Dimensional Death

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn => Guide Book => Topic started by: Celedh Knight on September 04, 2013, 01:21:35 AM

Title: White Mage / Conjurer Overview
Post by: Celedh Knight on September 04, 2013, 01:21:35 AM
This is less a guide than my experience as a Conjurer/White Mage up to now in the game, plus a bit of information on the various skills you have at your disposition.

You Are A Healer

This sounds pretty obvious, but you are the life of the party, quite literally. You go down, the party goes down 90% of the time. The 10% left, is when you go down with the boss almost dead, then maybe 1-2 will survive. Don't count on it.

Wether you are in a party for a dungeon, guildhest, or FATE, your priority is always to keep your party members healed up. Your biggest threat is your MP management, as long as you have a good tank for Enmity control at least.

Help your Party Members

Your priority is healing the tank of course, but you cannot ignore the other party members. But you need to be able to judge of the situation at hand. If its just a single smack every 5 minutes, natural HP regeneration might be enough to compensate. You won't know this right away though, not the first time you run a dungeon at least. You need to memorize the patterns of monsters, which one have AOE damage and which one was just a smack because the tank hadn't gotten Enmity yet.

Analyze the Situation

If your party members are barely getting hit, don't stay idle. Toss Aero on the monster they are attacking. Its not alot of damage, but it still speed things up slightly. If it still looks like you have more item, toss Stone (Heavy effect) or Stone II for damage.

But remember, your healing is priority, if your tank has a sudden drop in HP, remember that you can interrupt yourself by moving. This immediately allows you to cast a new spell, This doesn't seem like an important point, but basically if you are caught in the middle of a long spell, like Raise, you can take a step and cast Cure right away. FFXI players will note the difference, in which you had to wait until the spell would normally be done casting, even if you moved.

Your Healing Abilities

Cure
Simple and to the point, your lowest single target healing spell.

Medica
An AOE heal centered on yourself. Its less potent than Cure, but covering the party is good. Use this if most of your party is getting hurt, for example some of those AOE poison monsters. Judge of the situation that a party-wide heal is necessary.

Cure II
An upgrade, it eats more MP but about 50% more HP restored. Usually, you keep this if your tank seems to be taking more damage than your first Cure can handle per cast. If your tank is steadily getting lower and lower HP despite a constant rain of MP, go for a Cure II.

Freecure
This is an upgrade to your arsenal, but it only happens 10% of the time, which is the downfall. In the next 15 seconds, the next Cure II will be for 0 MP. This is a good skill to use with the method explained in Cure II. Generally speaking, only use Cure, and if you get a Freecure, use Cure II since it will be free.

Tossing a Cure on the other party members can also trigger it so you can give a bigger Cure II on the tank. But obviously, 10% on each Cure is not a HUGE chance of happening, and you should not be counting on it either. Keep managing the HP depending on the situation.

Cure III
Cure III is less potent than Cure II, but its centered on the target. Thus a good thing to cast on the tank from a distance to heal most of the closed-ranged members, while you stay out of reach. Its more potent than Medica, but also costs alot of MP, so use it sparingly.

OverCure
This has a 15% chance of triggering on any Cure II. The effect is that your next Cure III within 15s will be Critical, which means a huge boost of HP there. Downfall is, the chance of trigger doesn't make it all that useful. It probably won't be up when you would need it on the entire party, and since its less potent than Cure II you shouldn't be casting it on the tank just for the fun of it either.

Esuna
Removes a debuff from a party member. The MP cost is more than a Cure, so you should judge if its really necessary, like long lasting poisons. Bosses that uses lots of poison is probably not useful to use too much, but bosses that can 'stack' several poisons (the poison icon has a number on like, like 4) can be cleared with a single Esuna.

