How-To Guide: White Mage

==Prosperous Healer: White Mage==
The game’s best healer, and a party’s best friend- especially in early and mid-game. White Mage is the only job in the game to get Protectra and Shellra spells, as well as the Curaga line of spells, Cure V, Regen III, Raise III, and all of the erasing spells and Bar-element area effect spells. With a ton of MP, and enough survivability to boot, White Mage makes a great asset to any party. Never does a White Mage’s role in a party change. They always heal, with a side of enfeebling and enhancing. Divine Magic can help the party out in some cases, too. No other job in the game can teleport whole parties all over the world in a blink of an eye either. Everyone’s favourite mage support job and friend. It’s White Mage! Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.
==Job-Race Combinations==
Please note that race is the absolute last thing you should worry about when picking a job. Anything said here is seriously exaggerated. A single piece of gear can often make up for a race's negligible lack in a stat. Every race also gets "Race Specific Equipment", or "RSE", that will boost a race's stats to equal, or possibly even surpass other races.
===Hume===
* Hume White Mages benefit from equal healing power, survivability, damage, and lasting ability. As one of these fine mages, you can expect great balance to cure your party. Good mind stat allows you to cure high, especially with Cure V which doesn’t have a soft cap, and allows your enfeebles like Paralyze and Slow to be more potent. Good MP helps you to outlast monsters by not running low on MP. Decent agility and vitality, as well as HP will let you take hate and survive longer; remember, if the White Mage falls, the whole party might as well say “bye-bye” too. Hume race-specific gear just further helps with all the great bonuses.
===Elvaan=== 
* An Elvaan White Mage has great survivability and solo capability, and the highest mind stat in the game to boot! Nothing can surpass an Elvaan White Mage’s Cure V and lower-level cures. Few can resist their enfeebling magic spells either. There is a lot of MP-increasing gear in the game to make up for their lack in such, so Elvaan plays White Mage with the best of them. Being efficient with Regens, Cures, and other spells can make you one of the best things to happen to your party.
===Tarutaru=== 
* The cutest healers you’ll ever see. They have the highest base MP in the entire game, and that is a White Mage’s biggest stat. Alleviating the absolute must to conserve MP is where a Tarutaru White Mage truly shines. However, don’t take that as saying ‘go wild with your spells’. It just means you won’t have to pick and choose as much, and you can outlast any other White Mage in the game. Low mind stat means lower-end healing magic, but with soft caps, the only thing this truly affects is Cure V, and that isn’t even a huge difference. A Tarutaru’s high agility stat makes up for their lack in HP and vitality, and high MP means they can keep Stoneskin, Blink, and Regen on themselves if hate control appears problematic. 
===Mithra=== 
* Identical to Humes in terms of MP, and Tarutarus in mind, and also enjoying all-round other stats. Trading in vitality for agility, a Mithra White Mage can have a lot more evasion and shield blocking than all of her fellow races. With Stoneskin and Blink up, she'll be more than protected against anything. For any White Mage that wants to engage battle, Mithra's high dexterity can't fail you here, especially with the later weapon skill "Hexa Strike"!
===Galka=== 
* These big brutes make fun healing mages. Even though they don’t have very high MP, and their mind isn’t as high as Elvaan’s, Galka White Mages can still absolutely hold their own in a party scenario. Especially since there is so much MP gear out there for Galka to just have a blast over. Their RSE alone can potentially increase their MP to beyond Tarutaru proportions. They need not worry about dying very easily. They have the highest HP and vitality in the game, and quite decent agility. This just makes survivability their last priority and can easily become an absolutely great White Mage with the best of them. 
==Equipment Choices==
===Weapon=== 
* White Mages can use two types of weapons: clubs and staves. Beginning white mages receive an Onion Rod.
