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Part 3 - Sub Job Selection, Merits Points and Job Points - “I put on my wizard’s hat, no wait!”

Section Contents

One of the defining features of Final Fantasy XI is its’ diverse job system. Though there are many potential job combinations, there are a few notable sub job selections that make for efficient White Mage supporting.

Scholar is the most commonly used sub job (Probably the best Sub Job too) and should be a White Mage’s go to for almost any situation. 10% cast speed reduction; 10% recast reduction; 10% reduced MP cost; Sublimation; Conserve MP; Accession, Penury, and Celerity Stratagems; B+ in Enfeebling and Enhancing magic; the list of benefits of using Scholar as your sub job is substantial. The big item on the list is that it makes White Mage into an efficient healer with the means of netting 0 MP Cures and even allowing a White Mage to Aspir on occasion if the situation allows for it. Accession can allow the caster to -ga their -nas for quick removal of status ailments in an alliance centric event and apply Divine Caress to all afflicted party members easily. If you are not sure what to expect in an upcoming event, Scholar as a sub job will almost never let you down.

Technical Notes: The Cast time reduction from Light arts is not additive, it is multiplicative IE, 70% fastcast and Light arts is only 73% Cast time reduction, to truly cap you would still need 78% fastcast so the fastcast value associated with Scholar is not as helpful as first thought.

A Personal note: I can not stress how much this sub job lowers your mp costs of spells, it is by a Significant Degree the most MP efficient Sub Job even without the use of Sublimation than anything RDM can provide. The 10% Cost paired with Orsn. Pantaloons +2 for 5% HP cured converted to MP or even the Sifahir Slacks for 4% HP cured converted to MP allow for almost Free cures to the point you can in some event's completely negate the need for Ballads.

Red Mage is the next most important sub job for White Mage, which isn’t saying too much as the times a White Mage will sub Red Mage is very few and far in between. There are not many ample opportunities to select this sub job as your support, but when you can, you will be grateful. Refresh; Fast Cast; Flurry; Convert; Dispel; Sleep and Sleep II; Red Mage covers a different line of supporting compared to Scholar. In some instances where you may not have access to too much Refresh gear or having constantly low HP, Red Mage will help a White Mage circumvent MP issues that may be problematic to maintain with a Scholar support job. In some cases, Dispel is a paramount spell to have and needing to enter Dark Arts and spend a charge on Addendum is not worth the effort. Judge wisely, as each individual player’s play style will dictate if they can handle a certain situation or not.

Black Mage is generally used as the lazy man’s way to head from easy event to easy event. When there are no MP issues at all and the content a White Mage is participating is simple, going Black Mage as your sub job is certainly convenient. Warp and Warp II, Stun, and Sleepga are the primary choices to sub Black Mage. I would recommend Black Mage as a sub for any event where you have access to a high supply of MP, whether it be through Atmas, Temp Items, or Ballads and Refresh II from a Red Mage. Though you do get access to Stun, if any event truly calls for a dedicated stunner, it may be better for the group to bring a dedicated stunner and not rely on a White Mage who might have too many other priorities on their plate to stun in a timely fashion. Sleepga has its' place in specific instances, White Mages should make note of when they can use this spell, such as sleeping the horde of Moogles on the final mission for A Moogle Kupo d'Etat.



Like selecting a support job, selecting what merits for a White Mage defines what kind of White Mage you will be. Though there is a limited amount of Merits one can put into each category, there are only a few efficient choices to have in the White Mage category. In the other more general categories, the merits you choose will entirely depend on which job or jobs the player defines as their “career” choice. This section is making merit selections based on the desire to be the best White Mage possible, so take the advice in this section with a grain of salt.


HP and MP Merits

• 15/15 MP Merits
  

• 15/15 HP Merits

Self Explanatory - Why Cap one when you can Cap both!


Attribute Merits

• 15/15 MND
  

• 15/15 VIT*

*Only for the most extreme and hardcore of Career White Mages

Mind is the primary stat for White Mages and it affects cure power, enfeebling potency, and spell accuracy. In total, 15/15 MND will give you about 7.5 healing power, 15 more dMND, and 7.5% spell accuracy. The biggest component to this is the spell accuracy as 7.5% is a fairly substantial boost, and in any high tier event where a White Mage may be doubling on enfeebling duty and healing, that 7.5% will go a long way in making things stick. The second recommended stat is Vitality only for the fact that Vitality is used in the healing power calculation, and makes the White Mage slightly more durable. To be perfectly fair, the second recommended stat is negligible at best and should only be used for the most hardcore of career White Mages. It would be better to pick a stat that is more useful for one of your other jobs if you are dedicated to maximizing several jobs.


