Beginning (Sort Of) White Mage Questions

Can anyone point me to a good up-to-date white mage guide? Short version is leveled white mage to 49 as sub for smn. Went to Abyssea to help out ls mates who needed heals (even level 49 ones). I need an opportunity to really try out whm and learn. The folks i do heal tend to complain heals are to slow ect. So whats an aspiring white mage to do when there are few if any opportunities to practice and learn the more advanced skills?. I promise Abyssea is not the place to learn advanced stuff. Any tips advice ect would be appreciated thank you.

Find a good LS that does regular raids in areas like Sky and Sea, that should get you thru the basics of how to be main healer.

Low-manning some of the older content helps too, also find a friend that is an experienced whm and have them show you the ropes or pay attention to what they do during aby events or other events. Big thing to remember is try not to pull hate, so don't spam the biggest cure you have, and rememer reraise. I personally also have had great success using macros with the syntax of <stal> so you can easily scroll through the pt list and not have to deal with the pt members blinking all the time.

Keep at it and you'll do great :)

Another thing to consider is strategically setting up macros for your spells.

Personally, I have all cures set with a <t> command, and use my F keys to target who I need as quickly as possible. I also have all my status ailment spells and the heaviest Regen spell set the same way. Many people use different play styles, so try a few of them out and see what's best for you.

Given enough time, the role will become second nature and you won't get as many complaints.

But you'll still get complaints.

Also make sure to use <stpt> for certain spells such as barspells, regen and if you're /rdm phalanx. No point in using <t> or even <stal> when you can only target your main party. It also makes it impossible to accidentally target someone in a different party or even outside of the party.

remember that at low levels[anything around or below 40's] your the only job that has haste.try and keep your main tank hasted.if several people are injured,try to regen one of them to conserve mp on heals.afterwards,tank gets healed first,always first.also never forget that you have divine seal,you can use it with a lower tier cure to heal someone for double that cure's value,and save on some mp as well.

Useful tips.... hrm.

For the love of god, don't touch cure 4. There's a reason paladins use it as a hate tool. Not to say it isn't useful, but you shouldn't ever have to cast this spell.
Cure 3, Cure 5 and Regen 3(4) are your staple spells. You shouldn't ever have to touch any of your other ones.
Invest in a decent cure potency set. Start with nobles' tunic and a light staff, then slowly work your way to 50% cure potency.
Invest in some cure cast time gear. Minimise the amount of time it takes for a cure to be cast on your target. If someone dies because your cure doesn't fire fast enough, then either something is wrong/they're destined to die/you need more coffee.
Know when it is ok to /not/ heal someone. Counter-productive perhaps, but letting your paladin cure himself for a bit helps him cement hate. If someone is taking slow amounts of damage, throw a regen spell on them and let it work away.
Learn which mob families use what type of TP moves. Make a note of anything that silences, curses, petrifies or is a throat-stab type move. Knowing what you're up against is half the battle.
<stpt> <stal> Macro them into your cure macros. They're useful.
If a mob is beating on you, don't run. Don't cure yourself unless you know it's going to kill you. Let other mages cure you instead.

Knowing your most efficient method of curing/removing ailments helps a lot is something you'll just have to learn through practice. Can you leave a regen on someone? Do they need a hard cure? Will someone else top them up? Are you going to over-cure someone?
Don't forget to keep refresh/sublimation on! Be wary with convert, if you kill yourself once with it, you'll never live it down.
Learning when you can take a knee and get some MP back with a good HMP set is something you'll just have to wing. Check other players MP pools, know how squishy your tank is, and whether or not there are any pesky TP moves coming up before resting. Sometimes it's better to stay down on 1 knee and get another tic or 2 of healing than get up and blindna someone.
Refresh gear, get it, love it, idle in it.

Going back to the above, learn mob TP moves/spells and know roughly what kind of debuffs the enemy uses. Is it conal? aoe? worthwhile to stand in range for esuna, or stand back and sacrifice? Remove it, or leave it on?
Everyone loves Esuna, you should too. Get a rough idea of it's aoe distance while you're at it.
Mob uses bad breath? silena, paralyna, then sacrifice the rest to yourself. You can still work fine while blinded/poisoned/bound, other players not so much.
Divine caress is useful, if you remember to use it before casting the appropriate -na, then do it.
Ignore the people who tell you their status ailments the second they get them. Yes, this isn't the 1st time we've fought this mob. We know; seriously; if it's not off, it's not because we've missed it; it's because it isn't worth removing, or the spell is on cooldown.
Try to avoid getting paralyzed. Seriously, nothing ruins your day more than paralysis.
Cheap echo drops are sold by Gekko, in the shop in Port Jeuno. Always keep a stack handy.