**Clubs are divided into two sub-types: "wand" weapons which have low damage, but boost important spell-casting attributes, like Yew Wand or Eremite's Wand, and "maul", "cudgel" and "hammer" weapons which have high damage and melee-related stats, like Decurion's Hammer or Royal Squire's Mace.
**Staves are similarly divided; there are "poles" oriented to melee damage and "staves" which improve spellcasting. At level 51, the Elemental Staves become ideal weapons for situations where a White Mage is not engaged in combat; for example, the Light Staff grants Cure Potency +10%, and the Dark Staff increases MP Recovered While Healing by 10 MP per tick.
*Generally, look for weapons which will improve your ability to support your party, such as MP, Mind and Cure Potency. For solo play, seek weapons with stats that offset the White Mage's disadvantages in melee combat, such as Strength, Attack and Accuracy.
===Armor=== 
* White Mages can wear most cloth armor, such as cloaks, robes and doublets.
* As with weapons, White Mages are best served by seeking armor that improves their support skills: MP, Mind, Vitality, Cure Potency, Healing Magic skill and Enhancing Magic skill. Equipment that improves survivability is also desirable, including increased Evasion and reduced Enmity.
* White Mages have sole access to some of the best armor available for support roles, including the Noble's Tunic Set which increases Cure Potency and grants Auto Refresh, and the Blessed Bliaut Set which increases Haste, reduces enmity and improves barspells.
==Walkthrough==
===Soloing 1 to 10===
* White Mage is one of the hardest jobs to take to 10, simply because of its low damage and defense. However, with all of its many spells, it can out-last a lot of other monsters. Don’t waste your MP on Banish. Cast Dia at the start of fights, and save the rest of your MP for Cures. MP recovers faster than HP, and even by the mid-solo levels, your Cures should heal at least a 2:5 ratio of MP-HP. Pick up either a Club or Pole for Lv.1 to 5, and if you used a Club, continue with a Lv.5 Maul when you can get one. Purchasing a shield may help as well. As for armor, at this level, it may be better to get defensive stuff, since there’s not a lot of MP gear. It may be advantageous to try finding a Warrior to duo with in these levels, as you would greatly complement each other. Make habit of grabbing Signet before you go outside. Not only will it make soloing a lot easier through defense and evasion bonuses, but it will also allow you to rest HP and MP without losing TP, and will also earn you conquest points with which to spend on items.
===Valkurm 10-20===
* These levels are incredibly dangerous for White Mages, and can make or break newcomers. Why? Almost every party these days in Valkurm is power leveled. If your party does have a power level and you’re not familiar with healing magic, ask the power level to only cure if necessary or at the end of fights. If possible, try to convince your party that a power level is not needed. If your party is power leveled and you are new, you will not learn how to play. It’s irritating to parties Lv.30+ when the White Mage goes into battle spamming Dia, and just fighting, never curing. White Mage requires a lot of practice and actually needs timing and knowledge of just how far you can go. However, all that aside, the Valkurm levels are also where White Mage gets a few of its cooler spells. Within these ten levels, you’ll learn Silence, Slow, Curaga, and get the job ability called Divine Seal. Divine Seal in conjunction with Curaga can give a similar effect to that of your two-hour ability Benediction, and the same amount of hate. These are your learning levels, so take time to get there.
===Mid-levels 20-40===
* Having knowledge of how to play the job now, it does get easier. Healing, buffing, debuffing, and guiding the party becomes more second-nature by now. Using spells manually will hopefully be a lot more effective than with the use of macros. However, that can often not be avoided in the case of PC users without the use of a USB controller. These levels are a lot of fun, though. You’ll get your RSE, which is great for all races except Tarutaru. You’ll get Blink, Stoneskin, and all but one of your teleport spells. It’s also when you get Erase and Haste, which are two very useful spells.
===Your AF Weapon=== 
* It’s useful for its level, since it gives MP and mind. However, with the recent addition of grips to the game, it may not be as good. It does add beneficial stats and simultaneously have a decent damage over time, and since you have to get it anyway, it’s still good to use it. Tarutarus may benefit more from the Mind, but Elvaan and Galka would benefit far more with a staff and grip.
