[cidbahamut]

I spent tonight confirming why I hate playing white mage: spotting and curing status ailments. I just don't have a knack for it.

I thought I had my chat filters and font colors set up well enough to spot them as they came up, but as we're fighting flies in the Dunes I get the call: {Poisona}{Please}
Fly Venoms were going off all night long and I'm more or less faking my way through because I know damn well <playerX is poisoned> never showed up in my chatlog. It shows up as a distinct color that I recognize, also there was a Goblin later on that blinded our tank and I saw that and wiped it away just fine, but the Venom not so much.

Now I'm thinking that maybe status ailments from a mob's special attack don't make it into the chatlog or they fall into some other category that I had filtered.

It's late though, I'll see what I can do about posting the exact chat filter settings sometime tomorrow night.

[Takelli]

I have been trying to figure that out myself for a while as well but then I just gave up. Eventually I just kept an eye on the chat log and the player and their positioning.

The flys Venome is a cone attack. So who ever it is facing will (mostlikely) be posioned. So, if you watch the spray, you can guess who was poisoned, and cast poisona on the one who was poisoned. You can also watch the HP bar as it will slowly drop. I think its 3/tick, then I will just poisona them. I don't think there is a chat filter for it though. Just need to know what type of attack it is (Area, Single, Cone Ect), and watch the screen, and try to guess who it landed on. It works fairly well, it just takes some time getting used to it.

[Alekia]

Here are a couple of tips from the things that I've learned playing WHM:

A) When it comes to poison status (moreso for the dunes levels) become familiar with animations from mobs special attacks such as venom so you can try and cast poisona appropriately.

B) Glance at the HP bars of the people in the party. If their HP is dwindling away slowly due to "A" then cast poisona.

C) At higher levels (21+ when you get Regen), you can counter a poison status effect with regen which you should become very familiar with anyway...Regen is your friend.

And lastly D) Try and focus on status ailments that affect party performance (Slow, Blind, Paralyze, Silence) first and poison last. As long as your party is not in the red things will be fine.

[TheGrandMom]

Originally Posted by cidbahamut

I spent tonight confirming why I hate playing white mage: spotting and curing status ailments. I just don't have a knack for it.

I thought I had my chat filters and font colors set up well enough to spot them as they came up, but as we're fighting flies in the Dunes I get the call: {Poisona}{Please}
Fly Venoms were going off all night long and I'm more or less faking my way through because I know damn well <playerX is poisoned> never showed up in my chatlog. It shows up as a distinct color that I recognize, also there was a Goblin later on that blinded our tank and I saw that and wiped it away just fine, but the Venom not so much.

Now I'm thinking that maybe status ailments from a mob's special attack don't make it into the chatlog or they fall into some other category that I had filtered.

It's late though, I'll see what I can do about posting the exact chat filter settings sometime tomorrow night.

In the lower levels, poison is 1hp per tick and if someone's hp is fine they can usually hang in there if you are dealing with more important matters. YOU are the whm and you need to learn how to manage your mp and prioritize what needs to be done. It's like working in the ER, there are cases that need care asap and others that can wait.........and just like in the ER people who are made to wait can get a little cranky. lol

A couple of things that break the rule that poisona can wait is when its a nasty poison thats 10+hp per tick and ESPECIALLY if you are in an area where people can get blood aggro. Also keep status effects off of your tank no matter what. Treat your tank like they are your number one priority (because they are!) and you'll benefit in the end when the tank is grateful and protects you.

Don't forget Bio too. Thats usually 3 hp per tick and should be taken off of the tank immediately. Many times watching their hps and seeing if its 1 hp or 3 hp is an easy way to know what spell to use. Erase is a great spell but it has a long recast, imo, so its best to use it on the tank first and remember that your regens are there too in the meantime.

Yes, some status effects will NOT be in your chat. It sucks.....royally. But its something that you'll have to learn to deal with. As others have said, just get used to the special attacks that mobs do and if they have status effects. Use Wiki, it is your best friend. Once you have learned what attacks have status effects, then watch either the mobs move and/or your chat. When you see that the mob has done it, you'll know what to do when you get the chance.

Also take note of the area of effect. It can be direct to the person its attacking, it can be a cone attack that effect anyone in the direction its facing, it can be an aoe which effects everyone within a certain area, etc. Then take note of where people are standing and whether they'll be effected. And I bet you thought whm was gonna be easy...hey? LOL

[Callisto]

The only status effect TP moves that actually show in log as giving negative status effects are ones that do no damage. If the move does damage, it will only show in log as "Mob uses blahbittyblah" followed by lines of "XXXplayer takes ### damage", that's how you know who is paralyzed/poisoned/silenced/whatever. I try to watch for the actual animations to see who it hits, as far as knowing which status cure to use, eventually after enough time on a mage job you just learn what does what and you'll just kinda know, but you can always look up what you'll be fighting ahead of time and read up a bit.

