Need help with white mage

So I mained sch in ARR and I haven't touched a healer since then. I decided to level my white mage up. Any tips or guides for how to play it?

I'd say just read the tooltips. Healers don't really have rotations per se, you just play how your team allows you to. Your DPS will always be your DoTs followed by a nuke spam. You can weave in PoM to increase your DPS at that point too. As WHM have infinite mana now, using Cure II is almost better in all situations as it guarantees you a Lily. Also try keeping up a Regen on the tank at all times, and use Tetra whenever it's available. It should allow you more time to DPS as opposed to wasting GCDs on Cures.

Someone here is bound to tell you to ignore the Lily Gauge, but don't listen to them. A lot of WHMs are still being salty for no reason.

What role abilities do you use (in other from left to right).

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Originally Posted by SarenyiaSarenyia

So I mained sch in ARR and I haven't touched a healer since then. I decided to level my white mage up. Any tips or guides for how to play it?

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The playstyle is nearly identical to Heavensward WHM, if you've seen or heard about that at all.

Healing priority: Regen > Cure > Cure II. Regen is most efficient, Cure II is least efficient. If you have Healing over Time (HoT) effects up, such as Regen or Medica II, try to resist the urge to top people up unless there's actually more damage coming.

Use your oGCDs, such as Tetragrammaton and Asylum, to avoid spending MP on normal heals when you can. Take note that Largesse does not affect oGCD heals, but pairs excellently with Regen and Medical II. If you're below a certain MP threshold Lucid Dreaming should generally be used on cooldown (you'll get a feel for this). Benediction ignores all healing debuffs and can be used to avoid interrupting DPSing if you like.

Assize has three purposes: DPS, free healing, MP recovery. If you, for example, use it in place of where you might cast medica... you avoid spending 1680 MP and get 10% MP back on top of that. You can also just use it purely to do damage. You don't usually want to hold this ability in reserve for long.

Presence of Mind pairs excellently with Thin Air, for either AOE heal spam or DPS.

To add to what Risvertasashi said, don't forget your DPS abilities! Holy is very powerful AoE DPS spell, and in addition to that it stuns all the enemies for a bit so your tank won't be taking any damage. Aero III is your AoE DoT, so use that with Holy and Assize for AoE damage. For single target, keep your Aero DoTs up and spam your strongest Stone spell.

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Originally Posted by SarenyiaSarenyia

What role abilities do you use (in other from left to right).

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I personally use the following:

Lucid Dreaming
Esuna
Protect
Eye for an Eye
Swiftcast

As long as your healer is 50, you have access to all role abilities regardless of level sync you're in so order doesn't matter too much anymore.

There is no CD reset when you swap out role abilities in the middle of a dungeon so it's possible to apply Protect and then swap it to something else that you find useful for the particular instance. Esuna isn't always necessary but I find it's good practice to keep it on your bar until you discover which dungeons you need and don't need Esuna for.

I don't find Largesse particularly useful for WHM at the time of this posting (I haven't done EX Primals yet) as the large majority of the WHM kit at 70 will revolve around ability-type heals which aren't affected by Largeese.

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Originally Posted by Ghishlain

I don't find Largesse particularly useful for WHM at the time of this posting (I haven't done EX Primals yet) as the large majority of the WHM kit at 70 will revolve around ability-type heals which aren't affected by Largeese.

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...TBH I use it more out of habit than tested effectiveness. What really hurts now is.... with the 90s CD, it no longer lines up with mechanics on a 60s cycle, 1 minute cycles being a trend that Susano continues...

But for a newcomer to the class, it is definitely worth remembering it only affects spells, and oGCD heals are not classed as spells.

Thanks for the tips just seems like it's so hard even though I know it's probably not lol.

Your options will vary depending on your level and gear to be honest (not to mention your tank). There's some good advice here overall. I'll just offer an alternate "rotation" of sorts for dungeons. This is fine if you can spare the mana. At higher levels mana isn't an issue but it might be while you're leveling.

