Black Mage? More like, Hipster Mage.

[Lilyarel]

When I first became a Black Mage, I was hype for the spells I would get. The master would teach me ancient magic that was so powerful, that the realm banned them as a whole because they were a threat to life itself. Needless to say, I was let down. Barriers? Why barriers? Thats like giving a White Mage the ability to summon a frog so it can ride it. Yeah its nice but its completely out of place for that class.

Alright! Freeze and Flare! Time to destroy my enemies with spells they've never seen before-- *Sees an NPC cast Flare and Freeze* Oh. So... Wheres my "forbidden magic?" Is this a joke? Are the other laughing at me when I leave? Or are the barriers the only forbidden one? Forbidden as in when the Black Mage cast them and everyone laughed them out of town, so they banned it to save them from humiliation? If Freeze and Flare were banned they clearly arnt banned anymore. Black Mage just feels like a hipster "I was using those spells before it was cool"

[Ardan]

Making light of the most powerful defensive cooldowns for DPS and strongest AoE spells in the game.

Wow.

[Lamia-Blackheart]

i find it odd when people have lore-based gripes about game mechanics.

anyway,

forbidden techniques=/=techniques taught only to you and nobody else

barriers= amazing techniques that allow you to keep using attacking spells

i hope these two points will help you feel more like a black mage...

please let me know if you need any more help understanding things.

[NorthernLadMSP]

I love Manawall and Manaward and never want them to go away. I do, however, wish Freeze was more useful.

[Synestr]

I would like Freeze to actually...freeze thangs. Like in snowcloak when we get hit with snowdrift, that would be ...cool. (uses Dr. Evil snikker)

[Darkstride]

The defensive spells are excellent. I was also a little discouraged at first when BLM was changed for ARR, but once you use the spells, you see their usefulness.

I do wish Freeze would be set back to its original state, where it was a high damage attack that reduced hate. It was great then.

[Pterois]

i realize it would take an entire rework so it's probably impossible at this point but i just wish the whole elemental weakness/strength aspect came back. still feels weird to kill a bomb or ifrit with fire >.<

[Darkstride]

i realize it would take an entire rework so it's probably impossible at this point but i just wish the whole elemental weakness/strength aspect came back. still feels weird to kill a bomb or ifrit with fire >.<

Yeah, I agree that the Elemental affinities would have been nice. I would have liked to see Thaumaturge have base non-Elemental spells (like Ruin) and then learn abilities to shift elements to alter the ability (in Fire-mode, Ruin becomes Fire etc).

At this point they already revamped the class too much. In 1.0 Conjurer used to actually have all the Elemental spells but they were then split between CNJ and THM, adding BLM with destruction spells. Then with ARR they changed everything again. Another reset would be pesky.

[Synestr]

Also, Aetherial Manipulation is BOSS.

[Lilyarel]

i find it odd when people have lore-based gripes about game mechanics.

anyway,

forbidden techniques=/=techniques taught only to you and nobody else

barriers= amazing techniques that allow you to keep using attacking spells

i hope these two points will help you feel more like a black mage...

please let me know if you need any more help understanding things.

But from my experience so far with the job quests, youre being taught spells and moves from eras past or things that just become lost with time. For example, the Scholar spells were lost with Nym. Art of Summoning became lost to the ages. I'm not sure about the melee classes, but the magic jobs seem to be consistent with this theme. And I'm not saying the barriers are useless, I'm saying theyre a little boring and kind of out of place.