My thoughts on the WHM after obtaining end game and fully geared.

So I just want to start by saying this is my experience as a whm and everyones experience will definitely be different then my own.

I came back to the game as a 99 WHM from pre-adoulin days, when Adoulin expansion just came out. Since then I have looked into becoming a full time whm starting in 117 eminent gear.

I first realized that Item level 117 doesnt matter when joining parties. I joined a Delve party right off the start. They told me they were sorry they were going to have to boot me because I had little to no Cure Potency, which caps at 50%, mine was around 4% from my cape. I had no Cure Casting time on my gear, and zero fast cast. I asked the leader of the delve party what should I have? She replied abyssea pants +2 for whm would be a good place to start.

So I took her advice and off I went, I realized I would have to look at each piece of my gear, and go for only three things. 1. Cure Potency 50% (max), 2. -80% Cure Spellcasting reduction. (max) and 3. 40% Fast Cast (max).

As I looked up all the gear on BG Wiki for cure spellcasting times, and finding out that half of the spellcasting reduction equates to fast cast, I went on my jounrney to get as much possible % in each slot for those two things, and what I soon found out was that Item level does not apply to Whm's...

What I mean is, that gear from Skirimishes even at +2 have little to zero spell casting time reduction, fastcast, or cure potency. So I am pretty much a frankanstien of many differant level gear with an average Item level of 110 after being fully completed. I have used zero skirimish armor or weapons. I did however use a crafted hat, body, a bayld hands sold by one of the guilds, a genbu shield which as been augmented to be better then sors shield, +2 pants from abyssea which is needed in order to gain 0 mp cost curaga's for battles like Shadow Lord, ect.

So you get the picture, I am a whm which has almost no Item level on any of my gears because of the importance of cure potency, cure casting spelltime, and fast cast. In fact its so important that if you try to get into any tough content you are flat our denied.

I hope someday in the future SE puts some of these most important stats for a whm onto skirimish gear or weapons, so that running skirmishes are something more important to a whm then just gearing up alts with runs. I do however really enjoy skirimishes ALOT. Its alot of fun and its fast pace like moblin mongerers were, and I like that kind of content alot. The feeling of going through a dungeon with a bard, rdm or cor next you you feeding you mp while taking on challenging battles that everyone has to pay attention to.

Where was I, yes, sorry for the straying off topic. This is what my experience was getting to be fully geared end game and to the point to be able to run end game content as a whm. Hope your watching SE. 8)

Umm~ Skirmish Head has the best Cure Potency of any head piece, the hands are insane for Fast Cast, the Feet are fantastic for Cursna, the legs I'll agree for WHM are meaningless but even the body has some use as a Cure Potency piece for curaga spells(not single targets due to Solace bonus on Empyrean). While I agree more could be done to make these more desirable in general since mage stats unlike melee stats are all over the place, these pieces are already very good for WHM.

:x

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Originally Posted by Demonjustin

Umm~ Skirmish Head has the best Cure Potency of any head piece, the hands are insane for Fast Cast, the Feet are fantastic for Cursna, the legs I'll agree for WHM are meaningless but even the body has some use as a Cure Potency piece for curaga spells(not single targets due to Solace bonus on Empyrean). While I agree more could be done to make these more desirable in general since mage stats unlike melee stats are all over the place, these pieces are already very good for WHM.

:x

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Does theophany cap not exist?
Also, most WHMs use Heka's in body piece.

I know that feeling to be denied :/ and without giving you a chance to prove yourself even with 117 gear from spark. I'll make a list of gear you need and why. In addition, before i start main healing magic and enhancing magic need to be MAX / CAP as well as enfeebling magic. Wayfarer item level 117 set is a awesome piece of gear because full set = 3 refresh tick. Wearing it full time give you protection from meteor and AOE from NM if they use.

Legs : Orison Pantaloons +2 = This is a very important piece because if you macro this into any cure spell it convert 5% of it comes back to you as MP. This helps a lot and save you a lot of MP overtime as you Cure but you don't really need it to play a good WHM and most people buy Coalitions Ether and spam it when MP running low.

