White Mage tips to PvP.

[xxczx]

While this is mostly aimed at White Mages, other healers can take some general tips out of this as well. White Mage is one of the hardest healer jobs to play in PvP and I see loads of White Mages just dropping flat in 2seconds by one DPS which is laughable really but also frustrating if you're a tank/DPS; if you die, your party is most likely to go down with you.

One thing to note for all healers out there stay with your party! Don’t stay at nodes, that is not your place. You live and die with your party, you should be the first one in and the last one out. You need to be everywhere, your Sprint will be on cooldown when you need it the most, a DPS will go in to deep and you’ll have to make a quick decision if it’s worth saving him or not. It’s your team, you are the leader, make them follow you. If they shout “no healzz!!!” you can proudly say you did everything you can. As well as a healer you are also support, sleep, bind, bait a stray DPS to your party; anything you can for your DPS to get kills. The more kills they get, the faster your Limit Break fills.

* Depending on your playstyle, if you're an aggressive healer (baiting damage away from the party onto you) or passive healer you're going to need some VIT. Equip VIT accessories that have either DET, Crit or both so you're not missing out on important secondary stats and apply your PvP points to VIT. You need at least 9.7k HP to survive a melee LB with Stoneskin, the rest is buffer and you're going to need it.

* Get Blizzard II and Surecast on your cross class skills. Surecast is amazing and only a 30sec cooldown so it’s usage is very high as well as Blizzard II; it’s only a 1.92s cast, paired with Surecast/Swiftcast it’s a good getaway if you’re getting targeted. One thing I like to do with Bliz2 is run out of target behind a wall to precast so when the cast is finished they are in target for the bind.

* Protect does not do anything in PvP but it DOES help for the skills that remove one beneficial status from a target (Gory slash (PLD), One Ilm Punch (MNK), Wither (SMN), Retrogradation (AST)) so if you have time, reapply that protect! Saves a SMN/SCH getting their AF stacks eaten!

* Stoneskin is an obvious one, reapply when you have the time. A general rule of thumb; if the stoneskin drops, they’re about to take some damage so get in the mindset of anticipating that damage.

* If you have a Bard or Machinist in your team, remind them of their PvP abilities. BRD has Manasong to instantly restore MP to players around them and MCH has Report.

* Low HP means high priority target for DPS, if you have someone with low HP in your team, you can always be sure they’re about to take some more damage even after you've cured them so don’t think they are safe.

* Regen: The holy grail of White Mages. It’s your most used skill in PvE and it’s the same in PvP, get that on your tanks and melee when they are running in, apply it after a Cure II, apply it on alliance members, get regen crazy.

* When to use Cure, Cure II or Cure III: Firstly, just forget about Cure III. It’s only in rare instances that you’ll get to use Cure III for full effect so just remove it if you like. Cure should be used to proc Freecure like in PvE but it’s not always necessary as you’ll hardly run out of MP. Use it if someone is taking light damage but follow it with a Cure II if the target is taking more damage.

* Medica II: A very long cast, 2.88s it should technically have 100% uptime in fights but due to the cast time, it’s not always ideal and probably won’t get everyone in your team. It’s good to start off with a Medica II and save a Swiftcast for your next Medica II so you’re not stuck in the long cast time and most likely to get interrupted by a random annoying bard or that unwelcoming Deathflare to the face.

* Divine Seal is obviously amazing, 60sec cooldown. I use it for Medica II when I Swiftcast it as it has the same CD so the two will always be back up for another high potency quick Medica II.

* Sacred Prism is amazing, this is the only spell I wish was in PvE. It reduces physical damage by 40% with a 70/100 regen potency when standing inside it. It's useful placement at nodes if you're trying to defend from an enemy team and also on yourself if you're getting targeted by melee. Sacred Prism > Aetheric Burst > Equanimity will make them toddle off crying.

* Stone, Repose & Aero; get them back on your hotbar boys. Stone will give targets heavy, which is useful to cast on melee or people running away and repose to sleep enemy healers/casters which they will probably use Purify on so you can cast it again for (if I remember) a 10 second sleep. Aero is useful for ASTs as well (if you haven't already cross classed it) because of it's instant cast damage, it will stop people taking nodes if you see someone trying to take it.

