The Ultimate Black Mage Resources with Damage Calculator

[NeoAmon]

Hi guys I just need a confirmation about caster ACC cap.
In the google spreadsheet it say 432 is the minimum accuracy for T5, is this for twintania alone or for the all turn? (add ect ...)
Neoamon I think you said in a old thread that 436 is the minimum (maybe some week ago)

Could you please give me some info on that?

Anyway I like to read this topic, I find it very useful for my BLM optimization! thank you guys for all the hard work !

432 I believe will get you 99%-100%, I used 430 last week and I missed 3 Fire I attacks out of like 183~ Fire I cast in T5.

As for the Acc for other turns, I think T4 & T5 are the same cap, while T1 & T2 are lower. If my memory does not betray me I think long time ago I did T1 with 417 Acc and did not miss.

[Hitome]

After running some parses with ACT, I'm actually pleased with where we stand. MNKs and SMNs will still beat us on fights like Twin but only by a percentage point or two. And some of these players currently have better gear than I with their Allagan weapons so I'm actually OK with where BLM stands.

Want to hear a funny story?

So I ran coil on Hitome on Saturday. We got double pants on turn 1, tank pants on turn 2...so you'd expect pants on turn 4 right? Nope: melee and BRD stuff. A lance from Twin along with BRD belt.

I ran it again today on Hitome. All accessories in every single turn excluding the guaranteed weapon from Twin (SCH book again).

Now here's the funny part: my alt (Hito Yu) just started running coil. I ran T1-2 on Saturday with a PUG and saw caster boots.

After Hitome's turn 1-5 today, I ran Hito Yu's turn 1-5 after and guess which piece of loot decided to show itself? Caster pants. Know what class Hito Yu is? A MNK.

5 freaking months of coil and it drops for my alt's MNK. :|

Do I feel happy? Sad? Overjoyed that this is the 2nd pair of pants in the entire FC (4 coil groups) in 4 months? lol

[NeoAmon]

I tested T1-T4 SS Build last night. Have not done T5 due to our static SMN being away, will do it later.

Before I start, keep in mind I do play with 315 ping, I was casting Fire I faster than the server could update my mana.

The build I tested was BiS except the Neck, everything else was the same as Puro BiS.

Normally, on my Crit BiS, missing the pants and belt I do 290-310 DPS on stand still fights such as T1. This is quite constant and the 20~ DPS influx is usually controlled by Foe & RNG. On SS Build, I was doing 20-30 DPS less than Crit Build on T1 & T4.

I do understand that many have reported good DPS on SS gear. However, I have yet to see an ACT screenshot of SS build. Taking a leap of faith I would say, this is due to my ping and so I can't use SS as good as others with less ping than 150.

My current recommendation is always going to be Crit BiS until something change. I honestly can't recommend SS at all since I have never scored as low as I did yesterday with SS.

T1- 265 DPS SS Build Vs 291 DPS Crit Build from last week (week before that it was 309 DPS)
T2- Magic res route. Same DPS.
T4- 325 DPS SS Build Vs 356 DPS Crit build from last week.

Edit: There is also the possibility that I'm just a baddie, so keep an open mind and test for yourself. What might not work for me might work for you very well.
Edit 2: My intentions are just to be helpful and provide data that any BLM could use. I'm really not trying to discredit anyone or be a dick -_-.

[Kenji1134]

Hmm, quick question about your SS and Crit gear sets, and request sorta.

I havent done much tweaking/playing with my damage equation in a month, grad school and all, so Im just going to use my older weights.

So, using the following weights, ignoring WD, should be the same...
Int = 1
Det = 0.2638
Speed = 0.2201
Crit = 0.1903

Multiply your stats in each gear set by the appropriate weights and sum them up. Perhaps the Crit set is better because the net weight of the set is just higher.

IDK, the issue with some of these "stack X over everything else" sets is that they are not necessarily optimal in an absolute sense. Sure more crits are nice. Sure faster casts are nice. Sure more base damage is nice... But if one item is just, worse, than another, then dont use it simply for the sake of sticking to the "theme" of your set.

[Sleigh]

After running some parses with ACT, I'm actually pleased with where we stand. MNKs and SMNs will still beat us on fights like Twin but only by a percentage point or two. And some of these players currently have better gear than I with their Allagan weapons so I'm actually OK with where BLM stands.

Warning: QQ post about BLM I've been meaning to share my thoughts on.

