Introduction (or Why you should consider White Mage)
The White Mage is a main stay of Final Fantasy lore; they are masters of white magic- magic aimed towards recovery and support- and that is indeed your role in Final Fantasy XIV should you choose to play as one. White magic doesn't exactly exist in this form in Final Fantasy XIV; but the White Mage's role as a healer and support class is still the same.
I won't lie: playing White Mage is a strenuous job, as it goes with any healing class in an MMO. To be a good White Mage, you need to manage your heals between keeping the tank and DPS alive, and not drawing aggro from mobs onto you and away from the tank. You also need to know how to manage your mana quota; a White Mage with no mana is useless. And usually dead.
How do I become a White Mage?
The Conjurer class is the first step in becoming a White Mage.
You must complete all the quests in the Conjurer quest line, so in other words, you must be a Level 30 Conjurer first and foremost. In addition, you must also be Level 15 in Arcanist. Note that in Arcanist, completing the quest line isn't a requirement - you simply need to be Level 15.
You receive the quest to become a White Mage from E-Sumi-Yan once you've completed both the Conjurer quest line and leveled your Arcanist class to 15.
White Mage Spells/Skills
Here, I'm going to run through the spells & skills a White Mage has at their disposal, including all of their cross class skills from both Thaumaturge and Arcanist.
Conjurer/White Mage
Level 1: Stone - Deals earth damage with a potency of 140, with a 40% chance to inflict Heavy debuff.
Level 2: Cure - Restores a target's HP with a potency of 400. At Level 32, you gain a 15% chance that your next Cure II will cost 0 MP after casting Cure.
Level 4: Aero - Deals wind damage with a potency of 50, with additional Damage over Time (DoT) for 18 seconds, with a potency of 25.
Level 6: Cleric Stance - Swaps your INT and MND attributes, additionally increases potency of attack spells by 10% and reduces potency of healing spells by 20%.
Level 8: Protect - Increases the physical defense of all party members within range of target for 30mins.
Level 10: Medica - Restores own HP and HP of all nearby party members with a potency of 300.
Level 12: Raise - Resurrects a target to a weakened state. Can be casted on the target while engaged in battle at Level 28.
Level 15: Fluid Aura - Deals water damage with a potency of 150, additionally blasts enemy away from you with a Bind debuff for 6 seconds.
Level 18: Esuna - Removes a single detrimental effect from the target, additionally, there is a 20% chance casting Esuna again will cost no MP.
Level 22: Stone II - Deals earth damage with a potency of 170.
Level 26: Repose - Inflicts the Sleep debuff on the target for 30 seconds.
Level 30: Cure II - Restore targets HP with a potency of 500.
(WHM) Level 30: Presence of Mind - Increases the Spell Speed stat for 15 seconds.
Level 34: Stoneskin - Creates a barrier upon the target that prevents physical damage
totaling 10% of the target's total HP. At Level 36, this increases to 18%.
(WHM) Level 35: Regen - Grants a healing over time effect with a potency of 150 to target for 21 seconds.
Level 38: Shroud of Saints - Reduces enmity by half, additionally granting the Refresh buff which restores MP by 212 per tick for fifteen seconds.
(WHM) Level 40: Divine Seal - Increases healing magic potency by 30% for 15 seconds.
Level 42: Cure III - Restores HP of all party members within range of the target with a potency of 400. At Level 44, you get a 15% chance that after casting Cure II, your next Cure III will restore critical HP.
(WHM) Level 45: Holy - Deals magic damage with potency of 240 to all nearby enemies. Also applies Stun debuff for 4 seconds.
Level 46: Aero II - Deals wind damage with a potency of 50, with additional Damage over Time (DoT) for 18 seconds, with a potency of 40.
(WHM) Level 50: Benediction - Restores all of a target's HP.
Level 50: Medica II - Restores own HP and HP of all nearby party members with a potency of 350. Also applies the buff of Regen, with the potency of 100, for 30 seconds.
Thaumaturge
Level 8: Surecast - The next spell is cast without interruption.
Level 12: Blizzard II - Deals ice damage with a potency of 100 to all nearby enemies.
In addition, casts Bind for 4 seconds.
Level 26: Swiftcast - The next spell is cast immediately.
Arcanist
Level 1: Ruin - Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 80.
Level 4: Physick - Restores a target's HP with a potency of 400.
Level 12: Virus - Reduces the target's Strength and Dexterity by 15% for 10 seconds. Applies the buff Antidote for 60 seconds, which disallows Virus being recast onto the target.
Level 34: Eye for an Eye - Erects a magicked barrier around a single party member or pet for 30 seconds. Additionally, there is a 20% chance that when the barrier is struck, the striker will deal 10% less damage for 20s.
Crossclass Skills
Swiftcast is near damn mandatory at late to endgame. Swiftcast allows the user to cast Raise in the blink of an eye. Level your Thaumaturge to 26 IMMEDIATELY after getting your White Mage job crystal.
