FFXIV White Mage Guide - Cure and Rescue Your Party!

FFXIV White Mage Guide

White Mage (WHM) is the most iconic healer job in Final Fantasy XIV. They use the power of light to bless their allies with invigorating spells. However, White Mage can also utilize some of their holy magic to punish their enemies. After all, every FF14 character is a damage dealer to some extent. Let's talk about how exactly we're going to save the body and soul of our allies!

The basics of White Mage

White Mage has been a playable job since the very beginning of FFXIV. To advance into this job, you first need to be a level 30 Conjurer. You can start this path in the Conjurer’s Guild located in the Old Gridania. This job wears cloth armor and uses canes to amplify their magic.

White Mages have access to multiple healing spells, so they often have to spend some of their Global Cooldowns on keeping the party alive. That being said, you will get some oGCD heals later on, and they can enable you to deal more damage while also making sure that nobody in your team dies.

The role of a healer in Final Fantasy XIV plays out a bit differently than in most other MMORPGs. Usually, your main goal would be keeping everyone topped up, while also staying mindful of your resources and not wasting them on overhealing. FF14 is different in a way that your party doesn’t have to be at full HP. They only need to stay alive. It’s all about efficiency and dealing as much damage as possible and not wasting any time.

Most of the skill expression in this game manifests through damage optimization. That’s what makes the recent changes to White Mage extremely valuable. In other MMOs getting better damage tools wouldn’t be that important for a healing character, but here, it’s godsent. Of course, you won’t be able to dish out as much DPS as a dedicated damage dealer, but a good White Mage can currently out damage most tanks.

Most of the time, you will only use your single target cures on the main tank. However, there are also plenty of AoE heals and recovery spells that can affect your whole party. 

As far as the stats on your gear go, you should prioritize Critical Hit and Determination. Then, you can invest something in Direct Hit and Spell Speed. Finally, a few Piety points wouldn't hurt, but it's definitely not the most important stat that you can get from your equipment (even though it is the one that's exclusive to healers). 

Healing Gauge

White Mage’s job gauge has two elements to it. First of all, every 30 seconds that you’re in combat, you will gain a Lily. You can hold up to three of them at the same time. Lilies can be spent on two spells: a single target heal called Afflatus Solace and an AoE heal called Afflatus Rapture.

When you use three Lilies, you get access to the Blood Lily. It can be utilized to cast Afflatus Misery – an extremely powerful damage spell that can hit multiple targets. That being said, you can only use it once per 90 seconds, and it technically requires three GCDs to be used beforehand (you have to spend the Lilies on healing spells).   

Overall, the White Mage’s job gauge is easy to use. There are no procs, no real combos. You just get a Lily every 30 seconds that you’re in combat. Then, as you use three Lilies, you get access to Afflatus Misery. You should pretty much use it as soon as you get it (you can’t stack Blood Lilies, so don’t risk wasting this precious resource). The only downside is the fact that all three of the Afflatus actions are GCD spells, which makes them less convenient to use.

White Mage offensive spells

Stone/Glare – your primary spammable single target damage spell. It has five levels of advancement through traits. Depending on your level, it has a potency of 140/200/240/280/300. All forms have 2.5 seconds of casting time. You get access to the strongest version on level 72.

Aero/Dia – the only single-target damage over time spell. It has three forms. You unlock the strongest one on level 72. It’s an instant cast with a potency of 50/60/120 and a tick potency of 30/60/60 for 18/18/30 seconds.

Holy – an AoE spells that deals unexpected damage with a potency of 140 that also stuns the enemies for 4 seconds. It has 2.5 seconds of casting time. It’s your main spammable source of damage against multiple enemies at once.

Afflatus Misery – your most powerful damage spell. Blood Lily is required for its execution. It has a potency of 900 to the primary target and deals reduced damage to the additional enemies in the area of effect. It has an instant casting time.

White Mage Defensive Spells

Cure – a single target healing spell with a potency of 450. It also has a 15% chance of making your next Cure II cost 0 MP. It has 1.5 seconds of casting time. You won’t use this spell in the late game.

Cure II – a single target heal with 700 potency. It has 2 seconds of cast time.

Cure III – a healing spell with a potency of 550 that affects the primary target and all the nearby party members. It has a casting time of 2 seconds.

Regen – a single target healing over time spell that has an 18 seconds duration and a tick potency of 200. You should keep it on your tank the whole time. Regen is an instant cast.

Medica – an AoE heal with a potency of 300. It also affects the caster. It has 2.5 seconds of casting time.

