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  1. #1
    Player
    Sol_Aureus's Avatar
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    Mar 2011
    Location
    Gridania
    Posts
    320
    Character
    Sol Rynn
    World
    Midgardsormr
    Main Class
    Arcanist Lv 90

    White Mage: A Guide

    V[1.22c]

    How do I shot Cure? Everything you need to know about healing

    Base stats that affect you and their mechanics:

    MND: Every 4 MND = 1 Healing Magic Potency and 1 Magic Accuracy.

    VIT: Every 1 VIT = 1 HP. Every 4 VIT = 1 Enhancing Magic Potency.

    PIE: Every 1 PIE = 1 MP. Every 4 PIE = 1 Enfeebling Magic Potency.

    INT: Every 4 INT = 1 Attack Magic Potency.

    For point allotment, you'll want 23 into MND and 22 into VIT.

    This Image shows the stat turnovers and how much base magic potency you get with each turnover. These levels apply to all magic potency types (and magic accuracy). Keep in mind that WHM gets +18 Healing Magic Potency, +8 Enhancing Magic Potency, and +8 Magic Accuracy from our traits.




    Spell mechanics:

    Cures:

    Cure and Cura:
    Cures are affected by MND and Healing Magic Potency. Every 1 Healing Magic Potency translates into about 1.25 more HP for Cure and 2.5 more HP for Cura. Every 1 MND adds about 0.25 HP to cure and 0.5 HP to cura, however since MND adds healing magic potency as well for every 4 it really translates to ~0.5625 HP per cure and 1.125 HP per cura. But keep in mind this ratio is ONLY if your MND lands on a turnover value and adds healing magic potency (see above chart for turnover values).

    For example if you have 307 MND, the turnover values are 304 and 308 so you'd get the 0.56 and 1.125 returns for every point of MND UP TO 304, and the extra 3 MND you have only provide the MND bonus of 0.25 and 0.5. This is because the translated ratios (0.5625 and 1.125) take into account the 1 point of healing magic potency you get for every 4 MND. So for a cura 4 MND would give (MND BONUS: (0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5 = 2)) + (1 HEALING MAGIC POTENCY: (2.5)) = 4.5 HP for Cura.

    That being said, just looking at the base ratios if you're comparing a piece with MND vs a piece with Healing Magic Potency, the MND piece has to have at least a 2:1 ratio of MND:Healing potency comparatively. (e.g. For a MND crown to be comparable for cures to WHM AF crown (+25 Healing Magic Potency) it must have at least +50 MND. In actuality you need a little more than a 2:1 ratio, as 2:1 ratio translates to a 2.25:2.5 HP Cured from Cura.)



    Curaga:
    Curaga will cure HP of party members up to a certain amount. For example, say your Curaga's cap is 2500 HP. Curaga can heal one person for up to half of Curaga's cap, so in our example, Curaga can heal one person for up to 1250 HP. Curaga will continut to cure other party members until it reaches its cap value. It will give healing priority to those with lower HP. For these examples we'll use a hypothetical party of 4 members: Shaydes (4000 HP), Alderton (3000 HP), Ayameko (2500 HP), and yourself (2500 HP). For these examples we assume all party members are within range.

    Casting Curaga when your party is:
    Shaydes (100/4000)
    Alderton (3000/3000)
    Ayameko (200/2500)
    You (1999/2500)

    Curaga would cure Shadyes and Ayameko for 1250 HP each but would not hit anyone else. Curaga gave healing priority to Shaydes first because his HP was lowest, curing him for half of Curaga's cap value (1250). Since Shaydes has reached the cap amount of HP he can be cured, it moves on to the party member who had the next lowest HP, which was Ayameko. Ayameko would be cured for half of Curaga's cap value (1250). Cap value has been reached, so that's the end of that Curaga.

    Casting Curaga when your party is:
    Shaydes (100/4000)
    Alderton (3000/3000)
    Ayameko (1500/2500)
    You (1999/2500)

    Curaga would cure Shaydes, Ayameko, and yourself. Curaga would give healing priority to Shaydes due to him having the lowest HP, and would cure him for half of Curaga's cap value (1250). Since Shaydes has reached the cap amount of HP he can be cured, it moves on to Ayameko (the person who had the 2nd lowest HP), and would cure him for 1000 HP, which would cap Ayameko's HP back to 2500. There's still 250 HP left in Curaga that hasn't been assigned to someone yet, so it then moves to the person who had the third lowest HP, which was yourself, and Curaga would cure you for the remaining 250 HP.

