Whm downtime?

[ragingchakra]

Do whm wait a lot after battles to heal mp? I need advice on +mp because I tend to use up mana a lot and have used up all mana after 2 or 3 battles but a SMN almost doesn't need to sit for long. I'm using ginger cookies. Also if I start to cast cure 3, the mob comes at me often.

[KingOfZeal]

Re: Whm downtime?

What level are you? If a mob comes after you with a Cure III, my guess is you're no higher than 25 or so. If you are, then you have issues either spamming Cures or with your tank not keeping hate at all.

In any case, WHMs alone do tend to need to rest often, which is why a BRD or RDM is preferred with them, for Refresh or Ballad I/II respectively. Now, keep in mind that the effect isn't enough to completely prevent a whm from resting, but it does prolong how long they can stand for. Some of the higher level items, like a vermy or Noble's also helps with this.

I suppose another question is what sub are you using? When I was leveling WHM, there was a significant debate was BLM or SMN sub -- SMN gives you a bigger mp pool and Auto Refresh at 50, BLM gives you Conserve MP and more utilities like Warp and Escape. Personally, I went with SMN and I didn't have many issues. At 66 with my gear, my mp pool would top out over 1000 (1050ish if I remember). That combined with Auto Refresh was pretty nice.


Now, back to the topic: If you can easily get +MP items, do. But, I wouldn't discount +hMP items either, since those will cut down on your downtime when you do need to rest. It's probably a horse a piece on which one would be better if you had to choose, but +MP would probably help you more assuming it was enough for some cures (IE, choosing between +3 MP and +3hMP, hMP would be better since 3 MP isn't enough to do anything significant). Also don't forget about cookies. They give +hMP, and a significant amount of it, too. If you are high enough, also don't forget MND so you can easily hit the soft cap on cures, and even go past them, which makes your MP -> HP efficiency better.

[Elwynn]

Re: Whm downtime?

Ah, the fun of hate and MP management.

First of all, if you aren't using Regen, you should. It helps with both problems. Regen costs as much MP as Cure II, but gives 125HP instead of 90HP, and gives a lot less hate. Regen is your friend. When you get Regen II, then you can cast twice as often, giving II to the one who needs more healing.

Cure III? Let me guess, you're at the jungles level... I learned the hard way that Goblin Smithy + Cure III = squished taru WHM. C3 and C4 pull a lot of hate when they're your top spell, and the problem is only made worse when the mob hits the tank with a spike damage + hate reset attack. It's just begging you to commit suicide by dropping that C3 bomb. The best thing when you do get the hate is to already have Blink and Stoneskin up, and run toward the party rather than away so they can pound some sense back into it. But that's even more MP used up, and you have to recast every 5 minutes.

The first thing to do about MP is to start looking for +MP gear. You'll want it when you get Reraise anyhow, so that you can have 150MP when weakened. But the other thing that's hard to get used to when you're busy watching for people needing heals is to just sit down and rest... if you're sitting for more than 20 seconds you start getting MP back. Even one tick is at least 15 or so MP. So cast Regen on the ones who take damage faster, sit down, and wait a little longer before you get up to throw heals. And when the tank gets that spike damage, drop a C2 then a Regen. If they're taking enough damage that you can't sit for 30 seconds or so between casting a couple of heals at a time, maybe the party is pulling stuff thats a little too tough.

Try to use Curaga between pulls, and try to land a Regen on the puller if you can (they run away fast and usually when you're trying to get that last tick, so it's not easy). Also, use ginger cookies (+5hMP is half what a Dark Staff gives you at 51, and gives you 30MP more per minute) and avoid interrupting your rest because it resets your MP healing rate.

EDIT: oh yeah, and now with FoV, you can get a 1MP/tick refresh that lasts an hour. Unfortunately this does NOT stack with juices.

And of course, don't over-cure. There is no need to top everyone off, and you still use the same MP even if your cure only does 2HP. In fact, it's a bad idea since some jobs can heal themselves a little and that extra gap means less healing that comes from your MP pool.

[ragingchakra]

Re: Whm downtime?

Played at Altepa desert fighting beetles at lv 30-31 sync with half lv 50 gear and some low lv gear. I had dark staff but dunno if the +mp/tick works with lv30 sync. I used ginger cookies. Died twice but mainly due to f8+dia or silencing wrong mob cause I didn't look at the mobs..mainly hp.. I didn't play healer class for a long time. Also, I hate antican's silence. I used echo drop but don't want to buy more because I want to save $... I used regen a lot and sometimes I'm either busy looking at hp or healing and forget to buff/debuff. Also a question I forgot to ask, do you usually dia, silence, or slow at the start of battle?