* As with all AF quests involving fights, you should bring along some help. First, though, talk to Narcheral at M-6 upstairs in the Northern San d'Oria cathedral. Then, get your help and head to the “secret” beach in Valkurm Dunes. Bring along a Lv.75 friend to fight and another to heal the fighter. Right next to the Song Runes on the far wall of B-8, there will be a ??? that pops at night. Click on it and spawn the NM named Marchelute. He will have ranged attacks, but those that are very inaccurate. After he goes down, lot on the Tavnazia Pass and bring the item back to Narcheral. Congratulations! You have acquired your AF weapon.
===Mid-High Levels 40-60=== 
* You’re going to love these levels. I’m being both non-sarcastic and very sarcastic. It’s great because you get your last teleport spell, your Elemental Staves, and your AF armor. The bad side? Getting your AF armor and getting the first few limit break quests completed. However, this is a condition all jobs have to endure, so you might as well make the best of it. With your very useful AF armor and Elemental Staves in hand as you go up in levels, you instantly become far better than you were prior to these levels. More healing power, more MP. Heck, you even get HOLY at Lv.50! It sucks, but it looks awesome. Please, oh please don’t use it in parties. It’s totally not worth the 100 MP. Not at all.
===Your Artifact Armor=== 
* Your artifact armor is quite good. Even the first pieces, your AF feet at Lv.52, are pretty good, giving agility, MP, and even spell interruption rate decrease. You’ll end up using these until end-game, probably. Next is your head, which looks funny, but is pretty good. If you find yourself strained for MP, go with a Gold Hairpin. Otherwise, this piece of equipment is pretty good. 13 MP, 4 MND, and -1 Enmity, meaning you heal more, heal longer, and take less hate. Next, your AF pants. The MP is nice, as is the Enmity-1. However, the vitality boost and boost to your divine magic skill is situational. Again, please never use Holy (or any other damaging divine magic spell) in a normal party scenario. With the addition of Repose, the WHM sleep spell, it is nice to keep Divine Magic capped by using at least Flash now and then. At Lv.58 you get your AF body piece. This piece here gives a nice boost to MP, resist-vs.-wind (which also helps to resist silence), a <I>huge</I> enmity drop, and enfeebling magic skill. Finally, your AF gloves at 60. These attribute MP, and an enmity drop equal to the body piece, but otherwise are pretty useless. The boost to strength doesn’t help at all unless you’re soloing, and the Healing Magic Skill +15 may sound good, but only really does anything for your Cure V. It’s a good piece, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not worth being the final piece of AF.
===High Levels 60-75=== 
* You’ll continue playing these levels like you’ve been playing the last 60. Using Regen on the tank at the start of the fight, and maybe Haste, depending on who is tanking, using healing spells like Cure spells to keep the tank or other party members healthy. With Regen III at Lv 66, you’re going to rely a lot more on those spells. Not only do you have your entire set of artifact armor, but so do your tanks, meaning less work for you. If the tank is good enough, you may not ever have to use cures. After beating Mr. Masher, you can start getting your relic armor, which is far superior to your AF armor, namely and especially your body piece, which adds potency to all Regen spells. Coupled with a Noble's Tunic, you should be an unstoppable force.
===End-Game=== 
* As far as I’ve known, White Mage is basically there to spam Raise and Regen on the party members in large-scale end-game things like Dynamis, Limbus, and Salvage. Meriting your Regen spells will really help. (Please add information about Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)
====Dynamis====
White Mages play an important role in Dynamis, because of their dedicated and efficient healing methods. There are a few differences to normal experience points parties. Firstly, because of the large numbers of players participating, Dynamis parties are usually based on classes, using dedicated parties of tanks, melees and offensive mages, with appropriate support. As a White Mage you will primarily be placed in a melee or a tank party, and your focus varies a little accordingly. This section brought to you entirely by Minigoji.
