New WHM - Need Direction

[theonefin]

Hello - I am a newly minted WHM (31 with both THM and ARC @ 15). I've been going back and forth for what to do next. Should I bring my THM and ARC up to get Swiftcast and E4E? Can I meddle around as WHM for a bit to develop my healing technique? Should I advance main story line? I can only play like 10-12 hours per week until May so any direction will be most appreciated...

Peace!

[Vid]

First and foremost, have fun with whatever you plan to do. Swiftcast is nice to have, but not required early on in your White Mage career. It can be helpful though don't get me wrong, but if you are currently having fun just testing the waters with your WHM by all means stick with it.

Keeping up with the main storyline is also helpful, and would suggest you stay up to date on that as close as you can. Shouldn't be too difficult though.

Also did you get your Unicorn at level 30? You have to actually un-equip your White Mage Crystal to see the quest in the Conjurer's guild, and leave the Crystal off until you complete the quest, just makes it easier.

[theonefin]

I just finished the Unicorn quest. I have not done any crafting yet nor materia work. Should I start messing around with that?

Thanks for your reply!

[lxSch]

Swiftcast may be useful in lv44 story trial, but not essential because it can be passed with only healer + tanker alive. But having a swiftcast will allow to revive a dps (if they die).
Eye4Eye may be useful in lv41 and lv50 dungeons, but not essential - it works like an extra damage mitigation cooldown for tanker, but tanker will not need it unless decides to speedrun (which is a bad idea with new players).
I suggest getting swiftcast after you get to lv50, because some people just get upset when are not revived asap. Most of people will not notice if you don't have eye4eye.

[Vid]

I just finished the Unicorn quest. I have not done any crafting yet nor materia work. Should I start messing around with that?

Thanks for your reply!

While I do enjoy crafting myself, its not for everyone. It is also very time consuming. If you do go this route I would suggest you plan ahead of time what craft you plan to take up. Also each craft benefits from 1 if not more Gathering Classes, such as Mining, Botany, and Fishing. You will want at least one of these gathering professions to help you craft, unless you plan to buy all your materials from the Auction House.

[givemeraptors]

Swiftcast is almost a must-have unfortunately. The first time I felt the lack was when I ran Stone Vigil for the first time (as a SMN, who should also really get Swiftcast ASAP). So I would say you can get to lvl 40-45 before needing it.

[bloodSp3c]

re-roll tank. there are plenty of healers! ;p

just play the way u want to and enjoy doing...u don't really need others telling u wat to do.

[UOdhn]

Hi there! As an end-game raider, here's a few tips that I find -extremely- useful. Don't listen to @bloodsp3c. While there may be tons of healers, there's very few AMAZING healers. The tips that follow are just that -TIPS-, intended to help you with the class, if you choose to incorporate them. By no means is this an "end-all be-all" of the WHM, but comes from experience.

1. Get Swiftcast AND Surecast from THM (level 8(?) for Surecast and Level 26(!) for Swiftcast)
-Not only will both of these be useful end-game, but you get one for getting the other. Swiftcast gives you an instant-cast ability once every minute (60s cooldown), and Surecast makes sure the next spell is uninterrupted (moving will still interrupt, but no damage can interrupt the cast). Surecast is a MUST for end-game raiding, even if people tend to find it lackluster. I've used it for Twintania during fireballs, which will interrupt on hit. Also used during Leviathan EX when he casts the huge AoE while you're under the Elemental Conversion barrier (I cleared Levi EX last night, so this is from experience).

2. Get Eye for an Eye and Virus from ACN (Virus is early on, and is the more useful of the two, E4E is great for end-game raiding as a tank buff, but nobody will notice if you have it).
-Virus will reduce a mob's damage by several degrees for 10 seconds, after which the mob gets a buff that prevents virus from being applied for 1 minute (60s). Better for a SMN or SCH to apply this, as theirs comes with an INT and MND debuff as well, but if no SCH/SMN present, feel free to virus. Eye for an Eye you can use on rotation with any SCH and SMN in the party to keep it up. You have a 3 minute recast on E4E, whereas SCH/SMN have a 2 minute recast.

3. Benediction is not as useful as you might think.
-In fact, in many situations where Benediction might be useful, the animation takes far too long to apply the heal, and it winds up with the intended target dying, leading to you using it on yourself, even if macroed with <t>. If you have a SCH in the party, Lustrate is by far the better choice for a tank at low health. This doesn't mean don't use Benediction, just be prepared for the delay on the heal (which takes about 1s to apply after you hit it).