    Casting Curaga when your party is
    Shaydes (100/4000)
    Alderton (2800/3000)
    Ayameko (2500/2500)
    Yourself (2500/2500)
    PT Member 5 (3000/3000)
    PT Member 6 (3000/3000)
    PT Member 7 (3000/3000)
    PT Member 8 (3000/3000)

    Curaga would cure Shaydes for 1250 HP, Alderton for 200 HP, and Ayameko, yourself, and PT Members 5-8 for 0. It gave healing priority to Shaydes due to him having the lowest HP, and since Curaga can only cure a single person for up to half of its cap value, it cured Shaydes for 1250 HP. Ald was the next lowest, and he only was missing 200 HP, so Curaga cured him for that 200. Curaga then had 1050 HP left, however since the other 6 party members are all at full HP, Curaga continuously moved on to each party member, curing them for 0. This type of situation is useful for when the party is asleep, since Curaga is a fast way to wake everyone up if their HP isn't too low.


    Enhancing Magic Potency Returns:

    Legend:
    Red Text with light gray background: This level gives no returns (outside of Stoneskin) with AF Boots equipped.
    Red Text with dark gray background: This level gives no returns (outside of Stoneskin) regardless of if AF boots are equipped or not.

    NOTE: Stoneskin is only partially filled out because I haven't had a large enough sample size to figure out a formula for sure. The trend shows that for every 25 levels of enhancing magic potency, there's a level where it increases the mitigation by 1 instead of 2, but since it's such a large gap I don't trust it to be accurate constantly, especially considering the formulas for the others are so convoluted. The shown values for Stoneskin are the ones that I have confirmed myself.

    NOTE 2: I had the gear for Enhancing Magic Potency levels 396-449. Anything listed on the chart that is not one of the levels in that range is projected data using the formulas that I gathered.



    Basically this means don't stack Enhancing Magic Potency passed 438, it's not worth it because Regen caps out with the AF boots equipped at that level.

    Specific mechanics:

    Stoneskin:
    Enhancing Magic Potency is the only thing that affects Stoneskin. Enhanced Stoneskin makes WHM's Stoneskin a lot better than, say, a BRD's (at 398 potency it's 534 vs 780). Every 1 Enhancing Magic Potency increases Stoneskin's mitigation by either 1 or 2, most of the time it's 2 per level.


    Protect:
    Protect is affected by Enhancing Magic Potency. For every 4-5 points in Enhancing you have (alternates 4-5-4-5), Protect gives 1 more defense (NOTE: There is some fluctuation in this formula, although it's very slight. The actual formula is every 5-4-5-4-5-4-5-4-5 levels repeating, but because it's an odd number of numbers per cycle when it repeats it ends up being 5-5 at the end/beginning of each cycle. So 3 cycles would look like 5-4-5-4-5-4-5-4-5-5-4-5-4-5-4-5-4-5-5-4-5-4-5-4-5-4-5.]. For every 7-6-7 repeating points in Enhancing you have, Protect gives 1 more to all elemental resistances (3 cycles look like: 7-6-7-7-6-7-7-6-7). See the Enhancing Magic chart for details on exact numbers.


    Regen:
    Enhancing Magic Potency is the only thing that affects Regen. For every 1-2-2-1-2 (repeating 3x) then 1-2-1-2-2 (repeating 3x) Enhancing magic potency you have, the amount your Regen cures per tic increases by 1.

    2 cycles look like: 1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2. This one is a bit more confusing so I'll break these 2 cycles down: it repeats the 1-2-2-1-2 pattern 3 times, then repeats the 1-2-1-2-2 pattern 3 times. That's one cycle. Since I listed 2 cycles, it just repeats the same thing every cycle: 1-2-2-1-2---1-2-2-1-2---1-2-2-1-2--/--1-2-1-2-2---1-2-1-2-2---1-2-1-2-2--/--1-2-2-1-2---1-2-2-1-2---1-2-2-1-2--/--1-2-1-2-2---1-2-1-2-2---1-2-1-2-2--/

    The WHM AF Boots' "Enhances Regen" stat increases the amount your Regen cures per tic by up to 41, and because the bonus the boots give scales with your enhancing magic potency, it changes the formula for Regen. The new formula increases the amount your Regen cures per tic by 1 for every 1-1-2-1-1-1-2-1-1-2-1-1-1-2-1-1-1-2 repeating levels of Enhancing magic potency you have.