*Tank Party: Tanking in Dynamis is traditionally done with several PLD/WAR tanks. As the main tank will be taking constant damage, Regen spells are your best friends. Regen III, especially when paired with a few merits or Cleric's Bliaut, is priceless and will mitigate much of the damage inflicted on your tank. It is much more efficient than your Cure spells, which are impaired by the constant weather. Also, be aware that all monsters in Dynamis can use their job's Two-Hour Ability. Some of them can be destructive and need your attention: Hundred Fists, if unprotected by Sentinel or Invincible and/or Stuns, can take a tank down in a matter of seconds, so lots of Cures are needed. Mijin Gakure and Astral Flow have the potential to wipe out the entire alliance if not handled properly. Eagle Eye Shot can also take a decent chunk out of your tank's HP.
*Melee Party: Melee parties take care of killing the mobs one by one. Your job is to ensure efficient damage output by keeping everyone Hasted and quickly removing status ailments. Most Dynamis mobs have AOE abilities that are considerably more powerful than their Vana'Diel counterparts, so sometimes Curaga spells can come in handy to restore HP quickly.
*General Tips: 
**It is useful to know the jobs of the mobs you're fighting so you know when to take extra care. This isn't always obvious from the mobs' names, so it's best to learn the important ones. Also, All Dynamis NMs have moves that are specific to Dynamis; you should know their effects.
**Keep an eye on moves that Dispel, several mobs have them. You can lose a life-saving Reraise and your party important protective spells.
**Don't hesitate to throw high cures; because of the weather, your cures will often receive a significant 25% potency penalty.
**Always keep Stoneskin up, it can save your life from Mijin Gakure or other high damage abilities so you can save others' lives.
**Bring Echo Drops, especially to Dynamis - Windurst, Silencega can be dangerous.
**Have some basic enfeebling gear with you in order to consistently land Paralyze. The reason behind this is almost exclusively for MNK type mobs. Paralyze can save lives during Hundred Fists and often times the RDMs are to busy to bother enfeebling everything properly. Also don't be afraid to toss a Flash during Hundred Fists as well. Those few seconds of the mob being blinded can also save lives. (Added - Minigoji)
**If you sub Scholar then it is very beneficial to get your hands on an Anrin Obi. Because of the in Dynamis you'll be able to utilize your Anrin Obi to boost your Drain and Aspir spells for the duration of your stay in Dynamis. Keep in mind that Drain is one of the most efficient Damage/MP spells in the game and that even if you do not drain back any HP, you still do damage to the mob. This can be an excellent help in taking down a mob in a pinch and should never be ignored.
==Support Jobs==
===Black Mage=== 
* Provides a modest boost to spellcasting attributes and a healthy amount of MP, as well as the job trait Conserve MP and the job ability Elemental Seal. Black Mage also features many utility spells like Warp, Escape and Tractor, as well as the Dark Magic Drain and Aspir, though their effectiveness is limited at higher levels due to White Mage's lack of natural dark magic skill.
===Summoner=== 
* This support job is situational; Max MP Boost and Auto Refresh increase your longevity between rests, and some of the blood pact wards like Aerial Armor and Rolling Thunder provide useful enhancements to the party, but otherwise Summoner doesn't offer much utility. Summoned pets' usefulness in combat becomes severely limited as time goes on, since they are the same level as the support job.
===Ninja=== 
* Allows higher level White Mages through the use of Utsusemi and Dual Wield. Ninja works with almost any main job to help it solo, and White Mage is no exception. It definitely won’t out-solo a Red Mage, but you shouldn’t have any problems with normal fights.
===Scholar=== 
* This job provides less MP and fewer spells than Black Mage, but starting at level 20, the Arts (Light Arts/Dark Arts) reduce the MP cost of magic of their associated family, as well as enabling you to cast Black Magic like Drain, Aspir and Sleep at full strength due to Dark Arts' skill level boost. Additional job abilities like stratagems and Sublimation further increase your MP efficiency and flexibility.
