Lets talk about the BLM job skills

Alright, so i have been leveling up my BLM and i never really looked at the skills i would get for becoming a BLM. I just hit level 35 and got my second skill and was able to check out what my third skill would be, which left me feeling very disappointed.

After seeing my first three skills, i thought to myself "i don't think i will be using these skills ever." So i went and checked out my other skills they all felt very underwhelming.
so lets talk about them a little bit.

lvl30: Convert - Sacrifices 20% of maximum HP to restore 30% of MP.
Cannot be executed when current HP is lower than 20%.

This skill seems to only be worthwhile to get about 1 extra fire spell off before switching back to Ice, to be honest this skill would be amazing if it didn't have a 180 second CD, but with that long CD i find myself thinking its not even worth remembering to use.

lvl35: Freeze - Covers a designated area in ice, dealing ice damage with a potency of 20 and binding enemies that enter.
Duration: 15s
Additional Effect: Grants Umbral Ice or removes Astral Fire
Duration: 10s

Now this skill at first seems like it is a amazing tool to pull with, Which it is until you get level 36(one level after) where you get the trait called Deep Sleep, which pretty make make using Sleep better every time to pull. I'm sure this skill could come in handy but it still seems like it will collect a lot of dust on my action bar.

Lvl40: Apocatastasis - Increases a Disciple of War or Magic party member's resistance to fire, ice, and lightning by 30%.
Duration: 12s
Cannot be reused on an individual for 60 seconds from when the effect wears off. Cannot be cast on self.

Oh cool a defense skill that we can't even use on ourself, guess were taking up a support role now. This skill seems like it might make us wanted in some raid groups and might very much come in handy on some fights endgame, but seems like it a skill a paladin should have or some other class. 120 second CD on this skill has well.

lvl45: Manawall - Creates a barrier that nullifies two physical attacks.
Duration: 60s

Alright, another defense CD we got here, but this time its to use on ourself. Two physical attacks and 120 second CD, i don't even really know what to think of this skill, it just all around seems like a PvP skill or something i would rarely use

lvl50: Flare - Deals fire damage with a potency of 260 to a target and enemies near it.
Additional Effect: Grants Astral Fire III or removes Umbral Ice Duration: 10s

Flare, probably the shinning hope of all the BLM skill, something i can finally work into my rotation and isn't on a long CD. Now this skill cost ALL of your MP and has a 4.5 second cast time, but i can see myself easily fitting it into my rotation by using it right before i switch back into Umbral Ice.

Now considering chances are you will only be using this skill every time you are about Transpose from Astral Fire to Umbral Ice to regain MP, i find the damage(260 potency) seems to be very underwhelming considering the amount of times you will cast it in a fight.

So what do you guys think.?

Credit to all the information in this thread goes to http://www.ffxivinfo.com/job/black-mage.php ( thanks for the awesome information)



yea only allowed 1000 character per post (i don't know so sorry about the multi post, makes it a little easier to read i guess)

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Originally Posted by Konnect

I was actually looking forward to Freeze, but as you said deep sleep makes it hmmm

useless? It would be cool if it had heavy or slow effect but that would be asking to much since Blizzard II has

no effect outside a 2 sec bind and Blizzard III has no effect at all. Blizzard I is the Ice ability that

actually applies the slow effect.

Come to think of it Blizzard III is the only tier 3 ice ability in gaming history without an actually effect

of any kind.

What is the point in going BLM anyways, is it a substantial buff to thm or is it just for looks? I love thm,

its the only class that feels like I have some control over the battlefield while doing stupid damage. If

archer had an actually ability that binds longer than 10 secs it would be my choice because of the movement and

shooting at the same time. Maybe not, haven't seen one in any dungeon dishing out great damage compared to

thm.

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Yeah, i was kinda thinking the only reason we go BLM is for the title and to acess the job restricted gear

endgame, seems like staying THM and getting cross class ability would be far superior to ever being a black

mage. Our BLM job skill seem very underwhelming(or maybe i was expecting to much?).