Feet: Orison Duckbills +2 = This piece optional and it help with Auspice increase accuracy and subtle blow. This also help with spell that rely on enhancing magic like barspell, boost DEX or boost STR which ever the DD prefer.

Weapon: Item level 115 Club Tamaxchi 1st or Chatoyant Staff 2nd Whichever you can get your hands on.

Head: Skirmish Head and Gloves item level 113 or 119 either works fine. It's a good macro piece into Cure V or Curaga III spell.
There are more gear i would list for you but that depends on how far you wanna take WHM. I'll leave that for others to post. Some WHM usually focus on fast cast Cure macro SET.

now for the conclusion as a WHM you have to be fast when you see NM animation during a TP make sure curaga III or cure V depends if it's AOE or just 1 hit TP. Make sure to keep up Regen IV on DD that take most damage. Be sure to check your icon if you have ballad from Bard because this plays a huge factor in keeping up MP. If you cast Dia II on mob will help speed up the fight but some NM rare your not suppose to cast on them so keep in mind and ask Leader. Finally, if anyone did not know this, SE have beaten all Delve Content and Hard Mode Mission Battles using a 2 bard song, item level 117 gear set ONLY. Now that you know you should have a big smile on your face and be like Ohhh! "If i take my time and build item level 119 gear i can over power these NM =)". It's also how people play their job and understanding the situation is what get Wins but if not can practice until you get it. So even without those 119 gear you can still manage because update to weapon skill damage and a better way to control enmity as tank with Crusade spell all that good stuff.

Cure clogs are also a great addition to decrease spellcasting times. -15% is awesome. On your server, there are currently 2 on AH and about 400k. But if you ask me, they are well worth it. Especially if you full time the job. Orison legs +2 and cure clogs alone are a great start. As far as cure potency goes, this is what I have, mind you I am not a full time whm lol:

cure potency
Tamaxchi: 22%
Sors Shield: 3% (also decreases spellcasting time by 5%)
Theophany cap: 10% (also decreases spellcasting time by 4%)
Gendewitha bilaut +1: 8%
Genewitha gages +1: augmented 2% cure potency

Total: 45% cure potency

Keep in mind you can use even nq stones to try and get a little extra cure potency and -spellcasting time augments. Again, I am not a full time whm and a lot of this stuff is pretty accessible even for a casual player. Reforging some of the af and relic to even just 109 can help a lot and 113 skirmish gear have some great stats and have the potential to get decent augments even with the nq stones. I hope this helps. All of these pieces have served me pretty well so far. Oh almost forgot to mention. witful belt is also nice for spell casting times. Again has a bit of a high price tag, but is well worth it in my opinion

WHM is the easiest job in the game to gear for. Gearing WHM doesn't require any other job at 99, the completion of any difficult battlefields, or much gil. If there is any job people are somewhat right to have high expectations of, gearwise, it's WHM. If you don't have good WHM gear it isn't because you weren't able to get a win on Delve or are waiting on a BC drop, it's because you're lazy. It may sound a bit extreme but it's really the only job that has it this easy.

And, mostly as a response to Ataraxia, don't wear Wayfarer under any circumstance. Wayfarer is a sign of extreme laziness.

Secondarily, I'm not standing around in my Cure gear that often and won't be getting hit with any AOE in it.

iLevel items have some wonderful pieces, but they are primarily swap ones, unless you're someone who doesn't swap gear, which well, swapping equipment brings a lot to the table for a Whm.

My biggest gripe is not that there are no good iLevel curing or curecast peices, there are certainly some, Though they're often not the best in slot, (aby legs and aby body though, are going to be reforged soon! they will likely be AMAZING cure peices)

But I definitely am annoyed by a lack of good idle refresh iLevel gear, for all mages, I stand around in Serpentes hands and feet, either a wivre hairpin and iLevel body or heka's combo, nares legs, etc.... It's annoying when I miss swapping into defensive gear at the wrong time and get creamed, or having to sit in defensive gear and miss out on so many refresh tics.