===Bard===
* This can be a useful job for lower-level parties; songs like Minuet and Madrigal will increase your party's damage output, while Paeon and Minne make your job healing the party a little easier. However, since only one song can be maintained without an instrument equipped, and Bard provides no additional MP and only slight boosts in important attributes, the usefulness of Bard as a subjob wanes dramatically past about level 30. 
===Corsair===
* Similar to Bard, this job can be used to help enhance a low-level party, but only one roll can be maintained at a time and does not boost MP, so it is not an attractive support job later on.
===Blue Mage===
* Again, similar to Bard, this support job's benefits wane early. Pollen, Cocoon, Metallic Body and other beneficial spells help increase your party's survivability in early-level partying (levels 10 through 30), but past this point, however, other support jobs become more attractive options.
===White Mage as a Support Job===
* The king of mage support jobs. White Mage is a great support job for anyone with a need for additional MP or healing magic. It's a good early-game support job for keeping yourself alive after fights soloing. 
* White Mage provides spells such as the ailment-removing spells and the area-effect "Curaga" cures. Black Mage, Scholar, Red Mage, and Summoner all use this support job at some point in their career, and Dragoon, Bard and Corsair can also derive some situational benefits from White Mage as a support job. It's also an excellent support job for Beastmaster, perfectly complementing their ability to solo with damage reduction, healing and a small but important CHR boost.
==Overview of Job Abilities, Traits, and Spells==
===Your Two-Hour Ability===
* Benediction is one of the truest two-hours in the game. It is so hard to use properly that few have ever done it as they should. It restores every party member’s HP to full and removes all status ailments. As you can imagine, this gives you a lot of hate. So much hate, in fact, that most parties can never save the White Mage after he or she uses it. However, as the White Mage, you should have Reraise on, and if saving the other five members of your party means dying, it shouldn’t be a big problem. Of course, no one wants to be defeated, and no party wants their White Mage unconscious. A quick thinker is the best user of Benediction. Surveying everything out to determine what would happen if he or she used it. If you have a lot of MP, Blink and Stoneskin should be up most of the time, especially if bad things happen (don’t prioritize these two over other spells, though), and Reraise should always be up from Lv.25 and higher. If everyone’s dying and the monster is winning, but will lose if you restore the party’s HP, do it. Just prepare to suffer the consequences. It works well with a Paladin tank in the party because their two-hour ability Invincible gives them an instant, outrageously massive boost to enmity, which has a chance to peel hate off of a White Mage who just used Benediction.
===Job Abilities===
*Divine Seal is acquired at Lv.15. It doubles the potency of your next healing (cure) spell. The job ability has a 10 minute counter on it, so you don’t want to waste it on a Cure 1 or Cure 2. You want to save it for after a Goblin spams Bomb Toss or a Damselfly spams Cursed Sphere, and use Divine Seal and Curaga in conjunction. Even with Curaga I, you’ll give your <I>entire party</I> about 180 HP restored for a mere 60 MP. At Lv.50, you get a job trait called Divine Veil. I’ll discuss that in the job traits section further, but what it does is gives your Divine Seal the ability to turn your next ailment-killing spell into an area effect.
*Afflatus Solace at lv.40 grants bonuses to certain spells based on the amount of damage you cure via single-target Cure spells (I-V) or through job abilities like Martyr or Benediction. Cure spells cast during the effect of Afflatus Solace give the recipient a 30-second Stoneskin effect. The amount cured adds to a hidden "Damage Cured" pool that is used to massively power up the magic attack and accuracy of Holy - this pool is reset to 0 when you cast Holy, activate Afflatus Misery, or zone. Regardless of the recorded cure total, Sacrifice will transfer more and a wider variety of effects and bar-element spells get a hidden Magic Defense Bonus. Like Scholar's Light Arts and Dark Arts , this Job Ability lasts for 2 hours and has a cooldown timer of one minute.
