[Iccarus]

Hi,

I've been playing FFXI for just under 2 months now and firstly I must say its been a great experience. I reside on the Shiva server and when I first bought the game I was always wanting to be a mage. I picked Tarutaru as my race as they are the strongest in that particular field the problem was it was between Black and White mage.

My urge for destruction was what got the better of me in the end and managed to Level mine to 31 and then when I was in the parties I discovered that I wanted to help a party out more than kill the enemy outright so I switched and I must admit playing as a White mage now has made me want to reach the highest lvl in it. Also now that I have Raise I can help other people on the map aswell if I'm soloing or seeking for a party.

My total levels at the moment are:

Black Mage - 31
White Mage - 25 (Got that in Qurfim last night ^^)
Summoner - 20

Now enough about me, what I wanted to say is now that I'm heading to Kazham and there are a few things I need to know.

Firstly, are there any scrolls that I will guarantee to need from 25 - 33? I have Raise and I have every scroll before that, I'm liking Stoneskin and can see the benefits of it. Also would Stoneskin fair better than Blink?

Next, how do you guys manage your cures etc? The way I do it is whoever is the main tank I cast Regen on and generally buff up as much as I can and then whoever pulls in the monster I take care of before he/she sets of to pull another monster. In Qurfim when we were fighting Pugils and Clippers I was casting Barwatera at the begging I'm hoping that was the right thing to do...

I have a Seer's outfit from my Black mage adventure once I hit the right level would that be the best suited equipment for me?

Now this brings me on to my last question, Gil. It seems to me that obtaining Gil is quite a task in itself and I was wondering how some of you guys have managed to rake in some money? As we all know our scrolls are very important and sadly very exspensive so I just need to try and find a way of how to obtain them past 25.

I'm sorry for the length of my post ^^ and I would be very grateful for any sort of response from you guys. I might have a few more things to ask but I wont make this post longer than it already is for the time being!

Thanks for your time ^^

[Gentoo]

Firstly, are there any scrolls that I will guarantee to need from 25 - 33? I have Raise and I have every scroll before that

For XP parties (from levels 25-33), you can skip Stoneskin and Banish II. Stoneskin is great for solo'ing, but theoretically you won't have much need for it an XP party (where you shouldn't be taking a lot of damage). Banish II isn't going to be useful for you unless you're solo'ing, or your party has a light skill chain going and you're not healing much (very unlikely).
Just don't plan on doing much solo'ing without them.

You can delay getting Erase, but if you've got some way to acquire it, do so at your earliest convenience. At 25-33, you won't have a dire need for it [IIRC], but further down the road it's going to be one of those must-haves. Personally I quit XP'ing for several months so I could save up the gil to purchase it.
(edit: at the time I bought it, it believe it was 750K)

Everything else (Raise, Barthundra, Protect/Protectra II, Cursna, Curaga II, Reraise) is useful to have under your belt, and you'll want to have available as soon as you can.

Next, how do you guys manage your cures etc?

(trying to remember back to Qufim)
As the puller comes back to camp, I'll cast Regen on them as they return -- which is usually sufficient to get them back/near full health.
Once the tank has engaged the critter, and gotten off a hit or two, I'll cast any appropriate Bar<foo>ra spells, followed by a Cure if the tank needs it, and then Regen on the tank.
I will let the other DD, if they're managing to steal hate, to dip as low as I can without them getting one shotted, and will use a Curaga post battle as necessary.
I never heal mages unless they're well into the red. The reason I don't is because (1) if another mage is getting hit, chances are they're standing by me and a Cure from me will very likely result me getting hate, and (2) they'll have to sit down anyway to heal MP -- which means they'll heal that HP back also.

I have a Seer's outfit from my Black mage adventure once I hit the right level would that be the best suited equipment for me?