On pack pulls Largesse > Regen > Medica II (with or without swiftcast) > Aero III > Holy (your hots will regen a bit of hp during the stun) then just dps and use your ogcd to keep the tank up if you need. Of course the above is to be adjusted depending on the damage the tank takes, you may need to cure I/II and/or benison etc. etc.

As a general rule I also tend to refresh medica II and regen when I don't have the timings down for an encounter. It's clearly best to medica II after damage hits but there's no harm in maintaining it even if everyone is full HP while you learn your class and the encounters (and have the mana).

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Originally Posted by SarenyiaSarenyia

Thanks for the tips just seems like it's so hard even though I know it's probably not lol.

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Just take it one step at a time. You'll get Cure, Cure II, and Regen before most other skills so just work on when to use each of those at first. Add to your repertoire as you level up and gain access to more skills.

Biggest thing for endgame healing is knowing mechanics, like any other job.

Predicting when a player is about to lose hp Gives healing a whole new level. As someone about to get bolted, I can be almost finished casting that cure and the player be healed the instant his hp gets lowered

I think it's important to adjust to the situation you're in. Sometimes you'll find yourself with a great tank who seems like he never needs much more than a regen. Sometimes you'll get an idiot wearing strength accessories pulling entire floors of mobs in his DPS stance. Keeping on your toes is the most important thing.

A WHM specific tip I think is handy is keeping your oGCD's on cooldown as often as is feasable. This is not saying to waste them, if you know you're seeing a tankbuster soon leave Bene alone so it can do more work for you, but the thing that sets WHM apart right now is the potency of its oGCD kit. The more you let them do for you, especially buffed by the lily gage, the more mana and GCD's you can spend on DPS.

You can plan strategies on how you spend your mana but there's no rotation for WHM. The most important thing is to keep up the regen, it saves not only PMs but lives as well. Tetra is powerful but takes just a little bit of time to be available again so I tend to keep it as an emergency heal in case something goes wrong. When you mono-heal, Cure is enough most of the time but I heard (didn't read it anywhere though) that Cure II gives a lily everytime, which would make it a better choice as you can cast divine benison pretty much whenever you want. After that, don't hesitate to abuse Assize and Asylum. Asylum is very good paired with other regen abilities (regen, extra medica) and gives you some time to apply your dots. If you want to dps, Holy is good but costs a lot so watch you MP bar and use lucid dream and it'll go up in no time.

tl;dr: keep regen up, heal what needs to be when it happens (or prepare cast when you see it coming), dps when it's calm and keep an eye on you MPs.

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Originally Posted by Ghishlain

There is no CD reset when you swap out role abilities in the middle of a dungeon so it's possible to apply Protect and then swap it to something else that you find useful for the particular instance. Esuna isn't always necessary but I find it's good practice to keep it on your bar until you discover which dungeons you need and don't need Esuna for.

I don't find Largesse particularly useful for WHM at the time of this posting (I haven't done EX Primals yet) as the large majority of the WHM kit at 70 will revolve around ability-type heals which aren't affected by Largeese.

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I find Largesse particularly useful for WHM a the the time of this posting (I have done Ex primal) As the large majority of tank in dungeon/Ex are in paper (low Ilvl item or I270 Str Force) or simply bad.

Someone fuck up the thunder mechanic ? Medica II+Largesse.
Most of your dps and your healer fuck up the vrill mechanic and got massive bleeding debuff ? Largesse !
Your tank want to pull everything ? LARGESSE
Your largesse will ends ? Swiftcast medica II/put Regen on somebody.
You want to max dps ? Regen+Largesse+medica II if needed.

I don't see any better cross-class skill.
Esuna could be replaced.
Break is meh
Surecast is meh
Rescue is meh
Cleric stance is meh

I consider myself a decent healer and WHM is my only end game healer at the moment. Doing the leveling dungeon Doma Castle lvl 67. I'm average ilvl 279 and there were some pulls that I could not keep the tank alive and I burned through tetra, assize, asylum, bene, presence of mind-cure2 spam to the point I was almost OOM and the tank still died. I have a feeling it's due to terrible gear but considering I don't have an AST or SCH to compare to, but man, if people have WHM tips to share, I'm all ears.

