Elvaan White Mages

[Icemage]

You're never really going to have "adequate" MP as an Elvaan. As I've said previously, you CAN play an Elvaan WHM, but you'll have to work a lot harder at it than a Tarutaru, Mithra, or Hume will, even with things like RSE equipment which adds MP.

I'll note another thing - you will never, ever be able to keep to the same XP party. While it is possible to stay with the same players for a several levels, it is EXTREMELY rare for two players to stay in sync for levelling for more than a few levels at a time. Either someone dies more, or has more play time, or whatever.

I am not recommending that you abandon your friends, but the point is that this sort of "break" in levelling is both normal and expected. It's extremely important in the long run to become known to more than a few players - you're going to need a LOT of support at the higher levels, so the more people you get to know now, the better off you're going to be, particularly as you will not be able to always play with the same people all the time (no matter how hard all of you try).

My advice would be to stick to your guns and level WAR up in anticipation of PLD.


Icemage

[Rekiem]

When does Cure 3 and Cure 4 cap in relation with MND? What I mean by that is that how much MND do you need to reach the cap of Cure 3 and 4 and also whats the amount they heal once capped?

[Icemage]

Cure III capped somewhere around level 35 if I recall. I don't think I managed to hit the cap on Cure IV in beta at level 50. That being said, the difference with those spells is really minimal regardless of your MND. Healing skill has a much larger effect on Cure spells than MND does, so all WHM at the same level will usually be able to heal roughly the same amount (within a few points) of HP with the same spell, regardless of what their MND score is.


Icemage

[Rekiem]

Reason why Im asking this is because I was wondering that maybe an Elvaan could be roughly even with Hume and Mithra healing power because their higher MND would make up for their 20% lower MP. Would be nice to get the exact numbers and see.

[Icemage]

All I can tell you is the difference is not more than 5% in healing power with any given spell. It in no way makes up for the lack of MP.


Icemage

[Synbios]

IIRC, I've seen a thread which said that Cure III's capped at 180/270 and IV's at 360.

[Veraticus]

The Continuing Saga

Hello everyone! Just gonna post a small update, and see if I can't coax yet more helpful comments from the learned people of this forum.

I finally got traction on WAR during the weekend, and managed to burn all the way from 14 to 20 by tonight. Now I'm 20 WAR/20 WHM, staring Qufim straight in the eyes, and considering switching back to WHM for the time being (and maybe levelling BLM a little, which sounds like a relatively painless proposition).

The reason I'm considering switching now is a distinct lack of WHM and overabundance of WAR in Qufim. My friend, who was also an Elvaan WHM (now BRD), sped through Qufim in only a few days, and she never had to look for a group: she simply sat in Jeuno and waited for people to ask her to join their party. WAR, on the other hand, has to fight for any slot it can get, and even when it gets one is considered somewhat replaceable. (According to my ~level 25 friends.)

As my WAR is already 20, if I level WHM to 30 and do the Paladin Quest, I'll be able to level Paladin to 40 before I have to go back down and work on WAR. It's true that, on the other hand, I wouldn't have to go back down until 60 to work on my WAR levels -- that is to say, if I stuck with WAR and levelled it all the way to 30 -- I don't see a gigantic difference in getting those ten levels now, when it might be very difficult, or later, when it could (conceivably) be more easy.

Anyway, if I'm missing something or anybody wants to chime in, feel free to do so. Seeya!

[Icemage]

It's not a bad idea to level WHM to 30 if you can stomach it. However, I should warn you that unless you are really good at turning a blind eye and ignoring whining, the moment you hit WHM25 you're going to get bombarded with requests for Raises. You can lose hours of play time just trying to help a couple people - not only is it draining to respond to those requests, but it breaks any momentem you might have had in a group.

If you are willing to ignore the requests (and maybe take the hit to your reputation, whatever that may be), then this might not be an issue for you, but I can tell you it was a major hassle for me growing up as a WHM25+ in Qufim in Beta.

The real test in Qufim isn't really what you play, as much as how well you are able to construct a party. You can have all the WHM you like, but if people don't know what they are doing it's not going to get you anywhere. For reference, a "decent" group in Qufim typically makes 1.5-2K xp per hour, and a really good group can make over 3K per hour if the chemistry is right.