Combat Merits

• 8/8 Evasion
  

• 8/8 Shield
  

• 8/8 Club
  

• 8/8 Staff

There is not too much to say in this category. Unless you are planning to go down the extreme route of melee, this category offers little to a support White Mage. Evasion means little as White Mage evasion is so poor anyway the extra 8 evasion will not help. Shield is hardly useful as wearing an Earth or Terra’s Staff is much more conducive to one’s survival. Club and Staff are both melee attributes and should only be raised if you are planning to go down that route as a White Mage. Overall, save the merits in this category for other jobs of interest to you.


Magic Merits

• 8/8 Enhancing Magic
  

• 8/8 Enfeebling Magic
  

• 8/8 Healing Magic

For a career White Mage, maxing out these three magic categories of your four magic types are your best options. Though you have access to Divine as well, the bonuses you get from having 16 extra Divine skill is negligible compared to the other three. If you are only capable of maxing out one or two magic types, I would prioritize your decision based on the order above. Enhancing Magic is the most important because it’ll allow a White Mage to cap out their Boost potency while increasing their bar- spells as well. Enfeebling is next as it is a solid 16% more magic accuracy that - something that can be argued is more important than Enhancing. However, in the current meta of the game, Enfeebling does very little in any high end zerg scenario, which currently dominates a vast majority of the game. I would lean towards Enhancing personally, but Enfeebling still has its’ charm depending on what kind of content you wish to participate in. Finally, Healing Magic skill affects the power of your cures and the rate you can remove doom with Cursna. A nice and small upgrade, but nowhere near as useful as meriting Enhancing or Enfeebling.


Other Merits

• Spell Interruption Rate 5/5
  

• Enemy Critical Hit Rate 5/5

It goes without saying that a mage is impotent if it has the inability to cast spells. Spell Interruption Rate help with that concern to a degree, and should be the first merit a White Mage gets from this category. To help reduce that further, when a mob is on top of a White Mage, it helps if they cannot crit said White Mage as often, hence why the second recommended merit is Enemy Critical Hit Rate reduction. Overall though, this category may be better suited for melee merits, as the way the game is at the moment, there are very few occasions where a White Mage would pull hate barring any instant death attack that wipes out all the front line damage dealers. Because of this, it is entirely possible for a White Mage to skip over this category entirely and use the merits that assist in a different class.


Group 1 Merits

• Bar Spell Effect 5/5
  

• Cure Cast Time 5/5
  

• Regen Potency 5/5

Bar Spell Effect provides a nice boost to one’s bar spells. Each merit adds 2 points of elemental resist and adds 2 points of MDB for a total of 10 each at maximum merits. This provides a buff to a White Mages Bar-element spells that cannot be replicated in other pieces of gear very easily and is a must have for any White Mage.

The second set of Group 1 merits a White Mage should set is Cure Cast Time. Given how quick the game has become, faster and faster cures become more and more of a necessity. This can especially hold true when your front liners can be two effectively two shotted in Legion, meaning they need to be topped off at any given time. However, take into account that White Mage has access to enough variety of Fast Cast gear that it is entirely possible to reach 80%+ Fast Cast without these merits. As such, if you feel your gear is enough to maintain a fast speed, I would recommend altering one’s Cure Cast Time Merits into Regen Merits. The added Regen can be useful in keeping a front liner ready and on occasion can even prevent them from falling flat on their back to two consecutive Area of Effects hitting them. Regen merits is also useful for low man events as they tend to have lower damage scales in these, such as Salvage. (I personally use Regen 5/5)

Unfortunately, Banish merits mean little to a White Mage. With Banish III and Cleric’s Mitts +2, you’re looking at a solid amount of resistance being negated on any undead mob. The extra damage can help slightly, but a White Mage will be Banishing so infrequently anyway that you may as well shy away from these merits. Likewise, Divine Seal doesn’t help too much. If a White Mage needs to use Divine Seal on recast all the time, something is up with the current strategy. Divine Seal is best used as an “O SNAP” super heal or another way to remove a bunch of status effects.


Group 2 Merits

• Shellra V 5/5
  

• Protectra V 4/5*
  

• Devotion 1/5*

*Select based on personal play style and preferences

First thing to note, you may notice that the sums of this category doesn’t add up to a full 10. The remaining two points can be used how a White Mage wishes depending on their play style.

The absolute critical merit in this category is Shellra V. The base merit of Shellra V provides 24% -MDT while full merited with Cleric’s Pantaloons +2/Piety Pantaloons +1 provides an immense 29% -MDT. Combine with the potency bonus received by wearing either Sheltered Ring or Brachyura Earring for a whopping 31% -MDT. Needing only 19% -MDT to cap the remainder of one’s MDT is incredible for any survival and allows for the White Mage to feasibly stay well protected from magic damage while maintain a solid idle set. For front line damage dealers, this also means they can build sets with a limited amount of -MDT and go to town in a still semi decent TP set while smashing face. Shellra V 5/5 is the best merit to maximize in this category.

