Want to be a white mage

[Hysterior]

Hello,

I started the game yesterday and I am looking forward to be a white mage.
I read a bit on how to get there and:
-lvd up pugilist to lv6 for the skills
-now raising conjurer and gladiator at same time

my understanding is be conj lv30 and glad lv15 and accept a quest

is there something else I should know to make it smoothly?
I like having feedback from established players

some questions:
- should I raise conj first to 30 then glad to 15 or should I keep raising both at the same time? (frankly I do not like playing as gladiator at all, really not my play style...)
- how often did you change equipment on your way to white mage?
- what macro do you use or how do you usually handle fights?
- any other useful advice?

thanks ^^

[Skies]

Well- Level them at whatever pace is more bearable to you. I say GLA is easier to solo because of survivability specially after you slot in stuff like Cure and Second Wind, but that is up to you. That said, you maaaaay want to, after your WHM is at 50 or whenever you FEEL like you got the patience to, level your GLA enough to learn Sentinel. 15s duration and roughly 50% damage reduction, I believe. Good for emergencies and endboss 'ultimate attack' moves
I personally like to update my equipment as often as possible, but I got friends who are crafters so I can just bug them and drop materials on their lap and eventually I can get them to craft me something. It might be harder to update gear otherwise. Also you're likely not going to update your wand until... Endgame, there is hardly adecent wand out there but that's up to you, once again, wether you feel like it or not.
I don't particularly use macros other than one to cast cure on myself (thus skipping the entire subtargetting thing while not deactivating it at all, it's very useful) and to use Featherfoot (because I hide it deep in my action bars and it's more comfortable for me.) I play using mouse and keyboard, and I find that using the mouse is far more appealing to me to select abilities and target.
Hrm... White Mage is far superior to Conjurer even for soloing, so change to that ASAP. Regen is kind of godly, it heals a lot very fast, keep it up at all times but don't forget your cure spells either. And Cleric's Stance is basically always on when you have to deal damage (like soloing or certain bosses where the WHM can take a moment from healing and go full nuker).

[Mikita]

some questions:
- should I raise conj first to 30 then glad to 15 or should I keep raising both at the same time? (frankly I do not like playing as gladiator at all, really not my play style...)
- how often did you change equipment on your way to white mage?
- what macro do you use or how do you usually handle fights?
- any other useful advice?

Hi and welcome. ^^

I'd second Skies' recommendation to level Gladiator to R22 so you can use Sentinel. It's very useful for surviving certain end boss attacks, or for giving you a bit of extra survival time if you pull hate from multiple enemies (cures tend to draw a lot of hate). But otherwise I think it's fine to just level Conjurer and Gladiator as you like until you are able to start the White Mage quests.

I upgraded my wands/staves much more than clothing/armor. But it can be difficult to find lower level equipment since there is little benefit for higher level crafters to make it. Your best bet is to get to know people or just openly and politely ask for help to craft what you need.

I used to use macros quite a bit, but now I usually just target the tank or myself for normal healing and buffing. My macros now are more for sending messages into the Party chat window saying that I'm going to buff (please gather around if you need it)... or to use certain potions so I don't have to open up that window and scroll to what I want.

By the way, I saw your other post about an Asia timezone server. Sargatanas has quite a few English speaking players during the latter part of Japan peak time -- around 10pm onward (JST) as North America starts to wake up. We also have a bunch of Oceania and English-speaking Asia players as well. Japan peak time is my timezone as well, and it's usually quite lively. ^^

[Hysterior]

Hi,

Thank you both for your feedback.
I will do as you say

For the servers I am really torn. On one side I am in a server where my friend is and I already started questing/levelling and not really keen to start again, on the other side the server have less people and seems to be mostly European so as I am in Japan it might be hard to find parties...
not really sure what to do... they will move the servers around for 2.0 anyway no?
no clue... haha

[Mikita]

Hi again. I'm going to reply to your thread in General Discussion about the server.
Sorry for hijacking this thread about White Mage. ^^;

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post720995

[Hysterior]

Sorry for hijacking this thread about White Mage. ^^;

no problem, I have a million question about the game, I should make a centralised topic instead of create new ones everywhere

[Urthdigger]

When it comes to gear, I'm gonna hate myself for saying this but you can likely get away with no upgrading your gear at all until you hit endgame and can get AF. Especially in parties.

The reason for this is that, partially due to healing magic potency not even being a thing until recently (It used to just be affected by MND), a LOT of lower level gear, and even a good portion of endgame gear, doesn't offer any direct benefits to your effectiveness. The best you can do is stack MND (or VIT once you get regen, for enhancement magic potency), or possibly MP. In either case, you're not going to get enough to make much of a difference, you'll probably be doing 10% better if you're lucky. If you're solo, you may be interested in INT and Attack Magic Potency (which actually IS on lower level gear) to help you kill things faster.

There are some things you SHOULD be on top of, however. First, once you unlock White Mage, be on top of getting your abilities. At the very least, try to get some people to help you do your second quest at 35 so you can get regen, that spell is single-handedly the most important spell in a white mage's arsenal. You'll also want to be able to get your artifact armor soon once you hit 50 (You can actually get most of it at 45, but getting the piece from Darkhold may be difficult at 45), since not only will it be worlds better than anything you can wear before it (partly due to, as I said, lower level pieces giving us very little in the way of useful stats), but some of the pieces are so good, there is currently nothing in the game better, and what few things ARE better are rare drops from endgame dungeons.

The other thing you should stay on top of is food. For starters, any food gives you a +3% xp bonus. It's not much, but free xp is free xp. Food also gives you bonus stats, which can help lend you a hand. You'll likely want either Drinks for MP, or Sweets for attack magic potency while soloing. I've made a food guide over at GamerEscape that you can use that does the math for ya, tells you what level ranges each food is most effective at.