Black Mage Sanctuary - A Guide to DPS

Caster Body is looking good if you don't raid. Problem is actually getting it to drop since only Ozma and Calofisteri drop it. I was unfortunate to not have it drop or had bad groups throughout the week.

@ panderin, i have many crafted and melded pieces even had a pentmelded chest, however the chest piece from Weeping City is better. What someone mentioned earlier is correct in that aside from the Savage chest piece this one would be bis.
Here is the link for it as reference
The Augmented hailstorm and the Midan Coat
I am using crafted Neck, Bracelet and belt atm on my blm

I agree
The weeping City chest piece tri-melded
secondary stat wise, is equivalent to a crafted 220 tri-melded

But more INT and more VIT
So it is a huge bonus

It is the non savage BIS chest with two Crit V

Hailstorm is accuracy trap XD
I can't help but laught when i see caster with the augmented chest...

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Originally Posted by seekified

Does this mean F3 > F2x2 > Flare > Convert > Flare > Ether > B3 > B2 > F3 > F2 spam, or something else? I recall hearing that triple flares were no longer a thing back in 2.4-2.5, but I dunno what the state of things is now.

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Triple Flares stopped being a thing in 3.0 when you hit 60 because X-Ethers did not give back enough MP for another Flare. However, in 3.2 they added Max-Ethers so you can do triple Flares.

F3 > Raging Strikes > F2x3> Flare > Convert > Swiftcast > Flare > Max-Ether > Flare > Transpose. Do that, and then go into F3 > F2x2 > Flare > Transpose > Repeat. And that's your AoE.

I also suggest doing this on 1st or second pull at the beginning and after boss fight, so you'll have RS and Convert ready for the boss.

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Originally Posted by Nekotee

I agree
The weeping City chest piece tri-melded
secondary stat wise, is equivalent to a crafted 220 tri-melded

But more INT and more VIT
So it is a huge bonus

It is the non savage BIS chest with two Crit V

Hailstorm is accuracy trap XD
I can't help but laught when i see caster with the augmented chest...

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It's actually not that bad of a chest; I use it for Accuracy on my BLM because my melds are more SMN-focused (Crit everywhere, no Accuracy melded). It has no place in any BiS build, but you can still break 1100 Spell Speed while using it.

Speaking of the Yafeami chest it is seemingly impossible for me to get it since I've cleared Mhach City over 10 times and I've been granted the luxury of not having it drop, usually having two tank body pieces drop instead. I mean it wouldn't be so bad if it could drop from every boss but it criminally only drops from the last 2. Which really is a 50% fail chance since many can't grasp the concept of dodge the thing, do thing to not die.

I mean just now I've spent 4 hours of my time to receive basically nothing.

The RNGesus curse...

I wish I could have it
Because i would never be against some vita
Seems pointless for a caster but surviving is good for dps... ._.

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Originally Posted by Nekotee

Hailstorm is accuracy trap XD
I can't help but laught when i see caster with the augmented chest...

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I LOL'ed at this, I have my crafted chest pentamelded and other than the weeping city body idk what I am going to do but hopefully the game will decide for me when the next set of crafted gear comes out!!!

You'd be surprised how many augmented chests I've seen on BLM's. It's insane.

Same, and worst yet is having seen a blm with the augmented Chest and the Relic weapon, this patch the weapon is good but when Anima first came out,,, hell no

I really want the weeping chest...
But good god Does it exist ? T.T

Midan torso would be sexy but so far out of reach

Actually the anima is not that bad
Well it depend of the content
In aoe heavy content, low spellspeed is Nice for mana tick. The anima is good for heavy crit and high damage
In single target destruction the moar the better ! So yeah animano

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Originally Posted by Garotte14

Triple Flares stopped being a thing in 3.0 when you hit 60 because X-Ethers did not give back enough MP for another Flare. However, in 3.2 they added Max-Ethers so you can do triple Flares.

F3 > Raging Strikes > F2x3> Flare > Convert > Swiftcast > Flare > Max-Ether > Flare > Transpose. Do that, and then go into F3 > F2x2 > Flare > Transpose > Repeat. And that's your AoE.