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Originally Posted by Stormbad

I consider myself a decent healer and WHM is my only end game healer at the moment. Doing the leveling dungeon Doma Castle lvl 67. I'm average ilvl 279 and there were some pulls that I could not keep the tank alive and I burned through tetra, assize, asylum, bene, presence of mind-cure2 spam to the point I was almost OOM and the tank still died. I have a feeling it's due to terrible gear but considering I don't have an AST or SCH to compare to, but man, if people have WHM tips to share, I'm all ears.

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Disclaimer: I don't have WHM at 70, only AST.

Did you use Holy to stun the monsters early to buy you more time and cooldowns? Did you parse / can you estimate what the party DPS was like? Was the tank using cooldowns?

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Originally Posted by Taika

Disclaimer: I don't have WHM at 70, only AST.

Did you use Holy to stun the monsters early to buy you more time and cooldowns? Did you parse / can you estimate what the party DPS was like? Was the tank using cooldowns?

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Yup, swiftcast->holy for the initial stun. It's not like the tank died in the first 10 seconds, he died only after I exhausted every cooldown and even then was almost OOM. Yeah I parsed and one dps was around 2200 and the other around 1600 so possibly a low dps issue too.

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Originally Posted by Stormbad

Yup, swiftcast->holy for the initial stun. It's not like the tank died in the first 10 seconds, he died only after I exhausted every cooldown and even then was almost OOM. Yeah I parsed and one dps was around 2200 and the other around 1600 so possibly a low dps issue too.

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Yeah sounds like the tank just pulled too much for the party DPS and you did all that you could. :)

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Originally Posted by Taika

Yeah sounds like the tank just pulled too much for the party DPS and you did all that you could. :)

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^ I agree with this assessment. Mobs in Doma hit hard, even for a capped ilvl tank, probably because the syncing doesn't allow the players to over gear very much.

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Originally Posted by Kabzy

Someone here is bound to tell you to ignore the Lily Gauge, but don't listen to them.

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I'll sort of be that person. Don't ignore it, but don't be glued to it either. Ignoring it will mean you may not have a lily for Divine Benison, while trying to keep 3 lilies for each oGCD skill means you're doing nothing but Cure II spam. Just do your heals as you normally do, if Divine Benison cooldown is ready then make sure you have a lily, and if you have 3 lilies built up feel free to use them up on an oGCD skill so you don't waste them (Assize preferably, because it's one of our best skills).

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Originally Posted by EaMett

On pack pulls Largesse > Regen > Medica II (with or without swiftcast) > Aero III > Holy (your hots will regen a bit of hp during the stun) then just dps and use your ogcd to keep the tank up if you need. Of course the above is to be adjusted depending on the damage the tank takes, you may need to cure I/II and/or benison etc. etc.

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This peeves me for a bit. Why is Medica II even in that "rotation"? For single target purposes it's not only inefficient in the MP category, but also in time. It's 700 potency on a single target and takes 3 seconds to cast. You know what else has 700 potency in a single spell? Cure II. If it's for area healing purposes for whatever reason, Asylum and assize will suffice.

For a big pull I let the tank get aggro on all the mobs for just a brief moment in which right after I cast Largesse > Asylum > Cure II > Divine Benison > Regen > Swift Cast > Presence of Mind > Holy > Assize > Thin Air > Aero III > Holy x20

It flows really well making use of your oGCDs while your GCDs are on cooldown.

Great thing about Holy is you can keep the tank selected while spamming it so you if you notice they're getting low you can use your oGCDs to heal them back up and get right back to casting more Holy's. Don't be afraid to use Benediction either. I pop that all the time in these pulls simply as another heal so I can Dps more.

