White Mage PvP Guide (2024)

White Mage is a powerful, well rounded healer with many high-impact spellsand abilities. It excels at crowd control with its game-changing Limit Breakand its uncleansable Miracle of Nature. Its kit is roundedout with mitigation, mobility, and the ability to cleanse a crowd controleffect from an ally.

Note: This guide is focused on Crystalline Conflict. Much of it mayapply to other PvP modes, but it is written with only Crystalline Conflict inmind.

Glare III is your basic damage spell. Use it tocontribute damage whenever you are not doing anything else. It is not verythreatening on its own, but it helps to wear down the enemy, drain theirresources, and secure kills. Take advantage of its short cast time toreposition between casts, especially to duck back behind a wall until your GCDcomes back up, disrupting enemy line of sight and making it much more difficultfor them to damage you.

Afflatus Misery is your burst damage GCD. Ithas a short cooldown, so try to use it frequently, especially when your alliesare bursting someone down or when enemies are grouped close enough to get hitby the AoE. It is also one of your only instant-cast GCDs, so it can be used tokeep up the pressure while chasing, retreating, or repositioning.

The limited nature of all healing resources in PvP means that you mustapproach healing with a very different mindset from what you may be used to.You must consider whether healing someone will actually save them or if itwould be a waste of a limited resource that could be put to better use. Forexample, if someone is crowd controlled (stun, silence, etc.) without Purify and is taking heavy damage, it is extremely difficult tokeep them alive with external healing. If they have no MP to use Recuperate even if you keep them alive for a few more seconds,there is almost no hope of them making it out alive.

In a case like that, it may be better to devote your healing resources topeople you can reasonably save. Otherwise, the enemy gets the kill anddrains your resources at the same time, leaving you even more vulnerable. In aperfect world, you want to barely save someone's life with your heals.This means that your healing was the deciding factor in preventing the enemyfrom getting the kill. They used many resources to attempt to get a kill, andyou used a handful of resources to negate everything they invested in it.

Cure II is your basic healing spell. It has thehighest potency of any healer's basic heal in PvP, but it has the significantdrawback of having a cast time. It is harder to use reactively, though this canbe worked around by anticipating the burst target and pre-casting Cure II onthem. With a cast time, Cure II is also much more vulnerable to interruption.If you are interrupted mid-cast, the time you put into the cast bar before itwas interrupted is completely wasted. After the crowd control wears off, youhave to begin the cast again, creating further delay before your heal can reachthe target.

Cure III is accessed by using Seraph Strike (it replaces your next Cure II). You have 10 seconds to use Cure III before theproc expires. Cure III is essentially a stronger, area-of-effect Cure II. It isan instant-cast GCD, and it does not consume a charge of Cure II.

Despite being an AoE heal, it is a targeted spell. It heals party memberswithin 5y of the target, so your party must be grouped close together for youto heal multiple people. The Seraph Strike you use to unlock Cure III can beused to get into position to heal multiple allies and give them the defensebuff.

Aquaveil is an oGCD ability that instantlyshields the target. It can remove one debuff that can be removed by Purify, and if it removes a debuff, its shield potency isdoubled. This is your only instant, on-demand healing tool other than Cure III,which must be prepared by using Seraph Strike.

Its cleansing effect is extremely impactful when used thoughtfully. It onlyremoves a single debuff, unlike Purify, so it will not instantly free someonewho is afflicted by multiple forms of crowd control. However, the large instantshield is still powerful. It is especially impactful when used on an ally whohas already used Purify and has been crowd controlled again after the immunityhas worn off.

White Mage possesses excellent utility in the form of powerful crowd controland party mitigation. In particular, its crowd control is one of its greateststrengths. If used well, it can allow you to have a huge impact in yourgames.

Miracle of Nature is one of the most powerfultools at your disposal: an uncleansable crowd control effect on a shortcooldown. It allows the enemy to move, but it prevents them from taking anyactions to heal or defend themselves. It cannot be removed by any means. It canonly be resisted by Guard, so be careful when using it against anenemy that has Guard available. The immunity granted by Purifydoes not block Miracle of Nature.

Miracle of Nature has many uses, including interrupting enemy burst to savean ally's life, preventing an enemy from disrupting your party's burst, andpreventing a burst target from healing or guarding. In some cases, disruptingan enemy's combo is especially devastating, such as using it on a Samurai whohas their Limit Break ( Zantetsuken) available and has justused Hissatsu: Chiten. Even if you cannot prevent orinterrupt an enemy Limit Break, you can often prevent the follow-up damage andallow your ally time to use Recuperate and get away.

Using Miracle of Nature offensively to assist with securing kills is coveredin greater detail in the Burst Rotation section below.