    The cap for Regen at level 50 is 203 HP per tic. This cap is reached with AF Boots at Enhancing Magic Potency level 438.


    Gear for a new WHM:
    Weapon / Sub: Wand of Tremors and Eagle-crested Round Shield or Raptorskin Targh
    • Healer's Hand [Healing Magic Potency +]on Wand
    • Lifethirst [HP/MP +] on Shield
    • Bloodthirst [HP+] on Shield
    Head: Healer's Circlet
    Body: Healer's Robe
    Hands: Healer's Gloves
    Waist: Raptorskin Satchel Belt
    • Touch of Serenity [Enmity -]
    • Manathirst [MP +]
    • Bloodthirst [HP+]
    Legs: Healer's Culottes
    Feet: Healer's Boots
    Rings: Turquoise Ring or Amber Ring
    Earrings: Anything.
    Wrists: Black Pearl Bracelets Or Amber Bracelets
    Neck: Black Pearl Choker

    Why this gear and Materia?:
    Wand of Tremors gives VIT+3 which helps your Enhancing Magic and Earth magic Potency +20 which increases your damage output from Stone. It's also a 1 handed CNJ weapon so you can slot healer's hand into it, which is imperative. It really doesn't matter what shield you pick for CNJ, I picked Eagle-crested simply because I can make it as CRP. Healer's Hand is one of the best types of materia you could ever have as a healer, so of the available choices you're not going to want to slot anything else in your wand. Lifethirst gives both HP and MP so it's a nice option for shields. Bloodthirst is the only other option, which is also perfectly viable because HP adds to your survivability and give you higher returns on Blissful Mind.

    Your AF is really good as WHM, so it's a great set for your basic armor pieces. They give a lot of Healing Magic Potency, MND, and MP; not to mention enhancing certain skills to make them more effective.

    A Raptorskin Satchel Belt gives 15 MP and 2 MND naturally, making it a nice base healing belt. Slot Enmity -, MP, or HP into it. MP is cheaper, but Enmity - is great for those situations when you're having to cure bomb or cure for a long period of time. HP is always a viable option as well because of the added survivability and bonus to Blissful Mind.

    For your wrists you can either go with the Black Pearl (-4/5 Enmity) or Amber (+3/4 VIT). The Enmity- is nice, but if you're rarely pulling hate, having that extra Enhancing Magic Potency is nice for Regen and Stoneskin, and the HP will add to the MP you get back from Blessed Mind.

    Turquoise rings are the obvious choice for WHM, the MND giving a large boost to your cures and healing magic potency. They'll hold you over until you get a Blessed Ring. Amber Rings are also a perfectly viable option to boost your Enhancing Magic Potency and HP.

    Earrings you really don't have options for. Pick anything to hold you over until you get Blessed Earrings.