I also suggest doing this on 1st or second pull at the beginning and after boss fight, so you'll have RS and Convert ready for the boss.

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Got it - terrific answer, thanks.

Where do you guys feel that BLMs stand these days, compared to summoners? SMN was fairly bad in 2.x, but now it seems they've taken the AoE crown, which obviously was what BLMs used to be all about. The double/triple flare is still pretty monstrous AoE damage though, and I'm guessing someone who has mastered Enochian can really lay down the single-target damage. Thoughts?

I'm kinda bias but I think besides AoE SMN damage is pretty garbage. They do a lot of DoT damage and have some burst with Fester/Painflare/Deathflare. And we can lay down 3-4 Fire 2's and then fire off 2-3 Flares. But as far as ST damage goes if we can go full on Fire 4 turret they'll never be able to catch up especially when I casually crit for 8k-9k crits.

I could never really get around it's gimpy pet system being a glorified DoT and just tacking on skills to pets for the SMN to use mostly one being a DoT extender and one a spike shield.

There's also the fact they only get a damage buff in their trance for 18 seconds which can't be extended while a BLM can have Enochian chains up for over 2 minutes at a time before a full refresh.

I finished my relic earlier this week, went 120 SS (obv) and 120 crit. I've never been much a fan of PIE builds.

However, my SS is quite high now (think 1109) and I find I burn through my mp pretty quick and am having to refresh first enoch when it still has quite a bit of time left on it. Is this something we just have to accept, or should we maybe look into packing in enough PIE to get off another fire IV? Or maybe hold leylines until 2nd/3rd generation enoch to allow me the same amount of casts in the shorter timer?

Well with enough spell speed, one should no longer need leylines.. since leylines> oh look attacks are going off were leylines is placed, lol
It is true that with higher ss you may need to adjust your rotation a bit, i also sit at over 1100, with food

As far as smn vs blm, smn is not overly horrible but nowhere near blm ST damage, they do have the slight edge on aoe

That was my line of thinking. With lower SS, leyline used to help me get my full opener off before enoch dropped, but now it feels like I burn through my opener and then just waste the remaining time on enoch by early refreshing

I see. It would be interesting to do the maths for BLM vs SMN on 5 and 10 targets over ~20 seconds and see what the end potency would be.

SMN probably wins by virtue of Deathflare not suffering damage reduction on multiple targets. More if it crits.

Basically it boils down to this and it's incredibly simple. The jobs are fairly balanced.

SMN is better at AoE, boss fights where there multiple enemies (A1 for example) because they can multi DoT, and also on fights with high movement because they have a ton of instant casts and oGCDs.

BLM is still great on AoE, especially if you're using RS + Convert + Max Ether. Their ST damage is much better when not as much movement is required.

So take A5-7. BLM should beat SMN on these fights because there isn't a whole lot of moment and the adds in them die quickly so multi-dotting isn't really a thing. But on A8, there is a ton of movement and with the whole add phase, multi-dotting could really allow SMN to shine. I haven't checked FFlogs, but my guess is you'd see BLM on top on 5-7, with SMN on top in 8

Does on ozma and calistoferi only drop the gear for casters for WC? I have the body but I want the arms. I have yet to see any other bosses drop any caster pieces.

Hi hi! First, thank you for such amazing guide, has helped me a lot to become a better BLM.

But, I have some doubts, I hope anyone of you can help me to resolve.

1) The guide mentions a potion, but what potion? At least what kind?

2) In the rotations section, the first rotation includes 4 FireIV before a free FireIII, then Swiftcast and Flare. Unfortunately, I can't recreate that. I don't have enough mana for the Flare. Am I doing something wrong? As the rotation says, I use x1 FireIII, x1 Fire, x4 FireIV.

Thanks ♥

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Originally Posted by Marianno

Does on ozma and calistoferi only drop the gear for casters for WC? I have the body but I want the arms. I have yet to see any other bosses drop any caster pieces.

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Boss 1 - Head, glove, belt
Boss 2 - Head, pants, boots
Boss 3 - Body, belt, boots
Boss 4 - Body, glove, pants

Do your shopping list !