*Afflatus Misery is the ability opposite to Afflatus Solace and is also gained at lv.40. While under Afflatus Misery, the most recent damage you've taken is recorded and used to provide increased potency to both Cura and the Banish-line of spells - using one of these spells resets the recorded damage to 0. Regardless of damage taken, Afflatus Misery increases the number and variety of effects removed from the party by Esuna and activates the enlight and accuracy bonuses of Auspice for you. Afflatus Misery overwrites and is overwritten by Afflatus Solace, lasts two hours or until you zone or use Afflatus Solace, and has a recast of 1 minute.
*<I>Devotion</I> is a useful job ability that you can merit at Lv.75. What it does is converts 25% of your current HP into MP for a target party member. Meaning if you have, say, 1000 HP, you can cut 250 of it off and give it to your Paladin (for example) in the form of MP so he can keep hate better and alleviate some of your need for curing. Though on a 20 minute recast timer, it can be cut to 10 with merits. If you have Stoneskin up, it will still restore the same MP, but cut-off less HP.
*<I>Martyr</I> is very similar to that of Devotion, except instead of giving your HP in the form of MP, it doubles the HP you cut and gives it to a target party member. This is a significant job ability for when you run out of MP and the tank just needs to survive a little bit longer. If you have 1000 HP (as an example), you take off 250 of it and instantly cure the Paladin for 500 HP. Like Devotion, it has a 20 minute recast timer and can be cut to 10 minutes. Also like Devotion, if you have Stoneskin up it will still heal the same HP but cut-off less of your own when you use it.
===Job Traits===
*Magic Defense Bonus is your first job trait earned at Lv.10, and will continually grow as you do in levels, up to a fourth tier at Lv.70. It is as its name implies- gives you a perpetual “shell” effect. Meaning, of course, you just take less damage from spells and have a slightly higher resistance to enfeebling magic, thus increasing your’s, and ultimately your party’s survivability.
*Clear Mind is a very, very useful trait brought to the world of mages, obtained by White Mage at the level of 20. In short, it gives you a boost to your MP recovered while resting, meaning you don’t have as much downtime. Unlike Black Mage and Summoner, White Mage only gets four of the five tiers of Clear Mind. By Lv.65, you are recovering 24 MP on your first tic, and adding 2 on each one after that (as a base), as opposed to starting at 15 and going up 1 on each one after that.
*Auto-Regen is something that will help you out a lot, especially when you first get it at Lv.25. It perpetually increase your HP by 1 every 3 seconds. It just means that you don’t have to heal yourself as much, and potentially increases your overall survivability, which, in turn, will increase your entire party’s survivability. 
*Divine Veil benefits your Divine Seal when you get it at Lv.50. Though Divine Seal can still be used to double the potency of your next cure spell, it adds a new choice of what to do with it. If you use Divine Seal with Veil active as a job trait, it can make your next ailment-removing spell into an area effect one for your party. For example, a Spider uses Spider Web. Instead of using all that time and MP on spamming Erase on each party member, using Divine Seal and then Erase will instantly erase everyone’s Slow effect. It works for everything, too. Poisona, Paralyna, Silena, Stona, Viruna, Cursna, Erase…
===Spells===
*Cure is a White Mage’s bread and butter. Without these spells, you might as well go congeal in a corner. What they do is like they do in all games: expend a little MP to heal yourself or another person. Cure I is first learned at Lv.1 and heals 30 HP for 8 MP. Cure II at Lv.11, heals 90 HP for 24 MP. Cure III at Lv.21, heals 190 for 46, making it slightly more MP-efficient than the other two. Cure IV at 41, heals 380 for 88, making it even more effective. Finally, Cure V is the most diverse one, as it doesn’t have a soft cap. For 135 MP, you can heal 633 HP with 276 Healing Magic Skill and 74 MND (max base healing skill and base mind for a 75 Elvaan WHM). On top of its high potency, Cure V also has an additional benefit to it, in that it will only give the caster as much enmity at most as a Cure III. Meaning you can cure roughly 650 HP for as much hate as if you only healed 190. Also, like lots of other games, healing magic does, in fact damage undead monsters. However, the damage dealt is at a maximum of 50% of what it would heal, so truly isn’t worth it. This is really useful, though, in that casting Cure I repeatedly on undead in the Undead Swarm Besieged will very quickly cap your Healing skill. I suggest doing it every few levels to ensure Cure V stays as potent as it can.
