White Mage Play Guide (1.21)

Written by Sol Aureus

Contents

• Base Stats
• Spell Mechanics
• Gear for a New WHM
• Optimal Gear
• Knowing Your Abilities
• Cross-Class Abilities
• Sample Action Bars
• Items You Want and Why
• Playing the Roll

Base stats that affect you and their mechanics:

MND: Every 4 MND = 1 Healing Magic Potency and 1 Magic Accuracy.

VIT: Every 1 VIT = 1 HP. Every 4 VIT = 1 Enhancing Magic Potency.

PIE: Every 1 PIE = 1 MP. Every 4 PIE = 1 Enfeebling Magic Potency.

INT: Every 4 INT = 1 Attack Magic Potency.

For point allotment, you'll want 23 into MND and 22 into VIT.

This Image shows the stat turnovers and how much base magic potency you get with each turnover. These levels apply to all magic potency types (and magic accuracy). Keep in mind that WHM gets +18 Healing Magic Potency, +8 Enhancing Magic Potency, and +8 Magic Accuracy from our traits.

Spell mechanics:

Cures:

Cure and Cura:

Cures are affected by MND and Healing Magic Potency. Every 1 Healing Magic Potency translates into about 1.25 more HP for Cure and 2.5 more HP for Cura. Every 1 MND adds about 0.25 HP to cure and 0.5 HP to cura, however since MND adds healing magic potency as well for every 4 it really translates to ~0.5625 HP per cure and 1.125 HP per cura. But keep in mind this ratio is ONLY if your MND lands on a turnover value and adds healing magic potency (see above chart for turnover values).

For example if you have 307 MND, the turnover values are 304 and 308 so you'd get the 0.56 and 1.125 returns for every point of MND UP TO 304, and the extra 3 MND you have only provide the MND bonus of 0.25 and 0.5. This is because the translated ratios (0.5625 and 1.125) take into account the 1 point of healing magic potency you get for every 4 MND. So for a cura 4 MND would give (MND BONUS: (0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5 = 2)) + (1 HEALING MAGIC POTENCY: (2.5)) = 4.5 HP for Cura.

That being said, just looking at the base ratios if you're comparing a piece with MND vs a piece with Healing Magic Potency, the MND piece has to have at least a 2:1 ratio of MND:Healing potency comparatively. (e.g. For a MND crown to be comparable for cures to WHM AF crown (+25 Healing Magic Potency) it must have at least +50 MND. In actuality you need a little more than a 2:1 ratio, as 2:1 ratio translates to a 2.25:2.5 HP Cured from Cura.)

Curaga:

Curaga will cure HP of party members up to a certain amount. For example, say your Curaga's cap is 2500 HP. Curaga can heal one person for up to half of Curaga's cap, so in our example, Curaga can heal one person for up to 1250 HP. Curaga will continut to cure other party members until it reaches its cap value. It will give healing priority to those with lower HP. For these examples we'll use a hypothetical party of 4 members: Shaydes (4000 HP), Alderton (3000 HP), Ayameko (2500 HP), and yourself (2500 HP). For these examples we assume all party members are within range.

Enhancing Magic Potency Returns:

Legend:

Red Text with light gray background: This level gives no returns (outside of Stoneskin) with AF Boots equipped.
Red Text with dark gray background: This level gives no returns (outside of Stoneskin) regardless of if AF boots are equipped or not.

NOTE: Stoneskin is only partially filled out because I haven't had a large enough sample size to figure out a formula for sure. The trend shows that for every 25 levels of enhancing magic potency, there's a level where it increases the mitigation by 1 instead of 2, but since it's such a large gap I don't trust it to be accurate constantly, especially considering the formulas for the others are so convoluted. The shown values for Stoneskin are the ones that I have confirmed myself.

NOTE 2: I had the gear for Enhancing Magic Potency levels 396-449. Anything listed on the chart that is not one of the levels in that range is projected data using the formulas that I gathered.

Basically this means don't stack Enhancing Magic Potency passed 438, it's not worth it because Regen caps out with the AF boots equipped at that level.

Specific mechanics:

Stoneskin:

Enhancing Magic Potency is the only thing that affects Stoneskin. Enhanced Stoneskin makes WHM's Stoneskin a lot better than, say, a BRD's (at 398 potency it's 534 vs 780). Every 1 Enhancing Magic Potency increases Stoneskin's mitigation by either 1 or 2, most of the time it's 2 per level.

