Am I missing something? The game doesn't feel ... fun

I wanted to give an update on the situation since a lot has changed imo and other newbies should read this since I seem to have had up a common first impression. :-)

Firstly: Thank you all for your help - especially the people who helped with spell rotations.

I have been playing the game for 6 days now and BOY, did the job become more fun as levels passed by. I'm currently lv 46, didn't really rush (taking my time with the story and site-seeing while not being on a "road to 70" server) and Black Mage is already the best mage class I have played in any game so far. There are two reasons for that:
1.) You constantly have to manage your fire/ice stance later on which becomes a lot less annoying thanks to later ice/fire spells pumping you up to ice/fire attunment 3 instantly (which in the case of fire attunment 3 works literally wonders for my damage)
2.) The passives that BLM get are downright gamechangers. You constantly get to cast Fire3 and Thunder spells for free without cast times which pushes the damage even higher. The amount of explosions and thunder i summon is already huuuge at lv 46. While I didn't see my impact in dungeons before, i sure see it now.
3.) I had a peek at spells and passives to come and OH BOY is this gonna be good. Zooming around the battlefield, even bigger explosions and added BLM mechanics will make me VERY happy that I stuck with this class.
4.) The dungeons get (of course) a lot more interesting and managing my spells while dodging stuff is really taxing but also very rewarding.

If you started BLM and found it feels kinda boring, trust me: It gets A LOT better very fast.

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So I'm playing blackmage and nothing makes sense to me. I'm supposed to be a damage dealer but when I did my first dungeon a minute ago, it felt like torture because my impact was abyssmal. We had a paladin (so defensive tank, right?) who just killed everything on its own and I was standing there casting some fireballs and felt like a total idiot. Every minion feels like a grind in general, the casting is always the same and feels waaaaay too slow (considering how much damage my spells do).

Maybe I have chosen the wrong class? I looked up what BM is going to get (in terms of spells) and they all read the same (saying very bland).

first off what level are you

and most importantly what Are you doing? Black mage is the actual highest damage dps (maybe on par with samurai)

you might also have bad gear, so even doing your rotation well it greatly affects your damage. you should be upgrading your gear every 5 levels, and your weapon is your more important piece of gear too so upgrade that first

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Originally Posted by QooEr

first off what level are you

and most importantly what Are you doing? Black mage is the actual highest damage dps (maybe on par with samurai)

you might also have bad gear, so even doing your rotation well it greatly affects your damage. you should be upgrading your gear every 5 levels, and your weapon is your more important piece of gear too so upgrade that first

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As my profile on the left suggests: I'm a level 16 Thaumaturg and I have level 15 equipment. I have basically been spamming Fire non-stop for the past hours, using Ice to regain MP and occasionally used Lightning on enemies with high HP (eventhough I'm not sure that it makes a real difference dps-wise?!). This is way more boing than any other mage character in any game I have ever played ... or so it feels right now :-/ I feel really discouraged eventhough I really want to play BGM in this game ....

I think I'm just frustrated because I really thought that my damage in that first pirate's den dungeon should have been higher when I couldn't see my spells making any difference in reality. All that mattered was that paladin and the priest healing him. I did something like 1/20 dmg to trash mob's health bar with one fire while the everyone else attacking did waaaay more.

I have played BLM in all expansions and although it can be slightly awkward at certain levels it is overall a fantastic job that is very powerful and fun to play - and one that Yoshi-P himself plays!

Remember BLM shines in dungeons on AoE vs packs of enemies. Even at lower levels you have Fire 2, Thunder 2 and Blizzard 2. Things get a lot better once you get Flare and Freeze.

Remember astral fire is your main damage phase and spell potency increases with your stacks of astral fire. At low level you will be using fire2 on groups and fire on single targets, taking advantage of fire3 and thunder procs.

Take the time to practice your spell rotation and you will find it can become very smooth and powerful.

I also play BLM exclusively in frontline and rival wings pvp and it is great against packs of enemy players standing near an objective. Downside is you are very easy to kill so you need to be careful.

With the way power creep has settled in in this game its entirely possible the paladin was out damaging you as youre a new player with worse gear and with tanks rebalancing they do a lot of damage at lower levels now, your impact will pick up later but most importantly remember to use your aoe skills, theyll be where most of your impact will come from.

To reiterate: gear makes a huge difference. Upgrade your gear. Use BLM gear with int, direct hit, spell speed and crit. Don't forget accessories. Meld materia to power up your gear. HQ gear helps if you can buy it or craft it yourself. Get an HQ weapon. Eat food for xp and ability bonuses.

The PLD may have lv80 gear being level synced down in Sastasha. Don't sweat it - take time to get used to the job, and keep upgrading your gear. Also you can practice on your own in FATEs in the open world, on hunting log and other enemies in the open world, and on practice dummies.

Also don't forget you can auto attack with your staff and that actually can add a tiny bit if damage.

