a WHM 's role besides healer.....

[mastercave]

ok, so i'm gonna start my taru taru WHM this week after much thought. i know i'm suppose to be supporting the party with healing and defense stuff, but should i be using spells like dia, banish, paralyze, bind, blind, etc on the enemies? would there be certain moments in a battle when it would be a good idea to help out? i'm thinking it's always good to use a few since it would weaken the monster and help the team move faster. i'm thinking this has been posted before but i would appreciate any help.

[Tifa]

if youre fighting Even Matches or harder, you should always cast Dia and preferably Paralyze too. It will end up saving you MP since Dia will make monsters go down faster, and Paralyze will make it miss sometimes. I almost never attack with Banish since its better to let melee'ers dish out damage, just save my mp for healing.

after i run completely out of MP i will jump in to help melee, even if i dont do much damage.

im only level 14 now, but so far i have used the same patterns. as whm there isnt much role for skill chaining so you dont have to worry about that.

also if you can, use Cure I instead of Cure II, it's more mp cost efficient. but Cure II is much better for speed.

[kumaeru]

Well I'm not sure for other races but a Taru Whm will not be able to solo an even match or higher monster.

Dia in every fight, very useful. When you actually start partying paralyze is very useful, same with slow. etc.

However Bind/Blind are not Whm spells but your Whm/Blm will be able to use it when you subjob. Bind is usually used when you want to nuke something from afar. You will almost never use it in pt's. Blind on the other hand is a pretty good, decreases accuracy for the monster so you would not have to heal as much "technically".

in later levels the whm will not engage in battle, if the whm runs out of mp the whm rests (but if the whm does run out of mp it is considered a hard battle).

Cure 1 is always good at early levels, you will use it a lot in begining levels. Even when you get Cure II at lvl 11 you will stick to Cure 1 most of the time for a bit, because it is less hate on you and time/mp effecitve.

However around the time when you level in quifim (lvl 20-30) you will hardly use Cure 1, and use Cure 2 the most. You also should not be using Cure3 to heal during battle, because the hate is too great for the whm at that level. Same goes with Curaga.

[Icemage]

A lot of people fall into the misconception that white mages do nothing BUT heal. Good white mages are always, always busy casting something. While Red Mages have better Enfeebling Magic skill than White Mages do, we're not slouches at taking the spring out of an enemy's steps, and the first few moments of a battle, when everyone in the party is pretty much full of HP, is a good opportunity for the WHM to take a few moments and cast some Enfeebling Magic to make the battle easier.

Notes about enfeblement spells (with a focus to spells available to a character using white mage as a main job).

You should always cast these as early in a battle as possible. If you want to cast more than one (and you often will), pick an order to cast them in and practice it [regularly so that your timing becomes good, as the opening moments of battles can be very decisive. Also, remember to coordinate with other mages in the party as to who is casting what, or you might end up casting the same spell on a target.

If the target is already nearly dead, but one of the enfeebling spell effects on it wears off, you might consider re-casting the spell. This is usually a good idea if the monster is still less than half dead. Use your best judgement otherwise - if the monster is almost dead, don't bother enfeebling it again, it's a waste of time and MP.

Here's a basic layout of Enfeebling Magic in the game, and what situations are appropriate:

White Magic Enfeebles

Paralyze(WHM, RDM)
This spell is always useful. Can stop spellcasters from completing spells, can cancel special enemy attacks, as well as stop normal melee attacks. Low MP cost, long casting time. Resistable. Ice element.

Dia(WHM, RDM)
Always useful. It deals a small amount of damage and increases the damage of your party's melee attacks. Low MP cost, very short casting time. Not resistable. Light element.

Diaga(WHM, RDM)
This spell is similar to Dia II, but is very, VERY dangerous to use because it hits all enemies in an area. If the surroundings are clear of enemies, it's a better spell to use, but if you're wrong and accidentally hit another monster with this, prepare to get your entire party killed. Not recommended, especially to inexperienced spellcasters. Moderate MP cost, moderate casting time. Not resistable. Light element.

Slow(WHM, RDM)
Same as above, always useful, except against enemies that are primarily spellcasters. Slow does not affect spellcasting time. Medium MP Cost, medium casting time. Resistable. Earth element.

Dia II(WHM, RDM)
This spell CAN be very useful, but you really have to be picky about when you cast it. It has a very hefty casting cost, but lowers defense more than Dia does, which can occasionally justify the extra cost. Almost never a good idea to cast this after a battle is underway - use only at the beginning. High MP cost, medium casting time. Not resistable. Light element.

Black Magic Enfeebles

Blind (BLM, RDM)
This spell is fantastic against any enemy that uses physical attacks (basically all of them). It lowers the accuracy of melee and ranged attacks. Low MP cost, low casting time. Resistable. Dark element.