Following this, I would recommend one point in the remaining three merits of this category. Each provides a decent benefit. Protectra V provides a reasonable defense boost to your party in a convenient package, Piety Duckbills +1 contains the augment from Relic Feet +2 that increase the defense from Protectra V by 5 Defense per Merit increase (so in my set +20)

Martyr provides a perfect emergency button for a one time use heal. Even if the White Mage only has 1,000 HP at the time, that is still a free 500 HP heal which can prevent the next blow from killing your ally, however I do not rate this as a merited ability for many reason. Devotion finally fits in as a great MP restoration tool in a pinch, though with the massive amount of Refresh on gear in this day and age, this Job Ability has lost quite a bit of lustre since its’ inception back at the level 75 cap, however is still useful i.e the Samurai is using Oneiros Ring and was just aspired, you could help him get his Latent effect back (again minimal use), or for BLU if you use them in your set ups.

So, where does one put the remaining two merits? I would not put more than one merit into Martyr, so that leaves Devotion and Protectra V. Given the copious amount of Refresh available on gear, Devotion is not as useful, but can still work in a pinch. If you’re in a MP intensive event, having Devotion readily available is not a bad thing, and would work as a 4/5. Otherwise, Protectra V 4/5 will add a miniscule amount of Defense. It’s not really much, but every little bit helps. Merits are not too hard to come back so play around with those last two merits until you find something satisfactory for your play style. This ideology can be applied to all five merits that do not relate to Shellra V, and a player should choose their merits depending on what events they participate in and how important certain JAs or spells are to them.

Job Points enhance existing abilities and spells. You earn Job Points by defeating enemies and accumulating Capacity Points after reaching the maximum level. Job Points can only be gained after a player obtains the job breaker key item by talking to the Nomad Moogle in Ru'Lude Gardens at (H-5) after hitting level 99.

Categories

Benediction
Recovers caster's MP when Benediction is activated. Increase amount of MP recovered by 1 percent per job point added for a maximum of 20% MP recovered.

This category is nice but far from needed, you will be able to count the amount of times you used benediction with your fingers on a 2 year career. This isn't a priority.

Asylum Effect
Increase magic evasion while under the effect of Asylum. Increase magic evasion by 4 per job point added for a maximum of 80 magic evasion.

This is a must get but it's not a #1 priority as you won't use it THAT often but when you do, the extra magic evasion will be welcomed.

Divine Seal Effect
Reduces the amount of enmity accrued by casting cure spells while under the effects of Divine Seal. Reduce enmity by 3% per job point added for a maximum of 60% enmity reduced.

Unless you are getting 2100 job points, skip this one.

Magic Accuracy Bonus
Increase magic accuracy. Increases magic accuracy by 1 per job point added for a maximum of 20 magic accuracy.

This is also a must get, white mages are more than likely to have to enfeeble at one point of another. Get it.

Afflatus Solace Effect
Increase potency of cure while under the effects of Afflatus Solace. Increase cure potency by 2 per job point added for a maximum of 40. Please note that it's a direct value and not a percentage.

This is a priority, get it. It may not be a percentage but it's a base value so it gets taken in account in the 50% cure potency. It is not a straight +40 hp healed.

Afflatus Misery Effect
Increase the potency of Banish and Auspice while under the effect of Afflatus Misery. Increase magic damage dealth by banish by 2 per job point for a maximum of 40.
Increase both the physical accuracy bonus when missing target and additional damage by 1 per job point for a maximum of 20.

Unless you are a melee whm or going towards 2100, skip this one as the accuracy effect of Auspice only affects the White Mage.

Divine Caress Duration
Increase the duration of strong resistance to status ailments dispelled while under the effect of Divine Caress. Increase duration by 2 seconds per job point for a maximum of 40 seconds.

This is a must get.

Sacrosanctity Effect
Increase the minimum value of magic defense that weakens over time while under the effect of Sacrosanctity. Increase minimum value by 1 per job point for a maximum of 20 magic defense.

This is also a must get but like Asylum, it's not top priority.

Regen Duration
Increase the effect duration of Regen. Increase Duration by 3 seconds per job point added for a maximum of 60 seconds.

This depends on your play style. Personally, I use regen a ton so this is a must get for me. If you don't use regen, I would strongly advise you to start using it but if you really don't want to and don't want 2100, then skip this category.

Bar Spell Effect
Increase potency of Bar spells. Increase effect resistance by 2 per job point added for a maximum of 40.

This is top priority. With all correct gears, 500 enhancing skill, job points and merit point, you can get 230 in elements. GET IT!!

Gifts
By spending Job Points, every individual job will be granted bonus Capacity Points depending on the total amount of Job Points spent. Unlike all other bonuses, these are exclusive to the job in which you have spent the Job Points only.

Here's a list of important whm Gifts:

50 Job Points	Access to Superior 1 gears
100 Job points	Access to superior 2 gears and Reraise 4: Similar to Arise
550 Job Points	Regen Bonus: Increase HP restored by 5
1200 Job Points	Access To Full Cure: Consumes all MP, restores target HP. cure status ailments and stoneskin effect
2100 Job Points	Master White Mage, Decrease Benediction recast to 45 minutes.