The Seers gear is pretty good at that level, and it's what I wore. I think I used a hairpin for extra MP instead of the crown, and my RSE pants (Tarutaru Wonder Braccae) for the bump to MND.
The basic gist, is you can replace any of the Seer's gear that only gives +INT with items that provide +MND and/or +MP.
(EDIT: As mentioned below, keep your seers gear. You'll abandon it as your primary gear later on, but it's VERY useful to swap in the Tunic while you're healing. Also, it's pretty much the ideal set for going into the Promyvions as a mage.)

If you don't already have it, get a Pilgrim's Wand to help speed your MP healing.

Now this brings me on to my last question, Gil. It seems to me that obtaining Gil is quite a task in itself and I was wondering how some of you guys have managed to rake in some money?

See any of the threads on this site for making Gil. HELM, Farming, Crafting.

Personally I spent a lot of time Harvesting (if I were to do it again, I'd probably have picked Mining). I also spent some time levelling Thief a little ways, and used the loot from that endevor to finance my WHM spells. I would highly suggest you also get your Thief to at least level 15.

[Lleo]

As we all know our scrolls are very important and sadly very exspensive so I just need to try and find a way of how to obtain them past 25.

Many of the White Mage scrolls can be bought from vendors much cheaper than on the AH. One of my first gil making metods was buying scrolls from vendors and selling them on the AH.

A list of where to obtain the scrolls can be found here.

[Maerta]

heaL! ;o

[Linra]

Gentoo pretty much covered everything! For seer's I'm a level 50 Whm and I still use the Tunic and shoes. I also use hair pins for MP because their cheap and since Whm is my first job, money isn't something I can make in a snap. I'm not sure what the Taru RSE is, but I use my Hume F RSE shorts because they give mnd and a lot of MP. If yours is the same, or even if it only gives MND that might be something to look into because at about level 30-35 you can duo or trio the monster you need to get it.

You haven't said anything about this but, make sure to always carry around a stack of Ginger Cookies. They're really cheap and help with your recovery. Just wanted to throw that out there hehe.

As for healing, you've pretty much got it. That who regen thing Gentoo said sounds really good also, and I plan to give it a try. My proirty list for healing is, tank, puller, me, DD, and Mages.

For money making, once you get teleport spells, you can start making a good amount of money if you're willing to spend the time to do it. Lower Jeuno on my server is the place to ask for Teleports, that might be the same for you. I can make about 50k if I stay there for.....3+ hours? If you have can go to Whitegate, the people there pay a lot more (at least on my server) for teleports, but the requests are less then Jeuno.

Erase is something you really do want, the sooner you can get rid of Attack Down and Str Down the better, as those really hurt whoever it's placed on (unelss their Mages of course).

Anyway that's pretty much all I can think of for now o.o

Good luck!

[Icemage]

Unlike that for other races, Tarutaru RSE has absolutely no MP. All the pieces give HP for Tarutaru.

Probably the spells you'll use most often in the Jungles near Kazham are:

Cure (waking people from sleep status, as well as general patching up)

Regen (almost always your most efficient healing spell)

Curaga (in case you need to wake people up immediately, or to patch people up after a Bomb Toss - after the goblin is dead, if you can manage that at all)

Barfira (use this against Goblins or pay the price as you watch the entire party get blown to bits on a suicide bomb)

---

I agree Erase can be skipped for the time being. It's VERY useful, but you can live without it until you acquire the funds to buy it (or win it yourself in a BCNM fight).


Icemage

[Murphie]

Thankfully, like everything else, Erase has really gone down in price lately. I got a scroll for 100k from the Jeuno AH last week, which made me really happy. That's probably a bit out of reach for a new player, but it's still a lot easier to manage than 500k or more.^^

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Icemage

Unlike that for other races, Tarutaru RSE has absolutely no MP. All the pieces give HP for Tarutaru.

True. However, as I mentioned, it does give a MND bonus. The +HP is nice to if you happen use gear that trades HP for MP.