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Originally Posted by Magnesium02

After you post initially, you can edit your post and add more than 1000 chars ;)

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haha thanks for the informaton, that would had been very good to know before i made these post because now i am

out of my daily posts.

I was actually looking forward to Freeze, but as you said deep sleep makes it hmmm useless? It would be cool if it had heavy or slow effect but that would be asking to much since Blizzard II has no effect outside a 2 sec bind and Blizzard III has no effect at all. Blizzard I is the Ice ability that actually applies the slow effect.

Come to think of it Blizzard III is the only tier 3 ice ability in gaming history without an actually effect of any kind.

What is the point in going BLM anyways, is it a substantial buff to thm or is it just for looks? I love thm, its the only class that feels like I have some control over the battlefield while doing stupid damage. If archer had an actually ability that binds longer than 10 secs it would be my choice because of the movement and shooting at the same time. Maybe not, haven't seen one in any dungeon dishing out great damage compared to thm.

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Originally Posted by Isirus

yea only allowed 1000 character per post (i don't know so sorry about the multi post, makes it a little easier to read i guess)

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After you post initially, you can edit your post and add more than 1000 chars ;)

Hmm, well after looking at what you posted, i have found some useful things you can do with those spells/skills.


This is just my opinion, since i dont have BLM leveled, i am just going off the skills pictures/descriptions.



First thing you can do to utilize convert/flare, well it says flare uses all your mp, so have 20/2000 mp is still all your mp right?
So you could potentially use a bunch of Fire spells, use convert, then fire spells then flare. Then use transpose and cast blizzard while your mana regens.


Next thing you can do to utilize apocatastasis is to cast it on the tank(or yourself) without consciously casting it yourself.
You can do this with the help of macros! I have a small discussion about macros here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...nd-commands%21


An example of a macro like this, on say your blizzard III spell would be:

/macroicon "Blizzard III" <--- this shows your blizzard 3 spell/mp cost/combo/cooldown/whatever lol.
/ac "Apocatastasis" <tt>> <-- this will cast apocatastasis on the target of the target, so when you have an enemy selected it will cast it on who ever has aggro.
/ac "Blizzard III" <t> <-- will cast blizzard 3 on target lol but apocatastasis will take priority of it is ready to cast since it is above blizzard 3 in the macro.

Same thing can be done with manawall, you can add it in like:

/macroicon "Blizzard III"
/ac "Apocatastasis" <tt>
/ac "Manawall" <me>
/ac "Blizzard III" <t>


For Freeze, for what it does, an aoe bind + dot, it just a situational spells, can use before aoe or w/e idk, id have to test it to see if its worth it to use for the DoT or not.

For me, looking at it, i think this should have been a 120seconds or higher ability that you can use instead of an mp costing spell... for what it does anyways.






TLDR: Freeze doesnt look worth it, found a way to use the rest of the spells/skills efficiently. Also, Galka WHM. lol low mp.

If you use black mage you drop the cross-class skill of blood for blood which is like 20 or 25 percent more damage and one of the other skills(Internal Release) that gives you plus 20 or 30 percent crit rate. In its place you get a set of skills that are practically worthless for a dps especially in a party. From what I heard you have to have at least 250mp to use Flare and the long cast time makes it not all that worth it, especially for your level 50 spell.

The main thing I'm disappointed in is that it seems like every other job gives you skills that really seem to represent the style of that job. Dragoon gets all its cool jumps and what not, White mage gets massive heals, Monk gets more martial arts moves, Pally get's great tank moves etc... and then you have Black Mage, I don't know about you but my idea of a Black Mage has never been a support class. You're supposed to get ancient magic like meteo and demi and ultima and what not. Even if those skills were not super useful or had long cast times or CD's I would still appreciated them more. Honestly unless the equipment makes you play Black Mage I will probably just play Thaum at level 50.

