can I have some advice on being a pure Party WHM?

[Markus. D]

okey dokey,

equips?

Macroed spells!?


x_x?!

[Garland]

For weapons, use a wand with mind+ until 51, then you'll need a light staff and dark staff. If you want people to remember you, consider getting an ice staff for landing paralysis, a wind staff for landing silence and an earth staff for landing slow. Granted, Whms aren't usually enfeeblers, but it's not unreasonable to be put in the position from time to time, and why not make it count?

There's not too much in the way of armor that really benefits a Whm till level 29 and Seers. I'd just get the whole set and it'll last you till Artifact Armor that you'll quest in your 50s. For accessories, MP+ is always a good idea, and mind+ in the leftover spots.

As far as spells, keep in mind your latest cure isn't always your best cure. It typically takes a few levels for a cure to reach its full potential. For example, Cure 1 when you first get it might cure 22 damage, but eventually it'll cure for 30+. When you first learn Cure II, it won't be MP efficient to use it for your main cure, so save it for emergencies. By the time you get cure III, cure II will be your primary cure, and you can use the same rule for casting cure III. By the time Cure III is your primary cure, you'll know enough about whm to figure it out.

A whm is more than a cure-bot. The whm who does nothing but spam cures on the tank is a mediocre whm at best. A good Whm recognizes which mob attacks have status ailments, and tries to cure the recipient with the appropriate 'na spell as soon as possible. Don't wait for the Pld to tell you "poisona plz" in between pulls when s/he could've rested a few ticks of mp already. A proactive whm is a good whm.

Regen is your friend. It cures hp gradually over time, and it cures a lot of HP for the amount of MP it uses. Sometimes it's better to cast regen on a party member who's not critical, and isn't tanking. IE: if your dark knight pulls hate and takes a couple hits, toss him a regen and let his hp restore over time. Regen is a really low hate spell, so you're less likely to get hit yourself. However, if a mob criticals your tank to orange/red, regen isn't the spell of choice. Pull out your big guns then, and get him/her up to par.

Don't forget your barspells. Barelement spells can save you tons of mp in cures, when for example, a bomb toss does 5 damage instead of 100. Barstatus spells suck. Use them if the party says "why aren't you using X barstatus spell?". Sometimes a placebo is better than looking negligent. You'll know barsleepra isn't helping in jungle, but your party might swear on it, and why not keep them quiet. Noone likes being told what to do anyway. Barelement spells though, are worth their weight in gold.

Don't melee in exp parties. While it's true SE has a fetish for WHM melee, and will give you some unusually amazing melee oriented gear, meleeing isn't good for EXP. Good Whms are resting when they're not casting, for the most part. Even if you're managing your MP perfectly, don't melee. Melee whms are frowned upon by the population, whether an individual WHM makes it work or not. You'll just look bad, even if you're increasing your party's exp/hour. Sometimes it's not about how effective you are, but about how effective people think you are. Truth doesn't pull in invites. Following the rules does. That said, 99% of the time, meleeing will kill your exp.

[Markus. D]

complicated faq...

Mirage told me to get gear that adds MP over gear that ads MND.


x_x"

[Del Murder]

As a PLD, I'd say I look for a WHM who knows to use Regen, and status healing without me having to ask. It's so annoing to have to say {Poison} after every battle because the WHM can't realize that when they see the green spit going out of the crawler's mouth it's going to get me every time!

[Markus. D]

when should I cast Regen?

[Del Murder]

Well, I think your tank should always have Regen. The others should have it if they take a hit and it doesn't make them critical. That's what I would say, but maybe an experienced WHM can say more.

[Markus. D]

I see...

thanks


hmmmm, I learn teleport at level 32 right? or is it.... 28? x_x"

[Rostum]

Level 36, 38 and 42.

[Miriel]

These next few items will last you a loooong way, so try and get your hands on them as soon as you can:

Energy earrings
Zealot mitts
Silk Mist Cape
Blood Stone
Justice Badge

Those basic items got lasted me ages from pre-dunes all the way to the Jungles.

As for other equipment, just try and get as much MP and MND as possible. I do put priority on MP over MND, but both are important to a WHM.

In party situations, you have 3 things to consider.

