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Tips and Tricks to playing White Mage - “NO NOT LIKE THAT!!”

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Pre-emptive Curing

Pre-emptive curing is the art of acting before an event happens, to the seasoned adventurer you will have noticed that NM's ready their special attacks and most of them have a small window before they actually go off (hence the idea of stun locking), in times where you don't have a Stunner you can start casting cure as your enemy starts using a Special move to keep your Front Line fully cured and alive. This does not just apply to cures! a Great player will also learn all the tp moves their opponent uses and the additional effects i.e Rumble from a Ram, HP and MP down effects (depends on Mob using) on these its best to toss erase before its finished then cure! (Pre level 40).

Personally I prefer the other style of Pre-Emptive Curing which is Cureskinning your Front line before Bad Juju goes off (Yes that's a Destiny Reference) See rumble > Cure 4 target > Erase (gives a small amount of breathing room with a cureskin on) then top off.

Keep in mind! it is easy to cure too fast and cure before the move goes off (IE Curaga) making it pointless in some instances.


MP Efficiency - Orison Pantaloons +2 and You
Since the beginning of time (Vandiel time ~) Whitemage had always cried out for more mp or refresh, then SE gave us something unexpected! orison pantaloons +2 and Item Not Found!(a recent addition) are pants that should be in every Cure set, if they are not, go re-gear your Whitemage. I'm not joking go do it now! These legs can in some instances allow for FREE cures, i.e Curaga 3 on 4 dd's at 650HP+ for example ~ It's a necessary part of playing whitemage effectively, remember if you have no MP, you're useless to your party in your job role.


Planning ahead
This was touched on above, learning what your target does and doesn't do is vital and a key role to what you do in this game. Knowing what's a debuff move and whats a Oh **** move is a crucial and fundamental requirement to be good at Whitemage. This is where mod knowledge and experience comes in and is not the easiest thing for a new whitemage to learn, I suggest either asking up front (don't be afraid to ask your team mates) or if it's an event, read up about your targets.

So, your party has low HP, Silence, Doom, Weight, Paralyze WHAT DO I DO FIRST?!?! Well you should know first and foremost, a Dead DD, is useless so Cure first > then remove Doom because that is a well named effect, you are doomed to die if its not removed, deciding which is most important depends on your DD's and what you're fighting but something to bear in mind!

Macros, how and when to use them

By popular demand I have been asked to add a section about how to use macro's and some basic command lines that work on the basic version of the game (I.E without Windower or Ashita) by Calipso of Odin.

A lot of players out there don't use blinkmenot, or lockstyle and this can be frustrating to a new mage learning the ropes who hasn't learnt all the numerous methods in targeting their companions for spells, well fear not even with the most gear laden of comrades who blinks gear just to blow his nose there is hope yet, here are a few simple commands to for any good cure macro.

• /ma "Cure" <stpt> (Selects a member in your party)
  

• /ma "Cure" <stal> (Selects a target in your alliance)
  

• /ma "Cure" <stpc> (Selects any Playable character, ignores NPC's including Monsters)
  

• /ma "Cure" <p1> (P0 being yourself, P1 being the next person on your party list)
  

• /ma "Cure" <a10> (Targets top most alliance, first member, and so on to <a15>)
  

• /ma "Cure" <a20> (Targets second alliance, first member, and so on to to <a25>)
  

• /ma "Cure" Conagh (Targets the player named Conagh with a cure, useful if you want a quick macro for the tank)

Macrosets are a recent addition by Square Enix in an attempt to get Vanilla Pol players on the same level as PC players, lets face hitting 7 macros or 1 cure instead of 1 is a hinderence, but this function works rather well, here's how to use it as a WHM looking to use proper precast and midcast sets completely destroying any argument about using all in one sets that simply make you look foolish.


This input into 1 macro allows you change 32 pieces of gear effectively, when you hit the macro, line 1 goes off into precast then line 2 asks you to select a target, you could wait 2 years assuming no disconnects and when you finally select your target line 3 will then fire meaning a full precast and midcast set is possible on any machine. You do not need a wait, the line 2 <stal> acts a wait command in the actual spell language made by SE.

I've been using a similar system on SCH since 99 cap days on XBOX before I caved and used PC so I couch this works 100% and there really is no excuse for all in one sets, this is why I have not added any and will not add any regardless of any requests made for them. No need to encourage playing and gearing poorly!

Divine Caress
An underused and undervalued job ability, imagine being able to not only cure your comrades of a rather annoying debuff (Doom) but make them immune from it for up 3 repeated uses?! Got your attention? Good! This is one of those not used in every instance abilities, but used right can really put you apart from the rest of the crowd as a Superior Whitemage. But wait, another reason why the Scholar support job is amazing for whitemage, you can accession a divine caress lyna type spell! YES THAT'S RIGHT debuff immunity for the entire front-line! There's a couple of requirement's i.e. all the front line need to have been affected by the debilitating effect at the same time. This does not work unfortunately with Sacrifice, Erase or Esuna and using those abilities while having Divine Caress active will not use the charge either.


Zombie and You
Zombie (also affectionately called ST20 or Super Curse) is a status effect that prevents a player from recovering either HP or MP while they are afflicted. Though the symbol for this is the same as the “curse” symbol, the effect is entirely different. This particular status affect has several implications that a White Mage should be aware of.

• Targets afflicted with Zombie cannot be healed, meaning that a White Mage cannot recover any MP when Curing them while equipped with Cleric’s Pantaloons +2 - be warned!
  

• White Mages cannot recover MP while afflicted with Zombie. This means a White Mage cannot recover MP from the effects of Cleric’s Pantaloons +2 while healing targets who are not afflicted with Zombie.
  

• While under the influence of Afflatus Solace, White Mage CAN remove the effects of Zombie from other players with their spell, Sacrifice. Bear in mind that this causes the White Mage to be afflicted with the effect - refer to above for the implications of this.
  

• White Mages can remove the effect of Zombie from themselves with a combination of Afflatus Misery and Esuna. This can be an extremely potent way to remove Zombie from ALL afflicted party members if the situation is safe enough for a White Mage to approach the front lines.
  

Distances
So by now I would hope you understand mages don't really want to stand near the mob, let's face it, we're squishy, and don't really want the lime light (or we would have been a Front Line DD who's trying to win the parse, that's not us we're here to work) so hopefully you know it's a rather bad idea to stand near the monster you're all fighting, you want to be far enough away to dodge most of his effects but close enough to cure your party members, well max casting range is about 21 yalms ~ now for a player not using programmes to assist them, the game has a function in it to tell you, and it's all linked through your targeting cursor, when you are in range the cursor colour is unchanged, when you out of range it should appear Red, if you are on the threshold it should appear orange, orange means you are in casting range but too far for most aga and abilities to hit you ie: Mijin Gakure from AA HM is a range of 20 yalms!

There's a few NM's with gimmick's regarding your distance and they either one shot you for being too close, too far or can even use an ability called "draw in" a particular favourite of Mimiks.


Front Line Supporting - When to Take Risks
White Mage has several tools at their disposal that allows them to stand with their front line damage dealers and support them more effectively than standing in a back line position. Notable instances of this include most Cerberus-type monsters, T5 VWNM Gwynn Ap Nudd, and any sort of Gear / Gear Trio from Salvage.

Inventory Management
Like any other job in the game, having a variety of gear sets is very important to a successful White Mage. Thanks to limited space, it is up to the individual White Mages to determine what they feel are absolutely essential and what they deem as useful or situational useful. Here is a hierarchy of gear sets to consider when building a White Mage:
Math for the Math Geeks in all of Us