At the risk of sounding like one of those guys who always feels their character should be buffed, I'm pretty underwhelmed by BLM as a whole. Our ST damage is just a bit worse than other classes (worst of all DPS in EMPs, and only better than BRD in BC), our multi-DoT damage is non-existent so something like T1's snake split or Ifrit's EM's nail phase helps SMN and BRD while we gain nothing, and while we do shine in AoE very well, for many reasons, there's not that much AoE in the high end content to do (major exceptions being T4 and small but significant portions of T5). Some people may be thinking, BLM procs are sick, you guys are the burstiest class in the game! Eh ... not really. All the other DPS get some pretty amazing non-GCD attacks and buffs, all of which are able to be used more often than our 3m cooldown Raging Strikes. We basically get one Swiftcast to burn every minute, while everyone else can store up 1,000+ damage worth of non-GCDs.

I think BLM is too niched right now in optimal play, especially since i90 overgears content. Most fights you'd be better off with a SMN or melee than BLM, since they do more damage, and BLM utility is too situational: Sleep doesn't work in end-game, LOLFreeze, and Lethargy doesn't work on anything noteworthy except Garuda and Dreadknights. I'd say the biggest thing we lack is synergy with other classes, a debuff/buff to distinguish the need for us to get brought. BLM gets buffed by Foe's Requiem, that's it - BRD buffs all classes and gets buffed by DRG; DRG buffs BRD and technically itself (though it doesn't matter); MNK buffs itself by letting non-Dragon Kick users use Bootshine indefinitely, and brings about a nigh permanent INT debuff. SMN is the closest thing to BLM, since they only get buffed by BRD (and technically MNK with other pets, but eh) but even they bring about more raid utility than us with battle resurrection, more constant E4E usage, they get dibs on Virus since theirs is Supervirus, and they have the similar ability BLM has to Slow/Heavy their opponents. It doesn't help that due to how DoTs snapshot and how Contagion works, SMN gets quite a bit more use out of Foe's than us.

Imagine if BLM had their PvP skill Phantom Dart, "Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 120. Additional Effect: Reduces target's elemental resistances by 10% for 15s." That'd be a reason to bring BLM in fights without AoE: an irreplaceable skill by another DPS, and give a reason to have SMN and BLM if you have two casters rather than SMN and SMN. If anything, I think the Thunder series should have a non-stacking debuff attached to it, maybe even give MNK's INT debuff to BLM.

Now, I'm not saying BLM is terrible, and shouldn't be used, but it's not ideal in 2.1 IMO. I say this as a full i90 with Allagan Scepter BLM who tries to do every trick in the book to boost my DPS ... I'd rather bring my i89 MNK with EMP weapon to most fights. My point is, all BLM does is damage, and is only something like 80% as good at it as other classes besides BRD once they get ramped up. BLM has so many tools you can't put a price on, yet those tools are all but useless in end-game fights.

[Ceveth]

My current recommendation is always going to be Crit BiS until something change. I honestly can't recommend SS at all since I have never scored as low as I did yesterday with SS.

T1- 265 DPS SS Build Vs 291 DPS Crit Build from last week (week before that it was 309 DPS)
T2- Magic res route. Same DPS.
T4- 325 DPS SS Build Vs 356 DPS Crit build from last week.

Edit: There is also the possibility that I'm just a baddie, so keep an open mind and test for yourself. What might not work for me might work for you very well.
Edit 2: My intentions are just to be helpful and provide data that any BLM could use. I'm really not trying to discredit anyone or be a dick -_-.

I do similar DPS, significantly more in Turn 4, with the spell speed build & very, very low ping. That being said the DPS difference should be nowhere near your estimated "20-30" DPS.

[Hitome]

Warning: QQ post about BLM I've been meaning to share my thoughts on.

I don't think it's QQ if you always wish to seek improvements to your job. ^^ If you feel it is underpowered, even more reason to do so!

our multi-DoT damage is non-existent so something like T1's snake split or Ifrit's EM's nail phase helps SMN and BRD while we gain nothing

I would have to disagree: especially on turn 1. I have not experimented with it on Ifrit's nails because I actually find our burst damage on nails is one of the most valuable assets we can bring. This is one fight I really like because killing nails too fast (like letting DoTs run on them in advance causing you to kill 2~4 in the span of 6 seconds) will end up with a dead tank or a dead group of players.

The reason I disagree on T1 and other multidot fights is because I find that multidotting thunder 1 increases TC procs by quite a bit from my observations. Continually being able to TC T3 the non-focused mob is a huge boost to DPS for BLMs. Certainly, BRDs and SMNs gain more from multidotting like this but to say we gain nothing isn't entirely correct.

It's a playstyle I've been experimenting with (over just the standard T2 playstyle) for a while now. Works great on fights like Garuda Ex as well.

