Hi, just started playing the game a couple months ago and have been having a blast. I recently started leveling black mage, and I like it quite a bit, but I feel like it has a very lackluster aoe rotation. This is my first forum post, so forgive me if I do something wrong, but I wanted to share two ideas to fix it.
1. Create an astral fire version of freeze. Let's call it Burn for now. 120 potency, same cast time and MP cost of fire 1/4. Simple easy fix, an aoe filler ability that doesn't take 3 business days to cast and actually does more damage than fire 4 on 3 targets. Also lets you not waste umbral hearts, as flare consumes all 3, but still allows you to cast 2 flares per astral fire phase if you do burn, burn, flare, burn, flare.
2. A crazier fix/rework to bring the post-60 rotation closer to the level 50 rotation, but wouldn't require a new animation. Fire 2 is now an aoe version of fire 1, and high fire 2 is now an aoe version of fire 4. It no longer transitions phases and maxes out astral fire like fire 3 does, but it has a standard cast time and MP cost now. High fire 2 is now acquired at or just before level 60. Fire 2 now has a 40% chance to proc firestarter, and fire 3 now does aoe damage (I leave exactly how much up to the devs). High fire 2 and fire 4 now both have a 40% chance to proc firestarter 2: your next flare or despair is now instant cast and free. This gives black mage a much more dynamic rotation after level 60, and significantly increases aoe potential, but potencies may need to be adjusted to keep it in line with the other casters. The point of these changes isn't to buff the already best caster in the game, but to give it a more dynamic and interesting rotation.
Ps: make foul instant cast. It's an aoe version of xenoglossy, the whole point is to bank up points to spend on mobility but this only works in single target. This is dumb.
Black Mage AOE is disappointing, let's fix it!
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07-29-2026, 07:26 AMSykoraBlack Mage AOE is disappointing, let's fix it!
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07-29-2026, 09:48 AMMaxilor
I think all they need to do is return the potency of High Fire and High Ice to make them actually worth casting.
At the moment you can literally pull them off your bars in endgame content.
Any class that has multiple abilities that can be pulled off the bar without issue needs to be looked at.
Fingers crossed for Evercold BLM. -
07-29-2026, 10:17 AMSykora
Even if they had increased potency to make them worth it, I'd still like there to be some way to reduce the cast time/make it more smooth. 3 seconds is a long time to cast and in low level where you don't have flare yet and fire 2 is your only option, often times enemies will die from your teammates before you can even finish the cast.
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07-29-2026, 10:50 AMMaxilorHopefully this is addressed in Evercold.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sykora
They said they wanted all classes to have their full toolkit for the most part by Level 50.
Like how some of the newer classes feel complete even when you sync down but then older classes like BLM feel miserable when you get synced down below 50. -
07-29-2026, 08:34 PMKeichi
In EW was the rotation to use around 4 times high fire and than one or two flares, before whe switched to ice (ice complett, high fire to switch to fire mode, 2 high fire until whe had 1 shard left and than 2 flares).
That changed in DT, when they reduced the potency of high fire so much, that it was practicly useless.
At least with lvl 100 is it now more efficente to collect the 3 ice shards (whe dont need Max mp), transpose to fire, and use 2 times flare and than flare star. Switching back to ice with transpose and use freeze again.
It is faster as using high fire and make with that more dmg.
For Evercold am i even wondering, if whe will even have aoe skills left for free aoe rotation. From the classes whe saw, have whe seen no aoe skill, except drg jump, that you has to build up. And his Geirskogul and nastrond. That he even can only use a limited amounh of time. Followed by a st skill.
And about Foul:
It becomes a instant spell in the SHB or EW Area. -
07-29-2026, 09:15 PMKeichiMy image would be, that Fire 2 take the place of Flare. A strenghted aoe attack. And once the Marks are full, would whe get flare, who is later on evolving into flare star.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxilor
Aside of that, has the blm most of his tool kit with lvl 50 allready.
Whe have fire 1 as main spell. With HW is it switching to fire 4. Whe have fire 2 for aoe and flare as finisher and later one flare as main aoe with flare star as finisher.
They stated, that whe would have our tool kit with lvl 50. And higher lvl gives more effects or branches. Blm kit can work like that allready. -
07-29-2026, 09:23 PMCarighan
I'll be honest since we're probably moving to an AoE-only setup (after all FFXIV has no reason to ever not AoE), I suspect this is all irrelevant.
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07-31-2026, 07:45 PMRongwaySpiny PlumeQuote:
Originally Posted by Carighan
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07-31-2026, 08:05 PMKeichiIn theory would no game has any reason to split between ST and AoE attacks. Or using DoT's. But that are standard mechanics to give us some variation of attacks. In addition does not every attack make sense to be aoe. A single thrust forward without any special effects wouldnt work as a aoe attack.Quote:
Originally Posted by Carighan
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07-31-2026, 11:33 PMCarighan
Yes, but very few Black Mage attacks don't already look like they ought to be at least some small AoE (Fire IV is the biggest offender here, it'd be amazing as a very high damage but very small radius AoE attack), plus unlike other MMORPGs, FFXIV lacks the usual incentives not to AoE. Plus they added X + Y%, which further devalues even the one thing they sometimes do, "focus this particular enemy down first", you just target it but keep AoEing basically.