1) Healing (of course)
2) Buffing
3) Enfeebling

If there is no Red Mage in the party, always always always start off the battle with Dia/Slow/paralyze. This will make the battle go much much better. Also be sure to to throw out appropriate Bar-spells because these will save you from having to cure as much. So be sure to know which bar spell will benefit your party against a given monster. And make sure to always have protect/shell up.

As for healing, in the beginning it'll mostly just be throwing out Cure I after Cure I. But as you get higher up, you're gonna have to start deciding which cure will best conserve your MP while still keeping everyone healthy.

Once you get regen, you should cast it on the primary tank on every battle and if you can, on secondary tanks and other melees as well.

As for healing, I like healing with the < stpc > macro so that I can shuffle through my party and select who needs curing rather quickly. Be sure to have {Gather Together} in your Protectra/Shellra macro. I always think it's bad manners for a white mage to not have that in their macro and they just go shooting off buffs when the whole party isn't even gathered together.

I would post my macros for you but it's late and I'm tired.

When you get Haste, be sure to cast THAT on the tank/melees as well. Figuring out Haste cycles can be a bit tricky since the timer on it is a bit longer than other spells and conserving MP should still be kept in mind.

[Yeargdribble]

1) Curing - Use smaller cures to keep on the hate line. Also using big cures can be overkill and waste MP. In a good PT your tank will have pretty solid hate so you can focus your cures there almost exclusively. With a PLD tank, do not try to keep them topped off all the time. PLDs can cure themselves to help hold hate, but they can't do so if they are at 100% all the time. Use your discretion about how low you think is reasonable for your PLD to get (depending on the mobs being fought).

Use Curaga almost never and sparingly at best. It is an immense amount of hate when you get it and for many levels to come. Use it only for emergencies or after the mob is dead. By the time you're in the Jungles you should be able to safely fix Dream Flower with Curaga without too much of a hate problem.



2) Regen - Try to keep your tank Regen'd all the time. Also slapping Regen on the puller can be good when they take hits. In a good PT where the tank keeps hate most of the time you will be able to use Regen on all other PTs members intead of cure. Cure can waste time, MP and hate when used on people that don't get hit often. Just use Regen and they will probably fill up before they get hit again.



3) Gear - MP is your first concern. hMP I would say is second. There aren't many options for hMP at lower levels. Pilgrim's Wand at 10, Baron's Slops at 20 and Seer's Tunic at 29. MND is good, but far less important than the others. You may be expected to enfeeble in lower level PTs (and even if you're not it's a good idea when a RDM isn't present). MND will help yo land enfeebles, but by the 50s and 60s your enfeebling magic skill falls behind so much (compared to RDM) that it's almost pointless to try to enfeeble even with a pimp MND set.



4) Enfeebling - This isn't really your job, but you will be in a position to do it a lot at lower levels. Keep Dia on the mob and try to convince people that cast Bio that Dia > Bio. Dia lowers defense and allows everyone to do more damage. Bio lowers attack and only benefits the PLD. I've heard Bio for PLD and Dia for NIN, but I think it's BS. Unless your PLD sucks and can't take the hits it's Dia all the way for maximum efficiency.

Slow and Paralyze are the other two important enfeebles. You cannot even begin to imagine the importance of these unless you've tanked for a while. Try to keep these on at all times. If there is a RDM in your PT and he's not doing this... he's a bad RDM (it's his job).



5) Status ailments - This is really the meat of WHM. Almost anyone can cure spam. A huge part of being a good WHM is to learn enemy moves and what satuses they inflict. Some are obvious like poison breath and you can easily see the effect. Others can be more difficult. Not sure if you'll take WHM this high, but when PTs XP on Coeurls it's important to know that Blaster = Paralyze and Chaotic Eye = Silence.

It may help to adjust your chat filters. Try to be quick to remove any status ailments.



6) Food - I'd stay away from max MP foods. You will so rarely be sitting near your max that they are a waste. Aim at hMP foods (like Ginger Cookies) to help you restore MP faster. Foods like Roast Mushroom add MND as well as hMP (and last 30 minutes compared to the 5 minutes of NQ cookies), but can be pricier.