    Optimal Gear for a WHM:
    Weapon / Sub: Chiran Zabran's Tempest
    • +40 Healing Magic Potency is absolutely awesome, that's about triple-meld value of Healer's Hand. The Magic Accuracy loss is unfortunate, but you're going to get a lot more mileage out of Healing Magic Potency since you're hardly nuking or sleeping, which makes this the best weapon choice by far.
    Head: Healer's Circlet or Crafted Hat double+ slotted with Sound of Certainty (Enhancing +)
    • Double or Triple slotted Healer's Hand hats can outperform the AF Circlet by having more Healing Magic Potency, but unless you have one that gives +27 Healing Magic Potency at least this is the best option for straight healing magic potency. The other option is a double+ enhancing magic slotted crafted hat (a lot of variance here dependent on your personal preference, I'd recommend either an Electrum Circlet (Amber) [for the MP+ and Earth Magic Potency to make Stone hit a little harder] or a Felt Hat of the Mind [for the m.acc for nukes and repose, plus the 4 MND]). Which is better is debatable, and again comes down to personal preference. There really aren't many options when it comes to getting Enhancing Magic Potency, so having a double slotted hat is essentially required for reaching that 438 cap Regen mark. On the other hand, you lose 25 Healing Magic Potency and 7 MND from the AF head if you do use the enhancing magic potency head, which is a substantial amount. Like I said, it comes down to personal preference.
    Body: Healer's Robe
    • The Enhances Cure gives a substantial bonus (seems like it's about 10%) to all cures (Cure, Cura, and Curaga) so it's by far the best body piece you can have.
    Hands: Darklight Gloves
    • You lose 7 Healing Magic Potency from AF gloves but gain 80 MP, 10 VIT and 15 Enhancing Magic Potency. The trade-off is more than worth it, the bonus to Regen from the Enhancing Magic Potency is worth it alone.
    Waist: Militia Belt or Vanya Sash or Raptorskin Satchel Belt
    • The Enhancing Magic Potency and HP on the Militia belt makes it a very nice option for WHMs. Weather you'll want this over say a double slotted enmity - belt is dependent on your personal playstyle preference and other gear you have. If you can hit the 438 Enhancing Magic Potency Regen cap without this belt, than a double slotted Vanya Sash is a better option. The Vanya Sash itself is kind of a pain in the ass to create though, so a Raptorskin Satchel Belt is a good, cheap substitute if you're short on gil. For the Vanya Sash, you'll want it slotted with MP, HP, or Enmity -. Personally, I prefer Enmity -; with the boost the Enmity materia recieved in 1.22, it makes it a much more viable option. I personally have an Enmity -28 belt, and it's very handy in those situations where I have to cure really often. I've seen a few people want to use Stellar Might (Magic Crit Potency / MP), however I think the effect's potency is too low to be a viable choice over something like Enmity -.
    Legs: Darklight Breeches
    • Lose 6 MND, 3 Healing potency and 30 seconds off of your Presence of Mind recast but gain 100 MP, 10 Piety, 5 Enhancement and 5 Enfeebling. Again, the trade-offs are more than worth it.
    Feet: Healer's Boots
    • The "Enhances Regen" effect on these boots is way too potent to even consider using anything else. No WHM should ever not be wearing these boots.
    Rings: Blessed Ring and Turquoise Ring +1 or Amber Ring +1
    • Blessed Ring's +15 Healing Magic Potency makes it the obvious choice for WHM. Since it's unique and you can only equip one, fill the other slot with an HQ Turquoise or Amber Ring, both are viable.
    Earrings: Blessed Earrings
    • No other real options for earrings, and the +5 Healing Magic Potency makes this an obvious WHM piece.
    Wrists: Black Pearl Bracelets +1 Or Amber Bracelets +1
    • Again, the Enmity- from Black Pearl is nice, but if you're rarely pulling hate, having that extra Enhancing Magic Potency from Amber is nice for Regen and Stoneskin and the HP will add to the MP you get back from Blissful Mind.
    Neck: Black Pearl Choker +1
    • +18 Healing Magic Potency. No other necklaces come anywhere close to how useful this is.

