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To eliminate confusion over White mage and prevent multiple posts on the same question, I'm going to write a "short" FAQ on playing this class since the FAQ they have at GameFAQs is frankly unsatisfactory. All views expressed here are by NO means authoritative and complete. Questions which are frequently a source of rabid debate have been skimmed over, the purpose is to provide FACTS only. You have been forewarned.
Please feel free to add reasonable questions that you think are "frequently asked" and should be addressed. Opinions, corrections and criticism are most welcome.
General Questions:
-How do I raise "so and so" skill?
-What is the best sub for WHM?
-How important is +MND?
-Staff or Club?
-What food should I eat?
About Spells:
-Where do I find this spell?
-Raise spells (footnote on Divine Seal)
-Shell and BarElement spells.
-Statusna spells
-Barstatusra spells
-Sneak, Invisible (a.k.a. MGS "Metal Gear Solid" spells)
How do I raise "so and so" skill?
*= This skill must be raised on monsters of the appropriate level for your skill range. Monsters that are too weak will not do.
*Divine magic is raised from using the following spells on monsters: Banish-line spells, Holy, Flash.
Healing magic is raised by casting the following spells: Cure spells, "na" status spells, Raise spells, Reraise spells. Casting Cure spells on undead enemies seems to use the same calculation for skill as Divine or Elemental magic. As a consequence, it will rise quickly on monsters (of the appropriate level).
Enhancing magic is raised by casting the following spells: Protect and Shell-related spells, Bar spells, Regen spells, Metal Gear Solid spells (sneak, invis, deodorize), Teleport spells.
Any RDM or BLM spells which are "enhancing" magic will also raise this skill if they are cast using a support job. These spells include: "En" spells, "Spike" spells, Escape and Warp.
*Enfeebling magic is raised by casting the following spells on a monster and not having them resisted: Dia, Slow, Paralyze, Silence. Subbable spells: Gravity, Blind, Slow, Poison, Bind, Sleep.
*Weapon skill is raised by hitting monsters. Dealing 0 damage will still raise this skill, although missing will not.
*Evasion is raised when monsters attempt to hit you.
*Shield skill is raised when monsters hit you from the front while you have a shield equipped.
It is unfortunately not possible to raise skill that your main job does not inherently possess. Hence, you can not raise Parry, you can not raise Elemental Magic by casting black magic as long as white mage is your main job, but it IS possible to raise your enhancing magic skills by casting black magic enhancing spells (e.g. Warp and Spikes spells).
What is the "best" sub for white mage?
General consensus indicates that the most popular sub jobs for white mage are Black mage and Summoner. Whether they are the "best" or not is beyond the scope of this FAQ.
How important is +MND?
The general rule is that 2 points of a stat = 1 point of the skills it influences. Mind is more important at lower levels as it helps substitute for low healing skill, making your cure spells heal more efficiently. At higher levels, you get diminishing returns from +mind gear. Mind also affects your white magic enfeebling spells (Slow, Paralyze, Dia and Silence), substituting at the rate of 2 mind = 1 point of enfeebling skill.
Staff or Club?
This generally is a matter of preference and is not very significant as white mage does not play a major role in damage dealing. Club is more popular, due to the availability of several strong SP skills. (Staff is also unable to complete level 3 Skillchains until Retribution is learnt) Try both for versatility or equip whichever has the more helpful statistics.
What food should I eat?
The best performance for value food for white mages is generally held to be Roast Mushroom.
(2x sleepshroom, 1 rock salt, fire crystal, Cooking skill 12-16. Mp+10, STR-1, MND+3, RestingMP +2, lasts 30 minutes)
The Various pies give large max MP bonus and +int
Chocolate increases the mp you recover when resting.
If you complete the quest "The opo-opo and I" and equip the item you get as a reward, Pamama is cheaply bought and will give you +1MND, +14CHR and +50 hp and mp.
Juices do not stack with refresh. When using them, it is best to synthesize them as needed as they do not stack in your inventory. The most space-efficient and money efficient juices are Pineapple Juice and Melon Juice.
Where do I find this spell?
Almost all spells can be bought from the Auction House, or from Magic shops in the three kingdoms, Selbina, Rabao or Lower Jeuno (Magic shop or Goblin shop). The following spells may pose a problem:
-Sneak/Invis/Deodorize: Dropped by various white magic using beastmen.
