White Mage absolutes?

What are the absolute must haves for a 50 Whm as far as additional actions go? I know instacast is one but what else and why?

Additional must-haves at endgame are probably eye for an eye and virus.

"Eye for an Eye" (ACN 34) is a good damage mitigation tool that reduces the damage dealt by monsters by 10% for 20 seconds. It helps a healer by reducing the amount of healing they need to cast, thus reducing their overall enmity, and allowing them time to regen mp, lower enmity, or dps. It is very handy when doing speedruns. Keep in mind the ability actually is a buff that applies a debuff to enemies hitting the target with a physical attack. Some bosses like ADS will not trigger the debuff as they never do physical attacks.

"Virus" (ACN 12) reduces enemy STR and DEX, making it easier for your tank to hit enemies (tank generates more enmity) while reducing the damage dealt (healer generates less enmity). Both are very handy tools to prevent overhealing, conserve mp, and reduce enmity. It might see some use in endgame Coil runs (depending on your party composiiton), especially if you throw it on more powerful monsters in T1 and T4.

"Blizzard II" (THM 12) is sometimes handy if you are a WHM solo-ing or leveling up. You bind enemies and continue running to your target destination, or you just put a regen on yourself and aoe. If you're a CNJ, you should have better options.

"Surecast" {THM 8) can be useful when you are working to time large heals to go immediately after a big hit (such as a primal's unavoidable aoe). You might also use it to make sure the stoneskin casts on the tank without interruption in preparation for mountainbuster on titan (immediately after geocrush). It's not necessary, but it is useful and you get it anyway.

Swiftcast because you mentioned it.
Surecast because you might be interrupted mid-cast. Think Titan's Geocrush.
Eye for an Eye to rotate usage on your tank. It's good mitigation.
Virus to use on boss and lower damage.
The last 3 are nice to have just like Swiftcast but it really boosts your ability as WHM.

Eye for an Eye and Virus are both good from arcanist, as any damage reduction no matter how small makes your life easier. They're both off GCD so they don't interrupt your healing at all. From BLM I would make sure you have both Swiftcast (which you mentioned) and Surecast for those times when you need to cast a cure while getting hammered. The other 3 possible cross class skills are lol (Physik - same potency as cure without the freecure procs, Blizzard II - you already have holy for aoe cc and it's way higher potency, and Ruin - use stone II instead), so really not any choices to make. Blizzard II could be useful in very extreme situations where you have multiple mobs on yourself, swiftcast is down, and you need to bind them long enough to let the tank grab aggro.

I would say a "Must Have" is a great internet connect and good dodging skills.

Swiftcast and Eye for an Eye should be priority. Virus, with the nerf, is more beneficial if added from a SCH or SMN There are some uses for Surecast (Fireballs from Twin for example), but the first two are major tools in your toolkit.

There are seven crossclass abilities that WHM can pick up. Ruin is inferior to Stone 2, and Physick is inferior to Cure, so that leaves five choices for five slots.

Question is - are they all worth getting?

Virus you get automatically to meet the lv15 arcanist req.

Bliz 2 and Surecast you get automatically on the way to picking up Swiftcast, which you've already mentioned as essential.

That only leaves Eye for an Eye, which is a solid yet somewhat unpredictable ability. It may proc early, or later, or never, although it usually will. Point is, you can't predict how well it will do its job - Eye paints with a broad brush to reduce encounter damage. You should get it, as there are no better options and it's free in terms of both MP and time, but if you delay a bit it won't hurt you too much.

Awesome! Thanks for the great responses. I wasn't looking forward to leveling Arcanist but I want to be the best WHM I can so I think I will.

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Originally Posted by Judge_Xero

I would say a "Must Have" is a great internet connect and good dodging skills.

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This. :D :D

I don't have eye for eye yet I may level up Arc? I think to get it now

Eye for an Eye is underrated by most but on fights where you can reduce big hits of damage like twin is very important to be able to keep eye up 100% of the time rotating CDs between all.

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Originally Posted by Lemon8or

Surecast because you might be interrupted mid-cast. Think Titan's Geocrush.

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I've never had Geocrush interrupt anything, even on extreme mode. But as others have said, still need it for other things like fireballs. Game is weird on which attacks actually interrupt you and which don't.

Virus I've found I rarely use anymore in 8 man content, especially since I run with a SCH who knows when is best to use theirs.

