Coming back...what do I need to know?

[CyprusFFXI]

I've read all the info about the new toys Whms got and have a few questions:

If I don't play melee Whm, am I being gimp? I like the sound of the defensive new ability more than the offensive one, is that a viable choice?

Where do you get the new spells? Are they expensive?

Also, for as long as I've played FFXI (NA PC -> July '08) if I was not /anon I got flooded with party/event/whatever tells. Am I still as loved?

Thanks in advance

-Cyp

 

[TheRealTaritzu]

Whm is still popular, but you'll need SCH sub.

The new spells are not expensive.

Auspice best bet is AH, Or if you have patience and want to get back into the game slowly, you can farm it from the whm Sahagin, yagudo, or Quadav.

Esuna, is a nice spell, but remember You yourself must be enflicted with the said enfeeble to be able to remove it from the PT members themselves. Dropped from the Higher Sahagins, and Golbin Alchemist in cape terrigan. Again best bet is AH.

Far as I know, as long as you have sch sub, your not gimped. SMN sub is not a good sub anymore

Happy hunting and I wish you a warm welcome back to Quetz^^

-Tari

 

[Wakmidget1]

WHM Melee is not necessary, but very nice if you plan to do Campaign at all. Especially with the new mythic WS, "Mystic Boon". It acts like a "Spirit Taker" WS for club and allow you to spam cure and other spells on people around you in campaign while melee'ing and never have to rest. With the way Campaign is set up it allows to get some really nice EXP from it.

 

[CyprusFFXI]

Thanks guys. Seeya in game soon!

 

[Shirai]

Esuna, is a nice spell, but remember You yourself must be enflicted with the said enfeeble to be able to remove it from the PT members themselves. Dropped from the Higher Sahagins, and Golbin Alchemist in cape terrigan. Again best bet is AH.

Sacrifice is your best friend when it comes to this point.
I takes the debuff from one of the partymembers and puts it on you.
The only slightly annoying part about Sacrifice and Esuna is that you need to know when to switch between Solace and Misery.
But you learn that soon enough when playing with it in specific situations.

As far as gear goes:
This is a nice thread to have a look into how people gear their whms.

 

[Wakmidget1]

Sacrifice is your best friend when it comes to this point.
I takes the debuff from one of the partymembers and puts it on you.
The only slightly annoying part about Sacrifice and Esuna is that you need to know when to switch between Solace and Misery.
But you learn that soon enough when playing with it in specific situations.

As far as gear goes:
This is a nice thread to have a look into how people gear their whms.

Afflatus Solace is nice and all, but if I find myself in a situation where I need to AoE a lot of status removal spells(which happens more than you would think), I find it mediocre at best.

The only really important thing it has is the Stoneskin effect on single-target Cure spells. Which is a very weak Stoneskin and only really lasts a few seconds before it wears off.

Unless I'm in a situation where I don't need to AoE status removal spells, I find myself using Afflatus Misery full-time.

Don't get me wrong, Afflatus Solace is nice. But it's basically only really worth using if you don't need Afflatus Misery for anything.

 

[Shirai]

Depends on the situation.

On most HNMs I like to keep Solace up as with for example Fafhog Esuna removes blind with Solace up and on Tiamat or Cerberus except to cast Barfira I don't even get close enough to the tanks to get hit by most AoE and the fire resistance of the tanks is enough to resist plague effect from Tebbad wing.

In Einherar however I do indeed like to full time Misery, Dynamis and Limbus depends on the situation and zone mostly.

For Sacrifice however Afflatus Solace is the stance to have up for 90% of the debuffs.

 

[Wakmidget1]

Depends on the situation.

On most HNMs I like to keep Solace up as with for example Fafhog Esuna removes blind with Solace up and on Tiamat or Cerberus except to cast Barfira I don't even get close enough to the tanks to get hit by most AoE and the fire resistance of the tanks is enough to resist plague effect from Tebbad wing.

In Einherar however I do indeed like to full time Misery, Dynamis and Limbus depends on the situation and zone mostly.

For Sacrifice however Afflatus Solace is the stance to have up for 90% of the debuffs.

I never said I ONLY use Afflatus Misery, but I tend to run into a lot of situations where it is needed. Usually though, in the situations you actually need Afflatus Misery, trying to bounce between stances is going to hurt more than it helps.

And I'd like to know why you say Sacrifice is worthless w/ Afflatus Misery. Sacrifice works on the same level as Esuna. If you have Afflatus Solace up it only steals debuffs like Paralyna, Blindna, etc. Afflatus Misery enhances Sacrifice the same way it enhances Esuna. It allows you not only to "steal" eraseable debuffs, but also allows you to "steal" two of them.

Esuna and Sacrifice are meant to be used in conjuction with one another.

 

[Shirai]

I did not speak nonsense when I said above that Afflatus Solace is the stance to use for Sacrifice.
So please do not accuse me of doing so if you cannot back it up with facts.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Sacrifice

* Absorbs up to 7 status ailments with Afflatus Solace active.
* All ailments removed with the spell Erase can only be absorbed by Sacrifice with Afflatus Solace active.