I wish to have the body...
I saw the glove many time but can't change my lore one since i need extra acc that I lose with the midan belt...

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Originally Posted by Jaibamon

Hi hi! First, thank you for such amazing guide, has helped me a lot to become a better BLM.

But, I have some doubts, I hope anyone of you can help me to resolve.

1) The guide mentions a potion, but what potion? At least what kind?

2) In the rotations section, the first rotation includes 4 FireIV before a free FireIII, then Swiftcast and Flare. Unfortunately, I can't recreate that. I don't have enough mana for the Flare. Am I doing something wrong? As the rotation says, I use x1 FireIII, x1 Fire, x4 FireIV.

Thanks ♥

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Most likely they mean a potion to replenish mp, myself however in rotations i use Draconian Potions of Int for the added damage and HQ Sohm Al Tarts for food. Back in 2.X i would use Mega Ethers for 2x or triple flares
but i think Mega Ethers are no longer viable.
You can also use a sharpcast F1> F3> F4x3>F1> and so on, do note that sharpcasting a F1 will give you a Firestarter Proc, but do not use it right away.

As far as gear goes i am in the same predicament, because i guess at the time it was good but now having my pieces melded with V materia, i do not want to loose it, lol
I will need to wait until i can accumulate the materia back;

Nice :) thanks for this.

What is the *exact* accuracy cap for a8s? Somewhere between 600 and 605 I know, but I'm just wondering.

The cap for a8s is actually 592-593, there mightve been some confirmed misses at 592

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Originally Posted by Dworim

there mightve been some confirmed misses at 592

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Where did you see that?

I'm one of the people that currently runs with 592 accuracy, and I can confirm no misses in 2-3 months of A8S

Oh wow, much lower than I realised. I've always been waaaay over so have never really been able to check for misses. Interesting to know, thanks.

Where should I look for tips below max level? I'm only at 40, but still trying to do well.

Kinda the first thing I'm wondering is, having Blizzard III and Fire III, do these make Transpose slightly obsolete? Starting out, I had gotten used to Blizzard - Transpose - Fire... for low MP use to start with (plus the Heavy while solo seemed useful). But if B3/F3 are more efficient, I can see that shaking things up for me.

For Thunders, is it typically best to use T1 for cast time/MP conservation, and only use T3 (or T2 in my case) with Thundercloud? No Sharpcast yet, so, while I want to use T2 as the "better" skill, I can also see how it eats up a bit of extra time.

Finally, is there ever a place/use for Freeze? Blizzard II? Scathe? First 2 only if you're desperate for Bind maybe?

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

Where should I look for tips below max level? I'm only at 40, but still trying to do well.

Kinda the first thing I'm wondering is, having Blizzard III and Fire III, do these make Transpose slightly obsolete? Starting out, I had gotten used to Blizzard - Transpose - Fire... for low MP use to start with (plus the Heavy while solo seemed useful). But if B3/F3 are more efficient, I can see that shaking things up for me.

For Thunders, is it typically best to use T1 for cast time/MP conservation, and only use T3 (or T2 in my case) with Thundercloud? No Sharpcast yet, so, while I want to use T2 as the "better" skill, I can also see how it eats up a bit of extra time.

Finally, is there ever a place/use for Freeze? Blizzard II? Scathe? First 2 only if you're desperate for Bind maybe?

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My guide should be able to help answer any questions. If not, let me know.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...eR5uHMC8EiyGLI

Pretty useful, yeah, thanks. Mostly just confirms what I'd been feeling with current setup. Good call with Scathe being slightly useful with heavy movement.
Three or more targets, burn 'em all with Fire 2. Need to work on switching targets for extra Thunders, I think. Get those DoTs ticking as much as possible. Does Thunder ticking on multiple enemies increase the chances of Thundercloud proc?
Last thing: Sleep. When I play WHM I kinda like tossing those out for fun, make things a little easy maybe (if everyone lets them sleep). But I get the feeling that here it might be preferable to just burn everything and ignore sleep. More of a solo usage than anything, perhaps?

