White Mage Guide by Masterofshade

White Mage
Whitemage is the best healing class by far. Using the largest array of curative spells, White Mage (WHM) will always be the most efficient healer in endgame circumstances, and a staple member of any party from 10 to 75. Other jobs can fill in, but very rarely is another job better suited to healing a party.
==Level Progression, and the Way WHM Play Changes Over Time==
WHM from 1-10 is played like most jobs, by soloing and subbing something useful for meleeing. While most melee jobs sub WHM from 1-10, WHM can basically pick any sub and start going. For the most part, any job will suffice, but the ones I have personally seen the most are Warrior and Monk for this stage, as they offer HP that WHM sorely lacks.
11-20 is when WHM begins to play mostly like how it will from here ‘til forever. Your sole job is keep the party alive, and at their fighting best. Your responsibilities include curing everyone, keeping nasty status effects like Silence, Blind, and Paralyze off your party, and occasionally notifying the puller that you will need to rest for MP, in case they aren’t paying close attention.
At this stage, something a lot of WHMs notice that there are two properties to WHM and how it functions that are keenly important. The first is Max MP. The more MP you have to start with, the longer you can go before you run out. The other, is how fast you get MP back between fights. Both are very valuable, and should not be looked over. If forced to choose between Max MP, and how fast you get MP back (Healing MP, or hMP), most WHMs will suggest hMP as the superior stat to increase. Fortunately, the only time you are really forced to choose between is with food. That will be covered later.
21-39 introduces a WHM (and RDM’s) most MP efficient healing spell: Regen. In exchange for 15mp, the target of your Regen spell will gain 150HP. However, this is over time, in intervals of 5 (known as “ticks”). 21 also introduces Cure3. Now, you may have noticed before that constant curing will sometimes pull the mob over to attack you. This danger becomes significantly more troublesome with Cure3, as it is a pretty powerful spell for this level.
40-60 offers a wide array of useful spells. 40 brings into play the idea of a “spell cycle” with Haste. Haste is a spell that cuts recast and attack speed by 15%. This is highly valuable in that having your melees swing 15% faster, almost directly equates to 15% more experience points (EXP) per hour. Always haste your tank, as a Paladin can cast more often, and a Ninja will be better able to keep shadows up, as they will come available much sooner.
50 brings to bear Raven gear, which is stupidly useful until AF/Blessed pieces, as it has a monstrous amount of minus enmity (-ENM) which makes mobs come after you much less.
60-75 is played much the same. This last phase offers CureV, a virtually hateless (on par with a Cure2 or so) cure that heals a tremendous amount of HP. A well geared 75WHM has little trouble pushing 750-800HP with a CureV, which makes it MP for HP the most MP efficient cure spell in the game.
== Sub Job: ==
Black Mage
The staple sub for WHM. Offers Conserve MP at level 40 when subbed, which randomly subtracts between 8% and 50% of a spell’s MP cost when cast, Drain and Aspir for farming/soloing, Sleep for crowd control in a pinch, and Elemental Seal, that offers near 100% acc on the next spell of your choosing. There’s very little drawback to the BLM sub, and is pound for pound the most versatile sub from 40 ‘til 75.
Summoner
Another commonly used sub for WHM, if not as common as BLM. Offers Max MP bonus at level 20 when subbed, Auto-Refresh, which gives the WHM a constant 1mp/tick increase at level 50, and the ability to Summon. Drawbacks however, are relatively numerous: Auto-Refresh is nice, but if keeping up a Haste cycle, or casting more than the arbitrary spell, Conserve MP will actually offer more MP than Auto-Refresh. Summons are at quarter strength, and offer only the Blood Pacts available to your SMN subjob, and SMN offers none of the utility of BLM.
Red Mage
Offers Fast Cast. Useable if no other sub is available to you, or you absolutely have to cast as quickly as possible.
Warrior
Useful only for Meleeing. Offers Berserk, Warcry, and Double attack. Particularly useful for levels 1-10. Probably the best available sub in the game if you have Warcry Merits.
Ninja
Melee, solo, or duo sub. Useful for allowing the WHM to take hate for a moment, if the Ninja or Thief duo partner requires a chance to get shadows back up. Also nice for the Delay reduction from Dual Wield when whacking on things with your clubs.
Paladin
Auto-Refresh at 70, but otherwise useless. Far more useful to get /SMN if you need autorefresh.