    Knowing your abilities:
    • Cure
      • Restores target's HP.
        One of your 2 basic cures. Less potent than Cura, but cheaper and on a different recast. Great for topping people off.
    • Cura
      • Restores target's HP.
        Your other basic cure. The heavier version, costing more but curing for more as well. Usually this is your main curing tool.
    • Curaga
      • Restores HP of party members within AoE of target. Healing priority given to party members with low HP. 10 second recast.
        A nice AoE Cure, about as MP efficient as Cura. Nice for waking people up from sleep and being able to cure low HP party members quickly. See the Spell Mechanics section for details on how it works.
    • Regen
      • Healing over time effect on the target. 5 second recast.
        One of your most efficient healing tools. I often use this or Stoneskin with Sacred Prism. Low MP cost, low recast, long duration and potent returns make this an amazing spell.
    • Stoneskin
      • Prevents a fixed amount of damage [based upon your Enhancing magic potency]. 30 second recast.
        Another one of your more efficient healing tools. Comparable returns to Cure for absolute damage prevented, but keeps the targets in safer HP zones. Often used with Sacred Prism.
    • Protect
      • Increases Defense and Elemental Resistances of party members within AoE of target. 5 minute duration, 30 second recast.
        A staple buff of WHM. Keep this up on party members at all times.
    • Esuna
      • Removes 1 enfeebling magic effect from the target. 10 second recast.
        One of your most important abilities. Keeping status effects off of your party members is vital. Unfortunately with the long recast that Esuna has, it's difficult to keep it off of all party members especially when it's AoE. Just be sure to use this as often as you can to keep party members healthy. Can be paired with Sacred Prism, although it's good to weigh your options between this and Regen when using Sacred Prism.
    • Raise
      • Revives a KO'd target with no weakness. 5 minute recast.
        Often paired with Presence of Mind to allow for an instant cast Raise that has no recast timer. The fact that a WHM's raise allows people to be raised with no weakness makes WHM the prime candidate for raises, so if someone ever goes down it is the WHM's responsibility to raise them first. If Presence of Mind is down and/or you're locked into curing, let the BRD or other WHM know this so they can go raise.
    • Benediction
      • Fully restores HP of all party members within range. 15 minute recast.
        WHM's quarter-hour. The range on it is pretty short, so you'll need to get close to the people you want to hit with it. Don't forget you have this ability, and be sure to use it in those "oh shit" situations. All too often I see people not using it because they forgot they had it due to not using it because of the long recast. That being said, if your hate is volatile, be careful when using this because it does generate a lot of enmity. Also as a note, this is an ability, not a spell, so you can use it while Silenced but it's disabled when under the effects of Amnesia.
    • Sacred Prism
      • Converts healing and enhancing magic into AoE. 1 minute recast.
        One of WHM's most useful abilities. Often paired with Stoneskin and Regen. Occasionally paired with Cure when you need to be sure everyone gets healed and people are low enough that Curaga won't cure everyone. This lasts for 1 minute or until your next cast, so you can use this ability while people are waiting and buffing to start its cooldown. It will only wear off when you cast a spell that it's compatible with, so you can use it then cast Protect (which is naturally AoE so it doesn't expend Sacred Prism), then either Stoneskin or Regen which expends it, but your cooldown will be available quicker.
    • Blissful Mind
      • Instantly damages you for 1/4 of your max HP. Over time it charges, storing MP equal to 1/4 of your max HP. Once used again, that MP is gained.
        WHM's most useful MP management tool. Usually I pair this with Second Wind as the amount of HP it reduces is about the same amount I get back from Second Wind. If your MP ever gets close to halfway or below, use this constantly.
    • Shroud of Saints
      • Temporarily halves enmity and restores MP while effect is active. 20 second duration, 2 minute recast.
        A fantastic tool for WHM, the halving enmity is great for a hate dump and the MP restore is potent. I usually save this for when I get into red enmity, but if my MP ever gets low I'll use it as the MP restorative. Keep in mind that the halving of enmity is only temporary, and after the 20 seconds is up your enmity goes back to what it was. But during the time it's up the tank usually doesn't have much trouble generating enough enmity to get you back in the safe zone when the ability wears off.
    • Presence of Mind
      • Removes cast time and recast time of next spell. 5 minute recast.
        It's Chainspell. Often paired with Raise in case shit goes wrong. If you don't need to worry about raising, I pair it with Stoneskin, but the vast majority of the time I save this for raise. Occasionally used during non-boss portions of dungeons with Holy, but only when we're not close to a boss room or anywhere that's dangerous where people could potentially die and need raise.
    • Repose
      • Inflicts target with Sleep. 0 second recast.
        Generally you won't be using this, as sleeping stuff is the BLM's job. Still, if you have time in between spells and enough MP to help with it, it's definitely useful. Like Sleep, it has no recast timer, but mobs do have diminishing returns so spamming it won't be effective. As a note, Sleep's success rate is only affected by Magic Accuracy. Enfeebling Magic Potency does not help at all.
    • Stone / Stonera
      • Stone: Earth Damage and chance to inflict Magic Evasion Down. 6 second recast. Stonera: AoE Earth Damage and chance to inflict Heavy. 30 second recast.
        As a WHM, you really shouldn't be nuking much at all, you must be completely proficient at healing and support before you even THINK about using these abilities. That being said, if there's a phase in the fight where everyone has stoneskin, regen, has cap HP, protect is fresh and there's no danger, throwing out a Stone to help out the BLMs is nice. As a side note, the success rate of landing Stone and Stonera's secondary effects of Magic Evasion Down or Heavy is based upon your Enfeebling Magic Potency.
    • Aero / Aerora
      • Aero: Wind Damage and chance to inflict bleed (DoT). 6 second recast. Aerora: AoE Wind damage and Dispel on each target hit. 20 second recast.
        The main draw here is Aerora because of Dispel. It's kind of MP heavy, but dispel is a very nice utility to have. If you need to make it single target, combo it with Aero. Aero's DoT effect is negligible on pretty much every boss (usually 2-15 damage per tic). As a side note, the success rate of landing Aero's DoT effect is based upon your Enfeebling Magic Potency.
    • Holy
      • Consumes all MP to deal damage to enemies within range. Chance to inflict bind. 5 minute recast.
        Holy deals nice damage, but is only semi-practical when you're fighting lots of enemies that need to be AoE'd down. It's very dangerous as you might pull a lot of hate with it combined with the fact that it consumes ALL of your MP. If you're going to use holy, make sure Shroud of Saints and Blissful Mind is up. You can combine Holy with Presence of Mind to double cast it by using Presence of Mind » Holy » Shroud of Saints » Holy » Blissful Mind. This should keep your MP in a reasonable spot at least so you can throw out emergency cures if need be. Holy's AoE is centered around the WHM, and as such the macro is /ac "Holy" <me>. As a side note, the success rate of landing Holy's Bind effect is based upon your Enfeebling Magic Potency.
    • Cleric Stance
      • Increases Potency of Attack spells by 20% and decreases potency of healing spells by 20%. 30 second recast.
        This ability will stay active until you either die or use the ability again. Be careful with this ability, I rarely ever use it because gimping your heals is the last thing you want to do as a healer. But if there's a situation where you need to nuke (like on Whiskerwall during Moogle), keep in mind that you have this ability, 20% is a substantial increase in damage.