Also swiftcast seems to waste time where I could be casting my next spell. By the time the animation is finished and because of GCD I have saved like maybe .5 seconds in a rotation.

Also, Aetherial Manipulation? That's my level 50 spell? What am I possibly going to do with that? It's like, oh level 50! You made it! Here's a pile of useless crap!

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Originally Posted by Xarathustra

If you use black mage you drop the cross-class skill of blood for blood which is like 20 or 25 percent more damage and one of the other skills(Internal Release) that gives you plus 20 or 30 percent crit rate. In its place you get a set of skills that are practically worthless for a dps especially in a party. From what I heard you have to have at least 250mp to use Flare and the long cast time makes it not all that worth it, especially for your level 50 spell.

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The system designers of the game are pretty bad. A lot of primal sins of system design in Hotbar/GCD MMOs have already shown up ("'dead' buttons" and "'normal advancement' being a potential detriment" being the big ones). What's worse is I think if we had damage formula for spells, we'd be seeing a lot of other problems. Once I hit 50, I'll start running some aggressive testing to see if I'm right, but I'm not so sure there isn't some problems with the rotation that are introduced because of bad system design. That however is in the 'to be determined' column.

I'd really like to have a conversation with the guys who are in charge of these kinds of decisions and would like to know what the plan is with the inclusion of things like Convert on a 3 minute cooldown, because nothing else in the THM/BLM package makes any sense at all with that. Unless Manawall is purely a PvP spell, (in which case, that's fine), what's the point of having an ability that nullifies damage if you can't drop threat? Ideas like that are really rough around the edges, and in Manawall's case, it's "...and reduces threat by 50% on current target" away from being a situational spell that isn't bad at all.

I don't know what to think. A lack of focus seems really evident with the class, like 3 people all designed 3 different parts of the BLM in separate rooms and smashed it all together and said "SHIP IT".

So BLM is a complete dissapointment (ability-wise)? That makes me really sad.

Looks like im going to be an Bad Luck Mage.. D:

I'm hoping end game gear makes up for the useless skill set :(.

I was planing to have BLM as my main but....sigh..

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Originally Posted by NeoAmon

I'm hoping end game gear makes up for the useless skill set :(.

I was planing to have BLM as my main but....sigh..

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Yea me too, THM got some awesome abilites. But BLM is nothing i'm looking forward to :/

.. and besides all that, you look like a total retard compared to DoW classes. (1-30, except acolyte set und Jedi robe)

So why not just 50 THM and pick and choose the best skills from various other classes? BLM does look disappointing.

I dont think the black mage abilities are as bad as u guys think. Convert has the same CD as Raging Strikes and it gives me enough mana to be able to spam fire for the entire 20 sec. Flare may only be 260 with a 4.5 sec cast but its affected by the 30% increased base action damage from Magick and Mend 2 plus the extra damage from 3 stacks of astral fire. Its gonna hit like a fleet of trucks. I havent been able to find anywhere that confirms a minimum mana cost for Flare.

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Originally Posted by Tessman

I'd really like to have a conversation with the guys who are in charge of these kinds of decisions and would like to know what the plan is with the inclusion of things like Convert on a 3 minute cooldown, because nothing else in the THM/BLM package makes any sense at all with that.

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Yea one of my main thoughts has well with the convert skill. Convert has potential to be a really amazing skill, its CD though is way to long. Say if it was on a 4-6 second CD it would make a lot more sense because we could potentially stay in Astral Fire for however long has we want, has long has our healer is ok with healing us. Would make it a lot more interesting and give us something fun to work around with, but with the current CD on the skill makes it almost pointless.

But i agree that our skills are all very lacking and not exciting at all, beside of course Flare. Flare is the one skill that actually looks like it wont collect a epic amount of dust on my action bar.

Well so far i'm not finding it too bad, deep sleep is very good and i'm using it ALOT!