Other things
Shit is situational
== Merit ==
Category One, Caps at 5 upgrades. 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 5
Divine Seal Recast: Shorten Divine Seal recast by 20 seconds.
Cure Cast Time: Shorten cast time of all Cure spells by 4%.
Bar Spell Effect: Increase potency of Bar spells and add a magic defense bonus of 2 points.
Banish Effect: Increase damage of Banish by 2, and increase defense down effect by 2 seconds.
Regen Effect: Increase amount of HP recovered each tick by interval of 1.
Category 2, caps at 3. 3 > 4 > 5
Martyr: Sacrifices HP to heal a party member double the amount. Recast: 20Min. Upgrades after the 1st decrease recast by 
2min30sec.
Devotion: Sacrifices HP to give party member equal MP. Upgrades after the 1st decrease recast by 2min30sec.
Protectra V: Increases Defense of party members within area of effect. Upgrades after first increase defense bonus by 2.
Shellra V: Increases Magic Defense of party within area of effect. Upgrades after first increase bonus by 1.
My personal recommendation: Ignore Divine Seal and Banish effect. Cap out Cure cast time. Now, depending on if you do end-game HNM, or smaller stuff with WHM, either concentrate on Regen (smaller stuff) or Bar-Spell (HNM), but I suggest 2 in one, and 3 in the other. The nice thing about Bar-Spell, is even if you have the wrong element/can’t figure out what a mob is gonna cast due to randomness, any Bar-Spell will offer some help in the form of the MDB gained with merited Bar-Spell.
Max MP VS hMP
The answer is, both. When you start a fight/party, you’ll be at max MP. As you use it up, switch out gear that has more –ENM, MND, Cure Potency, Refresh, whatever, then when you rest, slam on as much “MP while healing” gear as you can. This gives you anywhere from 50-200 more MP than you normally would, and also gives you the gear needed to get that MP back as fast as possible. The only time you truly have to choose between one and the other, is with food. In this regard, I would suggest Wizard cookies, as they are the best hMP food out there. A good mix of these for food, is Mushroom Stew, which gives 40mp, -3enm, and 4hMP.
== My Personal Gear ==
I was kinda avoiding this at first, but I figure it would be a good thing to drop onto here, in case people are interested in what I personally use.
Normal Casting
Head: Walahra Turban
Body: Noble's Tunic
Hands: Blessed Mitts
Legs: Blessed Trousers
Feet: Blessed Pumps
Back: Blue Cape Plus 1
Neck: Beak Necklace
Rings: Tamas Ring/Serket Ring
Earrings: Magnetic Earring/Antivenom Earring
Ammo: Hedgehog Bomb
Weapons: Templar Mace/Astral Aspis
I use this gear for all my basic stuff. Meriting, small man stuff, HNM fights. I know I lack some -enm with this setup (I think I have around -17), you very rarely need more. I have a lot of mp gear also, being Elvaan. I can switch a lot of gear out for -ENM, but I choose to keep this gear because it works a lot better for me than having so much -ENM I couldn't piss off a Yankee fan by peeing on a NYY hat.
Max MP (same as normal except for following changes)
Head: Zenith Crown
Body: Blessed Bliaut
Hands: Cleric's Mitts
Legs: Zenith Slacks
Feet: Wood M Ledelsens
I just use this gear when I have a chance at getting full mp (switched out with another WHM, people going pee), and at the start of an event/party. Gives me 1151MP, as opposed to my normal 1030MP.
Other Stuff
When resting, I just slam on all the hMP gear I own, when casting Banish (which I only do on Undead Ghosts during a King Ranperre's Tomb party with Monks) I throw on a crapload of MND and an Apollo's Staff. Barspells I toss up Blessed Bliaut and Cleric's Pantaloons, and people take almost no damage from magic.
Slight Disclaimer: Seeing as how this is a guide, a lot of the things stated within are considered opinion, even if years of experience and extensive research tend to prove these things correct. Blindly believing anything within is not encouraged, and you should take everything mentioned with a grain of salt. Also, if you melee on WHM in a merit or exp party, it IS a fact that you should be shot in the back of the head with a BB gun.
People I Thank: Falconblade for making some edits, appreciate it. Daedalus/Peum for reading it and letting me know a couple things, and HugsAndCuddles for letting me touch them all over the place.
Category:Guides