Honestly...WHM only *need* 2 cross-class skills in 8-mans IMO (not to say only get these, just that you really should have them as your first and second cross class slots)

Swiftcast - Obvious

Eye for an Eye - Yes, it is excellent mitigation, especially on groups of enemies. The chances of it not procing throughout its duration is extremely low (just remember, it only triggers off physical damage, not magic...so it is useless on T2 and Ultima, for example)


For the other three slots...

Surecast - Its good to have, but not completely necessary. There are a few places where it does shine, however. T5, Ifrit EX (Howl can interrupt) and Garuda EX (and HM; I'm pretty sure Friction can interrupt, and know the main AoE does) are the three main fights I can think of where its good to have (whether you use it or not...different story). Of course, its just good to have should you take aggro and need to get that saving cure off. And, well, PvP...
Biggest problem for me with this is actually remembering to use it...

Virus - If you have a SCH or SMN in party...forget you have it. If there aren't any, its good to have for those times its needed. But in 8-mans you should have a SCH or SMN, if not both...

Bliz2 - Solo-play really...unless I was screwing around, I've never used this in an instance post-45 (Holy is so much better)

I'd say Eye for an Eye is a great priority considering how a vast majority of SCH don't even use the skill

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Originally Posted by PArcher

Honestly...WHM only *need* 2 cross-class skills in 8-mans IMO (not to say only get these, just that you really should have them as your first and second cross class slots)
Eye for an Eye - Yes, it is excellent mitigation, especially on groups of enemies. The chances of it not procing throughout its duration is extremely low (just remember, it only triggers off physical damage, not magic...so it is useless on T2 and Ultima, for example)

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This made my stomach hurt because I hate using ACN, but now I'm doing Coil and there is no avoiding this sigh ._.

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Originally Posted by AiChyan

This made my stomach hurt because I hate using ACN, but now I'm doing Coil and there is no avoiding this sigh ._.

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You don't need it. I killed Twin for the first time without it (or rather with it but I forgot to use it, because I'm super good at using my CDs). You can get by without it, particularly if you have a SCH and SMN in your party.

That said, might as well - once you hit 30 and do the sch quest healer queues are pretty quick, and while it might not be NECESSARY, it certainly can help - it's great during snakes and while it's not enough to skip a set of tank cooldowns on death sentence, it gives you a little more buffer in case Twin gets a high DS or somebody misses a shield.

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Originally Posted by Menae

You don't need it. I killed Twin for the first time without it (or rather with it but I forgot to use it, because I'm super good at using my CDs). You can get by without it, particularly if you have a SCH and SMN in your party.

That said, might as well - once you hit 30 and do the sch quest healer queues are pretty quick, and while it might not be NECESSARY, it certainly can help - it's great during snakes and while it's not enough to skip a set of tank cooldowns on death sentence, it gives you a little more buffer in case Twin gets a high DS or somebody misses a shield.

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Technically...you don't need Swiftcast either; you should be able to complete any content without it

But...why wouldn't you grab it to have just in case?

Mitigation is mitigation; less damage to the tank is less you have to heal and less you have to worry. And if you have a SMN SCH and BLM in your party...you should be able to rotate E4E pretty well and get insane uptime on it (don't nerf this SE like Virus please)

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Originally Posted by PArcher

Technically...you don't need Swiftcast either; you should be able to complete any content without it

But...why wouldn't you grab it to have just in case?

Mitigation is mitigation; less damage to the tank is less you have to heal and less you have to worry. And if you have a SMN SCH and BLM in your party...you should be able to rotate E4E pretty well and get insane uptime on it (don't nerf this SE like Virus please)

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I'm not saying don't grab it. In fact I specifically stated in the post you quoted that you might as well.

But let's say you are a fresh 50 WHM/15 ACN/0 BLM. Which do you grab first? The ability that allows you to instantly cast any spell (sans LB) while moving once a minute? Or the ability that might give a mob a 10% damage dealt reduction for 20 seconds once every three minutes?

I don't hate Eye for an Eye, but it's no Swiftcast.

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Originally Posted by Menae

I'm not saying don't grab it. In fact I specifically stated in the post you quoted that you might as well.

But let's say you are a fresh 50 WHM/15 ACN/0 BLM. Which do you grab first? The ability that allows you to instantly cast any spell (sans LB) while moving once a minute? Or the ability that might give a mob a 10% damage dealt reduction for 20 seconds once every three minutes?

I don't hate Eye for an Eye, but it's no Swiftcast.

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Honestly...if you've gotten to WHM 50 (or SCH 50 or SMN 50) without people yelling at you to get Swifcast ASAP...you've probably been Fate grinding and have little idea how to heal properly...