A lot of good advice here. I have a couple things to add.
Heal Macro Spam First, I don't like the "Whammo> casting Cure Wario" in party. You cure so much, it becomes spam. It's semi OK if there are two healers. I prefer to rig a macro to send a "/t otherguy healing <lastst>".
I do like to announce my debuffs. They don't get thrown often and it's important information if you have other mages in the group.
You might make 2 sets of macros. Spammy and non-spammy. Ask your party what they prefer.
I always use the autotranslate to translate the spell names in my macros. I don't get many Japanese players in my party, but when I do, I like to know they can understand what I am up to.
Good macros Quote:
try using the <st> amd <lastst> tags in ur macros to see if you prefer them over the <t>s.
/ma "Cure" <st>
/p Curing <lastst>
after selecting the macro a cursor will appear, use f1-f6 to select your grp members, and then hit enter to start the spell and print the text to party chat. this saves space over the <p0> <p1> tags etc. It also allows you to easily cure members of the party while target locked on the monster should you be meleeing (more applicable for a rdm).
This macro is great. Combine it with the <bt> command in your debuff and banish macro's and you will really reduce the amount of fumbled heals. <st> allows you to pick a target and works for your party and for alliances. Only takes up one spot and you don't have to learn to count to use it.
Here is how a typical fight goes for me with these macros. Mob comes running in. I hit the "paralyze" macro that looks like this:
/p <bt> you are getting sleepy! (paralyze)
/ma Paralyze <bt>
/wait 3
/a <bt>
The <bt> automatically targets the creature my party is locked on. (It's failed me when we had multiple mobs, but that's rare. )
That last line is just to get my target locked on the mob. And if it agros me, who knows, I might hit it once. I never melee the MOB as a rule. I stand out of AoE range. However, I do stay locked onto the mob so I can gauge how the fight is going. Knowing how much HP the mob has versus your MP can really make a difference in your strategy.
Next, I follow up with my slow macro. which is basically /ma Slow <bt>.
About now it's time to start cureing. I hit my Cure macro and the cursor pops up. I select the party member and hit them with the cure. Now, you have a good 3 seconds while you are casting, where you can't cast again, but you can PLAN to. In most cases you are going to be hitting the same person again. So while I am casting, I hit the cure Macro again and park it over the main tank. As soon as the animation hits the point where my arm goes down, I know I can cast again, and I do so. However, if things changed while you were curing (BLM took agro and is suddenly in the red for example) you can just move the cursor and fire the heal.
If you decide you don't want to fire the spell, just hit Escape or the cancel button on your controller.
This macro really pays with a controller, since up and down on the D-pad scroll through the party and the alliance members.
On the fly macroing Remember you can type macro stuff right into the chat bar. For example, just type:
/ma "Cure III" <t>
remember this, it can come in handy.
By the time you hit level 30, you have a ton of spells in your list. They will be sorted by memorization order. (oh! for the autosort to work on the spell list!)
There are spells you don't cast a lot. You could make macros for them all, but then you would just have a ton of macros to go through.
My favorite examples are the -na series. When you need them, you need them, but you cast them pretty rarely. When someone in my group is poisoned, I just type:
/ma Poisona Bob
Presto! Bob is unpoisoned, and I didn't need to find the "Cure ailments" macro bar I may or may not have set up. I also didn't need to cruise through the list of spells looking for that one.
It can also come in handy when the <bt> macro won't work. For example, the party has 2 mobs and you need to debuff the second one. Just lock on it and type out the spell.
Then, hit the up arrow, and edit the line again for the next spell.
Being an Elvaan WHM I have seen in many posts that Elvaan is the second best choice for a WHM. I play an elvaan whm, and it's probably a distant second. By level 12-15 the mana difference between you and a Taru will make you cry.
I am not saying it's a bad plan, you still make a great WHM and people will still beg you to party. =)
You can close the gap a little with equipment. You can close it a little more with skill, and juice.
Elvaan have a very high MND, so adding +MND items won't help you much. I have found that after about +3, I can't detect a difference and the only difference is on my biggest heal, which I don't use much normally.
Go for the +MP gear. The bad news is that it costs a lot more than the +Mind. If you are rich you can get the Astral ring which is -25hp and +25 mana. Cost 180K on titan. Otherwise you can add a good 20 mana for less than 50K gil at level 27.
The good news, is that with the +MP gear you can narrow the gap between you and a Taru. In theory a Taru could also add all the +MP gear, but they need a little more +Mind gear to get the most out of thier heals. I have never seen a Taru bother with +MP gear beyond a staff.
Be prepared to take a litte heat for choosing the "wrong" job. I just ignore it or "/em plays punt the Taru with <t>.". =)
Even with all those extra HP and the best gear, your ability to solo anything that gives XP pretty much ends around level 30. (Undead and some mages excepted). This probably isn't a big deal to you if you are choosing WHM.