Protect:

Protect is affected by Enhancing Magic Potency. For every 4-5 points in Enhancing you have (alternates 4-5-4-5), Protect gives 1 more defense (NOTE: There is some fluctuation in this formula, although it's very slight. The actual formula is every 5-4-5-4-5-4-5-4-5 levels repeating, but because it's an odd number of numbers per cycle when it repeats it ends up being 5-5 at the end/beginning of each cycle. So 3 cycles would look like 5-4-5-4-5-4-5-4-5-5-4-5-4-5-4-5-4-5-5-4-5-4-5-4-5-4-5.]. For every 7-6-7 repeating points in Enhancing you have, Protect gives 1 more to all elemental resistances (3 cycles look like: 7-6-7-7-6-7-7-6-7). See the Enhancing Magic chart for details on exact numbers.

Regen:

Enhancing Magic Potency is the only thing that affects Regen. For every 1-2-2-1-2 (repeating 3x) then 1-2-1-2-2 (repeating 3x) Enhancing magic potency you have, the amount your Regen cures per tic increases by 1.

2 cycles look like: 1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2-1-2-1-2-2. This one is a bit more confusing so I'll break these 2 cycles down: it repeats the 1-2-2-1-2 pattern 3 times, then repeats the 1-2-1-2-2 pattern 3 times. That's one cycle. Since I listed 2 cycles, it just repeats the same thing every cycle: 1-2-2-1-2---1-2-2-1-2---1-2-2-1-2--/--1-2-1-2-2---1-2-1-2-2---1-2-1-2-2--/--1-2-2-1-2---1-2-2-1-2---1-2-2-1-2--/--1-2-1-2-2---1-2-1-2-2---1-2-1-2-2--/

The WHM AF Boots' "Enhances Regen" stat increases the amount your Regen cures per tic by up to 41, and because the bonus the boots give scales with your enhancing magic potency, it changes the formula for Regen. The new formula increases the amount your Regen cures per tic by 1 for every 1-1-2-1-1-1-2-1-1-2-1-1-1-2-1-1-1-2 repeating levels of Enhancing magic potency you have.

The cap for Regen at level 50 is 203 HP per tic.

Gear for a new WHM:

Weapon / Sub: Wand of Tremors and Eagle-crested Round Shield or Raptorskin Targe

• Healer's Hand [Healing Magic Potency +]on Wand
• Lifethirst [HP/MP +] on Shield
• Bloodthirst [HP+] on Shield

Head: Healer's Circlet

Body: Healer's Robe

Hands: Healer's Gloves

Waist: Raptorskin Satchel Belt

• Touch of Serenity [Enmity -]
• Manathirst [MP +]
• Bloodthirst [HP+]

Legs: Healer's Culottes

Feet: Healer's Boots

Rings: Turquoise Ring or Amber Ring

Earrings: Anything.

Wrists: Black Pearl Bracelets or Amber Bracelets

Neck: Black Pearl Choker

Why this gear and Materia?:

Wand of Tremors gives VIT+3 which helps your Enhancing Magic and Earth magic Potency +20 which increases your damage output from Stone. It's also a 1 handed CNJ weapon so you can slot healer's hand into it, which is imperative. It really doesn't matter what shield you pick for CNJ, I picked Eagle-crested simply because I can make it as CRP. Healer's Hand is by far the best materia you could ever have as a healer, so you're not going to want to slot anything else in your wand. Lifethirst gives both HP and MP so it's a really nice option for shields. Bloodthirst is the only other option, which is also perfectly viable because HP adds to your survivability and give you higher returns on Blissful Mind.

Your AF is really good as WHM, so it's a great set for your basic armor pieces. They give a lot of Healing Magic Potency, MND, and MP; not to mention enhancing certain skills to make them more effective.

A Raptorskin Satchel Belt gives 15 MP and 2 MND naturally, making it an awesome healing piece. Slot Enmity -, MP, or HP into it. MP is cheaper, but Enmity - is great for those situations when you're having to cure bomb or cure for a long period of time. HP is always a viable option as well because of the added survivability and bonus to Blissful Mind.