At the heart of it, there's not new gear that have lived up to old peices, whether it be refresh, whm legs mp return (though they made an ilv peice with 4% returned instead of 5 recently) or a few other things, they should specific care to watch what white mages wear, and give them appropriate peices, IMO, I hope they do some manual research.

Until then, nothing will break if they add some refresh to non-body ilevel peices for mages, matching the old peices amount of refresh, but with added defenses, please consider this an official request.

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Originally Posted by Dragomair

Does theophany cap not exist?

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That I actually forgot about admittedly.

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Also, most WHMs use Heka's in body piece.

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Ignoring the fact that it's not as good, getting that body is going to be a lot harder than Gendewitha would be. ><;

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Originally Posted by Selindrile

But I definitely am annoyed by a lack of good idle refresh iLevel gear, for all mages, I stand around in Serpentes hands and feet, either a wivre hairpin and iLevel body or heka's combo, nares legs, etc.... It's annoying when I miss swapping into defensive gear at the wrong time and get creamed, or having to sit in defensive gear and miss out on so many refresh tics.

At the heart of it, there's not new gear that have lived up to old peices, whether it be refresh, whm legs mp return (though they made an ilv peice with 4% returned instead of 5 recently) or a few other things, they should specific care to watch what white mages wear, and give them appropriate peices, IMO, I hope they do some manual research.

Until then, nothing will break if they add some refresh to non-body ilevel peices for mages, matching the old peices amount of refresh, but with added defenses, please consider this an official request.

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Now that, I can most definitely get behind! Serpentes and Nares are still required for my RDM and that DEF is just plain awful next to the DEF we see on gear now days, giving us new idle pieces would be a great way to address the issue.

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Originally Posted by Dragomair

Does theophany cap not exist?

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Yes it does, but there are better options for both Cure Casting Time and Cure Potency.

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Originally Posted by Dragomair

Also, most WHMs use Heka's in body piece.

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Only if they haven't upgraded their other equipment. You can cap Cure Casting Time without Heka's and there are better idle/refresh/curing pieces anyway.

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Originally Posted by Sasaraixx

Yes it does, but there are better options for both Cure Casting Time and Cure Potency.

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Theophany +1, Gendewitha +1, are nearly identical for curepotency, and Theophany is better when curepotency is capped elsewhere, due to the higher mind, cure cast time will be capped with some combination, and is part of your precast set, though Hekas is still one of the better peices for doing so. A Whm should be curing in Empy+2 body, generally speaking, as long as they can cap their curepotency without their body piece.

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Originally Posted by Sasaraixx

Only if they haven't upgraded their other equipment. You can cap Cure Casting Time without Heka's and there are better idle/refresh/curing pieces anyway.

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With what? Spurrina Coif is the only thing that offers more refresh with a 119 Body over Heka's combo, it's also not iLevel and costs about 50Mil on my server, most would rather put that money towards a REM, if they can manage 50M at all.

You could idle in a Wivre Hairpin and a 119Body, the same refresh, and a little more defense, at best, and annoying to farm for anyone who doesn't have it, though, so is Heka's.

Heka's combo is still the most frequent endgame idle option I see for Whms who have plenty of 119 gear that they swap into for other spells.

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Originally Posted by Selindrile

Theophany +1, Gendewitha +1, are nearly identical for curepotency

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Please explain to me how 10% Cure Potency and 18% Cure Potency are nearly identical.

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Originally Posted by Selindrile

and Theophany is better when curepotency is capped elsewhere, due to the higher mind, cure cast time will be capped with some combination, and is part of your precast set, though Hekas is still one of the better peices for doing so. A Whm should be curing in Empy+2 body, generally speaking, as long as they can cap their curepotency without their body piece.

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Gendewitha allows you to pack on more cure potency so it frees you up to move around other slots so that you can have more healing skill, MND and -enmity. And no, Theophany isn't in my precast set because Piety Cap +1 is better. Theophany +1 is a nice piece for people who can't or don't want to manage multiple sets. It's outshined by other pieces for each of it's other 3 main stats: cure potency, casting time and enmity.