    Cross class abilities:
    • Second Wind
      Great for use directly after starting a Blissful Mind charge, or when you're low on HP and silenced and need an instant cure.

    • Featherfoot
      If you pull hate on something, at least you can get MP back. Increases Survivability when accidentally pulling hate as well.

    • Sentinel
      Survivability when accidentally pulling hate. As of now it only generates extra enmity when used with a damaging ability, so healing does not generate any extra enmity.

    • ---------
    • ---------
      There's nothing else really useful cross-class. I have Rampart set myself just in case but the huge enmity generation isn't exactly something you'll want when you accidentally pull hate. Shield bash could maybe be used as well if you're using Wand/Shield, but you almost never have TP and increasing the mob's stun resistance isn't something you're going to want to do.

    My Action Bar:
    Note: This is just what I use, so feel free to change this setup around to suit your playstyle. For my playstyle, I always keep the 1st action bar visible and use ALT+# for my 2nd bar and CTRL+# for my 3rd bar.

    1st Bar:
    1. Blissful Mind
    2. Shroud of Saints
    3. Esuna
    4. Second Wind
    5. Sacred Prism
    6. Stoneskin
    7. Regen
    8. Curaga
    9. Cure
    10. Cura

    2nd Bar:
    1. Presence of Mind
    2. Stone
    3. Stonera
    4. Aero
    5. Aerora
    6. Holy
    7. Protect
    8. ----
    9. Featherfoot
    10. Sentinel

    3rd Bar:
    1. Cleric Stance
    2. ----
    3. ----
    4. Rampart
    5. ----
    6. ----
    7. Raise
    8. ----
    9. Benediction
    10. Repose



    Items you want and why:
    • Mega-Ether (600 MP)
      MP Recovery.

    • Elixir (2000 HP / 1050 MP)
      More MP Recovery with the added bonus of HP recovery.

    • Throat Drops (Cures Silence)
      Getting silence off yourself is VERY important. Always be sure to be carrying Throat Drops with you. You can craft them or buy them from your grand company with seals.

    • Mega-potion of Mind (MND+40 / Healing magic potency +80)
      Nice 60 second boost to your cures. Useful in situations where your party members are taking quite a lot of damage.

    • Nerve Drops (Enmity -80)
      Gives all actions enmity-80 for 1 minute. Nice for those situations where you have to curebomb but your potency is high enough that you don't need to worry about being able to heal for enough.

    • Pineapple Juice or Apkallu Omelette
      As with any class, you'll want to be sure you have food. Pineapple Juice is nice for situations when MP might be a problem, but I find that Apkallu Omelettes are usually the most useful food because I'm almost never in any MP trouble, so the HP from the Omelette is the best option for survivability and the bonus to blissful mind. This is of course until they implement a food with Healing Magic Potency or Enhancing Magic Potency, at which time those will be the best options by far.