Another piece of gear that is beneficial to have is Barron's Slops to swap in while you're healing. At ~110K, it's a chunk of change to invest when you've got spells like Erase to worry about, but you'll use them for a good long time.

[Joon]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

you can skip Stoneskin... theoretically you won't have much need for it an XP party (where you shouldn't be taking a lot of damage).

As we all know, theory doesn't equal reality all the time, so it's best to grab that Stoneskin. I'd cast the stoneskin just in case & since Iccarus is a taru, he'll most likely be able to afford that extra 29mp.

Also, at lower lvls, the best time to cast a higher lvl cure without getting hate is right after a provoke.

[Iccarus]

Thank you all that have replied.

I have managed to acquire Stoneskin, Protect II and Protectra II for a reasonable price so thats cool. I also bagged an Invisible which should come in real handy ^^

Yeah Barfira is very handy against those Gobs that decide to self explode I started using that alot on Qurfim Island. Also I tend to cast Cure II or III right after a tank has used Provoke, that way I tend to slip past without much hate at all.

Lleo I like your idea I tried that yesterday and I shall check up on my AH and see the reults, hopefully they will be postive!

To be honest I just want to be the best White Mage I can be and with your help and by me learning sometimes the hard way I will hopefully achieve that.

Just one last question though, Once I've obtained Level 33 and its time to pack my bags and head to Garliege Citadel at what level there do I stop? For example Kazham is typically 25-33, Quifim is 20-25, And after Garliege Citadel (not sure on the spelling) where do I go from there?

Like I said before thanks for the replies ^^

[Lleo]

Garlaige Citadel to level 35, and Crawler's Nest after that. A good resource on campsites can be found here.

[Asir]

If the puller has a macro telling what he's pulling in (I've met many who don't), then I used to stand in the center of my melees with the appropriate Bar spell ready. As the puller got into range, I'd fire off the Bar spell then move on back to my original position out of AOE range. If the puller took light damage, he/she would get a regen, heavy damage a cure. In between cures during the fight, I would remove status debuffs on my party and if no RDM in the party, I'd debuff the mob as well depending on time and amount of curing needed.

Regen will also be your very best friend as a WHM, providing you don't have anyone in your party with a /WHM sub that seems to think everyone should have 100% HP every second of the fight. I hate people that cure to full when my regens works just as well. In areas like Qufim, if I didn't have a NIN tank, the DDs got the regens on their slight damages to save my cures for the tank. As you get higher in level, sometimes even just a Regen I or II is fine for your tank at the start.

As for food, my magely food of choice is Sweet Rice Cakes. These last for half an hour and give a nice variety of stat bonuses. MP +17, Vitality +2, Intelligence +3, Mind +1, HP Regeneration While Healing +2, MP Regeneration While Healing +2, Evasion +5, Resist Silence.
The MND bonus isn't that great but the HHP and HMP are nice. I find the Resist Silence works nicely and you can never have enough evasion as a mage. The +3 INT makes it a nice BLM food as well.

[Irisjir Callard]

I consider Stoneskin about 800 times more important than Protect spell tiers. Infact, I've never bothered to upgrade past Protect II. I use Protectra after an invite if I need to peg someone with a higher defense bonus than that.

But Stoneskin is a life-saver, will be all the time.

Erase I thought you didn't get till 35...

Something nobody mentioned before, Reraise. One of the best spells in the game. I have RR2 and I still use reraise one...most of the time. Its a shorter cast timer and takes less MP. I'm impatient, so the shorter cast is a thing for me.

And EXP loss has never been a big thing for me...

Blink I rarely use. Maybe the start of a fight when soloing. It doesn't seem to be as mp-efficent as stoneskin. On the other hand, it's two shadows, at lower levels that could be better.