Auspice itself isn't particularly awesome, however its' duration matches haste, and the subtle blow bonus to teammembers is useful. If you arn't a fan of hasting yourself, use auspice to remember when your haste cycle is about to end.
Regen3-ga is awesome.
Haste, haste, and more haste; keeping your tank hasted at all times is important as it'll help them reduce damage taken via shadows, or help them keep hate through dealing damage. Hasting other players will help increase killspeed, and thus less time the mob will have to crush your teammates into submission.
Bar-ailment and blink are nigh-useless. Don't bother with them.
Stoneskin and aquaveil are very useful, but if you don't pull hate, then you'll never require their effects.
Bar-element spells are amazing; Reducing a 2,000 AOE attack down to ~200 (per target) for a 12 mp spell is stupidly efficient. Most mob families like sticking to 1 or 2 types of magic spells, or elemental TP moves.

Always cast slow/para/silence/dia2 (appropriately) on the target if you can; unless there is a redmage with you, in which case, let them do it.
You'll never have to cast flash in 90% of situations. It's a grellow proc, and can also be used to help ninjas' with getting shadows up.
Repose if and when you have to. It lasts up to 90 seconds, which is generally more than enough for someone to grab the mobs attention before it wakes. Don't forget to keep an eye on it and have Repose ready for when it wakes.

Probably more random things I can think of, but I'll scribble them later.

remember regen and aflatus solace are your friends. if a party member takes minor dmg over time throw them a regen and save the cures for the one getting the most hate dmg.

I know you asked about advanced skills, but I would just like to say the personally I have found Cure IV awesome in abyssea and with Atma of the Minikin, have never the seen the hate that it can generate become an issue.

If your many problem is ppl complaining about cure speed then I would suggest:

1) If you haven't already, level /rdm or /sch. "Career" White Mages should have both, but having at least one of them will be the single greatest boon to whm that you can have. Personally, I prefer /sch although it has a steeper learning curve than /rdm in my opinion.

2) Cure cast time down set
-there several good pieces for this in varying degrees of expense/difficulty to obtain: Orison Locket, Cure Clogs, Af3 pants, and incantor stone are some basic ones. Other options are Loquacious Earring, Aceso's Choker and whm merits. The nice thing about /sch is light arts, which does not apply to the fast cast cap. I have seen various arguments on if fast cast/cure cast time down/healing magic cast time are all the same thing and collectively stack at 50% or cap separately, but I have not seen any real testing on it.

3) Macro your spells. You will have lots of macros. People have already gone over this in the thread and which type of macro command is mostly going to be based on you personal preference. Play around and figure out which ones you like. One thing to add is I normally use <me> on spells that can only be self targeted such as esuna/auspice/barspells. That way you only have to hit the macro once. I also have all of my barspells macro'd but have only 2 (a bar-element and a bar-status) in my "active" macro bar at any time, that way I can just copy and paste the one I need for any particular fight, and still have all of my barspell gear changes set. I always macro the bar element and the bar status spell into the same place so I never have to stop and think about which one is which.

4) Experience
The more you pay whm, the better you will get at it. White mage is a player skill based job. Gear helps, but utimately it how good you are at the job comes down the ability of the person playing it. A whm with basic gear but good player skill can do much better than one with perfect gear and a short attention span.

I learned most of my skill as a whm mainhealing my nyzal isle static starting at lvl 61 with a V-cloak. I screamed my way through the 1st few weeks as well. Stick with it and learn to develop a thick skin. Yes the whm can cause a party/ally to wipe (I've done it, seen it done and if any whm says they haven't don't believe them) chances at least half the complaints directed against you are not actually your fault. Sometimes characters die and there was not a thing you could do about it. Learn to differentiate what is an honest criticizism/complaint/suggestion and what is just someone's ego.

5) Pay attention
This one seems rather obvious but whm is a job that I feel requires you to pay much more attention in all situations than many others in the game. With the exception of the soon-to-be-redone dynamis-bastok, having your attention in anyway divided (your parents/friends/pet/roommate/significant other/TV/music/phone/etc) greatly increases the chance of a party wipe, death, lost claim etc. This can be a strain as whm tends to be long periods of tedium followed by shorter periods of sheer panic, which it one of the main factors that tend to burn people (or at least me) out on the job.

Anyways this is just my advice based on my own experience with the job. I hope it helps, and remember: its game, have fun!

also knowing exactly (estimate) how much your cures heal for is good. helps on the mp management in and out of abyssea. subtle abuse of divine seal for a pesky monk is also good, (a well geared, 50%cp + ds can hit a monk for 2k+ on a good day; not saying you should let them get that low, but it happens).
find a friend to experiment on that doesn't mind dying a few times in the name of skilling/experiencing building.