Poison(BLM, RDM)
I personally despise this spell beyond the early levels. It does a very small amount of damage, has low duration, and is easily resisted. Low MP cost, low casting time. Resistable. Water element.

Poisonga(BLM)
This spell combines all of the bad traits of Poison with all of the bad traits of Diaga. Useless. High MP cost, long casting time. Resistable. Water element.

Bio(BLM, RDM)
Lowers the target's strength and deals a small amount of damage. Useful for enemies that have powerful melee attacks. Medium MP cost, low casting time. Not resistable. Dark element.

Bio II(BLM, RDM)
A more powerful version of Bio, it lowers strength even more, and deals slightly more damage. High MP cost, medium casting time. Not resistable. Dark element.

Choke(BLM)
Lowers target's VIT (decreases defense), and deals a small amount of damage over time. Not very useful. High MP cost, long casting time. Resistable. Wind element.

Rasp(BLM)
Lowers target's DEX (decreases melee accuracy), and deals a small amount of damage over time. Siometimes useful against enemies that don't have a lot of accuracy but hit hard when they do hit. High MP cost, long casting time. Resistable. Earth element.

Burn(BLM)
Lowers target's INT (decreases offensive magic damage) and deals a small amount of damage over time. Rarely useful, except against dedicated offensive spellcasting enemies. High MP cost, long casting time. Resistable. Fire element.

Drown(BLM)
Lowers target's STR (decreases melee damage), and deals a small amount of damage over time. Sometimes useful against hard-hitting enemies. High MP cost, long casting time. Resistable. Water element.

Frost(BLM)
Lowers target's AGI (decreases their evasion, lowers ranged attack damage), and deals a small amount of damage over time. Useful against enemies with high evasion. High MP cost, long casting time. Resistable. Ice element.

Shock(BLM)
Lowers target's MND (decreases magic defense), and deals a small amount of damage over time. Occasionally useful if your party has many spellcasters. High MP cost, long casting time. Resistable. Lightning element.

Gravity(RDM)
Slows down a target's movement and attack speed. Does not affect casting time. Has a long recast timer. Combine with Slow to make enemies attack at a fraction of their normal rate. Medium MP cost, medium casting time. Resistable. Dark element.

Sleep(BLM, RDM)
Puts the target to sleep. Useful for escaping from enemies, especially when multiple enemies are attacking. Short duration. Medium MP cost, long casting time. Resistable. Dark element.

Sleep II(BLM, RDM)
Puts the target to sleep for a very long time(2+ minutes). Very useful for neutralizing linked enemies. Combine with Elemental Seal to make it stick until you're ready to finish off the target. High MP cost, long casting time. Resistable. Dark element.

** Special note about Choke, Drown, Rasp, Shock, Burn, and Frost
Only one of these spells can be active on a target at a time - do not cast more than one - each new casting will simply erase the previous effect.

As for offensive white magic (Banish, Banish II, Holy, Banishga, Banishga II), my recommendation is to avoid using them in groups. They never deal as much damage as black magic spells (because you won't have as much INT or Magic Attack Up as a BLM or RDM), and are a waste of MP. Some people like Holy, especially for certain rare skillchain magic bursts, but that's about it. Banish II, Banishga, and Banishga II are all a waste of time at the moment.


Icemage

[kumaeru]

hehe nice explanation ice ^^

Anyways, I agree.. The whm is always doing something, monitoring HP bars for the pt, viewing log if an enfeeble spell is resisted or if a status effect spell wore off.

If Silence wears off from a hard magic based monster, and the whm fails to see it at first it could kill 1 or more people in the party.

[Radamvice]

I'll agree here as well...

If you arent using your 3 enfeebles you are making your job of healing much harder on yourself, nuking isnt worthwhile in PT's except in the rarest of circumstances because of reasons listed above.

What people skipped over here are the enhancement spells we have...whm have a plethora of enhancement spells, some are used on a regular basis (protect+shell) and others are circumstantial (aquaveil, and the lines of status preventing, and elemental resist buffs). The circumstantial enhancement spells here can be a pain to get used to using, but when you know a monster could, for example, try and put your entire PT to sleep, casting the appropriate enhancement spells ahead of time can make you and your PT even more effective.

[kumaeru]

well ok for one.. IMO aquaviel is such a waste of gil.. it is completely useless.. only thing good it does is have a flashy casting animation, at which Blink looks better :p

Blink on the other hand is actually useful in more situations. Of course it is only 2 attacks, but in a pt where the whm should not get hit often 2 hits is a lot :p.

The thing about enhancement spells is it is not something you may have to cast every single fight. However refreshing your Reraise when it comes to it is always 150mp well spent. Just hope it doesnt wear out in battle.. if it does, do not spend 150mp to recast it.. spend it on saving your pt. With those cool added effect "Refresh" armors makes it even nicer. I always liked Whm/smn for its auto refresh but with that a whm/blm could have it too.