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Originally Posted by Avenger

Also don't forget you can auto attack with your staff and that actually can add a tiny bit if damage.

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You can edit your replies instead of repeatedly posting new replies, editing also bypasses post text limit

Ya'll not seeing he's not technically a blm yet and none of that stat stuff really matters til he's at /least/ 50+.

THM is a slow class to get into. Once you get 30 and are a proper BLM, it picks up some. The main meat of the class is to balance not just fire and ice, but also upkeep on thunder (so thunder is a BIG DEAL even at low levels. It doesn't seem like a lot now, but damage over time adds up!). It's a glass canon at higher levels, but right now you're a squishy mage.

If you're not enjoying the class, however, once MSQ allows you to go to different cities freely, you can always try a different class. If you want something that hits fast and hard, there's Pugilist -> Monk. If you prefer casters, at the moment you have THM/BLM, and ACN/SMN from Limsa. Once you get higher up, you can also unlock Red Mage.

Also before I get fire under my ass, updating your gear IS important, even for low levels, but grabbing HQ or "top of the level tier" gear is worthless. If you have Road to 70 buff, you'll out level it way too quickly. Pick up upgrades where you can, but don't stress it.

I just started levelling BLM myself, and my fiance running WHM was doing triple my damage.
I wasn't geared up for my level.
She had end game raiding gear.
Don't worry OP, the early game is just jank like that.

One nice thing about ffxiv is that there are tons of jobs to play. I like BLM a lot but if you want to feel invincible at lower level try a melee dps or tank. Or cnj/whm. :)

Are you switching between fire/ice states with Transpose? If not then you're bringing your damage to a halt each time you need to switch.

But yeah, gear scaling is weird and the gap between you and max-level players will get smaller over time.

BLM feels really slow early on and has the wonkiest progression of any class (most classes continually build on their rotation as you level up, while BLM's rotation outright changes multiple times until you hit 60).

Once you hit 60, it starts to settle into it's proper rotation and feels better and only gets better from there. BLM also has one of the longer start up periods since it's the only class that hardcasts nearly all of it's skills.

Things will get better very soon for you as BLM. At level 18 you will get Fire II which is AoE damage and you'll be killing things faster than the tank. The only reason the tank is doing more than you when you're level 15 is that tanks get their AoE at level 10 in order to be able to tank groups of mobs at all levels and AoE almost always trumps single target on groups of mobs. Once you get yours you'll feel more powerful.

Edit: And yes, Blizzard II is technically AoE, but unless the tank is pulling multiple packs at a time with like 6+ mobs, spamming it won't do more damage than your single target Fire spell since the potency is so low.

Thanks for all your replies.

I was actually thinking trying Red Mage later on.

I think I'll also give the class another chance - at least until lv 40 after I have played the real Blackmage class for a bit. I have also noticed that I haven't gotten any passives yet. Maybe that stacking fire attunment will make the difference?!
I hate giving up :-P I was just really frustrated.

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Originally Posted by Swimfan91

Thanks for all your replies.

I was actually thinking trying Red Mage later on.

I think I'll also give the class another chance - at least until lv 40 after I have played the real Blackmage class for a bit. I have also noticed that I haven't gotten any passives yet. Maybe that stacking fire attunment will make the difference?!
I hate giving up :-P I was just really frustrated.

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When you get to the point where you have 3 Astral Fire stacks from the two Magick and Mend traits you will notice a big difference. Having 3 of these stacks up on you gives an 80% boost to your fire damage spells. And that's on top of the base damage increase that the trait Magick and Mend also provides just from itself. It's why looking at the numbers on the tooltips doesn't really give a good idea at how much damage a BLM can output.

tbf blm actually starts at level 60 >_>

Low levels are not very fun in quite a few jobs... just hang on :)

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Originally Posted by Swimfan91

Thanks for all your replies.

I was actually thinking trying Red Mage later on.

I think I'll also give the class another chance - at least until lv 40 after I have played the real Blackmage class for a bit. I have also noticed that I haven't gotten any passives yet. Maybe that stacking fire attunment will make the difference?!
I hate giving up :-P I was just really frustrated.

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The stacks really do add up. At level 40 with full(3) stacks your Fire 1 spell(its the spell you spam until 60 for single target) is actually a potency 421 hit. Then the level 42 trait makes it sometimes(40%) proc a free insta-cast of Fire 3 at potency 561(this isnt your spamming spell though because it costs 2.5 times as much mana and casts slower). At max level, your spamming spell(Fire 4) is coming in with a potency over 800. You said you didnt feel the impact of your spells. As a Black Mage levels they feel this impact more and more strongly. I can be fighting a 24 man raid boss with millions of hp, but when i land a solid crit the health bar drops a noticable amount. Regular dungeon bosses? Even my light hits move the bar.