*Enfeebles (Since White Mage’s role hardly revolves around enfeebling, I’ll talk about them in general. If you do want to listen to a more in-depth talk about Enfeebling Magic, visit my How-To Guide: Red Mage.) Enfeebles for White Mage aren’t very important, but still do play a role, especially with no other mage in the party. With spells like Dia to lower a monster’s defense, or Paralyze to save a few attacks, it can wind-up being very efficient. However, leave that for Red Mages if there are any in your party.
*Banishes and Holy are fun to use and cool to watch, but their damage-MP ratio is very low. With capped Divine Magic and a ton of mind, Holy will only deal about 250 damage at most to a monster. That’s a huge waste of 100 MP. However, if you have built your Afflatus Solace pool up the cap (seems to be around 1500hp healed), Holy can easily reach 500-600 on IT mobs, making it a little more worthwhile when a fight needs to end immediately. For the most part, though, leave dealing damage to other party members and stick with healing their wounds. On another note, however, to end fights quickly, a spell as powerful as Banishga II can really help out if things look like they need a boost. Just be sure that’s the last spell you’ll have to cast, because it consumes a lot of MP. Banishes too will lower an undead monster’s resistance to damage, and Banishes in general receive bonuses from the damage taken while under Afflatus Misery. Coupled with Dia can make even slashing and piercing weapons seem almost like blunt on a skeleton.
*Protects and Shells are a very useful line of enhancing magic for White Mages. Protect will enhance the target’s defense, and Shell will enhance his or her magic defense. Protect seems to have a bigger role in the game, as a lot of parties will avoid fighting a lot of magic-casting monsters. However, never, ever neglect your spells and keep all of them at all times. I cannot stress that enough. White Mage is the only job in the game to get the area effect versions of these spells. These save a lot of MP and buff your entire party for half an hour in real life time. If you’re helping low-level players, cast their level-appropriate Protect and Shell, though, as it will wear off fast if their levels don’t match the tier of Protect. For example, you could cast Protect IV on a Lv.1 player, and it will probably wear off in less than a minute. Shell is very useful in later-game when enemy magic attacks are more noticeable. It cuts down magic damage by a specific percentage, which can mean the difference between life or death against anything. This even includes monster abilities like Bomb Toss, so there’s never a level where Shell isn’t useful. In fact, most people wind-up meriting Shellra V, a merited spell, all the way because of its usefulness.
*Bar-Spells may seem useless, but can become incredibly useful, even in early levels. Another exclusive line of spells for White Mage (Red Mage gets them too, but they can only target themselves). They enhance the resistance to a specific element. If fighting a Goblin, be sure to use Barfira to lower the damage taken from their Bomb Toss. If fighting a Crab or a Fly, remember to use Barwatera to negate the damage from their area effects. Another line of the Bar-Spells includes the Bar-Ailments as opposed to the Bar-Elements. The ailment-defending spells are seldom used, and I find it’s sad. It doesn’t always completely resist the effect, but it will always lower its duration. As tested fighting an Even Match Malboro using Bad Breath-- without Barsilence, the Silence effect always stuck, but with Barsilence, it either didn’t stick at all, or would wear off far earlier than other effects. The best use for these spells is Barsleepra, which can be used very effectively against Mandragoras, or Bard-class monsters, or anything else that will sleep you.