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Whm downtime?

Casting silence, slow, dia, para, etc are really things for the red mage to be doing. But you don't always have a rdm in the party. There are a lot of variables to casting debuffs with no rdm in the party. First curing takes top priority because thats your main job. When it comes to dia, find out if you have a blm in the party. They are quite fond of casting bio and bio and dia do not stack. Thats something you'd have to work out with them. What type of mob are you killing and what kind of tank do you have? Slow helps out ninjas so that might be something you'd need to cast. Silence is very important on mobs that cast. In the end it saves you MP by casting it on them (and hopefully it sticking! LOL). These and other things are just stuff you learn along the way with your job. Know the mobs that your party is going to pull and what moves they do and STAND BACK! You can stand back quite far and not get hit with stuff. When I was leveling, I would find the area I was going to stand and then move back until I couldn't cast a cure then I'd slowly move forward until I could and then I'd be at max range. It comes second nature to you after a while. ^^

Regen is great and so is Curaga. Both can be MP savers for you so make sure you know when its good to use them. Regen helps with hate management so its a good thing to use on damage dealers with a little hp missing. You'll save mp and hate by doing so. Curaga is a great mp saver too but remember there is a time and place to use it. I try not to use a Curaga spell until the mob is close to 50% or less health. The tank should have decent hate by then and even if you do pull hate for a second, they should be able to get it back fairly easily. Be careful combining Divine Seal with Curaga too, thats a lot of hate coming at you.

Something that will come to you easily eventually will be knowing just how much hp that someone is missing and what spell to cast. For me, I see less than 80% and think a Cure III but that also depends on job and race. 80% for a taru blm would mean a Cure II. And the biggest thing to understand is that your entire party does NOT need to be 100% healed at all times! If they whine, don't listen to them. Look at your MP, the flow of the party, and make the appropriate decision.

MP+ gear is awesome. I don't have as much of it as I wish I did but every little bit does help. Cookies are great too, sometimes I just wish I could sit long enough for them to actually wear off! LOL

Keeping buffs up (Protect and Shell) is important because believe it or not that saves you MP too. You could get yourself a little timer for at home and set it for 30 minutes to remind you. Or I used to use a computer timer because I played on my computer. A bell would go off in my headset and I'd know it was time for buffs. Also your -na spells and Erase are second to curing. Go to Wiki and learn the moves the mob does and what spells you'll be using.

Also don't be afriad to tell the paladin that he has to use his damn MP. I've seen too many of them that sit on a full tank of MP because they are saving it for an emergency................makes me want to hit them upside the head with a baseball bat!

[Nuriko]

Re: Whm downtime?

For that matter, not curing to full can be beneficial with a DNC using Drain Samba...

[Clever Ninja]

Re: Whm downtime?

As I learned with my RDM, and later when I healed abit on my BLU leveling that, the easiest way to get PLD's to cure more that don't want to, is not to heal! Cure is a very important hate tool, any good DD can get hate if you do nothing but Voke + Flash. Be sure that when his HP is in the red, and he's fighting some Colibri, he will definitely start dropping them Cure 4's.

After that just listen to TGM, farthest I know of WHM is from subbing it.

[Elwynn]

Re: Whm downtime?

I used echo drop but don't want to buy more because I want to save $...

NO. Mages should always carry a full stack of Echo Drops. ALWAYS. Silence=Death.

It's Alchemy 20, it's not that hard to get to 15 or so where you can make them yourself. Get the sage in San d'Oria and buy extra sage to leave in your Mog House if you live somewhere else.

Echo Drops - FFXIclopedia

I've been raeped by Air Elementals in Tahrongi more than enough while soloing, and they beat this lesson into my big taru head. You can't even use an Instant Warp scroll when silenced. I carry them even when farming in lowbie areas just so I can't forget to put them back in my inventory.

Also a question I forgot to ask, do you usually dia, silence, or slow at the start of battle?

First curing takes top priority because thats your main job.

This. If you try to do other stuff (other than keeping Protetctra/Shellra up), you can get distracted and people will die. It's also less MP for healing. When you're 33 and have Raise and Refresh, this isn't necessarily fatal, but it's still bad. I got bored once in an LS party and tried to lolWHMnuke and someone KOed because I wasn't watching health bars often enough. But that was only 10 minutes downtime. If you want to skill up your magic, there are better times and places. (Like Besieged, yay!)

Silence is very important on mobs that cast.

Essential. It's a good thing they don't carry Echo Drops.

