Hello! New White Mage!

[Lukasha]

I decided to play FFXI yesterday and downloaded game. I made an Elvaan White Mage. I read a few guides on the graphics settings and have the running great after editing the Registry. The controls will take a bit of getting used to, as I am an old Everquest player.

The uniqueness of this game is appealing, so will play it for some time I think.

I am looking for some new player guides on what quests to do that are important and maybe will reward needed items. All White Mage leveling advice is appreciated. The guides I have found seem good, but I am not sure what guides are current and relevant to the game as it is today. Not so much interested in leveling fast, but leveling well.

Any suggestions and help are welcome! Playing on Asura and started in San D'Oria.

[detlef]

Check the FFXIAH job guide. I haven't checked it recently but you can always check the more recent posts for equipment sets.

[Selindrile]

I reccomend: https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Returning_to_Vana'diel even though you're not technically a returning player.

[Lukasha]

Selindrile, thanks will do!

[Lukasha]

Detlef, will find that, thanks!

[Vashkoda]

I made an Elvaan White Mage. ... I am looking for some new player guides on what quests to do that are important and maybe will reward needed items. All White Mage leveling advice is appreciated. The guides I have found seem good, but I am not sure what guides are current and relevant to the game as it is today. Not so much interested in leveling fast, but leveling well. Any suggestions and help are welcome! Playing on Asura and started in San D'Oria.

The old community reps made a Twitch video about the changes the game went through recently. It's mostly for players who are already level 99, but some stuff still applies to early levels: https://www.twitch.tv/finalfantasyxi/v/101944408

It's pretty brave of you to pick WHM as your starting job, as it can be stressful to play. Unless you stumble upon players on Asura who are willing to teach you the ropes and let you practice with them, you will likely be doing most of your early leveling with trust NPCs. Trusts perform ok as tanks, support, and healers, but are really horrible at dealing damage, especially when compared to actual players. That means that you may have to rely on your character to do a good chunk of the damage, and that can be pretty rough at early WHM levels when your gear and weapons simply aren't designed with melee'ing in mind. Even so, you will have to spend a fair amount of time curing and buffing your trusts to keep your healing and enhancing magic skill levels up to where they should be. It's unfortunate that leveling up in parties isn't popular any more, as it would also be a good way for you to learn things to watch out for (debuffs and what spells can counter them, conserving mp, which bar- spells protect against what) and what not to do (forgetting to cast reraise, using inefficient cure spells, gaining too much enmity from the mob, etc). When you do finally hit 99 and start getting invited to events, you also risk becoming overwhelmed by the sheer number of things that people expect you do know and be good at. There will be little room for error, as a win or loss may entirely depend upon how well you can keep up with what's happening to 5 other people (if you're lucky, you might only need to keep tabs on the tank, but sometimes you still need to juggle doing three things at once). For this reason, many people don't enjoy playing WHM, but that is also why they are somewhat in demand. WHM is a job that has managed to find an essential role in almost every situation. But just be aware that when you do get invited, expectations will be high.

[Justuas]

You might wanna level up thf for treasure hunter and war and nin for abyssea red procs too. You can level up all the jobs to 99 on the same character in this game if you want.

[Lukasha]

Vashkoda, Yes, I think (not sure) I am aware of the leveling slow and harder with White mage. I played a Cleric and Druid in EQ so know about healing agro, having to heal the dps who draws agro and keeping Main Tank alive and buffed,etc. I will have a steep learning curve to climb as I am brand new to this game, and the mechanics are completely different..but..that is what makes it fun!!

Sounds like the Trust NPC's are like Mercenaries in EQ.

I understand that there are those that will expect you to know all about a class when you get to 99, even if new, we have those people in EQ too, but frankly, I am not concerned about them, playing for fun. Thanks for the tips.

[Lukasha]

Justuas, I am still trying to wrap my head around how jobs work in this game, it is different than what I originally thought, and unique to this game it seems. See... I don't know what Treasure Hunter is or what that means, or abyssea red procs even ;). I was not aware you could level all jobs to 99 on a single character, that is new to my mind. So you can twitch jobs at will? This is something I will have to learn it seems. I was aware you have a secondary job (may be called something else). Much to learn!!

[Hawklaser]

At 18 you can unlock your subjob. And its level is the lesser of 1/2 your main job or what you have the job leveled to. As to changing jobs, just have to go to nearest Mog House or nomad moogle to do that, and can unlock the advanced jobs starting at lv 30, some are easier than others to do at that level.

The whm hammers are actually pretty decent for their level to melee with. And leveling isn't that bad anymore. Best advice is find a field/grounds tome with a training regime for mobs can kill at a decent pace and in decent numbers for the bonus xp by completing the pages. Grounds tomes are prefered due to xp scaling up as complete repeatedly, as well as receiving prowess buffs.

Treasure hunter is just extra loot drop chances. And the procs, dont worry about much yet but basics is hitting the enemy with a pseudo-weakness to temporarily cause things like stun, silence, or disable their weapon skills.