Medica II – an AoE cure spell that also applies healing over time effect that lasts 15 seconds. It has an initial potency of 200 and the tick potency of 100. The spell affects every party member inside the range radius. It has a casting time of 2.5 seconds. 

Afflatus Solace – a single target heal with a potency of 700. It’s an instant cast that consumes 1 Lily.

Afflatus Rapture – an AoE healing spell that has a potency of 300. It also costs 1 Lily. It has an instant casting time.

Raise – a resurrection spell that has a casting time of 8 seconds. You should only use it in combat if you have the Swiftcast available - otherwise, the downtime is too long.

White Mage Abilities

Presence of Mind – reduces your spell casting time and recast time by 20%. It lasts 15 seconds and has a 150 seconds cooldown.

Benediction – your most powerful healing action. It restores the target’s whole HP. Benediction has a three-minute recast timer. You want to keep it ready for the direst situations.

Asylum – creates an AoE dome that heals every party member who enters it. The ability also increases the healing that they receive by 10%. Asylum has a 24 seconds duration and a 90 seconds recast timer.

Assize – a multipurpose ability that deals AoE damage with a potency of 400, provides AoE healing, and restores 5% of your maximum MP. It has a 45 seconds cooldown.

Thin Air – makes all your spells cost 0 MP for the next 12 seconds. It has a 2 minutes recast timer.

Tetragrammaton – a single target heal with a potency of 700 that has a one-minute cooldown.

Divine Benison – provides the target ally with a barrier that’s equal to a 500 potency heal. It has a duration of 15 seconds and a 30 seconds recast timer. It’s the only shield in White Mage’s kit.

Plenary Indulgence – for 10 seconds, every time you use an AoE healing spell, all the affected allies (including yourself) will receive an additional heal with a potency of 200. It has a 1-minute cooldown. You should use this ability to heal your whole party after a strong AoE hit quickly.

Temperance – increases healing magic potency by 20%, while reducing nearby allies’ received damage by 10%. It has a 2 minutes recast timer.

Swiftcast – a role action that makes your next spell an instant cast. It has a 1-minute cooldown.

Rescue – a healer role ability that teleports a target party member to your side. It has a 2 minutes recast timer.

White Mage traits

Stone Mastery I/II/III/IV– upgrades Stone to Stone II/III/IV and finally to Glare.

Maim and Mend – increases damage dealt and healing done by 10%.

Maim and Mend II – improves the extra healing and damage up to 30%.

Aero Mastery I/II – upgrades Aero to Aero II/Dia.

Secret of the Lily – unlocks the Healing Gauge and the ability to stack Lilies for staying in combat.

Transcendent Afflatus – unlocks the Blood Lily mechanic to Healing Gauge and lets you use Afflatus Misery.

Enhanced Asylum – provides Asylum with the additional effect of 10% increased healing that all the party members inside receive.

Rotations and playstyle tips

In the perfect world, where only your main tank is taking damage, you should get away with using only one healing GCD – Regen. Generally, no matter what you do, you should always keep it running on the tank, as long as you’re in combat. Besides that, the rotation will focus mainly on damage and weaving some defensive oGCDs as they’re necessary. You don’t have too many instant cast spells, which makes weaving and movement pretty tricky. While you should aim to keep your GCD going all the time, no matter what job you play, some clipping on White Mage is not the end of the world. You still should try and minimize it, though, just not at all costs.

White Mage is the job capable of doing the most healing per second out of all the healers. At the same time, Astrologian and Scholar have much less defensive tools in their GCDs. They can pretty much focus on their damage rotation and weave in the defensive oGCDs. White Mage has to make choices between dealing damage and using the powerful GCD heals.

Of course, situations like that won’t happen very often. You can be forced to sacrifice some DPS when your tank gets overpowered by enemy damage, or when other party members are getting hit. In general, it’s better to be safe than sorry – especially if you’re new to healing in FFXIV. Of course, you have to deal with some damage, but nobody should be mad at you, as long the whole party stays alive.

Damage optimization as a healer requires some experience and game knowledge. You’re walking a thin line. On the one hand, every use of Cure or Medica is a DPS loss. On the other hand, every time you get too greedy, there’s a risk of party members dying. Probably the best way of getting better at it is playing a lot of White Mage in different locations to try and learn when you can afford to focus on damage and when it’s simply not possible.

As long as everything goes according to plan, you will only have to spam your damage spell while weaving some defensive oGCDs, keeping Regen on the tank, and the damage over time effect from Dia on your target. There’s not much of a damage rotation to speak of, since there are no combos, just spamming a single spell.