When I was leveling, I would find the area I was going to stand and then move back until I couldn't cast a cure then I'd slowly move forward until I could and then I'd be at max range. It comes second nature to you after a while. ^^

I've only recently noticed that if you're way out of range, the message will be yellow. But if you're just a tiny bit out of range, the message will be red.

Something that will come to you easily eventually will be knowing just how much hp that someone is missing and what spell to cast. For me, I see less than 80% and think a Cure III but that also depends on job and race. 80% for a taru blm would mean a Cure II.

Of course this gets tricky as you level up (or level restrict down) and have to recalibrate how much of a bar is what cure. Basically, you will learn what cure to throw based on the bar, and you need to wait for the bar to go down enough so that you don't cast too small of a heal (lower Cure spells are less efficient).

And the biggest thing to understand is that your entire party does NOT need to be 100% healed at all times! If they whine, don't listen to them. Look at your MP, the flow of the party, and make the appropriate decision.

The very first XP party I was in (after soloing WHM to 18 before the Easy Prey XP change!), and my ONLY Dunes party ever, was out on Secret Beach. Afterward, the BLM was pissy with me, so I made him tell me what was wrong. He said he was having to heal people too much. I was like WTF? I was healing like I still do now 45 levels later, waiting for the bar to go down to about 75-80%, then healing to about 95%, so all I can figure is he must have been either trying to top people off to 100%, or healing too soon. And I learned to heal like that as a solo WHM!

FWIW, I didn't have my subjob then, and probably no +MP other than my Windurstian Ring, so I wasn't exactly swimming in MP. It didn't help that they were probably pulling too fast, trying too hard for chains. Pullers can be bad about not noticing the healer's MP, even though it's right there on the screen where they can see it.

The one thing that I did do wrong in that party, and learned the lesson from, was when I took hate I ran away from the gob... and away from the party too, and they couldn't catch up to pull it off me.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Whm downtime?

Yes, one of the most annoying things to do is to run from a mob that you get hate on in an exp party. I have jobs on both sides of the spectrum and its one of my pet peeves. As a mage with sleep, I can not sleep the mob thats on you if you run out of my range. As a melee with provoke, the same aspect applies. I'm trying to help you but you are preventing me from doing so. Of course, its a natural response to getting aggro so if you HAVE to run, run in circles around the party at least. Also if you know they can't get it off of you (i.e. maybe you did Benediction), then go to a safe spot and just die there so you can reraise/get a raise in a safe area. Also if you decide to run around your exp party when you have aggro, make sure you don't get aggro from another mob in the area. If you do, take it like a man and just die gracefully and tell your party not to help you.

[Ellipses]

Re: Whm downtime?

Seriously, Echo Drops or GTFO.

For debuffs, what I'll usually do if there's no one else doing them is get out Dia (for non-mage mobs) or Silence (for mage mobs) first thing when the mob's in range, then the other one after my first Regen. Then stagger in Slow and/or Paralyze in between other Regens and/or Cures.

/heal as often as you can. Stay down for another tick or two when the puller gets back. Rest while the fight's going on if everything's okay. Obviously, get back up and cast when you need to, but every little bit helps. Every tick of resting you sneak in during up time is one less tick of down time.

Watch the HP and see how much people actually need. Some mobs just keep you too busy to manage MP as much as you'd like (and odds are that means you're fighting mobs that are too high for your party), but quite a bit of the time, you can hold back more than your gut tells you. XP loss happens at 0 HP, not yellow.

Also, stop using F8. Set up a /ta <bt> macro.

[Fliegar]

Re: Whm downtime?

I've heard of quite a few of those macros, but I'm not sure what they do.

/ta <bt> targets the closes monster that is currently engaged by you or your party, right?

[Firewind]

Re: Whm downtime?

Echo drops aren't essential in exp parties. The only exp mob you will EVER fight that can silence you is an imp but an observant BLU can usually stun it anyway. Antica can too but I don't think anyone exps on them anymore.

If you're in a mission or event though I would always carry a stack or two at the very least.

[Nuriko]

Re: Whm downtime?

It's easier if you just keep echos on you at ALL times. By the way, people do still XP on the ants ... in fact, it was pretty crowded a few weeks ago.

[Elwynn]

Re: Whm downtime?

If you don't carry echo drops at all times, you WILL forget them some time that it really matters to have them.

[Firewind]

Re: Whm downtime?

Since I'm usually asked to come on WHM for LS events and tend to refuse to teleport the party until everyone has their essential items for the mission. Myself included. The only one time I forgot echos was during a failed mission run where having them wouldn't have effected the outcome anyway due to a botched sneak pull pretty much guaranteeing a wipe

Still it's a very good habit to get into, always carrying echos though I would NEVER expect a new player to be carrying them nevermind carrying them 24/7