Final Fantasy XIFinal Fantasy News

I’m only a 15 wmg / 8 rmg so far but figured I’d share what I have picked up so far.

I NEED it or I’ll explode! (purchase priorities)
First priority is Cure spells. This is more important than weapons and armor as are most spells you can use in general. The only spells I would suggest holding off on early are the “bar___” line of spells. I’m sure they are useful later on but early they just aren’t worth the mana for how long they last and the fact that they will only help (not negate) 1 or maybe 2 abilities / spells from an enemy before they run out. I would also highly suggest you go club skill rather than staff. Many have stated this pointing out that you get better effects on clubs. The real benefit in my book is you can use a shield in your off hand with the club. The small defense boost may not be much but you have a chance to negate an attack by blocking it with your shield. A small chance to negate an attack is worth while when you are a more vulnerable class. Other useful spells early on are Dia (for pulling), Protect / Protectra, Paralyze, Paralyza and Poisona.

Gir, Defensive mode! (macros)
Take some time and set up some macros. They are well worth the time to learn if you don’t already use them. I’ll share some of what I am using combined with changes I’m meaning to make to them. Whenever possible use the auto translate feature in your macro. You can use it for spell / weapon skill / job ability names and also some common words and phrases. Almost all of mine are set up with the entire macro in auto-translate. Again it’s just worth the time to set it up the right way once. The first time you group up with someone who speaks no, or broken English, the time will be well spent.

First bank
CTRL+1
/ma “Cure” <me>
/p healing <me>
CTRL+2
/ma “Cure” <p1>
/p healing <p1>
CTRL+3
/ma “Cure” <p2>
/p healing <p2>
CTRL+4
/ma “Cure” <p3>
/p healing <p3>
CTRL+5
/ma “Cure” <p4>
/p healing <p4>
CTRL+6
/ma “Cure” <p5>
/p healing <p5>
CTRL+7
/ma “Cure” <t>
/s healing <t>
CTRL+8
(empty for Curega when I get it)
CTRL+9
/ja “Divine Seal”
CTRL+0
/ja “Benediction”

ALT+1
/c
ALT+2
/p <call1> Help I’m being attacked! <hpp> health!
ALT+3
/p preparing to use Weapon Skill Shining Strike “Lightning”
/p Skill chain Wind or Fire. Burst Lightning
/ws “Shining Strike” <t>
ALT+4
/p Need to rest. <mp> magic left.
ALT+5
/ma “Dia” <t>
/p Casting spell Dia on <t>.
ALT+6
/ma “Paralyze” <t>
/p Casting spell Paralyze on <t>.
ALT+7
/ma “Banish” <t>
/p Casting spell Banish on <t>.
ALT+8
/ma “Paralyza” <t>
/p Casting spell Paralyze on <t>.
ALT+9
/ma “Poisona” <t>
/p Casting spell Poisona on <t>.
ALT+0
/ma “Protectra” <me>
/p Fall back. Casting Spell Protectra.

I also have a second bay of CTRL+ hotkeys but they are an exact copy of the first bay substituting “Cure” with “Cure II”. 8, 9 & 10 remain the same. I may incorporate a cure spell into the “divine seal” macro but haven’t done so yet.

Now you know how, I’ll explain why. This allows me quickly fire off heals to anyone in the group without navigating menus. All you need to do is take mental note which group slot each party member is. Make sure you are on the ball and watch for people leaving the group. This may shift the remaining party members up a slot. That fighter you were healing in slot p5 could suddenly be in p4! On the plus side your macro will display an error and your party chat will say “healing <p5>” rather than the usual “healing playername.” The down side is this makes you look bad. A group doesn’t want a WMG who doesn’t seem to be paying attention.

Over all I find this method to be worth the trouble to learn as it saves time and doesn’t require tweaking every time you get in a new group. I chose the format of the keys on the healing bay to correspond with the F1-F6 keys that target yourself and your party members. If you previously used this method of targeting it should be easy to learn.

With the cast time on Cure even while under attack you should be able to cast between the swings of an enemy there by negating the chance they will interrupt you. Without macros you need to go thru the menu, select the target to receive the heal, wait for the enemy to swing then click the last accept button to fire off the heal. A lot of steps if your target is in dire need of some healing. With a macro you simply hit the corresponding macro to their party slot as soon as the enemy swings at you. This starts the spell and it should land before the monster gets to swing again. I use this method when soloing as well. Timing is a bit trickier as I try to wait until just after the enemy AND I swing to minimize damage drop off when casting.

You will also notice that you can use these macros while maintaining your current target. You can be watching the enemy’s life while healing your party since you don’t need to target them to heal. Also makes it easier to heal party members if you are also fighting. (something I don’t do much of in groups)

The other bay of macros is just frequently used spells and commands. Set them to whatever you like but I would suggest the “help me!” button (see ALT+2 ) and the “consider” button (see ALT+1).

I am having a bit of problems with the weapon skill macro. It doesn’t seem to like to do two separate chat lines to /p. Not sure what I’m doing wrong there.