Seraph Strike is an oGCD ability that allowsyou to jump to an enemy, dealing damage in an area around them. It also appliesa 10% damage mitigation buff to party members within 10y of the target,including yourself, and gives you access to a single cast of Cure III.

Seraph Strike can be a powerful repositioning tool if you target the rightenemy, but it can also get you killed if you are not careful. Using SeraphStrike for the damage can be tempting, but its primary functions are mobility,party mitigation, and unlocking Cure III. It does notdeal enough damage to be worth putting yourself in any significant danger justfor the damage. Even if you survive, you will likely be forced to spend extraresources to get out alive. However, if you have plenty of resources available,this may not be a bad thing if you are drawing the enemies' attention away fromvulnerable allies by jumping in with a defense buff, Cure III, Guard, and plenty of MP for Recuperate.

Afflatus Purgation is your Limit Break. Itsbase charge time is 60 seconds, making it the fastest charging PvP Limit Break.It stuns and deals significant damage to all enemies in a massive line in thedirection of your target. It also gives you a buff that increases your damagedealt by 10% and heals party members within 30y of you every 3 seconds.

Its 40y range ensures that you only need to worry about direction and lineof sight. Be especially careful about targeting an enemy that is very close toyou, as it is very easy for them to move around you in a way that will pointyour Limit Break away from their party as your Limit Break locks in thedirection.

One of the most powerful aspects of Afflatus Purgation is its short chargetime. It will come back up fairly quickly, so avoid sitting on a full LimitBreak gauge for too long. However, do not waste it at a time when you and yourteam are not in a position to follow up on it. If you are too weak oroutnumbered to fight, wait until your party is recovered and regrouped.

In a desperate situation, you can use it to prevent an enemy from chasingyour team down and finishing you off after you have been forced to retreat.Consider the timing of when you use it, though. You want to have it availablefor the next skirmish, not have it coming up right after the next skirmishends.

On maps with dangerous environmental effects, the area-of-effect stun can bedevastating. If you catch multiple enemies in the stun in the path of theEruption on The Volcanic Heart or right before Turbulence on Cloud Nine, youcan force multiple enemies to use Purify or even get themkilled.

White Mage does not have much burst damage without its Limit Break. Instead,White Mage's most significant contribution to burst is its crowd control.Choosing the right target and the right timing for Miracle of Nature can prevent the enemy from even gettinga chance to fight back. When used on a low-health enemy, it can all butguarantee the kill.

When using Miracle of Nature offensively, you are usually aiming to chain itwith other crowd control. Using Miracle of Nature first can be advantageousbecause it cannot be cleansed with Purify. The target would haveto Purify the follow-up crowd control, and they should already be very low onHP, so they may not have time to use Recuperate afterward. Ifanother crowd control is used first, Miracle of Nature can always be used asthe first effect wears off. Even if they Purify the first effect, Miracle ofNature ignores the immunity granted by Purify.

Your target selection is just as important as the timing. If the bursttarget is already defenseless (low MP, no Purify or Guard), usingMiracle of Nature on them is unlikely to make it any easier to kill them. Theyhave no defensive actions for you to prevent with that crowd control. Instead,you could use it on an enemy healer or someone else with crowd controlabilities that might disrupt your team's burst.

One of the most impactful uses for Miracle of Nature is to burst a targetthat does have defensive resources available. If you burst down atarget before they get the chance to use Recuperate or Guard, you can preventthem from soaking up more of your party's damage, time, and resources.

Keep in mind that Miracle of Nature has a very limited cast range. You willneed to get close to the enemy to use it, which can be very dangerous if youare using it offensively. You may be able to use Seraph Strike to position yourself before or after,depending on the enemy positioning.

1. Afflatus Purgation
   • Seraph Strike (optional)
2. Afflatus Misery
   • Miracle of Nature (optional)

This example begins with your Limit Break for its damage and crowd control.The Limit Break also gives you a 10% damage buff for the rest of your combo.Afflatus Purgation is followed by Seraph Strike and Afflatus Misery for instantburst damage. Seraph Strike may be omitted if it would put you in too muchdanger. In total, this combo should deal 40,000 damage almost instantly.

Miracle of Nature may be used to help the party secure the kill if thetarget survives the initial burst. Alternatively, it can be used to disrupt anenemy healer to prevent them from saving the burst target.

1. Glare III
   • Miracle of Nature
2. Afflatus Misery
   • Seraph Strike (optional)

This example deals 25,000 damage before considering external buffs anddebuffs. Again, if Seraph Strike would put you in too much danger, it is betterto skip it. Especially without your Limit Break, your greatest contribution toa burst attempt is your use of Miracle of Nature, so consider your timing andyour target selection.