*Curaga are like they sound. Area effect healing magic. There are four tiers of these White Mage-only spells. Each tier is equal to the Cure spell one tier higher than it. For example, Curaga I will heal as much HP as Cure II, but to each party member in range. These can be incredibly MP-efficient and incredibly time-efficient. For 60 MP, you can heal six members for 90 HP each. That makes it instead of being a 3.75 HP-MP ratio, it’s now a 9.00 HP-MP ratio. Keep in mind, though, that these spells give a lot of hate, much like your two-hour Benediction. Use them only outside of battle or if incredibly necessary. 
*Regen makes its debut at Lv.21. And let me tell you, you will never be happier. Having the highest base HP-MP ratio in the game and giving you barely any enmity whatsoever, and simultaneously alleviating a lot of cures. 5 HP every 3 seconds, lasting 75 seconds, giving the target a total of 125 HP for a mere 15 MP. At Lv.74, you can get your Cleric’s Bliaut, which increases the HP per tic by 1. Also, at Lv.75, you can merit Regen to give you up to 5 more HP per tic. This can get you as high as 11 HP/tic giving a total of 275 HP for a mere 15 MP. Hah, and that’s just the first-tier Regen. I strongly suggest you get these spells as soon as you can. They’ll save you a lot of healing. But since they only give a little bit over time, your cures are equally as necessary.
*Raises and Reraises are possibly the biggest difference between White Mage and any other healer in the game. At the early level of 25, White Mage gets the ability to resuscitate fallen friends, restoring to them 50% of their lost experience points, and making home-pointing a thing of the past. The biggest downside being the weakness that ensues as a result of not home-pointing. It lasts about 5 minutes and lowers your maximum HP and MP to next to nothing. Raising in undead-heavy areas can be very dangerous, as they will attack if anyone within HP-aggro range has less than 75% HP, even if they have Sneak and Invisible on. Also, when your weakness wears off, you’ll be stuck in the red HP again, leaving you again vulnerable to undead aggro. At Lv.56, you get Raise II, which will have the same effect, but restore 75% of the target’s lost experience instead of only half. Raise III at 70 restores 90% of the target’s lost experience. When you’re talking about losing 2,400 experience points, restoring all but 240 can be a bliss. That saves you about roughly 12 extra fights just to catch up to where you were before. Keep in mind, though, that Raises II and III will only have the effect of Raise I prior to Lv.50. Meaning even if the person de-levels from Lv.50 and is just that close, Raise I will be sufficient. Also, if you are partying in the Valkurm/Qufim range of levels, set your home point. It’s a lot more effective than sitting there, waiting for a White Mage, Red Mage, Scholar, or Paladin to come around to raise you, and then even worse, have to wait another 5 minutes for your Weakness effect to wear off. Seriously, it’s a lot better just to accept the loss of 125 exp instead of 63 and fight. 
*Teleports are a White Mage’s main mode of locomotion and money-making. By Lv.36, you can freely travel to Konschtat, La Theine, or Tahrongi with any and all party members that have their respective telepoint crystals (which are acquired by simply touching them on their respective Crags). At Lv.38, you can teleport to the Eastern Altepa Desert and Yhoator Jungle. Again, saving a ton of time. Lv.42 takes you to Xarcabard. Unfortunately, though, they don’t have a lot of in-party usage other than disbanding from a high-level area or going to a camp in Altep or Yhoator. Lots of people are willing to spend a lot of money for teleports, though. Go to Lower Jeuno or Whitegate and wait for people to /shout for “{Teleport-Dem}{Can I have it?}{Reward:}2000”. I’ve seen people pay upwards of 10,000 gil for teleports. By level 53 you can cast recalls (back in time): Recall-Jugner, Recall-Meriph, and Recall-Pashh.
==See Also==