Icemage

[Rekiem]

Thats what I wanted to do. My main goal is to be a PLD/WAR in this game so I started with WAR up to 20, got my subjob, choco etc and then I went to Jeuno. During that time I was lv 20WAR/10MNK and I noticed the huge amount of WAR out there. You can just sit there and wait for a PT for hours. Theres just way too many fighters in the lv 20-30 area and you have to almost line up to make PT. So then I went back to Jeuno and decided to level up as a WHM/BLM. Once I reached lv 10 I decided to stop and go back to WAR and sub WHM because I just couldn't handle the fact that Im level'ing as a Job that I don't really enjoy just to get in Parties. Now Im WAR20/WHM10 and Im fine. With proper gear giving me MP, I can act as a not-so-bad support healer while remaining a good fighter. Its also helping me since later I will be PLD, I need to learn how to fight and heal at the sametime. I might consider leveling WHM up to 20 if I really have trouble getting into party but not unless Im forced to. Don't get me wrong, I love being a healer but I also enjoy fighting and tanking, its just that level'ing WHM will be useless once I reach 30 and my WAR lvls will be falling behind and I will need to level him up again once I reach 40 with the PLD Job..

[Veraticus]

Thanks for the advice, Icemage (as usual ) and Rekiem. I'll head out a bit and try to scrape up to at least BLM 10 today, painful though it might be, and be ready to start the trek from 20 to 30 tomorrow or the day after.

[Veraticus]

WHM 30, WAR 20, and PLD 17 now, and things are going swimmingly. Icemage's advice was almost painfully good -- nothing to complain of, as yet, and I do think I made the right choice.

[Gabuk]

I am confused here about the elvaan comparing terribly to hume and mithra for a wm. Now, I understand that a Tarutaru has a tremendously larger mp than any other race, but hume and mithra (at level 70 and if all of the calculators are correct) compared to elvaan is not that noticeable at all. If the calculators are correct, the mp difference is approximately only enough for one cure 3 at level 70. Is one cure 3 at level 70 going to make a big difference? It just seems like this post should read that tarutaru is the only feasible race for a wm. If that is true, then I understand. However, the difference in mp for tarutaru versus anyone is much greater than the difference between elvaan and hume/mithra.

Mp at 70:

Tarutaru – 718
Mithra/hume – 505
Elvaan - 434

[Icemage]

The stat calculator isn't terribly accurate, and can't take equipment into account. I can tell you that from personal experience:

Even at level 35 I see well over 100 points of MP difference between my Tarutaru WHM vs. an Elvaan WHM. Humes and Mithras are probably 60 MP lower than I am, depending on equipment (not counting RSE, which evens the score for a few levels).

Technically, an Elvaan WHM with full RSE equipped comes pretty close to a Tarutaru up until around level 40, when the Taru's higher MP/level starts racing ahead of the other races. Humes and Mithras split the difference between the two, and I won't even mention how few MP Galka WHM get, even with full RSE... :angel:


Icemage

[IhsanShade]

My WHM is now 28, Elvaan, in a GOOD group it doesn't matter that I have less MP than a taru when infact I have had Countless situations where I lived through a battle with 20-70hp where a Taru would be dead.

Don't let Icemage fool you, Elvaan's can make good WHM's, if you base it purely on Healing power alone then yes they aren't nearly as good, but survivability is also a factor in the equasion. I've seen Fish use Screwdriver on a Taru and insta kill before a war could get a provoke off, lets face it people, even at lvl 30+ your not going to get in an OMGuber group everytime, your going to get into groups where people don't have twitch reaction skills and your going to take aggro and hits. Being elvaan has made my leveling days much easier in qufim, where not everyone provokes fast, and I take a few hits here and there. I also like to grab my Hammer and do some whacks too, sure 10 damage isn't a ton but I can add a Seraph to continue a Renkei for over 100 damage on Clippers if I'm at 120%TP only.

It comes down to more resting, slightly more downtime, less panic mode to protect the WHM and a fun playstyle that I enjoy.

[Icemage]

If you're willing to work at it, Elvaan WHM are "playable" but you really do have to settle for less XP because you can't chain for as long as with a Taru. Also, it's virtually impossible for a Elvaan to be the only healer in a group, where a Taru can (with enough skill) get away with it.

As for survivability - good lower level WHM use Barwatera, Shell, and Blink to minimize danger from Screwdriver. As for the HP, 70 hp is less than a Cure II, which costs all of 24MP. Smart Tarus make sure their HP stays out of the danger range.

But hey, if you like playing Elvaan WHM, go for it. As long as you're willing to work harder in the middle levels (15-40), there's nothing wrong with that. At the higher levels, it really doesn't matter much what race you are - enemies hit so hard that if you're a WHM, you're going to be hurting... a lot.

Don't take my word for it, though - you'll see for yourself when level 45 comes around and the monsters you fight start pulling out special attacks that hit for 600+ damage. That's painful even for a tank, much less a white mage.


Icemage