Black Mage or Summoner, which is the easier Magic-based DPS class?

I wouldn't say that I won't put in the effort to learn those things... more that I would be doing it inbetween the other things that I do.

What I mean is that I don't want to sit in front of a Training Dummy for 72 hours straight or so doing nothing but committing a rotation to muscle memory. That to me is not fun. To me it is more fun trying to learn the rotation on the fly while doing normal dungeons and stuff, while sitting at a Dummy during down time trying to learn things.

That said, having a strict rotation that I must follow of the sort that Summoner appears to have... that is also not something that I am overly fond of. I think I can handle the Rotation of the Black Mage easier than I could the Summoner, despite the fact that the Black Mage has more risk of dropping it's self-buffs if it moves too much.

As I said, I am a victim of extreme tunnel vision, and focusing on too many things at one time (such as with the Summoner and micromanaging of pets, managing the Opener, etc...) just does not work well for me.

I guess what this means is that Black Mage is probably the class I will be focusing on. Thanks guys.

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Originally Posted by Tharian

As I said, I am a victim of extreme tunnel vision, and focusing on too many things at one time (such as with the Summoner and micromanaging of pets, managing the Opener, etc...) just does not work well for me.

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Are you sure you don't like Bard? Because I feel that I'm just like you and the only class I'm really competent on DPS is BRD (I'm a main WHM, and while I can keep track of my HoTs, party HP, boss actions, placements and timing, I can't keep track of Enochian + AF/UI timers because my mind is a funny little thing). I've tried Summoner too, and there are lots of cooldowns to keep track too, including pet ones (and using a controller makes it harder to keep track of all of them, because you need to memorize the cooldown time since you won't be seeing them all the time if they're not on the first crossbar).

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Originally Posted by Tharian

And is it possible to be a "decent" Summoner without having an absolutely perfected Opening Rotation?

I only ask because I am not nearly obsessive compulsive enough to really spend a crap ton of time perfecting the opening rotation at the current time.

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Pretty much what Sidra said.

But on the topic of the opener, the SMN openers are a lot of fun to pull off. Its not hard, per se, just kinda lengthy. There are actually a few of them that are used in different fights, i.e. short burst opener when mechanics will interrupt and you need DWT faster, slower, higher potency when you have the time for it, etc, and knowing when to use them and executing them properly is where the fun of SMN comes from. You won't need 72 hours on a training dummy to pull them off, but it will take practice, and have to be willing to do it if you want to raid.

ya while people here are making the opener and rotation sound spooky there really isn't a whole lot to it and is easily learned by applying simple logic more so then most classes. I would say if you want easy, SMN is as easy as it gets. BLM actually takes a bit of skill from knowing when to put down leylines and when you can afford lengthy casts, as well as being much more rotation dependent. SMN is really just pop your opener, keep up DoT's (Miasma > Bio II > Bio), spam Ruin II like it's out of style (Ruin I if low MP... which is rarely ever), pop Fester>Pain>Fester (Single Target - Boss) / Bane > Fester >Pain (Trash Pack with 1 priority target) / Bane > Pain > Bane/Pain (Just Trash), Spam Ruin 3 til 5-4 secs left, pop a Tri-Disaster for maximum DoT potency, death flare, repeat. Miasma II is really the only real niche situational spell in your arsenal, if you ever use it. I like to use it on trash if I got the MP to throw away and want a lil more kill power; but for the most part you avoid using it because of the gross MP cost.

Sure you can probably get far more situational and crunch every casting second if you want to be server first SMN. But if you're looking to just clear stuff, you really don't need to learn much as much as it's managing DoT timers and trying to drop as many Ruin 3/Death Flares as you possibly can while keeping in mind of mechanics to dodge or eating a Trance by popping it at an untargetable time of the fight.

Oh and "Managing your pet" here is the lazy way to do it (assuming you're Garuda is out, because for most fights that are not PVP, Garuda is GOD) leave it on Sic (let it do the work and pop it's own abilities) and before Contagion comes up, put it on Obey, apply DoTs > Hit Contagion > Set back to Sic. Spur/Rouse when you can and try to coordinate them with popping Enkindle for a bit more damage. Your pet is seriously the least of your concern, and frankly only requires your attention if you're using Garuda/Contagion or really need a stun with Ifrit/Crimson Cyclone.... Or Garuda's Shockwave is pissing your party off, then ya Obey is a good thing to have on.

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Originally Posted by Fevelle

Are you sure you don't like Bard? Because I feel that I'm just like you and the only class I'm really competent on DPS is BRD.

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I have to admit, I really do love Bard... the real deal breaker for me is the fact that on all of the really cool looking bows (mainly the Relic and Anima Bows), the quiver is just so absurdly long that it looks really weird on the female character model, which is what I play. I suppose I could try to ignore it, but it just feels weird.

Alternatively I suppose I could try figuring out the Machinist, as I hear that the Machinist is remarkably well situated in terms of the DPS it outputs. My main problem with the Machinist though is the fact that I can never remember to place the Turret on the map, which tends to massively reduce the DPS or Support capabilities of the class.

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Originally Posted by Lilith_Merquise

Application to Got Gid Community College

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Your entire post could probably be more wrong, but you'd seriously have to work at it.

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Originally Posted by SnugglesD

Your entire post could probably be more wrong, but you'd seriously have to work at it.

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If you say so, I do just fine as a SMN, numbers and all. Again, am I top Server DPS, nope. Am I trying to say this person will be if they do as I said, nope. But will they be some 500-700 DPS scrub that puts on DoT's wrong, and uses Tri-Disaster outside of Trance to "Ruin I more" definitely not. I'm saying the bare necessities you need to do, to be passable, I NEVER and even repeatedly said it would not accomplish TOP DPS Numbers. But being that the player said they are not looking to learn some crazy End Game Min-Max rotation and want the class to be effective with the minimum amount of effort (as the topic suggests) that's exactly what I provided.

Black Mage is easier on paper , but in real fights it's very hard to play unlike summoner

From my understanding, it goes on multiple tiers.

SMN is the easiest to play at entry level. It's hard to mess up the rotation of DoTs and the skills are pretty straightforward.

BLM is harder to master, but once you get the rotation done, all that is left is to know the fights and that isn't exactly the hardest thing to do.

and finally, SMN would be (imho) the hardest to play at its fullest once everything is known and left to improvement.


Though this come only from my friends' impressions on the jobs, as I have yet to level any of the two to 60

^^ Be careful now, someone might think you're downplaying the min-max rotation and doing it all wrong lolz.