FFXIV White Mage (WHM) Basics Guide & FAQ – Shadowbringers Updated!

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Willing to give White Mage a shot? Well, we have a whole wellspring of WHM job basic information and FAQs in our White Mage Basics Guide. Read on if you’re expecting to learn about unlocking WHM, White Mage Job Identity, trait and skill list, crafters and gatherers related to WHM, and link to other important White Mage info!

White Mage is a Healer job and one of the initial nine jobs to come out in 2.0 A Realm Reborn. WHM came out alongside Scholars as the only two healers at the time.

How to become a White Mage? Unlocking WHM:

First and foremost you need to have a Level 30 Conjurer, and have completed the L30 CNJ class quest, “In Natures Embrace”. After doing this you can unlock the actual quest to become a White Mage, “Seer Folly” which can be found at the same place (E-Sumi-Yan in Gridania – Old Gridania)

You also have to complete a Level 20 MSQ, “Sylph Management”, which realistically should be completed by the time you’re looking to unlock White Mage. 

Note that, upon completing Seer Folly you MUST EQUIP the “Soul of the White Mage” to actually formally BECOME a WHM. Interestingly, in the old days, unlocking White Mage required L15 ACN – that’s no longer the case.

Rushing to or want to know how to unlock a certain class? Learn more:
FFXIV Job Unlock & Requirements Guide.

White Mage Playstyle & WHM Job Identity

If you’ve asked yourself, “Why play, try, or choose White Mage?” – here’s my attempt at selling you the WHM class.

White Mages excel at high output healing – simple as that. The “God of Miracles”, WHMs possess unrivaled base healing power, alongside supporting heal over time spells. While not flashy or super “active”, you have extreme cooldowns that can swing almost any situation back into your favor.

While seen as rather simple compared to the other healing classes, the skill ceiling is as high as any other healing class simply due to the nature of group healing optimization. It does, however, have an excellent skill floor – it’s difficult to be a terrible White Mage.

Aesthetically and thematically, the White Mage is your typical “healer” character, tied to both “natural” and “holy” facets of the FFXIV worlds magic. The old school Final Fantasy White Mage charm (and attire) is definitely present here – Staff, Robe with red triangles, and all!

What Crafters & Gatherers should White Mage level?

While it’s common in MMORPG’s to think you want to craft your own gear as you level up your WHM… I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT.

Leveling up your DoH and DoL jobs should be thought of as a different activity completely. To be honest, if you’re a newer player, simply ensure that you DO NOT OVERCAP Levequests (always have less than 100).

The only relation a combat job has to a crafter or gatherer class is “which classes do you need to repair your gear”? My advice, ultimately, is pretty much all or nothing – level up all DoH classes in tandem. As a separate project, level up all DoL classes in tandem (with the optional Fisher).

What’s the best race for White Mage?

Racial stats are (was?) a thing. However, I highly recommend not caring about it. The difference in performance between the “best” and “worst” race for you is not even 0.1%.

My advice? Pick for aesthetics. Will you stay the same job forever? If you change mains, will you race change? Ultimately, the difference is so microscopic that I cannot in good faith tell you that racial stats are an integral part of your character.

I won’t even link the Racial Stats Guide, as I haven’t checked up on this in a while – and I don’t want to cement the idea that the “best race” really matters.

Related White Mage Guides – Read More!

Here are a few useful links for you:

• General Leveling Guide for ALL combat classes / jobs
• Conjurer Basics Guide & FAQ
• Conjurer Leveling Guide
• Adding new links as we update them!

Upcoming Odds and Ends

Here’s a few things we’ll be adding on here in the near future:

• Adding a “links to further resources”, we’re doing a site restructure so once those links are set, they’ll go in here.
• Human-readable, newbie-friendly skill and trait list.
  > I used to have the in-game skill list here, but I found it useless as the in-game one is better… I’d rather have a new player friendly rundown.
• More descriptive job identity? Pics?
  > I dunno… pictures of the job gauges? A gif of some flashy skills?
• Feel free to suggest anything else via comment or socials!

Summary & Outro

Well that’s about it for a really, really basic guide that hopefully points some lost souls in the right direction, or answers some of your questions regarding White Mage.

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