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Originally Posted by Selindrile

With what? Spurrina Coif is the only thing that offers more refresh with a 119 Body over Heka's combo, it's also not iLevel and costs about 50Mil on my server, most would rather put that money towards a REM, if they can manage 50M at all.

You could idle in a Wivre Hairpin and a 119Body, the same refresh, and a little more defense, at best, and annoying to farm for anyone who doesn't have it, though, so is Heka's.

Heka's combo is still the most frequent endgame idle option I see for Whms who have plenty of 119 gear that they swap into for other spells.

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If you want to stand around in 2 pieces of non ilevel gear for the same or 1 more mp/tick, then I guess you found your use. I see most WHM's idling in G. Bilaut because it offers more than just "a little more defense" and you're swimming in MP so that 1 extra tick means very little. And as you pointed out, there is still an ilevel option with Spurrina Coif if you really need more mp, but I too think that's not worth the money, and you have Wivre Hairpin.

WHM can't wear Spurrina Coif, so that's not even an option.

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Originally Posted by Selindrile

My biggest gripe is not that there are no good iLevel curing or curecast peices, there are certainly some, Though they're often not the best in slot, (aby legs and aby body though, are going to be reforged soon! they will likely be AMAZING cure peices)

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What? Piety Cap +1, Gendewitha Caubeen +1, G. Bilaut +1 (for curagas), Piety Duckbills +1, Theo Mitts +1 and G. Gages +1 are all best in slot or really awesome alternatives that allow you to customize elsewhere. Empyrean body and legs are really the only non-ilevel pieces that we have to use.

I do agree that we could use more ilevel Refresh options though.

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Originally Posted by Martel

WHM can't wear Spurrina Coif, so that's not even an option.

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Ah, you're absolutely right. Getting my SCH and WHM gear mixed up in my head.

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Originally Posted by Selindrile

Theophany +1, Gendewitha +1, are nearly identical for curepotency, and Theophany is better when curepotency is capped elsewhere, due to the higher mind, cure cast time will be capped with some combination, and is part of your precast set, though Hekas is still one of the better peices for doing so. A Whm should be curing in Empy+2 body, generally speaking, as long as they can cap their curepotency without their body piece.



With what? Spurrina Coif is the only thing that offers more refresh with a 119 Body over Heka's combo, it's also not iLevel and costs about 50Mil on my server, most would rather put that money towards a REM, if they can manage 50M at all.

You could idle in a Wivre Hairpin and a 119Body, the same refresh, and a little more defense, at best, and annoying to farm for anyone who doesn't have it, though, so is Heka's.

Heka's combo is still the most frequent endgame idle option I see for Whms who have plenty of 119 gear that they swap into for other spells.

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i' would use hairpin + 119 body, its not a little more defense, its magic defense+ and a clusterfuck of other stats tied up to it. and in the best case also offers -4PDT and -4MDT. handsdown the best combination for idle refresh ¬.¬ for whms (rdm blm geo blu sch have spurrina +2 and smn has anyone ilvl 119 AF(or was it relic)).

as for hekas, only usefull for precast, every whm knows that when useing solace empy body +2 wins hands down.

at OP:
some skirmish peices offer valid augments, in combination with their stats, the head gets the most cure pot with a cure potency augment, the hands can be augmented with cure casting time on top of the fastcast they offer, list goes on.

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Originally Posted by Sasaraixx

What? Piety Cap +1, Gendewitha Caubeen +1, G. Bilaut +1 (for curagas), Piety Duckbills +1, Theo Mitts +1 and G. Gages +1 are all best in slot or really awesome alternatives that allow you to customize elsewhere. Empyrean body and legs are really the only non-ilevel pieces that we have to use.

I do agree that we could use more ilevel Refresh options though.

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that goes for every mage sadly, geo and smn to a lesser extend, since their AF offer refresh on other slots then body (Geo hands and SMN head). Would love to see some ilvl 119 legs (that dont look ugly as fuck, dumb nares), hands legs and head refresh pieces for the mage jobs ¬.¬

Couple quick answers:

I DO use Wivre Hairpin + 119 Body, because as you said, it's more defensive, it's still annoying.