Do I think TC proc rate should be higher to offset the cast time and huge variability in BLM DPS, though? Absolutely.

and while we do shine in AoE very well, for many reasons, there's not that much AoE in the high end content to do (major exceptions being T4 and small but significant portions of T5).

I do wish there were more AoE fights but I feel this would encourage BLM stacking, garnering even more nerfs for us. I don't think the sections of T5 where we can AoE DPS are all that minor. The beginning, the double snakes + big snake after the first set of divebombs, the second set of snakes + big snake after the second set of divebombs. If you mean that the parts of the fight where we AoE DPS doesn't make or break compositions: yes, that's true. At the same time, our AoE DPS during these phases can speed up the fight so that enrage may be prevented (first phase) or to provide others with ample time to prepare for coming sections (pre-first aetheric).

I know what you will say, though: speeding up the fight right now, for many groups, isn't going to do anything because enrage isn't really a problem anymore. AoE on the snakes is also just a minor convenience. When you look at it like this, it's true.

Some people may be thinking, BLM procs are sick, you guys are the burstiest class in the game! Eh ... not really. All the other DPS get some pretty amazing non-GCD attacks and buffs, all of which are able to be used more often than our 3m cooldown Raging Strikes. We basically get one Swiftcast to burn every minute, while everyone else can store up 1,000+ damage worth of non-GCDs.

I strongly agree here. BLM cross class abilities were poorly thought out as was BLM design in general. Having a primary nuking class with only one CD to use is either really rigged (see: arcane mages in WoW during certain eras) or really gimped (see: arcane mages in WoW during certain eras). The balance is kind of hard to find, I think.

I think BLM is too niched right now in optimal play, especially since i90 overgears content. Most fights you'd be better off with a SMN or melee than BLM, since they do more damage, and BLM utility is too situational: Sleep doesn't work in end-game, LOLFreeze, and Lethargy doesn't work on anything noteworthy except Garuda and Dreadknights. I'd say the biggest thing we lack is synergy with other classes, a debuff/buff to distinguish the need for us to get brought. BLM gets buffed by Foe's Requiem, that's it - BRD buffs all classes and gets buffed by DRG; DRG buffs BRD and technically itself (though it doesn't matter); MNK buffs itself by letting non-Dragon Kick users use Bootshine indefinitely, and brings about a nigh permanent INT debuff. SMN is the closest thing to BLM, since they only get buffed by BRD (and technically MNK with other pets, but eh) but even they bring about more raid utility than us with battle resurrection, more constant E4E usage, they get dibs on Virus since theirs is Supervirus, and they have the similar ability BLM has to Slow/Heavy their opponents. It doesn't help that due to how DoTs snapshot and how Contagion works, SMN gets quite a bit more use out of Foe's than us.

All valid points.

Now, I'm not saying BLM is terrible, and shouldn't be used, but it's not ideal in 2.1 IMO. I say this as a full i90 with Allagan Scepter BLM who tries to do every trick in the book to boost my DPS ... I'd rather bring my i89 MNK with EMP weapon to most fights. My point is, all BLM does is damage, and is only something like 80% as good at it as other classes besides BRD once they get ramped up. BLM has so many tools you can't put a price on, yet those tools are all but useless in end-game fights.

I feel like it is a similar situation to WHM and SCH. BLM worked beautifully when everyone was learning fights due to all our mitigation techniques. As fights were learned (and overgeared), BLM's mitigation techniques became irrelevant and the nerf hit us hard enough to put us below optimal DPS users.

WHM is in a similar boat. They have so many reactive abilities that see no use because everything is already memorized by now and all the healers outgear fights substantially. Two coordinated SCHs using well timed rouse'd whispering dawns and succor can cover the areas left by WHM AoE healing (their specialty) while SCHs can do things so much better for a group via DoT DPS, ability to use a DPS pet (however weak it may be), ability to stack or chain abilities like dawn (stacked) and illumination (chained), better mana usage, more lustrates that bypass mechanics like death sentence, ability to share healing threat with their pet, ability to cast an effective cure 2 that has a chance to crit twice with physic + embrace through macros, etc.

The difference between us and WHMs is that WHMs still are 'nice' to have due to one utility: their enhanced protect. We sadly have nothing like that on BLM that other classes do not provide.

However, like I said: I am fine with where BLMs stand. While we do get out parsed by optimal players of other DPS classes, I rarely ever get to play with said players. Maybe things are different for you but when I'm within 1% of a SMN and MNK's DPS on Twin, I don't feel too bad.

Do you see larger discrepancies?

I will admit, though: I do enjoy my MNK quite a bit more than BLM at the moment. Much more to do, more rewarding to play optimally, doesn't suffer as much from mechanics, and so on.

