Fashion Plate

Sunlight! What a concept!

This is Aer in RSE and a motley assortment of level 50 gear. Note the "appreciative" Yagudo stalking her in the bushes...

The Way of the White (Mage)

I’ve been at this WHM thing for basically 6 months now and I’m up to 54 – almost all party XP because as we all know, WHMs can’t solo for crap past 15 or so. I’ve read a number of WHM guides and spent a lot of time on Halifirien’s blog, trying to learn how to be a good white mage. Lord knows invites during the week are few and far between…

First off, let me preface this whole rant with one thing: I take being a WHM very seriously. Keeping the party alive (or at least preventing a wipe in a bad situation) is my top priority. I am more than willing to die if it means everyone else remains standing. That’s really the whole point of Reraise, anyway. Everything I do is based on the notion of keeping the party alive, buffed and efficient. I do not mind at all if I get hit once or twice, especially if it gives the fighters time needed to set something up, reset ability timers, etc. Since I’m usually at full HP, I can take a few hits without real worry.

Basically, all the advice I’ve read, and my own experience, boils down to this: Use Regen when you can for max efficiency, then use the most efficient Cure-line spell needed for the job. After that it’s Haste, Bar-, and Erase during the fight. Then Curagas, Protect and Shell between fights and healing cycles. And finally, Reraise – ALWAYS Reraise.

This all seems pretty simple, right? Well, for example, Kuftal Tunnel in the Altepa Desert. Mobs there like the Robber Crabs are hitting for around 100 on normal hits and nearly double that on TP moves. Those crabs also spam an AoE (Bubble Shower) that depending on all sorts of factors, can hit the whole party for over 100 per.

If the tank is taking 100 per hit (ignoring super moves and criticals) then it’s only 2 hits to equal a Cure III (mine cap at 190). Since the mob is hitting twice in only a bit more time than it takes me to throw a C3, I could spend all day chasing one person’s HP. But I also have to maintain Haste/Regen cycles, the appropriate Bar- spells, and emergency cures for out-of-hand AoEs or super moves.

So of course in this situation, I like to use Cure IVs mixed in with Cure IIIs. YES, I KNOW ABOUT THE HATE. If the tank or tanks are doing their jobs on the hate-holding (via provokes, flash, heavy damage, skillchains, etc.) then the mob shouldn’t even sniff in my direction after a Cure IV. If it does come after me, it should only get in one or two hits before the tank or DDs aggravate it more than I did. And yes, I know once I’ve pulled the mob off the tank, I have a habit of just standing there like a doofus taking my lumps (unless the zone is nearby). I’m not about to run past other mobs and link-die, and I can’t cure anyone while I have the mob’s attention, see?

The above is similarly true with Curagas, especially when boosted by Divine Seal. I won’t usually throw these out (anymore) mid-fight because I KNOW I’m about to provoke. I try to hold these to the very end of the mob’s life or between fights.

OK, now that all of that has been established, my original impetus for writing this came for a party led by the excellent Drewman. Our paladin was NOT doing a good job of hate-holding, and everyone was taking hits. Our Taru BLM was going red with just two hits and we somehow were beset by pop-links more than once that wouldn’t sleep.

At some point after a few close calls as a result of having to spam Cure IVs, I got a talking-to. I don’t mind constructive advice, and I listened and presented my counter-arguments. What I didn’t do was rake the PLD over the coals for the crappy hate management. I was put into a situation where I had little choice but to use Curagas AND Cure IVs because multiple members were rapidly taking yellow and orange damage.

My very next party, which did not have a PLD, was much, much tighter on hate control. Yes, the fact that we were a level or so higher helped too, but it was obvious this crew knew how to run the show. Even though we pulled NONSTOP by using pop-links, I rarely had to call a warning for low MP or go into cure-bomb mode. I did use C4, but really didn’t need it – Regen II was enough.

And a final note – My melee-mage days may be coming to an end. Since hitting the fifties, I’ve been far too busy with the whole Haste/Regen/Bar-/Erase/Cure routine. I really could fight, at least in tight parties, but in the last two the Bard was doing the “one song for mages, then run to melees for a different song” routine meaning I had to stay away if I wanted Refreshing.

I really don’t want to give up meleeing but until I get into solid parties with hate management and a RDM for targetable Refresh, I’ll prolly have to wait. Then there’s the fact I want people to understand just how serious I am about doing my job.

I STILL maintain that either meleeing or standing front-line is better than staying back-line. I believe that if I do provoke off the tank that by being right there, the DD output doesn’t wait for the mob to hit me then return. Also, the vokers tend not to freak out if the mob never goes anywhere. And I still like being an emergency meatshield, to take the heat off of someone else for a bit.

I do have to watch for something though – I got Staff up to 70 and unlocked Earth Crusher – Fantastic damage at 300TP but it’s an AoE weaponskill! Oops!

Things I Wish Someone Told Me Earlier

Here is a partial list of things I had to learn the hard way...