Gende hat and Theo+1 are nearly identical because nobody I know really augments it with curepot, most people focus on getting the most PDT/MDT they can, you could, and shift some things around, but it would be a rather minor benefit for a cost of space, doable though, I don't know anyone who does. Theo+1 also does have more mind, not that that's a big deal either, admittedly, my main point is, neither really allows you a lot of leeway that the other doesn't, neither are spectacular.

For Precast, how you hit you -80% doesn't really matter, as long as you do, most people try to in as few pieces as possible, because space.

And I also said "My biggest gripe is NOT that we don't have enough curing options", you must've skipped over the whole "Not" part, because that's not a gripe of mine, though I am mildly annoyed at still having to cure in Aby+2 pants and body, though that will change soon with the reforge... I never said that was a gripe of mine, it isn't, my gripe was always about the lack of iLevel idle refresh options.

Spurrina is not an iLevel piece, anyway, though I actually thought WHM could wear it, moot, then.

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Originally Posted by Selindrile

Couple quick answers:

I DO use Wivre Hairpin + 119 Body, because as you said, it's more defensive, it's still annoying.

Gende hat and Theo+1 are nearly identical because nobody I know really augments it with curepot, most people focus on getting the most PDT/MDT they can, you could, and shift some things around, but it would be a rather minor benefit for a cost of space, doable though, I don't know anyone who does. Theo+1 also does have more mind, not that that's a big deal either, admittedly, my main point is, neither really allows you a lot of leeway that the other doesn't, neither are spectacular.

For Precast, how you hit you -80% doesn't really matter, as long as you do, most people try to in as few pieces as possible, because space.

And I also said "My biggest gripe is NOT that we don't have enough curing options", you must've skipped over the whole "Not" part, because that's not a gripe of mine, though I am mildly annoyed at still having to cure in Aby+2 pants and body, though that will change soon with the reforge... I never said that was a gripe of mine, it isn't, my gripe was always about the lack of iLevel idle refresh options.

Spurrina is not an iLevel piece, anyway, though I actually thought WHM could wear it, moot, then.

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actually its just as importent to use as little slots for cure potency+, then fill in the other slots with -enmity (to cap -50enmity) and then focus on fastcast/recast stuff to lower your cure recasts to an extrem low. This becomes more important when you are in battles with constant slow aura or slowga spam (ouryu).

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Originally Posted by Damane

that goes for every mage sadly, geo and smn to a lesser extend, since their AF offer refresh on other slots then body (Geo hands and SMN head). Would love to see some ilvl 119 legs (that dont look ugly as fuck, dumb nares), hands legs and head refresh pieces for the mage jobs ¬.¬

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You are absolutely correct. Given how fast melee jobs can accumulate TP for weaponskills these days, it really would not be broken at all for all mages to have ilevel Refresh options on their main slots.

The reason why people use Heka's is that with it you can free up other slots. With it you can cap +potency -Cast time and -enmity at the same time, it makes you not have to waste for instance your hands slot on potency which then allows you to use theophany+1 for some minus enmity and plus healing magic (just one example there are other things you can do).

You should not idle in Heka though. You already have to sacrifice the safety of ilvl on hands/legs/feet/ for refresh (serpente and nares) with heka you then complete that with all 5 slots not ilvl for the head+body refresh combo. Better to go get a refresh hairpin and idle in Theophany+1 giving you a total of 5 Refresh and 1 item is ilvl at least as opposed to none. Idle refresh is seriously extremely important you should also get a Bolelabunga, Fucho-no-Obi, and Moonshade earring. This will give you 7 constant refresh and 1 more when low mp.

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The reason why people use Heka's is that with it you can free up other slots.

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+22 WKR Club
+10 AF+1 Head
+05 Genbu's Shield
+05 Roundel
+04 Tempered
+10 AF +1 Feet

Total: 56. Obviously beyond cap so you have some freedom to swap a piece or two but a handful I consider BIS. All without having to touch Heka.

