Final Fantasy 14 turned itself upside down with the recent release of Shadowbringers. The game’s third expansion added new zones, more story, and a heaping helping of Job changes. The combat classes that you play for the majority of the game have never looked more different. Some are much more different than others, however. And it can be tough to tell exactly what has changed or why. That’s why we’ve gone ahead and made this Job guide to the White Mage in FF14: Shadowbringers! Let’s check it out
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FF14 Jobs are all going through some major changes in Shadowbringers. The new expansion includes major reworks across the board, as well as two entirely new classes: Dancer and Gunbreaker. Between these additions and another massive payload of story content, Shadowbringers almost makes FF14 feel like an entirely new game. And that’s exactly why you might need help picking your new main Job or Jobs this time around. We’re here to help with another FF14 Job guide — this time for the always helpful White Mage.
White Mage Role – FF14 Shadowbringers Guide
The White Mage in FF14 is a healer. That’s… probably obvious to anyone familiar with Final Fantasy. Although the Job is unique in that it is the only starting healer in FF14. The others require you to reach expansion content, or level up to 30 on a DPS class.
Less directly, the White Mage benefits from just how uncommon healers are in FF14. Healers very often receive the “Hero in Need” XP and gil bonuses by participating in daily roulettes — except sometimes in Alliance Raids. This makes the White Mage (and any other healer for that matter) somewhat easier to level up than DPS Jobs and even tanks in Final Fantasy. On the downside, they can be a bit more stressful to play than damage-dealers Jobs.
White Mage Rework – FF14 Shadowbringers Guide
Your basic White Mage skills didn’t change very much in patch 5.0 (i.e. Shadowbringers). The Job still has incredible raw healing abilities, very little utility, and high outgoing damage for its class type. Basically, this is a glass cannon that shoots hit points into allies or shears them off of enemies. That seems by design, as it makes for a perfect healer when you’re just starting out the game.
Plenary Indulgence is the one major exception. This skill now creates a chain reaction of healing power for the White Mage and all their allies. That’s all thanks to Confession. When cast, Plenary Indulgence now juices everyone nearby with the aforementioned before. Then, whenever the White Mage or an ally with Confession gets healed by certain skills, they explode with bonus AoE heals themselves. Heals, heals, heals…
Then there’s the Lily Gauge. This Job gauge — a special mechanic that once gave the White Mage unique buffs — has been completely overhauled. It’s no longer just about automatically reducing cooldowns whenever you cast abilities. Now the Lily Gauge builds up passively, generating one normal Lily for every 30 seconds of combat. You can expend these to cast powerful, instant heals that cost zero mana. Casting these skills also nourishes a new resources called the “Blood Lily.”
The Blood Lily isn’t tremendously complex. It just allows you to use a new skill called Afflatus Misery. This is the closest thing that White Mage has to a nuclear bomb: a targeted area of effect attack that deals high damage to a single target. The damage drops off against each additional enemy hit, down to 50 percent of its original potency. Though it’s still pretty damn strong for a healer. And since you need to nourish the Blood Lily three times to activate it, this means you can detonate Afflatus Misery every 90 seconds.
The new White Mage ultimate ability, meanwhile, is Temperance. And like the rest of the class, it’s nothing terribly complex. It just provides a 20 percent boost to healing for 20 seconds — in addition to 10 percent reduced damage to nearby party members. It looks really cool, though. You grow butterfly wings made of light!
You can see a full list of all the FF14 White Mage changes in Shadowbringers right here.
White Mage Tips – FF14 Shadowbringers Guide
- High damage means high rewards. The White Mage makes up for its almost total lack of utility (i.e. buffing the party) with its high outgoing damage. It’s not a damage class, by any means, but it still puts the other healers to shame in this regard. Despite Square Enix trying to push away from healers dealing damage in groups, there may still come times when it makes more sense for the White Mage to focus on foes instead of friendlies. Keep that in mind! Keeping folks alive should always be your first priority, though.
- Raw healing is more valuable in Shadowbringers. Previously, the White Mage was kind of overkill. The class simply brought more raw healing than was necessary to the table — without the buffs, regen, or shields to make up for it. The Astrologian, for instance, can focus on healing while increasing allies’ damage. The Scholar can put out barriers that block hits altogether, then sneak in an attack or two. The White Mage doesn’t offer quite as much of either benefit. However, Shadowbringers significantly upped the damage enemies do in group content. So having a White Mage play “reactionary healer” feels more useful than before. Consider this if you’re thinking about switching to or starting as a healer!
- Always burn your Lilies. Unlike most Job gauges, you have little control over how and when the White Mage Lilies grow. It’s automatic as long as you’re in combat. That means you should always use your Lily Gauge abilities — Afflatus Rapture and Afflatus Solace — whenever they’re available. This will keep you from wasting valuable Lily Gauge time, benefit the team with your 90-second nuke, and save you MP. Since the Lily abilities don’t cost mana at all, the White Mage doesn’t have to worry about managing its resources nearly as much as the other healers.
How to Unlock the White Mage Job – FF14 Shadowbringers Guide
There are two ways to unlock the White Mage in FF14. The first is to simply start the game as the Conjurer class. This is the level 1-29 equivalent of the White Mage — and will be able to upgrade to the full Job at level 30. On the other hand, if you’ve already started FF14 and want to switch, you just have to find the class in the world. Simply head to the Conjurer’s Guild in Old Gridania. Speak to the attendant there to begin the quest that will put you on the path of the White Mage Job. You will still need to begin at level one and work your way up, however.
That’s all for now, folks! Thanks for taking the time to read our guide to the White Mage in FF14: Shadowbringers. We hope it helps you master this strange healer Job to the best of your ability. Until then, good luck learning the new reworks, abilities, and intricacies of the White Mage going forward.