4. Use Shroud of Saints when you have used about 1000 mana. HQ X-Ethers are your Friend.
-This is because SoS doesn't stack the way Aetherflow does for SCH/SMN. Theirs is a 20% MP regen, ours is a flat 1060mp restore (Much like a potion which gives us MP over time). HQ X-Ethers, if you can afford them at end-game (and you should be able to, they're fairly cheap on Gilgamesh), will help with your MP management if you don't realize that you've gone past that 1000 mana threshhold for using SoS.

5. Macro Shroud of Saints to give you an echo.
-This is my one and only "useful" WHM macro, until they fix the <t> on Benediction. It consists of:

/macroicon "Shroud of Saints"
/ac "Shroud of Saints" <me>
/echo Shroud of Saints off Cooldown in 120 seconds!<se.9>
/echo Shroud of Saints off Cooldown in 60 seconds!<se.9>
/echo Shroud of Saints off Cooldown in 30 seconds!<se.9>
/echo Shroud of Saints is off Cooldown! GO GO GO! <se.1><se.1><se.1><se.1>

This echos to you the amount of cooldown left on Shroud of Saints, so that you don't really have to watch its recast icon. Just beware: If you use another macro, this one is interrupted.

6. There are some other useful macros for WHM that I find myself using on occasion.
-One of these is a Cure 3 macro:

/macroicon "Cure III"
/ac "Cure III" <me>

This macro casts a Cure III on yourself. Great for when people are stacked together. Titan HM/EX jumps, Ifrit Hellfire, some other occassions. Another good one, until they removed the functionality of <t> was:

/macroicon "Benediction"
/ac "Benediction" <t>

This would make the macro fail if your target was dead, and would stop the skill from being cast. Now it is simply wasted on yourself even if your target is dead. Hopefully they'll fix this functionality sometime soon, but for now this is just a macro I save in my macros list.

7. Food is your Friend.
-Pineapple Juice HQ is where it's at now. Don't worry about food until you hit 50 though, most content doesn't require it. This'll give you decent amounts of Piety, Vitality, and Spell Speed, and is better for the WHM stat-wise than Pineapple Ponzecake.

8. For end-game content, there are many guides available on YouTube. Feel free to use them!
-Most people go into a raid without knowing the mechanics. For the new 2.2 stuff like Leviathan EX, this is natural and expected. However, for content that has been out for a while now (Primal HMs, Ifrit/Garuda/Titan EXs, Coil 1-5), there are many hundreds of guides available. Use these to your benefits to garner experience before attempting them yourself. You'll thank yourself for not having to learn them in progressive attempts later. Trust me, I spent 11 hours learning Leviathan EX yesterday. It was fun, and certainly worth it (The MNK weapon dropped, lucky bugger), but I wish there had been a true guide to it before I had attempted it.

9. Don't be afraid to fail. It happens more often than not.
-Often times, a new party will fail to a given mechanic. This is expected and you just have to push through it. Most people give up or "ragequit" after a few attempts. Take it worth a grain of salt.

10. You will be called a bad healer at some points. Don't let it get to you.
-This generally comes from people who have no clue as to how to play the healer, or what the healer priorities are (Which for me come Tank>Healer>DPS, for the most part). Which means that if I have a choice, I'll save a Tank before a DPS. If it was you who messed up, apologize and learn from your mistakes. If it was someone else, offer suggestions, but never be offensive.

Just the top 10, off the top of my mind.

[theonefin]

Wow - great tips from everyone. I'm gonna push through story until about lvl40 and reevaluate. I do want to start messing around with materia though.

Thanks and peace!

[Inflorescence]

Swiftcast is great; I'm not saying this from an "if you don't do this, you won't be a good healer" point of view, but as a fellow WHM, Swiftcast will just make you feel like a better healer. When you get it, know that it's there for much more than just Raise.

A Medica followed by a Swiftcasted Medica puts a ton of green numbers up in a really short time. A Medica followed by a Swiftcasted Medica II helps if you're expecting more AoE soon. If you cast Medica, but whoops! you were out of range of someone, Swiftcast a Cure II and you're back on rhythm. Maybe you've fallen a little behind on your healing on Titan, or too many people ate a Weight of the Earth. And Titan's jumping, but a few people are at a low enough health that they'll die when he lands. Swiftcast a Medica so they'll still be alive for the precasted one when he lands.

Swiftcast is on a 60 second cooldown, which is a lot shorter than you would probably expect it to be. Use it whenever you need it!

Anyway, I would suggest getting Swiftcast next. As much as I hated every second of THM, it was definitely worth it.