White Mage Guide by Birgitte/Races
From FFXIclopedia, the free Final Fantasy XI encyclopedia
Race Selection
Race SelectionThe following is my opinion of each Race's advantages and disadvantages in playing White Mage. I have personally played White Mage as an Elvaan, a Tarutaru, a Hume and a Mithra and have taken the following from personal experience playing them. For Galka, I took my opinions from experiences partying with them and generally known knowledge of them.
Elvaan
As seen above, Elvaan is a very strong Race and with all things considered, they can make good White Mages if properly equipped. They have a good HP pool and high Strength and Vitality, not as high as a Galka's but still higher than all the other Races. This is a benefit depending on how often they grab hate, since the more hits you take the longer you will survive, and also because it means they can wear more Convert HP to MP gear without it taking their HP too low. Elvaans naturally have an extremely high Mind which is very important for a White Mage. The higher your Mind is, the more effective your Healing Magic spells will be and the more resistant you are to taking damage from Magical Spells. The main problem with Elvaans becoming White Mages is their lack of an MP pool. At the early levels this can cause serious trouble unless you find yourself able to get some good gear to make up for it. With their already high Mind, Elvaans can focus their efforts and gil into getting MP gear. With the proper gear and good MP Foods, an Elvaan can make a very potent White Mage.
Galka
Galka's are the extreme fighting machine. Which makes you think, well why would they want to be White Mages when they are better fitted for a Melee job such as Monk or Warrior. Simple, Galkas just look so sexy in their Race Specific Gear so why not give them a job to wear it with!! Okay, in all seriousness, they don't have terrible Mind, its the same as a Humes meaning higher than a Mithra and a Tarutaru. They have an even higher Vitality and HP Pool than Elvaans, meaning they can take more hits as well as use more Convert HP to MP gear than even Elvaans can. Their real weakness is the same as Elvaans, only more so, but it can be solved the same way: Gear. Sure in the low levels it will be a bit hard, but if at Level 10 you can locate some Astral Rings, you should be fine. It will be a bit more expensive if you want to do it well but once you hit 27-33 and are able to use the RSE you should start to be better off.
Tarutaru
Tarutaru is THE magic user in FFXI. They make some of the best White Mages due to their extremely large MP pools which allow them to focus on Mind and Enmity down gear over MP gear. There is an abundance of Mind gear out there and without having to worry about MP as much, a Tarutaru has the ability to be curing for more than any other Race at its level as well as resisting more spells. I have personnally played White Mage as an Elvaan, Hume, Mithra and Tarutaru, and in all honesty, I have found that I am the best at my job as a Taru. The only downfall in being a Tarutaru is the absurdly low HP that match their height. It takes less time to knock down a Tarutaru White Mage than it does to get a /tell for a Raise upon entering Valkurm Dunes. The best way to avoid that kind of "face first" death is to either wear Gear or eat Food that gives you Enmity down, keep Stoneskin up once you have it and use your Regen and lower teir Cure Spells over your higher ones. I have rarely died in XP parties when I have played my Tarutaru White Mage, but the times that I have, they were relatively quick and painless deaths. I simply Remind you that Reraise is your friend.
Hume
Humes are capable of being good at any job they want to be. All their Stats are pretty much average considering, not really exceptional at any one thing, but not bad at anything either. They make good White Mages because of this. They are able to wear whatever they want and eat whatever they want without having the worries that some other Races do about making up for a Stat that they are drastically lacking. They can choose whether they want to have more Mind or more MP depending on personal choice and also are given the ability to wear Melee/Defense gear and go out Solo/Duoing with better ease than say a Tarutaru would because of their moderate Vitality and Strength. The balance of a Hume really does allow you to make your White Mage more into what you want them to be rather than what they are lacking demands you to make them.
Mithra
Mithra all around have pretty much the same stats as a Hume, with only a slightly higher Agility and Dexterity. The important Stats to White Mage though, being Mind and MP, are the same in the beginning. As a Mithra gets higher though, they will begin to have a lower MND than a Hume (similar to that a Tarutaru without the larger MP pool to make up for it) and therefor need to begin compensating for that difference with more MND gear than you would need if you were a Hume. Mithra do have some exclusive gear choices though that work really well for White Mage giving both Mind and MP. A Mithra would find it easier to Skill-up and attack the mob while wearing their Healing gear due to their already boosted DEX and AGI. While they don't have the MP pool a Taru does or the higher Mind that an Elvaan or secondly a Hume does, Mithra's shouldn't be written off as White Mage's just like Galkas shouldn't.
All Stats are without a subjob and courtesy of FFXI Stat Calculator. If you want to see what they would be with a certain subjob venture to this site and plug in the correct info accordingly. While I am not sure on the complete accuracy of these numbers, I am checking them out and looking for other sources, but for now this is the general idea of what your Final Stats would be according to Race.
| White Mage Guide by Birgitte |
| Races | Subjobs | Weaponry | Armor | Food | Macros | Merits |