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Originally Posted by Lyrica_Ashtine

This peeves me for a bit. Why is Medica II even in that "rotation"? For single target purposes it's not only inefficient in the MP category, but also in time. It's 700 potency on a single target and takes 3 seconds to cast. You know what else has 700 potency in a single spell? Cure II. If it's for area healing purposes for whatever reason, Asylum and assize will suffice.

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You don't want to heal right away, he wants to put a lot of hots to keep the tank alive AND dpsing. That's why he Medica II.
I hope you understand.

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Originally Posted by NamoNanamo

You don't want to heal right away, he wants to put a lot of hots to keep the tank alive AND dpsing. That's why he Medica II.
I hope you understand.

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Medica II takes too long to cast (assuming you are not blowing SC for it), costs too much MP, and heals too little upfront and per individual tick for a single-target situation. If you must have the additional healing, weave in a Cure 2 at some point for reduced casting time, less MP expended, and a Lily.

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Originally Posted by NamoNanamo

You don't want to heal right away, he wants to put a lot of hots to keep the tank alive AND dpsing. That's why he Medica II.
I hope you understand.

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no, I don't. Medica II is 700 potency, Cure II is 700 potency.
If you heal after 10 seconds to make use of the 200 potency and wait another 30 for the remaining 500. Why not just wait the whole 40 seconds and slap out a Cure II instead for the same result. Except it:
It takes 0.5 seconds more to cast Medica II
Costs significantly less MP for each application if you use Cure II instead
You don't get lilies with Medica II

Medica II for a tank only heal is a waste. We have MORE than enough MP now you can use Cure II instead.

Don't ignore lilies, they are actually useful. Assize every 45 seconds is wonderful!

Ahaha, you are all so cute :3

Edit: No, you really are ! I'm just to lazy to state why it's not a bad idea to Medica II. In any case, Maybe EaMett will explain why he does that ;)

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Originally Posted by NamoNanamo

Ahaha, you are all so cute :3

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Aww, so are you for your condescending "I secretly think I'm better than you," attitude.

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

... We have MORE than enough MP now you can use Cure II instead.

Don\\\\\\\\'t ignore lilies, they are actually useful. Assize every 45 seconds is wonderful!

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This to a point. While using medica 2 only to heal is wasteful I agree it really shines on keeping others toped off while you focus on the tank or dpsing. Now, a tank with media 2 and regen on them can be pretry low maintenence allowing you tomw to dps

Let\\\\'s talk about lillies. They are fanatic and only get better when you get divine bension. The trick is to learn not to over cure your targets and keep them topped off with cure 2. I find myself using cure only if I\\\\\\\\'m full on lillies or little lower on mp then I had planned. Don\\\\\\\\'t listen to the hate on the lillies. When you abuse them you find yourself with a nice extra kit of tools that help you to be able to dps more often.

The med 2 is meant for dps who eat aoes in really big trash pulls. The amount of dps that eat aoes in DF, Med 2 helps deal with them while also taking care of the Tank. And I mean really big trash pulls.

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Originally Posted by Jxnibbles

The med 2 is meant for dps who eat aoes in really big trash pulls. The amount of dps that eat aoes in DF, Med 2 helps deal with them while also taking care of the Tank. And I mean really big trash pulls.

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Did Square-Enix patch out Assize and Asylum or something?

Reliance on Medica II is an outdated 2.x habit IMO. It's a great spell, but it's been overkill for incidental healing since 3.0.

Of course, WHM can afford to be sloppy thanks to its powerful MP-management tools, but if you're going to slop heals around, you might as well make Cure II your brush of choice for its guaranteed Lily production.

For tank pulls:

Medica II vs Cure II:
- Both have 700 Potency
- Medica has a longer CD but it's AoE good in case some DPS get hit by AoE?
- Cure II generates lily
- Cure wastes less MP
- Since Cure II generates lily it also gives you Divine Benison for free.

So it's Medica II vs Cure II and Divine Benison

I think we have a winner for tank pulls -> Cure II and Divine Benison > Medica II