Introductory white mage guide

[tab9]

Oh, it obviously takes a back seat to healing effectively and avoiding drawing aggro. To clarify what I was saying: if you're spamming Stone II until you've drained your MP constantly then you're obviously doing it wrong, but against trash mobs when you're sitting at 3.5k MP and you're not required to do anything other than cast Regen on the tank every 21 seconds, there's no reason not to pop into Cleric Stance and use Stone II 2-3 times as long as you're comfortable with it. It's just a case of being intelligent about how you use your skills.

Honestly though, this guide doesn't really have anything for you if you're looking for advice on how to DPS with a white mage - the only reason I included those skills is for completeness.

[Salem_Rain]

Awesome guide, Scarlet. Thank you so much for sharing. I learned several useful things that I wasn't previously aware of.

*offers up a very hug-able moogle in appreciation*

[Rona]

Good guide, but I'm not sure I agree with the Medica 2 replacing Medica once you get it. The amount of threat you're going to generate when you cast that will make your tank hate you. At least in the 8 mans. It seems very situational, though a very nice ability.

[MaruEien]

Great guide! You answered a few questions I had in mind!

[WindnC1oud]

Great guide, request sticky

[AeolusHawk]

Good guide. The thing I've been confused on though is why can't we use the ACN actions like "Aetherflow" and "Energy Drain" but we can use "Virus" when we are the WHM class? Virus is a higher level action, but doesn't help as much as the Aetherflow or Energy Drain would. I was looking forward to using those two actions with my white mage, but no luck. I still get close or do run out of MP at some dungeon bosses, only healing not dps.

[tab9]

You have a bit of a point about there being times when Medica is clearly better than Medica II even at 50, but I'm not convinced that they're that common. I'm very stingy with how I use Medica (II), so I tend to make sure that it's going to be worth casting both MP-wise and hate-wise whenever I do use it. If you prefer being a bit more liberal in your Medica use then yeah, you probably don't want to use Medica II every single time.

As for Aetherflow and Energy drain... well obviously, you can't use them because they're a major class mechanic. You can generally only cross-class the less important skills (no Fire / Blizzard from BLM but you do get Thunder, no Bio / Aetherflow from ACN but you do get Virus etc). One of the major advantages scholars have is that they have great MP management. Still, stick at it and once you get to 50 and get a bit of decent gear (I'm not talking full darklight, just AF and level 50 white jewelry with a decent weapon - you can get a HQ Madman's Whispering Rod for about 35k on my server, which is almost as good as an Ifrit weapon), you basically don't have any MP problems unless your group is tanking AoE constantly and you're using your skills intelligently.

[Azuvidexus]

After you just hit 50, did you stick with all points into MND or mixed with VIT?

[tab9]

I've been all MND all the way through. With very average gear I'm at around 3k HP/4k MP which is fine for AK runs, so I don't really feel like I need more VIT right now. Maybe I'll respec for harder content, but pure MND is perfectly fine for new 50s.

[SerenitySilvermoon]

I deeply appreciate this thread. I was falling under the overwhelmed white mage category last night. I almost burst into tears, I was that frustrated lol. Anyway, I have a question for anyone who's willing to lend me their ear:

I have been struggling to set up a good set of hot bars. I am on PS3 and therefore don't have the convenience of having everything out at once. Also, I have a very hard time using several hotbars. I get overwhelmed with options and by the time I finally make a decision, my group is near death or wipes out completely. Any advice on how to make a very, very simple layout? I've almost flirted with macros, but I think that too is over doing it.

Thank you in advanced. I very much appreciate your words.