WHM Suggestions (Allakhazam FFXI)

September 14th, 2007

Maybe some of this will be useful to suppliment into an existing WHM guide. I wrote it out for another forum asking for WHM tips figured I'd post it here as well.
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Here are some guidelines I follow when I’m in a group.

*General
-You set the pace. Ego aside without a whm most groups can’t survive in the areas they want to get exp in. If they are too focused on getting exp chains rather than keeping everyone alive tell them to slow down. If they ignore you tell them you intend to leave if they don’t or just leave the group. It sounds harsh but you can normally find another group easily. They may not find another whm easily. Most players understand this and will accommodate you. A more subtle way to get your point across is to neglect healing the puller until you are ready. Being at half hp or so will make a lot of pullers think twice before they go chasing after the next enemy. Be careful doing this as you are gambling their intelligence against their lust for exp. Like all bets you can be wrong.
-Give notice. If you are the only healer and know the group can’t survive without you try your best not to leave suddenly. Let them know ahead of time when you have to leave. Try to give them a window of time to find a replacement for you. “I have to go in 30min. If you find another whm before then I’ll leave to make room for them. If you can’t replace me before then I’m sorry but I’ll have to leave.” Things like that will give you a better reputation. If a whm leaves out of the blue and the group has to disband you may have 5 people who could hold a grudge against an unreliable whm.
-Give tips. If you think you can offer someone a suggestion to help them and / or the party operate better tell them when you get a chance. Do not tell someone how to do their job as many people get defensive when you do so. Offer suggestions do not make orders. Worst case scenario when dealing with a stubborn player is you leave the group. Better to help someone become a good player than to hope the next player you run across already IS a good player.
-Tag team. Working with another whm can make a decent group an awesome group. Two even slightly coordinated whm can offer a group constant battles with no down time at all. Divide out enhancement and enfeeblement duty. Try not to over lap heals. If possible one mage should rest while the other heals then when the one resting reaches full they swap. Also allows both to use lower more efficient heals because they can land then 2 at a time getting a tank out of immediate threat without the bigger more expensive cure.
-Positioning is key. Try to stand far enough away from an enemy to avoid it’s area effect spell. Only reason to move in towards the fight is to cast your own area effect spell and that should be rare. Suggest any other mages do the same if they don’t seem to know this already. If they aren’t in melee with the target no reason to get hit by those nasty effects. If the enemy has no area effects still stand back far enough that it’s obvious when the monster turns to attack you. If you are standing next to the tank they may not realize they have to provoke it off of you as quickly.

*Efficiency
-Never cast a cure spell that won’t heal up to your max. Don’t do Cure 1 if they are only down 20 hp and so on. The only acceptation is when you are stopping to rest up anyway.
-When time permits use your most efficient MP/HP ratio Cure spell. If you are in a dangerous situation sacrifice efficiency to maintain safe HP levels. Use a more wasteful mp cure spell if more efficient one will not get the target out of immediate threat of a quick death. If the enemy can hit for 90 and the target only has 50 don’t try to wait and cast two cures for 30 hoping it doesn’t hit them again right away. Break down and use the bigger cure.

*Divine Seal
-Low on mp and the tank needs a big heal you just can’t afford? Don’t forget about divine seal job ability. It may be enough to let you finish the fight or give you long enough to rest up enough mp to cast cure again before he is in too much danger.
-Everyone is beat up and a Curaga isn’t enough to max everyone out? Use divine seal first then do Curaga. Best to only do this after a fight. During a fight it’s about the equivalent of using benediction and the enemy will be very angry.
-Need a big nuke to finish off that undead? Use divine seal then hit it with the biggest Cure you can afford to cast. Look mom, I can nuke!

*Benediction
-Use only when you don’t believe you can (or have no mp to) cure people fast enough to prevent them from dieing. Consider it to be for emergency use only.
-Also assume that your party will NOT be able to provoke the enemy off of you once you use it. They may but don’t count on it. If you do not believe that the fight will be won before the enemy can kill you I would suggest you don’t use it.
-Before you decide to sacrifice yourself for the team decide who is more important. All selflessness or selfishness aside the party composition can make this choice for you. Can you continue fighting without the person, persons who are about to die? Can the party continue fighting without you? If there is another WHM and you die the group could keep fighting while you come back or rest if you are raised. If there isn’t then you just saved someone/everyone but now they have to sit and wait for you to come back/get raised. Would it have been better to let someone die so the remainder of the team and you can continue fighting while that person comes back / waits for a raise? These questions become even more murky once you yourself have raise.
-It’s a powerful and dangerous 2 hour ability. Nobody has the right to tell you when or how to use it.

*Enfeeblement
-First off if you are the main healer try to get someone else to do enfeeblements instead of you. If not all of them try to get them to split up duty with you. Figure out ahead of time who will cast what so you don’t both do the same spells.
-Dia, can the party do decent damage to the target and kill it quickly without Dia? If so don’t bother. If the fights go long or the creature has a high defense then use it.
-Paralyze, if you have the mp to spare I use this one frequently. If it never seems to stick then don’t bother. I typically only try once per target. If it resists I don’t try again.
-Slow, if it’s not going to be a long fight I normally don’t bother. Even if it is a long fight I normally don’t try to get this to stick more than once.
-Silence, does the enemy use area effect damage spells, can it silence, does it just cast really mean stuff? If so use silence. This is one that I will try more than once to get to stick unless the enemy dies very fast. The mp to cast silence even twice is better than having to use a Curega or something in the middle of a fight because the whole party got nailed by a Stonega or something. Not to mention the agro you get using a party heal.

*Enhancements
-Know when to cast protective spells. Doing a long casting time enhancement in the middle of a nasty fight is often counterproductive.
-Use the party spells when possible. Make sure everyone gathers around you so you can hit them all with one casting of a given spell.
-Determine the effect of an enemies attacks before you cast status effect defenses or elemental defenses. Will the effect be more damaging than the extra Cure spell you could cast if you saved your mana? If so cast your bar___ spell. If the enemy dies too quickly or just can’t really hurt you anyway then don’t bother.
-Self enhancements. Are the tanks doing a good job making sure you aren’t attacked? If so maybe you don’t need to use spells like Aquaveil or Blink. If they aren’t on the other hand cast these on yourself and make them wait if you need the extra mp to do so. Lookout for yourself first. If you die then nobody is left to look out for the others.

*Macros
-It’s not what you do it’s how good you are at doing it. All the tactics and knowledge of how to do your job means squat if you can’t pull it off effectively in combat. Navigating menus or miss targeting can easily mean death to your party. Proper use of macros and targeting methods are key to quick and precise execution of your job. To those new to MMORPGs this can be a real eye opener. Unlike turn based RPGs tactics alone won’t cut it. You must have good reflexes and a stream lined interface. Ideally you should be ready to execute the next spell command before the re-use timer on it or even the casting animation is done and you are able to. Quick execution can be even more important than quick thinking. Knowing what to do does you no good if you can’t get it done before it’s too late.

Already writing a novel here so I won’t go into my macro preferences. Just look around here for tons of good tips. Not sure if it was answered but /as I’m pretty sure is short fior /assist. This will target whatever the thing you have selected is targeting. Use it on a monster to find out who it is beating on. Use it on a party member to find out what they are beating on.

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