    Playing the role:

    The key points you need to remember as a healer are:
    • Keep your party informed of your status
      • The main healer is one of the most important roles in a party, and as such is a large responsibility. If a party knows that they have a healer, most of the time they'll not worry about self-heals unless they're close to death, because they're relying on you to keep them alive. As such, one of the biggest necessities as a healer is to KEEP YOUR PARTY INFORMED. If you're getting low on MP, say so. If you're silenced, say so. If anything is or will be preventing you from doing your role in the group, you have to let your party know. I can't stress enough how important this is. If the party doesn't know you're close to running out of MP and all of the sudden you say "out of MP," your party has no time to prepare or react properly. Keep an eye on your MP consumption as always, and if you don't think your MP can keep up with the current pace of battle, say so early so your party can plan around it.

    • Keep your focus on healing
      • This should seem obvious, but I often see tanks dying because the healer is casting offensively. Remember, you're a healer, that is your focus. Having a couple seconds of downtime here and there is better then your tank dying because you were trying to nuke the mob.

    • Keep yourself open to heal
      • Kind of a sub-section of keeping your focus on healing, but it's important enough to deserve it's own bullet point. If you ever think that maybe while casting a spell that your healing target will get destroyed by something, DON'T CAST THAT SPELL. As a healer, it's imperative that you're able to act quickly and heal as soon as your target takes damage. Being locked out of curing someone while their HP is red isn't fun.

    • Watch your MP
      • Again, this should seem obvious, but all too often I'll hear people saying "out of MP." This should almost never happen. Keeping Blissful Mind charged or Charging is important, getting that 700 or so MP back every minute is great. Most of the time I find that I don't even need it. Shroud of Saints is also a very potent MP recovery skill in addition to its hate dumping capabilities. If you ever have down time while healing just stand in place, keeping your MP as close to your max MP is ideal. As a side note, SITTING DOES NOTHING FOR YOUR MP REGEN, IT JUST PREVENTS YOU FROM MOVING OR CASTING. STOP DOING IT >:C.

    • Keep your priorities in order
      • If you are the main healer, your curing priority should ALWAYS be:

        The Tank » Yourself » The DDs » Other White Mages

        The reason being: If the tank goes down, you failed your role. Even if you die, if the tank is alive, the run might be salvageable. If your tank is OK on HP and you're almost dead, pop Second Wind if you can and maybe toss a heal on yourself. I'm partial to regen and just letting the healing over time effect do the legwork for me. Even if the melees die, as long as you and the tank are alive, you can stall out the run. The DDs are next, but if you're main healer you should be focusing on the tank and let the other White Mage take care of the DDs. If you're the only healer, then be sure to keep the DD topped off, Sacred Prism Regen works wonders for this. But again, the tank and yourself are higher priority. Other White Mages are last simply because they have cures too, and potent ones at that. They should be able to take care of themselves.

        This of course is subject to change depending on the situation. Just use common sense and you should be fine.

    And here are some tips that aren't as important as the key points, but they at least help me be a better healer:
    • Keep your targets close to topped off
      • I know it sucks to "waste" the MP because you might not getting the full value of your cure, but it can and will save someone's ass at least once. A crit on an enemy's TP move, your target getting a DEF down debuff then getting slammed with a hard-hitting move...situations like these happen a lot, and keeping your target as close to max HP as you can can ease the burden and lessen the danger. That being said, PLD tanks like to cure themselves for hate sometimes so coordinate with your tank.
    • Know your target's battle plan
      • Everyone should know the basics of every class in my opinion, it just makes it a lot easier to plan around things. But it's still a good thing to know what your target's plan is going to be so you can plan around it. If your target is going to pop Sentinel while pulling the boss, you won't necessarily have to heal as much, so you can use your other spells like Stoneskin and Regen. If you know your target is going to be in danger during a specific part of the fight, you can plan to focus only on casting cures during that dangerous part. Things like this will help you make the most out of your spells.
    • Use Regen and Stoneskin effectively
      • If you're main healer, keep Regen on the tank. No, really. ALWAYS keep Regen on the tank. It saves you thousands of MP and lots of enmity you don't incur. Stoneskin is about as MP efficient as Cure, and is very useful for keeping your enmity generation low. I often use it at the start of fights after I'm in position: if Regen is on the tank I'll start off with stoneskin.
    • Keep status effects off your target and yourself.
      • Stuff like Poison and Paralyze can really hurt your target, even if it seems like it's not doing anything. Taking poison for example, while it may seem like the Regen cancels it out, you end up losing MP. Even if you can keep yourself at max MP and your target at max HP with regen, you're losing out on the extra casting you can do during that downtime when your target gets hit again and you have to cure again. Paralyze is crippling as well, especially to your tank because it can easily throw off their rotation. In addition, items like Throat Drops are essential for a healer, if you're stuck silenced, then you can't do your duty. You can pick up Throat Drops for Grand Company Seals from any grand company, so there's really no excuse to not have them.
    • Anticipate enemy moves
      • This is one of the most important tips for a WHM. Everyone on every class should have a separate battle log somewhere that has everything hidden except Successful Hostile Actions by Enemies and Others. This chat log should be somewhere where you're looking, I put it right above my party member list since that's where I'm looking most of the time. This log will show when any enemy readies an attack, so you can react to it much easier. As a WHM, this means queuing up cures in reaction to an enemy readying a hard-hitting move, such as Coincounter using Glower or 100-Tonze Swipe. These moves will hit your tank really hard, so if you're already casting Cura as it goes off, as soon as it hits your cure will fire off, negating the damage. This allows you to recover quickly.