Virus is also a nice little thing to have. It reduces physical damage dealt by the target by 15%, which you can probably guess can be nothing but a plus.
Eye for an Eye is really the only other cross class skill worth the effort, but it's not perfect. The 20% chance that whoever you cast it on will deal 10% less damage makes it not as great as it'd seem.
Surecast is honestly only useful whilst solo-ing; I've yet to find a use for it in dungeons & raids.
Blizzard II, Physick & Ruin are all useless: Blizzard II does not grant Umbral Ice, which for Thaumaturges, restores MP at a crazy rate; Physick does not grant the Freecure bonus, and Ruin is outclassed entirely by Stone and Stone II.
How to White Mage
Now we have all the basics out of the way, let's get down to the nitty-gritty: how to actually play and think like a healer.
DPS classes aren't as important as the tank, and sometimes, you have to let the DPS die to do your job.
Simple: our main priority is always the tank. Never let the tank die if you can help it.
You'd do good to remember that Raise gives a Weakness buff which reduces ALL stats by 15% for 90 seconds. On a DPS, this can be mitigated if they're good enough. On a tank, this is often suicide.
Get Swiftcast from Thaumaturge, at Level 26.
As I said above; Swiftcast allows for almost instant raises. It's quite possibly the most useful thing ever for us healers.
Shroud of Saints is your best friend.
Shroud of Saints halves your current enmity and also restores your MP at a steady rate of 212 MP. Basically, I'm saying you should always have this on your cool downs.
Medica II or Cure III? Medica II.
Cure III, annoyingly, requires a ton of positioning to use correctly. In any case - when you need to heal a lot of people QUICKLY, Medica II is far more useful than Cure III, even with that guaranteed crit. Medica II also has that regen buff!
Bear in mind that this doesn't mean Cure III is entirely useless; it's just that it is not as generic as you would think. Medica II fills that role.
Did you get Swiftcast? You need Swiftcast.
No. Really. Please level up your Thaumaturge to 26 to get Swiftcast. Just do it.
Overhealing doesn't do anyone any favours.
Get into the mindset of keeping your tank at 90-95% whilst popping Regen onto them. Overhealing in this game is a sure fire way of ripping aggro off the tank due to the way enmity works.
On that note: Cure on its own heals for 400, where as Cure II is only a 63% increase for double the MP. Cure II is NOT a replacement for Cure, it is a supplement. Don't forget this- conserve your mana!
Speaking of Cure II: Freecure owns.
The other reason you want to use Cure over Cure II is Freecure. Freecure pops up around Level 32 as a bonus: as I put above, it gives you a 15% chance that Cure II will cost no MP. Why would you not want that? You'll know you have Freecure, as the edges of Cure II's button will begin to glow yellow.
Don't underestimate Cleric Stance.
Cleric Stance is obviously supposed to allow the White Mage to fight things solo, however when used correctly, it can aid with DPS. It's somewhat situational, but it definitely has its place in raids and dungeons - a low level example is Titan story; your DPS gets gaoled? pop Regen on tank, swap to Cleric Stance, Stone II twice on gaol or heart, Aero, Cleric Stance off. It helps more than you'd think.
Still not got Swiftcast?
I hate you.
White Mage Stats: What To Boost & What To Avoid
There's a lot of disagreement where to place your 30 bonus stats - I prefer to dump them all into Mind for extra healing power. Piety only adds about 8 MP for each point, which isn't worth the investment. Strength, Dexterity & Intelligence go out the window- they aren't needed whatsoever. The first two are strictly for melee & ranged physical attacks, and Intelligence is moot as you'll make that up in Cleric Stance.
Mind seems like the obvious choice, however it doesn't really give you much of a boost to your heals. However, consider that whilst in Cleric Stance, it DOES gives you extra clout when using Holy and Stone II.
Piety is your second choice. Piety boosts your maximum MP, which kind of doesn't have a drawback. More MP, less problems. However, note your maximum MP does NOT change the rate at which Refresh recovers MP when using Shroud of Saints, it's fixed at 212MP. ((I personally feel that this is NOT worth it!!))
Vitality is really your only other option, and it's somewhat moot. Granted, a boost to your health can't go amiss, and a few people I know swear by 30 Vitality over even a split between Piety & Mind.
Your most important secondary stats, which are boosted by materia and end game gear, are Determination, Critical Hit Rate and Spell Speed. It's sort of agreed that Spell Speed is kind of a washout as the cap there is pretty negligible with regards to the global cooldown, so Det and Crit seem to be the clear cut winners here.
As a final point, the best food/potions for you to grab as a White Mage would be the following (and it'd be best to get these HQ whenever possible):
Pineapple Juice
Mulled Tea
Apple Juice
Mega/X-Ether
Mega/X-Potion of Mind