I’m gona sing the doom song! (general combat tactics)
Before you leave to go hunting make sure your home point is set close by. After that get signet cast on you. I think as long as one person in the party has signet up you can still get crystals. I think (but haven’t confirmed) that the more people in your party with signet active the more crystals you will end up getting. Besides with signet up you are gaining conquest points and helping your nation to gain influence in a region. Next cast a protect spell on yourself, and team mates, if you can.

When out on the field consider ( /c command ) on everything before you engage. Enemies of the same type have a level range. Just because you beat up that last nasty doesn’t mean you will fare as well against another named the same. Better safe than sorry. From here on tactics are going to differ depending on if you are soloing or in a group. It’s two totally different play styles. If you can’t adapt to a different role when grouped then you are not going to be nearly as effective as other WMG.

Going it Alone (solo tactics)
Soloing I normally start off with Paralyze (or Dia if you don’t have that yet). I do this from max range after making sure the area is clear of enemies that are aggressive or social enemies that will help my target when I attack. If you have both of the above spells you should be able to get off Dia after Paralyze before the enemy gets up to you. The acceptation to this would be the worm enemies. (at least starting in San) It’s best to close to melee distance first because they prefer to bind and then use stone on you. Their stone spell is a lot more dangerous than their melee attack. As the enemy is closing start attacking to draw out your weapon. Also if you are rushing into combat start attacking before you get there. This works well on aggressive enemies as if you close first then hit attack they may get in 1 or 2 hits before you even begin swinging.

Save some mana for heals or banish if you have mana to burn. I normally don’t bother with banish personally. With good timing or the use of a macro you should be able to heal between the enemies swings. Try to pick enemies who don’t hit for much more than half of what you can heal yourself for. That way even if the enemy isn’t missing much you can still gain hit points while continuing to melee. With a little luck you are blocking an attack with your shield or the enemy is paralyzed a few times so you come out ahead.

Also don’t forget to use your weapon skill when it’s ready. Gage how long before you need to rest up to get mana back. If you are going to need to rest anyway (which lowers your TP) then you might as well use it on the enemy even if you don’t need it to win the fight. Another thing to remember for reducing down time is you don’t need to use all of your MP to heal to full HP then sit and rest to regain MP. I normally heal up to about 3/4 or so then sit and rest. Ideally you want your HP and MP to hit full at about the same time. This gets you back fighting as quickly as possible.

Lastly if you think you are going to loose use your 2 hour ability. I suggest you macro it for quick use. Don’t die of thirst in the desert with a full canteen the lesson goes. You may not want to “waste” it but more often than not it’s better to use it and find out you might have done ok without than to not use it and have to make up the exp you lost. Benediction can’t be interrupted (at least in my experience) and it has no cast time. You can even do it while running. It stops you to do the animation and heal up your life. Try not to waste it but when it doubt don’t be afraid to fire it off.

The Dozing Doctor (party tactics)
First and fore most learn who is who. You need to know what class(es) everyone is and commit to memory which party member is which hotkey for your macro heals if you use them. You can normally do this while they plan out weapon skill tactics since odds are good you won’t be part of them. Hit the crew with Protectra if you have it and try to rest up to full HP/MP before they head out.

Unlike soloing you probably won’t need to use Dia or Paralyze. Even if you do you won’t be starting the fight with them. The “tank” should be doing that either with a ranged attack, taunt ability or by just smashing it in the face. 99% of your job is keeping people alive. In anything but a small group I would suggest you don’t even bother meleeing.

If you are fighting things that don’t hit obscenely hard you should be able to use Cure almost exclusively. It’s more MP efficient than Cure II or Curega. Use Curega mostly for down time when everyone is hurt or after a nasty area effect attack by an enemy. Use Cure II when the enemy can do more damage than Cure could heal before you can land another spell. The other time to cast Cure II is when you think you can rest for at least 1 “tick” of HP/MP before you need to stand back up and cast again.

Whenever possible rest. In the middle of a fight if you think you can get in a “tick” or two before you need to cast another Cure do so. It takes a second or so to stand back up so be careful if you are fighting things that hit very hard. If you are working with another healer this is easier to accomplish. When I have grouped with other healers we fell into a decent grove in like 15min. without even discussing any tactics. What we did was waited until the main tank was down approximately 2 heals before we cast. This way even if we both cast at the same time we didn’t waste MP by healing a full life party mate. We also tried to keep both of us up to at least half MP. If one got around that while the other was still near full the first one would sit down and the second would do the bulk of the heals with the first there for backup until both were about equal in MP.

When nobody is in danger try to stay resting as much as possible. If your team runs off to the next mob up the cave and you are close to that next “tick” of MP/HP than wait a second before you follow. It takes longer to get that first “tick” than it does getting the second or third.

Remember to use your job ability “Benediction” when the going gets rough. You may want to save it to keep your own butt alive but when in a group this is a team effort. Maybe once you have Raise this is a bit different but until then you shouldn’t let anyone die while this ability is useable. If you can’t get off a Cure quick enough to save someone, even if they are the only person hurt, then use the ability. Often it doesn’t take much for someone to get discouraged and leave the group. Don’t let the reason someone left be that you let them down. Also point out that you just used your job ability and that you can’t do another fight that hard again until it’s up or next time someone may very well die.

That’s it for now. All the wisdom this WMG noob has to offer.