Hello everyone, Ponyo here! This article is part of the “101” series, which gives an overview of each class or role in the game. Please be aware that this is not an extensive how-to guide nor does it provide optimal skill rotations. Instead, this is an introductory orientation to the class with some general hints and tips to get you started.
A Little Lore
Conjury calls upon the elements of earth, wind, and water and concentrates them to a potency at which spells can be weaved. Through practiced meditation on the essences of creation, conjurers draw forth and absorb aether from their immediate surroundings. A wand or cane made from unworked wood is then utilized to focus the aether until it manifests as the desired spell. Versed also in magicks that restore and strengthen, conjurers are regarded as accomplished healers.
Conjurer’s Role
See the Healing 101 guide for an introduction to the healer role.
Where to Start
The conjurer class can be unlocked in Gridania at the Conjurer’s Guild. E-Sumi-Yan will give you your first sword and shield, and then you can start gaining skills! At every 5th level, you can go back to E-Sumi-Yan and pick up a new quest that will give you a new skill and new armor and/or weapons.
As You Level
The skills you get as conjurer may not mean much when you’re leveling in the open-world, but once you are level 16 and can enter dungeons, the mechanics of conjurer become more important.
Protect is a defensive buff that places a barrier around the entire party. Parties will usually wait to start an instance until the healer has put Protect on them, so it’s usually the first thing you should select when entering a dungeon!
Since you are a healer class, you have a combination of healing skills and DPS skills. Healing skills include Cure, Medica, and Cure II. Use these skills to heal yourself and your allies. Most of the time, you can heal someone by just using Cure, but at higher levels, you may need to use Cure II occasionally in order to keep up with the damage. Hopefully your tank will be using cool-downs appropriately and the DPS will avoid AOEs to make your life easier!
Cleric Stance allows you to switch between “healing mode” and “DPS mode.” Cleric Stance is a toggled ability that “swaps current INT and MND attribute ratings.” Translation: while Cleric Stance is on, you are better at doing damage and not as good at healing. When Cleric Stance is off, you are good at healing and not so great at DPS. This also applies to DoTs or HoTs. For instance, Aero placed on an enemy while Cleric Stance is off will not do as much damage as it would if it were placed while Cleric Stance was on. Because of this, maximizing the conjurer role requires the ability to switch Cleric Stance on and off as appropriate. This takes practice, but once you’re familiar with the early dungeons, try to switch into Cleric Stance so that you can help with DPS with Aero, Stone, Fluid Aura, and Stone II.
Sometimes a tank isn’t using cool-downs at all or is undergeared. Sometimes the DPS stand directly in the middle of an AOE. People die in dungeons; don’t worry, it happens. This is where Raise comes in. Use this when someone dies in order to bring them back to life right then. They will be weakened and only have part of their health, but as the healer you can fix them right up! Raise does have an 8 second cast bar, so compared to your other spells, this takes a while.
Now imagine this: you’re in the middle of an intense boss battle. Your tank just died. The boss is now coming after you. Your health is dropping. You’re trying to heal yourself. You want to Raise the tank, but you don’t have time for an 8 second cast when the boss is attacking you every second! What to do?! Swiftcast is a level 26 thaumaturge skill that makes it so that the next spell is cast immediately. No cast bar. The spell just goes off. This is the answer to your Raising problems: just hit Swiftcast, pop Raise, and ta da! Your tank is alive again! This is a cross-class skill that every healer should have.
Cross-Role Skills
Please see the Healing 101 guide for more information about cross-role skills.
Acquiring Your Job
At level 30, you can evolve from conjurer to white mage. This is like getting a promotion – you become a better healer, get new skills, new armor, and new weapons. In order to unlock white mage, you must be a level 30 conjurer and have completed the conjurer questline. As of the release of Stormblood, it is no longer necessary to level a secondary class to unlock your job.
Also, once you are level 30, don’t forget to talk to Braya in the Conjurer’s Guild to pick up the quest Unicorn Power and get a unicorn mount!
And that’s it, an introduction to the conjurer class. Happy healing!