No since you got bliz 3 transpose is not obsolete you use it with flare, so as example flare> convert>swiftcast flare.
Freeze there is absolutely no real reason to use it, same as bliz 2, that would be of use much earlier on (Bliz 2)like low levels i mean. Scathe is very useful when movement is needed.
Sleep was another of those spells i used very very early on to help out with struggling tanks but mostly just for kicks as well.
PVP it has it's use i believe. I usually PVP as Ninja though

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

Pretty useful, yeah, thanks. Mostly just confirms what I'd been feeling with current setup. Good call with Scathe being slightly useful with heavy movement.
Three or more targets, burn 'em all with Fire 2. Need to work on switching targets for extra Thunders, I think. Get those DoTs ticking as much as possible. Does Thunder ticking on multiple enemies increase the chances of Thundercloud proc?
Last thing: Sleep. When I play WHM I kinda like tossing those out for fun, make things a little easy maybe (if everyone lets them sleep). But I get the feeling that here it might be preferable to just burn everything and ignore sleep. More of a solo usage than anything, perhaps?

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The BLM AoE rotation is just:
F3-F2-F2-F2-Flare-(convert-swiftcast-flare when off cooldown)-Transpose
F3-F2-F2-Flare-Transpose<-Repeat until dead (It's best if you switch targets to highest health mob occasionally so you're not burning one down too fast-ideally all the mobs die at the same time so you're not wasting DPS)
Don't bother with Thunder at all for 3+ mobs.

Sleep doesn't work at all at higher levels. Everything is immune, so remove it from your hotbar, same with freeze and B2.

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Originally Posted by Maero

No since you got bliz 3 transpose is not obsolete you use it with flare, so as example flare> convert>swiftcast flare.

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Originally Posted by FunkyBunch

The BLM AoE rotation is just:
F3-F2-F2-F2-Flare-(convert-swiftcast-flare when off cooldown)-Transpose

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You seem to have missed the "I'm only level 40" which would imply I don't have Flare yet.

When you run out of MP and need to Transpose that is when you use Freeze for AoE at those low levels. Plus Freeze has the boon of being Ground Target AoE meaning if a bum you were targeting dies then the spell will not be interrupted and will still cast.

If this change could be made to Fire 2 and Flare I'd be all for it. Embrace the glory of the Ground target macro magic.

I haven't tried a macro for those. Does the macro just auto-target whatever you set without the hassle of actually doing it yourself? But also that sounds like it may have been more useful before I got Blizzard 3. Will have to keep it in mind for syncing down, though. I can see how that would be useful...

Also, following up on the previous tips, my new rotation is certainly different. Before, my Astral and Umbral stages would be about equal, as Transpose seemed necessary, or at least efficient, to switch between them. But with Blizzard 3 and Fire 3, I've only got a very short period in Umbral now before I'm back to full and can switch back. This is fascinating to me. I can't think of any other classes that have so significantly changed their rotation while leveling. All the others usually feel like just getting a new skill to add to it (or ignore), but this is a massive shift. I love it. I'm a little disappointed in myself that I didn't see the change as it happened, but at least I recognized that things were changing.

When you get BLM up levels things will change and then if you ever have to sync down you'll be "well this sucks". And it kinda does. Once you have Bliz3/Fire 3 you'll only mostly keep Transpose for Flare come lvl 50 or if you made the worst mistake of your MP management life.

Oh and once you hit 50 I highly recommend mouseover macro's for Aetherial Manipulation. Really good ability.

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Originally Posted by MagiusNecros

When you get BLM up levels things will change and then if you ever have to sync down you'll be "well this sucks". And it kinda does. Once you have Bliz3/Fire 3 you'll only mostly keep Transpose for Flare come lvl 50 or if you made the worst mistake of your MP management life.

Oh and once you hit 50 I highly recommend mouseover macro's for Aetherial Manipulation. Really good ability.

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Transpose is used for more than Flare. Transpose should be used when you have a Firestarter while in Umbral Ice.

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Originally Posted by Garotte14

Transpose is used for more than Flare. Transpose should be used when you have a Firestarter while in Umbral Ice.

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Oh ho so I still have some things to learn. I wager it's for the stronger Fire 3 under AF1 correct?