[Radamvice]

OMG i had no idea there were added effect : Refresh equipment available, that was one of the main selling points of summoner to me!

What lvl of equipment gains this effect, how expensive is it, and on which types of equipment does this effect appear?

[Seregil]

Icemage pretty much covered it all
But I should note something I've found useful as a whm..

Silence.. he forgot to list that one. It makes fights against casters that much easier.
Obviously don't cast it on stuff that doesn't cast. >:P

Another thing that's sort of important to keep track of IMO, is bar-spells.
Since a whm has all these spells as AoE spells, they are that much more useful...
For example, barsleepra before attacking a sheep is always handy.
You'll note that bar-<insert STATUS effect here> take a while to cast.. these are more pre-battle things.
Bar-<insert element here>
are the interesting ones
The casting time on the elemental resist spells are practically instant... meaning you can change your party's resistance on the fly, based on what's going on...
When fighting enemies that can attack with more than one kind of element, I watch the chat bar and pay attention to what the enemy does and swich the resist when needed...

Obviously this isn't really NECESSARY... considering hardly any whm does it.. But I found it makes life as a whm that much more fun.. and it's kind of flashy too. ^^

[kumaeru]

The only Bar****ra spells I have actually used continually is Barstonra and Barfira. Worms of course cast the Stone spells which can be devastating at times. However this really isnt needed after say MM's in shakrami because at lvl 15 the Whm SHOULD have silence.


Barfira onthe other hand is always very useful. Goblin bombs are extremely dangerous, especially when you are fighting IT gobs and getting them to suicide is what you are trying to make them do. Gob bombs do a ton of dmg, and Barfira may save you/pt a heart attack of seeing 200+dmg on your log.

[Navia]

Barstonra is the most used element barrier by me, followed by fire and water. I usually cast paralyze on the monster as its brought in by the puller, then follow with the appropriate element barrier if it isnt up, then continue with debuffs.
Casting the barrier before a monster is found would be best, but you may get a different monster than expected and need to cast the right barrier.

I haven't got smacked by a monster yet debuffing it too fast. If you wait to start debuff once the monster is at the party and beating on someone you run the risk of needing to play catchup on cureing the tank once debuffs are done which runs the risk of making the monster go after you.
When you are the only WHM in party you need debuffs done fast so you dont have to have spam

I usually dont cast dia unless we fight incredibly tough monsters or we are going to renkei. Dia on tough/very tough dont seem to help it die any faster.

My debuff order by monster type

Non caster:
Paralyze(while incoming from pull) -> Slow -> Bio -> Blind
(add in Dia at the end for incredibly tough)

Caster:
Silence(while incoming from pull) -> Paralyze -> Silence (if first was resisted, recast timer cleared by now)

Even with another mage in party, we both cast silence on the land worms in qufim because you can get a resist and there is less of a chance the worm landing rasp on a mage.

[Icemage]

There are a few bar-xxxx spells that are useful:

Barstonra, as mentioned, is particularly effective against Worm-type enemies, but is also great against Giants (Catapult, Grand Slam).

Barfira is great when fighting goblins, and some of the fire-aligned Anticans.

Barwatera is useful against Pugils (Screwdriver), Jellies, and Sea Monks (Maelstrom)

Barblizzara and Baraera are sometimes useful against tougher Skeletons and Ghosts, who like to use wind and ice-type attacks, such as Aeroga and Blizzaga as well as Ice Spikes.

Barpoisonra is very handy in areas like the Crawler's Nest and Altepa, against Dragonfly, Spider and Crawler-type enemies that have area of effect poison attacks.

I have never found any of the anti-status effects to be useful (Barparalyzra, Barpetra, Barsleepra, Barblindra, Barsilencera). The only exception to this is if you're helping lower level players in Gusgen Mines, at which point Barvira sometimes comes in handy against their Disease attack (but you could just as easily save the MP and cast Viruna on anyone who gets hit).


Icemage

[Seregil]

Originally posted by kumaeru
The only Bar****ra spells I have actually used continually is Barstonra and Barfira. Worms of course cast the Stone spells which can be devastating at times. However this really isnt needed after say MM's in shakrami because at lvl 15 the Whm SHOULD have silence.


Barfira onthe other hand is always very useful. Goblin bombs are extremely dangerous, especially when you are fighting IT gobs and getting them to suicide is what you are trying to make them do. Gob bombs do a ton of dmg, and Barfira may save you/pt a heart attack of seeing 200+dmg on your log.


Even with silence, I tend to protect my party from the appropriate elements anyway.. Just incase Silence fails to stick and we get stonega-ed. >:P
But it's true that silence can do the job anyway
That's the thing with the bar-elemental spells..instant-casting.. (practically) so I don't really mind doing that real quick before everyone runs off to go bash the critter.