A single target opener looks like this:

(Temperence)->Regen->(Divine Benison+Assize)->Dia->(Swiftcast+Asylum)->Glare->Regen->(Presence of Mind+Thin Air)->Glare->Glare->Glare...

Regen and Divine Benison should be used on the active tank - hopefully, it's crystal clear by now. When you need an extra single target heal, you replace a cast of Glare with Cure II. If an AoE heal is necessary, go for Cure III instead. At the same time, you should use Lilies when they’re available – try not to overheal with them. Using Afflatus Misery every 90 seconds is really important for your DPS.

The AoE rotation is pretty much identical, with replacing Dia and Glares with Holy. You’re going to have to decide whether you want to apply Dia to your targets or not (depending on the combat length, it might be worth it for up to four targets). If you’re fighting more mobs, you can skip over it and focus on spamming Holy. This spell is extra useful since, besides damage, it also provides an AoE stun. You won’t be able to keep the mobs under crowd control the whole time, but it will provide some damage mitigation.

Cooldowns usage

First of all, you only have a single oGCD that straight up deals damage - Assize. You should weave it in whenever it comes off of cooldown. It might be difficult after Glare or other 2.5 seconds cast time spells, but it’s still worth going for.

Besides, Presence of Mind and Thin Air allow you to spam more spells in a short time window, so for the most part, you should be using them offensively. However, you will technically get more value out of Thin Air if you use some healing spells during its duration (they have higher MP costs).

In terms of defensive cooldowns, some of them will be used almost every time they’re available - others are worth holding onto for special occasions. Divine Benison is a short, 30 seconds cooldown that you should cast on your active tank whenever it’s up. The barrier will always be useful, as it alleviates some pressure. Every time someone needs a single target heal and your Tetragrammaton is up, you should prioritize it over Cure II. This way, you can save a GCD worth of damage and some MP.

Asylum and Temperance increase the amount of healing that your party receives. Using them on cooldown increases your efficiency, and it can sometimes let you get an extra damage GCD. However, there’s also an argument to be made for holding onto them. Party-wide 10% damage reduction from Temperance can be used to survive a powerful AoE. Meanwhile, Asylum is an excellent tool for getting your whole team back to high HP.

Benediction and Plenary Indulgence are worth saving for special occasions. If a powerful single attack gets your tank low, Benediction can be a raid-saving tool. It has a remarkable synergy with Dark Knight and their Living Dead ability. At the same time, Plenary Indulgence is your best cooldown in terms of party-wide recovery after a strong AoE hit.

This AoE recovery pattern should look like this:

Plenary Indulgence->Medica II->Afflatus Rapture/Cure III

If you have a Lily available, go with Afflatus Rapture. If not – just use Cure III. If your Asylum is off cooldown, you should use it before Plenary Indulgence.

FF14 White Mage

Overall, White Mage is a great healer that also has access to high damage output. Its job-specific mechanics are pretty simple and straightforward, which makes it the easiest one of FFXIV healers. Of course, there are some downsides too. Most of White Mage’s spells have 2.5 seconds casting time, and the job has no movement abilities. That makes movement and weaving quite difficult. If you're looking for a laid back DPS job, you could try Black Mage or Red Mage.

If you’re looking for a strong healing type of character that won’t overwhelm you with a complicated design, White Mage can be a great choice. It has the great option of sacrificing some damage for more healing power. This possibility can allow you to save your party when things go awry. 

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a hit MMORPG, developed and published by Square Enix. It offers its players tons of classes and jobs that they can level up and develop to explore the story and enjoy all the PvE as well as PvP content. The developers have already introduced three substantial expansion packs to the base game: Heavensward, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers. Beyond that, they are releasing a patch after patch or update to keep the game interesting and the jobs balanced. Enter the magical land of Eorzea today!

Browse through MMOAuctions to find more valuable guides about Final Fantasy XIV and plenty of other games. We post content related to all the top MMORPGs as well as online shooters, MOBAs and competitive mobile games. Every video game player will find something worthwhile! Follow our blog and social media profiles for more quality texts and articles! 

FAQ

How to become a White Mage in FFXIV?

To become a White Mage, you have to visit the Conjurer’s Guild in Old Gridania and become a Conjurer. When you get this class to level 30, return to the guild and complete two quests: Sylph-management and In Nature’s Embrace (the latter is your initial job quest). 

Is FFXIV White Mage good?

White Mage is a perfect healer. This job has access to the most powerful healing in the game. It also has some powerful damage tools, especially Afflatus Misery.

What are the White Mage’s weapons?

In Final Fantasy XIV, White Mage uses a cane as their weapon. A crafting class called Carpenter can create these items.