For your wrists you can either go with the Black Pearl (-4/5 Enmity) or Amber (+3/4 VIT). The Enmity- is nice, but if you're rarely pulling hate, having that extra Enhancing Magic Potency is nice for Regen and Stoneskin, and the HP will add to the MP you get back from Blessed Mind.

Turquoise rings are the obvious choice for WHM, the MND giving a large boost to your cures and healing magic potency. They'll hold you over until you get a Blessed Ring. Amber Rings are also a perfectly viable option to boost your Enhancing Magic Potency and HP.

Earrings you really don't have options for. Pick anything to hold you over until you get Blessed Earrings.

Optimal Gear for a WHM:

Weapon / Sub: Chiran Zabran's Tempest

• +40 Healing Magic Potency is absolutely awesome, that's about triple-meld value of Healer's Hand. The Magic Accuracy loss is unfortunate, but you're going to get a lot more mileage out of Healing Magic Potency since you're hardly nuking or sleeping, which makes this the best weapon choice by far.

Head: Healer's Circlet

• Double or Triple slotted Healer's Hand hats can outperform this by having more Healing Magic Potency, but unless you have one that gives +27 Healing Magic Potency at least this is the best option.

Body: Healer's Robe

• The Enhances Cure gives a substantial bonus (seems like it's about 10%) to all cures (Cure, Cura, and Curaga) so it's by far the best body piece you can have.

Hands: Darklight Gloves

• You lose 7 Healing Magic Potency from AF gloves but gain 80 MP, 10 VIT and 15 Enhancing Magic Potency. The trade-off is more than worth it, the bonus to Regen from the Enhancing Magic Potency is worth it alone.

Waist: Raptorskin Satchel Belt

• Slotted with MP, HP, or Enmity-. Not many other choices, the base MND and MP and ability to slot with Materia make this the most viable.

Legs: Darklight Breeches

• Lose 6 MND, 3 Healing potency and 30 seconds off of your Presence of Mind recast but gain 100 MP, 10 Piety, 5 Enhancement and 5 Enfeebling. Again, the trade-offs are more than worth it.

Feet: Healer's Boots

• The "Enhances Regen" effect on these boots is way too potent to even consider using anything else. No WHM should ever not be wearing these boots.

Rings: Blessed Ring and Turquoise Ring +1 or Amber Ring +1

• Blessed Ring's +15 Healing Magic Potency makes it the obvious choice for WHM. Since it's unique and you can only equip one, fill the other slot with an HQ Turquoise or Amber Ring, both are viable.

Earrings: Blessed Earrings

• No other real options for earrings, and the +5 Healing Magic Potency makes this an obvious WHM piece.

Wrists: Black Pearl Bracelets +1 Or Amber Bracelets +1

• Again, the Enmity- from Black Pearl is nice, but if you're rarely pulling hate, having that extra Enhancing Magic Potency from Amber is nice for Regen and Stoneskin and the HP will add to the MP you get back from Blessed Mind.

Neck: Black Pearl Choker +1

• +18 Healing Magic Potency. No other necklaces come anywhere close to how useful this is.

Knowing your abilities:

Cure

• Restores target's HP.
  One of your 2 basic cures. Less potent than Cura, but cheaper and on a different recast. Great for topping people off.

Cura

• Restores target's HP.
  Your other basic cure. The heavier version, costing more but curing for more as well. Usually this is your main curing tool.

Curaga

• Restores HP of party members within AoE of target. Healing priority given to party members with low HP. 10 second recast.
  A nice AoE Cure, about as MP efficient as Cura. Nice for waking people up from sleep and being able to cure low HP party members quickly. See the Spell Mechanics section for details on how it works.

Regen

• Healing over time effect on the target. 5 second recast.
  One of your most efficient healing tools. I often use this or Stoneskin with Sacred Prism. Low MP cost, low recast, long duration and potent returns make this an amazing spell.

Stoneskin

• Prevents a fixed amount of damage [based upon your Enhancing magic potency]. 30 second recast.
  Another one of your more efficient healing tools. Comparable returns to Cure for absolute damage prevented, but keeps the targets in safer HP zones. Often used with Sacred Prism.

Protect

• Increases Defense and Elemental Resistances of party members within AoE of target. 5 minute duration, 30 second recast.
  A staple buff of WHM. Keep this up on party members at all times.