* Never use PvE raise! This goes for all healer! The weakness is just not worth it, they do less damage, take more damage and it's just messy. Use Divine Breath to rez and if it's on cooldown when someone dies, tough luck they will just have to respawn.

I'm sure I have more tips but there is so many situations in PvP where anything is possible. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!

[MihaelB]

* Never use PvE raise! This goes for all healer! The weakness is just not worth it, they do less damage, take more damage and it's just messy. Use Divine Breath to rez and if it's on cooldown when someone dies, tough luck they will just have to respawn.

Great tips! Biggest pet peeve is healers using PVE raise The weakness+ revive in most battle zones is only going to get you killed again in seconds = instead of losing 5 points, you lose 10.
If you do revive someone, make sure you are ready to heal them or they will die again and once again lose 10 points and would've been better off in the respawn zone.

Same goes for the recipient, don't take the revive if you need to rebuff or are running, you're only going to die again if your healer has got to run or you need to run and get revived in the cross fire.

[Selli]

Firstly, just forget about Cure III. It’s only in rare instances that you’ll get to use Cure III for full effect so just remove it if you like.

Are you kidding me?

Cure III is super useful. If there's ever an instance where you need to heal your tanks/melee (or any 2+ party members that are far away from you in general) and you don't have time to run in and Medica the lot, pop a Cure III on them. Or if you're falling back and the 2-3 people who are a little slow and getting wacked on, if they're close enough to each other, Cure III can heal all of them.

Obviously it's not going to be something you spam (especially because of it's insane MP cost), but it does have its uses and I use it at least once every game. Never underestimate any of your skills. Cure III definitely is worth more in PvP than it is in PvE.

[Pocitania]

I can't even remember how many times I saved a bunch of people from stacked mage LB with a Swiftcasted Cure III + Cure III. It's sooo good in some situations.

[xxczx]

Obviously it's not going to be something you spam (especially because of it's insane MP cost), but it does have its uses and I use it at least once every game. Never underestimate any of your skills. Cure III definitely is worth more in PvP than it is in PvE.

Again, I said it's only in rare instances and this guide is mostly for the new WHMs I see a lot failing. Cure III does have it's uses (I ofc still have it on my hotbar) but to know when to use it, who will be in the range of the cure and how much impact it'll have is all very quick for a new player to grasp but I welcome other healers countering my tips

[Selli]

Again, I said it's only in rare instances and this guide is mostly for the new WHMs I see a lot failing. Cure III does have it's uses (I ofc still have it on my hotbar) but to know when to use it, who will be in the range of the cure and how much impact it'll have is all very quick for a new player to grasp but I welcome other healers countering my tips

I think if I was new to PvP and someone told me to ignore one of my skills, I probably would for then on out. Cure III is one of those skills that isn't used in PvE very frequently (unless you raid, but even then it's not overly used either), so the average player might never consider it later down the road if they're told right off the bat to ignore/remove it.

That being said, the average player isn't brain dead either. Just because they might not be able to excite the skill in their first game (or even first 50 games), doesn't mean withholding the information would be any better to them. Telling them "hey, this skill is a bit harder to work with, so it's okay if you can't do it off the bat. But this is what it does, and this is an example of a situation, and when you feel comfortable, feel free to try it".

Imho, Cure III really sets WHM apart from the other healers (especially Di AST which most people just view as a "more mobile WHM"). Neither of the other two healers can stand in the background, heal one person, and have it heal everyone else nearby (Deployment Tactics excluded since it's not quite the same thing, though I will admit it is fairly close), both of them need to run in to AoE heal.

[xxczx]

you haven't seen Chaos' healers then

[Maxwell]

FOCALIZATION!!!

Use it! Strategically. Freaking awesome against a bunch of mages.

[CeveArthu]

* Never use PvE raise! This goes for all healer! The weakness is just not worth it, they do less damage, take more damage and it's just messy. Use Divine Breath to rez and if it's on cooldown when someone dies, tough luck they will just have to respawn.

They dont take more damage as a result of weakness, they just have less hp

While i understand that you are going for a "teach bad healers to not be retarded" post, PvE raise always has its uses especially if you are raising a black mage or other healer

[WolfKid]

They dont take more damage as a result of weakness, they just have less hp

Weakness reduces a player's stats by 15% right? I'm pretty sure the penalty is just more than less HP.