But as far as our other abilities go apocatastasis i have actually used a lot, i have used it on the Garuda fight and it seemed to make a different using it on our healer or tank.

Manawall i can see me using a lot, as a BLM we pull incredible DPS and damage numbers at level 45 criting with Fire III 1200+, you will pull hate from tanks in dungeons, i can pretty much guarantee, if your not close to pulling hate your doing it wrong ;). So pull hate big mob heading your way lets say a boss which is doing magic damage thats fine you can pop the magic version of Manawall (Forget its name ><) physical attacks, pop Manawall that should give your tank time to gain the hate back but also time for the healer to heal your ass and get you back into the fight! So i see these as pretty nice skills.

(Post split into three posts, last is on the next page!)

The ice skill i have used maybe once? Deep sleep is good but I haven't used it twice or three times in a row, so diminishing returns may come into play (If theres such a thing here, I haven't noticed) in which case after sleep can't be cast and you still need to keep something at some range to finish it off or stop yourself getting overwhelmed you have Freeze as that little extra CC (Don't use it on casters though as it only binds, it wont stop them casting on you!)

Convert i haven't used at all, you could use it maybe like someone said to get that extra fire off to see if your proc your free Fire III but other than that i just swap to Umbral Ice. I think i read that someone also mentioned Blizzard III not giving the heavy effect, I'm not finding that an issue if i need to heavy something then use Blizzard I if not Blizzard III is your go to spell for Dungeons, Raids and Bosses :)

Last but not least is Flare, as i'm not 50 yet i don't really know anything about the spell where it could/would come into my rotation if it would at all and the other question which i don't know the answer to is "Is there a minimum amount of mana you need to have to cast it?" I could maybe see myself using it with next to no mana left using Swiftcast to make it instant then Transpose to get my mana back. But this is something i will have to test :)

Getting close to 50 now will most likely reach it this weekend hopefully tonight or tomorrow! But, We don't know what raiding is going to be like or any of the end game content, so it could well be we find a lot of use for these spells in the end game content (or at least i hope so!)

Hope this was helpful :D

Damn forums and the 1000 word limit! </3

Cheers,
Rain_Clouud (Jarfers)

Weren't you supposed to get a mana pool increase for being a black mage?
" Specializing as a Black Mage serves to further strengthen class characteristics and also increases MP. Black Mages are able to invoke devastating spells of ancient magic and subdue multiple enemies with a single cast." From the lodestone

Are there passive buffs for the job that I'm missing? "Stregthen class characteristics" sounds like a trait that increases damage, but it could just be the added spells. "Increases MP" is much more clear. In fact, there's no mistaking it. So, did they remove that?

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Originally Posted by Allyrion

Weren't you supposed to get a mana pool increase for being a black mage?
" Specializing as a Black Mage serves to further strengthen class characteristics and also increases MP. Black Mages are able to invoke devastating spells of ancient magic and subdue multiple enemies with a single cast." From the lodestone

Are there passive buffs for the job that I'm missing? "Stregthen class characteristics" sounds like a trait that increases damage, but it could just be the added spells. "Increases MP" is much more clear. In fact, there's no mistaking it. So, did they remove that?

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It is not a trait. The job crystal changes your stats when you equip it. All your traits come from the class tree.

I guess I understand why you'd want to infuse the class with a bit more survivability at the higher levels. Especially if it's really just dealing out the damage and will gain enmity often.

At the same time...I'd kind like splitting it up to a real "glass cannon" black mage I think it'd be fun to just have a real balls-to-the-walls DPSer that's constantly threatening to pull agro and get dominated.

and a "tanky" mage (anyone play diablo 3 and do the Melee/Iceskin/crit-proc thing with the wizard, crazy fun)?

I think the base class (THM) is very solid, but BLM doesn't add anything meaningful to it so I find that very disappointing, the skills seem random and with very little sinergy between them.