How important is gear...

[Hershies]

for a WHM? I am a new player starting with a friend in Bastok. I decided to make a TaruTaru WHM for large cuteness factor mixed with a fun support class. Neither of us really have any money, and we're sharing the profits we make on the auction house. It's very difficult affording both gear and spells, and I imagine it's only going to get worse as we level up.

I imagine as a WHM spells would always come before gear, but are parties going to shun me because I don't have good gear? I read the newbie guide stickied in this forum, and it said pretty much that if you don't have good gear you're not going to get parties. This has to be the worst news I've read as a beginning player, and if that's the way it is, I really should just cancel now. We don't have any friends to give us hand-me-downs and are scraping by on vendor armour and starting armour.

Thank you for your responses!

[InuTrunks]

Gear dosn't really play a bad part, but money is easy to get, just sell your crystals on the AH, and you'll have enough money to support yourself for gear and spells.

Honestly, you can get by with level 8 armor, and level10 rings untill you get ot levle 20, by then, you should have enough money from leveling your first job up to 18 to get your sub job, and your second job from doing it. Also, try to do the first few missions with your friend, they will help you with spare money as well.

My alt is level 19 Red mage, andhe has over 60k already (didn't give him any money from my main), he just sells crystals he got from farming and leveling other jobs.

[Nuriko]

For WHM? Not very ... +hMP gear is nice to have, but I have a WHM with bare-bones gear, do the job (and enfeeble if it's needed) and nobody seems to mind. The only thing I bothered with is a wand and two pieces of +hMP gear, the rest is under level 10. I'm in a constant inventory crunch anyway.

Like you said, spells come first. My gear may be garbage, but I have Dispel and use it as needed ... and if somebody dies, it's either pulling or I died first.

[Necropolis]

White mage is not a terribly expensive job to level, and while you'll need some gear, you won't need the "best".

You'll want to pick up a few mp/mnd rings and earring and some basic mage cloths like tunics and what not till level 29. For weapon, any wand that has +int/mnd/mp on it will work fine. At 29 you'll want to invest in a seer's tunic, and the rest of the seer's set is nice as well.

From seers you go to Artifact Armor (which is mostly free, quest obtained), and from there you can level to 75. There are some nice pieces available as you get higher that you'll want to look into, but the are not *required* for exp parties.

As for your question, spells are going to be much more important than your gear. Some spells could wait (Diaga, barspells usefullness isn't noticable early on, single target protect/shell if you have the -ra versions).

Like any job in this game:
Skill > gear > race

Your ability to do your job will be much more of an influence than your gear. But thats not to say that you should be missing a lot of gear either. I would expect every mage to have at least basic armor upgrade every 10 levels or so (level 1 > 11 > 20 > 29 (seers) > AF > upgrade as you can afford. While Mind is your main stat you want to boost, it doesn't really make much of a difference early on. More mind helps with paralyze proc rates and curing over soft caps, but has little other effects till you get cure 5.

So over all, I'd recommend getting your basic slots (hand/body/legs/feet) from vendor, get a hairpin from the AH (fairly cheap), do the promise badge quest in windy for neck, and find some +mp or +mnd rings and earring for a good price. I'm at work now, so can't research a lot of gear atm, but you like, I'll look back at what I wore at the early levels.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Like any job in this game:
Skill > gear > race

Very true.

However, don't show up at a party with poor gear while telling your party "I have the skill to make up for it", and expect to make a good impression on complete strangers.

As far as how important gear it to WHM...

You might hear some people say that a certain job can get away with having crappy gear (BRD or RDM, for example). It very well may be true that you can show up to a party naked, do a mediocre but acceptable level of performance, and still get invites in the future as one of those jobs. A party might put up with that just because you're the only refresher available at the time. But they'll trash you behind your back for it. You don't want to become that guy that every LS talks about when they need something to laugh about.

You'll probably want to invest in mostly gear that gives +MND, as that will affect how often mobs resist your debuffs. You might not be asked to cast enfeebles that often. But when you do, you'll want them to land consistently, rather than wasting MP casting it over and over. And with the heavy leaning toward blink tanks, you'll probably find yourself in parties where landing debuffs and keeping them on will help make the party more productive.

[Feenicks]

Parties won't shun you if your gear isn't the absolute best available, but they will shun you if it's blatantly obvious that no effort at all was put into your gear selection. So if you turn up at an XP party in the 60s wielding your AF maul, one piece of AF, no pants, a +HP belt and Bastok Ring then people will notice.

Appropriate gear for WHM includes (in rough order), equip with Cure Potency+, MP recovered while healing+, Enmity-, MP+ or MND+.

