now. After I was jerked around by that party I rescued someone in West Ronfaure after they hit a link. Turns out the guy was a lV 65 Dark Knight was was levelling his Samurai job (currently at Lv5). After talking to him for an hour or so he gave me some advice on making some gil and his suggestion of selling stacks of Moat Carp on the AH was a very good one. They sell for 2.5k each and take very little time to fish up ^_^. The random Crayfish I catch too also help to boost my cooking skill when I peel them and make good bait. So I can finally afford to update my spells and equipment now ^_^