Oh, and dont sleep on your thunder spells. Even at your level, a Thunder 1 that lasts its full duration is the equivalent of a potency 270 hit. Thats stronger then a Fire 1, just spread over 18 seconds(it also keeps going, even if the target goes off screen or you have to stop attacking for some reason). A really strong use would be to cast Thunder while in your ice stance recovering mana, then transpose back to fire(when you have the mana) and let it do its thing. The level 28 trait makes this even more important, because every server tick you have a thunder dot running you have a chance to proc an even stronger thunder.

In the end you may find another class is right for you. But this class has yet to show you its true potential.

I actually started to notice a difference right after I got my second stack at level 20.

Just to clarify and to see if I got the job so far:
I start with Thunder for big mobs, burn stuff into the ground with Fire and switch to Ice to get MP by using that insta spell that switches attunment. After I filled my MP, I exchange my ice stacks for 1 fire stack and repeat?

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Originally Posted by Swimfan91

I actually started to notice a difference right after I got my second stack at level 20.

Just to clarify and to see if I got the job so far:
I start with Thunder for big mobs, burn stuff into the ground with Fire and switch to Ice to get MP by using that insta spell that switches attunment. After I filled my MP, I exchange my ice stacks for 1 fire stack and repeat?

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if i remember if you cast fire on umbral you just remove the umbral stack so i think you first use the insta attunement spell and then start casting fire. but dont quote me on that

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Originally Posted by Swimfan91

I actually started to notice a difference right after I got my second stack at level 20.

Just to clarify and to see if I got the job so far:
I start with Thunder for big mobs, burn stuff into the ground with Fire and switch to Ice to get MP by using that insta spell that switches attunment. After I filled my MP, I exchange my ice stacks for 1 fire stack and repeat?

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That's the basic idea, with incremental adjustments as you hit certain milestones. As you level, the AoE rotation changes quite a bit more than the single target rotation, and we could go on for pages and pages about the AoE rotations.

As for single target, which is much more straightforward to explain, here are level-specific rotations if you care to read them.


Through Lv33:

----(Arriving in Ice mode: start here)
Thunder
Blizzard until full MP and Transpose ready
Transpose into Fire
----(Arriving in Fire mode: start here)
Fire spam until OOM
Transpose into Ice
Repeat

Transpose between pulls to keep an element up, so you can just jump in with Firespam or Thunder-Transpose-Firespam as soon as you get to the next encounter.

Lv28+: Thunder ticks have a chance to proc a free+instant Thunder that does its normal damage and is also front-loaded for its full DoT damage. The instant version is your most powerful spell if it gets even just a few ticks in. Normal version does 30 direct + 240 DoT = 270 total. Thundercloud proc is 30 direct + 240 direct + 240 DoT = 510 total if it ticks for the full amount. Later, Thunder III is even better (710 max). Use this throughout all levels.

Lv34:

Thunder
Blizzard until full MP
Fire III (puts you at max Fire stacks immediately--no need to Transpose into Fire anymore)
Fire I spam until OOM (not Fire III)
Transpose into Ice
Repeat

Fire III takes 40% longer to cast than Fire I but only does 33% more damage, so spamming Fire III is a damage loss. Only use it to switch immediately from Ice/NoElement directly to full Fire stacks.

Lv35-Lv39:

Freeze (puts you at max Ice stacks immediately)
Thunder
Blizzard until full MP
Fire III
Fire I spam. Save enough MP for Freeze!
Repeat

If you drop below the MP cost for Freeze, you'll have to Transpose, which is something we want to learn to avoid from now on.

For AoE, basically just put up Thunder II and then spam Freeze forever. No more fire spells for AoE until you can cast Flare.

Lv40-Lv57:

Blizzard III (puts you at max Ice stacks immediately, more single target damage than Freeze)
Thunder
Fire III
Fire I spam. Save enough MP for Blizzard III!
Repeat

At Lv40 you also get your third stack of Fire/Ice, which boosts Fire spells by 80% over the listed potency. From Lv42 on, Fire I can also proc free+instant Fire III. Use when available.

And it remains basically unchanged until the just-slightly-more-involved rotation that comes with Enochian and tier IV spells, which you can worry about later if you find the +80% fire spell boost satisfying enough to continue playing the job.

Rongway with all the details i didnt bother to type up. He = 100% right.

I updated the topic after I stuck with BLM for 5 more days(?) now.

Thanks for all your tips.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Swimfan91

I wanted to give an update on the situation since a lot has changed imo and other newbies should read this since I seem to have had up a common first impression. :-)

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Glad to hear that its speaking to you more now that youre farther in. I would just add for any other new player potentially reading this, every class is the same in this regard. What i mean is, every class starts out pressing one or two buttons. Everything is slow at the beginning, battles right outside the city gate as the freshest of sprouts are always kinda the same. Every class gets more nuanced and complex. New attacks get added as you level, traits get added that enhance or change what your old attacks can do. By end game levels, every class has unique mechanics and they all play at least a little differently from each other. A samurai might do similar damage to a black mage, but they dont go about it in the same way at all.