[JeanRC]

whm is pretty cheap to level. erase use to be very expensive but is so much cheaper now. and whm dont really need good gear to be useful.
only whm only, skill important is 80% and good gear is 20%.
For other job, it may be different.
Just learn how to see what negative effect your party member have like they are being paralyze , slow or others. As you get higher level, you will see more new ability/moves by mobs that do those negative effect.

added:regen is a very useful spell for whm too. they help you "cure" party without getting much hate and save mp. If you use it wisely like at start on battle on "pure meat" tank ( "pure meat" tank meaning jobs that tank for the party that keep getting constant hit, example war/mnk or pld/war. Take note ninja is not a "pure meat" tank as they make use of their spell to totally evade the hit. ) On such type of tank, they always get constant damage by monster which mean they requre constant curing.
By tossing regen1/2/3 etc will help you get less hate from those constant curing and also save mp in the long run. Very useful not only in leveling party but also in nm/hnm stuff. Always remember to use regen as most unskill whm wount use it specially in hnm. Cause they may forgot about it as they need to cure fast as hnm hit hard.
What you need to do is to find the perfect timing to toss a regen where your tank wount get killed during the casting time.

My whm is only 42 but i am "pure meat" tank pld75 so i not only have the experience of playing a whm but i also have the experience of playing the opposite of a whm which is the tank. So i hope i wount provide a wrong information ;p

[IfritnoItazura]

I'm always impressed by Pilgrim's Wand in the hands of any low level White Mage, especially newbies. ^_-

(It's free.)

[Pai Pai Master]

I had a naked white mage in Yuhtunga Jungle a couple weeks back.

Make sure you're not like him, and you're golden. As a new player people are typically understanding of what it's like raising your first job, and as long as you can at least put the effort into purchasing all your spells and some +mp gear (but it's not too necessary since you're Tarutaru), then you're fine. You'll find it easier and easier to gain gil as you raise your level and when you eventually get Teleport spells.

I'd say after level 40-ish, you need to become serious about equipment, and put aside enough time to earn gil for it.

[Icemage]

MP recovery is your bread and butter as a WHM. Being good at your job is most important (don't waste MP), but you can also do a better job by having more MP available to cast with, and that's where gear comes into play for WHM.

Pilgrim's Wand is a pretty easy acquisition by level 12 or 13, when you're (most likely) still soloing or playing in a duo.

The rest of the MP recovery gears don't show up until around level 20+ (Baron's Slops, which are totally skippable if you're a new player and haven't got the funds to shell out for that sort of luxury item).

One thing you should seriously consider investing in, and will impress any veteran players is MP recovery food; Ginger Cookies (click to link to FFXIclopedia) are relatively inexpensive, and very potent for WHMs as they offer +5mp recovery while resting for 3 minutes. Eat one before resting to see major improvement in your MP recovery rate.


Icemage

[Feenicks]

I would like to second Icemage's statement about MP Recovery food. Especially when there's no Refresh around, eating a Ginger Cookie is a billion times more useful than eating a Roast Mushroom.

[Malacite]

One thing you should seriously consider investing in, and will impress any veteran players is MP recovery food; Ginger Cookies (click to link to FFXIclopedia) are relatively inexpensive, and very potent for WHMs as they offer +5mp recovery while resting for 3 minutes. Eat one before resting to see major improvement in your MP recovery rate.

Failing that (and if you have money to spare) Melon Pie +1 is fairly cheap these days (at least on my server, about 10k) and will net you +2 hmp and some MP. But I believe Wizard cookies are around the same price as well, last 5 minutes rather than 3 and give +7 to hmp so it's your call. Cookies FTW, unless you like +1 imperial coffee for it's convenience.



I want to say this right now; As with any job, gear can make or brake you. Yes, skill technically does matter more I suppose, but if you want to get the most out of any job you'll have to get the appropriate gear. Anyone can assume any job and half-ass it in terms of gear and still get invites (for a while anyway) but what does that say about you?


Now I'm not advocating that you go out of your way to get all the shiny +1/+2 gear you can find, but don't go running around in dirty old rags either. Find out what items will get you the most bang for your gil, and try to form a budget.


In WHM's case, priority would go HMP > MND > MP depending on race. (elvaan would take MP over MND for example) The lv 10 +2 MND rings (forget name) are cheap and will last you for 20+ levels easily. Friar's rope is another good item and is easily quested in San d'Oria.

The only expensive early game items you could buy would be Baron's Slops (+1 hmp, very nice) and a Holy Phial. There's a +hmp sash as well I believe but I'm pretty sure that thing is ungodly expensive just because it's so low level. At least the HQ is anyway.



Good luck with your WHM and have fun ^^ the world needs more healers!

[Taskmage]

There's a +hmp sash as well I believe but I'm pretty sure that thing is ungodly expensive just because it's so low level. At least the HQ is anyway.

Mohbwa Sash. Very nice; wish it was around back when by blm and whm would've been using it. HQ is 70k on my server, pretty up there for a new player I guess, but the NQ is a reasonable 20k and I'd say worth every gil.