WHM melds for a casual-ish player?

[CaeliaCat]

Disclaimer: Substats generally won't make or break your performance as a WHM. Weapon damage and MND come first.

Somewhat soapbox-y and maybe an unpopular opinion from a career WHM raider:

VIT > PIE as needed > SPS > DET = CRIT

• Don't be that healer with Direct Hit melds. Direct Hit does nothing for your healing output and is only a very nominal damage improvement anyway. Even if your cohealer is handling more of the actual healing burden, at least choose something that impacts your healing AND damage output (spell speed, determination, critical hit).

• VIT VI meld your jewelry- all of it. If you mess up a mechanic and die, odds are that your party is going to wipe, or at best, you'll be stressing out your cohealer. Even if you are reliable and consistent at mechanics, you'll probably be amazed at how often that extra HP can bail you out. You can get clipped by a beam in O7S or stumble through Trine in O8S as examples this tier. Per Yoshi P - "I think players’ overall run will go more smoothly if they try melding grade V vitality materia to their accessories."

• ABC! Always be casting! Are you not casting Stone IV or keeping your dots up during healing downtime because your MP is too low? You may need to meld more Piety. Managing Thin Air, Assize, and Lucid Dreaming well should all come first, as well as refresh from a MCH or BRD, but there may come a time when you feel the sting of not enough MP. Personally that didn't occur for me until the last third of O8S, but don't be afraid to add more Piety if you find yourself consistently low in a fight.

• Finally, between Determination, Spell Speed, and Critical Hit, I tend to favor a balanced setup, leaning a bit more towards Spell Speed. Determination is consistent and improves baseline damage/healing much like MND, but is also fairly weak. Critical Hit offers more potent healing and damage than Det, but critical heals are usually wasted anyway. Spell Speed gives a modifier to Aero II, Aero III, Regen, Medica 2, and Asylum, but more importantly, SPS lowers your GCD. You can easily shave a tenth of a second or more off of your GCD, which can be the difference between clutching out a heal before a tankbuster.. or not! Some may argue that you'll always be precasting for upcoming damage, so GCD doesn't matter, but breathing room isn't a bad thing, especially during progression. Side note, with a faster GCD, you may feel you need more Piety to keep up.

Your mileage may vary, but the above should set you (and by extension your group!) up for success in clearing and farming high-end content. If your goal is maximizing personal damage output in a like-minded group that doesn't make mistakes, that's another matter.

End soap box.