7) Macros - About the only thing you'll want to say in a macro is {Gather Together} before casting Protectra and Shellra. Adding that you're curing a person just adds to chat clutter. Nobody really needs to know much of what you're doing. If you're doing your job well you won't even be noticed much. If you're using a keyboard it's usually fastest to use F1-F6 to target PT members for cures. If you aren't using a keyboard < stpc > can be a lifesaver.



8) General - Remeber to throw up Protectra and Shellra every 30 minutes. Barspells can be very helpful and are often under-rated. Things like Cursed Sphere are Water based and having Barwatera up can reduce damage slightly. Many things in the dunes (pugils and crab) have Water based damage abilities so Barwatera is made of win there.

Status barspells are less useful. They may minimize the duration of an effect (like the hated sleepga from mandies), but usually they aren't worth the MP or effort to cast as you will rectify status problems before they would naturally wear off.

Keep your distance from battle. This is something mages don't do very well at lower levels. Staying far from the battle will allow you to avoid the AoE abilities (like Bomb Toss and Dream Flower) of mobs. This not only keeps your alive but saves your resources (MP) for healing up the PT and in the case of Dream Flower, allows you to Curaga the PT as you may be the only one awake.

If you aren't curing and things are going smoothly you should be on your ass resting. The first tic of MP restoration comes at 20 seconds and then every 10 afterward. Try to begin resting before the mob is dead so that you'll get at least 1 or 2 tics before the next pull. When you can, rest during battle.

I'd go into Haste cycles and all that, but I assume you aren't planning on taking WHM that high so it's likely unneccessary.

[Jimsour]

I love melee WHMs, but they arent for parties. While partying your priority should be helping others and conserving your MP as much as possible, i.e making the right choices, dont be casting cure 4 when you can get away with cure 3, and etc.

I cant say much on the matter apart from that, my WHM is only Lv16, but my RDM is 51 and I've done my fair share of main healing to tell you that one tip That, and Regen is your friend. It costs very little MP but over time gives back a very nice chunk of HP.

6) Food - I'd stay away from max MP foods. You will so rarely be sitting near your max that they are a waste. Aim at hMP foods (like Ginger Cookies) to help you restore MP faster. Foods like Roast Mushroom add MND as well as hMP (and last 30 minutes compared to the 5 minutes of NQ cookies), but can be pricier.

Up untill you get seers for any of the mage jobs (apart from blu..) pies are great. Rolanberry pies where a life saver for me in the dunes on both WHm (which is still in there) and RDM, because I got an extra 80 MP from them. Also cant ginger cookies be used at the same time as food? I always thought they could.

[Yeargdribble]

Can't use pie and cookie simultaneously. I think you have a point about low levels PTs though. In the dunes you often have battles that are solely dependant on max MP and wait for the WHM to be completely full before pulling again.

I think my food suggestions may be clouded by having not been in the dunes in a while. hMP could easily be wasted at those levels where you don't get a very solid stream of mobs incoming regularly.

[Markus. D]

1) Curing - Use smaller cures to keep on the hate line. Also using big cures can be overkill and waste MP. In a good PT your tank will have pretty solid hate so you can focus your cures there almost exclusively. With a PLD tank, do not try to keep them topped off all the time. PLDs can cure themselves to help hold hate, but they can't do so if they are at 100% all the time. Use your discretion about how low you think is reasonable for your PLD to get (depending on the mobs being fought).

Use Curaga almost never and sparingly at best. It is an immense amount of hate when you get it and for many levels to come. Use it only for emergencies or after the mob is dead. By the time you're in the Jungles you should be able to safely fix Dream Flower with Curaga without too much of a hate problem.



2) Regen - Try to keep your tank Regen'd all the time. Also slapping Regen on the puller can be good when they take hits. In a good PT where the tank keeps hate most of the time you will be able to use Regen on all other PTs members intead of cure. Cure can waste time, MP and hate when used on people that don't get hit often. Just use Regen and they will probably fill up before they get hit again.



3) Gear - MP is your first concern. hMP I would say is second. There aren't many options for hMP at lower levels. Pilgrim's Wand at 10, Baron's Slops at 20 and Seer's Tunic at 29. MND is good, but far less important than the others. You may be expected to enfeeble in lower level PTs (and even if you're not it's a good idea when a RDM isn't present). MND will help yo land enfeebles, but by the 50s and 60s your enfeebling magic skill falls behind so much (compared to RDM) that it's almost pointless to try to enfeeble even with a pimp MND set.



