Introductory white mage guide

[tab9]

I only tried using a gamepad very briefly, but IIRC by default you have two hotbars - one assigned to L2 and one to R2? Your four cross/square/circle/triangle buttons are the easiest to use, so bind your key skills to them, and I'd probably find R2 easier to use alot. I'd experiment with something along the lines of:

R2 hotbar:
cross - Cure
square - Regen (when you get it)
circle - Stone / Stone II (at least while you're leveling, maybe you'll want to rebind this later. Keep it handy as you'll use it a lot.)
triangle - Cure II

up - Aero
right - Thunder
left - Protect
down - Fluid Aura

L2 hotbar:
cross - Medica / Medica II
square - Stoneskin
circle - Stone (once you have Stone II)
triangle - Benediction

up - Cleric Stance
right - Divine Seal
left - Shroud of Saints
down - Swiftcast + Raise macro

That's based on speculation off the top of my head, so you'll probably be able to improve it through experience, but it's based on basic ideas that seem sensible:
-if you use something a lot, it should be accessible;
-buttons should have similar uses on hotbars (circle=attack, square=buff, cross=heal, triangle=big heal, arrows=occasional use skills, stances).

I'm sure you'll be able to improve that a lot by introducing more hotbars, but I'm not familiar enoug hwith using a gamepad to say anything about that.

[djnealb]

Thank you for this guide. I'm actually new to MMOs. I've been doing pretty well learning a lot of this stuff on my own so far, but this is still a great guide with a lot of good info. For instance, I had no idea that overhealing could pull aggro from the tank. I was actually going through Halitali the other day and kept noticing that I was being targeted more often than the tank. Although, I think that was also partly the tank's fault, because one of the DPS was being targeted more often as well.


Also, about using the controller, I play on the PC but prefer using a gamepad. I played the beta on PS3 and loved using the controller. That probably also has to do with me being more used to console gaming than PC gaming. Don't forget that you have far more than just the one set of two hotbars (L2/R2). You actually have eight (for a total of 16 hotbars). Press and hold RB, and you'll see a diagram pop up that shows the D-pad arrows and your face buttons. While holding RB, press one of the other corresponding buttons, and it will bring up an empty set of hotbars. Once you've assigned something to those, then just quickly pressing RB will switch between your different sets. Right now, since I'm still fairly low leveled, I have my skills on one set and then stuff like potions, ethers, emotes (for those specific levequests) on another.

[Praqzis]

...
Also, about using the controller, I play on the PC but prefer using a gamepad. I played the beta on PS3 and loved using the controller. That probably also has to do with me being more used to console gaming than PC gaming. Don't forget that you have far more than just the one set of two hotbars (L2/R2). You actually have eight (for a total of 16 hotbars). ...

I take advantage of this as well. I have mapped my various gear sets to one of the cross hot bars. So I can now pull up that hotbar and very easily change to all the different classes I play (gathering, crafting, tank, healer, etc.).

[djnealb]

Oh wow, I didn't even realize that you could do that. That's a great idea! I'm going to do that when I play next time. Thanks for sharing.

[Kako0404]

How did you manage to rearrange the toolbar for the "mark the target" shortcuts into 2 verticle rows of 6?

[tab9]

They're full size vertical hotbars, but I disabled visible empty slots to make them appear like that when the hotbars are locked.