Esuna

• Removes 1 enfeebling magic effect from the target. 10 second recast.
  One of your most important abilities. Keeping status effects off of your party members is vital. Unfortunately with the long recast that Esuna has, it's difficult to keep it off of all party members especially when it's AoE. Just be sure to use this as often as you can to keep party members healthy. Can be paired with Sacred Prism, although it's good to weigh your options between this and Regen when using Sacred Prism.

Raise

• Revives a KO'd target with no weakness. 5 minute recast.
  Often paired with Presence of Mind to allow for an instant cast Raise that has no recast timer. The fact that a WHM's raise allows people to be raised with no weakness makes WHM the prime candidate for raises, so if someone ever goes down it is the WHM's responsibility to raise them first. If Presence of Mind is down and/or you're locked into curing, let the BRD or other WHM know this so they can go raise.

Benediction

• Fully restores HP of all party members within range. 15 minute recast.
  WHM's quarter-hour. The range on it is pretty short, so you'll need to get close to the people you want to hit with it. Don't forget you have this ability, and be sure to use it in those "oh shit" situations. All too often I see people not using it because they forgot they had it due to not using it because of the long recast. That being said, if your hate is volatile, be careful when using this because it does generate a lot of enmity. Also as a note, this is an ability, not a spell, so you can use it while Silenced but it's disabled when under the effects of Amnesia.

Sacred Prism

• Converts healing and enhancing magic into AoE. 1 minute recast.
  One of WHM's most useful abilities. Often paired with Stoneskin and Regen. Occasionally paired with Cure when you need to be sure everyone gets healed and people are low enough that Curaga won't cure everyone. This lasts for 1 minute or until your next cast, so you can use this ability while people are waiting and buffing to start its cooldown. It will only wear off when you cast a spell that it's compatible with, so you can use it then cast Protect (which is naturally AoE so it doesn't expend Sacred Prism), then either Stoneskin or Regen which expends it, but your cooldown will be available quicker.

Blissful Mind

• Instantly damages you for 1/4 of your max HP. Over time it charges, storing MP equal to 1/4 of your max HP. Once used again, that MP is gained.
  WHM's most useful MP management tool. Usually I pair this with Second Wind as the amount of HP it reduces is about the same amount I get back from Second Wind. If your MP ever gets close to halfway or below, use this constantly.

Shroud of Saints

• Temporarily halves enmity and restores MP while effect is active. 20 second duration, 2 minute recast.
  A fantastic tool for WHM, the halving enmity is great for a hate dump and the MP restore is potent. I usually save this for when I get into red enmity, but if my MP ever gets low I'll use it as the MP restorative. Keep in mind that the halving of enmity is only temporary, and after the 20 seconds is up your enmity goes back to what it was. But during the time it's up the tank usually doesn't have much trouble generating enough enmity to get you back in the safe zone when the ability wears off.

Presence of Mind

• Removes cast time and recast time of next spell. 5 minute recast.
  It's Chainspell. Often paired with Raise in case shit goes wrong. If you don't need to worry about raising, I pair it with Stoneskin, but the vast majority of the time I save this for raise. Occasionally used during non-boss portions of dungeons with Holy, but only when we're not close to a boss room or anywhere that's dangerous where people could potentially die and need raise.

Repose

• Inflicts target with Sleep. 0 second recast.
  Generally you won't be using this, as sleeping stuff is the BLM's job. Still, if you have time in between spells and enough MP to help with it, it's definitely useful. Like Sleep, it has no recast timer, but mobs do have diminishing returns so spamming it won't be effective.

Stone / Stonera

• Stone: Earth Damage and chance to inflict Magic Evasion Down. 6 second recast.
• Stonera: AoE Earth Damage and chance to inflict Heavy. 30 second recast.
  As a WHM, you really shouldn't be nuking much at all, you must be completely proficient at healing and support before you even THINK about using these abilities. That being said, if there's a phase in the fight where everyone has stoneskin, regen, has cap HP, protect is fresh and there's no danger, throwing out a Stone to help out the BLMs is nice.

Aero / Aerora

• Aero: Wind Damage and chance to inflict bleed (DoT). 6 second recast.
• Aerora: AoE Wind damage and Dispel on each target hit. 20 second recast.
  The main draw here is Aerora because of Dispel. It's kind of MP heavy, but dispel is a very nice utility to have. If you need to make it single target, combo it with Aero. Aero's DoT effect is negligible on pretty much every boss (usually 2-5 damage per tic).