-Erase: Obtained as a random reward from various BCNMs(all BCNM40, a few others)
-Raise 2: Obtained as a drop from Yagudo High Priests, Coral Sahagins and from high level Beastmen-seal BCNMs (Comet orb and Moon orb).
-Reraise 2: Obtained from Hellish Weapons in Fei Yin.
-Teleport spells: From San'Dorian Priests upon the completion of various long and annoying Quests.
-Raise 3: Dropped by Za'Dha Adamantking, Kirin and from the Lachesis orb BCNM at Qu'Bia Arena.
-Banish (3,4,5), Banishga (3,4). Holy 2, Dia (3,4,5): These spells are in the game code (type /ma "Holy II" <t> to see), but there is as of yet no way to obtain them. This does not prevent monsters (and a certain annoying old man) from happily using them on you.
Raise spells
These three spells differ mainly in the amount of experience that is restored. Raise 1 restores 25% of lost experience, 2 restores 75% and Raise 3 restores 90%. Raise 3 also revives a character with half life in his weakened state. Raise 2 and 3 do not restore more than 25% exp for characters who are level 50 and below.
Contrary to a popular rumor, Divine Seal does NOT do a single thing for Raise, nor the time spent in a weakened state. Using Divine Seal and then casting Raise results in you wasting a 10 minute ability.
Shell spells and BarElement spells
Some confusion exists to whether these spells have a significant effect or are merely mp sinks.
Shell works by cutting damage received from ALL elemental sources (by a set percentage?). This percentage is small and hard to observe when taking small amounts of damage from a low level shell spell, however the difference becomes more pronounced when taking larger amounts of damage.
Bar element spells increase your resistance to an elemental attack (this includes many special attacks from monsters). This increases the chance that people will RESIST the attack and take very significantly less damage. There are many levels of resistance. However, some testing I have done seems to indicate that resist chances are still low without the presence of Shellra. This testing is not conclusive.
Common monster attacks which can NOT be barspelled:
Cursed Sphere - this is not an air element attack. It is darkness.
Jet Stream - this is a multihit attack and is physical, not elemental.
Statusna spells
All are necessary. If required to choose between the three expensive ones, Stona>Viruna>Cursna.
Certain attacks of enemies do not show if they give a status ailment in the chat log! Beware of such attacks, which include:
Bad Breath (Molbols: Slow,Gravity,Bind,Poison,Blind,Paralyze,Silence)
Black Cloud (Skeletons: Blind)
Brain Crusher (Lizards: Silence)
Foul Breath (Raptors: Diseased)
Spike Ball, Acid Spray, Leaf Dagger, Poison pick, Poison Breath etcetra... (Antican, Spider, Mandragora, Cockatrice, Crawler, Flies: Poison. CAUTION: Spider poison is 15 times as powerful.)
Light of Penance (Tonberries: Bind, Blind)
Sleep may be cured by casting any Cure spell on the sleeping character. Curaga can wake up groups.
Slow may be countered with Haste or Erase. For Spiders' Spider Web attacks, Haste will not work and Erase is your only option (as you can not use Leviathan's Spring Water as a sub).
Erase will remove only ONE of the following status ailments if more than one is present:
Slow, Bio, Dia, Gravity, Bind, Elemental debuffs(rasp, choke etc), STAT-Down, Parameter(attack, accuracy, defense)-down.
It will NOT work on "you are currently in a weakened state" (after Raise).
Barstatusra spells
These spells are generally held to be as useful as the "Resist" job traits. (Read: not at all)
Sneak, Invisible:
These spells do not overwrite. Invisible is cancelled by performing almost any action but can easily be recast on yourself. Make sure your party is familiar with knowing how to cancel these spells before you recast them. The message "so and so's <spell> expires" will only be displayed to the caster of the spell, and usually too late, so it is important that your party members tell you when this spell starts to expire. The common terminology (among Japanese players) is "@s" for "Sneak is going", "@i" for "Invisible is going".
To cancel a spell effect: Hit the + key twice, highlight the right icon and press enter.
Some general rules:
Invis: Beastmen (except Quadav), Bees, Tigers, Beetles.
Sneak: Quadav, Almost everything else.
Invis + Sneak + Don't cast magic near them!: Ahriman + Bombs
Low life: All undead
Don't cast magic!: All Arcana.