4) Enfeebling - This isn't really your job, but you will be in a position to do it a lot at lower levels. Keep Dia on the mob and try to convince people that cast Bio that Dia > Bio. Dia lowers defense and allows everyone to do more damage. Bio lowers attack and only benefits the PLD. I've heard Bio for PLD and Dia for NIN, but I think it's BS. Unless your PLD sucks and can't take the hits it's Dia all the way for maximum efficiency.

Slow and Paralyze are the other two important enfeebles. You cannot even begin to imagine the importance of these unless you've tanked for a while. Try to keep these on at all times. If there is a RDM in your PT and he's not doing this... he's a bad RDM (it's his job).



5) Status ailments - This is really the meat of WHM. Almost anyone can cure spam. A huge part of being a good WHM is to learn enemy moves and what satuses they inflict. Some are obvious like poison breath and you can easily see the effect. Others can be more difficult. Not sure if you'll take WHM this high, but when PTs XP on Coeurls it's important to know that Blaster = Paralyze and Chaotic Eye = Silence.

It may help to adjust your chat filters. Try to be quick to remove any status ailments.



6) Food - I'd stay away from max MP foods. You will so rarely be sitting near your max that they are a waste. Aim at hMP foods (like Ginger Cookies) to help you restore MP faster. Foods like Roast Mushroom add MND as well as hMP (and last 30 minutes compared to the 5 minutes of NQ cookies), but can be pricier.



7) Macros - About the only thing you'll want to say in a macro is {Gather Together} before casting Protectra and Shellra. Adding that you're curing a person just adds to chat clutter. Nobody really needs to know much of what you're doing. If you're doing your job well you won't even be noticed much. If you're using a keyboard it's usually fastest to use F1-F6 to target PT members for cures. If you aren't using a keyboard < stpc > can be a lifesaver.



8) General - Remeber to throw up Protectra and Shellra every 30 minutes. Barspells can be very helpful and are often under-rated. Things like Cursed Sphere are Water based and having Barwatera up can reduce damage slightly. Many things in the dunes (pugils and crab) have Water based damage abilities so Barwatera is made of win there.

Status barspells are less useful. They may minimize the duration of an effect (like the hated sleepga from mandies), but usually they aren't worth the MP or effort to cast as you will rectify status problems before they would naturally wear off.

Keep your distance from battle. This is something mages don't do very well at lower levels. Staying far from the battle will allow you to avoid the AoE abilities (like Bomb Toss and Dream Flower) of mobs. This not only keeps your alive but saves your resources (MP) for healing up the PT and in the case of Dream Flower, allows you to Curaga the PT as you may be the only one awake.

If you aren't curing and things are going smoothly you should be on your ass resting. The first tic of MP restoration comes at 20 seconds and then every 10 afterward. Try to begin resting before the mob is dead so that you'll get at least 1 or 2 tics before the next pull. When you can, rest during battle.

I'd go into Haste cycles and all that, but I assume you aren't planning on taking WHM that high so it's likely unneccessary.

actually I am taking it all zeh way "eventually" so I can heal Mirage n_n (when I am not playing my Mule (Cancelled Main for now, so I dont get billed the extra amount as I know I am not going to be playing it occassssssionally).

*has just noticed* FFXI took away 7 hours of my day D:... and that was after I had been playing it for 2 hours earlier.... which was after the other 3 hours, x_x" [img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img]ake mushrooms... *is addicted again*


edit: and thanks Yearg n_n I copied and pasted onto Word and saved so I would remember.

[Lionx]

The only thing i disagree a lil on is the hmp over mp gear. Unless you are a Galka at low lvls, hmp gear is alot better, and imo even then its better to have more. At higher levels you should have enough mp to not worry about such things, just fill in +MP where hMP doenst fit in, is what i am looking at. If you are a taru though you might wanna look at your hp too...i live by the hair sometimes and if i went for more Astral gear i would have died SO bad...

[Markus. D]

eh, I made a Hume again.

I see, so maybe I should.... go for a little of everything? or will that just make me crap?

you see with MNK I just went with STR and DEX. so uhhh ._. its a little differant.


edit: thats like 3 humes I have o_o