Almost EVERYTHING is controlled by a level of one sort or another. Most equipment and magic can be used at or after certain levels. If your char has a skill (sword, elemental magic, leathercraft) these skills are controlled by their own levels separate from your "job" level. Skill levels only skill up in appropriate circumstances.

Many equipment pieces are further limited by job, race and gender.

DO NOT leave town without Signet. Also, make sure your Empress Band has enough charges.

Macros will make your life so much easier. So will keyboard shortcuts, especially:
Ctrl-T = Tell
Ctrl-R = Reply (to last person to Tell you something - press again for next person)
Ctrl-L = Linkshell
Ctrl-P = Party tell
(look into the others like A-attack, I-item, E-equip, M-magic, J-job skill, W-weaponskill)

If you're a mage, really think about "fighting" and "resting" gear sets - the fighting set should enhance the appropriate attributes (e.g. Int for BLMs, Mnd for WHM) and the resting set should maximize MP recovered while healing (MPR).

When in a party, you can pull up the map screen and see markers for party members on that map - but you have to scroll left and right through the marker categories!

There's probably more - for next time!

Paladin Pals and Ranking Up

Today was a busy day! I flagged up on WHM and soon got an invite out to the Crawler's Nest. Turns out this was a very multi-lingual party: 2 English, 2 Japanese and 2 Spanish.

After the disaster that was yesterday's group today would have been great if I could just do my job. As it turns out, today would be one of my best parties ever. I was the lowest level, arriving at 47 among a 49-51 spread. Honestly, with both their pally and RDM raise-capable I wasn't sure why they invited me at that level, or tolerated my getting lost on the way to the lower area of the nest (note to self, get the damned map!)

But they did, and we rocked hard. As usual, the PLD, (Milkey in this party), kept hate and didn't take excessive damage. Cure IV was getting an occasional use but C3 was more than enough during the nearly three-hour run. The RDM, Greeneyesj, spammed Refresh and I really didn't need to worry about MP. We chained a lot, and they absolutely had the skillchain thing down, dropping 2 chains almost every pull. I threw in for some magic burst action but wasn't getting any damage.

I managed to ding twice, to 49 and get a solid buffer. Just before I was going to attempt auto-translating a plea to leave, one of the others cut out and we disbanded. Now that I'm so close to 50 and LB1 I hope I don't have a problem finding parties. WHM's can't solo!

. . .

I logged back in around 9:30 planning on hitting a few T-T runs when Fhox insisted he help me get Rank 4. I already had the Mission flagged and the prelim work done and he said he'd be there in 30 or so. /wait 4500 later and we start. Mission 3-3 is a long slog up to the tenth floor of Delkfutt's Tower to fight a gigas called Pophyrion. Fhox and I duoed to the top and creamed Po and his buddies. I might have even been able to solo it but after getting mauled by puny Korolloka Leeches I wasn't brave enough. Oh well. Now I have Rank 4 and a Delkfutt Key which is a timesaver in some future quests.

I also snagged a Tenshodo Invite off the AH for 1,100 gil when the median was like 8k. I passed on Fhox's offer of a Tenshodo Tour because I had a committee meeting and vendor presentation. I didn't log out until 1:15 and I expect I'll be feeling this one later!

Black and Blue

Last night I set about getting rid of some of the junk I had collected recently, including a stack of Beehive Chips, a Scroll of Gravity and the Rolanberry pies. By the end of the night I had sold one set of Test Answers from Windy’s AH and had Jeuno’s returned. I guess I need to go back to Windy for that item. The Beehive Chips also sold.

After no encouragement on the T-T front, I switched to BLM again and flagged up. Not too long later, Azilia requested my presence in Qufim Island. We waited at the entrance to the Qufim tunnel for the others and I gave synthing and desynthing a shot. I was able to make and remake the three capes I had on hand a few times and eventually lost out when the Lightning Crystal broke and took the last cape with it. I did get a .1 skillup though :/

We started off with only 5 members and no WHM. We had a RDM and another BLM besides me, so we agreed RDM should main-heal and the BLM’s (both with Cure II) could back up. We met at the tower and got to business around 10:15.

There’s not much to say other than this was a good crew getting lousy XP. Even WITH my EB, I was pulling in less than 100 on most kills. We tried snips, pugs, a gob, and some giants. It really was hit-or-miss and this was with a very level-tight group!

We also added a sixth, Hemdall, a Taru SMN. He would later DC only to return a little later.

We had two close calls wherein links tried to wipe us but we pulled through unscathed, and then Arot was later one-shotted by a Pug’s Screwdriver attack and died. He died again not long later when he managed to pull a pug link. That time he had a reraise effect up.

I’m beginning to think the time to jump to Kazham is closer to 23 rather than 25-26. I mentioned it but no one else seemed to want to leave the island. I really remember a lot more IT mobs the last time I leveled here. Maybe Square adjusted the difficulty a bit?

It was just after midnight when we agreed to disband, and then I DCed. By the time I got back on, Azilia was already off and only Arot was still in the zone. He was warping out by the time I found him, so…

I still need like 2k XP from 4,350 to ding 25 and make the switch back to WHM for the long haul to 50.