Run away! (sneak, invis don't work): Active HNMs, (Guivre, Bune, Fafnir), NM beastmen in beastmen strongholds.
Please feel free to add reasonable questions that you think are "frequently asked" and should be addressed. Opinions, corrections and criticism are most welcome.
General Questions:
-How do I raise "so and so" skill?
-What is the best sub for WHM?
-How important is +MND?
-Staff or Club?
-What food should I eat?
About Spells:
-Where do I find this spell?
-Raise spells (footnote on Divine Seal)
-Shell and BarElement spells.
-Statusna spells
-Barstatusra spells
-Sneak, Invisible (a.k.a. MGS "Metal Gear Solid" spells)
How do I raise "so and so" skill?
*= This skill must be raised on monsters of the appropriate level for your skill range. Monsters that are too weak will not do.
*Divine magic is raised from using the following spells on monsters: Banish-line spells, Holy, Flash.
Healing magic is raised by casting the following spells: Cure spells, "na" status spells, Raise spells, Reraise spells. Casting Cure spells on undead enemies seems to use the same calculation for skill as Divine or Elemental magic. As a consequence, it will rise quickly on monsters (of the appropriate level).
Enhancing magic is raised by casting the following spells: Protect and Shell-related spells, Bar spells, Regen spells, Metal Gear Solid spells (sneak, invis, deodorize), Teleport spells.
Any RDM or BLM spells which are "enhancing" magic will also raise this skill if they are cast using a support job. These spells include: "En" spells, "Spike" spells, Escape and Warp.
*Enfeebling magic is raised by casting the following spells on a monster and not having them resisted: Dia, Slow, Paralyze, Silence. Subbable spells: Gravity, Blind, Slow, Poison, Bind, Sleep.
*Weapon skill is raised by hitting monsters. Dealing 0 damage will still raise this skill, although missing will not.
*Evasion is raised when monsters attempt to hit you.
*Shield skill is raised when monsters hit you from the front while you have a shield equipped.
It is unfortunately not possible to raise skill that your main job does not inherently possess. Hence, you can not raise Parry, you can not raise Elemental Magic by casting black magic as long as white mage is your main job, but it IS possible to raise your enhancing magic skills by casting black magic enhancing spells (e.g. Warp and Spikes spells).
What is the "best" sub for white mage?
General consensus indicates that the most popular sub jobs for white mage are Black mage and Summoner. Whether they are the "best" or not is beyond the scope of this FAQ.
How important is +MND?
The general rule is that 2 points of a stat = 1 point of the skills it influences. Mind is more important at lower levels as it helps substitute for low healing skill, making your cure spells heal more efficiently. At higher levels, you get diminishing returns from +mind gear. Mind also affects your white magic enfeebling spells (Slow, Paralyze, Dia and Silence), substituting at the rate of 2 mind = 1 point of enfeebling skill.
Staff or Club?
This generally is a matter of preference and is not very significant as white mage does not play a major role in damage dealing. Club is more popular, due to the availability of several strong SP skills. (Staff is also unable to complete level 3 Skillchains until Retribution is learnt) Try both for versatility or equip whichever has the more helpful statistics.
What food should I eat?
The best performance for value food for white mages is generally held to be Roast Mushroom.
(2x sleepshroom, 1 rock salt, fire crystal, Cooking skill 12-16. Mp+10, STR-1, MND+3, RestingMP +2, lasts 30 minutes)
The Various pies give large max MP bonus and +int
Chocolate increases the mp you recover when resting.
If you complete the quest "The opo-opo and I" and equip the item you get as a reward, Pamama is cheaply bought and will give you +1MND, +14CHR and +50 hp and mp.
Juices do not stack with refresh. When using them, it is best to synthesize them as needed as they do not stack in your inventory. The most space-efficient and money efficient juices are Pineapple Juice and Melon Juice.
Where do I find this spell?
Almost all spells can be bought from the Auction House, or from Magic shops in the three kingdoms, Selbina, Rabao or Lower Jeuno (Magic shop or Goblin shop). The following spells may pose a problem:
-Sneak/Invis/Deodorize: Dropped by various white magic using beastmen.
-Erase: Obtained as a random reward from various BCNMs(all BCNM40, a few others)
-Raise 2: Obtained as a drop from Yagudo High Priests, Coral Sahagins and from high level Beastmen-seal BCNMs (Comet orb and Moon orb).
