PvP Job Series: White Mage

As we continue the Tactics PvP Job Series, we will have a look at the viability and the performance of the White Mage job as the main role in PvP for competitive use.

PvP Performance Statcard

Based on the above ratings, White Mage is a good option for PvP. But why is that? Let’s look more into the job’s abilities and stats below.

For more information on this job visit the job link: White Mage

Abilities

White Mage’s ability tree, White Magicks, focuses on using curative spells to restore lost HP, remove status effects, improve damage mitigation, and they have a strong damaging ability in Holy. Keep in mind like any other magick, their effectiveness is based on the casters and target’s Faith; the more, the better. We won’t focus on each ability, but we will highlight the ones that will likely be used in PvP a lot:

Cure/Cura/Curaga (action) – The main HP restorative heal White Mages use to keep their allies alive. The higher the Cure, the stronger the heal, but also the longer it takes to charge the magick.

Esuna (action) – Status effects are fairly prominient in PvP, and Esuna does a great job with cleansing most effects that can cripple your units from acting effectively.

Holy (action) – Holy is a damaging spell that is single-target and very strong at what it does. Be careful though as their are gear or accessories that can absorb Holy-elemental damage, causing them to heal from it instead.

Arcane Defense (support) – This passive abilitiy reduces incoming magic-type damage by 33% really handy against Iaido and other forms of damaging magicks.

Stats

Stats as a primary job: HP: 80% | MP: 120% | Speed: 110% | PA: 90% | MA: 110% | C-EV: 10 | Move: 3 | Jump: 3

Can equip: Staves, Shields, Hats, Clothing, Robes

Their stats aren’t anything particularly special, but the most noticeable thing is their Speed and PA. Because of them having 90% PA, White Mages can wield weapons like Zeus Mace and utilize things like Martial Arts or Arts of War (both of which rely on PA). Be cautious doing this, as this will have an effect on the upper-end of your healing with your White Magicks (which focus on MA), and attacking with Zeus Mace uses MA not PA for damage calculations. Overall this is probably not the best idea as they would be squishy in melee range since they can only equip clothing and robes by default. They will probably still function best in the back row, supporting their team.

Conclusion

White Mages are adept at what they do; providing healing and cleanses, and physical and magical mitigation (via Protect and Shell). They serve as a generally good main job when put into the support role and are best suited for back-row play.