Have you considered benching your BLM for SMN? I had a BLM friend do that come 2.1 since the Allagan gear crossed over. I have not had the fortune of doing that since my SCH is something I use quite often and I do not have any luck on Allagan gear. :P

[Sleigh]

However, like I said: I am fine with where BLMs stand. While we do get out parsed by optimal players of other DPS classes, I rarely ever get to play with said players. Maybe things are different for you but when I'm within 1% of a SMN and MNK's DPS on Twin, I don't feel too bad.

Do you see larger discrepancies?

I will admit, though: I do enjoy my MNK quite a bit more than BLM at the moment. Much more to do, more rewarding to play optimally, doesn't suffer as much from mechanics, and so on.

Have you considered benching your BLM for SMN? I had a BLM friend do that come 2.1 since the Allagan gear crossed over. I have not had the fortune of doing that since my SCH is something I use quite often and I do not have any luck on Allagan gear. :P

I notice myself losing to the other DPS I play with, and I don't play with anyone else in full i90 + i95 weapon (though some are only a piece or two away). In T1, T2, and T5, counting the AoE phases, I will consistently be beaten by 5% or more by the DPS other than BRD, every week. We do T4 a very strange way and don't kill the second wave of bugs (old habit that we don't care to change) so I don't think I even win there. EMPs, I sell with two BRDs as BLM and I will never beat them in ST damage on any of the bosses, even EM Garuda, our best EMP. It's not like I'm half aggro or anything but yeah, 10 - 20 DPS behind other players over the course of a couple minutes can mean the difference between a phase shift or skipping mechanics.

I do bench my BLM when I can use a better class for the job. As much as I've whined here, I do believe it's time efficient to have a BLM in T1 to destroy the trash WP speed run style (but SMN is better if you can skip to Cad), and T4 and T5 really benefit from one (and only one) BLM in the group for AoE purposes. T2, I use SMN now, NO point in any shape to bring BLM there if it can be helped. Garuda, it's helpful to have one BLM for Flare and Lethargy (which not only is a form of mitigation, but it slows phase shifts which means more DPS). SMN is just flat out better in Titan and Ifrit.

[Hitome]

That's really sad to hear. I always knew this type of situation would appear once people were complacent at the end of the game for a while but didn't think my job would be the one in this position.

What do you think could improve BLM to be up to speed? I know my SMN friend told me he thinks MNKs dominate T1-T2 while SMNs dominate T4-T5. I think, honestly, SMNs dominate both T1 and T2 as well. He doesn't multidot the caduceus twins for some reason and they always take the left path on ADS.

I honestly don't want to be like SMN but some raid utility would be nice. Turning apoc. into a raid-wide magic absorption buff would be very nice, actually. I rarely use virus anymore. Eye is covered or not needed. AT has limited use, manaward/wall are no longer needed since healers know what to do and wall can only contribute so much to stand-still DPS with its long cooldown, and freeze really is garbage.

The problem is, they made the mistake of balancing PVP without taking PVE into account which was my biggest fear when it was released. I'd say increasing TC proc rate and decreasing spell cast time on many of our spells would be a nice start. I'd like to stay away from increasing their base damage. Actually, making spell speed viable would be one way to go about doing this. Maybe every 200 spell speed, a second is taken off the cast time. I'm not sure why they insist on pushing skill and spell speed when a majority of players do not like either in its current implementation.

[NeoAmon]

I don't think we can change any thing about the state of BLM atm. We do need some changes here and there, but unfortunately our suggestions won't be heard. Mainly because how ignorant most players are; You will get this nub BLM with few pieces of Myth gear dismissing everything you said and writing "Lel BLM OP, I do 500 dps, L2P" believe me I have been there and got those kind of responses from BLMs on reddit & here. Not to mention other players.

On Monday, in front of Coil entrance, there was this BLM with T5 Sceptre telling everyone around him that ilvl70 crafted shield is superior in every way possible to Ancient Buckler, in addition anyone who bought Ancient Buckler is a nub and needs to l2p. I honestly don't know how to deal with these kind of players except try my best to ignore them. If I type exactly what I think of them then I would lose my forum/game account.

BLM needs few changes, some were mentioned since the game came out such as having procs be outside the GCD. Our cast time should have a good 10% shoved off, but meh. You start a thread with these suggestions and the entire forums will burn you and call you a major nub who needs to /wrist or l2p.

tl;dr:

BLM needs few buffs here and there, mainly shorter cast time and off the GCD procs. Not going to happen because most BLM players (LOOK I JUST DID BIG FLARE NUMBERS, I'M SO GOOD) think they are OP, too stronk and we need l2p/quitthegame/wrist.