[Lukasha]

Thank You Hawklaser! I have had people who have helped me in Game namely Kakk and Selindrile. Thank you two for the help, it was terrific! I was guided to do Records of Eminence, and do the Field and Ground Tome kill tasks. They also helped me out getting the Trusts. Good community it seems. I have found the hammers do great damage to the mobs, in fact I am using a want with stats and it works well enough, less Max damage, but quicker. Been experimenting with macros, and house/storage options.

Currently in the middle of a run to Jeuno from San D'Oria..patch stopped that hehe. Doing some quests and exploring along the way.

[Lukasha]

Haha! Decided to re-make my WHM as a Hume. I originally thought I would need to make additional chars for each class, so race was not looked at the same way, but realized I did not when I started playing. I like the Hume better than the Elvaan it turns out, so changed to Hume now as apposed to later.

[Lukasha]

Now I have to decide on my first sub job. This is gonna be a hard choice it seems!

[Nyarlko]

Now I have to decide on my first sub job. This is gonna be a hard choice it seems!

/sch for serious business, /rdm for easier stuff, /blm for Warp convenience. You will need both RDM/SCH, BLM is more optional.

[Jerbob]

Welcome to FFXI :)

Regarding subjobs, your practical options at the moment are /RDM and /BLM. There are other options later on in the game, but they are less easy for you to access right at this moment. The other jobs you have available will work as well - Warrior, Thief and the like, but they don't really synergise very well with WHM in most situations.

All subjobs have their pros and cons, but if I may make a suggestion - for now, I'd pick whichever job you think you'll enjoy playing most. You'll have to level up your subjob independently of your main job, so you'll be spending some time playing it instead of WHM. It's a great opportunity for you to try something different!

Red Mage is really fun and gives you the chance to try a bit of everything. You get some white magic, but not as much as your white mage, and some black magic, as well as some proficiency in light leather armour, medium armours, swords, and daggers. It's most frequently described as the "jack of all trades, master of none", though in XI that isn't strictly true. If you've been enjoying your enfeebling spells like Paralyze and Slow then Red Mage is an expert at using those spells, and introduces some new ones like Sleep, Bind, Blind, Gravity, and more. You also get enhancing spells to imbue your sword or dagger with elemental power, and at higher levels you get some really nice enhancing spells like refresh, to help out you and your team mates with MP, and temper, which helps you with your melee attacks. As a subjob it'll eventually gain abilities that'll help you sustain your MP, but not until your white mage is quite a high level.

If you play Red Mage beyond a subjob, at level cap people will start expecting you to put away the sword and focus on your magic, but depending what you're doing you don't always have to. You also get exclusive access to the most stylish hat in the entire game. It's a wonderful job, and if you put the time in you can get a lot out of it.

Black Mage is a job with a more specific purpose, like White Mage, and is arguably the best job in the game for blowing stuff up with magic. You'll have access to the vast majority of elemental magic (stone, aero and the like) as well as a few fun dark magic spells like drain and aspir for stealing HP and MP respectively. It also gets a few different enfeebles and a nice transportation option with warp, and you get the Conserve MP trait which will save you a bit of MP every now and again when casting. Black Mage is a bit more delicate than Red Mage, and arguably more delicate than White Mage as well, but with your new friends and with support from Trust that shouldn't be a problem for you. At level cap it's a handy job to have, as it's one of the best jobs to exploit a mechanic called Magic Burst - this can deal massive damage if your party is well coordinated.

It's important to remember that some of the spells you get from a subjob won't be very effective when you use them from your main job. For example, a WHM/BLM will not find the elemental magic to be very potent, as it's running off an elemental magic skill that's half of your current level - WHM doesn't naturally have the skill. Conversely, most job abilities like Divine Seal and Convert work just fine from a subjob, and if a subjob comes with spells that match a skill you main job has (like BLM's Blind spell using Enfeebling skill, which you have as WHM), it'll generally be approximately as effective from your main job as your subjob. There are other factors that affect this, but they're a bit more complex.

Once you've reached a point with white mage where you're looking at subjobs more carefully, and picking the best ones available, you'll be more than capable of levelling any subjob you've missed quite quickly. Nyarlko mentioned Scholar, which a lot of people really like and which you'll probably want to pick up when you're able. Black Mage definitely becomes a less useful subjob for White Mage later on, but I wouldn't let that put you off trying it - you might love it as a main job, and it'll definitely suffice as a subjob to start off with. Red Mage as a subjob will be useful in some situations even when you reach level cap (and it's my personal favourite subjob for WHM, though most prefer /SCH).

It's also worth pointing out that /WHM is a decent subjob for both Red Mage and Black Mage, so it all fits together quite nicely. Again, once you reach higher levels there are various pros and cons for each, with some arguably better than others, but as a starting point they're all more than adequate.

I really hope you enjoy White Mage. As others have said, it can be intense at times, but I find it extremely satisfying. It was my first job, and remains my main and favourite job. And, if you decide to take up Red Mage or Black Mage as well, I can personally attest that they are great fun as well. I myself have only recently taken up Red Mage and it's been the most fun experience I've had in game for a long time.

As an aside - a previous poster has mentioned the bgwiki, which is a useful resource. wiki.ffxiclopedia.org is also very good, and tends to be superior for the older and lower level aspects of the game that you're likely to face early on. I'd recommend giving it a look.

Good luck!