You can try reading
Firestreak's guide to Main Healing but a lot of it deals with higher level white mages, so I'll try to cover low level maging.
If you have tons of money, astrals will be your best friend. If you don't have them, don't worry about it. If you have summoner unlocked, I would recommend that you sub summoner, since it will get you a couple extra mp per level than /blm would to help with your low mp pool. As a mage, defense is negligable, and especially as a galka mage, you need mp before almost anything else. I'd say go with gear that gives a little mp but has crap defense over something with good defense and no +mp. I would also recommend a
Pilgrim's wand for when you're resting. And mabe a staff with +mp or a club with +mnd for when you're almost full or you're healing.
At low levels, you'll want some +mnd gear to help cap your cures, but once you start hitting 30 for cure 1 and you get closer to 90 for cure 2, you can try trading off some +mnd gear for +mp gear until you find a good balance. Also, when the fight is over, and unless you can cure 2 for 90 hp every time, do NOT use cure 2 outside of a fight. Both cures give a 3.75:1 hp:mp ratio, so it's more efficient to use smaller cures. Even when you're in a fight, using smaller cures is better unless they need a ton of hp right now(like they're almsot dead), you build up less hate and manage your mp more effectively.
You won't be a hinderence to a party as a white mage, but you will feel your limits faster with your mp pool being so low. You don't have to let everyone be at 100% hp all the time, 90% will be just fine if it helps your mp management. As a whm, your priority is THE TANK, they are the main ones keeping you alive, so if the tank and some DD is in yellow hp, your first cure should go to the tank, then the DD if you have time.
Also, when you get to 21, Regen will be your friend. The Regens are by far the most efficient mp >> hp spells for white mage, but you sacrifice hp gained by the time it takes to get the hp. Regen lasts for 1 minute, so 20 ticks of whichever spell you have, so you will have plenty of time to cast a regen and then apply cures as needed. You can also just buy the party-only protect and shell spells, the single targets are never used in a party unless nin clicks them off, but you can use the party spells for those. The party spells cost the same amount of mp, and are often cheaper than the single-targets. Of the bar-spells, the only one you'll every even notice an effect on will be barfira or barwatera for crabs, the bar-status effect spells all suck and aren't worth the money.
As for food, Rolanberry pies are great for low levels for the +50 mp they give. Another good alternative is ginger cookies(Or wizard cookies if you feel like splurging a little) for the +5 hmp(+7 for wizard) they give, which is huge at low levels with your low/no clear mind traits. Roasted mushrooms are kind of a balance between the two, but you might want to go to one of the extremes.
Oh, one thing you should definitely not try to do. Unless you are camping right next to the zone, and you have to throw out a benediction or maybe a divine seal + curaga and get a ton of hate, DO NOT RUN AWAY. Running means no one will be able to get hate off of you, so you're almost guaranteeing your death and the death of your party. This doesn't mean never use your 2hr, but please be smart about it.
exodusamphi said:
Since you plan on soloing WHM a bit, carry a BIG stick, I.E. Ash Pole +1 or something of the like.
Your Galka, you can take hits, and you can give em... dont worry about MP until 10ish +, then you can get Astrals if you have gil.
WRONG, do not listen to this idiot. Do not melee in your party if you're a whm, you'll get killed or waste mp curing yourself after AoE and you'll do crap amounts of damage. You should keep yourself out of AoE range but within spell range if you can, you should never purposefully be up next to the mob.
From there just follow Bajaratt's recommendations, there's nothing new I can add in that hasn't already been said lol.