Repose
Your sleep spell. It lasts about 20s, which doesn't seem much, but that's 20s that a monster is not attacking your tank, thus less damage for you to heal. With a GLA/PLD tank, this is very useful as they will keep Flashing it even when slept. For MRD/WAR tank, its a bit harder because Overpower would wake them up if too close. But if you can manage to sleep one far enough, it will help. And in that 20s, normally your party has enough time to kill one monster from the pull. Sometimes going ahead and doing the pull yourself by sleeping one of the monsters is also useful.

Stoneskin
This is not as useful as you might think, but still has some usefulness. Its good as a prebuff, as your MP will regenerate as fast as you cast it when not in a fight. Its 10% of the target's HP (18% at level 36 due to Graniteskin trait), so its more useful of tanks obviously, but casting it on everyone is still 1-2 hits less damage. It won't last long on the tank, but gives you enough time to get in position before the tank starts hurting at least. Its not useful to recast during a fight most of the time, unless you have a bit of downtime.

Regen
Your best friend. Seriously. Once you learn this, its amazing. It costs a bit more than a Cure, but it restores more overall, as it lasts 21s. Its also InstantCast, so you can use it even while you're running away or kiting monsters. This is the kind of spell you can toss on the tank to reduce some of your healing strain, and on the melees if they get hit by a stray shot or AoE. As long as the boss doesn't spam AoE, Regen will probably be enough to heal them up fully.

Medica II
Half the potency of Medica, but it adds a Regen effect to everyone in range of you as a bonus... althouh its 2/3 of the potency and duration of the Regen spell, and costs almost as much MP as a Cure III, so its a situationnal tool in my book. Probably has its uses in some tough fights.

Benediction
A once every 5 minute spell that fills up the target's HP entirely. So a last ditch move, but a major one here.

Shroud of Saint
This is a tool you have to help with your MP recovery. It puts a Refresh effect and a reduced Enmity effect on you. It lasts for 15s and takes 2min on cooldown, but if used midfight you will appreciate the MP you regain, especially on drawn out fights. Don't wait until your MP is entirely gone, use it at 50-75% MP, and it might be usable again before the end of the fight if it goes on that long. You get a trait a bit later that increases the MP you regain too.

Presence of Mind
Increases your spell casting speed. But not your recast time. Aka, you still have the global cooldown. But this is useful to combine with long casting spells like Raise. Or if you are in a situation where that 2-3 seconds of casting might cost the life of your tank.

Your Offensive Arsenal

You might be a healer, but you do have a few tools for damage. Its good for FATE and soloing, but you want to avoid that in parties in most situations.

Aero
Low damage spell, but its instant and has good range. Its a good claiming ability, or a pulling one in certain cases. It puts a DOT on the target too.

Aero II
Slower cast, but a more potent DOT, although it also doesn't last as long. Still, extra damage that stacks with Aero.

Stone
Standard attack spell, it also slows down the monster with Gravity, so a good pulling tool, gives you a few seconds before the monster hits you.

Stone II
Stronger attack, costs a little more MP, but has no debuff. Since its the same cast time, its your main offensive tool for pure damage.

Fluid Aura
This deals decent damage, but the main use of it is the KnockBack effect, plus 5 seconds bind. But the bind is removed on any damage, and Stone's heavy effect also won't work while bound, but still gives a few seconds to breathe. You should cast Aero and THEN Fluid Aura for maximum effect, so it gets the DOT effect while bound. Can also follow with Repose for more resting time.

Cleric Stance
This ability turns you into a battlemage at the cost of your healing ability. Which doesn't mean you cannot cure, its still enough to cure yourself, but you shouldn't be using this in a party. It essentially swaps your MND with your INT, and increases your spell power by 20% (but reduces healing by 20%). INT is what affects the damage of your Aero/Stone spells, so you become a very effective attacking mage while in this stance.

Holy
Costs ALOT of MP compared to Stone/Aero, but its gives an AOE attack centered on yourself, and stuns nearby enemies. Its a pretty strong attack too. More for solo or FATEs.