    Keep these points in mind and you should have no problem being a great healer!



    Cure/Cura formulas used was from Kaeko's testing. Check out his blog, he does awesome in-depth testing of a lot of different game mechanics! http://kanican.livejournal.com/
    (100)
    Last edited by Sol_Aureus; 06-26-2012 at 11:21 PM. Reason: 1.22c

  2. #2
    Player
    Jet's Avatar
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    This is really awesome. And thorough.

    Um, may I host it? =d

    jetchan@mooglebox.com
    (4)

    www.mooglebox.com :: FFXIV power database and tools
    http://is.gd/huMmzP :: Sig making tutorial

  3. #3
    Player
    Sol_Aureus's Avatar
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    Sol Rynn
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    Midgardsormr
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jet View Post
    This is really awesome. And thorough.

    Um, may I host it? =d

    jetchan@mooglebox.com
    Of course! I link to mooglebox throughout the guide anyway, love your site
    (3)

  4. #4
    Player

    Join Date
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    Good guide, good job, grats on getting it linked on Mooglebox. Oh and nononono on the siggy.
    (1)
    Leader of Honor Linkshell, Lindblum Server.
    http://www.honorls.com

  5. #5
    Player
    Sol_Aureus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Technolust View Post
    Good guide, good job, grats on getting it linked on Mooglebox. Oh and nononono on the siggy.
    Pinkie Pie is legit! >:U
    (2)

  6. #6
    Player
    Ricepudding's Avatar
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    Rice Pudding
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    Balmung
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    Fantastic Guide, covers pretty much everything a WHM needs to know thus far into the game. +1!
    (0)

  7. #7
    Player
    KindCoffee's Avatar
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    Viggo Narcissus
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    This is a really great guide thank you!(*´ω`*)
    (0)

  8. #8
    Player
    REDace0's Avatar
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    #5 Mist 2, The Pande Cave
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    Robert Redensa
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    Balmung
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    Dark Knight Lv 70
    Absolutely fantastic. It answered every question I could think of about how to play WHM.

    However, I need to offer a correction, only because I tried to give the same advice a while back and was corrected, but Outmaneuver only restores MP with the Enhanced Outmaneuver trait. So it won't apply to WHM.
    (0)

  9. #9
    Player
    Gael's Avatar
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    Maitre Gael
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    Ragnarok
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    Black Mage Lv 70
    Nice guide but just a thing about this :
    SITTING DOES NOTHING FOR YOUR MP REGEN, IT JUST PREVENTS YOU FROM MOVING OR CASTING. STOP DOING IT >:C.
    /sit itself doesn't help for the mp regen BUT when you use it, you stop to be in "fighting mode" to be in "passive mode" so your first mp regen tick will start right after you did the /sit (it's not always the case when you stand, especially if you did an action or if you took a dmg).

    I'm not sure if im clear about this because english is not my first language but /sit does help with the MP regen (of course only for the first tick, as soon you got it, you can stand up) because you got your MP tick faster
    (6)
    Last edited by Gael; 04-06-2012 at 12:50 AM.

  10. #10
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    Fiosha_Maureiba's Avatar
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    Fiofel Zalalafell
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    Balmung
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    Lancer Lv 1
    Awesome awesome awesome guide!
    (0)

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