Holy

• Consumes all MP to deal damage to enemies within range. Chance to inflict bind. 5 minute recast.
  Holy is decent, but is only semi-practical when you're fighting lots of enemies that need to be AoE'd down. It's very dangerous as you might pull a lot of hate with it and the fact that it consumes ALL of your MP. If you're going to use holy, make sure Shroud of Saints and Blissful Mind is up. You can combine Holy with Presence of Mind to double cast it by using Presence of Mind » Holy » Shroud of Saints » Holy » Blissful Mind. This should keep your MP in a reasonable spot at least so you can throw out emergency cures if need be. Holy's AoE is centered around the WHM, and as such the macro is /ac "Holy" .

Cleric Stance

• Increases Potency of Attack spells by 20% and decreases potency of healing spells by 20%. 30 second recast.
  This ability will stay active until you either die or use the ability again. Be careful with this ability, I rarely ever use it because gimping your heals is the last thing you want to do as a healer. But if there's a situation where you need to nuke (like on Whiskerwall during Moogle), keep in mind that you have this ability, 20% is a substantial increase in damage.

Cross class abilities:

Second Wind:

• Great for use directly after starting a Blissful Mind charge, or when you're low on HP and silenced and need an instant cure.

Featherfoot:

• If you pull hate on something, at least you can get MP back. Increases Survivability when accidentally pulling hate as well.

Sentinel:

• Survivability when accidentally pulling hate. As of now it only generates extra enmity when used with a damaging ability, so healing does not generate any extra enmity.

There's nothing else really useful cross-class. I have Rampart set myself just in case but the huge enmity generation isn't exactly something you'll want when you accidentally pull hate. Shield Bash could maybe be used as well if you're using Wand/Shield, but you almost never have TP and increasing the mob's stun resistance isn't something you're going to want to do.

My Action Bar:

Note: This is just what I use, so feel free to change this setup around to suit your playstyle. For my playstyle, I always keep the 1st action bar visible and use ALT+# for my 2nd bar and CTRL+# for my 3rd bar.

1st Bar:

1. Blissful Mind
2. Shroud of Saints
3. Esuna
4. Second Wind
5. Sacred Prism
6. Stoneskin
7. Regen
8. Curaga
9. Cure
10. Cura

2nd Bar:

1. Presence of Mind
2. Stone
3. Stonera
4. Aero
5. Aerora
6. Holy
7. Protect
8. ----
9. Featherfoot
10. Sentinel

3rd Bar:

1. Cleric Stance
2. ----
3. ----
4. Rampart
5. ----
6. ----
7. Raise
8. ----
9. Benediction
10. Repose

Items you want and why:

Mega-Ether (600 MP)

• MP Recovery.

Elixir (2000 HP / 1050 MP)

• More MP Recovery with the added bonus of HP recovery.

Throat Drops (Cures Silence)

• Getting silence off yourself is VERY important. Always be sure to be carrying Throat Drops with you. You can craft them or buy them from your grand company with seals.

Mega-potion of Mind (MND+40 / Healing magic potency +80)

• Nice 40 second boost to your cures. Useful in situations where your party members are taking quite a lot of damage.

Nerve Drops (Enmity -80)

• Gives all actions enmity-80 for 1 minute. Nice for those situations where you have to curebomb but your potency is high enough that you don't need to worry about being able to heal for enough.

Pineapple Juice or Apkallu Omelette

• As with any class, you'll want to be sure you have food. Pineapple Juice is nice for situations when MP might be a problem, but I find that Apkallu Omelettes are usually the most useful food because I'm almost never in any MP trouble, so the HP from the Omelette is the best option for survivability and the bonus to blissful mind. This is of course until they implement a food with Healing Magic Potency or Enhancing Magic Potency, at which time those will be the best options by far.

Playing the role:

The key points you need to remember as a healer are:

And here are some tips that aren't as important as the key points, but they at least help me be a better healer:

Keep these points in mind and you should have no problem being a great healer!

Cure/Cura formulas used was from Kaeko's testing. Check out his blog, he does awesome in-depth testing of a lot of different game mechanics!