-Reraise 2: Obtained from Hellish Weapons in Fei Yin.
-Teleport spells: From San'Dorian Priests upon the completion of various long and annoying Quests.
-Raise 3: Dropped by Za'Dha Adamantking, Kirin and from the Lachesis orb BCNM at Qu'Bia Arena.
-Banish (3,4,5), Banishga (3,4). Holy 2, Dia (3,4,5): These spells are in the game code (type /ma "Holy II" <t> to see), but there is as of yet no way to obtain them. This does not prevent monsters (and a certain annoying old man) from happily using them on you.
Raise spells
These three spells differ mainly in the amount of experience that is restored. Raise 1 restores 25% of lost experience, 2 restores 75% and Raise 3 restores 90%. Raise 3 also revives a character with half life in his weakened state. Raise 2 and 3 do not restore more than 25% exp for characters who are level 50 and below.
Contrary to a popular rumor, Divine Seal does NOT do a single thing for Raise, nor the time spent in a weakened state. Using Divine Seal and then casting Raise results in you wasting a 10 minute ability.
Shell spells and BarElement spells
Some confusion exists to whether these spells have a significant effect or are merely mp sinks.
Shell works by cutting damage received from ALL elemental sources (by a set percentage?). This percentage is small and hard to observe when taking small amounts of damage from a low level shell spell, however the difference becomes more pronounced when taking larger amounts of damage.
Bar element spells increase your resistance to an elemental attack (this includes many special attacks from monsters). This increases the chance that people will RESIST the attack and take very significantly less damage. There are many levels of resistance. However, some testing I have done seems to indicate that resist chances are still low without the presence of Shellra. This testing is not conclusive.
Common monster attacks which can NOT be barspelled:
Cursed Sphere - this is not an air element attack. It is darkness.
Jet Stream - this is a multihit attack and is physical, not elemental.
Statusna spells
All are necessary. If required to choose between the three expensive ones, Stona>Viruna>Cursna.
Certain attacks of enemies do not show if they give a status ailment in the chat log! Beware of such attacks, which include:
Bad Breath (Molbols: Slow,Gravity,Bind,Poison,Blind,Paralyze,Silence)
Black Cloud (Skeletons: Blind)
Brain Crusher (Lizards: Silence)
Foul Breath (Raptors: Diseased)
Spike Ball, Acid Spray, Leaf Dagger, Poison pick, Poison Breath etcetra... (Antican, Spider, Mandragora, Cockatrice, Crawler, Flies: Poison. CAUTION: Spider poison is 15 times as powerful.)
Light of Penance (Tonberries: Bind, Blind)
Sleep may be cured by casting any Cure spell on the sleeping character. Curaga can wake up groups.
Slow may be countered with Haste or Erase. For Spiders' Spider Web attacks, Haste will not work and Erase is your only option (as you can not use Leviathan's Spring Water as a sub).
Erase will remove only ONE of the following status ailments if more than one is present:
Slow, Bio, Dia, Gravity, Bind, Elemental debuffs(rasp, choke etc), STAT-Down, Parameter(attack, accuracy, defense)-down.
It will NOT work on "you are currently in a weakened state" (after Raise).
Barstatusra spells
These spells are generally held to be as useful as the "Resist" job traits. (Read: not at all)
Sneak, Invisible:
These spells do not overwrite. Invisible is cancelled by performing almost any action but can easily be recast on yourself. Make sure your party is familiar with knowing how to cancel these spells before you recast them. The message "so and so's <spell> expires" will only be displayed to the caster of the spell, and usually too late, so it is important that your party members tell you when this spell starts to expire. The common terminology (among Japanese players) is "@s" for "Sneak is going", "@i" for "Invisible is going".
To cancel a spell effect: Hit the + key twice, highlight the right icon and press enter.
Some general rules:
Invis: Beastmen (except Quadav), Bees, Tigers, Beetles.
Sneak: Quadav, Almost everything else.
Invis + Sneak + Don't cast magic near them!: Ahriman + Bombs
Low life: All undead
Don't cast magic!: All Arcana.
Run away! (sneak, invis don't work): Active HNMs, (Guivre, Bune, Fafnir), NM beastmen in beastmen strongholds.
Combat Caster's Boomberang +1 | Master Caster's Bracelets
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