If using the standard wiki you can go to the mob family main pages such as this and it'll list what TP moves the family uses, you can click on those for more in-depth descriptions of each move such as if it's directional, AoE, or single target, as well as the max distance of it.

[Empedocles]

Bear in mind: Don't be too critical of your own performance based off pure chat logs. I've seen a lot of DDs whine about removing a status effect the instant it lands on them, like they think WHMs are machines with a constant Chainspell effect on.

[cidbahamut]

Originally Posted by Empedocles

Bear in mind: Don't be too critical of your own performance based off pure chat logs. I've seen a lot of DDs whine about removing a status effect the instant it lands on them, like they think WHMs are machines with a constant Chainspell effect on.

Actually it was our Black Mage who asked. A mage who can't /heal can't get back mp, and a Black Mage without mp can't nuke so I felt like that was a pretty colossal failure on my part.

Originally Posted by TheGrandMom

And I bet you thought whm was gonna be easy...hey? LOL

Ahahahaha...excuse me a minute while I recover from that.
Actually it's the exact opposite. I've been dreading having to level this job because I knew catching status ailments was going to be tough.

Ah well, it's good to know that not everything shows up in the chatlog so I'll be more watchful of certain things now. It's just that I feel really silly casting a status heal only to find it doesn't do anything. I'm pretty sure Venom's poison doesn't always proc, or at least sometimes it wouldn't back when I fought them solo on my RDM.

/sigh
So much left to learn.

[Callisto]

It is possible for Venom's poison to be resisted, Barwater will increase the chances of that, though I just cast it either way to be safe. It costs a whopping 8 MP and is ready for recast pretty much by the time you finish casting it, no reason to not err on the safe side. That said, if you guys were over level 12 and the BLM didn't have their own Poisona, they were the ones making the mistakes.

[Lmnop]

Indeed, I've always felt (maybe this is wrong as I'm always tank or DD) that one of a BLM's top priorities is helping the WHM out with status effect removal of the rest of the party.

And wtf was he getting venom sprayed for anyway? Point that damn thing in a different direction.

[cidbahamut]

It was a Dunes party. I thought that part was pretty self explanatory

[Aksannyi]

Originally Posted by Callisto

That said, if you guys were over level 12 and the BLM didn't have their own Poisona, they were the ones making the mistakes.

Which they would have to be in order to be fighting flies, can't even touch them with any sort of safety until 15, maybe 14 but it's rough. And I agree with this.

Really for me it became a matter of memorizing what mobs do what moves, and what effects those moves inflict. If you're planning to level WHM only as a sub, then (probably) you don't need to make a big deal about learning them. If it's for RDM, you might want to learn some of the ones you'll be encountering, but you don't have to remember every mob in the game.

[Callisto]

Originally Posted by Lmnop

Indeed, I've always felt (maybe this is wrong as I'm always tank or DD) that one of a BLM's top priorities is helping the WHM out with status effect removal of the rest of the party.

I don't expect a BLM to help with status cures on people other than themselves generally, but there's only one excuse for a BLM between 12 and 30 not at the very least covering their own Poisona, and that's being under 18 and not having a subjob unlocked yet.

[TheGrandMom]

Originally Posted by Callisto

I don't expect a BLM to help with status cures on people other than themselves generally, but there's only one excuse for a BLM between 12 and 30 not at the very least covering their own Poisona, and that's being under 18 and not having a subjob unlocked yet.

Yep, I won't bother taking poison off a blm/whm unless they have don't have the mp. I've had blms (at 75 mind you) just stand there and refuse to take off their own poison "because its the whm's job".

[Lmnop]

Says the job whose job has traditionally been to cast something once every 50 seconds...

[cidbahamut]

Well round two went much better tonight. Ended up on Flies again and this time I caught most of the poison once I got into the rhythm of it. Just tossed {Poisona} at any player that took damage from Venom and that worked out pretty well for the most part. I also got some practice at watching hp bars for slow ticks, but with mixed results. I felt it distracted me too much from keeping the party alive sometimes. Still, hp bars won't help me catch things like Silence later on.

Oh well, I'm making progress and the advice I've been given here is largely responsible for it.
Thank you.