*Rummages into dusty memories of her whitemage*

Yeah, seers is about the best equipment you're going to get until you get seers plus one. I used to feel 'gimp' because I wore my seers for so bloody long (clear up till AF, in fact) but aside from my hume RSE (which is almost the same level) it was the best stuff out there. That might have changed...infact I think now there's the raven gear at 50 that people might expect you to have (I never liked it much myself).

But you can't go wrong with a good sturdy seers set.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Irisjir Callard

I consider Stoneskin about 800 times more important than Protect spell tiers. Infact, I've never bothered to upgrade past Protect II. I use Protectra after an invite if I need to peg someone with a higher defense bonus than that.

One of the reasons I do keep the single target Protect spells around is for Ninjas (or /nins). It's not a chronic occurance, but I've had plenty of Ninjas accidently cancel their protect while cancelling Utsusemi.

The single target Protects have something like a 1.5 second cast time compared to the Protectra <n>'s 4.5 second cast time.
(same goes for Shell <n> versus Shellra <n>)

Originally Posted by Iccarus

Just one last question though, Once I've obtained Level 33 and its time to pack my bags and head to Garliege Citadel at what level there do I stop? For example Kazham is typically 25-33, Quifim is 20-25, And after Garliege Citadel (not sure on the spelling) where do I go from there?

You don't have to stick it out in Garliage. There's good hunting to be had in the Eastern Altepa Desert -- Beetles and Dhamels.

But Garliage is good until around 36 or 37 (if you camp by the Banishing Gate), after which I found myself spending lots of time in the Crawlers Nest.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Irisjir Callard

I consider Stoneskin about 800 times more important than Protect spell tiers. Infact, I've never bothered to upgrade past Protect II. I use Protectra after an invite if I need to peg someone with a higher defense bonus than that.

Single-target Protect spells can be pretty much ignored by WHMs for XP parties since you have the Protectra versions which cost the same MP and hit the whole party.

But Stoneskin is a life-saver, will be all the time.

I disagree. Stoneskin is terribly feeble when you first acquire it. It's useful when fighting things that have extremely high damage area effect attacks (Goblins), but otherwise doesn't get much use in XP parties since most Very Tough or Incredibly Tough enemies can blow past it in one hit.

Erase I thought you didn't get till 35...

Erase is level 32.

Something nobody mentioned before, Reraise. One of the best spells in the game. I have RR2 and I still use reraise one...most of the time. Its a shorter cast timer and takes less MP. I'm impatient, so the shorter cast is a thing for me.

And EXP loss has never been a big thing for me...

The MP cost is hefty, but always worth the investment. Why on earth would you choose to use Reraise I when you have Reraise II available? Just cast it during downtime. If you really are worried about MP efficiency, use a Reraise Hairpin.

Blink I rarely use. Maybe the start of a fight when soloing. It doesn't seem to be as mp-efficent as stoneskin. On the other hand, it's two shadows, at lower levels that could be better.

On the contrary, Blink is much more MP-efficient against VT+ enemies, especially against heavy enemy WS like Power Attack, Big Scissors, and can save your life against really deadly things like Sickle Scythe. It costs 10 MP per hit (20 MP/2 hits absorbed), versus about 25ish MP per hit for Stoneskin (depending on how hard enemies are hitting you).

The only time Blink isn't as useful is when fighting enemies that have AoE attacks like flies or bones, which can wipe shadows.

Yeah, seers is about the best equipment you're going to get until you get seers plus one. I used to feel 'gimp' because I wore my seers for so bloody long (clear up till AF, in fact) but aside from my hume RSE (which is almost the same level) it was the best stuff out there. That might have changed...infact I think now there's the raven gear at 50 that people might expect you to have (I never liked it much myself).

Crow/Raven gear is worth mentioning. It's excellent for white and red mages, who are usually in a main healer role and often rack up the most enmity. Plus it has some significant +Evasion boosts which can help you survive (though WHMs have the worst Evasion of all jobs, so even in full Raven gear you're not going to dodge much... but every bit counts).


Icemage