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Originally Posted by Smitty

The reason why people use Heka's is that with it you can free up other slots. With it you can cap +potency -Cast time and -enmity at the same time, it makes you not have to waste for instance your hands slot on potency which then allows you to use theophany+1 for some minus enmity and plus healing magic (just one example there are other things you can do

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You will be swapping from pre-cast gear to cure potency gear so you don't need Heka's to cap all 3 at the same time.

The only thing it is really good for is the -casting time and even then you can hit 80% without it. I can cap casting time, enmity, tranquil heart and cure potency all without Heka's (or bokwus) and in most cases have most slots with ilvl equipped.

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Originally Posted by Rhonda

+22 WKR Club
+10 AF+1 Head
+05 Genbu's Shield
+05 Roundel
+04 Tempered
+10 AF +1 Feet

Total: 56. Obviously beyond cap so you have some freedom to swap a piece or two but a handful I consider BIS. All without having to touch Heka.

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Yep. You can even take it a step further and augment the Gendewitha head piece and drop the ear and back potency pieces for healing skill, enmity, conserve mp, or MND.

There are so many options and Heka's is not needed for any nor ideal for most.

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Originally Posted by Sasaraixx

You will be swapping from pre-cast gear to cure potency gear so you don't need Heka's to cap all 3 at the same time.

The only thing it is really good for is the -casting time and even then you can hit 80% without it. I can cap casting time, enmity, tranquil heart and cure potency all without Heka's (or bokwus) and in most cases have most slots with ilvl equipped.

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I didn't mean to imply it was required to do it, my point is that it makes it alot easier to achieve a single set that caps them all in one go. If you don't play on PC, it isn't practical to swap twice per spell especially when those spells are between 0.5 and 0.65 seconds cast time (cure3-cure6) you have half a second to go from your cast time set to your potency set and you have to do it every time you cast. Although now that you can make gear sets without using PC, maybe I'll have to reconsider this opinion, you'll still have to do it manually though as a wait 1 command is to long you won't get into your potency set in time.

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Originally Posted by Smitty

I didn't mean to imply it was required to do it, my point is that it makes it alot easier to achieve a single set that caps them all in one go. If you don't play on PC, it isn't practical to swap twice per spell especially when those spells are between 0.5 and 0.65 seconds cast time (cure3-cure6) you have half a second to go from your cast time set to your potency set and you have to do it every time you cast. Although now that you can make gear sets without using PC, maybe I'll have to reconsider this opinion, you'll still have to do it manually though as a wait 1 command is to long you won't get into your potency set in time.

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That is a fair point. If you are unable to swap gear, then I can see the appeal of Heka's. It isn't ideal in any set, but you have to make to with what you can.

As far as not having time to swap, you can idle in your cure casting time while engaged in fighting. I usually have enough gear refresh in my -casting time set that I don't miss pieces like Serpentes. You'll probably have at least one source of refresh from your party members.

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Originally Posted by Smitty

Idle refresh is seriously extremely important you should also get a Bolelabunga, Fucho-no-Obi, and Moonshade earring. This will give you 7 constant refresh and 1 more when low mp.

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taster's cape. Having to be poisoned mildly sucks but it also stops you from getting slept so still a win ;)


...such a pain to farm though. Still haven't seen it drop -.-

Umm bokwus gloves are 13% for piss easy capping. Taximachi + Sors + Bokwus + Orison +2 head for a stupid easy 48% that any WHM can do right off the bat. Bokwus don't even need upgrading or a delve clear, just pop and kill the field NM. After that it's CCT which works just like FC for cures, merits is 20%, feet is 15% and body is 10% for the AH or 15% for the Akvan drop with some from Sors shield and Orison +2 legs. Rest slots you can fill with fast cast, -enmity or skill / MND and have a perfectly functional WHM/SCH build that can do any event.

After that you can slowly upgrade individual pieces and fine tune your sets. And no matter what anyone tells you, Orison +2 legs are mandatory for a functional WHM build (or the other ones from that BC fight). They are the difference between a 162MP Curaga III (/SCH) and a 68MP Curaga III (630HP on three people). The difference between a 80MP Cure IV and a 38MP Cure IV (850HP healed).