Neither did I accuse you of using the stances incorrectly, I merely posted my personal point of view on them.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Wakmidget1]

I did not speak nonsense when I said above that Afflatus Solace is the stance to use for Sacrifice.
So please do not accuse me of doing so if you cannot back it up with facts.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Sacrifice


Thank you for your time.

Even in lieu of that new info, I still only see Sacrifice as very situational only because of the fact that Esuna is self-cast only.

It's very annoying having to run in to remove status debuffs. Any time something is spamming a bad AoE, ie: Wivres, triple bats, worms, leeches, I just tend to stay close to the melees for Esuna spam.

Sacrifice seems kind of like your "oh-shit" button, usually if it's about 2-3 spells it's a lot easier and more efficient to spam regular -na spells on your target, unless it's a lot of erase-able effects.

Paralyna I still do with good speed, if you have enough haste on your -na spells you can get them down to 2 seconds allowing them to almost be chain cast.


I never accused you of speaking nonsense, but that info on Sacrifice is interesting though, I should do a little more testing on Sacrifice.

 

[Shirai]

Even in lieu of that new info, I still only see Sacrifice as very situational only because of the fact that Esuna is self-cast only.

It's very annoying having to run in to remove status debuffs. Any time something is spamming a bad AoE, ie: Wivres, triple bats, worms, leeches, I just tend to stay close to the melees for Esuna spam.

On some mobs you do not want to stand in AoE range.
I agree for situations like in Einherjar it is indeed better and easier to do so as the AoE doesn't do much damage but does hurt the group's performance if detrimental effects like Attack or STR down stay on.
However there are these situations where you do not want to be in AoE range because a dead mage won't cure anything!
Nightmare Taurus' in Dynamis Tavnazia come to mind or some of the Einherjar bosses.
Otherwise there are Wyverns or undead dogs with their too potent Paralyzing AoE moves that leaves you and your party crippled because you're unable to even remove your own paralyze.

Sacrifice seems kind of like your "oh-shit" button, usually if it's about 2-3 spells it's a lot easier and more efficient to spam regular -na spells on your target, unless it's a lot of erase-able effects.

Paralyna I still do with good speed, if you have enough haste on your -na spells you can get them down to 2 seconds allowing them to almost be chain cast.

Personally I use Sacrifice quite a lot, because it's mostly a cure all spell and most detrimental effects do not hurt my own performance as much as it would a tank or melee.
Them first, me later and who the hell cares that the white mage is blinded!
Also handy to know is that you can absorb debuffs that are already on you.

I cast all my -na spells in a capped haste build, so yeah for light effects I also rather chaincast a -na spell.
Poisona and Paralyna are two such fast casters.
But some effects simply need a faster response and some spells simply do not have a fast enough recast time like Erase, Blindna and Cursna, even in a capped haste build.
For those situations Solace -> Sacrifice -> Misery -> Esuna is a god given, especially on mobs that leave behind more then one effect like Soulflayers.

And when shit really hits the fan we still have divine veil.

 

[Wakmidget1]

On some mobs you do not want to stand in AoE range.
I agree for situations like in Einherjar it is indeed better and easier to do so as the AoE doesn't do much damage but does hurt the group's performance if detrimental effects like Attack or STR down stay on.
However there are these situations where you do not want to be in AoE range because a dead mage won't cure anything!
Nightmare Taurus' in Dynamis Tavnazia come to mind or some of the Einherjar bosses.
Otherwise there are Wyverns or undead dogs with their too potent Paralyzing AoE moves that leaves you and your party crippled because you're unable to even remove your own paralyze.

I never said I stand in AoE range of all mobs just so I can cast Esuna quicker, obviously each mob is different. I would never put myself at risk just for Esuna spam. Things that would cast AoE's that would be detrimental to me I keep my distance, like Paralyze & Silence.

But those two are easy enough to remove with normal -na spells.

Personally I use Sacrifice quite a lot, because it's mostly a cure all spell and most detrimental effects do not hurt my own performance as much as it would a tank or melee.
Them first, me later and who the hell cares that the white mage is blinded!
Also handy to know is that you can absorb debuffs that are already on you.

I cast all my -na spells in a capped haste build, so yeah for light effects I also rather chaincast a -na spell.
Poisona and Paralyna are two such fast casters.
But some effects simply need a faster response and some spells simply do not have a fast enough recast time like Erase, Blindna and Cursna, even in a capped haste build.
For those situations Solace -> Sacrifice -> Misery -> Esuna is a god given, especially on mobs that leave behind more then one effect like Soulflayers.

And when shit really hits the fan we still have divine veil.

Most of those mobs(barring a few exceptions) aren't seriously detrimental to the WHM so you could stand slightly within range to remove it quicker just by casting Esuna rather than Sacrifice > run in > Esuna.

A couple mobs that come to mind are from Salvage, I find it easier to remove Tribulation move from Soulflayers with straight Esuna, as long as your smart where you stand. Also trying to Sacrifice > Esuna Artificial Gravity from Archaic Gears is really slow.

I find it much faster to just keep Stoneskin up an spam Esuna. In some Salvage zones every minute counts. Trying to Sacrifice Gravity off one member than run after the group as they slowly run towards the next mob will take a lot more time than you want to get an AoE Gravity off.